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The air in the room was stuffy, the walls seeming to close in around them. How had this happened? Or, more importantly, how had they allowed this to happen? They were supposed to be professional rescuers, yet here they were, the ones needing rescuing. Honestly, if it wasn’t so horrendous a situation, more than one of them would have laughed about it. As it was, not one of them was feeling the least bit humorous. It was their fault after all.
“How could we have been so stupid?”
“Now, hang on a minute, I’m not sure that stupid is the right description.”
“No, it is, stupid is very much the right description.”
“John’s right, it totally is.” Gordon, forgetting his predicament for a moment, gestured with his arm. He pulled it back mid sweep with a hiss of pain.
“I’m always right.”
Scott, who had been pacing the room like a caged tiger as his brothers bickered amongst themselves, stopped to glare at Gordon. “I told you to stop moving, you’ll make it worse.”
“We got caught, that was stupid,” John continued, determined to hammer his point home.
Scott’s head whipped around so fast John was sure he heard his neck dislocate, yet it did nothing to dampen the severity of the glare.
“We knew we were being targeted, we should have been more careful.” John glared back at Scott, daring him to argue.
“Guys, come on, let’s not start levelling blame at each other, you know that never helps.” Virgil, ever the peacemaker of the family, got up from his crouch beside Gordon, who was still sprawled dramatically on the floor, where he had been trying to examine his wound.
“So, what do you think, Doc, am I gonna live?”
“Not if you keep this up.”
“Harsh.”
“True.”
“Unfair.”
“Can we please not start yet another argument?” Scott sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose as if that would force his headache into submission. Spoiler, it did not. “That’s how we got into trouble in the first place.”
“No, it’s because we were stupid, we already established that.”
“John, shut up!” Gordon winced again as he tried to move, earning himself a smack around the head from Virgil.
“You’re just being dramatic now.”
“I am not!”
“Stop, all of you, just stop,” Scott ordered. “We need to work together, we need to think logically and come up with some kind of plan. Because, and I don’t know about you guys, I am not going to sit here and wait for my doom. We have to at least try to get out of here.”
“What about Kayo?” Alan asked, piping up for the first time. “She's still out there somewhere. She might figure out that something is wrong and come looking for us.”
“Yeah, she might, if she doesn’t get caught herself while trying to rescue us,” Gordon said glumly.
“It’s Kayo,” Virgil pointed out. “When have you ever known her to get caught?”
“Yeah, have a little faith in her,” Scott said, resuming his pacing, the need to move far outweighing their need to stay quiet and not draw the attention of their captors. “If I know Kay she’ll already suspect that something went wrong when we didn’t check in and she’ll be on her way here at this very moment, bringing reinforcements.”
“That’s all well and good,” John said, getting to his feet, “but I’m with Scott, I’m not prepared to wait. We don’t have our comms, our captor made sure of that, but that doesn’t mean I don’t still have a few tricks up my sleeve. I activated the emergency beacon in my shoe the moment they spotted us.”
“Why do you have an emergency beacon in your shoe?”
“Why don’t you?” John shot back, already moving towards the door to study the lock.
Scott didn’t have an answer for that one, not a good one anyway, so wisely stayed silent.
“But, what about him?” Alan said, bringing the conversation back on track as his eyes moved over to Gordon lying on the floor still clutching his chest, the smear of blood visible between his fingers.
“We can’t leave him behind,” Virgil said firmly, like it had been something that the others had actually been considering.
“Yes, you can. I’ll only slow you down, go on without me. Save yourselves.”
“That’s not too terrible an idea,” John mused, more to himself than anyone else.
“Excuse me?” Gordon squawked, appalled that his own brother hadn’t even bothered to argue before agreeing to abandon him.
“We aren’t leaving you,” Scott promised Gordon. “John’s just being an ass. He didn’t want to be on earth in the first place because he was convinced something bad would happen.”
“Was I wrong?”
“This doesn’t count, you couldn’t possibly have known that something like this would happen.”
“Oh, couldn't I? It was number nine on my list, under an earthquake but before alien overlords.”
“You have a list?” Alan goggled at his brother in disbelief.
“You don’t?”
“No one has a list!” Gordon yelled, still annoyed that he’d been so callously tossed aside by his own flesh and blood.
“Well they should,” John said with an offended sniff. “And, what I meant, if you had actually let me finish, was that we should split up.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Scott argued.
“You wouldn’t,” John muttered, for some reason finding his nails incredibly interesting at that moment in time.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Scott demanded to know, bristling at the insinuation that he hadn't quite worked out yet but knew would be bad.
“Count us,” John continued as if talking to a brick wall. “Now, how easy do you think it will be for five of us to move around without being seen? That’s if we even get out of this room at all.”
All four of his brothers stared at him for a few seconds.
“He does have a point,” Virgil had to admit. “Maybe we should hear him out.”
Scott gestured impatiently for John to continue, refusing to admit any such thing out loud.
“I propose that two or three of us try to make a break for it, the rest stay behind in here and keep talking, that way any guards outside will think we’re still all here. We get out, get help and bring in reinforcements. “
“It might work,” Gordon mused, obviously turning the idea over in his mind. “But who goes and who stays?”
“Gordon, you stay behind,” John said decisively. “Not only are you hurt but you can also do a passably good impression of most of us.”
