CHAPTER 2
“Now this is a sight some would
actually PAY to see.”
It was late at night and Captain
Blue was entering the Control Room on Cloudbase when he saw his colleague and
partner, Captain Scarlet, all alone in there.
The two men, the best team of the international military task force
known all over the world as Spectrum, had been assigned to joint command of the
whole organization during the absence of their commander-in-chief, Colonel
White. Everyone recognized in Scarlet
and Blue their respective qualities of leadership, but Scarlet was also
specifically known for his distaste for paperwork and desk jobs. That was why Captain Blue was teasing him
now, seeing him seated in front of the huge central computer of the Control
Room, which was the habitual station of Cloudbase’s own communications officer
and computer expert, Lieutenant Green.
“Where’s
the lieutenant?” Blue asked, coming over to Scarlet and looking all around in
search of the young Trinidad-born officer.
“Did you actually notice the time, Adam?”
Scarlet replied dryly. “I sent him to
his quarters. He’s turned in for the
night. That’s why I’m manning the
computer right now.”
“All by yourself? Isn’t that dangerous?”
“Oh, go on… I know the colonel often does it himself.”
“The colonel knows A LOT MORE about
computers than you and me put together.”
“I’m not totally ignorant about
these things, Captain Blue.”
“When was the last time YOU actually
manned this station?”
“More than a year ago…”
“Almost TWO years ago.”
“Don’t worry. Green brought me up to date on the latest
improvements. Now, what’s THIS function
supposed to do, anyway?”
Scarlet was about to push a certain
button when an ashen Captain Blue suddenly stopped him. “What are you
doing? That’s the red alert siren! You’ll wake up all of Cloudbase for nothing
with that…”
Blue stopped in the middle of his
sentence when he saw the broad grin on his friend’s face.
“You were kidding me,” he realised.
“Relax, Adam. Everything’s under control,” Scarlet
mockingly replied.
“I can’t help it, you know?” Blue sighed and went over to the round
computerized desk that was the domain of the Spectrum commander. He sat behind it and put his feet up. “I can
cope with the job, it’s all the waiting, and worrying about what’s going to happen
next that’s getting to me.”
“I suppose you’re mostly talking
about the Mysterons,” Scarlet remarked.
Blue nodded. “For the better part of
these last two years, they’ve taken up more of our time than any other
terrorist group on Earth.”
“Probably because that particular
‘terrorist group’ isn’t actually from this Earth,” Scarlet replied.
“If only we knew exactly what they
want. I have a difficult time accepting
that crack about ‘total destruction of life on Earth’.”
“They do seem to have the means to carry
out the threat.”
“My point exactly. So why don’t they simply do it, instead of
torturing us?”
Scarlet shrugged. “Must be their way of getting revenge for
having their complex on Mars blown to pieces by ‘Earthmen’. They want to break us before they actually
annihilate us.”
“That’s something else that bothers
me about them,” Blue mused, frowning. “The destruction of their complex was a
mistake. An awful mistake. But with their powers of retrometabolism,
they reconstructed it without effort…
At least, apparently. So why do
they take that destruction so dramatically?
Why can’t they accept our apologies?
The Colonel did admit to them that the incident was wrong, last
year. He offered a truce. They responded by ambushing you, when you
went to meet their representative.”
“Nearly blew up Cloudbase too,”
Scarlet added.
“Do you think the reason they’re not
willing to make peace with us is because they’re actually afraid of us?
“Sorry. But the Mysterons being afraid of us isn’t something I envision
easily.” Scarlet looked at his
friend. “Beside, if that really was the
case, the Mysterons wouldn’t give us ANY chances. Earth would already be a
uninhabited ball travelling in space.”
Blue shook his head gloomily. “So
much for that theory,” he mused. “It would
be nice to know what really motivates the Mysterons, though…”
“You want a simple answer?” Scarlet replied. “They’re pure evil.”
Blue rolled his eyes. “Come on,
Paul! I know you hate them for what they did to you, but…”
“You’d understand if you could feel
them like I do, Adam,” Scarlet replied.
“I… suppose, yes.” Blue sighed. “I’m depressing you with all my questions, aren’t I?”
“You’re nervous every time the
Colonel takes time off,” Scarlet said, smiling. “So I’m not really surprised to hear you talking like this.”
