EPILOGUE

"Ladies and Gentlemen, here at the tail-end of my show I just have to let you know of a few breaking news stories we've gotten since the evening news broadcast just three hours ago.

First and foremost is that more information is coming in about the spectacular rescue of nearly one hundred men, women and children from the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge just off Hong Kong Island two weeks ago. Eyewitness accounts tell of the bravery and amazing machinery that saved even more peoples' lives from being lost than already had been by the time the call was put out to International Rescue. I'll have a more thorough report, including interviews with several of the victims whose lives were saved, tomorrow evening.

On a related note, this station has just received word that Colin Johnson, the only surviving partner of now-defunct Johnson and DeBarge Metals, has been found hiding out in rural France. He was arrested by French authorities yesterday morning, and is currently awaiting extradition to whichever country among the United States, Hong Kong and China wins the battle to sic their justice systems on him first. The charges against him include everything from fraud in the types of metals he shipped for construction of the bridge that collapsed to multiple counts of murder for the lives lost that fateful day.

On a very related note, sources within the heretofore quiet and unassuming country of Malaysia tell us that just one day after the phenomenal bridge rescue, none other than International Rescue was seen briefly near the location where we now know master world criminal the Hood's secret base of operations was located.

Deep in the jungles of the state of Sarawak, what's being described as a temple was largely destroyed by fighter jets from several surrounding countries, but people who worked at the base or had been imprisoned there are telling us that men dressed in blue flight suits and blue hats got each and every one of them to safety before the building was completely destroyed. Indeed, some high-placed government officials from Cambodia are telling us it's International Rescue themselves who pinpointed the spot where the Hood could be found to begin with, but I haven't been able to confirm that as yet.

Ladies and Gentlemen, while I cannot unfortunately relay to you for certain whether or not the Hood himself was killed in the attack, I can tell you that he's not believed to be in custody. But, thanks to an anonymous artist's sketch which has now been circulated the world round, which we're showing you right here on your television screens, if he did escape, I know it won't be long before you help authorities find him and he's made to pay for all the wrong he's done for more than two decades now.

I'd bet my nightly talk show that we have International Rescue and International Rescue alone to thank for bringing us one step closer to putting that madman behind bars. These brave men, who as you know once saved the lives of both me and my cameraman Joe, are doing an awful lot more than anonymously rescuing trapped people from the brink of disaster. They're saving the world from a future filled with the kinds of evils the Hood has made it his business to perpetrate upon us all.

And now, viewers, in a completely unrelated news story from the world of the rich and famous, NTBS has learned that Virgil Tracy, son of billionaire and former astronaut Jeff Tracy, has just become engaged to Morgan Diamont, daughter of George and Lucia Diamont, manufacturers of Perfezione red and white wines based in Central California. Sorry, ladies, it looks like a Tracy bachelor is off the market.

That's all from me for now. Stay safe out there, be kind to one another, and when you look up at the stars tonight, you might want to thank them that an organization like International Rescue never seems to give up on the people of Earth…no matter what the cost.

This is Ned Cook, signing off."

Author's Note: Of course I have to do this...grin...for those of you who enjoy my writing, please don't forget to check out my two original novels, "Takers" and "Takers II: Family" on both Amazon and Smashwords available in every e-format there is on the latter. Just search for Takers Chris Davis on either site and both books will come up! Thank you much! And thank you for reading my 'Thunderbirds' fanfic!