“Well, I wouldn’t call it good,” Gordon said modestly, preening a little. “But I do have some skills.”
“It’s better than nothing,” John said to Scott, who looked like he was debating between arguing or tying them all up to prevent them from leaving, something even their captor hadn’t been cruel enough to do.
“It would stack the odds more in our favour,” Virgil pointed out, leaving Gordon’s side and joining John at the door. The lock looked simple enough, not even reinforced, it should be easy enough to break through.
“I agree,” Scott said, finally seeing the logic in their words. “We need to come up with a plan. We’re Tracys, we don’t give up.”
***
Kayo nudged Shadow’s controls to the right, smiling in nearly motherly pride when her ship immediately responded. She banked to one side, then the other, dancing on the air currents. As much as Shadow was designed for speed and stealth and carried her pilot on perilous missions, she was also a joy to fly when it was time to play.
After swerving one last time, skimming over the water for a moment, Kayo adjusted her path and headed for Tracy Island. The infinite expanse of the ocean glittered below her as if kissed by a million stars. Blues, oranges and golds mingled together, offset only by a few clouds here and there. Kayo thanked Brains once again for Shadow’s bright canopy; what a blessing to return home with such a view instead of squinting through the small portholes of her sister ships in hopes of seeing anything.
She had just spotted a pod of dolphins below her when Five’s indicator lit up, the accompanying chime drawing her attention away from the view outside.
“Thunderbird Shadow to Thunderbird Five, EOS, are you reading minds now? I was about to log in my status and ETA,” Kayo said, grinning at the roundel representing John’s AI assistant hovering above her dashboard.
“I am afraid this will have to wait. John has activated his tracker.”
All traces of merriment vanished from her face. “What? When?”
“The signal appeared less than a minute ago.”
“He wouldn’t be doing that unless something happened and they need help on their current mission.” Kayo disengaged the autopilot and pushed Shadow, calculating a shorter route to reach the island faster, her mind racing to formulate a plan. “What do you have for me?”
“I pinged the tracker to locate it, but I cannot send a message back. There’s no receiver,” EOS said, providing a map on which the International Rescue logo flashed ominously.
“John knew you’d intercept the signal and notify me. At least, we have a location. Is there some way to speed up Shadow’s turnaround?”
“I could bypass some of the postflight checks, but I do not recommend cutting refuelling short.”
“I agree. Do what you can, EOS. I’ll gather the equipment I need in the meantime. It doesn’t matter whether they need backup or a full extraction, I have to be prepared.”
Kayo glanced at her instruments. With her new ETA and shortened turnaround, she would be back out in half an hour.
“Hang on, guys, I’m on my way.”
***
The lock gave way, allowing Virgil to open it a crack and peek through the gap.
“Hallway looks clear,” he reported in a whisper. “What do you think, now or never?”
“I’d rather it was never,” Scott muttered under his breath, but he still gave them the nod to continue.
John nudged Virgil out of the way and looked through the gap himself, sizing up the hallway, taking careful note of its entrances and exits. There was a room with an open door further down the hall, one that, after a few moments of intense listening, he decided was likely empty.
“I say we make for that room, to the left, three doors down. It looks to be an office of some kind, we might find something useful in there. One at a time. Virg, you go first.”
Virgil got to his feet. He checked the hall again, then darted out into the open, John pulling the door closed behind him. His back hit the wall as he edged along, eyes darting this way and that, ears straining for the sound of approaching feet.
He made it to the room without meeting any of the numerous people they knew must be roaming the halls and threw himself inside to safety.
Alan went next, choosing to drop to his hands and knees and crawl across the floor, scuttling into the room after Virgil.
John followed him, taking much the same route as Virgil, flattening himself against the wall and sliding along, pausing at each closed door, listening in case they were occupied. But it seemed that the many people that seemed to be inhabiting the building must be otherwise occupied, for the hallway remained abandoned.
He glanced back at the room where they had left Scott and Gordon, Scott refusing to leave their injured brother. Even as Scott shot him a thumbs up and closed the door, all the better to sell the illusion that they were all still present and accounted for, John could hear Gordon launching into his best Virgil impression, something about Motzart and Picasso having a rap battle. Honestly, if that was the kind of conversation he was leaving behind, he was more than happy to slide into the room with his brothers and shut the door.
“Right, what have you found?”
They both stared at John blankly.
“You did start looking for something useful, didn’t you?” The blank stares didn't change. He sighed deeply, wondering just what he had done to deserve this. “Don’t tell me you just stood there waiting for me?”
Only Alan had the decency to nod.
Giving them up as a lost cause, John assessed the room with a quick, sweeping glance. Even though their initial assessment of the room being an office had been correct there was very little there that was of use. The room décor looked like it hadn’t been updated since the early 2000’s, and the technology was just as old.
“Why do they even have this junk?” he muttered to himself as he picked up what looked to be some kind of telephone complete with a curly cable that was twisted and tangled so much that it was giving him anxiety just to look at it. “What use could any of this be?”
“It seems to be in keeping with the rest of the building,” Virgil mused, looking with far too much interest at the walls and vintage print artworks.
John shot him a withering look as he started unscrewing the telephone handset, there might be something useful in there, though he doubted it.
