This story takes place approximately a year after the War of Nerves started, and
shortly before Captain Scarlet and Rhapsody Angel became a couple.
A “Captain Scarlet & the Mysterons” story
By Chris Bishop
CHAPTER 9
Scarlet woke up with a start and
quickly rose to a sitting position, a cry mounting to his lips. He sat there, breathing hard and looking
into the empty space in front of him. He hugged himself; he was shirt-less,
covered with sweat and shivering uncontrollably. In the semi-darkness
surrounding him, he could see only a flickering light, coming from an old oil
lamp.
He realised he was indoors, seated
on a thick blanket spread on a hard floor where he had previously lain
half-covered by another blanket, which now lay in a heap across his lap.
He heard a creaking sound that made
him swiftly turn his head to his right. Standing not far from him, Rhapsody Angel
was activating an old manual water pump set over a large steel basin. When water started to pour, she quickly
filled a metal cup and crouched by Scarlet’s side. She gently touched his bare shoulder and
offered the cup. He shivered under
her touch.
“Here, take some of this, you must
be thirsty.” He eyed the cup then the old pump with suspicion and she smiled at
him reassuringly. “Don’t worry, the water is good. I think there’s some kind of filter
inside the pump system. It’s the
same kind of pump inside the cabin.”
He nodded absently, barely taking
her words in, and accepted the cup. He drained its contents with one large
gulp. Rhapsody took the cup, filled it again
and returned to him. He drank half
of the water this time.
“Are you all right?” the young
woman asked softly, as he put down the cup.
Scarlet shook his head and closed
his eyes; he felt nauseous just at the thought that was coming to his mind.
The nightmare he had just had was so vivid, he was certain it wasn’t
just
a nightmare, but instead a very unpleasant memory.
“I killed a kid,” he said between
two breaths.
Rhapsody frowned at his words. “Do
you mean one of those two boys who attacked us?” she inquired. “You said that one of them had escaped. So the other –”
“… Is dead, yes,” Scarlet confirmed
with a brief nod. “But I didn’t kill
him. He fell into quicksand and I tried to save him, but… I couldn’t. I’m
talking about another boy.”
He opened his eyes. “I had another flashback… something new this time. Something… horrible.”
Rhapsody sat in front of him. “Tell
me about it?”
Scarlet stared at her for a few
seconds, hesitating. He didn’t know
if he wanted to burden her with such a story. He didn’t know what she would think of
him. He saw her encouraging smile
and finally, he nodded, if still reluctantly:
“I was in a war… wearing a uniform,
quite similar to those men who are after us. I was isolated, walking in a
deserted village; all around, there was only destruction and death. I had a small child in my arms… a little
girl of about three years old. I think she was the lone survivor of a massacre.
I didn’t know who she was, but I knew my duty was to protect her and see her to
safety.” He swallowed hard. “Then someone – a soldier I think – appeared
out of nowhere and charged us. He
had a sword taped to his rifle, and was trying to use it as a bayonet. I don’t know if he was trying to kill me
or the child I held in my arms… In
my mind, I know he was part of those who had attacked the village and killed
everyone.”
“What happened?” Rhapsody asked
softly.
“I got hurt by that blade of his.
Not too badly, but I knew it would only be a question of seconds before the
soldier would hurt me more seriously, or the child. So I shot him, almost instinctively. And then, as he fell dead at my feet, I
saw his eyes, filled with hatred and rage… and I realised he was only a boy.”
Scarlet shook his head again, his eyes fixed into emptiness. “He must have been fifteen or sixteen… I
can’t say for sure.” He shuddered
and turned to face a grim-looking Rhapsody. “Dianne… What kind of a man am I?”
She frowned at his question. “A
good man,” she said without hesitation.
“A good man?” Scarlet looked at her
fixedly. “Who doesn’t hesitate to kill children?”
“Paul…” Rhapsody sighed deeply and reached to
squeeze his hand between hers. “You’re a
soldier – you’ve been one all of your adult life, and trained to be the best
there is. I know you’ve been in many hot spots around the world. I think the boy must have been a child
soldier. Those unfortunate children
who’ve been trained, and forced to kill with total ruthlessness in many Third
World countries? Many of them can’t help themselves... It’s like they’re
brainwashed, used by unscrupulous people, threatened into obeying their orders
and making war, and sometimes, they don’t even know any other life.”
