#dd06

Shew as bound around a steel pole father back in the cargo hold, but if they kept fishing she could easily find herself buried under the stink. Already it was threatening to make her ill. If it got any closer she was sure she’d be as sick as Virgil in space.

She pulled on her restraints a bit to get a feel as to just how she was being restrained. They didn’t make any sound against the pole and were just a bit stretchy so they were probably plastic ties of some sort. She could see the ties on her ankles and assumed they were the same. This was some good news to Kayo. While strong, plastic ties could be broken, it just may take some time.  

It was only two days ago that Kayo had relaxed by the pool and enjoyed a little bit of down time. Gordon was swimming laps like crazy while Alan sat on the end keeping track of his time. Virgil was busy with some maintenance to Thunderbird 2 and Scott was inside talking to John in Thunderbird 5. She had just adjusted the umbrella next to her when her wrist communicator started to beep.

She gave a slight sigh and picked the communicator up off of the table next to her. "This is Kayo, Lady Penelope, what’s the pleasure?"

"Well, you look like you’re enjoying yourself. No rescues at the moment?"

"Not since this morning, actually.  Were you trying to get a hold of Scott? Him and John have been talking for the past hour I think."

It was obvious that Penelope was once again riding in FAB 1 probably along some random road in the English countryside. "Actually, I wanted to talk to you. I’m in India visiting some family friends and have heard some very interesting rumors."

Kayo couldn’t help but raise her eyebrows. "Rumors? What kind of rumors?"

"Well, there seems to be some issues with fishing south west of the Maldives."

"Fishing? Isn’t that something Gordon would be interested in?"

"I’ll leave that up to you, but it’s the lack of fish that is the problem."

That made Kayo’s eyebrows stretch even farther up. "Lack? The World Environmental Society put major restrictions on overfishing haven’t they? I thought things were getting better."

"They have, and they were. However, the rumors are saying it’s not due to overfishing, but because Varuna, the god of water, has been angered."

"Varuna?

"Yes, but I think the reason is more human in nature and quite possibly due to someone I’m sure you’d like to find."

"Hmm… the Hood has been rather quiet as of late, but what kind of scheme could he have that involves scaring away fish?"

"Or maybe that is only a side effect." Lady Penelope smiled.

"Alright, send me the coordinates. I think I would like to check this out." She jumped from her lounge chair and hurried to her room to change. She left right after telling Scott she had a lead she wanted to check out.

He of course made her promise to check in a few times so that they knew she would be okay—he could be such a mother hen at times.  

She agreed and took off heading towards the Indian Ocean.

It took her a couple of hours to reach the coordinates that Lady Penelope had given her, but off the bat she couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary. There were a few ships down there, mostly shipping vessels, but a few fishing trawlers as well. She flew close to them and was able to at least confirm what Penelope was saying—they floated high in the water meaning their hauls were empty and their nets hung empty by their sides.

Kayo started to do scans of the area looking for any oddities that she could find. She flew over multiple times but came up with absolutely nothing. She started to wonder if maybe what was going on here was more complicated and not due to any one person. However, she knew that scanning for just one day was not enough evidence to prove either theory. So she found a small uninhabited island to land on for the night.  

It was nice sometimes to camp out by herself. No technology—except what was on Thunderbird S of course—but just to sit by the fire on the beach and watch the stars above.

Maybe she could convince the boys to join her one night, on the beach away from the house and her lights and games. Kayo laughed at the image that popped into her head. Then again, it may not be that peaceful with all of them there.

The next morning Kayo took off once again in Thunderbird S, stopped in the Maldives to top off her fuel tank and then conducted her search just as she had done the previous day. She spent five hours flying around the area, but couldn’t seem to find anything amiss. Finally just as she was about to give up she noticed something strange—a submarine floating next to a fishing trawler. She flew over the pair and tried to get a good view thinking a pair like that could only be up to no good when Thunderbird S stopped responding.

She pulled up on the stick hoping to glide the plane down, but a quick visual scan of the area showed no good place to do so.

She spotted a small island with a ridge of rock down the middle. Thunderbird S was just about as long as this little island was wide—it didn’t even have a big enough beach to land on. But it was either that or the ocean.