“Why don’t you two make yourselves useful and play lookout?” he suggested as he yanked the wire out of the mouthpiece of the handset, there was no time to waste by doing things delicately.
Alan moved immediately to the door, hunkering down in front of it and fitting his eye to the keyhole.
“All clear so far, I can’t hear anything either.”
Virgil nodded his approval. “Need any help?” he asked John.
His brother shook his head. “No, you’re better staying there, stop anyone that tries to come in, protect Alan.”
“Hey, I don’t need protecting,” Alan protested but was, as usual, ignored.
Setting the phone aside for the time being, John got to work opening a desk drawer with a letter opener he’d found on the desk.
The drawer yielded a few treasures, a remote control for something he couldn’t identify, the batteries inside a little corroded but hopefully salvageable, a few paperclips, and a couple of old ballpoint pens provided him with a good selection of springs. But it was Virgil’s keen eye that spotted an old FM radio that looked a little like a tin can, something John had overlooked.
“Do you happen to have one of your multitools with you?” John asked hopefully but Virgil shook his head.
“That was taken off me too, I was told that I wouldn’t be needing it where we were going.”
“Damn it, I guess we’ll just have to work with what we have then.”
John settled himself in the desk chair, the items he’d scavenged spread out in front of him. Virgil and Alan fell silent, one watching through the door and the other watching John. The only sounds to be heard were an occasional frustrated huff from John and the ambient sounds of people milling around in the building. Thankfully they still sounded far enough away that they were unlikely to get caught…yet.
***
“EOS, can you display a close-up map of the premises? I need to find a place where I can land unnoticed.”
“Of course.”
Kayo bit her lower lip as she studied the picture Five’s powerful GPS created on her dashboard. She couldn’t land on the building but spotted a suitable location a little further off. Trying to ignore the needles of tension pricking the back of her head, she wished she didn’t have to face this situation, but the boys needed her and she was there for them no matter what.
One flick of her fingers and Shadow’s optical camouflage activated. This allowed her to plan her approach and do a little surveying as soon as she had a visual. Once she was certain that the coast was clear, Kayo landed, leaving the cloaking mechanism on, and changed hurriedly into something to help her blend in better. This wasn’t the time to stand out. Who knew what would happen if she got caught; not even the training sessions at Grand Roca could fully prepare her for what she might encounter in there.
A few bushes and trees provided some decent cover while she scanned the building with her wrist communicator. John’s tracker popped up, a reassuring beacon in this sea of unknown.
“Still no luck contacting them?” Kayo whispered.
EOS, once again displaying her impressive capacity to adapt and interpret cues, lowered her voice as well: “Nothing, I’m probing on different channels, including John’s private one. He remained in the same location for a while, but he’s on the move now.”
“He managed to escape, then.”
“Possibly.”
“Alright. Keep me posted on any update, even if it seems trivial.”
“Understood.” EOS paused, then added, “Good luck.”
Kayo’s lips quirked. “Thank you.”
A few steps separated her from the door. After listening intently for any incoming menaces, Kayo darted from her hiding place, avoiding a patch of gravel that could have revealed her position and flattened herself against the wall.
Breathe in, breathe out, listen. A quick pull on the handle told her the lockpick kit in her boot was her current best friend. She quickly took care of the situation, then placed a small piece of tape from her kit onto the lock to prevent the door from fully closing again. She wouldn’t have any time to waste on her way back.
Once inside, the next challenge presented itself right away. This place was a maze, and needing to avoid crowded areas and stop at each door she encountered to investigate slowed her down considerably. Meanwhile, the tracker moved again, turning her search into a chase.
All of the hallways ended up looking the same. Whoever designed the place suffered from a lack of imagination. At some point, Kayo couldn’t guarantee she hadn’t passed the same doors more than once. She stopped by a set of stairs to consult her communicator. The tracer had moved again to a location she was certain she had already inspected, or…
They were on another floor. Of course. Things might be quieter up there and they had found a better place to hide. Grasping the banister, she sprinted up and stopped at the top, momentarily put out by yet another set of bland hallways to get lost in.
Think, Kayo, think… How can you let them know you’re here?
Her eyes fell on the newel next to her. What if…
Reaching up, she pulled on her hairband. If she managed to stretch it around the post, hopefully the touch of teal contrasting with the dark wood would draw their attention and make them stay put close by until she found them.
However, what seemed like a good idea at first shone less and less as she attempted to execute her plan. Despite her best efforts, the band refused to cooperate. She pulled at it, rolled it, tried to move one side at a time, all in vain. It was stretched to its limit, only a hairbreadth away from clearing the widest part of the post.
Somewhere to her right, a door closed. Startled, Kayo jumped away from the newel and ran to the closest room to hide.
Forgotten in the commotion, the hair band flew away from the top of the post, landing a few feet away, close to the wall. When she realised that she had lost it, she went to reach for the doorknob but the sound of oncoming steps stilled her hand.
She held her breath, waiting, praying whoever was in the hallway wasn’t watching where they were walking.
***
The communicator, if you could call it that, was a mess, and that was being overly nice about it. John glared at it, wishing that he had even a tenth of the equipment that he had access to back on Thunderbird Five. It would have made their lives infinitely easier.
