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				EXPOSURE by Fran Lavery Chapter Seven       The Hood breathed an inward sigh of relief as the conversation continued without including him. Settling in the chair beside the water-cooler and the ridiculous indoor plant, he looked in his face everything a 'nervous, job-seeking German' should. He laughed inside at his performance in the outer office, fooling the Tracys into believing that he was a blundering friend of this simpleton before him. That and getting into the office with them had been the trickiest part of the plan, the easiest being his dealings with Miss Fletcher.       After finding her appointment on the Tracy Corps mainframe, he had booked in a visit for himself before the representatives arrived. He had hypnotised her easily, she was so naïve, and given her subconscious instructions. First he told her that he was invisible, that she couldn't see him, hear him, or even properly remember his visit. Then he had instructed her to buzz her secretary, and told her to tell her to let Mr Dunhoff enter with her eleven o'clock appointment. He could have stayed in the office, of course, but the Tracy Corps people would have asked his simple friend who he was, and she'd wonder whom they meant. Confusion. No, that was too risky. This plan had, however, worked perfectly so far.       Listening to Scott and Virgil Tracy charm this woman into buying their materials grew tiresome, and so The Hood focused instead on all the trouble they in particular had caused him. He had at first been a little surprised to see them there on behalf of their Father's company. He had more expected unconnected employees. But this worked out better for him; it would be easier to discover the sensitive information he wanted.       First, he concentrated on the nearer of the two, Virgil Tracy, who was leaning foreword in his seat, eagerly showing Anne-Marie some diagrams. In what situations had they met before? Ah yes. A short time ago, he had succeeded in filming an entire Thunderbirds Rescue by using Kyrano to disable their camera detectors. Thunderbird One had chased, but was easily out-witted by his speedy jeep. Then Master Virgil, alighting from Thunderbird Two gave chase on an advanced style of hover-bike, and nearly caught him twice, before his presence had caused him to hastily hi-jac an Executive aircraft, mid-overhaul. The craft had smashed into the mansion of the man who had intended to buy the film for a major amount of money, destroying the recording in the process. He still burned with fury every time he thought of it. He would dearly love to make Virgil Tracy pay for that.       Then, as he turned his attentions, there was Scott.       He hated Scott already, since he so well resembled his Father, Jeff, the founder of International Rescue, seemingly the most humane man who ever lived, the bane of his life … And Scott wasn't much better. His all-American, all-hero antics irritated The Hood to the point of pain. He had recently chased him miles over the Australian outback to retrieve photos that weren't even anything to do with International Rescue, merely because it was 'the right thing to do', no doubt. Bah! Morals made him sick.       And not forgetting the time on board the Zero X Martian Exploration Ship, when he had been so close to blasting off disguised as one of the crew, where he would later steal the first manned-machine ever to tough down on Mars, mid-journey! One of his crowning achievement, had not Scott Tracy sauntered in, trying to deliberately engage him in conversation. Where he had got his initial suspicions from, The Hood did not know or care, but a moment later, Scott had had the audacity to rip the fantastic mask from his face, fight him as much as the weak fool could, and then set his psychopathic London agent on him. She'd nearly killed him with her high-speed chases and nightmare car that sprouted hydrofoils just when he'd thought he was safe, and explosives! Shell fire that had blown up his helijet. It would have killed him, had he not suspected her to be more than capable of such witchcraft and jettisoned himself.       And for it all, he blamed the man in front of him now, smiling pleasantly across at that stupid girl as if his life depended on her. His fists clenched behind the laptop he had erected on his knee in sheer anger.       For a furious moment he entertained the idea of surprising them now, in this little room, and demanding the location of that boy. But no. They would not be surprised for long, and despite his voodoo powers, there were two of them, and they were crafty allies to one another. He had nothing that they wanted that would stop them trying to overpower him. Yet. Haste was the fool's way. The longer he held his hand, the tighter his grip over them would be.       And besides, there was the option of giving them a lot of heartache in the process that he was looking foreword to.       