“You know me too well, Paul. Yeah, I guess I AM nervous, every time the
old man leaves base and goes down to the surface. Every time he puts me in command, something bad happens… Remember
earlier this year, when we had to call him back from his vacation? The Mysterons had to rear their ugly heads
again…”
“Well, I don’t know if their ‘heads’
are ugly… I don’t even know if they have ‘heads’, to begin with… But what I remember vividly about that time
is the way the old man almost bit off YOUR HEAD when he found out that your
carelessness actually endangered MY secret… to my own father, no less.”
Blue saw the hard look his friend
was giving him. He remembered that
incident well, too. Because he had
talked too much about the Mysterons to the WAAF Supreme Commander, Scarlet’s
father, General Charles Metcalfe, commander of the WAAF British Forces, had
actually discovered one of Spectrum’s most guarded secrets. And that secret concerned his only son.
Two years ago, during Spectrum’s
first mission against the Mysterons, Captain Scarlet had actually been killed
and recreated as one of their first agents on Earth, totally intent on
following his masters’ instructions.
Blue himself had succeeded in stopping the Mysteron agent whose mission
was to kidnap the World President. In a
showdown on top of the London Car-Vu, Blue had shot Scarlet through the heart,
sending him spinning down 800 feet to a certain death. But somehow, miraculously, Scarlet had
survived. The fall had broken the spell
the Mysterons had over him and he came back to his old self, with no memory of
what he had done under the aliens’ control.
There were some changes in him, though: his new body had kept the
Mysteron power to recreate itself. Even
if he were to ‘die’, by human standards, Captain Scarlet would heal from his
wounds, totally, in a matter of hours.
He could also sense the Mysterons’ presence, or danger coming from
them. These new attributes, combined
with Scarlet’s already impressive military skills, made him Spectrum’s most
effective weapon in its fight against the Mysterons. It was also a secret nobody outside of Spectrum knew about. Not even Captain Scarlet’s parents, to whom
it would have been difficult, if not impossible, to announce their son had died
while he was still fighting the good fight.
“Are you ever going to forgive me
for that indiscretion?” Blue muttered.
“That… ‘indiscretion’ almost meant
the end of my relationship with my father,” Scarlet retorted rather dryly. He paused a few seconds before adding, with
a smile: “But it turned out all right in the end. It didn’t take long before he stopped considering me an impostor
and started talking to me again. And
that settled the problem I’d had with him since this whole situation
started. Namely, telling him the truth
about me.”
“All things considered… you
should thank me?” Blue asked his friend.
“I wouldn’t go THAT far,” Scarlet
grinned mischievously.
Blue rolled his eyes and sighed.
“Why do I have to put up with you?”
“Because I’m your best friend and I
do my best to keep you out of trouble.”
“Push me deeper down into it, you
mean.”
“For example, you’re so unpopular as
commander that the Colonel has to ask ME to team up with you so you don’t end
up with a mutiny on your hands.”
“Who says I’m unpopular?” Blue
frowned.
“Come on, Adam! Every time you sit down in that chair, a
wind of panic blows all over Cloudbase!” Scarlet smiled. “And don’t tell me you don’t know why… It started a little more than a year
ago… You remember that little
incident?”
“It was all your fault.”
“MY fault? I didn’t send the Angels for target practice over and over
again! I tell you, pal, I had trouble
keeping even Symphony’s temper down, when the girls told me about it. And all those awful lectures! What was the most ‘interesting’ one Rhapsody
told me about? Oh yes… monkeys… I’m glad I was off-base at the
time!”
“THAT’S exactly why I did it. Or don’t you recall? You asked me to arrange a distraction so
nobody would even notice you were gone, looking for the Colonel after that
Mysteron threat against his life.”
“And that was the best you could
do?”
“Oh, right! Like YOU have nothing to reproach yourself
for during that particular case! Who
had the brilliant idea of knocking the colonel out? Who tied him up, gagged him, and locked him up in a cabinet?”
“I did it to save his life,” Scarlet
defended himself.
“You’re lucky you actually DID save
his life, buddy! He sure was furious
with you.” Blue shook his head
quietly. “And grateful, as well,” he
added, smiling. “I hope he’s enjoying
his furlough right now… Do you know
where he went?”
“London,” Scarlet answered
quickly. “There’s not much more I can
tell you. You know he’s very private,
he doesn’t talk about himself much.”
“Yes, I know.”