John had taken off his shoe and recovered his tracker, which he had patched into a circuit consisting of stripped phone wire, the speaker from the headset, the FM transmitter from the radio and three of the batteries, connected up with the springs liberated from the pens which he had straightened. He didn’t know if it would even turn on, let alone work in any way that would be beneficial, but he would always try.
“Is it ready?” Alan asked, getting up from the floor, his knees cracking ominously even though he was supposed to be too young for such a thing.
“As it'll ever be,” John said, although he didn't sound too optimistic about it.
“Now or never. Do it,” Virgil ordered.
John nodded. “Cross your fingers.” He picked up the wire that would complete the circuit and touched it to the last of the batteries.
Static was his answer. That was positive.
“Calling International Rescue,” he tried, using their universal call that Thunderbird Five was programmed to pick up, leaning close to the microphone so he wouldn’t have to speak too loudly.
He hadn’t been able to connect a speaker to the contraption and had no way of knowing if EOS had picked it up or not.
“International Rescue, EOS, this is John. We’re trapped, held prisoner. We need help.” All he could do was keep trying until the, extremely old, batteries gave out. “I repeat, International Rescue, we need hel-” Even as he thought it the batteries gave one last, feeble spark, and died. The static stopped, silence engulfing the room.
“Do you think she picked it up?” Alan quietly asked.
Virgil shrugged in answer, as did John.
“I don’t know, she should have,” John reasoned, trying to be positive. “She should have been monitoring since I activated my emergency beacon. As it was connected to the transmitter, Five's system should have logged that as well as picking up the distress call.”
“Is there nothing else we can do?” Virgil asked, feeling the need to do something, anything, to tip things in their favour.
John shook his head. “No, I think we’re on our own.”
“What should we do now?” Alan asked.
“We have two choices,” Virgil answered. “We go back to the room where we left Scott and Gordon, or we continue on and try to get help.”
“I think Alan should go back,” John suggested, but it was half-hearted at best and even before he had finished speaking, Alan had cut in with his protest.
“I’m not a baby and I’m not going back, I’m staying with you.”
“It was worth a try,” Virgil said with a sigh. “So, are we decided?”
“We carry on,” John said with a decisive nod. “We can’t guarantee that EOS picked up our message and if she didn’t…” He let his words trail off, the grim reality left unsaid. None of them needed to dwell on that, they’d had enough bad luck already.
It should have been a simple day, they had their plan: get in, do their thing and get out. But it hadn’t happened. Loud noises had popped all around them, projectiles had shot their way, one of which had injured Gordon, clouds of blue smoke filled the air, choking them, blinding them.
Unable to see they had tried to find an exit, desperate to get to the fresh air of the outside world, but they never made it. They had been swooped on from all sides, their captors catching hold of their arms and towing them back inside again no matter how much they struggled and protested.
One person had extracted themselves from the people that surrounded them, had looked them up and down and then ordered them to move. Their captor had given them no chance to escape, their every exit covered. There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. They'd had no choice but to obey or risk a fate worse than death. They had marched into the room with their heads held high, and allowed the door to be shut behind them, there'd been no other choice.
John shook off the memories, pushing aside the creeping anxiety that rippled up and down his spine at the thought of venturing back out there again. They were supposed to be the brave ones, the ones that never hesitated no matter the situation. They would throw themselves into the heart of danger without a second thought if they could save someone. Now they were the ones in danger, facing horrors the likes of which they had never seen before. He didn’t want to venture out there again, there, he would admit it, he was scared. Hell, he was downright terrified and, from the looks on his brothers faces, he wasn’t the only one. But they weren’t the only ones in danger here, they had their other brothers to think about and the potential that civilians could have been caught up in this deadly situation. They had to get help. They had to get out.
Virgil, refusing to even think about the future beyond getting out of the hell hole, crossed to the door and opened it a crack. He listened intently, his eyes roaming the hall. The door to the room where Scott and Gordon were hopefully still safely contained was closed, as was every other door of the still empty corridor.
“Left or right?” he asked, pulling his head back in.
John looked at Alan, who shrugged. “Left?” Left was as good as right, right?
“Left,” Virgil confirmed with a nod.
“Wait, wait, should we grab some weapons or something? You know, to protect ourselves?”
“Weapons? Like what?”
Alan’s eyes strayed to the desktop where the letter opener John had used still lay. John’s eyes followed his gaze, one eyebrow lifting in realisation. “What are you planning to do with that if we do take it?” he asked. “Stab people?”
The horrified look on Alan’s face was enough of an answer.
“Come on,” Virgil urged, checking the coast was clear one more time before he opened the door wide for them.
The door at the end of the hallway opened to reveal a darkened stairwell, a set of stairs leading up and another leading down. The sound of people could still be heard, clearer now that they were out of the quiet corridor.
“There’s a lot of them,” John said grimly. “More than we accounted for.”
“We might not make it,” Alan whispered, his voice shaking slightly.
“We’ll make it,” Virgil promised him. “We have to.”
“I’ll go first,” John decided.
“No, I will,” Virgil argued, “I’m stronger than you.”
“And therefore better placed to protect Alan,” John pointed out. “I’m going. You two wait here until I give you the signal.”
It was obvious that both Virgil and Alan wanted to argue but neither could dispute his logic.