Bringing Thunderbird S in low she tried to come in on the backside of the island, but did not have enough room or control to bring her down easily. The plan smashed into the rocky ground and skidded to the edge of the rock—the cockpit had just cleared the small cliff.

Kayo didn’t move for the longest time—her hands clenched to the controls, her knuckles white. Finally as her body demanded that she needed air again she let out the breath she had been holding and in a shaky one to replace it.

This wasn’t the first time she’d crashed her plane, and probably wouldn’t be the last, but that didn’t make it any less nerve wrecking.

In and out she breathed as she looked below her at a good fifty foot drop. She gently opened the cockpit and climbed onto the back of her bird and looked her over. She was in horrible shape.

She had felt the back end of the plane crash down just as the front had mounted the ridge and could now see that it had been hard enough to break the tale almost clean off. Not to mention one wing had caught on the trees and and been pulled loose as well. She knew then she was not going to be able to get back to Tracy Island on her own.

"Thunderbird Shadow to Tracy Island, come in." She looked out at the ocean around her as she waited for an answer. "John? Are you there?" She looked down when there was still no answer to find a large crack through the face of it—she wasn’t going to be able to contact anyone with it in that condition.

She sighed and carefully climbed back into the cockpit—the plane wavered as she did adjusting to the change in weight, and coming close to pitching forward. Thankfully it did not.

Kayo started flipping switches to boot up her bird and get the radio on.  "Thunderbird Shadow to Tracy Island, can you hear me?" There was nothing but static.

Cursing under her breath she climbed back out and made her way down the body of the plane to where the communications module was hidden. The side was badly torn and she had to find a rock to help her pry the panel off. Once open she could see the damage done to the unit. Normally she would have trashed it and just replaced it with a non-damaged one, but there weren’t any supply stores anywhere near this small island.

She made her way west of her position to the highest point on the island. It was only a couple of hundred feet above sea level and it was almost like walking on top of Thunderbird 2. She could see for miles around her and there was nothing there.

The island she was on was the largest in a very small chain that continued to the north. Other than that, there was just water. And sun. She was reminded of the bright disk in the sky as the sweat started to roll down the side of her face. It was too hot to be doing anything at the moment so she climbed back down and found shelter under an outcropping of rock.

It was much cooler in the shade and Kayo took stock of her situation. She had no way of getting contact with either Tracy Island or Thunderbird 5. In addition to that—with her wrist controller broken—even her tracking beacon may not be visible to either as well. To add to her back luck, she hadn’t told Scott any specifics about where she was going—nor had she checked in with them at all since she had left.

She looked back up at her bird and sighed. Brains had given her a motorbike that could be detached from the plane for quick landing and pursuit. Maybe she should recommend that he see if he could transform the bike into a boat when needed. That wouldn’t help her at the moment though so she kept thinking.

With just the quick look she had at the communications module, it looked hopeless, but maybe another look was needed. If she could get even a weak signal out, at least they would know that she needed their help.

With little to no shade on the island—thanks to her bird knocking down what few trees where were—she would not be able to work during the day in the sun. She could survive the night—she had a few rations and some water at least.

Best thing to do for now was to just hang tight and wait for night. She’d be able to rest for a bit and then get up and work on the radio. With luck, she’d be back on Tracy Island by noon tomorrow.

Kayo didn’t sleep much that night. She just sat on the cliff and watched the reflection of the moon on the water. As it started to get light she made her way back to her bid and pulled the unit from her bird and took it back to the outcropping she had slept under to look at it.

She had a basic tool kit stashed onboard, but it didn’t include any spare parts and she needed some. One of the circuit boards was completely busted and without a replacement she wasn’t sure what to do. She sat staring at the components with disgust when a thought hit her. It was possible she could use some of the components from her wrist controller. The circuit board in her wrist controller should be similar to the one that was in the comm unit—though not as strong.

She pulled the small computer off her arm and used a screwdriver to pry it open. The main circuit board that controlled the unit had been bent and a few of the connections broken, but it looked as if the communications section was still intact. She laid out her tools and started to work.

It took her several hours and many failed attempts but she thought she might just have figured out how to do it. She had been able to use parts from her wrist controller, however in doing so her tracking unit—which had in the end still been active—was dead. It was not quite noon when she climbed back up to Thunderbird S and reinstalled the faulty unit before climbing back into the cockpit.