“Which reminds me, I saw the
schedule. You’re due for leave next…
and at the same time as Symphony, you lucky devil!”
“Oh yes!” A large smile crossed Blue’s handsome face. “It’s been a long
time since we had the chance to go away together.”
“I’m sure you’ll make the most of
it, then,” Scarlet said. He knew about
the special relationship between his partner and his beautiful compatriot,
Symphony Angel, one of the five female pilots of the Spectrum Angel Interceptor
flight team. It was the same relationship
that existed between Scarlet himself and Rhapsody, the British Angel, to whom
he was secretly engaged. Sadly, Scarlet
would not be as fortunate as his colleague to have his next furlough coincide
with Rhapsody’s: she had been on vacation in England for the past week, and he
himself wasn’t due for leave for a while yet.
“Do you have any plans, you and
Karen?” Scarlet asked his friend.
“Can’t say we really have,” Blue
replied, scratching his ear. “We thought of going to her mother’s place…”
“A charming lady…”
“…But then again, maybe not.”
Scarlet shot a puzzled stare at his
partner. “You HAVE something in mind,” he remarked.
“Nothing concrete, Paul, I assure
you,” Blue answered with a rueful smile.
“But you’ll be the first to know about it, I promise you.”
“Blue…”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
Captain Blue started laughing. “Now,
then! We can both sleep in peace!”
A beeping sound coming from the
computer centre in front of Scarlet caught his attention; Blue put down his
feet.
“Who could that be at this hour?” he
mused, looking down the indicators on the computerized desk.
“Don’t fret, brother,” Scarlet told
him. “I’ve got it.” He pushed a button.
“Spectrum Cloudbase Control Room.”
“Rhapsody Angel here, Cloudbase.”
A big smile crossed Scarlet’s face,
upon hearing the voice of his beloved Angel.
“Hi there, Angel… this is a pleasant
surprise.”
“Hi yourself, Captain… You must be
alone if you’re talking to me in such a familiar way?”
“Well, Captain Blue’s with me, but
he doesn’t really count.”
“Hello, Rhapsody,” Blue called from
his desk.
“Hi, Captain Blue. I take it all is calm on base.”
“I didn’t expect a call from you
tonight, sweetheart,” Scarlet said. “Weren’t you supposed to be out on a date?”
“You let her go on dates with others?”
Blue murmured with a puzzled frown.
“I would be if my date had actually
shown up,” Rhapsody replied to Scarlet, apparently not hearing Blue’s remark.
“He didn’t show up?” Scarlet
repeated, perplexed.
“WHO didn’t show up?” a curious Blue
asked, standing up.
“Colonel White,” Scarlet told him.
It was Blue’s turn to appear
perplexed. “Colonel White had a date with you, Rhapsody?” he said, coming
closer to Scarlet’s station.
“We have a common passion for
musicals. So we were supposed to have
dinner at six-thirty, then go to see the latest production of Les Misérables. And, well…”
“He stood you up?” Blue finished for
her.
“That doesn’t sound like him,”
Scarlet remarked, thoughtfully.
“That’s exactly what I thought,”
Rhapsody agreed. “So I thought maybe some emergency had called him back to
Cloudbase…”
“Sorry, love, he’s not here,”
Scarlet answered. “And if he’d been called on other Spectrum business, we would
have known about it.”
“I was afraid of that,” Rhapsody
sighed.
“Could he have simply forgotten?” Blue
asked.
“The colonel, actually FORGETTING
something?” a sceptical Scarlet retorted.
“That’s DEFINITELY not him!”
“Quite right,” Rhapsody agreed
again. “And he called me this morning.
He was looking forward to this evening.”
“So,” Blue grinned broadly, “the old
man still has it in him, huh?”
“Quiet,” Scarlet warned him,
annoyed. “Did you try phoning him back, Dianne?”
“I would have if I knew where to
reach him. Maybe you chaps can help me
on that one…”
“Mmm… The only thing I know for sure is that he usually stays at an old
friend’s house, when he goes to London,” Scarlet mused, rubbing his chin. “But
that’s about all… Did you try to reach
him on his personal communicator?”
“As a last resort, yes. He didn’t answer.”
“Well, that’s odd…” Blue said,
frowning.
“Certainly,” Scarlet nodded. “What
time is it down there, Rhapsody?”