“Stay here out of sight,” John ordered, “and the second you see or hear anyone coming, you're to get the hell out of here. If I’m not back in five minutes return to Gordon and Scott and wait there for rescue. Kayo won’t let us down.”
“Alright,” Virgil reluctantly agreed. “Just, be careful, OK?”
“Oh, sure, thanks for that input. I mean, here I was planning on sliding down the bannister and bursting through the doors while yodelling to get their attention.”
Virgil huffed out a breath, crossing his arms. “Now is not the time for sarcasm.”
“On the contrary, I think it’s the perfect time,” John answered placidly. “Now shut up and stay put.” He was gone before they could argue, tiptoeing down the stairs far quieter than either of them could have managed.
“I hate it when he does that.”
***
Kayo’s hasty retreat had landed her inside a storage room. It was dark, save for a sliver of light coming from under the door that barely outlined the metal shelves lined up against the walls. She slowed her breathing down, keeping as still as a statue.
The footsteps grew louder until they stopped—right next to the door.
Go away, you have many more hallways you could linger in, she silently addressed whoever was standing there.
The mystery person ignored her, their shadow partly blocking what little light made it inside. The only thing she could do now was wait. Hopefully, the musty smell of whatever old cleaning rag had been forgotten in the room wouldn’t get to her before she could leave.
“Over here,” the person–a man–said, and someone else joined him, effectively blocking any remaining light.
“I wish we didn’t have to do this, these things are always so messy,” the other person–also a man–replied, before twisting the knob and pushing.
Kayo’s eyes widened and she plastered herself against the wall, her mind unsuccessfully scrambling for any scrap of plausible explanation for her to be hiding in there. The door would open and hide her at least momentarily, giving her a few seconds to act. She could take both of them down easily and Wing Chun was designed for close combat.
Doesn’t mean I want to take them down if I don’t have to, she thought. I don’t need complications.
“Yes, but you know how it is, what the boss wants, the boss gets,” First man said, remaining in the entrance. “And we better not get this wrong. Others have been sacked for less.”
“I know, I know,” Second man grumbled, shuffling in. “Which one did we need again?”
Some grunts indicated that he might not be an immediate threat, as he concentrated on picking up a box from one of the shelves. Kayo kept her guard up nevertheless.
“What did they put in there? This weighs a ton.” More grunting and shuffling. “Alright, let’s get this over with, hold the door open for me, will you?”
First man pushed on the wood panel to let the other one through, forcing Kayo to mould herself into the shelf behind her to avoid it. Of course, that’s also when her wrist communicator chimed. It was muffled by the men moving around, but still noticeable.
No, no-no-no-no! Kayo frantically pulled her sleeve down to hide the soft glow accompanying the sound. Brains, we definitely need to work on a silent mode for this thing.
“Was this you?” Second man said.
“I dunno, let me check.“ Time stretched on as First man checked his phone. “Yeah. Boss is getting impatient. Come on.”
She wanted to laugh. Or cheer. Or do a little jig. Of all the coincidences… She mentally hurried the men on, sighing in relief when the door moved away from her and First man firmly closed it behind himself. Even the room suddenly becoming dark again was welcome.
She waited, unmoving, to make sure they wouldn’t come back. Once the hallway was silent once more, she pulled up her sleeve. Five’s icon cast a soft orange glow in the room.
“EOS? John?” she asked quietly.
The AI went straight to business. “John tried to contact me, but I barely managed to pick up his signal before it cut off.”
“What did he say?”
“All I could make out was ‘International Rescue’ and ‘trap’.”
Not good. Not good at all. “Where’s his tracker now?”
“It remained in one spot for a while, but when I lost communication, I also lost the tracker.”
“Great…”
“Should I call for external help?”
“Too risky. We mustn’t alert anyone else at this point. They’re still somewhere in here. Show me his last position and I’ll continue my search. Meanwhile, monitor anything that comes in and try to ping him again.”
“Understood.”
“We’ll find them, EOS. I’m not giving up until we do.”
According to the map, John’s tracker was last seen to the right of Kayo’s current position. Luckily, it was the opposite direction the two men had taken, so at least she didn’t have to worry about them. After a careful peek through the half-open door, she slid back into the hallway. She considered searching for her hairband, then gave up; loitering around would only cost her precious moments she couldn’t afford.
Her trek along a new set of doors culminated in a window on one side while the hallway continued in the other direction. Kayo inched her way toward the intersection, taking a moment to listen, then risked a glance around the corner.
Her mouth sagged at the dreadful vision that presented itself to her, and she had to hold back a whimper of dismay. Where had she landed? The whole length of the hallway was filled with poppers that could go off at any moment, triggered by the slightest poke. Kayo was not claustrophobic in general but the forbidding, overwhelming decor, in a mix of light and dark hues, weighed down on her even before she went in. This was definitely close to the danger zone. Were the Tracys on the other side?
She took a few tentative steps forward, turning sideways to make sure she didn’t touch anything. The walls of this infernal, human-made, grotto almost came to life with the constant movement from the… horrific creatures hanging from the ceiling. No amount of ducking could take her far away enough from them.
Focus on the mission. One step at a time.
