Chapter One

The sun barely peeked over the horizon as Scott opened his sliding glass door all the way and inhaled the fresh morning air. Mel, John and Tin-Tin were meeting him in about half-an-hour out on the runway to go for a couple laps around the island. Not having run on much but treadmills of late, Scott figured it made sense to get some good stretching in, and why not to a kick-ass sunrise? He sat down, legs in a V facing the blue Pacific in front of him and leaned to the left to begin.

Tin-Tin smiled at her reflection in the mirror. She had just enough time to start the diagnostic on Computer 4 in the Control Room. It would be finished by the time they returned from their run, and she could go to Brains with a report on what had seemed to be an anomaly yesterday. She doubted it was anything that would bring the house down. She made her way down the quiet first floor hallway, placed her palm flat on what seemed to be nothing more than an ordinary wood-paneled wall and waited as a hidden door slowly slid open. Eager to get there and back down to the tarmac in time to meet the others, she didn't wait to hear the door swish closed.

John ran his hands through his hair, never understanding why his brothers used combs when, as his grandmother purported, "the good Lord gave you your fingers." He chuckled, pulling a tee shirt over his head and heading for his sitting room to put on his socks and shoes. He was looking forward to company this morning; usually his runs were solitary and while it was true that John enjoyed quiet for the most part, he was also intrigued by Mel and was up for some friendly chat with everyone this morning. He stopped at the mirror by his front door to run a hand through his hair again before heading down the hall and taking the stairs to the lower level for some orange juice.

Melody wondered about sunscreen for her fair skin but figured in the early morning hours she wouldn't burn. Tossing her shoulder-length hair into a ponytail and quickly tying her running shoes, Mel opened the door of her room. She was looking forward to being the first one outside, to being able to just stand on the beach and take in the salty air in silence before the others joined her. She smiled, remembering as a young girl going to stay with her Aunt Jess, jogging through Cabot Cove in the early morning. That woman had had more spunk that anyone else in that town.

She'd outlived Seth Hazlitt, her best friend and the town's doctor. She'd outlived Amos Tupper, one-time Cabot Cove sheriff, who now had the town's new dance hall named after him. She had outlived Sheriff Metzger, Tupper's successor, as well as her good friend Eve Simpson. Mel knew all about them from the stories Aunt Jess had told her over the years. It had been a very sad day for their family and for a great many others, when J.B. Fletcher had passed away at the age of 94.

Mel headed down the hall, passed through the living room and out the front balcony. As she made her way down the steps between the villa and the pool, she snapped her fingers, realizing she'd forgotten to use the bathroom before coming out. Damn her 36-year old bladder, anyway. She spotted the pool house and decided that would do since it was so close, rather than going all the way back inside the house. It was with a light step and a whistle on her lips that she walked around the sparkling blue chlorinated water.

Always early risers, both Jeff and his mother milled comfortably around the kitchen, with Ruth starting preparations for a nice, big breakfast and Jeff starting both large coffee urns brewing. What with ten people all wanting coffee within the next 1 to 2 hours, one could never make too much. Kyrano soon joined them, eyes looking placid after his morning exercises. Brains was most likely busy in his lab or on a Thunderbird, and he knew some of the young people were going for a jog that morning. He caught himself in that thought and laughed out loud.

"My goodness, Jeff, you'd think you were having a fit," his mother joked. "What's so funny?"

"I just realized how much my mother's son I am," he smiled, stooping to kiss her forehead before retreating to his living room desk.

"Well it's about time he got that part figured out," Ruth mumbled as Kyrano suppressed a smile. "What do you think of my great-great-niece, Kyrano?"

"She is quite nice, Mrs. Tracy."

"I think so too. And this morning I finally found that picture of Marian I couldn't get my hands on yesterday."

"Oh?"

"Yes. It was hidden behind another old picture of Marian's father, my brother-in-law Mike. I know we didn't talk much about Marian, but I'm having trouble remember why."

"I am certain Miss Melody will enjoy talking with you about it."

"Well, maybe. Marian was the black sheep of the family, and I suspect there's a reason I was never really told why." The two got busy beating eggs, chopping chorizo and boiling potatoes for homemade hash browns. Ruth and Kyrano loved to cook, loved to grow things and above all, tried to make sure everyone ate healthy.

Although for some reason, Kyrano never had been able to reconcile Grandma's cakes with the word 'healthy.'

Scott brought his knee up to his nose one last time, then flattened his legs on the floor. Ten minutes until he was to meet the others. The sun was a beautiful shimmering half-ball resting on the ocean and far away he heard the familiar jet engines of the mail plane making its weekly run. They never got more than a few bags a week now thanks to the joys of wireless communication, but a lot of it was couriered paperwork and other important Tracy Corporation items that were needed for various of their business endeavours.

The sound was nothing more than a registered thought as Scott closed his eyes, breathed deeply a few times and reopened them. Placing his arms straight up into the air, he slowly bent forward at the waist, feeling it in his back until his nose touched the dark blue carpet. He held it for a moment then sat up slowly. There was only a split second for his eyes to widen before it hit.

Halfway between the Control Room and the first floor bedroom hallway of the villa, Tin-Tin was thrown to floor as the entire tunnel shook. She could hear alarms begin to wail and scrambled to her feet, sprinting to the exit.

It felt like the earthquake he'd been through once when visiting Los Angeles. The coffee slopped out of his mug as sirens went off throughout Tracy Island. Jeff let the mug clatter from his hand to the floor and jumped to his feet.

Pots and pans clanged together from where they hung on hooks overhead. One of the coffee urns overturned. Kyrano was thrown to the floor, while Ruth found herself doubled over the kitchen sink, the knife in her hand barely missing stabbing her own chest. She shrieked and dropped it as Kyrano sprung cat-like to his feet and helped her stand upright.

Gordon shot out of bed, all senses instantly on high alert. The one morning he decided to sleep in and what the fuck happened? Brains, did something blow in the lab? One of the Thunderbirds go up? No, that wasn't even Three, whatever it was. Wearing nothing but his boxers, Gordon ran to his sliding glass door, slid it partway open dashed out onto the balcony. He looked left and saw nothing. He looked right and his jaw nearly hit the cement of his balcony. For four doors down, there was none.

The impact was little more than a vibration, but it was a sensation Brains knew damn well he shouldn't be feeling at that moment in that location. He dropped everything as multiple klaxons went off. Running to the elevator, he waited impatiently for it to arrive and for the doors to open. Whatever it had been, it wasn't good. Not good at all.

Virgil, having just finished brushing his teeth, was tossed completely out of his bathroom like he was so much fluff. Trophies, books and paintings fell from shelves and walls as he instinctively covered the back of his head with his hands, fingers laced together. He heard the shatter of glass and winced as it rained down on him. The large easel that was next to the sliding glass door seemed to fly across the room as though it had wings before the dust began to settle.

He chanced a look up. The window's bulletproof glass was gone, leaving only the metal frame. He could hear the whine of a jet engine nearby and paid no heed to the small blocks of broken glass that littered the burgundy carpet of his room as he leapt out onto the balcony. Before he realized what was happening he began skittering to the right and grabbed the metal railing edging the balcony to keep his footing.

Virgil stared down at his balcony in disbelief. The entire thing had become dislodged from the house and was now tottering at a sixty-degree slant toward Scott's room. Scott's room. Virgil looked up and blinked twice before it registered. It couldn't be. He could not be seeing what he was seeing. No!

John had just waved to Mel as he jogged along the beach toward her. The sound of the mail plane arriving had caused Melody to turn and use her hand to shield the sunrise in order to see it. John's hollered "What the-?" caused her head to snap around to him, then the ground shook. She found herself face-down in the water from her stomach to her head. No more than twenty seconds passed until strong arms lifted her to her feet.

"Are you okay?" John asked, breathing hard more from adrenaline than effort.

She nodded. "What happened?" Her eyes followed John's up and back toward the villa. She gasped.

For as unbelievable as it seemed, there sticking out of the sliding glass door of the corner bedroom was the tail end of a small jet. The last whining engine ground to a noisy halt leaving a deafening silence. The wings had been sheared off on either side of the twenty-two foot sliding glass door as though whatever comprised its frame was stronger than what the plane was constructed from. There was no smoke, no fire. The top of the cockpit and the landing gear had also been either broken off or peeled back. The only thing that gave any at all when it hit, from what she could see, was the window itself.

She tore her eyes from the spectacle to see John racing for the elevator partially hidden in the cliff at the end of the runway. She ran after him. She knew that to be Scott's bedroom from the tour Tin-Tin had given her of the villa yesterday. What she didn't know, and what she knew was what John was also thinking, was whether or not Scott had been in that room when the plane hit.

Chapter Two

Making his way up the fuselage, he crept through the cockpit and paid no heed to his dead counterpart as he carefully lifted his head through the missing top and looked around. He could hear things settling – the creak of twisted metal, the tinkling of falling shards of glass, and now the sounds of loud sirens slicing into the once placid morning. No one would see him if he went...right...now.

The cockpit had shorn back to just behind its door. To the right he could see, in a triangle shape created by the corner of the window and the body of the plane, a hole large enough for him to wiggle through. He made it in fifteen seconds flat just as he heard a noise outside. His heart began to pound. He had to hurry.

He scrambled down the small jet's nose, and heard a loud "Oof!" as he landed on the floor. One glance told him he'd taken out one of the house's occupants with the plane itself but he allowed himself no sense of satisfaction yet. He raced through what had obviously been a bedroom, through its outer sitting room and hit a button next to the door he found there. It started to slide into the wall but then there was a sound he didn't recognize and the door jammed only one-quarter of the way open.

Damn. It would be a tight fit. He unstrapped the seven-inch-thick backpack from his body, sucked in as much air as he could and forced himself through the tight spot. He popped through, looked right and saw that many more doors lined the hallway. Then he looked to his left as the voices from the right became louder and saw a metal door. He darted across the hall and tried it. Just as the first footfalls came thundering his way, he slipped behind it and found himself in a stairwell.

He left the door cracked open just a sliver, stilling his heartbeat so he could hear with perfect clarity.

"It's Scott's room, quick, can you slide in there?"

"Dad, there's a goddamn plane stuck in Scott's window!"

"Oh, shit, John, no. Was he in there?"

"He was supposed to come running with us this morning but he wasn't out there yet!"

"Where's Gordon?"

"What about Virg?"

"Watch check, they're in their rooms."

"I can squeeze through there, Dad."

"Why won't the doors open?"

"Damn hydraulics are out on this floor. Brains!"

"The doors have lost, er, power, Mr. Tracy, a cable must have been cut!"

"John, what do you see?"

"He's trapped! Dad! He's being crushed by the fuselage! We have to get it off him or he'll never make it!"

"Brains, let's get the equipment we need! Where the hell is Tin-Tin?"

"Jeff! What's going on?"

"Mother, no time."

"I've got Virgil, he's made it through the window from his balcony!"

"Pilot's dead."

"Copilot?"

"I didn't see one but I wasn't really looking. Scott!"

"Pulse is steady but his breathing's way off."

"Chest getting crushed by the plane, can we push it off him?"

"I wouldn't, Virg, we don't know if anything's stuck on him. Dad and Brains are getting some equipment to help."

The voices continued, some faded as they entered the room the plane had hit. Then the footsteps. He heard them slamming toward him up the stairs and backed away from the door, letting it fall completely closed. In the dim light he saw her round the landing. Just when she reached the top and was about to grab for the door, his arm shot straight out, catching her right in the forehead. She stumbled backward and was unconscious before she hit the landing below.

Seeing his opportunity, he vaulted down the steps to the first floor and opened the door onto a lower level hall that looked almost identical to the one upstairs. To his left was another long hallway. To his right, something that made him know instantly he'd hit pay dirt. It was a door that wasn't supposed to be there, stuck halfway open. He raced into the tunnel beyond, nearly salivating over what he'd find at the end of it.

The knapsack dropped to the floor with a thud. "I've found them," he whispered. "I've finally found them."

Kyrano had gone in search of his daughter. Melody made her way through Scott's door and helped pull Gordon through. They looked up at the fuselage of the cargo plane that was resting heavily on Scott's chest. "I don't like the looks of that," she breathed.

Gordon shook his head as his eyes connected with first John's and then Virgil's, both of whose faces were grim.

"We've got the equipment!" Jeff called to them. "We're going to jack this door open so everything can get through!"

"Scott's looking pretty bad, you'd better hurry!"

Melody stepped out of the way and watched as the men before her worked together like a well-oiled machine. Ruth was soon at her side and Mel could see her great-great-aunt's mouth tighten into a thin line as they watched. She picked up a flashlight and shone it toward where jacks were being used to raise the plane ever so slightly from Scott's chest.

But she knew, as did they all, that the very act of doing so might kill him.

That's when she noticed it. She took a single step forward and trained her light on the nose of the plane. Cocking her head, she frowned at the large crack she saw. "Odd," she mumbled and stepped back out of the way again. Biting her lip as she heard the first of the jacks come to life, she shone the light around the room until it hit the door.

"Aunt Ruth?" she said, slowly picking her way toward the area.

"Yes?" the older woman replied, following her.

"Scott's door was open, wasn't it?"

"I don't understand."

"When everyone first got here, Scott's door was already open."

"Well, yes. It was jammed halfway."

She pivoted to face the plane sticking out of the balcony window. "These are automatic doors that slide closed after a few seconds of not sensing anyone in them."

"That they are, child, why?"

"Look at the position Scott's in," she replied, shining her light along the portion of his body they could see. "If the plane crashed through the window and landed on him, he would had to have been either standing or sitting and facing the window."