“Almost eleven… I know it’s late, but all of this seems so
unlike the colonel. I’m actually
beginning to worry, Paul.”
“Worry?” Scarlet replied reassuringly.
“Come on now, love… The old man’s a tough one and he certainly knows how to
take care of himself.”
“We’ll try to reach him from our
end, Rhapsody,” Blue added. “I don’t think there’s anything to worry about
either. The colonel probably got
together with a pack of old buddies, had a few beers with them, and got totally
engrossed in reminiscing about glories from the past…”
“I hope it’s only that… but the image you just put in my mind
doesn’t really fit with what we know of Colonel White.”
“Go and get some sleep, Dianne,”
Scarlet continued. “We’ll call you back
tomorrow morning to inform you of the colonel’s whereabouts.”
“Please do. Goodnight then.”
“Good night. I love you.”
“Love you back. Rhapsody out.”
Captain Scarlet cut the
communication and leaned back on his seat, his fingers crossed on his chin,
looking thoughtful. He noticed the
bemused way Captain Blue was staring at him.
“What?” the British captain asked,
frowning.
“You’re cute, Scarlet. You know
that?”
Scarlet snorted. “Cute? I don’t think even my mother ever called me
‘cute’!”
“I’m referring to you and Dianne,”
Blue explained. “You’re good for each
other.”
“I know SHE’S good for me,” Scarlet
said with a fond smile. “I can’t believe I didn’t see it sooner…”
Blue nodded. “Sometimes, we’re too
thick for our own good in these matters…” He tapped his friend’s shoulder and
gestured toward the communication system. “What do you make of it?”
Scarlet shook his head. “About the colonel missing his date with
Dianne? I’m not sure… Maybe it’s nothing. We’ll find out soon enough, anyway. And I really don’t think we have cause for
concern.”
“I can’t imagine him actually
standing Dianne up… That seems out of character.”
“I know. That’s something you’d expect an American to do.”
Blue opened his mouth with the
intention of answering back, but stopped right away. He couldn’t think of a quick enough retort. He looked morosely at his grinning friend.
“Really CUTE, Metcalfe.”
“Yes… You said that already.”
* * *
The first thing Colonel White felt
upon regaining consciousness was a chill crossing his upper body. His head felt a bit light, but it was not
really a disagreeable sensation. He was
lying on his back and could hear buzzing and murmuring all around him. He opened his eyes to stare up at a high,
white ceiling. Too much light, he
thought, narrowing his eyes against the irritating, almost blinding, brightness
bathing him. Where I am, what I am doing
here? This isn’t my room at Dooley’s…
Dooley was
dead. That realization brought back the
memories of what had happened before White passed out. That was then that he felt movement
nearby. He wasn’t alone.
White lifted his head and looked
around. There were many people
surrounding him, all dressed in white, looking an awful lot like hospital
personnel. They were all busy with
different tools, some were checking on monitors, and taking notes on pads. The Spectrum commander tried to sit up, in
vain. He was strapped down on some sort of padded operating table, surrounded
by electronic devices. The reason he
felt cold was because his shoes and socks had been removed and he had been
stripped to the waist.
Colonel White looked in dismay and
anger as a silent young woman dutifully applied a series of electrodes to his
chest.
“Hey! What do you think you’re doing?”
The woman didn’t even acknowledge
him, but helped a man, standing on the other side of the table, to secure a
leather strap over White’s chest. Other
people were doing the same, with all of his limbs, tightening them so he would
not be able to move at all. That did
nothing to reassure the Colonel, but it did stoke his bad temper.
“Who are you people? What am I doing here? What do you want from me?”
“All these questions, Colonel White…”
A shiver ran down
White’s spine when he heard that ominous, monotonous voice. He looked to his left and saw a man
approaching quietly. Dressed all in black, with an unnaturally pale complexion
and a bad shave. The Colonel
blanched. “Captain Black!” he rasped.
“It has been a long time, Colonel.”
The voice… it wasn’t Captain Black’s
real voice White was hearing. It was
the voice of the Mysterons. Over the
last two years, he had often heard it, over the radio. But to actually hear it addressing him
directly… It was rather unsettling and certainly frightening. Especially since it was coming out of the
mouth of an old friend.
