All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women are merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts
As You Like It, Act 2, Scene 7
Ao3 link here 1.Volatility (noun) ability to change rapidly and unpredictably, especially for the worse
Sunday 9 May 2066, 1900hrs New York Monday 10 May, 0000hrs Creighton-Ward Manor Monday 10 May, 1100hrs Tracy Island Monday 10 May, 1100hrs Cloudbase
Secure in his private office, Jeff sipped his morning coffee and listened attentively as his campaign manager, Tobias Ghent, went over the latest updates on his work towards Jeff’s presidential ambitions.
The little hologram of Tobias, a svelte man in his thirties, was perched on the corner of his own desk in Tracy Tower New York, tablet in hand as he began the briefing. “I've gotta say Mr Tracy, with the platform you've already got built with TI and iR, polling has been a cinch.” Tobias smiled broadly as he brought up a set of brightly coloured graphs. “You're averaging fifteen percent above all of your rivals across the board on all the standard polls. I'll forward you the raw data and stats of course, but I'm confident that with the plan we've got together we can bring that up to twenty, if not better.”
“Good, that's good work Tobias.” Jeff allowed himself a satisfied smile. Literal decades of work were paying off and the dividends were going to be huge. “So what's the plan?”
“We're looking to start the meet and greets in the US, that'll be your biggest and easiest voting base. We'll kick off in Houston, remind everyone that you're the first man on Mars, the pioneer of Shadow Alpha One, and the man who survived eight years alone in deep space. Then we’ll swing through the Heartlands, visit New York and finish in Washington. After that we'll go to your neighbours in Oceania.”
Here Tobias paused to frown. “This'll require a smooth gear shift. In the USA we'll play up the ‘good ol’ Kansas farm boy’ who built his company from the ground up and made it big. The American on the street will eat that up, but in Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific that's not going to work as well. Our research and test audiences have shown that while they’re largely positive towards you, there's still a lot of suspicion there about Americans in power in general, they hate ‘tall poppies’ and like the humble hero. The ‘big, bright, loud American’ is an instant turn off for the bulk of the voting population. We can bounce off the good work you've already done in the area and use that as a segue into all the other good you will do when you’re World President.”
Jeff nodded as he listened, being everything to everyone had been his modus operandi for so long he barely had to think about it.
“Now, I know you said your boys were off limits, but it'd be a big help if we can get one or two of them to walk around with you in the Pacific region, they're very big on family and family values there and your family man image will go down well.”
“No can do, Tobias.” Jeff was a little irritated with having to make this point yet again. “My boys are far too busy with International Rescue.”
“Understood, but that brings us to the next point,” Tobias took the instruction and neatly rolled with it. “We're already getting questions on socials and in the pre-list for the interviews: people need some concrete information about the future of International Rescue and who'll be helming Tracy Industries. The question over iR is a new one, no candidate has had a private rescue organisation before, but people are leery about enriching the world's richest man by giving him the ability to hand plum contracts to his own company.”
“I'll be turning iR over to Lee as the Commander and Wayne as the Field Commander,” Jeff had had this answer ready for weeks now, “as for TI, that's still being sorted out with the lawyers, but I’ll be divesting my shares and it'll be in the hands of the board with a new CEO at the helm, I’m working on recruitment now. We're already preparing to drop the World Government and military contracts when I take office to prevent any impressions of partiality.” He kept his other plans to himself. Dropping the contracts would sound impressive to the average voter, but in reality the process would take years, in fact more than enough time for his term to run, and Tobias didn't need to know he'd be keeping his fingers on the pulse at TI through his handpicked proxy, he needed his best people developing everything he needed for Elysium Base. As soon as he’d done what he needed to as WP and the ink was dry on his resignation, he’d be taking his company back and launching into the final preparations for Elysium. “I'll of course be donating the salary from being the World President, I don't exactly need it.” Jeff finished his little spiel with a conspiratorial smile. “We'll make a talking point out of that.”