About halfway through, something snagged her hair. No. not something. She knew exactly what had grabbed her and batted at it. The creature swung away, hitting the ceiling and making the poppers wobble erratically. She stopped, not wanting to set one off by accident. A few seconds and a couple of deep breaths later, she had made it through to an open door…
And straight into the danger zone. More poppers, more things to bump into and bring attention to herself–a total minefield. The guys would have fled this chamber of torture as much as possible and Kayo shared their sentiments wholeheartedly. No matter where she looked, the word “why” kept popping up in her mind. Why would someone want this? Why would it even exist?
Fully aware that the longer she remained in this location, the more she risked being caught, she still couldn’t resist the morbid appeal of inspecting the room further. Some things were familiar, but others… She approached the contraptions on a nearby table and gingerly picked one up.
“How does one use that?” she wondered aloud, uneasy and perplexed at the same time. Do I want to know? She put it back down, making sure to place it exactly as it was before. A glance at the rest of the table raised further questions and she took this as her cue not to linger about.
Her steps took her across the room, to another, smaller, exit and she ended up next to a stairway, sighing in relief and frustration at the same time. She pulled back her sleeve and activated her bracelet.
“EOS, can you show me where the tracker was originally?” Kayo said into her communicator. “They might have wanted to hide their position from people going after them, so I’m going to try something else.”
The indicator popped up. After thanking the AI, she set off again, climbing the stairs, hoping her theory was right.
***
John listened at the door, ear pressed tightly against the wood, but it was almost impossible to hear anything over the sounds coming from below. At the risk of sounding dramatic, even in his own head, it reminded him of one of those old horror movies that Scott sometimes watched. He heard the sound of screaming, crying, more bangs and crashes, along with running feet. Chaos, utter chaos, and he was stupidly planning on getting closer to it. This might actually be the day he died. Well, he reasoned, if he was going to go out he was going to do it on his own terms. He’d rather go down fighting or, if that failed, running away. It wasn’t glamorous, but he wasn’t in the position to be picky.
He estimated he had been on the move for just over a minute. Virgil and Alan were out of sight now, the stairs being of the two flights per floor variety separated by a small landing. He couldn’t afford to wait much longer, he’d just have to risk it.
He eased the door open then, for want of any better plan, he strode out like he owned the place. If there was one thing their dad had taught them it was how to look and act as if you belonged somewhere. It was an act John had perfected to get him out of almost any social situation: head up, ignore any and all attempts to get his attention and walk like he had somewhere vitally important to be. Acting nervous earned you more attention, it made you stand out and brought the sharks who scented the blood of an injured creature even closer.
The door opened had out onto a floor that was more of a balcony than a corridor. One side was lined with many doors, the other open to the world, protected by nothing but an antique-looking wooden bannister, its spindles and handrail worn smooth by a combination of years of use, hundreds of hands and much polishing.
He had a choice to make, did he attempt to search the rooms in the, he guessed maybe two and a half minutes he had left, looking to find another way of communicating with the outside world? Did he go back and risk bringing Virgil and Alan into a situation he was still unsure of? Or did he run down the next flight of stairs and hopefully find an exit that would put him outside and closer to help?
He dithered for a moment or two, something he never usually did, but he really couldn’t see any of the options as being a stand out winner. He had to make a decision, he couldn’t wait any longer. He was moving before he’d even realised he had made his choice, walking quickly and with purpose across the hallway, though he kept to the wall of doors.
Noises from below continued to pound through the foundations of the building, the whole structure seeming to echo with the sounds of many voices, the scraping of furniture, desperate crying and the occasional scream of protest. He shuddered, wanting so much to slam his hands over his ears to block it out but knowing that would be foolish.
He had to know. He risked moving away from the wall he had been hugging, ducking down into a crouch, and peered through the rails of the bannister to the floor below. There were people down there, far more than he had hoped there would be. They were racing around here and there, fetching and carrying, some clearly following the orders they had been given while others seemed to be moving wildly, uncaring as to who they bumped into or what they sent flying. They were wild, untamed and downright terrifying.
He dragged his eyes away from the heaving mass of people and forced himself to focus. He counted doors, three of them, that led from the cavernous centre of the building in which all the activity seemed to be focused. He didn’t know if those doors led to freedom or yet more danger. Either way, they would not be able to use them. No amount of faking it could get all of them through that. They would be recognised and caught in moments.
He had to get back to the others and let them know what he had found and to deliver the news that they had to come up with a new plan. He shuffled backwards, keeping below the level of the bannister, until his back connected with the wall once again. He got to his feet and continued his walk.
He made it halfway down the long landing when he heard it, the sound of quick footsteps running up the stairs. Not wanting to risk picking a room that might be occupied, he raced for the door at the far end, hoping and praying that the stairwell beyond would be empty.
He grabbed at the bannister post as he passed it, using it to slow his momentum and there, out of the corner of his eye, nestled against the wall was a narrow band of teal that he instantly recognised.
“Kayo,” he whispered, snatching it up before he threw himself through the door to the safety of the stairwell.
He paused for a moment, leaning against the door to keep it closed as he caught his breath. By his calculations, his five minutes were just about up, if not already over. By the time it was safe enough to move anywhere else Virgil and Alan would have already moved on.
“Kayo’s here,” he said to himself, needing the calming act of speaking aloud even if it was only to himself and barely above a whisper. If she’s here, he thought to himself, she’s likely already looked for us. If she couldn’t find us the next logical step would be to contact EOS and find out where we lost contact. Which means… he looked up, and up, and up some more. Damn, he was getting really tired of stairs.
