"The Eiffel Tower Demolition" is a comic-strip story set in August and September of 2068. It was illustrated by Frank Bellamy.
Plot[]
Part One[]
France's majestic Eiffel Tower has long stood, tall and proud, above the skyline of its capital city of Paris. But time has taken a toll upon the now-ailing old landmark; and the difficult decision's been made to dismantle it, for safety reasons, for removal to a new site at the World Museum in Geneva. A tall order indeed (it's just over a thousand feet high); and only Transworld Construction's considered capable of doing it, by the Paris city fathers who've hired them.
It's not a happy work crew, though; already, they've fallen a week behind schedule. Nonetheless, workers Sam and Jed take their jet-assisted skycranes to the top of the tower and lower their machines' powerful jibs into position. The lift begins...but the jib on Jed's skycrane suddenly fails! Now out of control, it plummets to the ground. Section foreman Brad McClaine's finally had enough: "This is the third accident in a month - there's a jinx on this job - a curse!" And one of their own has now died. The crew votes to strike - with immediate effect!
As a last resort, the city fathers appeal to International Rescue. On Tracy Island, Virgil's incredulous: "They want us to move the Eiffel Tower?...now I've heard everything - they must be nuts!" "Let's go out there," big brother Scott suggests, "and see what we can do;" and ere long Thunderbirds 1 and 2 are in the air, vaning down on Paris soon after dusk. "Well, what do you think?" Virgil wonders aloud, as he and Scott study the tower from a distance, "do we have a crack at it in the morning?" Scott responds in the affirmative; and so, come the dawn - with Scott spotting for his brother, from the nearby hovering Thunderbird 1 - Virgil steadies Thunderbird 2 above the top of the tower and firmly clasps it with the cargo-carrier's powerful grabs. Ever so slowly, the uppermost tower structures lift cleanly away...but then, the unthinkable happens: the main grab abruptly snaps - and the tower falls!
Part Two[]
Paris' historic Champ de Mars has become a danger zone - as the dangling upper structure of the aging Eiffel Tower inexplicably slips from TB2's failed grabs and careens sideways, crashing into several nearby buildings!
Both Thunderbirds quickly land: Virgil rolls out Firefly to tackle the fiery debris-field, while Scott wrangles all hands on the ground, to help rescue survivors. Dusk falls upon a bleak toll of dead and injured. The still-incensed McClaine declares, "I say we should never have started moving the tower in the first place!"
"That fellow's sure got a lot to say," Scott observes, "all this talk about a jinx - do you believe it?" Virgil shakes his head; already numb with shock over the failure of his equipment, he can barely contain his anger as he shows his brother what he's found: the broken pincer grab's "metal had been half sawn through." Sabotaged! But why, and by whom? "Somebody around here (who) wants the Eiffel Tower to remain right where it is," Virgil asserts. Someone like McClaine, perhaps? "Perhaps," says Scott, "we should keep an eye on that character..."
To that end, they stake out the Transworld Construction base camp...and, come midnight, something stirs: it's McClaine, on a jet bike. Following him leads back to the still-intact base of the tower. Puzzled, the brothers watch from hiding as McClaine furtively opens a secret panel, in one of the upper girders - but, what's he taking out of it?
Angered that he's been discovered, McClaine lobs - something - at Scott, hitting him square in the head, as he retreats - "You guys are just too nosey for your own good!" - and vanishes into the darkness.
Scott's still wincing in pain - "Look what he threw at me..." - as he slowly opens his palm...
Part Three[]
...revealing to Virgil a bar of solid gold!
He and Scott cautiously peer into the now-empty secret compartment, concealed within a girder of the Eiffel Tower. Space enough for a cache of gold bullion - presumably spirited away by the escaped McClaine - to be easily hidden...but, for how long? And where'd it come from, in the first place?
The glittering nightscape of the City of Light falls away from Thunderbird 1's undercarriage, as Scott and Virgil take to the air in pursuit of McClaine. "He's headed for the coast," as Virgil studies TB1's radarscope; Scott verifies they'll have him in sight within minutes...and as the eastern horizon hints at the approaching dawn, they come upon McClaine's abandoned jet bike on a rocky cliff above the sea.
Weapons drawn, they carefully make their way down to the beach, not far from a the entrance to a sizable cave...where they're confronted by the sight of a sleek submarine strike-craft, whose deck-mounted penthalium guns swing into firing-position, prompting both brothers to hurriedly hit the dirt - as lethal fury erupts over their heads! The sub roars past them, headed for the mouth of its cave hideout and the open Atlantic beyond...