She flipped a few switches, took a deep breath, and hoped for some luck. There was no static and she let out her breath. "Tracy Island, come in. This is Thunderbird Shadow. Tracy Island, can you hear me?"

"Kayo." The voice on the other end was faint and crackly, but it was clearly Scott. "There’s static—receiving—signal."

"Scott, I’ve found something peculiar going on, but I need your help."

"Repeat—breaking—"

"Thunderbird Shadow has crashed. I need your help to get back."

"Kayo—you?"

"Send Thunderbird One and Two. I crashed, but there’s something—" Before she could finish the lights on the control panel went dead along with the radio. "Damn!"

She punched the panel in front of her and then shook her hand. She hadn’t damaged anything more than it already was, but she was frustrated. It took her a moment for her to calm down. "They know I need help—or at least something is up. If they call Lady P she can tell them where I am." She sighed and looked out at the ocean. "It might take another day, but I can get through it."

Kayo sat under her little outcropping of rock but was getting bored fast. She figured that it would take them a few hours to get to the Indian Ocean, and who knew how long till they would find her.  

She looked out into the ocean and then made a decision. She climbed back into Thunderbird S and pulled out a small air tank and regulator. It was similar to the one that Gordon used, though this one wouldn’t let her do any deep sea diving like he did. It would however allow her to maybe do some fishing—some fresh food would be a nice change and allow her to see if there was anything strange about the water in the area.

She pulled on the equipment and walked out to the water, diving in once it was over her waist. She swam along the surface for a bit and then pulled on her mask and stuffed the regulator into her mouth. The air was stale and cold but doable—she didn’t plan to be under for that long anyways.

She dove down into the warm water and made her way several hundred feet down, the water slowly cooling down as she went.

The ocean was quiet. Eerily so. There were no fish swimming around and she was getting far enough down that the light was having trouble filtering through. She made sure not to swim too far away—she didn’t want to get lost and not be able to get back to the island.

However the mysterious lack of fish kept her going on. She had dived enough times with Gordon to know that there should have been more fish the deeper she got, but there was just a lot of nothing.

After a few minutes she decided to head toward what looked like a cave farther down just after the floor made by the base of the island dropped off into deeper waters. She hoped to find an answer for the lack of fish, and not the home of some large breed of sea life that might like her for a little snack.

As she made her way toward the cave, she did not noticed the shadow that loomed over her. She was just about cross over the edge of the sea floor and head down when something grabbed her from behind and scooped her up into its arms. She turned and struggled but the more she tried to free herself the more tangled in her captors arms she became.

She was being lifted toward the surface and when she broke the water she found herself hanging next to a boat.  She forced herself to calm down a little and realized she had been caught up in a fishing net.

She sighed a bit with relief—surely they’d allow her to use their radio to call Scott. She looked up to the edge of the ship and smiled.  The men who looked down at her did not. Her smile faded as she looked closer at the ship—it was the one she had seen with the submarine. Instead of help, she was sure she had just landed herself in an even more dangerous situation.

They pulled the net over and deposited her roughly onto the deck of the ship. Two men were already beside her when she regained her bearings and each took an arm and jerked her to her feet.

"What are you doing here?" Another man, tall and bald, was standing in front of her. The brutes next to her seemed to follow him, but she had an inkling that he wasn’t exactly their leader.

"My plane crashed. I was just diving for some food." She shrugged as best as she could with her arms being restrained as they were. "Maybe you could help a poor girl out and call for some help."

The man spat at her. "And my name is Pearl."

"I new a man named Pearl—though everyone called him Shorty." Kayo grinned a little—at least she wouldn’t be board, and hopefully Scott had gotten enough of her message that he’d be here soon and could help smooth things over a bit.

The man reached out and took Kayo’s face in his hand and squeezed it. "You were piloting that black plane that was watching us." He leaned in so that when he spoke spittle splattered a bit on Kayo’s face.

"And are you the reason I inexplicably crashed?" Kayo’s smile faded into a frown. If they were, then there was a lot more going on then the poaching she had assumed they were doing.

"Wouldn’t you like to know."