Colonel White had not seen Captain
Black since he had left for his mission to Mars, just before he was taken over
by the Mysterons. Those who had been in
contact with him, like Captain Scarlet and Symphony Angel, had told their
commander of the changes – physical and otherwise – they had seen in him. His complexion, peaked features, and five
o’clock shadow were some of those things; the coldness in his eyes was
another. Even before the Mysterons had
taken control of him, the man who was once Conrad Turner was a reserved,
private man, and had already seemed like an unfeeling fellow at times. But now there was something alien, even
evil, reflected in his icy gaze.
“It has
been a long time indeed, Captain,” White remarked, trying to keep his voice
even.
Black stared at him blankly and then
directed his attention to a man of about forty, who had approached the table
from the other side. “How soon, doctor?” he simply asked.
“Now that he’s awake, in a few
minutes,” the man responded quietly.
“We just have a few adjustments to make before we start.” White looked at the man and watched as he
wrote some notes on his pad. “You’re really a fit specimen, Colonel. For your age, I’d say you have the perfect
physical condition of a man in his early forties…”
Upon hearing his remark, spoken in
such a matter-of-fact tone, White stared at him in disbelief. He turned his attention back to Captain
Black.
“What do you want from me?” he
snapped.
“The Mysterons have need of you,
Colonel White,” was Black’s monotonous reply.
“You’re going to Mysteronise me?”
“If that had been our intention, you
would already be dead by now.”
White turned pale. The threat in itself was disturbing, but it
was one of his friends who had actually pronounced it. Conrad Turner had saved Charles Gray’s life,
long before the two of them were contacted to help form, and then to join,
Spectrum. They had remained friends
ever since, even with the reserve imposed by the military rules of
Spectrum. Now Black was looking down on
his former friend and commander as if he wasn’t even a living, breathing human
being.
“Black, what do you have in mind?”
“You’re going to undertake a mission
for us.”
“Never. You’d better kill me right now, because there’s not a chance in
Hell I’m going to help you.”
“But you will, Colonel White. And quite willingly, I might add.”
White turned to the ‘doctor’ who had
just said those words. By now, he was
so tightly restrained that he could hardly move a muscle from the neck
down. Electrodes were applied all over
his body, and the Colonel could see the young woman he had admonished earlier
as she put some kind of an electronic peg on his left big toe. His attempt to evade her by moving his foot
did not discourage her and she carried out her duty, before going to a trolley
that she then positioned next to his head.
On it was a set of syringes.
“Who are all these people?” White asked, watching uneasily as the woman
was preparing the injections.
“Names are not important, Colonel,”
the ‘doctor’ replied, always matter-of-factly.
“Let’s just say we’re people acting in our own best interests.”
“That doesn’t sound like what a
Mysteron agent would say,” White remarked coldly.
“That’s probably because we are
human agents, Colonel.” The doctor
gestured casually to himself and the others.
White’s face hardened. The
doctor nodded. “Yes, I see you understand…
We’re collaborators of the Mysterons.”
“Collaborators?” White spat with
anger, struggling against his restraints. “Traitors!” He nodded toward Black. “HIM, I can understand his position. But you…”
“WE are probably the best chance the
human race has to survive, Colonel.
Survive and thrive; when this war is over, the Mysterons will reward
those who stood by their side and helped them.
And that will be us.”
“I suppose every war has its handful
of scum ready to tread on their own kind and take advantage of the situation,
for their own profit.”
“A handful?” the doctor repeated,
lifting an eyebrow. “But we’re far more than a handful, my dear Colonel. In fact, we’re a whole… network.
That’s the name you can use for us: the Network. You just have no idea of many of us there
are, all around the world, in different areas, in so many countries… working in
secret, so our target – and the Mysterons’ – will eventually be reached.”
“Do you have any idea what that
target is?” White replied dryly. “They
want to annihilate us!”
“They want to
annihilate those who attacked their complex on Mars,” the doctor retorted. “And you know as well as I do WHO is
responsible for that dreadful thing.”
“Spectrum will find your kind and
stop you!”
The doctor scoffed at the threat.
“Spectrum isn’t even aware that we exist!
YOU’RE the first to learn about it.
Oh yes… I can tell you that.
It’s not as if you’re going to report it back to anybody.” He smiled lightly. “You know, it’s really an
honour to have you amongst us, Colonel.
To actually work on the Spectrum commander himself…”
“Why you…” Fury took hold of White. He tried to lash out once more against his
restraints, but couldn’t move so much as an inch. He then turned to Black, who was standing still at the same spot
as before, looking unemotionally at his former commander.
