To The Moon And Back

Chapter Fifteen

The Hood was one slippery customer, Scott grudgingly admitted to himself as he jogged down yet another hallway in the seemingly endless maze of corridors, labs, staff rooms, and equipment hangars that made up the moonbase. He'd searched every inch of the place yet somehow their elusive enemy had managed to avoid him at every turn.

He'd gone immediately to Thunderbird Three and checked her over for any signs of tampering, but had found none. The airlock log of the moonbase had confirmed that someone had opened and entered at a time that correlated with the attempt to gain access to Thunderbird through the evacuation tube, but thankfully the mighty rocket ship had proved itself to be superior once again. He could see slight scuffing along the edges of her airlock doors where someone had tried to force them but they had held firm and Brain's little addition had kept them locked tight while alerting Alan.

It appeared that the Hood and his friend, if they were still together, had backtracked and returned to the moonbase proper and were now somewhere inside it. He had to find them, there was no other choice. He was a Tracy and it was not in their nature to give up or back down from a fight and, if he was honest with himself, he was itching to take him on again one on one.

His hands curled into fists as he let himself imagine just how satisfying it would be to clock him square on the jaw, to wipe that smug smile off his ugly face. The Hood had been nothing but a blight to their operation from day one, seeming to have formed some kind of grudge that they would never understand. But, he reasoned, people like him didn't need a reason for their actions, they were simply evil to the core and nothing could change that. There would be no attempt to reason with him this time, if Scott saw him he would shoot first and ask questions later.

"If only there was a way to track them within the compound," Scott muttered. "But the place is too big and has none of our technology. I guess I'll just have to keep doing it the old-fashioned way."

"Scott!"

Scott grabbed at his radio. "What is it, Alan?"

"I was monitoring the situation for news of John, but overheard an alert. Someone has just breached security at the shuttle terminal."

"That's got to be him!" Scott declared, diverting down the nearest corridor. "I'm on my way."

"Be careful," Alan warned but Scott had already cut the call.

"Hey! Hey, you there!" he called to a lab tech who had appeared up ahead. "Which way to the shuttles?"

The woman jerked to a halt and looked up from her papers to face him, peering at him through her red-rimmed glasses. "Shuttles? I don't think the shuttles are in operation. It's all hands on deck because of the collapse or something."

"Yeah, I'm aware of that, but I still need to find the shuttles, it's an emergency," Scott insisted.

The woman, who had already turned away, dismissing him as unimportant, turned back and looked at him again. Noticing his uniform for the first time she noted," You don't work here."

"No," Scott agreed. "I'm with International Rescue and it's imperative that I get to those shuttles immediately."

The woman shrugged and pointed to the left. "Take that corridor and keep heading straight until you get to an elevator. Take the elevator to the top floor. Once there, turn right out of the elevator, go down corridor G and then follow the signs."

"Thank you," Scott shouted over his shoulder, already running for the elevator.

"You're wel- oh, he's gone." The woman shrugged again and returned her focus to her papers. "Maybe now I can get back to my work without people calling me every two minutes."