"Yes, you're right. He was all the way in here, not anywhere near the sitting room door." Ruth frowned.

"Hm," Melody mumbled as the second jack puttered to life.

The next few minutes were a blur of orders barked, shouts telling everyone to be careful, triage-type diagnoses and the disappearance of the entire family, with their injured loved one on a stretcher, to the island's hospital. Melody found herself left alone in the destroyed bedroom and at last was able to have a closer look at the plane's cracked nose. She reached out and touched it, then nodded her head once. "Just as I thought," she said. "It's been reinforced with ceramic. Cargo planes don't have reinforced noses."

She decided she simply had to see inside the plane, remembering hearing shouts of there being a dead pilot aboard. Maybe she'd find something in or around his body to suggest whether this was an accident or, as Mel was beginning to suspect, if it had been attempted murder.

Chapter Three

The Hood stood beneath the great green giant that was Thunderbird 2. Looking up, he realized how truly magnificent a machine she really was. And she was his for the taking. Yet in spite of her potential, there was another Thunderbird he was after. More than any other, Thunderbird 1 had been the ship in his sights ever since he'd first laid eyes on her.

What destruction he could accomplish with a rocket plane that fast, with that much fire power. Two would do in a pinch, but since he hadn't yet been discovered he felt he had plenty of time to see if her sister ship could be found.

He looked around the massive hangar and thought, Now if I was Jeff Tracy, where would I have put it?

Then he stopped as it all suddenly became clear to him. He didn't need to figure it out on his own. There was one person on this island who'd give him every bit of information he'd need. And he knew just where he'd find him.

Scott's nearly lifeless body lay on the table. Jeff looked on, a deep frown creasing his forehead, as Brains, John and Virgil donned surgical gowns and masks.

Brains looked at the brothers and blinked.

"We want to help," Virgil said quietly.

Nodding, the scientist replied, "Well, I'll definitely need it. Just stick to what I tell you to do though. Nothing more, nothing less."

They scrubbed their hands quickly and thoroughly and had soon snapped latex gloves on. Gordon scrubbed up next, put on his own gown and mask, and worked at preparing the instruments they would need to try and save Scott's life.

First an X-ray was taken.

When Jeff saw the image appear on the giant screen on the opposite wall, all color drained from his face.

Next it was an MRI. Even though he cofuldn't see anything but the eyes of his sons and Brains, Jeff knew their faces mirrored the quiet horror on his own as a 3D image rezzed next to that of the x-ray.

He felt his mother grasp his hand but he couldn't muster the desire to close his fingers around it. This had happened too often in his life. Not only Lucille, but the multitude of times any one of his boys had been hurt over the years.

His sons...

"Oh, God," he said, raising a hand to his forehead to rub it.

"What is it, Jeff?"

"Alan. No one's contacted Alan." He sighed, not wanting to leave the room, but not wanting Alan to hear about what was going on from anyone but his father. "I'll be in the front room, boys," he said. His mother followed him through the swinging door and into the main area of Tracy Island's hospital which consisted of four beds. Cabinets and cupboards lined the walls and on one of the counters was a video phone.

Ruth suddenly gasped. "Melody! Oh, my God, we left her in Scott's bedroom! She has no idea how to get down here!"

"We'll go after her as soon as I've made the call to Alan, Mother."

Nodding quietly, Ruth came to stand by his side as Jeff patched them through to Thunderbird 5.

Kyrano cried out when he saw Tin-Tin sprawled on the landing halfway down the staircase. He rushed to her side and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw her chest rise and fall. Shining his flashlight around, he concluded she must have been thrown down the stairs when the plane crashed into the villa.

Turning off and pocketing the light, he gently lifted his unconscious daughter into his arms and headed up the steps.

It was the last thing he remembered.

Melody had just climbed back out of the aircraft and slid to the floor when she heard a voice from the hall.

"Hello? Who's there?"

She came from the bedroom and into the sitting room, dusting her clothes off as she walked. "It's only me, Kyrano," she replied, then gasped as she saw his burden. "What happened? Is she all right?"

"She is alive, but beyond that I do not know, Miss Melody. I am taking her to the hospital."

"Is that where they took Scott?" Mel asked as the she followed him.

"I believe that is where they would have gone, yes." They hurried to the elevator, which Mel was surprised to see still worked, and waited for it to rise. "If I may, what were you doing alone in Mr. Scott's room?"

"I was just having a look around," she said as the door swished open before them. They stepped in and Kyrano pressed a button as the door closed. She shook her head and chewed on her lip.

"Something's bothering you."

"Well, yes, now that you mention it, something is."

The door opened and Kyrano led her to the hospital ward door. Just as he was about to push it open, it swung out at them from the inside.

"Kyrano!" Jeff exclaimed. "Is she hurt?" he asked as he lifted Tin-Tin from her father's arms.

"I don't know, Jeff," he replied softly, watching his benefactor lay his daughter on the nearest bed.

Seeing the strange look on his mother's face over hearing Kyrano use his given name, Jeff distracted her with, "Mother, tell John I need him in here for vitals."

Ruth disappeared into Surgery while Jeff straightened Tin-Tin's arms and legs. He began at her feet, hands feeling slowly from her toes, over her arches and up over her ankles. Her shins felt fine as did each thigh. He moved his hands up over her hips, along her waist and around to her abdomen, where he slowly and gently pressed in.

"I'm not feeling anything wrong but we'll need a scan to tell us for sure," he said as Ruth reappeared with John in tow.

Melody watched Jeff finish his manual examination while John hooked Tin-Tin up to an oxygen mask, then took her pulse, listened to her heart, got her temperature quickly with an ear thermometer and took her blood pressure.

"Vitals look good, Dad," he finally announced. "X-ray or MRI?"

"I'd say X-ray. We should be able to see any internal injuries with that," Jeff replied. John nodded and disappeared into Surgery again.

Melody took a moment to look around and realize where she was. This was Tracy Island. This was the Tracys' home, a paradise retreat. While it made sense they'd want some sort of medical facility this far from the nearest large city, it astounded her to see what looked like a full-fledged, if small, hospital.

She and Kyrano remained far enough away to not be nuisances. For a few minutes Kyrano's eyes were closed as though he was praying. She watched as he opened them and turned to look at her. "Miss Melody, what is it that was bothering you in Scott's room?"

She puckered her lips for a moment. "Well, for one thing, the nose of that plane was reinforced with a ceramic cover, almost as though whoever did it fully planned on ramming into something."

Ruth looked over her shoulder. "You make it sound like that crash was deliberate," she said as John adjusted the mask over Tin-Tin's mouth and nose.

"I hate to say it, Aunt Ruth, but after what I found, I'm beginning to believe it was."

"What you found?" Jeff echoed, turning to face her. "What did you find?"

"For one thing," Mel began, moving a forward a few steps, "isn't it odd that Scott's door was jammed open when you found him, but he wasn't anywhere near that door when the plane hit?"

John frowned as he removed his mask. "Well, he could've just hit the spot that auto-opened the door when he heard or saw the plane and ran to the window to get a better look."

"That's true," Jeff nodded slowly. "But if Scott saw a plane coming at his balcony, he wouldn't run toward it."

"You're right, Dad. He would've run out into the hall, not back into his room."

"That's not all I found," Melody said, fishing into the pocket of her shorts. She held her hand out, palm-open.

Jeff reached out and took what she was holding. "It's the end of a zipper."

"Yes. I found it inside the cockpit near the dead pilot."

"You went into the cockpit?" John asked. "You shouldn't have done that, you could've been hurt."

"Yes, well," she nodded, "I wasn't. But I think this zipper's a clue. You see what it says on there?" She waited while John, Jeff and Ruth all peered at the small piece of metal.

"Far West," John read.

"Yes. That's a day pack, a thin and lightweight backpack."

"So what?" Ruth asked.

"There isn't a Far West knapsack anywhere in that cockpit nor in the part of the fuselage I crawled through."

John shrugged. "It could've fallen out or gotten sucked out when the plane crashed."

"True," Melody nodded. "But the biggest thing that needs explaining is who killed the pilot."

"Killed?" Jeff asked.

"Yes, killed," Mel replied. "It's possible some of the contusions were the result of the crash, but the blow to the back of his head didn't happen on its own. And I found the oxygen tank that was used to do it."

"How can you be so sure?" John asked.

"That the oxygen tank was the murder weapon?" she asked. Off his nod, she continued, "Because it had bits of blood and blonde hair on it. The pilot was blonde. And the straps that held the tank were cut cleanly with a knife, not ripped from the force of a crash. I also noticed the radio receiver above him was smashed."

Jeff stiffened, closing his hand around the zipper pull. "Melody, if all this is true, that means two people were aboard that plane."

She nodded. "And only one is there now."

"And he's dead," Kyrano added.

"John!" the cry as the door slammed open startled them all. It was Virgil. "John get in here, now!"

Pulling his mask back up, John raced into Surgery with Jeff and Ruth on his heels.

Kyrano moved to his daughter's bed while Mel hovered in the background. He placed his hands on Tin-Tin's body and bowed his head for a moment. "Miss Melody," he finally said so quietly she almost didn't hear him.

"Yes?" she responded, coming to stand next to him.

"If what you say is true, it means a killer is wandering this island."

Their eyes met. "I'm afraid so. And with everyone working to save Scott in there," she nodded toward the door to Surgery, "nobody's really got the time to verify that hypothesis."

"We do," Kyrano said. "Come, I will give you a weapon."

"Oh, no, no," she protested. "I don't use guns."

His mouth quirked into a half-smile. "Neither do I."

Chapter Four

Melody waited next to Tin-Tin's bed until Kyrano returned from wherever he'd gone. In his hand he held a long sword and a shorter knife. He offered her the latter, which she reluctantly took. "If I'm close enough to use this, I probably won't stand a chance."

"No, it's a throwing knife. You simply release it with a flick of your wrist like this." He made a quick forward snap with his left hand. "It will travel up to thirty feet if you hold your arm perfectly still."

She frowned, looking over the weapon. "I don't know," she said hesitantly. "Why don't we just call the police? We're close to Fiji, right?"

"No," came a voice from behind them. Melody turned to find Jeff looking about ten years older than he had just a few minutes ago. "We're sovereignty," he explained. "No one has jurisdiction here but the World Navy."

"And we can't call them?"

Jeff's lips drew slowly into a tight, thin line. He turned to look at his mother, who'd just come to his side. "We need to transport Scott to ITIM now, Mother," he said.

"I know, Jeff, I know."

He leaned back against the bed nearest Tin-Tin's, then came forward with his hands on his thighs. Shaking his head, he stood back up and looked first at Ruth, then at Kyrano and finally at Melody. "Virgil, Gordon and John will be taking him in Two."

Melody frowned, wondering why Jeff hadn't even responded to her comment about calling the World Navy. Then she wondered what 'Two' was and caught a strange look pass across her great-great-aunt's face for just a fleeting moment. "What's ITIM?" she finally asked.

"Institute of Trauma and Injury Management in New South Wales." The answer came from Brains, who'd just walked through the swinging door from the Surgery room. "He's as stable as I can make him, Mr. Tracy. We have to go now."

Jeff nodded. "All right, here's how we're going to play it. I need John and Kyrano to stay here with me."

"Stay here? You mean you're not going with Scott?" Ruth asked incredulously.

Jeff looked sidelong at Melody as he replied, "Mother, if there's someone running loose on this island, we have to stay here and find them."

Ruth nodded.

"You'll go with Brains, Virgil and Gordon. Help them get Tin-Tin and Scott to ITIM. At the very least, I want you and Brains to stay there with them. I may need Virgil and Gordon back here pretty fast depending on what we find."

"All right, Jeff," Ruth said, stopping just long enough to squeeze her son's forearm before she headed out of the hospital ward.

Kyrano produced a laser rifle, seemingly out of nowhere as far as Melody could tell, and handed it to Jeff. Soon the Tracy sons and Brains wheeled Scott, looking not too bad all things considered, through the room. There were softly spoken words between them and the family patriarch that Melody couldn't hear before the group continued on their way.

"How are they getting to Sydney?" she asked as the swinging door closed.

"A really good plane," John replied. "We have several."

Melody raised her eyebrows. "What do you want me to do?"

"I want you to show me all these things you found," Jeff replied. "All these clues."

"Sure," she said. "Let's go."

Out of the corner of her eye, Melody saw Kyrano hand John yet another laser rifle and wondered where the hell that had come from. She'd only seen him enter with the sword he still held and the throwing knife she herself had in hand. Where the heck had the rifles been on him?

They had nearly reached Scott's room when Mel heard a strange chirp. She watched John raise his right arm until his watch was directly in his line of sight. When he spoke, she thought for a moment he'd lost his marbles.

"What's up, Al?"

"Tell Dad he was right. I'm monitoring and given that Two's just taken off, you've got an extra body on the island."

"Why isn't the signature alarm going off?" John asked.

"Well, Melody, looks like you were right after all," Jeff stated. "Alan," he said, stepping close enough to see John's watch, which Mel only just realized contained the face of Alan Tracy.

"Father?"

"Where's the extra person?"

"I'm showing a signature in Stairwell B-3, nowhere near you."

"How can he know that if he's not here?" Melody asked, but no one answered.

"John, you're with me. Kyrano, take Melody to your room where she'll be safe."

Mel opened her mouth to protest, but John and Jeff disappeared down the hall and through a stairwell door before she could even speak. She felt Kyrano take her elbow and looked at him. "We shouldn't go sit in a room," she said to him. "At the very least we could be backup for them."