“Damn it, Conrad!” White called out
to him. “Why can’t you shake that hold the Mysterons have on you? Give me a
hand, here!”
“Conrad Turner is dead, Colonel
White.”
The answer sank deep into White’s
heart. “It’s not true!” he replied sharply. “Come on, Conrad! Snap out of it! Help me!”
“I’m sorry, Colonel.”
Black nodded toward the doctor, who
in turn gave a command to two of his assistants and to the young woman still
nearby. She took one of the syringes
and injected something into White’s right forearm. He felt the sting of the puncture and the drug entering his
bloodstream.
“What will you do to me with this
stuff and this… contraption?” the Colonel growled.
“This device?” the
doctor said very calmly. “That’s something we borrowed from our recent past
history, Colonel. Maybe you heard of
it, in your days with the Secret Service.
It was called the Dream Spinner.”
The name immediately rang a bell in
White’s memory. Yes, he had heard of
it… and of what it was capable of doing. “No,” he muttered, struggling again.
“No, I won’t let you…”
“That’s not an option for you,
Colonel,” the doctor said coldly.
“Conrad!” White called out desperately. “For the love of Mercy, don’t let
them do this!”
“I am truly sorry, my old friend.”
White heard the monotonous tone of Captain Black. “I regret having to cause you
pain.”
The Mysteron agent then turned away
with the obvious intention of leaving the room through a door behind him. Colonel White could have sworn he had heard
some concern in Black’s voice and he tried to call to him again. But somebody forced some kind of mouthpiece
between his teeth and secured it tightly so he would not spit it out. The thing acted as a sort of gag and the
Spectrum commander wasn’t able to utter anything more than a furious
groan. One of the doctor’s assistants
took White’s head firmly between his hands and held it still against the padded
surface, while the other proceeded to strap his neck into a kind of collar
attached to the table. Resistance was quite
futile, but White was not giving up.
“Make sure he is unable to move at
all,” the doctor instructed his assistants. “We wouldn’t want him to seriously
injure himself while we proceed.”
Another length of leather strap was
secured under White’s chin, keeping the mouthpiece well in place, while a last
one was pressed over his forehead, securing his head against the table. Now he was totally still. About the only things he could actually move
were his fingers and eyes.
Out of the corner of his eye, he
could see that Captain Black was gone, leaving him to his fate. White had no illusions about what was going
to happen to him. He had heard enough of the Dream Spinner to know he wouldn’t
have much chance of resisting it. That
didn’t mean he wouldn’t try with all his strength, however.
The doctor applied two electrodes
over his temples. One of his assistants took a small bottle and fixed it
somewhere under the table. Connections
to the multiple electrodes were made. Some
small earphones were put into White’s ears and a transparent mask was placed
over his mouth and nose. Gas, White
thought grimly. They’re going to use a
combination of gas, drugs, sounds, and whatever else they have in store for me…
The Colonel saw the doctor
addressing a nod to his assistants.
Monitors were opened and buttons pushed… And a distraught White, his heartbeat rising, was now
anticipating what was about to begin.
A hissing sound came to his
ears. The gas was coming… He could feel
it filling the mask, entering his nostrils.
No sense in trying not to breathe
it, he thought. There is simply no
way to avoid this.
He
heard a faint hydraulic murmur coming from under the table; it was barely
audible, but it seemed to come from directly under his head. What
is this? What in God’s name will they
do to me? Waiting and not knowing what this sound could presage was driving
White crazy.
He felt it then. The burning sting of something piercing his
skin, just under the nape of his neck.
It felt like a long, narrow needle, which made its way under his skull
and into his brain. White bit hard into
the mouthpiece, closing his eyes against the pain. He could feel the new, slow injection of the drug and went stiff.
This
is going to hurt, was his
last coherent thought, just before a strident, piercing sound filled his ears, and
made him wince. At about the same time,
a horrible headache, like the impression that his brain was on fire,
overwhelmed him. Within seconds, it
became totally unbearable and Colonel White would have cried out and writhed in
pain, if not for the mouthpiece and the straps restraining him.
Until that time, he realized, he had
never learned the limits of his own pain threshold.