"Hey, your safe, no worries. I didn’t take any pictures or anything. So, if you let me go, I’ll forget I ever saw you and all is good." This was a lie of course. Thunderbird S had several pictures stored in it’s computer. But she didn’t think these buffoons would be able to access it even if they tried.

"And you think I’m going to believe you?" The man had backed a way a little, laughing.

Kayo had opened her mouth with another snide comment but the only thing that came out if it was air as he punched her in the stomach.

"Find that plane of hers. Maybe we can salvage some of its parts."

"No—" She tried to yell but it only came out as a whisper when something else hit her from the back and blackness consumed her.

She pulled again on the plastic restraints that bound her wrists and ankles together. They were stretching but not quite wanting to break. She pulled again and was able to pull on hand out.

She brought her hands around to her front wincing at the ache in her shoulders. She had broken the skin on one wrist and it was seeping blood, but not too badly. They were sore though—she had had to pull on them quite hard. With her hands free she was able pull out the hidden knife she kept in her boot and cut off the ties around her ankles.

It took a few moments for the numbness in her hands and feet to fade away enough that she could move. She kept to the shadows and edged around to the other side of the cargo hold. She had noticed that the hold didn’t encompass the entire bottom of the ship. There was a door opposite from her with a rather large lock on it.

She made it to the door and bent to inspect the lock. Lucky for her its size did not match its complexity. Instead it was just an old simple padlock. She pulled out a hairpin from her ponytail and attempted to pick it—this was something Lady Penelope had taught her some years back, and Kayo once again thanked her for the lessons.

With a click that seemed louder than it should have she slipped the lock off the door and opened it.

It was dark on the other side of the door but she could at least make out the large machine that occupied it. It was littered with small lights all over it, but none of these lights were bright enough to help her see the shape or exact size of it.

She reached out and touched the cold metal. It was smooth but wet—no rust or residue from having been in the hold for a long time. However, the metal she was touching was surely a protective layer against the dampness on her fingertips.

She used the side of the machine and walked along it in search of a control panel. After what seemed like the length of the ship she had found nothing she turned toward the faint outline of the door to try another path.

That was when the green light filled the room.

She followed the light to a black screen with a single flashing green curser that was covered by a thick plastic. There was a keyboard below it, also covered, but it looked like it could be accessed fairly easily.

She had just started working on getting access to the keyboard when the curser started to move.

'Electronic Magnetic Field. Enter Frequency:'

"An EMF. So that’s how they made me crash. Looks like they’re going to get someone else as well." Kayo couldn’t help but smile. She finished opening the access to the keyboard and stretched her fingers.

Every entry that was plugged in remotely she attempted to change it. She wasn’t the computer genius that John or Brains were—or even that Alan was becoming—but she could do some damage when needed.

She was so invested in what she was doing that she had not noticed the door open on the other end of the space. She had not noticed until the last second that someone else was there with her.

He had grabbed her pony tail and pulled her back toward the wall, but she had used the momentum to throw a kick to his head.

He grunted, but didn’t let go. He lifted her by her hair and once again swung her into the wall. She blacked out for a second, but struggled to clear her head as she was thrown to the ground.

Kayo could hear talking. She kept her eyes closed and tried her best not to move even though her wrists were burning and her head pounding. They had bound them behind her back again—tighter than before. Slowly the words she was hearing came into sharper focus.

"Have you figured out yet what it is you’re hacking?" The voice was deep, possibly the bald man from before.

"Not precisely, no. It’s the code. I keep coming up against code I’ve never seen before. It’s unique and difficult to decipher. Probably someone’s personal language."

"So, something high tech and secretive." The deep voice almost purred. "We get a hold of that and we’ll be rich."

"I-I’ve bene able to change gravity settings as well as play with the thrusters. So it must be come kind of space craft—maybe a low orbital station."

"Not a satellite?"

"A satellite would have no deed for airlocks, or gravity."

"Are there people on board?"

"Probably not anymore. I hoped the airlocks some time ago." The weaker voice cackled.

"Good. People are annoying to deal with. Any idea where it is?"

"I’m still working on that. It’s got security on top of security on top of security. I’m still locked out of the main computer—the airlocks were the closest I could get to any of the essential systems."