"Mr. Tracy has his reasons for what he asks," Kyrano replied, looking first up the hallway and then down. "Come, we will do as he suggests."

He began moving her toward the right past Scott's room toward Jeff's. "Is there a staircase this way?" Melody asked, frowning. "I don't remember Tin-Tin showing me one yesterday."

"Of course there is. I'm certain you haven't seen every inch of the home, have you?"

"Well, no, not in just one day," she admitted.

They reached the end of the hall. She knew Jeff's bedroom and large office were through a door on the left, but beyond that was a wall. To their right was Virgil's room. Kyrano stopped and looked around.

Melody backed away a couple steps and stared at Kyrano. "Are you all right?"

"Of course," he said, looking into her eyes. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, for one thing we're on the second floor of bedrooms and yours is on the first, but you went the one way down the hall that doesn't have a staircase or an elevator."

She watched as he stiffened and narrowed his eyes.

"For another thing, you produced a couple of laser rifles awfully quickly for someone who doesn't use guns."

Kyrano made a low sound in his throat and Melody backed up until she was against the wall.

"And I have to wonder," she continued, her voice shaking as her eyes roved from feet to eyes, "why you're wearing a pair of black boots when Tin-Tin told me you never wear anything but soft-soled and hard-soled slippers."

A cry came at them from down the hall. Both of them jumped as Melody realized it was John and Jeff calling her name. "I'm here!" she called back, inching slowly along the wall.

"Come back here," he ground out.

Her eyes widened. "You're not Kyrano."

She watched as he brought his hands behind his head. She heard something rip and right before her eyes he took his face right off revealing almond-shaped eyes, bushy black eyebrows and a bald pate. Melody cried out as he lunged for her. John reached her first and practically threw her back into his father's arms.

He turned to throw a punch but the man in Kyrano's clothes who looked nothing at all like their friend got him first. John reeled back against the wall as Jeff pushed Mel to the side and went flying into the intruder, knocking them both into the wall.

It was over almost as quickly as it had started. Melody watched as Jeff and John got to their feet, each wiping dribbles of blood from their lips and noses. "What do we do with him?" John asked, chest heaving.

"Turn him over to the World Navy. But we need to make sure there isn't anyone else here. That he was alone."

"How did you know I was in danger?" Melody asked, stooping to pick up the Kyrano mask the intruder had been wearing.

"We found the real Kyrano in the stairwell, so we knew whoever it was you were with, wasn't him."

Melody nodded at John, then held the mask out to Jeff. "Here."

Jeff reached out to take it and his eyes locked with John's as his wristwatch chimed. Frowning, he raised it to his face. "Go ahead, Alan."

"Father, did you find the intruder?"

"Yes, we have him right here."

"We've got a problem."

Jeff's face hardened. "More than one. What's going on?"

"I've intercepted a transmission coming from Two. She's just taken off from New South Wales to return to the Island."

"Intercepted a transmission? Why would you have to intercept a transmission from Virgil?" John asked.

"Because it's not coming from Virgil. In fact, he has no idea where it's coming from, but it's blaring his signature, location and visualization to anything capable of picking up that frequency."

"Can't he block it?" Jeff asked.

"He's trying, Father, trust me. That's why I'm calling you, so they can concentrate on getting rid of it."

Melody just looked from John to Jeff and back again in confusion. She couldn't fathom how Alan could know the things he knew; where he could be and what he could be doing that he knew what he knew. She flinched a little when Jeff turned his hard gaze to her.

"Suddenly, I feel like I've done something terribly wrong," she said quietly under his gaze. "Like I'm some sort of criminal."

John looked at his father's face, then back to hers. "No, no, nothing like that," John said. "Come on, Mel, I need your help getting this guy penned up until we can get someone to take him away."

Relieved to be of use, she nodded and went to one side of the downed intruder while John went to the other. It was quite a struggle for her, but then Jeff stepped up and helped get the unconscious man's arm around her shoulder. Soon she , John and their burden were heading down the hall.

"John, seriously," she grunted, struggling to keep her side up, "what did I do? Your dad looked at me like I was Public Enemy Number One back there."

"He's just stressed," John replied as they neared the elevator. "Don't take it personally."

She nodded. "Where are we taking this guy, anyway?"

"Somewhere very secure, several floors below the villa."

"There are floors below the villa?" Mel asked.

John pushed the call button for the elevator. "There's a lot below the villa," he replied cryptically.

Melody frowned. As if it wasn't odd enough that someone had crashed a plane into the Tracys' home, and then gone running around the island pretending to be Kyrano, now there seemed to be things going on with the Tracys themselves that made no sense whatsoever. Alan's ability to know where people were on the island, for instance. And that very strange look Jeff had given her, making him look like someone completely opposite the man that only yesterday was warm, charming and jovial.

Something was up, and she knew it. She just hoped that with her Aunt Ruth off the island, she didn't wind up getting asked to leave before she could find out what it was.

Chapter Five

They'd exited the elevator into a long, brightly lit corridor. Dragging the intruder along the smooth metal floor, they went about a hundred feet before stopping in front of a double-wide plain looking metal door. John pressed his finger onto a small black screen to its left. Within seconds the door was sliding upwards to reveal an empty room with metal walls that was twenty feet deep by thirty wide.

John unceremoniously dumped the stranger in the far corner of the room and stood back. The man blinked awake, dragging himself around until he was sitting with his back pushed up against the wall. Cold black eyes took in his surroundings. "I suppose you think you'll keep your secret safe now, John Tracy."

Mel saw John flinch. "You know him?" she asked, looking at the tall blonde.

His eyes flicked to her then back to the Asian. "No."

"No, of course you don't," the man said sarcastically, looking first at John then settling his eyes on Melody. "He knows exactly who I am and I imagine on some level you do, too."

"I've never seen you before in my life," she countered.

He laughed. "No one has."

Melody wondered if it was just her imagination or if fair-skinned John had gone a shade paler. But she simply couldn't get two and two to add up to four no matter how she figured it.

"So who are you?" he asked her. "A lover of one of the intrepid Men in Blue, no doubt, come to meet the family."

Mel blinked. "Men in Blue?"

"I'm warning you," John growled. He turned to look at Melody. "Get out of here. Go back to the elevator. Now."

"I most certainly will not, John," she protested, taking a step closer. "Who is this man and what is he talking about?"

"I told you, I don't know who he is, now please, just go."

The man began to rise. "The whole world will find out who you are in just a few hours, John. Why not just tell her?"

John quickly turned the gun around and brought the butt down hard on the back of the man's head, knocking him out cold.

"John!" Mel cried, running to kneel at the man's side. She checked his neck and looked into his eyes, then jumped to her feet. "Why on earth did you do that?"

Wordlessly he grabbed her elbow and steered her out of the room, then used his fingerprint to close the door behind them. He rushed Melody to the elevator and they entered, John pushing a button which set it in motion upwards.

Melody's mind reeled. For John, the John she'd met yesterday, to purposely and brutally injure his prisoner just because he was saying something he didn't want him to say in front of her? What could be so all-fired important to keep secret?

The whole world will find out who you are in just a few hours

She looked across the elevator at him, but he stared stoically straight ahead, the gun slung over his shoulder, jaw firmly set.

What did she have? Slowly she went back through the conversation.

Keep your secret safe

What secret? What could be such a big deal to go through so much with crashing the plane here and disguising himself as Kyrano?

He knows exactly who I am

But then why would John lie about it? And why was he so hell-bent on keeping whatever the secret was that he knocked the prisoner unconscious?

Men in Blue

Melody frowned. Men in blue, men in blue, where had she seen that phrase before? She knew it sounded familiar somehow. Men in blue, men in—

Suddenly she gasped, hand flying to cover her mouth. "Oh, my God," she breathed. Taking a step across the elevator just as the door swished open, she grabbed John by the sleeve. "That's it, isn't it?" she asked.

He just looked down at her and shoved his way past her into the hall. She raced after him. "Come on, John, it's that phrase 'Men in Blue' that he used. That's what the fan club website for International Rescue calls the team. Is that what you're trying so hard to keep me from finding out?"

He stopped and closed his eyes. "Don't push it, Melody."

"Push what? I mean, if I were wrong you'd just tell me, so I can't be wrong."

In a few seconds he reopened his eyes and looked down at her. "I think we'd better talk to Dad."

"Talk to Dad about what?" Jeff asked as he came around the corner. "Did you get our prisoner tucked safely away?"

"Yes," John nodded. "But there's another problem."

"Yes," Melody agreed, "I think there is, Jeff."

Jeff saw the look on John's face and knew immediately what had happened. "Shit," he said softly.

"Look, Jeff," Melody said, desperate to not become the next person to get locked up. "I won't tell anyone. I promise I won't. My Aunt Jess taught me how important it was to be able to keep secrets for people. She went to her grave knowing so much about certain people that it would've ruined them if she'd breathed a word of it."

Jeff and John shared a look as Jeff's watch chimed. He raised it to his face. "Jeff here."

"Jeff, it's me."

"Hi, Mother. How's Scott doing?"

"Whatever it was Brains did on the island saved his life, Jeff. He's going to be out of action for a good long time, but the doctors say he'd been fixed up almost beyond anything they could do in addition. Now it's just a matter of time and keeping him still."

"How are they going to do that?"

"Well, right now they've induced a light coma just to keep him from moving. Brains assures me it will be easy to take him out of it in about a week."

Jeff looked visibly relieved. "Thank you for letting us know." He glanced over at Melody. "Right now, though, Mother, I have more pressing issues to take care of here. I'll check in with you later today."

"Okay, Jeff."

Jeff lowered his arm and noted the look of relief mirrored on his son's face before turning to Melody. "Young lady, we really don't know you from Adam. Regardless of the fact that you're related to us, the other fact here is that you're a complete stranger."

"And I know you really don't have any reason to trust me, but I hope you don't have more little jail cells down there waiting for people who accidentally find out who you are."

He actually laughed out loud at that. "No, that's not how we operate, is it, son?"

Melody looked at John when he didn't respond. "Well, he cold-cocked your prisoner awfully hard trying to keep him from telling me," she said. "So you can understand my concern for my own well-being."

"You did?" Jeff asked, raising an eyebrow at his son.

"Yep. Guess it was all for naught, though, huh?"

"Guess so," Jeff agreed. "Although I think we have the Fletcher genes to thank for that more than anything after what I've read about Melody's great-aunt." She had the good grace to blush. "Well, as long as he's locked up tight we'll worry about him later. I was able to get the real Kyrano to the hospital ward. I think he'll be fine."

"Dad," John said, then stopped and looked askance at Mel.

"Oh, for heaven's sake, I already know you're International Rescue," Mel said, exasperated. She noticed both men flinch and clamped her mouth shut as they stared at each other.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I never intended for any of this to happen. I just…wanted to meet family I never knew I had." They said nothing and she began to feel desperation kick in. "Look, I'm a mystery writer. Creating and solving complex mysteries is what I do for a living. I can't help you were keeping the biggest secret in the universe and I just happened to stumble across it!"

Jeff studied her for a moment, then smiled. The smile reached his eyes and Mel relaxed a bit as he approached her. Putting his hand on her shoulder, he said, "No, we're sorry. It's not your fault you found out. Nobody could have predicted this would happen." Over his shoulder to John, he said, "Now what is it, son?"

"It's something the guy said before I knocked him out again," John replied. "He said within a few hours the whole world would know who we are."

"Did he say how?" Jeff asked, turning to face his middle boy.

"No," John shook his head. "I would guess that signal Alan picked up from Two has something to do with it, but I'm not sure where it's transmitting to."

"Last I heard, Alan couldn't pinpoint a specific target. I have an idea maybe he's just set it to transmit and whoever picks it up first will get the scoop."

"The scoop? You mean like Ned Cook's scoop?" Melody asked.

They both whipped their heads around to face her.

She opened her mouth to explain, then shut it, then opened it again. "Well, it's just that Ned Cook was always talking about getting the scoop on the identity of International Rescue up until they…I mean you…saved his life in New York. Then suddenly he stopped talking about it, but it was the running gag on his rival network WNN for weeks about how quickly his scoop got scooped by International Rescue themselves."

Jeff and John looked at each other for a moment. "You don't think it's transmitting to WNN?" John asked.

"If it is, then I know just who to call to stop that station from doing anything about it," Jeff said, taking off at a dead run.

John followed him but Mel stayed where she was, marvelling at the fact that her newfound extended family was International Rescue. Now everything made sense. That's why five grown men lived with their father on an island in the middle of nowhere. That's how Alan knew everything that was going on even though he wasn't there. That's why a really nasty guy had purposely crashed landed on the island. And the information she now knew is what he'd been after.

She was startled when John reappeared next to her and grabbed her hand. "Come on," he said. "You're with us."

A smile spread across her face as he pulled her along the hall until they were sprinting. Whatever happened, this told her all she needed to know about her place in it. She had their trust, even if only because it had been forced upon them. Now all she had to do was keep it.

Chapter Six

"I don't understand!" Virgil pounded the console in front of him in frustration. They'd landed Thunderbird Two on an island very near Base but far enough away to not be within sight of it. John, Jeff and Alan had remoted into the screen in Two's cockpit along with Brains from New South Wales. Gordon and Virgil had been working feverishly to determine where the transmitter was and how it had been connected to Two's systems to begin with but no matter how many ways they ran the Thunderbird's diagnostics absolutely nothing anomalous showed.

"Well, I've got Ned Cook on the case," Jeff reassured him. "He and Joe are hitting up their rivals at WNN to do whatever they can to intercept anything that comes that way."