***
“They got caught, didn’t they?”
“I don’t know.”
“If they hadn’t they would be back by now. Admit it, they’re done for, you know it and I know it.”
“That’s our brothers you’re talking about, they’re professionals, give them a little credit.”
“But what is the-”
“Gordon, shut up!” Scott sighed impatiently, returning to the door and listening intently for any sounds outside that might be their missing siblings. He didn’t want to admit it to Gordon, but he had feared the same. They were dealing with enemies the likes of which they had never encountered before, enemies that had inside knowledge of their practices and method of operating. They had to have had inside help and that was the hardest part to make sense of in this whole ordeal.
“Hear anything?” Gordon asked from his resting place on the floor. Scott had tried to get him to his feet but his brother had collapsed back down claiming that it hurt too much to stand.
“Just a bunch of noise, nothing that I can distinguish. I guess we’re too far away from the action to hear much.”
“It must be hell out there,” Gordon said with a sigh.
“Yeah, I just hope they made it out and, if they didn’t, that they aren’t suffering too badly.”
“What are we going to do if they don’t come back?” Gordon asked quietly, not wanting to ask but feeling like he had to.
“I don’t know,” Scott paused, letting out a deep sigh as he looked at the clock on the wall. “It’s been almost an hour. I say we wait ten more minutes and then, if they aren’t back and it’s obvious that no help is coming, we try our own luck.”
Gordon nodded, his face set in steely determination. If their brothers had been caught, he would make sure that their suffering wasn’t in vain.
***
“How long has it been?”
A dark eyebrow quirked up. “Since the last time you asked? About 15 seconds.”
Alan rolled his eyes. “No. Since John has left. It must be more than five minutes by now.”
Virgil glanced at his watch and agreed. He debated waiting for a few seconds more, but they were a team, they had a mission and the last thing they needed was for any of them to go rogue and get lost—or caught–because they didn’t follow the plan.
“Yeah… Hopefully John managed to escape and he’ll return with backup or create a diversion.” He sighed. “Alright, let’s head back to Scott and Gordon’s location.”
Somewhere below them, a loud pop, followed by a peal of laughter, resounded in the stairwell. Virgil threw his thumb up, then gestured at Alan to stick to the walls, but saw not without some level of pride that his brother was already two steps ahead of him, padding his way upward.
They made it to the next floor hastily, bursting out into the hallway instants before realising this might not have been the best idea. They waited a few seconds to make sure no one had heard or was coming over to investigate and Alan cocked his ear toward the stairs. “They don’t seem to be following us,” he whispered.
Virgil nodded. “Good. One last stretch and we’re safe again–relatively speaking,”
“It'd feel safer clearing out a landslide. At least I’d know what I could be step—”
“Psst.”
They froze, sharing a startled look.
“Over here. To your right.”
Alan turned his head; one of the doors was now ajar. Then, a hand he instantly recognized stuck out to beckon them closer. Pulling on Virgil’s sleeve, he hurried over.
“Kayo, You came to save us!” he half-whispered, half exclaimed as soon as the door closed behind them.
They all huddled closer in the storage cabinet. Kayo began to think she spent way too much time in them as of late. At least this one didn’t feature strange aromas.
“I’m trying to. EOS caught John’s tracker. I came over as soon as I could,” she said. “Where are the others?”
“We split up. Scott stayed behind with Gordon; he got injured.”
She paused from activating her comms unit to contact EOS. “Badly?”
“It came from all sides, he couldn’t avoid it. He can’t walk properly. There was some blood…”
“Ouch. Poor guy.” She turned to Virgil. “Can you carry him if we make a run for it?”
A single nod was all she needed. She knew she could count on them to stand together as a team. Five’s icon appeared on her wrist and she brought EOS up to date with the situation.
“What about John?” she asked the two others.
“He went downstairs to try and find the exit,” Alan said.
She frowned. “Oh, no…”
“What? You look worried. What’s wrong?” Virgil asked.
She gave them a strange look. “I just came from there, barely made it out. It’s… evil, torture.”
“That bad?”
“I’ve seen things.”
“Like what?” Alan said. He was picking up on Kayo’s discomfort and shuffled around uneasily.
“Straps to hold the legs up, survival kits, candles, all kinds of monitors, catheters for the—” she shook her hand in front of herself, wrinkling her nose.
He winced. “I knew it.”
“Why must people need to be innovative and unique all the time? What’s wrong with traditional, simpler methods for doing things?”
Neither wanted to risk an answer.
“And the way to that awful place is full of traps. We’ll avoid the area. I have memorised the way to the exit and I think it’s possible if we use the back access. I’ve taken care of the locks already.” She snapped her sleeve back down to cover her bracelet. “Take me to your brothers. We’ll plan the escape from there. Then, if John didn’t make it out safe and sound, I’ll get back in. They don’t expect me, so I might even be able to pass as one of them and fool them long enough until the mission is over.”
***
John was sure his luck would have to run out sooner or later. But so far it seemed that some unknown deity was smiling on him.