"Keep it up."

Kayo could hear a soft thumping and assumed one was patting the other on the back. She could hear steps as he made his way across the cabin.

"Now, are you satisfied with the progress we have made?"

"Not entirely, no." The voice was much different than the others she had heard on the ship. This voice enunciated each word precisely as if he was used to talking or giving speeches. "I paid good money for that access code and frequency from a man within Tracy Industries. I don’t know what it controls but my contact assured me it was something top secret. If I can get control of that then there is nothing to stop Tracy Industries from going belly up now that Jeff Tracy is gone."

Kayo couldn’t help but jerk a little at the comment. A traitor within the company had sold something to this man, but even Kayo was unsure of what it controlled—she wasn’t aware of Tracy Industries having any projects in space at the moment.

"As long as you give us the money you promised I don’t care what the results are." The deep voice growled.

"Then make sure next time I come you have more to show for yourselves."

"This is just part of our operation. Let me show you the EMF device. Once we figure out where this space station is we can just point this right at it and it will come crashing down in a ball of flames."

"Just so long as it’s a ball of flames that can be recovered. Lead the way."

Kayo listened carefully as the door shut and two sets of footsteps faded away. Slowly she cracked open an eye and looked around.

There was no one else in the room except her and the man at the bank of computers at one side.

She pulled on her restraints a bit, testing them, but they were still quite tight. She glanced around again—allowing her head to move a bit—and found that they were on the bridge of the ship. She had been sat down in a chair but as far as she could tell she was not bound to it.

She took another look around, she would not have much time but she had to get out of there.

Quickly she stood up—they hadn’t bound her feet to this time thankfully—and holding the chair behind her she swung it around and hit the man at the computer with the legs of it.

His arms dropped to his side suddenly and he slid off the chair into a pile on the floor.

Kayo let the chair drop from her hands and searched the area for something to cut her restraints with. She found a small unassuming knife laying on one of the surfaces and was able to grab it and start sawing away at the plastic tie.

As she struggled to free her hands she looked over the maps laid across the navigation table to try and figure out just where they were.

The ship had gone quite a ways north—back to where there was an abundance of fish. She assumed they were going to fill the cargo hold so that no one would suspect the EMF generator to be down there.

It took much longer than she would have wanted but the plastic around her wrists finally popped free. She rubbed at her wrists—both fo them now bleeding from the plastic ties—and made her way over to the computer.

The man was right, this was some awfully complicated code. She scanned down through it and with every line something seemed awfully familiar about it. It took her a minute but finally it clicked.

Tracy Industries did not have any current projects in space, but International Rescue did and that project had been subsidized by the Tracy family company.

She stared at the code in shock. This was John’s code. They had been hacking Thunderbird 5.

Her mind was racing. Was John okay? Were the Tracy’s aware that this was happening?

More than ever she needed to get away and get back in contact with the boys.

But first, she looked around for some sort of drive or disk she could copy some information onto but there was nothing. Deciding on a different approach she opened an access panel and pulled out the hard drive itself. She wasn’t sure how she would get it out undamaged, but maybe the information would still be intact even if it was waterlogged.

She looked out a few of the windows and saw a small speed boat tied up along side the ship—figured it must be the snobby man’s boat.

She took another quick look at the map and the compass so she could see which way she needed to go. She opened the door and snuck out on the balcony.

There really weren’t that many workers on the boat and she was able to climb down the back of the bridge and over the side of the ship. She shimmied her way to the speed boat and climbed down a rope ladder hanging near it.

She had just landed in the boat when she noticed the big bald man walk up to the edge. Quickly she ducked down under some equipment just as he looked down.

"Do you have enough gas to make it back?"

"Do you think I would come all this way without making sure I could make it back?" The visitor was wearing shorts and a short sleeved shirt—as if he was about to walk into town to buy some souvenirs.

"Just make sure the money is in my account by the end of the day tomorrow or you won’t be seeing any more progress."

"Don’t you worry, it will be there. And I do expect more when I come back next week." The tourist—that was probably the best way of describing him—made his way down and walked right to the drivers chair, sat down and started the boat. Someone above threw down the rope that had tethered it to the ship and the speed boat pulled away quickly gaining speed and distance.