"God bless that annoying man," Ruth said from behind Brains at the hospital.

Jeff chuckled. "Annoying, yes. But loyal as hell." He turned his attention to Brains. "Tell us, what can we do?"

"Given that Two's own systems aren't picking up the anomaly, I think the only thing you can do is find out from the man who did it."

"It won't be easy interrogating him," John said.

"Well, it'd probably be easier if he was still conscious," Mel said, then clamped her mouth shut. Idiot, she chastised herself.

John slowly turned to look at her before bursting out laughing. "Touché," he said. She rolled her eyes and turned red. "He seems to already know everything about us. He knew my full name and that we're International Rescue."

"But if he already knew that, why not just go to the press himself? Why go to all this trouble to get to the island and plant something on my Bird?" Virgil asked.

"That's a good question," Gordon said as he sank into the co-pilot's seat. "For that matter, why not just steal Thunderbird Two instead of going to such elaborate measures?"

"I may be overstating the obvious," Melody said, "but it would seem that simply outing your identities to the world isn't his motive at all."

"You're right about that," Jeff nodded. "What then? If he wanted the machines, then take pictures or steal them, as Gordon said."

"Yes, and if he wanted us, he had the element of surprise and could've probably gotten the drop on at least a couple of us after the plane hit," Virgil commented.

Melody watched the men as they continued to offer suggestions both as to how to figure out what was transmitting from Thunderbird Two as well as what the saboteur's reasons for doing it could be. She rocked back on her heels, arms folded over her chest, and thought back to how the man had looked and sounded while he was pretending to be Kyrano. She remembered him peeling the mask away from his face, and how perfect it had been, how detailed. How there was no way in hell she would ever have guessed the face hadn't been Kyrano's.

How would this criminal have known someone's visage so well who, from what she understood, hadn't been off Tracy Island for more than a few hours at a time in the last decade?

"He knows him," she said to herself as the light bulb came on.

John and Jeff turned to look at her. "What?"

Mel's head snapped up, only just realizing she'd said it aloud. "I said, he knows him."

"Who knows who?" Jeff queried.

"That guy you captured. He's got to know Kyrano."

"What makes you say that?"

"John, tell me how he could've created a mask that was so perfectly Kyrano's face that neither of you noticed? Tin-Tin told me yesterday that she and her father have lived with you for over ten years."

"Tin-Tin was off at school for part of that time, but Kyrano's been here that long, yes," Jeff confirmed.

"So you've seen this man day in and day out for ten years straight, yet you didn't have an inkling that the man wearing the Kyrano face wasn't your friend?"

"No."

"In fact, when we found the real Kyrano unconscious in the stairwell, we thought he was an imposter," John recollected.

"You're right, we did," Jeff nodded.

"So tell me how this guy would have known every crease, every nuance, every shading of Kyrano's face to the point where he could fool you two with that disguise."

"He has to know him," Jeff concluded, circling back to what she'd said earlier.

"Precisely."

"We need to talk to Kyrano," John said.

"And now," Jeff agreed. "Boys, listen, we've got to sign off for a bit, but give me a shout if you come up with anything new. Brains, see if you can get yourself a jet to take to Two. I think you'd do better to actually be there with Gordon and Virgil trying to work on this."

"Will do, Mr. Tracy."

Kyrano wasn't where Jeff had left him.

Melody jumped back out of the way as Jeff raced into the Surgery room and John zipped back out into the hall. "Not here!" the patriarch shouted, soon followed by the same words from John as he burst back into the hospital ward.

"Where'd he go?"

Jeff lifted his watch to his face and keyed Kyrano's channel open. "This is Jeff calling Kyrano. Come in."

The three held their breath.

"Kyrano, come in!"

"Oh, no," John said, running to where a blanket was bunched up on the bed. He picked something up and held it out to his father.

It was Kyrano's wristwatch.

"Why would he take it off?"

"He wouldn't," Jeff said quietly. He turned to look at Melody. "Did you ever get a chance to see whether there was evidence of a third person being on that plane?"

"No," she shook her head. "He steered me past Scott's room to the end of the hall where you found us. I never went back in."

"Well, we can't leave you roaming around the villa alone without protection," Jeff said more to himself than them. He looked at Melody and suddenly held the watch out to her. "Put this on," he said as she held out her arm. Fastening it and shoving it up her forearm until it was secure, he then showed her the button to push for help.

"What's the plan, Father?"

"John, I hate to do this, but I don't think we have any other choice than splitting up." Off his son's nod, he turned to Melody. "You don't need to come. We can put you somewhere safe."

She scrunched up her nose. "Not for nothing, but I'd rather be out here with a chance than stuck somewhere that makes me an easy target for this guy. Who is he, anyway?"

Jeff looked at John, who replied, "It's the Hood." He rubbed a hand across his eyes. "He's been after us since before we started operating."

"By 'us' you mean International Rescue," she said.

"Yes," Jeff replied. "And my family, although I'm not sure the two are mutually exclusive."

"But that means you've captured someone who's eluded the entire world for decades! You've done what no legal agency's ever been able to!"

"Have we?" Jeff asked. "John, one of us needs to confirm he's still in that room."

"I'll get it up on camera in the living room," John said, "and let you know via comm."

Jeff nodded. "All right. Drop Melody off in Scott's room." He turned to his great-niece. "Now listen to me, Mel, if you see or hear anything, anything at all that puts you in danger or could put us in danger, you hit the button like I showed you. If you see or hear Kyrano, do the same. If you find any clues about a third person, the same. Got it?"

"Got it," she nodded. "But where are you going to go?"

"I have an idea," Jeff said thoughtfully, "that somehow the Hood used something on this island to keep Two from being able to tell us where and how the transmitter's placed. I'm going to investigate that angle of things."

John and Melody nodded.

"I want a check-in every fifteen minutes," Jeff said as they turned to leave.

"How do I do that?" Mel asked.

"Same button only push it twice quickly instead of once."

"Oh, brother. I never was great with gadgets," she replied, heading off with John.

"Don't worry, Mel, it's no more difficult than your average microwave."

"Yeah, except a microwave doesn't call International Rescue if I push the wrong button!"

Jeff smirked as he headed into the bowels of Tracy Island. Well, if their secret had to be outed to anyone, better to distant family than non-family. Still, he was uneasy about the whole thing. Damn that Hood for making it happen. Damn him for nearly killing his oldest boy. Damn him for trying to reveal their identities to the world.

Damn him all to hell.

Chapter Seven

"All right, now remember what Dad said about using the watch," John said as he entered Scott's sitting room with Melody in tow.

"I remember," she said, turning on the flashlight he'd given her. "Don't worry, I'll be fine."

"Famous last words," he said, hovering near the couch as she moved toward the bedroom. "Let me check it out first," he said quickly.

Melody stepped aside, bristling at the projection of machismo. John hiked himself up to where he could shine his flashlight through the ripped-open top of the plane. He was careful to avoid the jagged metal, tottering on the shorn-off wing and using a broken beam from the sliding glass door frame to steady himself.

Wandering back out into the hall, Mel shone her flashlight along the hardwood floor and immediately noticed something out of the ordinary. She crouched down and touched some rather deep grooves in the woodworking. Moving forward, she began to notice a pattern as her light went further and further toward the staircase.

John surprised her from behind. Her heart leapt into her throat. "Damn, John," she hissed, rising to her feet. "Anything?"

"No, nothing looks any different than the first time I saw it. Have you found something there?"

"Yes," Mel nodded, shining her light down toward the grooves. "See those marks?"

John crouched as she joined him. "Sure do. What are they?"

"Well, look how evenly spaced they are," she said, using her flashlight's beam to advance them down the hall. "It looks like the gait of someone walking, as though there was something stuck to the bottom of their shoe that created the marks. A piece of glass, perhaps. Or metal from the fuselage of that plane."

"You know, you're right," he said as they reached the staircase. "These could've been created by the Hood when he escaped Scott's room after crashing the plane into it. It would make sense since it leads to the same staircase where Kyrano was overpowered."

"Or it could be the mysterious third party we're wondering about."

John nodded. "Listen, I've got to get down to the lounge and make sure the Hood's still where we left him."

"All right. I'm going to follow these rather than check Scott's room again. I have a feeling this will lead me to more answers than the plane will." Hesitating for a moment as she moved down the stairs checking for more grooves, John watched her until she looked up at him. "What?" she said, wondering if she had hair sticking out at all angles or something.

"Be careful," was all he said. She watched as he hurried away and smiled to herself. These uncles of hers…uncles. She snorted at the thought. Uncles the same age as her. But that's what they were. How odd to be the niece of the bravest men on the planet. How odd and how wonderful.

John ran all the way to the elevator, waited impatiently for it to come, and took it to the hall just outside the lounge. He raced in and activated his portrait on the wall from behind his father's desk. Keying in a command to display the room in which they'd locked the Hood, his heart sank when the camera picture appeared.

"Dad!" he barked as he punched the button on his watch and ran like hell for the elevator. "Dad, come in!"

Jeff had made his way into Thunderbird 1's Hangar. She stood tall and silent on her platform, the track wheels locked into place. It was eerily quiet as Jeff boarded the mobile platform that was used for checking the hull and effecting repairs. He moved it to the left wing's side and locked the wheels before pushing the button that made the bucket-like platform slowly rise. It was only a hunch, but he thought the Hood might have gotten to both Thunderbirds One and Two.

Quite honestly, he'd been glad John hadn't asked him to explain where he was going and why, because Jeff didn't really understand it himself. He just had a feeling in his gut that made him want to see One. Well, now he was seeing her and all was quiet.

All was quiet.

Then the Thunderbird started to move. He heard the track grind to life and watched in disbelief as the tall silver rocket plane began rolling away from him and down the small incline toward its launch pad. "Alan!" he cried into his wristwatch.

"Dad! What?"

"Emergency lockdown of the pool now!" he yelled, pressing the 'down' button on the mobile platform's control panel.

Twenty seconds later Jeff was on the floor of the hangar running toward the opposite wall. Alan's voice came through "It's locked, it won't open. What's going on?"

But Jeff didn't take the time to answer. He made it to the long, thin ladder that would take him up to the same level as the lounge where Scott's rotating wall was. "Block Thunderbird One from being able to launch, Alan. And do it fast."

He started climbing as fast as his hands and feet could go. Two dozen rungs later Alan confirmed he'd disabled the sleek ship's systems. "Dad, someone's in One. Who is it? Who's trying to launch?"

"I don't know for sure," Jeff said as he kept climbing hand over hand. "But I've got a pretty good idea it's the Hood. Now get One back to her hangar."

"The Hood?"

"Do it, Alan!"

"Dad! Dad, come in!"

"John!"

"He's gone! The Hood's gone!"

"Get out to One's silo, son. Is Mel with you?"

"No, she was following some marks on the floor down the staircase near Scott's room."

"Well, just get here. I have a feeling she's perfectly safe because I have a feeling the Hood's trying to launch Thunderbird One."

"Jesus Christ."

"I got Alan to disable her, but we've got to somehow get him out of there."

"On my way, Father."

"Shit," Jeff swore as he kept climbing. "Bastard."

Melody had followed the odd scrapings clear down to a level she'd never seen before. The door to a hall had been forced open and she went through, shining her flashlight one way and then the other. Instinct told her to move to the right. She'd only gone about thirty feet when the beam hit something that didn't belong in the middle of the barren corridor. Rushing to it, she discovered a completely naked Kyrano curled into the fetal position against the left wall.

At least, she hoped this time it really was Kyrano.

She said his name softly and shook him, then remembered what Jeff had told her. She looked at the wristwatch on her forearm and hit the button he had shown her one time. Jeff's face appeared. "Melody?"

"Yes, Jeff, I've found Kyrano in a hallway."

"Where are you?"

"I'm not sure. I went down six flights of stairs following some marks in the floor that I think were created by your friend the Hood."

"Well, we've got him cornered, John's on his way to me. Is Kyrano all right?"

Mel reached out and shook the man again. He stirred and gave a soft moan as she shook him again. "I think he's coming around. I'm not seeing any visible injuries."

"Do you see any markings on the walls near you, or any doors?"

Melody stood up and shone the light around. She saw a small triangle with another triangle placed sideways atop it about two feet down to her left. Explaining the symbol to Jeff, she was surprised when he nodded in recognition.

"All right, what you need to do is get about fifty feet further to your right, then take a left. There's an elevator down that corridor which will bring you to Two's hangar, but you've got to use Kyrano's left index finger to activate it. Can you get him there?"

"I'll keep trying to rouse him. He's not that big but I'm not sure I can carry dead weight that far."

"All right. Buzz me again if you have trouble. Now, when you get to Two's hangar I need you to find a good place to hide. If Kyrano's awake, let him lead the way."

"Gotcha," Mel said as she leaned over Kyrano. She laid the flashlight on the floor so his face was partially illuminated and leaned over so hers was very close to his.

"Kyrano," she said softly. "Kyrano, can you hear me?" She grabbed his left hand and squeezed it. "Kyrano, please wake up. I need you to be able to walk."

She was relieved when his eyes opened. He grasped her hand, holding it tightly as he simultaneously squeezed his eyes closed again. Then just as suddenly they flew open and he sat bolt upright. "He's here," he breathed, looking up at her. His eyes were filled with fear.

"He who?" she asked.

"My half-brother. He's here, I must warn Jeff."

"You're…ohhhh, my God, that makes sense now. It totally makes sense!"

"What?"

"That's how he knew your face well enough to make a perfect mask of it. Wait," she said, eyes widening. "You mean the Hood, the criminal nobody knows the identity of, is your brother?"