“Naturally.” Tobias made a note.
Jeff was about to ask who was on the line up for interviews when an alert from the Island’s systems caught his eye. He almost dismissed it, then he saw the text summary. “Tobias, I'll have to call you back, something just came up.”
“Gotcha, I'll get our notes written up,” Tobias replied, well used to the demands of rescue work on his boss’ time.
Jeff dismissed the call with a flick of his hand and opened up the alert: the internet filters had caught something.
When he'd finished inventorying everything that'd been done in his absence, he'd found a series of increasingly complicated parental controls on the Island's internet. They were titled ‘No, Alan’ and ran the gamut of V1.1 all the way through to V36.9.2. He'd quietly reactivated the latest version, modified it to filter out the things that weren't necessary for the others to know, and programmed it to send an alert to his personal tablet or holoscreen whenever certain keywords were used.
When he finally got into the alert, what he saw made his blood run cold: a reporter had somehow found the Bastard and gotten her claws into him. ‘This… this could torpedo everything, years of work gone… no. Hell no. That Bastard isn’t ruining my life again!’
He immediately went for the concealed drawer in his desk, the one where he kept the notebooks with the intel passed on by his moles at various news stations, information that was far too dangerous to store anywhere that John could get at it. He flipped through the sections, found the one for Kat Cavernaugh’s station, skimmed through it, then snarled when he found nothing of value. ‘My mole said Cavanaugh was working on something big, that idiot should have warned me it was something like this!’ Jeff angrily threw everything back into concealment, pushed himself away from his desk and started pacing. ‘Okay, throttle down Tracy, work the problem. This is the only story that’s broken and my moles at the other media stations haven’t said anything like this is in the works, so this is an isolated problem. I need lawyers on this, as of yesterday. It's already out in public so I need Tobias and his team prepping a denouncement, I need to keep the others out of the way and in the dark, and I need my boys away from any other reporters and somewhere I can get my hands on them when I need them. Scott and Alan are the easy ones, Virgil will do what he’s told, so will John, but Gordon’s going to be the problem, as usual.’
A glance out the window, then at the wall of screens beside him with different feeds, including a live stream of the weather in the area, gave him an idea. He needed to take control of the narrative and he needed time and zero distractions to do it.
‘Okay. We're probably going to be hit by that weather system coming off Australia, so that plus catching up on deferred maintenance on the Thunderbirds will ground the fleet and keep ‘em all here and busy. I need to manage this in person, so I'm getting parts at the New York facilities. On the way I can call Charles to get Scott sent to me and I’ve already got a team prepped to find and bring in Alan. But where the hell is Gordon!? My people should have tracked him down by now! I’ll contact them along the way and get them to step up the hunt. Even if they can’t find him, if I can get two out of three, that’ll do for now and probably scare him into lying low. Should I take Lee? No, he needs to stay put and keep a lid on things here. Okay,’ he nodded to himself, pleased, ‘plan's made, go time.’
A quick email scribbled out to Tobias alerted his campaign manager to the threat, then three button clicks sent a long-prepared message to the men he'd organised to pick up Alan from Yale - that it was nighttime and Sunday there would make it easier for them to find him. He was about to summon Wayne and Lee to give out their orders when another thought stopped him. ‘Penelope has to be involved in this. Odds are if I go to her, I'll find Gordon or at least clues to where he is, and my men can secure TBS at the same time.’ He quickly sent an email to the team he'd readied for the moment when his former London agent crossed the line from ‘ignorable’ to ‘threat’, then reached out to make his summons.
T H U N D E R F A L L
"It looks like that atmospheric river is going to slam right into New Zealand. Projections show -
((JOHN!!))
- that it should head south and bypass the Island altogether, but better safe than sorry Wayne." John didn't react to EOS's shout in his mind, even if Wayne and Dosela knew about 'Dawn', he wasn't going to give anything away.