Bored of their chat, he opened the link he had formed with that girl and, using a tiny radio suction pad attached to his head beneath the mask, he channelled it through his laptop. He had to resort to this when he could not openly speak to his subjects. He then swiftly keyed in an instruction, and sent it to her brain. She changed immediately, and The Hood leaned back to enjoy himself.       Show time.       Scott was mid-sentence about advances in commuter aviation at Tracy Corps, when he noticed a sudden change in Anne-Marie. Where she had been resting her chin on her fists, listening intently, her eyes had unfocussed, and she had swayed in her chair, before gasping for breath and flushing pink. He and Virgil were up immediately, asking her if she was alright. Scott grabbed her shoulder lightly over the desk and shook her gently, trying to snap her out of it, while Virgil went round to her side and took her hand, looking straight at her face, trying to determine what was wrong. After a moment, she revived a little, but still seemed very dazed.       "Get her some water, Virgil," Scott suggested, and so, carefully stepping over Mr Dunhoff's feet, Virgil grabbed a styrofoam cup and went to the water cooler.       "Will she be alright?!" Dunhoff had asked anxiously. Virgil's heart went out to this timid man, who had just witnessed his friend having some sort of episode. He tried to reassure him.       "Sure," he smiled. "She just came near to fainting, I guess. The a.c. seems ok in here, but she could easily have had a funny turn with the heat outside earlier. Sure is hot."       Mr Dunhoff seemed convinced and relaxed slightly, still looking on at Anne-Marie, whose eyes were blinking back into focus.       After a few cups of water, she seemed refreshed, if still a bit dizzy, and thanked the brother's for their concern.       "Maybe it was the sun," suggested Virgil, returning to his seat. "Sure is a scorcher today!"       "Sure, maybe," she replied, seemingly unaware of the clicking from the laptop that her friend had returned to. A moment later, she said, "Maybe I've been concentrating a little too hard, especially with that heat outside…"       "You want us to reschedule?" Scott asked.       "Oh, no, that's ok. Just give me a minute to calm down a little." She smiled at them. "Mindless chatter. That's what I need. Something that takes no brain cells whatsoever!"       "Then you're talking to the right people," Scott grinned. "What's going on with you, then?"       "Oh, nothing much," she said, to the back-clicking of the laptop in the corner. "What about you guys? Anything special happening with you?"       "Nope," said Scott, deflated at how badly this chat was starting.       "Yep," said Virgil, enjoying Scott's confused glance.       Anne-Marie was immediately interested.       "Well, do tell, Virgil!"       "Scott wasn't going to tell you, cos he didn't want to break your heart," Virgil told her playfully, "but he's…"       "Virgil, no!" Scott could now see where this was going. "Anne-Marie's not interested."       "Well, sure I am!" she grinned, looking more herself now.       "In that case, I'll tell you," Virgil was merciless. "You see, Scott's…"       "Virgil…!"       "… in love!"       Anne-Marie was hysterical! She helped Virgil to tease him, while Scott grinned, turned pink and said that they were perfect for each other, cos they were both so childish.       "Do you know," announced Virgil in his pantomime voice, "that she stayed with us for two nights, and the second night, last night it was, she most certainly did not sleep in the guest bedroom?!"       Scott went scarlet at the memory of last night. She'd hung out all yesterday after being persuaded to stay the night before. They'd all had a great time in the pool and on the beach, but she was reluctant to stay long, since she was supposed to turn up for work the next day.       Then after dinner, when she still hadn't left, Scott caught her alone on an upstairs balcony over-looking the sea.       "I had the best time here. Thank you." Again, there was a note of sadness in her voice, at the prospect of leaving the island.       "No, thank you." Scott moved closer to her, so that their arms were touching, leaning on the rail. "If you hadn't wrote to me, I'd never of got up the courage to see you again, and that would've been a dreadful shame."       She'd turned to look him in the face, and she'd looked so beautiful, so like she had at the airport the day they'd parted, that Scott had kissed her, quickly, so that he wouldn't have time to get nervous and she wouldn't have time to protest. She hadn't protested though. Far from it, she'd caught fire just as quickly as he had, and after a long, passionate minute he'd broken off long enough to whisper breathlessly to her, "Stay another night."       And she had. On to Chapter Eight.