Kyrano nodded, then looked down at himself. Mel followed his eyes then looked away as he cleared his throat. "I seem to have been compromised," he said, a blush creeping across his face. "I apologize."

"I could care less, it's not like I've never seen a naked man before." Although, she thought, I have to admit I've never seen a naked Malaysian before. "Can you walk?" she asked, trying to ignore him from the waist, down. "Jeff says we've got to get to Thunderbird Two's hangar and hide."

"Thunderbird Two?" Kyrano repeated as he rose to his feet, shifting uncomfortably as he became fully exposed to her.

"Yes. I know about them being International Rescue, it's a long story. Are you okay to walk, though?"

"I believe so, yes."

Mel felt so bad for the man. He was obviously trying very hard to forget he hadn't a stitch of clothing on. "I'm sorry, if I thought my shorts would fit you, I'd gladly hand them over." He looked a little surprised. "Well, panties aren't that far a stretch from bikini bottoms, I'm sure it's not like Jeff and John haven't seen them before."

He chuckled and took her hand. "I'm quite certain they have," he said. "Come, let's go."

Chapter Eight

Jeff had reached the top of the ladder and was standing on the retracted boarding ramp when the wall next to him swivelled around to reveal John holding the two lamps. "Is he still in there?" his son asked.

"Has to be. Only way out is through that hatch and it hasn't moved."

"How are we going to play this, Dad? If he shoves us, we could wind up a mess down there."

"I'm going to have Alan trigger the door to open on my count. One is soundproof; the Hood won't know I'm giving the order. We know the pilot sits right inside the door. Unless he's gotten down onto the floor, but he can't access the rest of the ship from there, so he has to be within rifle's reach."

"All right, then, let's go. I'll point down, you point straight."

"You bet," Jeff nodded, starting the ramp's movement with a button on the wall. He hailed Alan on his watch. "Son, I'm going to have you open One's cockpit hatch on my mark, all right?"

"Okay, Dad. I'm still showing the life sign in there. Be careful."

Jeff nodded curtly and waited until the boarding ramp had fully extended. He levelled his gun at the middle of the door while John moved slightly to his right and pointed down toward what would be the floor of One in its current vertical position.

"Ready, John?"

John nodded.

"Alan?"

"Father."

"Now."

The hatch slid open to reveal—

-nothing.

"What?" John asked incredulously.

"That's impossible," Jeff breathed.

"What?" Alan asked from the watch.

"It's empty," Jeff said.

"No, it's not," Alan replied. "He's right in front of you."

"Sonofabitch," John said. "No, he's not. Look." He stepped into One and picked up a flat silver belt-like object that had been slung over the back of the pilot's chair. "This looks like a goddamn comm. belt like NASA uses for the astronauts."

Jeff took it in his hand. "You're right, John, that's exactly what it is. He's been using it to relay signals from Thunderbird Two here."

"Then it transmits from the belt to One and from One out."

"Only how'd I pick that up as a life sign?" Alan asked. "That doesn't make any sense."

"Five misread the field that surrounds it," John replied, shaking his head. "These little babies create such a highly charged electromagnetic field around them that NASA had to spend millions to recalibrate all their sensors to account for it when they started using them in space."

"That would also explain why we weren't alerted by One herself. She misread the signal, she didn't know it was transmitting through her."

"But Dad, if he's not there and he's not in the storage room, where is he?"

"Where'd you tell Melody to take Kyrano?"

"Two's hangar," Jeff replied. "I haven't heard back from her so I'm assuming she was able to wake him. He knows where to go."

John lifted his watch. "Mel? Mel, if you can hear me, hit the button twice like I showed you."

There was no response. Jeff frowned. "Alan, give me a body count."

Alan moved away from John's watch face for a moment then came back. "I've got two inside...well, this is odd. Inside the Hall 1 Elevator."

"And?" John prodded.

"And nothing. I'm not getting any other life signs anywhere on the island."

Jeff and John locked eyes then raced back along the ramp to the swivel wall. Jeff leaned back against it and John leaned back against him. It swivelled around and they ran through the lounge to the elevator in the hall. The door opened with a swish. They both stopped dead in their tracks and looked down.

"My God," Jeff breathed, falling to his knees.

Kyrano was sprawled on the floor spread-eagle with Melody lying atop him face-down. Both were completed naked and the watch was no longer on Mel's wrist. Jeff checked her carotid while John squeezed in and checked Kyrano's.

"She's alive."

"So's he."

"Now why didn't he just kill them? And why in God's name did he take their clothes off?"

"Father? John? What's going on?"

"It's Kyrano and Melody. They're unconscious," John replied.

"Then where'd the Hood go?"

Jeff lifted his watch and said, "Virgil, this is Base. Come in."

"I'm here, Dad."

"Did Brains make it there?"

"Yes, he's out checking the tail section with Gordon."

"I need you to scan the area," Jeff said, rising to his feet and walking quickly to the lounge. He got behind his desk and punched up local radar. "Look for any heat signatures at all, no matter the size or shape."

John joined him and switched Alan's feed from his watch to the portrait on the wall. The radar appeared in John's portrait.

Jeff switched Virgil's feed to his portrait and Brains and Gordon appeared on Gordon's monitor. "I'm not showing anything on our side," Jeff said, studying the radar signal.

"Neither am I," Virgil said from the wall. "Dad, what's going on?"

"The Hood's escaped."

"What? The Hood was there?"

Jeff nodded. "Yes, Virgil. That's who engineered the whole plane crash and nearly killed your brother. Now we've found Kyrano and Melody unconscious but the Hood's no longer showing up on the island according to both Five and Base's sensors."

"That rat bastard sonofabitch," Virgil swore vehemently. "Does he know we're here?"

"He could," John offered. "He was using a comm belt that he left in One's cockpit to relay signals from Two to it, and then he used One's own systems to relay that signal out. None of us picked it up because sensors don't read it right unless they're specifically calibrated for its output."

"You think he could've traced the signal back to us?" Gordon asked.

"It's definitely possible," Brains chimed in. "I haven't been able to find any settings changed in Two's computers, Mr. Tracy," he continued with a frown. "If that comm belt's been modified, it's possible he was actually sucking on all the local island frequencies, of which ours is one, and pulling them in rather than rigging them to send to the belt."

"Jesus H. And I thought technology was a good thing," Virgil groaned.

"It might still be," Jeff said thoughtfully. "Boys, I think the best we can do is bring you home. I've got to check in with Ned in about ten minutes. If anything's gotten to WNN, he'll know about it."

"And hopefully have stopped it," John added. "But what if Mel's hunch was wrong? What if this doesn't have anything to do with WNN after all?"

"Well so far she's been right on the money and we haven't really got anything else to go on." Jeff looked toward the hall. "We've got a couple people here who need our help. Get back here as quick as you can, Virgil, and put in a call to Penny on the way, tell her what's going on and to keep her ear to the ground."

"It'll be less than ten, Dad, and we'll keep the radar going just in case."

"I'll contact Penelope," Gordon offered.

"F.A.B., boys. Base out." Jeff started walking out from behind his desk then stopped and looked up at Alan's feed. "I contacted the World Navy earlier," he said. "Are you seeing any ships heading our way?"

"No," Alan replied. "There's nothing within a hundred-mile radius except Thunderbird Two."

"That doesn't makes sense, Dad," John said. "The Sentinel was only thirty miles out this morning when I reviewed radar output before heading out for my run."

"Then where's she gone?" Jeff wondered aloud.

"I found her, Dad. Jesus, she's over 300 miles away from the island! And she's moving the wrong direction!"

"Something's not right about this, dammit," John said, slamming his fist on the desk. "Dad, this whole thing makes about as much sense as Scott after half a bottle of Jack."

Amused by the comparison but too worried to show it, Jeff nodded. "I know."

"For instance, why the hell did he take off Kyrano and Melody's clothes?"

"What?" Alan practically shrieked. "He did what?"

"When we found them in the elevator just now they were naked," John explained.

"And you left them that way?"

"Well, they looked all right."

"Kyrano's going to die of embarrassment when he wakes up."

"Alan, you're known for making leaps of logic."

"Sometimes."

"Well, make some leaps now, son."

Alan shrugged. "It could just be that he's a sick, twisted fuck."

"That thought had occurred to me," Jeff admitted. "But I get the feeling there's more to it than that."

John frowned. "Maybe he just wanted to humiliate them?"

Jeff shook his head. "There's something we're missing. I just can't for the life of me figure out what that something is."

Chapter Nine

Melody awoke to find her head pounding like she had a five-alarm hangover. Only she didn't remember having had the good time to show for it. She moaned and tried to roll off whatever she was on. It took only a few seconds for her to realize precisely what that was. It was a few seconds more before she also felt uncomfortably close to someone else's skin. Her eyes popped open.

A pair of brown eyes were staring back at her.

She yelped in surprise and a pain shot through her temple. Moaning in agony, her head dropped down onto Kyrano's shoulder.

"It would appear," Kyrano said softly, "that we have both been compromised this time, Miss Melody."

"Kyrano," she croaked into his bare shoulder, "I would suggest this compromise would qualify you and I to be on a first-name basis." She looked up to find a twinkle in his eyes. "Wouldn't you?"

"If you insist," he said.

Melody noticed neither of them was making any effort to move. "My head feels like an axe is buried in it."

"It is an unfortunate side effect of my half-brother's eyes."

"His eyes?" she squeaked, then regretted making the high-pitched sound. "Dear God, make this stop," she groaned, struggling to push herself from his body.

"Yes," Kyrano said, taking hold of each of her arms to help her upright. "He has...abilities."

Mel at last was sitting upright, straddling Kyrano's waist. She knew she ought to be jumping off him, but truthfully couldn't get past the ice pick digging into her brain. "Oh, God, make it stop," she said again.

"Here," he said softly, scooting himself to a semi-upright position against the elevator wall. He let go of her arms and moved his hands to either side of her head, covering both ears. "Look at me."

She opened her eyes and looked into his. He smiled and suddenly his seemed to her to be the most beautiful face she'd ever laid eyes on. "Kyrano?"

"First-name basis, remember?" She nodded. "My first name is Meor."

"Meor," she whispered as the pain began to fade away. She closed her eyes and smiled. "How are you doing this?"

"Shhhh," he said, placing a thumb over her lips. She opened her eyes again as the last of the pain vanished. He smiled and removed his hands from her head. "There," he said. "All better."

Without the agony of the residual eye-headache as she'd come to think of it, Mel was quick to learn of a rather pressing issue. "That's not all that's better," she quipped, then turned red as a beet. "Sorry!" she exclaimed, quickly jumping off him.

He laughed. "That is why I don't do this very often."

"Do what? Lay around in elevators with naked women?" she asked, holding out her hand.

He took it and she helped him to his feet. "No," he said, keeping hold of her hand. "It's why I don't use my abilities very often." He looked down, blushed, then looked back up at her. "Being that close to someone's mind has a bad side effect on me."

She bit her lip and squeezed his hand. "I wouldn't call that a bad side effect."

Surprise showed on his face and Melody almost laughed out loud. "Well, whatever it is you did and however it is you did it, I can't thank you enough."

He squeezed her hand once more before letting go. "Any time, Melody. Any time."

They looked at the elevator door, which was closed. "Which floor are we on?" she asked, wrapping her arms around her torso.

He pressed his finger against the black panel, which lit up. "We're in the hall just outside the lounge."

"Where do you suppose the Hood is?"

"I don't know," he answered. "Are you afraid?" he asked, looking over at her.

"Well, if all he's going to do is strip me naked and lay me on top of you naked, then no," she said, trying to hide the tremor in her voice.

He half-smiled, then placed his hand on her shoulder and pushed her toward the wall. "Stay back," he said.

He pressed a lit button on the panel and the elevator door swished open. Four pairs of eyes stared at one another, each as surprised as the next.

"I see you're up," John said, then turned crimson as he looked at Kyrano.

Melody coughed, then couldn't help herself and laughed out loud. "Oh, that was priceless. I hope someone got that on audio."

"Very funny," John growled as Jeff struggled not to laugh.

"Here," Jeff said, unbuttoning his shirt and handing it to Kyrano.

"Thank you, Mr. Tracy," he said, taking the shirt and deftly tying it into a sort of loin cloth shape.

Jeff looked at John, whose face still hadn't gone back to white. John pulled his tee shirt over his head and handed it to Mel. "It's a bit ripped, but it should cover most of you."

"No point now, really, after all this," she mumbled as she took it from him. "But thanks."

Embarrassing situation now handled to the best of their immediate ability, all four minds turned to more serious thoughts.

"Where's the Hood?" Melody asked. "Did you know the Hood was his brother?"

Jeff's eyes widened as all color drained from Kyrano's face.

"Oh, shit," she said. "I did it again, didn't I?"

"Kyrano?" Jeff said incredulously. "My God, Kyrano, is this true?"

His mouth opened, then shut. He looked sidelong at Melody, who looked like she was trying to melt into the wall. "We need to talk," he finally said. "Is everyone safe?"

"Yeah," John said, "except maybe for us. Why didn't you ever tell us about this?"

Jeff led the way back to the lounge. The men stood in the middle of the room while Mel sank into the furthest seat away from them that she could find. Damn her and her big mouth. But hell, he hadn't asked her to keep it a secret! He'd just come out and said it was his half-brother, there was nothing about the fact that the Tracys didn't know! Hanging her head, Melody wondered exactly how much longer this family was going to put up with her.

First, the morning after she arrived for a visit, the most elusive criminal in the world crashed a plane into their home, nearly killing Scott.