(Yes, EOS?)
In answer a window popped up in the hologram from Tracy Island showing the advert for The Kat Cavanaugh Show that was going to air on Monday, followed by emails that had been sent by UnNamed. John stilled for a moment and ran through the contingencies that had been set up, while Wayne went on about storm prep.
(Understood. Please start the Thunderfall protocol.) "That sounds good Wayne, just make sure that the storm shutters are in good shape. We don't want another thunderfall."
Wayne's eyes got very big for a moment at the mention of the code word, then he gave a brisk nod. "Copy that, Five. I'll get the others on that right away. Tracy Island out."
John was moving even before the image fully vanished. "Time to Cloudbase?" He launched out of the comm hub and hit the gravity ring running. Around him he felt more than heard the rumble as Thunderbird Five’s thrusters fired and she started to move.
From our 'known' position, four hours. From our actual, one hour. EOS's voice was the epitome of calm as her camera glided alongside him. They are still holding station over New Caledonia.
Reaching his bedroom, John shoved the last few things into his space-proof go bag; he'd kept one ready ever since he'd come back 'upstairs'. "Excellent. Are you going to take Five over the South Pole?" Hiding Five Actual was important for a lot of reasons; not the least of which was to keep Jeff from destroying it out of spite. He and EOS had been fudging Five’s actual location for weeks now, keeping her as close to Cloudbase’s location as they could get in preparation for this day.
No. Once you are safely away, I'll take Five to the Southern Magnetic Anomaly. Between the optical camouflage and the Hall Effect of cahelium, finding Five Actual will be nearly impossible.
John froze, then turned to face her camera. "EOS, if you do that, I can't bridge you to my location."
We've discussed this, John. This is the best plan, you know this.
John took a slow deep breath and the now-repaired link flared to life with the rush of warmth that had become their version of a hug.
I’ll be fine.
(You've never jumped from the Anomaly.) The switch to internal communication was habit. This was too big of a concept for mere words. Using the link, he could show her all his fears and concerns, everything raw, unfiltered and unlimited by abstract concepts like words that sometimes could communicate so much, but also so little.
((I will be fine. We designed this. We built this. It's been tested and I trust us.))
John took on her words, her faith in him and what they could do together lending him courage. (F.A.B.) He nodded sharply, then headed to the space elevator to make his final preparations for the jump.
T H U N D E R F A L L
Standing in Jeff’s office at parade rest, Wayne chewed on the inside of his lip while Jeff laid out how they were finally getting to the deferred maintenance on the 'Birds and going off-line since it looked like the weather front was going to pass right over them. ‘Perfect timing and the world can do without iR for a couple of days’, Jeff had drawled - a statement that only years of military service kept Wayne from reacting to. As far as he could tell, Jeff could no more let the world survive without him and iR anymore than the sun could stop fusing hydrogen. Not knowing where Jeff was going or what he was actually doing wasn't good. Especially with John calling for Thunderfall, which he still hadn't been able to tell the others about!
“It'll be good to catch up on maintenance,” Lee commented from his position at Jeff’s shoulder, once again the yes-man marching in lock step to the tune Jeff piped. “One's bein’ a fussy girl again and Three's thrusters are sluggish.”
‘That's because you fly a Thunderbird like you're flying a brick.’ Wayne kept a very straight face and said nothing. Lee piloted with a proverbial lead foot, to the point they were deep in the double digits tallying the number of times he’d brought back a Thunderbird with engine trouble because of it.
"Make sure that everything is locked down as tight as you can, Rigby." Jeff pushed off his desk and started toward the hangers, motioning for Wayne to follow and leaving Lee behind. “I don’t want that weather getting in. Lee, you go tell Casey what the plan is.”
“You got it, Jeff.”
Wayne switched to chewing on the other side of his mouth and fell in behind Jeff, two steps back and one to the right, and followed him into the elevator. "Yes, sir."