The people in the hallway hadn’t tried to follow him. He didn’t know if it was because they hadn’t seen him -although how anyone could have missed his frantic dash to safety was beyond his comprehension- or they were lulling him into a false sense of security by letting him think he had gotten away, only to capture him later.
Either way, he had no choice but to continue his solo mission. He was a Tracy, they didn’t know the meaning of giving up, the word surrender was not in their vocabulary. He would fight until the bitter end. If he ended up drawing their attention away from his brothers, then it was a sacrifice he would have to make.
The stairwell in which he had stopped to catch his breath and still his racing heart had remained deserted, so he allowed himself the luxury of a rather more sedate upwards journey.
As he climbed he wondered just how they had allowed themselves to get into this situation. Security, and safety, were always their number one concern, yet in this, they had been woefully lax. The sad truth was that they had trusted too much. They had trusted what they had been told, they had relied on that information rather than gathering their own. He blamed himself, he was supposed to be the one to gather and check the information given. He'd usually scan the area, plot their entry and exit points and make sure that he had full knowledge of the situation. He was used to seeing everything from his lofty perch in the heavens, but right now he was blind.
He reached the first floor with no problems, taking his time, his steps silent as a cat. All the while his eyes were busy tracking and cataloguing everything there was to see. No exits or entry points apart from a window on the small midflight landing -which he was seriously contemplating jumping out of- and the doors at the top and bottom of each flight which lead to yet more hallways filled with rooms. He was getting sick of rooms, rooms meant doors that could hide any manner of horrors. He pushed aside the memories of the nightmare scene they had encountered upon their arrival, it would do him no good to dwell.
The second flight was as quiet as the previous but that did little to soothe his frayed nerves. Quiet, which was usually such a comfortable thing for him, was proving to be the most anxiety-inducing thing he had ever experienced. He’d never thought he would prefer noise, but noise gave you clues, noise allowed you to have a better understanding of where people were and what was going on. Here he heard nothing but the same distant, but ever-present, bangs, crashes and screams.
He had to get his brothers, and himself, out of this nightmare. He just prayed that Virgil and Alan had made it back to Gordon and Scott safely. They hadn’t had far to go, with luck they were already there and he could catch them up. He just wished he had better news.
The sight that greeted him when he slowly pushed the door open was as unexpected as seeing a unicorn in their swimming pool. There, standing out in the open, apparently having a little catch-up chat, was not just Virgil and Alan, but Kayo too. What the hell were they thinking?
“What are you doing?” he hissed, his angry whisper making them jump.
“Coming back for Scott and Gordon,” Alan whispered back.
“I meant, what are you doing standing out here like this?”
“Well, Kayo-”
“Scratch that, I don’t care.” He checked behind him, just to be sure that no one was there, before he left the relative safety of the landing. His quick steps ate up the distance between them, his aura radiating pure pissed off. He’d been down there, risking his life to gather the intel they needed, and they were up here chatting like mothers at the school gates.
“You should all know better,” he accused, shooting Kayo his most withering scowl because in his opinion she was the worst of the bunch.
She returned his look with one of her own that clearly said “I wouldn’t be here if you idiots didn’t need me, don’t make me regret it more than I already am”.
“You should all know better,” Scott yelled, throwing open the door in front of which they were all crowded, making them jump. Gordon waved from his spot on the floor.
“Yes,” a voice said behind them. “You should.”
If Scott had made them jump out of their skins the voice behind them just about parted their souls from their bodies.
Scott grabbed Alan, shoving him behind him into the room. Virgil dodged around them both and stood guard in front of Gordon. Kayo adopted a defensive stance. John saw his life flash before his eyes and realised that he probably needed to make some changes if they ever made it out of this alive.
As one they turned to face their captor. She stood there, hands on her hips, a look of disgust on her face.
“What is wrong with you all? Do you not know how to behave?” she continued, one hand leaving her hip to waggle a finger of doom in front of their faces.
The Tracys didn’t say a word, they didn’t dare. As one they closed ranks, backing further into the centre of the room, their actions instinctive, protective… their captor didn’t care. She breezed through Scott, John and Kayo as if they were nothing, pushing them aside as she advanced on Gordon, Virgil and Alan.
“I’m surprised at you,” she accused, pointing her finger directly at Virgil. “And you.” The finger spun round to stab in Alan’s direction. “And as for you,” she continued, glaring down at Gordon. “You’re in your best clothes and you’re lying on the dirty floor. Get up!”
Gordon did as he was told, scrambling to his feet, his twisted ankle protesting the action.
“I can’t believe you all. Big, heroic rescuers that can’t even handle a little baby shower!”
“But, Grandma, that kid bit Gordon and-” Scott shut up when Grandma spun round to face him, her hand raised for silence.
“I don’t care. I don’t care who was bitten, who was tripped, who was stabbed with a pin badge, who had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich squished on their lap-”
“All me!” Gordon protested hotly.
“I don't care who has a headache, whose foot was stamped on, whose drink was spiked, who got climbed by five kids, or who was asked endless questions, I do not care! I raised you better than this. Cousin Frannie was good enough to invite us and you will go through that balloon tunnel, show the expected level of enthusiasm for the presents on display and act in a way that befits a Tracy. Do I make myself clear?”
A reluctant chorus of “Yes, Grandma,” echoed through the room.
“Now, are you done with your time out or do I have to lock you in properly this time?”