Then she found out the one thing the entire world had been trying to find out for years: who International Rescue really was.

And now she'd gone and spilled a secret Kyrano had been keeping from the family for a decade.

She tuned out of what they were saying, watching silently as Gordon and Brains appeared from the hall. Suddenly the big painting of the rocket that had been Jeff's ship when he'd gone to the moon flipped down. Her jaw dropped as Virgil slid up onto it from seemingly nowhere. It tipped slowly upright and clicked into place, allowing Virgil to step away and join the other men in the middle of the room.

I'll be damned, she thought. They're good.

Yet one more thing she probably shouldn't have seen.

"Kyrano, why did he take your clothes off?" John asked.

Looking down at the floor for a moment, he took the opportunity to locate Melody in the room. Their eyes met. "When Miss Melody found me in the corridor I was that way."

They all turned to look at her. She shrank back into the couch.

"So then he found the two of you, rendered you unconscious and took her clothes off...to what end?"

"He didn't...rape you, did he?" Virgil asked.

Mel's eyes widened, then she shook her head. "No, no, I don't think so."

"That's not why he took our clothes," Kyrano said, looking away from all their eyes.

Jeff knelt down next to him, placing a hand on his bare shoulder. "Then why?"

"My half-brother keeps slaves."

Most pairs of eyes in the room widened.

"The traditional worship ritual demands that slaves be disrobed and kneel before their master," he explained. "They must genuflect before him and repeat the prayer they are taught."

"Prayer?" Gordon repeated. "Like, they're praying to him?"

Kyrano nodded. "Then they must say their own prayer, which speaks of their existence as nothing more than objects to serve and please their master. He owns them. Their very existence depends on his generosity."

Melody rose from the couch as though in a trance, and made her way across the room to seat herself next to him. "Did he make us do that?"

He looked at her. "No. I don't believe he can force us to do things like that while we're unconscious."

"It's just..." She faltered and looked at Jeff, who was still kneeling on the floor. "You sound like you know an awful lot about this slave worship thing." He captured her eyes and she found she could barely breathe. "You know because...you were enslaved."

"Kyrano?"

Turning to his best friend, Kyrano nodded. "It was a very long time ago." His face turned downward. "That's why he's been after me so vehemently for so long. No slave escapes from his master and lives to tell about it. At least not with Belah."

"Oh," Mel breathed, laying a hand on his arm.

Jeff turned to his desk as his laptop beeped an incoming message signal. He went to it and keyed to the IR communication program as Alan's portrait was replaced by the real Alan on a video feed.

"All right, listen up, everyone. We've got problems," Jeff said. "I just got a message from Ned. Not only did WNN get a signal that showed Thunderbird Two in great detail, they also got a decent look at Thunderbird One and her hangar as well as the launch pad."

The boys began to talk all at once but Jeff held up a hand to silence them. "The good news is, Ned made it all go away."

"I'm going to send him my Aston Martin, I swear to God," Alan breathed.

"I've also got a message here from Penny," Jeff said, flipping on his computer screen. "And this is the bad news."

"What is it, Dad?" Virgil asked.

"I think I'll let her tell you," he replied, his face grim. He switched on Penelope's feed and they all turned to the side wall as she came into view.

"Hello, Jeff, Kyrano, boys."

There was a chorus of "Hi, Penny," in return. Melody had never met this woman and as such, remained silent.

"Tell us the situation, Penelope," Jeff said.

"Well, I'm afraid I haven't very good news for you, Jeff," she replied. "It would appear that the Hood has made good on what he said to John."

"In what way?" John asked.

"In the worst way." She looked directly into Jeff's eyes as he took a few steps closer. "He's not only sent video feed of the Thunderbirds out, he's transmitting right now."

"Transmitting what?" Jeff asked. "And from where?"

"Transmitting your names, faces and a lot of other information you don't want out there," Penelope replied. "From right there on Tracy Island."

Mel jumped to her feet, horrified. It couldn't be true!

"That's impossible!" Alan cried from his portrait. "There isn't a single life sign down there but those of you in the lounge!"

Virgil, Gordon and John looked stricken. Kyrano deflated into the couch. His normally darker face went several shades lighter right before their eyes. Jeff ran to his side. "How is this happening, Kyrano?" he asked, laying a hand on his old friend's leg. "You have to tell me everything you know. Everything!"

"Jeff, I think I have your answer even without Kyrano's help," Penny said from the wall. They all turned back to face her, but Jeff didn't leave his friend's side.

"Alan, if you would be so kind as to tell me where Thunderbird 4 is at this moment?"

"Thunderbird 4?" Alan repeated. "Well, she's right where she's supposed to b—oh, shit."

"Alan?" Jeff bellowed, hopping to his feet. "Alan, what? Where's Thunderbird 4?"

"I can't find her, Dad," Alan's voice sounded strangled as he looked up from Five's monitors. "She's just not there."

"Could she be cloaked?" Gordon asked. "Brains, you just installed your new shield device, could that be hiding her signature?"

"I-It's definitely a possibility," Brains replied. "I-I haven't calibrated our sensors for it yet. I-It was only a test run. Neither the island's nor, ah, Thunderbird Five's systems can pick it up yet."

"Well, it's either that or he's taken off completely. But Penny, you said he was transmitting from here."

"Yes, Gordon. You see, we've been able to pinpoint that he's on the western edge of Tracy Island, just offshore."

"How the hell did he get my 'bird started?" Gordon yelled, throwing a pillow from the couch across the room. "That's bullshit! He can't possibly know the code to start it!"

"I'm afraid I'm to blame for that," a soft voice said from behind them. The Tracys and Brains turned to look at Kyrano, who was now standing before them visibly looking much smaller than usual. "He took control of my mind. That's why he rendered me unconscious." They all frowned. "Don't you see?" he said, splaying his hands out before himself. "I gave him the code."

"Are you sure?" Jeff asked.

"How else could he have started Thunderbird 4's engines?" Kyrano asked. "Mr. Gordon said it himself."

"But why render me unconscious as well?" Melody asked. "I don't know anything that would be of any use to him."

"Yes, you do," John said evenly.

"What?" she breathed. "What could I possibly know that Kyrano doesn't?"

"You know where Scott and my grandmother are."

"Oh, my God," Mel groaned. "So he can finish them off once he's done here."

Jeff's face hardened. "Boys, we've got to get our Thunderbird back," he finally said.

"You're goddamn right we do," Gordon said, punching his hand with his fist.

"Alan, can you get a lock on 4's systems?"

Shaking his head in increased frustration, Alan's fists finally pounded the panel. "No! I can't even find her! Penny, patch me into that signal you're talking about!"

Penelope turned and said something to someone off-camera. Before ten seconds had passed Alan nodded, pressing buttons so quickly it made Melody's eyesight blur. "Thanks, Penny."

"Now, Jeff, I'm going to continue working with my team here to block the Hood's transmissions. So far they've been successful at deflecting the frequency into the upper atmosphere, but all it will take is a large thunderhead to bounce it right back down to Earth."

"All right, Penelope, we'll go after the Hood and this time we'll stop him for good." Jeff turned to his sons and Brains as Penny's feed winked out. "And I mean for good. Have I made myself clear?"

All heads nodded. Melody had moved just a bit closer and jumped when Jeff whirled to face her. "You," he said, "have a very important job to do, young lady."

"I...I do?" she said, fidgeting with one particular tear in John's shirt that barely covered the bottom of her left breast.

"Yes," Jeff said. He grabbed Kyrano's hand and then Mel's and put them together. "You stay with him at all times. Do not let go of his hand no matter what."

Kyrano's head snapped up. "You remember," he breathed.

Jeff turned to face him, their noses almost touching. "I do, old friend. I remember."

"Remember what?" Virgil asked, question marks hanging over his and everyone else's heads.

Jeff turned to face them. "I'll explain later. Now here's the plan."

Melody looked at Kyrano, wishing she knew what the hell was going on. She watched as he flattened their palms together, then intertwined his fingers with hers and closed them over the back of her hand. She returned the gesture, then moved with him to listen to Jeff.

She had a feeling she was about to get enough fodder for her next ten books. She only hoped she'd live long enough to write them.

Chapter Ten

Melody looked at the room as they entered. "What is this place?" she asked as the door closed behind them. She heard a click and turned to note the panel next to it said LOCKED in bold red letters.

"This is my meditation room."

There was a door on the far right wall. Another audible click and that panel, too, said LOCKED. Mel surveyed the twenty by twenty space, marvelling at the sheer lack of anything in it. The walls were bare, the lights were low. The floor was almost entirely covered by what appeared to be an exercise mat. It was blue and there were four large seating pillows in each of the four corners of the room.

"You have a room just for meditation?" she asked.

He nodded, pulling her with him to the nearest corner. He picked up the pillow, which was white, and took it to the center of the room. Then he led her to the far right corner and picked up another identical to it. They moved again to the center, where he placed it right in front of its twin.

"Come," he said, lowering himself into a cross-legged position on the first pillow. "Join me."

"Kyrano...Meor...I don't want to meditate."

He smiled. "We're not going to. We're going to do some work."

"Work?"

He nodded. "There is something I must explain to you first," he said, watching her adjust herself to mirror his position.

"I would say there are a lot of somethings that fit that description."

"My half-brother has the same abilities I do."

"You can make people go unconscious?"

"I could if I wanted to, yes."

"Oh."

"But I don't use mine that way. I use mine to help, to heal."

"I see."

"But he uses them to invade peoples' minds. I don't believe it never occurred to me before this."

"What?"

"You see, I have been having sporadic attacks since just before International Rescue began operating. Mr. Tracy insisted I see doctors, which I have, but they've never found anything wrong."

"You think that was your brother? But he wasn't here, was he? Not able to look into your eyes."

"No, he wasn't. His power has grown over these past years. He can now attack me remotely."

"Doesn't that mean you're in danger even now?"

He smiled and lifted their joined hands up to eye level. "Not as long as I have this."

She shook her head. "I don't understand."

"Mr. Tracy knows of this because I once told him about the incident which caused my mother's death." He shifted himself so their knees were touching and lowered their hands to rest on them. "You see, he killed our mother and then his father. And he kept me from doing anything about it by the power he has over the minds of others."

"Oh, Meor, I'm...I'm so sorry."

He dipped his head in acknowledgement. "What is done can't be undone," he said. "I awoke to find them dead before me. Belah disappeared that day, never to return to our home in Malaysia."

"But at some point you became his slave?"

"He captured me several years later in India," Kyrano explained. "I was one of at least fifty slaves in his palace, forced to serve him or lose my life."

Her eyes met his. "How did you get away?"

"He kept me separate from the others. It was during those many hours of solitude that I learned of my own abilities. I used them to subdue the guards and escape into the jungle."

She squeezed his hand.

"Several years later I found myself married with a daughter. But my wife betrayed us to him. She joined him and he killed her as well."

"What a sonofabitch."

"That's a good way of putting it."

Mel shook her head. "But that doesn't explain the hand-holding."

The ghost of a smile graced his features. "After he killed Tin-Tin's mother, he came after us. That was when I discovered, purely by accident, the power of the joined hands," he explained, raising their hands up again. "Tin-Tin was only three when he caught up to us in the eastern United States. I was holding her hand when he tried to use mind control and found that he wasn't able to."

"How did you holding Tin-Tin's hand help stop him?"

"He is only able to take one mind at a time. When a person is joined physically with another, psychically they have created a bond, a unification. He can't penetrate that no matter how hard he tries. If I had not been clinging to my daughter's hand, he would have killed us both that day."

"Wow."

"Yes," he said, barking out a short laugh. "Wow indeed."

"I'm sorry I told Jeff about your...what did you call him? Belah?"

He shook his head. "No matter. I suppose I should have revealed his identity long ago. I just couldn't bring myself to do it. What you did was a good thing, Melody. It helped me get past something which has been a danger to us for a long time."

"You know, I never really believed in all that hocus pocus."

He looked into her eyes. "I believe enough for both of us."

"I hope so," Mel said quietly, looking away.

"Hey," Kyrano said, reaching out with his other hand and lifting her chin until she was looking at him again. "Don't be afraid."

"But I am afraid! This is so beyond my world I don't even know how to process it!"

"Then don't try," he replied, dropping his free hand back to his lap. "Just let it be."

She frowned at him, but then felt a wave of something permeate her body as though she'd just moved through an invisible field of static. "What was that?"

He smiled. "Me."

She could only look at him in wonder.

Chapter Eleven

Five men made their way along the beach around the northwest corner of their island.

"If he's got 4's scanners working, he can see us coming."

"I know, Gordon, that's the plan."

"Dad, you know this is nuts."

"Yes, Virgil, it is. But I have a hunch Brains will come through before we find out just how nuts."

"I'm not so sure we should've left Brains alone in the lab. What if the Hood gives us the slip again?"

Jeff's watch chimed. He looked at it and grinned. "He won't be there for long, boys. He's got the scanners calibrated. Now we can see the bastard."

"Go, Brains!" John crowed.

"Everyone synch your watches with, ah, Scanner 046," Brains' voice came at them from Gordon's watch.

Each man did as instructed. "Got him," Gordon said. "Now let's get my damn 'bird back."

Virgil grabbed his brothers' arms. "Too late!" he said, pulling them back against the mountain.

Jeff looked to the left and saw Thunderbird 4 surfacing just outside the boathouse.

"Dad, it's Alan. I managed to bring Thunderbird 4 to the surface."

"I see that," Jeff acknowledged. "Good job, son. It's locked down?"