* * *
From the
next room, Captain Black watched the experiment in progress throughout a large
bay window. His attention was totally
focused on the patient secured to the Dream Spinner device, hooked up to the
equipment which surrounded him. The
screams, though half-muffled by the mouthpiece, were still quite audible and
Black could see White’s pain-contorted face, his chest heaving from his rapid
breathing, his hand frantically trying to hold on to something,
anything... That was a sight Black
could not detach his eyes from, and it was almost painful to watch.
The doctor,
who had left his ‘patient’, entered the room, and for a brief moment, Black was
able to hear more clearly the muffled screams of his former commander
throughout the open door. “Close it,” he ordered quickly, but without apparent
feeling.
The doctor obeyed and came closer to
Captain Black. “How long?” the Mysteron agent asked quietly.
The doctor shrugged. “We’re forcing the process, here. If he’s a stubborn subject, it could take
all night.”
“Colonel White has a will of iron,”
Black retorted. “It will take all night.
And then I suppose he will be completely ours?”
“He will believe everything the
Dream Spinner puts into his mind. The
treatment will rearrange his thoughts and memories so we will be able to use
him for our own ends. Act carefully, and
he will be totally dedicated to the mission you’ll give him.”
“Good.”
“You realize, however, that because
it is forced on him, there are some downsides to the treatment. He will become totally unstable and
unpredictable, with violent mood changes, and equally violent behaviour. If you tell him to do something that
disturbs or confuses him, he may turn against you.”
“Given his temper, it may prove
volatile.” Black turned to face the
doctor. “What about his old associates?
What could happen if he were to encounter Spectrum agents?”
The doctor scoffed. “If they alarm
him in any way, he’s liable to shoot at them.
And shoot to kill.”
“Interesting concept.”
Black looked at the Spectrum
commander on the other side of the window.
“Is all that suffering really
necessary?” he asked, as he listened to the screams.
The doctor seemed puzzled. “Oh,
yes. The pain…” He, too, glanced at the prisoner with a look
almost colder than Captain Black’s himself. “His will must be broken,” he
replied. “The more he resists, the more he suffers. On the other hand, the more the Dream Spinner treatment takes
hold of his mind.” He quickly glanced
back at Black. “I realize that may be unsettling for you. I read the report about him. He was one of your best friends.”
“I already killed one friend,” Black
noted coldly. “You do not
understand. Colonel White is not a
young man anymore. Though he is strong, I have heard that in the past, the
Dream Spinner killed its subjects… If
he were to die, that would jeopardize the entire operation.”
“Don’t worry about that. The first injection we gave him was to make
sure his heart would last out under the treatment. And my assistants keep all
his vitals in check. Nothing will go
wrong.”
Another scream came from the other
room, yet somehow fainter, and then followed by low groans.
Coming through another door, a man
entered the room where Black and the doctor were. The former Spectrum agent did not turn to acknowledge his
presence. His eyes were still riveted
on Colonel White. “This is Mister Shelby,” he announced quietly. “He will
supervise the mission we’re preparing Colonel White for.”
The doctor eyed the man. The latter stared back at him,
imperturbably, a cold glint in his eyes. “A Mysteron agent?” the doctor asked,
a bit alarmed.
“Do you have a problem with that,
doctor?” Black asked calmly.
“Of course, not!” the doctor
replied, obviously nervous. “It will be an honour to be working with you,
sir… But I thought Captain Black was in
charge of the mission.”
“Barring any problem, I shouldn’t
get myself involved,” Black replied. “But my presence will be felt. As for you, doctor, as soon as the treatment
is completed, you will disappear with your medical staff. There will be no need for your expertise
after that. No need to expose you to discovery. You could be far more valuable later to the
Mysterons if you keep away from this mission.”
He looked blankly at the doctor. “As it is, you have already said too much
to Colonel White about your Network.”
“The information could be of no use
to him,” the doctor replied, “since he will be under your total control before
the night is over… And I suppose you
don’t intend letting him live after the mission?”
“You suppose too much. As you talk too much. WE will decide Colonel White’s fate in due
time. And you, doctor, will bring back
this message to the Network: continue to serve the Mysterons well, and you will
be rewarded accordingly.” Black looked
back toward the operating room where White had suddenly gone quiet. It was difficult to see if he was even
conscious, as his eyes were closed. One
of the doctor’s assistants was presently preparing a new injection.
“I think that you’d better see to
your patient, doctor,” Black said evenly. “The treatment seems to have reached
its next phase.”
