Thunderbird Five Is Go {John Tracy}

11 - Fall

11

Casting one anxious glance at the spreading fire in the room, Crystal swung down to the next floor. And the next. And the next.

There were now seventy or so frightened women clumsily clambering down the wall like a line of ants. It would have been comical if it weren't for the severity of the situation.

"Crystal, get out of there now. The building's not gonna last three minutes and your oxygen supply is nearly depleted," it was John. "I know this is real bad but we have to get out."

Crystal's face drained of color as she looked down at her oxygen meter, realizing that her supply was indeed almost entirely gone. She had two minutes.

She closed her eyes for a second, hearing the terrified screams of women. "Crystal, get out. Sometimes you just have to understand that the situation is hopeless."

Quickly, she made her choice, drawing a deep breath. "I can still get a few more people out first."

Crystal turned off her comm, ignoring John's remonstrances, and landed onto the next floor.

A helmeted figure turned around to be face to face with her. "John?" she croaked, half panicking as she had only a few seconds of oxygen left to sustain her.

John raised a finger to his lips. Right, speaking wasted oxygen.

She yanked off her helmet, tugging shakily at the straps.

"Let's get out of here," John muttered, pulling off his helmet and setting it firmly on her.

"John!" Crystal exclaimed in surprise. The brief moment Crystal had switched helmets filled her lungs with thick smoke. She couldn't imagine what John must be breathing now. She was suddenly very dizzy.

Crystal stumbled to the window, John catching her before she could fall, his face concealed by one arm he was using to shield himself from inhaling the smoke.

She mechanically swung out the window just as the building began collapsing. Crystal screamed as she lost her hold on the ledge. Two arms gripped her tightly.

John had grabbed with both arms, face screwed up in concentration, trying not to take in smoke. Her legs flailed in the wind and pieces of stucco rained down as everything fell apart.

Everything was suddenly very clear now. If he kept holding on, both of them would die.

He was coughing painfully now, but he wouldn't let go. Stupid John.

Crystal almost groaned in frustration. She wrested one arm free so now John was just holding on by one arm. "What are you doing?" he spat.

"Hold on, I'm coming for you," Scott's shaky voice sounded through John's comm. Thunderbird One was hovering near, and Scott was frantically trying to get a zipline to reach them, but Crystal's mind was working on hyperalert now, and she knew he would never get to them in time.

"Saving you," Crystal whispered, pulling her other arm free of John's grasp with a painful wrench.

"No!" John gasped weakly for breath.

She was falling.

It reminded her of a ride she had loved as a kid, where she was dropped from a crane-type thing on a bungee. She'd relished the sensation of the wind through her hair, the adrenaline rush as she plummeted down, down, down. Everything silenced around her as she fell.

She made a feeble attempt to grasp something to hold on, barely scratching a railing with her fingers. But what did it matter? Death was only a matter of time now. Right?

Then it was all red-hot, red-hot, blinding pain in a burst of light. This can't be the end, she thought, before all lapsed into darkness.

***

Crystal's eyes flew open. "John?" she gasped.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" a face leered maliciously at her.

"Who are you?" Crystal tried to move but she was restrained on some sort of bed, and a burst of pain shot through her.

The face disappeared, and all Crystal could hear was a rat-tat of the man's shoes as he paced around her. This was not right. She screwed her eyes shut, panic surging through her as everything came flooding back: the mission, the fall...

"They call me the Hood," the man spun around on his heels neatly, pausing his prowl around the bed.

"Enlighten me as to why I'm in this hole," Crystal gritted her teeth.

"One, this is not a hole," the man who called himself the Hood unbuckled the strap across her chest and yanked her up with a fistful of uniform, "And two, I saved your life after your precious Thunderbirds abandoned you at the burning factory." He let go abruptly, flinging Crystal back onto the hard bed. She cried out in pain. He chuckled.

"They wouldn't abandon me," Crystal tried to harden her face. There was no way, was there? And she had intended for them to leave without her. Of course, she hadn't expected to survive then.

"Where are they now then?" the Hood sneered.

"Why are you keeping me here?" She was growing increasingly afraid by the minute; injured, bound, and captured, what was she to do? And who was this Hood person?

"Have the Tracys kept it all a secret from you?" the Hood leaned over her, his face all innocent surprise. Crystal took a deep breath, telling herself his marveling face was fake, that he was just trying to create mistrust on purpose. She had a really bad feeling about this.

"Well," the Hood cranked a knob on the side of the bed until the bed rose up so that they were face to face, "it's a pleasure to meet you in person at last, Crystal Ava Summers."

Crystal spat, "I couldn't say the same to you."

The Hood raised one bushy eyebrow, "I brought you here to make a deal."