"Sure is. Tight as a drum. Maybe you can tow it out to the World Navy's minefield and accidentally run it into one."

"Hey, not my 'bird you don't!"

Virgil laughed. "Don't worry. I'm sure Dad's got another idea."

"Actually, Virgil, I don't. Thoughts?"

Brains came jogging up to them slightly out of breath.

"Why don't we pull Four back into the hangar and then gas the bastard?"

"John, that's the best idea you've ever had," Gordon nodded vigorously.

"I have enough cans of oxyhydnite to keep him unconscious for weeks," Brains said.

Virgil grimaced. "I'll vouch for that."

"All right, boys. Let's get our equipment and get her into the hangar. Virgil, John, you stay here and make sure nothing happens 'til we get back. Brains, chime Kyrano and let him know the coast is clear. You and Gordon are with me."

Melody was sitting there with her eyes closed. She jumped so hard that her hand let go of Kyrano's when two beeps sounded from the front door panel. She turned to look at it and the word had changed. It was now large, green and said UNLOCKED.

"What happened?"

"They're telling us it's safe," he replied.

She took a few deep breaths trying to still her pounding heart. "Jeez, they ought to warn a girl first."

"I should find appropriate clothing," he said. "Let's go to my room, it's just through here. Then we can go to yours."

"And here I was becoming so fond of my new style," she said as they rose to their feet. "Do I still have to hold your hand?"

He moved to the door near them and with a few swift movements of his fingers, opened it. He turned to look at her. "I think that would make dressing difficult, don't you?"

She laughed and followed him into his room. Unlike the meditation room, his own quarters were beautifully decorated. "This is the most peaceful room I think I've ever seen," she breathed, looking 'round at the artwork adorning the walls, the hand-carved wooden furniture and the plush hand-woven rug beneath her feet.

"I'm happy it pleases you."

Kyrano moved toward his closet in the wall next to the bed, which Melody sat down on and then laid back. She stretched, enjoying the feel of a bed beneath her for just a moment. Closing her eyes, she listened to the sounds of Kyrano getting dressed and couldn't help but let her mind wander back to when they'd been nude alone in the elevator. Then her mind inevitably turned to what followed, when Jeff and John had found them. She felt the blood rise to her face.

"What are you thinking about?"

Her eyes snapped open to find Kyrano standing over her. She sat up, realizing that John's shirt had ridden up considerably thanks to her stretching. Her face grew hot as she stood and pulled it down as far as it could go.

"Nothing," she lied. "Can we please go to my room?"

He looked down at himself. "Yes, I seem to have covered myself adequately."

"That's pretty neat. Is that a Malaysian-made outfit?" she asked, fingering the soft fabric of his sleeve.

"Yes. I made it."

"You sew?" she asked.

He nodded.

She narrowed her eyes. "Are you sure you're not gay?"

He laughed out loud, a sound that caught her by surprise but made her laugh as well.

"I can assure you I am nothing of the sort," he chuckled as they moved to his bedroom door. He turned to look at her, very clearly giving her the head-to-toe treatment.

She blushed and pushed him through the door when it slid open. "Are all Malaysians like you?"

He laughed. "Come, your room is just down the hall."

She was shaking her head as he opened the guest room door. The klaxon sounded. Kyrano grabbed her hand. The door swished closed behind them. As one, they turned to face it.

"What's happening?"

"Something's wrong." Kyrano rushed to the panel and tried to raise Jeff on it to no avail. Next he tried Virgil. Gordon, Brains. Alan. Finally a Tracy face appeared before them. "What's going on?"

"I don't know, Kyrano, the klaxon wailed and I can't raise anyone. Where's Dad?"

"I'm not sure."

Alan looked at a nearby screen. "I'm showing all of them are in Two's hangar. Last update from them was just a couple minutes ago. They were...oh, shit. Kyrano, I've got one more life sign than I should!"

Kyrano's eyes met Melody's. "Belah," she breathed.

He nodded, then turned back to Alan. "Is there anything you can do?"

"Well, I can see he's wearing your watch, so it's easy to tell which is which at least."

Nodding, Kyrano let go of Mel's hand and bit his lip. He ran a hand through his graying hair. "There must be something I can do."

"Meor," Melody said, grabbing his arm. Alan frowned at hearing the name he'd only heard spoken aloud once before. "You said you and he have the same abilities."

"Yes."

"Well, why can't you do to him what he's been doing to you?"

"What?"

"Go...after his...mind. Or whatever it is. You said his power had increased, that he's been attacking you remotely since before International Rescue started."

"That's right, he's been having those attacks for years," Alan confirmed, then looked at Kyrano. "But it's been the Hood doing it all along?"

"I'm afraid so," Kyrano admitted. He turned to look at Melody. "I can't use my abilities that way. It goes against everything I believe in, every code I live by."

"Dad and everyone could already be dead, Kyrano!"

She saw the pain in his eyes. "You can do it." When he shook his head, she turned and glanced at Alan, who mouthed the word 'Dad' to her. Turning back to face the Malaysian man, she asked, "What if it was the only thing that could save Jeff Tracy?"

His shoulders slumped. "Then I would do it without question," he said in a near-whisper.

"Well, that's the situation, Kyrano," Alan said. "If you don't even try, my father, my brothers and Brains are as good as dead."

"You're both right." He sighed deeply. "Very well. I must concentrate. I must not be disturbed."

"Do you want me to leave?"

"No," Kyrano said. "But you must stay away from me. Don't do anything, no matter what you hear me say or do."

Mel nodded, meeting Alan's eyes as Kyrano moved across the room to his bed. He seated himself in the middle of it and looked up at them. "Remember what I said. Don't do anything."

"I won't," Melody confirmed. "But Meor..."

"Yes?" he asked, settling his hands into meditation positions atop his knees.

"Isn't this dangerous?"

"Yes, it is." He gave her a small smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "But I owe him my life."

She nodded, swallowing hard.

"And his," Kyrano added cryptically.

Moving across to a wooden chair that was between a low dresser and a floor-to-ceiling mirror not far from Alan on the panel near the bedroom door, Mel sat down, her hands wringing each other painfully. She was worried about Kyrano. And what surprised her most of all, was how worried. What if he couldn't do it? Worse yet, what if he died trying?

If only her Aunt Jess had been here. Melody had probably missed something vital, something that if she'd spotted it could have stopped this whole thing before it started. But she hadn't, because she wasn't Jessica Fletcher, and now Kyrano's life was on the line, and the lives of most of her new-found extended family.

She found herself willing all of them to survive.

Chapter Twelve

Five men lay unconscious on the floor.

In the midst of them stood the Hood. He looked up at Thunderbird Two, then down at Thunderbird 4. His work was nearly complete. He had four Tracys and the genius behind the Thunderbird craft. All he had to do now was get them all into something they couldn't get out of. Then he'd take Thunderbird One and the reign of Belah Gaat would begin.

By now, he believed the entire world knew the identities of the men who made up International Rescue. By now every news agency in the world was broadcasting his words, his pictures, his voice across the skies. The one thing he hadn't disclosed was the exact location of their base. Because now, it was his. This would serve as the base for his operations now.

He knew Kyrano was alive and well somewhere on this island along with the pesky redhead. But that was of little concern to him now. Eventually they too would be his prisoners and then he'd use Thunderbird One to destroy every major city in the world. He'd be done in a day as fast as that ship could travel.

And what would they think, the people who watched it descend over them as it destroyed their homes and themselves? What would the rest of Earth believe when cameras captured the sleek silver plane on its path of destruction?

They would think they'd been attacked by International Rescue. Their reputation would be ruined. Even if by chance the Tracys managed to escape the damage would be done. The people would rise against them and without leaders, without governments, they would look for one to save them.

That one would be none other than the Hood.

He smiled in satisfaction as the scenario played out in his mind.

But before he could even complete the last thought, a shot of pain went through the back of his head. He cried out and sank to his knees, holding his head and moaning. "What..." he ground out. "What is...this?"

Alan and Melody watched as beads of sweat formed on Kyrano's forehead and upper lip. Within minutes his clothing showed signs of profuse sweating and his hair was damp. His lips moved but made no sound.

She watched him intently, and a thought suddenly occurred to her. If one of the half-brothers could attack the other mentally, could not the one being attacked launch a counterattack of some sort? It made her mouth go dry.

Kyrano winced and her eyes widened. His face contorted in pain. She made to get up from the chair but a hissed "Melody, no!" from Alan stopped her. She looked over at him and bit her lower lip. He shook his head vigorously.

This time, Kyrano cried out. Melody and Alan both jumped and looked across the room at him. "Alan, he's being hurt," she whispered fiercely.

"He said not to interfere," Alan replied.

She never took her eyes off the man on the bed. He cried out again and stiffened, arms and legs flying straight out from his body. He fell back onto the bed and began to cry out. Head moving side to side, he moaned, "No! No!"

"Oh, no," Alan breathed.

"What?" Mel shrieked, jumping to her feet.

"That's what it looks like when he's having one of his...when he's being attacked."

"When he's being—that means the Hood's fighting back!"

"Noooo!" Kyrano cried, grabbing the quilt beneath him in his hands and struggling against it.

She looked at Alan, then back at Kyrano, then at Alan again. "I have to help him."

"Mel, no!"

"I have to! I know what to do! He taught me!"

"He...what?"

Letting out what sounded like a roar, Kyrano sat bolt-upright, his eyes wide open and unseeing. "You...will...not..."

"Oh, God," Melody breathed, racing to the bedside.

He turned toward her but his eyes weren't the same. They'd grown so dark they were nearly black. When his hand thrust out toward her she flinched. But without a second thought she took it in both of hers, crawling up onto the bed next to him.

"Meor," she said fiercely. "I'm here. I'm holding your hand."

Alan frowned as he watched what the scanners were showing him was happening in Thunderbird Two's hangar. He looked back up just in time to see Kyrano's free hand move to Melody's throat.

"Kyrano! No! Melody, get away from him!"

She coughed once, twice, then let loose his other hand, using both of hers to try and pry his fingers from her flesh. "Ky-ra-no," she sputtered. "Me-or…please!"

"Kyrano!" Alan yelled from the panel across the room. "Dammit, Kyrano, fight it!"

Melody's two hands were now firmly around the one Kyrano was using to choke her. Suddenly his grip loosened and she gulped in three giant breaths, never letting go of his hand. Coughing a few times, she looked into his eyes and saw a swirling mass of brown and black as though his irises were undulating.

"Meor," she gasped, squeezing his hand with all the strength she could muster. She crawled onto his legs, straddling them as he fell back again onto the bed. "I have your hand. He can't attack you anymore. But you can still attack him. Listen to me, please."

Ragged breaths shook his body as Kyrano's eyes slowly went back to their normal color. They widened when he saw her. "Melody?"

"Take him down," she growled. "He can't hurt you now."

Kyrano nodded once and closed his eyes, his other hand coming to rest over hers. The union of four hands rose between them and began to shake with the force of Kyrano's mind reaching out for his brother's. Melody squeezed her eyes shut as her head began to ache, but she fought against the pain. There was no way she was letting her new friend down. No way in hell.

Jeff slowly opened his eyes, a sharp pain shooting through his head. He struggled to sit upright but was soon confronted with a Hood whose face looked markedly different from before. It was contorted in agony as he body-slammed Jeff back down onto the hangar floor with a thud.

Belah grabbed Jeff's shirt and forced him to look into his eyes. "Oh, no, you don't," Jeff said. "Not this time."

He rolled and threw Belah to the side. Then he rushed to Virgil's side, the closest of his sons to him. "Virgil, get up! Wake up!" When he heard Virgil's moans, he moved to John's side and roused him. Then on to Brains and finally to Gordon.

"Oh, God, my brain hurts," the latter groaned, sitting up and holding his copper-haired head.

"Not half as much as his, I bet," John said through the tears of pain that leaked out of his eyes.

They all managed to sit upright enough to look at where the Hood had regained his footing and taken a few steps closer to them.

"Boys, gather close," Jeff said, motioning them toward him. "Take my hands and take someone else's hand."

"Do what?"

"It's the only way to keep him from knocking us out again, John," Jeff explained. "Quickly."

Jeff took Virgil's hand on one side and John's on the other. John took Gordon's, who took Brains' and then Brains connected with Virgil. The men stayed in their tight circle as the Hood fell to his knees, his head knocking into Gordon's back. The younger man scooted closer to the center of his family's circle, eyes wide as the Hood rolled around on the concrete.

"What's wrong with him?" Brains asked.

"I think he's getting a taste of his own medicine," Jeff replied. "And I'll bet I know who we have to thank for that." Writhing on the floor, Belah's face turned paler and paler, his hands clutching his head, scratching at his bald pate and wailing in sheer agony. Jeff watched for a moment and then realized what was happening. "No," he breathed.

Gordon turned to look at his father. "What?"

"He's going to kill him," Virgil breathed, his eyes wide.

"Kyrano wouldn't do that," John said. Then his brow furrowed as his eyes met his dad's. "Would he?"

Jeff broke the circle of hands and scrambled to their enemy's side.

"Careful, Dad," John warned.

"What are you doing?" Brains whispered.

"I can't let him do this," Jeff ground out. His hands reached out and hovered over Belah's body. Jeff closed his eyes, took a deep breath and reopened them. All at once his hands came down and grabbed one of Gaat's.

"Dad!" Gordon cried out, breaking away from the circle.

"Stay back!" Jeff growled. He closed his eyes and spoke so quietly the younger men could barely hear him. "Kyrano…Kyrano stop…"

The Hood let out a yowl that made the hairs on the backs of all necks stand on end.