The doctor took a look into the
other room and hesitated a second; he then understood that Captain Black had
just asked him to leave. He cleared his
throat and excused himself before going back inside the operating room. Black followed him with his eyes through the
window, addressing Shelby who stood a few feet behind him:
“Is everything ready?”
“Everything is ready. As soon as Colonel White is set, we will be
on our way.”
“Will the henchmen provided by the
Network know how to behave toward him?”
“They know their role
perfectly. They are surprisingly
efficient. And they are eager to take
on the mission.”
“Earthmen fools,” Black muttered
under his breath. “Let there be no mistake: The Network and its men are nothing
but tools. If it should prove necessary,
sacrifice them.”
“I will obey,” Shelby answered
without emotion.
“Nothing must stand in the way of
the Mysterons’ revenge,” Black continued ominously. “In the end, we will
prevail, and the human race will bow to us.”
He watched as the doctor adjusted
another bottle on a device under the operating table, situated just under the
patient’s head. The device was
surmounted by a long needle pointed upward at a precise angle. As soon as the doctor stood up to lean over
White, one of his assistants activated the needle and it went up. Black saw the point slowly disappearing as
it entered a precise point on the table.
Further away, another assistant, standing in front of an electronic
panel, was turning large dials, apparently controlling the sound through the
speakers fixed to the patient’s ears.
Black saw his former commander’s body flinch as the treatment continued.
“You may leave, now,” Black told
Shelby, his eyes riveted on the scene. “I’ll contact you as soon as you are
needed.”
Shelby went quietly out the
door. Black drew nearer to the window,
staring bleakly as he witnessed the pain inflicted on the man he had so long
called his friend. The strain was
apparent by the grimace that contorted his face, and by the way his hands were
frantically moving, fighting desperately against the restraints. The ex-Spectrum agent could easily visualize
the frighteningly long needle as it forced its way under the skull, conveying
the drug it contained directly into the nerve centre of the brain.
Another muffled scream escaped the
patient. Inexplicably, the pupils in
Black’s usually cold eyes began to tremble, and he put his hand against the
surface of the window, in a gesture of despair.
“Charles,” he whispered, with a
quiver in his voice.
The Mysterons were cruel masters;
Captain Black had learned this the hard way over the past two years. They had used his body as the vessel for
their powers to reach Earth, and as their principal agent of destruction. They had kept a tight hold over him,
transforming him into a cold and calculating machine, intent only on following
their orders. But the true identity of
the man was still there, kept captive far down in the recesses of his mind,
dimly aware of what he was forced to do.
The Mysterons had chosen to release their hold on him, if just for a
brief instant, to take further revenge on him by taunting and torturing his
already tormented soul.
“Look
upon the face of your friend’s suffering, Conrad Turner, and learn what it
costs to arouse the wrath of the Mysterons…”
They’re
destroying his mind, Black
realized, trying to break his
spirit… They’re going to make a
mindless puppet out of him… Like they
did with me. A wave of nausea caught him in the stomach and he felt the
strength leaving his already staggering legs. He slid against the window and reached the floor; he stayed there,
shrivelled up, desperately keeping himself from sobbing.
“You have made me commit so many
acts of abomination. I have so much
blood on my hands,” he said hoarsely. “I killed Paul… Karen nearly died because of me.
And now, you’re torturing HIM…
Haven’t my people PAID enough already for MY mistakes?”
Muffled cries of pain were still
coming to Black’s ears. Distraught, he
closed his eyes and shamefully hid his face under his arm. “I am so sorry,
Charles…” he whispered, tears choking his voice and filling his eyes. Then, he lifted his head, his stare cold and
unfeeling again, emotions totally drawn from him. As suddenly as it had been lifted, the Mysterons’ control had now
taken hold of him again. “… But the Mysterons’ orders must be carried
out,” he continued icily, once again with the monotonous tone of the
aliens.
He got slowly but decidedly to his
feet and glanced one last time at the man strapped to the operating table. His resistance was obviously wearing down,
as he had stopped struggling so hard against his restrains. A smile of
satisfaction crossed Black’s features.
“Soon, you will be ours, Colonel
White,” he said quietly. “And you will
do the bidding of the Mysterons.” He
turned away from the window and walked toward the door Shelby had used some
minutes earlier. “And then, when we have done with you… you will die.”