"I want you to keep an eye on Virgil for me." Jeff sent the elevator down. "He's not been getting enough rest and looks it."
"Yes, sir." ‘Of course he's not getting enough rest! You're running him ragged, you jackwagon.’ But he kept that thought strictly to himself. "Anything else you want us to cover, sir?"
"Not right now. But if any of my other sons contact the base, let me know right away. Especially Gordon."
“Yessir,” Wayne replied as they entered the civilian hangar, his mind racing. If they could get Jeff off the Island, he could start warning the rest as soon as the jet hit the runway and they'd be ready to bail as soon as their evac arrived. Lee was good, but he was just one guy. If he caused any issues, they could deal with him.
A buzz from Jeff's watch interrupted his planning.
“Jeff,” Lee's voice issued from the device. “I just had a thought, why don't ya take Brian with you? He's fussy about how they do the CNC and machining of the parts, if you take him there he can supervise an’ we'll be done quicker.”
For a split second Wayne was certain that Jeff would refuse, he was extremely reluctant for Brains to leave the Island, then his heart sank as Jeff nodded. “That's not a bad idea, Lee.” He turned to go back towards the elevator and down to Brains’ lab in the heart of the Island. “Come along, Wayne.”
Falling into step behind Jeff, Wayne discreetly contacted John on his own watch and tapped a message in Morse: EVAC. While they’d all preferred to do this on the quiet, without the mass alert, he knew with absolute certainty that if Brains left the Island with Jeff and they escaped without him, they'd never see the engineer again. ‘Time for Plan B for Bug-out.’ He knew of three escape routes he, Brains and MAX could use from this level, and there was another one two levels up. ‘I just hope I got the warning out in time for Brains and MAX to get moving...’
Jeff led the way as he detoured to Brains’ lab, marshaling the orders he needed to make and how to phrase them to keep Brains from bringing MAX along. The stupid robot wouldn't fit in Tracy One and Jeff was very leery of robots ever since the mess at the Viseu plant. Even the one that Brains had built and programmed, he just didn't trust them.
He paused outside of the lab, this was the one place that he didn't just barge into. Delicate experiments, things flying around (or crawling, walking, slithering) or that damn robot all posed a danger to life and limb. He rapped on the door twice before pulling it open and entering. "Brains! I want you to come with me…"
He halted just inside the doorway, the lab was empty! No Brains leaping up to greet him, no MAX rolling about, no nothing. It was completely still and quiet. "What the Hell? Rigby!" Jeff twisted around, "Do you kno - " The one time GDF Captain and now Pilot of Thunderbird One was gone. "What the HELL?!?" He darted out into the hall, looking up and down it and seeing no one.
‘They know, somehow those treacherous bastards KNOW!’ "LEE!" Jeff roared into his comm, "Lock the Island down! Lock EVERYTHING down!!"
T H U N D E R F A L L
Still in Jeff’s office, Lee lunged for the security panel by the desk and started the lock down procedure. "Jeff? Lock down started. What's going on?"
"That Bastard, that's what! Get ahold of Virgil. Dosela too if you see her! It's all hands on deck!"
Lee didn't question how Steven could be involved with this, he just raced for the residential level. If Vinny wasn’t working on his 'Bird, he’d usually be sleeping in his rooms. Which was damn lazy if you asked Lee, but no one had, so he kept that to himself. He pounded through the open door. "Hey Vincent! Yer' dad…" It clicked in Lee's head that he'd gone through the open door. Vern never left his door open. He triggered his comm again. “Jeff, he’s gone!” A few running steps and he was throwing Suzie’s door open, the emptiness telling him louder than words could that she’d already rabbited too. “So’s Sara!”
“FIND THEM!” Jeff roared down the link, his rarely shown fury exploding in a way that Lee had never seen before. “I DON’T CARE WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO, JUST FUCKING FIND THEM!”
There was only one thing that Lee would ever say to that. “Yessir.”