"Kyrano, you can feel me, I know you can. Stop it now, you're going to kill him!" Jeff said more loudly, his eyes still squeezed tightly shut.

Everyone was frozen in place as Jeff clung to the Hood's hand. Within seconds he was still. Slowly Jeff lifted the hand, turned it over and felt his wrist for a pulse. He turned to his sons and Brains. "He's dead," he reported.

"Are you sure?" Gordon asked as his brothers rose to their feet and came to stand over the body.

Brains knelt and rechecked the vitals. "This man is definitely dead."

"Kyrano," Virgil whispered. "I don't believe this."

"You think Kyrano killed him? He can't kill a fly!"

"He can if he thinks our lives depend on it, Gordon." Jeff shook his head. "I can't let this be it."

To his sons' and Brains' shock and horror, Jeff Tracy began performing CPR on Belah Gaat. Two repetitions later, they heard and saw the man begin to breathe again.

"Thank God," Jeff whispered, rising to his feet. "That was too close."

"You shouldn't even have bothered," Virgil said sourly.

"I had to," Jeff replied. "It would have destroyed Kyrano."

John let out a long, low whistle as Jeff raised his watch to his face. "Alan, come in."

"Dad? Dad, you're all right!"

"Yes, son, we're all just fine. The Hood's incapacitated. We think Kyrano attacked him."

"He did," he replied sombrely.

Jeff's brow puckered as he took in Alan's face. "Where are they?"

"Melody's bedroom," Alan replied. "I think you'd better get up there."

She bowed over his chest and let the tears flow. Her head was killing her, but more than that, Kyrano wasn't breathing. She held his hands even tighter between their bodies and whispered his name over and over again.

The door swished open as Alan reappeared on the panel next to it. Jeff ran in first, the remaining four nearly running him over when he came to a stop halfway across the room. They all popped out from behind him standing in a row.

"Gordo, move!" Alan said.

Gordon moved off to the side so his brother could see where Melody sat astride Kyrano in the middle of his bed.

"Don't go," she whispered. "Don't go yet. Not yet."

Tears sprang to Jeff's eyes. He swallowed hard.

"It's too soon, Meor. Please come back."

Jeff motioned to Brains, who started making his way to the bed.

"I've still got your hands. You should be alive."

Brains had just reached them when he was startled so badly he nearly fell backwards.

Kyrano's eyes flew open and his chest heaved as he gasped in a breath so loudly they all jumped. Brains was instantly at his side reaching to get hold of one of Kyrano's wrists. He then looked down at his face, opened his eyelids to look at his pupils and checked the pulse on his neck.

"He's okay," he finally said, looking first at Melody and then back to Jeff and his sons. "Pulse is strong and steady."

"Mr. Tracy?" Kyrano said softly, his eyes never leaving Mel's.

"I'm here, Kyrano," Jeff said as he approached them. The others followed.

"You did it," Virgil smiled.

"I did what?"

"The Hood's…" John glanced sidelong at his father, "unconscious," he finished.

"Not dead?" Kyrano asked, looking visibly relieved.

"Of course not, Kyrano," Jeff reassured him. "You wouldn't kill even him."

Virgil, Gordon and Brains exchanged looks while Melody realized the position she was in and scooted quickly off Kyrano and onto the floor, finally letting go of his hands. She backed away as the men who loved him crowded around, desperate to ensure he was really okay, and explaining what had happened from their perspective.

She was startled when Alan called her name. She moved closer to his panel. "You're shaking like a leaf."

"I feel like a leaf that just got blown through a tornado," she admitted with a nervous laugh.

"Bet none of your mysteries ever had any of this in it."

"You bet right." She put her hand over his shoulder on the video feed. "Thank you, Alan. You're the only one I haven't met in person, yet you're the one I somehow feel closest to now."

He grinned and she thought how young he looked. "Well, I don't think I'd say I'm the one you're closest too," he replied cheekily, nodding toward the other side of the room.

She turned to find Kyrano standing unsteadily at the end of the bed, supported on one side by Jeff and on the other, by Virgil. Her eyes moved to Brains, then John, and finally, Gordon. "You're the most amazing family I've ever known," she said.

"Well, you're part of it," John grinned, winking. "Ripped shirt and all."

She looked down at John's torn shirt and realized the one rip had gotten bigger and was no longer hiding her left breast. "Oh, for Christ's sake," she complained, trying in vain to pull the fabric down far enough to cover it.

Kyrano surprised her by walking forward and taking her into his arms. "Here," he said, "let me help with that."

She smiled, wrapping her arms around him and laying her head on his chest.

"Thank you," he whispered, kissing the top of her head.

"Well, boys, I think Kyrano's got things well in hand." There were a few snickers from around the room. "Tied up and unconscious or not, I want that bastard out of my hangar."

"My hangar," Virgil corrected.

"Hey, my 'bird lives there, too," Gordon countered.

"Well, you guys can have it. I need a drink."

"Oh, no, you don't," Alan growled from the panel. "Not until you're off-duty."

John screwed his face into a grimace, walked over to the panel and promptly turned it off.

"Oh, he's gonna kick your ass come rotation," Gordon laughed.

"Then I've got three weeks of no bruises to look forward to," John said, laying his arm across Gordon's shoulders. "Dad, I really need to talk to you about what happens when I'm on this planet."

"Yeah, it seems like whenever you're around, Johnny, all hell breaks loose."

"I'll show you all hell, Virgil!" John crowed and with that, they all exited the room.

"They're insane," Melody breathed, backing away long enough to wipe the tear tracks from her face.

"Well, they're your uncles," Kyrano teased, then his smile faded as her eyes filled with tears.

"I thought you were dead."

He smiled and shook his head, using one finger to wipe a tear that escaped her eye. "No, my body had shut down against the onslaught from Belah."

"Did you know what you were doing to him?"

"I wasn't in control near the end of it," he said sadly. "I didn't want to harm him but…I was so angry. If it hadn't been for Jeff…" His eyes widened as his fingers moved to where some ugly bruises were beginning to form. "I did this to you."

She nodded slowly.

He let go of her and backed away. "I'm sorry."

"I know you didn't do it on purpose. It was Belah controlling you."

"But my hands made those marks. I could have killed you!"

She moved forward and took hold of his hands. "If I had died, it would've been Belah who'd killed me. Not you."

"I don't know if I can forgive myself for the pain I've caused this family," he said, backing up until he'd hit the edge of the bed.

Not quite knowing what to say, she moved to him and took his head, laying it against her chest. They stayed that way for some minutes until at last his arms encircled her. She leaned down and kissed the top of his head. "Did he hurt you?"

"I don't think so. Not permanently, anyway."

They stood there in an awkward silence. Melody finally backed away and turned toward the door. "I suppose I need to get some decent clothes on."

She felt Kyrano's hand on her shoulder and shivered. "Not necessarily." He turned her slowly to face him. Then his hand lifted her chin until their eyes met. "You saved my life."

"Well, you saved all of ours."

He leaned in and placed his lips softly against hers. His hand moved around to the back of her neck as she took a step closer. Smiling into him, her hands moved to his chest, then slowly up to his shoulders and further to circle around his neck. They moved together until their bodies were touching from chest to legs.

"Do you still want to get your clothes?" he asked.

"No," she whispered. "I don't."

Epilogue

"If I never have to feed another Naval officer, it'll be too soon," Ruth complained as she plopped into a chair and put her feet up on the coffee table.

"Grandma," came a soft voice from next to her, "you never let us do that."

"You're not seventy-eight years old, Scott," Ruth said in mock sternness.

He chuckled and shifted himself slightly to a more comfortable position.

"How are you feeling?" she asked.

"All right, Grandma, all right." He looked up as four people entered the room. "Hey, Mel, you all ready to go?"

She looked across the room at him in surprise. "You make it sound like you're the one flying me off this island!"

"What if I am?"

"Over my dead body," Alan said.

"That can be arranged," Tin-Tin teased, elbowing him in the ribs.

"Ouch, better you than me," Scott moaned, touching the front of his own chest which was still way too tender for his liking.

"I think you need to get some rest," Virgil said, walking over and holding out his hand.

"Don't mind if I do," Ruth said, reaching out and grabbing it.

Virgil laughed out loud and Scott tried not to. "I think I'd better get to my room or you'll all have me re-breaking every rib that's started healing," he said.

Virgil grinned and pulled his grandmother to her feet, taking her offered hug, then slowly helped Scott up. "You know," he said to his older brother as he put Scott's arm around his shoulder and led him toward the hall, "you're going to owe me bigtime for all this hand-holding."

"You're not holding my hand."

Virgil reached down and grabbed it. "Now I am."

"I'm gonna kill you."

Grandma chuckled as she turned to face Alan, Melody and Tin-Tin. "Where are your fathers?" she asked.

"No clue," Tin-Tin shrugged. "I'm surprised, though. I was sure mine would be here to see Melody off." She winked and Melody felt herself blush.

"He's not seeing anyone off," Jeff said, entering from the balcony.

Melody's face fell.

"He's not?" Ruth repeated. "How come?"

"Because he's packing."

"Packing?" Alan repeated.

"Yes, what is this, a parrot convention?" Jeff asked, but his face was plastered with a grin. "And I'm the one who'll be flying them off the island."

"Them?"

Everyone laughed when Ruth repeated the words.

Melody just stared at Jeff. "I don't understand."

But Jeff only shared a knowing smile with Tin-Tin before ushering them out of the room, leaving Melody bewildered. She moved out to the balcony and let the tropical breeze wash over her face one more time. Oh, she knew she'd be back; she was one of their agents now, and one Jeff said had every special privilege afforded to the most trusted inner circle of International Rescue.

There was some training to be done, but Jeff had said that could wait. Her mind turned to how things had gone since the day the Hood had been put out of business right here on this island.

Ned Cook had effectively shut WNN down for good. Once the World Communications Commission had gotten wind of the fact that they were more than prepared to begin rebroadcasting the signals showing who International Rescue was, signals which Ned had rendered their receivers incapable of receiving with a nearby fire axe, they were incensed and closed the station completely. Ned was being hailed as the hero who saved the heroes and was in his element at last.

Penelope and those she'd been working with to figure out exactly where the Hood was had discovered a secondary embedded signal from two islands not far from Tracy Island. One had been that which Two had landed on when they were trying to determine how she was giving off a signal herself. The other was a smaller uninhabited island to its north. Both had been set up with strong transmitting and receiving satellites. Penelope, Parker and some well-placed bombs took care of that.

Scott's bedroom was being repaired. In the meantime he was holed up with Virgil, at Virgil's insistence of course, to ensure he had round-the-clock care. Whenever Virgil went out on a rescue, it was Grandma who took over. Nobody ever said much about it, but they were all pretty sure Scott couldn't have been happier with the arrangement.

Tin-Tin hadn't sustained any injuries and had been sceptical at first of Melody's intentions toward her father; until she realized it was more her father's intentions toward Melody that needed watching. She and Alan had been spending his second week home from Five getting reacquainted and John had been working with Brains for the past two weeks to get Thunderbird Five's sensors calibrated properly to detect the cloaking shield he'd invented as well as those damnable comm belts.

They wouldn't be making that mistake again.

The Hood had been turned over to the World Navy, whose ship The Sentinel, not very coincidentally, had been fed the wrong coordinates back when they'd received the call for help from Tracy Island. When at last they'd arrived, it was to find a plane sticking out of the villa and a very unconscious and not seemingly all-that-dangerous Hood waiting for them on the runway.

That had been one helluva long story, expertly weaved by Jeff Tracy and his sons, and convincingly enough that the Navy bought every word of it. Jeff still worried about how well the Navy would be able to hold the criminal, but had been assured a few days later that he'd been successfully transferred to federal prison; however, they wouldn't tell him where. Word spread quickly that none other than Jeff Tracy and his five sons had done the one thing no one else had been able to do. Kyrano and Melody both asked to be left out of it altogether.

Kyrano. Mel closed her eyes and smiled as he entered her thoughts. Once Brains had finished pronouncing each and every island resident healthy, with the exception of the still-recovering Scott, she'd gotten into some serious discussions with both Jeff and his best friend.

And she and Kyrano had grown much closer.

Eyes still closed, her smile widened as the strange static-like wave to which she'd become accustomed moved through her. "Hi," she said softly.

His hands rested on her shoulders and he leaned forward to nuzzle the nape of her neck. "Hi."

"I hear you're doing some traveling."

"I've heard so much about this little town in Maine called Cabot Cove, I thought maybe I'd see what all the fuss is about."

She turned in his arms and leaned up to kiss him. "You really want to come with me?"

"I have to," he said, reaching down to take her hand. "After all, I need this to protect me."

She grinned and he picked up his suitcase from the floor. "We're coming back here, you know."

"Oh, yes," he nodded as they headed for the hallway. "But not too soon, I hope."

She quirked an eyebrow at him. "Oh, really? But I thought you liked it here."

He stopped and twirled her around, pulling her back so hard that she landed against him with an audible thump. "I do, but think of it," he said, looking into her eyes. "A house with no one else around."

She wrinkled her nose.

"A house with just two people who don't have to unruffle their hair or smooth their wrinkled clothes before they step out of the bedroom."

She blushed and ducked her head so her long hair fell over her face. Her voice belied amusement as she spoke. "A house in the State of Maine which at this very moment is in the middle of an ice storm." Her face rose and she laughed at the look on his. "You should've thought of that before you said you'd come back with me."

He picked up his suitcase again and they continued on their way. "You know," he said as they disappeared down the hall, "maybe it will be a quick trip after all."

Her laughter rang through the air.