"Wait," from Scott, who thinks he's spotted something else in the water. They rush to investigate - and find the pursuit is over. They've found McClaine...
Part Four[]
...and he's dead - murdered! Baffled, the brothers search the surrounding dock area...and presently come across masses of wadded-up old newspapers, which Scott surmises were used to wrap the now-vanished gold bars in - like the one McClaine beaned him in the head with!
They examine one, a twenty-year-old issue of Le Citoyen - whose translated headline reads: Daring Paris Bullion Raid - Masked Men Escape With Two Million in Gold! - and, at last, everything falls into place. The four thieves stashed away their loot in the Eiffel Tower, before they were apprehended and sent off to prison; but now, twenty years later, they're out and they want it back! But news of the tower's impending removal to Geneva upset those plans, and they had to find a middleman to gain them access to the construction site - none other than the unfortunate and now-deceased McClaine. "Real nasty characters," Scott remarks bitterly.
But Virgil's hit upon an idea to apprehend them, which he explains to his brother as they make their way back up to cliff en route to where Thunderbird 1 awaits them. "The Channel Tunnel Authority," says he, whose "undersea radarscope network...tracks every ship within two-hundred miles of the tunnel approaches." The city of Boulogne, where CTA is headquartered, thus becomes their next stop; and they're soon closeted with CTA controllers who - sure enough - spot something amiss, amongst the network's many contacts. Armed now with this new information, TB1 heads out at full speed over the open Atlantic...
The rocket plane has hunted rogue submarines before...
As Scott carefully matches TB1's course and speed to that of its undersea foe, something energes from its cargo hold...disappearing below the watery surface, sinking deeper...ever deeper...until it registers a solid thump. Contact...
Then, acting like a high-tech depth-charge, the electro-clamp pulsator repeatedly jolts its prey...and, in due course, the now-paralyzed sub bobs listlessly to the surface. After TB1 drags it out onto the nearest beach, Scott and Virgil examine their catch: "Four ex-jailbirds," pronounces Scott, "with the gold haul of a lifetime!..."
Two days pass, and TB1 and the Tracy brothers are back in Paris. The crooks are back in jail (with a much-longer rap sheet), the long-missing gold is safe and secure once more; and peace has at last returned, along the Champ de Mars. Nearby, Scott and Virgil are receiving the thanks of the city fathers. "We still have a job to do," says Scott; but the French official shakes his head, non. Thanks to International Rescue, he tells them, the Eiffel Tower won't be going anywhere: "It has been decided that half the recovered bullion should be used for the complete restoration of the tower...!"
They all like the sound of that, as they look out upon the base of the colossal tower - already half-surrounded by construction scaffolding, awaiting its pending rebirth...
Main Characters[]
- Scott Tracy
- Virgil Tracy
- Jeff Tracy (cameo)
Guest Characters[]
- Transworld Construction crew: Brad McClaine (foreman), Jed and Sam (skycrane operators), unnamed others
- Paris city fathers (unnamed)
International Rescue Equipment Used[]
- Thunderbird 1
- Electro-clamp pulsator
- Thunderbird 2 (pod unspecified)
- Firefly
Non-IR Equipment Used[]
- Jet-driven skycranes (Transworld Construction)
- Civilian ambulances (at danger zone)
- McClaine's jet bike (TC camp, et al)
- Submarine strike-craft (crooks' escape ship), including deck-mounted penthalium guns
- Undersea Radarscope Network (Channel Tunnel Authority)
Locations[]
- Paris, France (Eiffel Tower and vicinity)
- Boulogne, France (HQ of Channel Tunnel Authority)
- French coastline area (including cave)
- Tracy Island (cameo)
Reprint History[]
Trivia[]
- As in the season 1 episode Terror in New York City, an historic architectural landmark - this time, the Eiffel Tower - is imperiled, and International Rescue is called upon to intervene.
- This time however, International Rescue themselves are to blame for the disaster - with their rescue efforts going wrong and killing 15 people.
- French locations figure in several Thunderbirds episodes - including Paris (The Perils of Penelope, Alias Mr. Hackenbacker), the French Riviera (The Duchess Assignment, The Man From MI.5) and the French Alps (The Cham-Cham). And a French newspaper also helps drive the action in The Man From MI.5. Paris itself was previously shown in a severely damaged state during the events of The Return of Mr Steelman.