“Like the Mysterons do to their
agents,” Scarlet said in a bleak voice.
“Well, not quite, but the same
results of spreading death and destruction are there, yes.”
“How can people be so cruel as to do that to
kids?” Scarlet murmured. “And how could I have agreed to wage war on children?”
“I don’t think you would agree to
do this willingly. Paul, the event you’ve described seems to me like an
unfortunate chance encounter. I know you well enough to know that, given the
chance, you would never have killed that boy.
You did it because you probably had no choice.”
He nodded slowly. “He was trying to
kill me – I just reacted to save my life, and that of the little girl I carried.
When I saw he was just a boy – I was horrified.”
Rhapsody smiled sadly. “That’s the
reaction I would expect from you. You don’t talk much about your life as a
soldier – actually, you don’t like
to talk about it. So I presume there
was some experience you don’t even want to think about. You always said that war is hell, and
that there was nothing glorious about it.
You did what you had to do because of your sense of duty – not because you
enjoyed it.”
“And why’s that?” Scarlet asked
briskly. “Why would I put myself
through it?”
“Because you reckoned someone had
to do it – and you were willing and able to?” Rhapsody squeezed his hand. “I don’t know
all your motivations, but as I said – you’re a good man, as well as a man of
duty. It runs deep in your family.
Your father, your grandfather, your great-grandfather…
They were all willing to do what they believed to be right, for the
benefit of the greater good. And
from what I understand, the same could be said of either your father’s or
mother’s side.”
“My family,” he whispered in a
voice filled with regret. “I wish I could remember them right now…
But I can’t even remember their faces, or their names.
Do I have a large family? Brothers? Sisters?”
“You only have your father and
mother. You’re an only child, just like me. But you once told me you have many
cousins, with whom you grew up. Your
parents… they think the world of you.”
“I suppose that’s a normal reaction
of any parent towards their child,” Scarlet commented. “Especially if it’s an only child.”
“Perhaps. But they’re particularly
proud of you, and of the work you’re doing.
They know you’re making a difference.” Rhapsody smiled reassuringly.
“Never doubt you’re one of the original good guys, Paul Metcalfe. Remember what
you said yourself earlier – you tried to save that boy’s life when he fell into
quicksand, despite all he might have done to you.”
“Not only to me, but to Joe – and
to you as well.” Scarlet nodded
again, trying to take in all of this new information. Somehow, Rhapsody’s words felt right to
him. He could remember the horror he had felt
during this terrible nightmarish flashback – how the thought of having killed a
boy filled him with such revulsion.
He would not have reacted this way if he had been a cold-blooded killer.
He was calming down and his
breathing had returned to normal; he shook himself, feeling that it might not be
the time right now to feel sorry for himself and to brood over some
uncomfortable, past memory, that he could do nothing about. They had enough problems to consider for
the moment.
He looked at his surroundings with curiosity. He and Rhapsody were in a small room, with the
walls made of half-rotten wooden boards; the piece of blanket they were sitting
on had been thrown directly onto a hard, beaten mud floor. In one corner, just
by the water pump he had seen earlier, there was a small boat, turned upside
down, set on trestles.
Scarlet remembered Rhapsody’s
earlier words about the cabin having a similar pump. He frowned.
“We’re not in Joe’s house.”
“No, we’re not,” Rhapsody
confirmed. “We’re in the shed, not far from the river.”
“Why not the cabin? Seems to me, we would be more comfortable there
than here.”
The Angel pilot raised a perfect
eyebrow. “Indeed, we would. But perhaps you recall you lost consciousness just
outside this shed? You’re a bit too heavy
for me to haul all the way to the cabin, Captain. Getting you in here was
easier. And beside, strategically, taking cover inside the cabin would have been
an unwise move. We’re much safer
here.”
“We are?”
“Either Montgomery or that Jasper
boy – when they arrive, they’ll expect to find us in the cabin.”
Scarlet nodded. “I see.
They won’t surprise us if they should barge in there.”
“No. And the joke’ll be on them,”
Rhapsody said with a faint, mysterious smile.
“What do you mean?”
“I left a surprise in the cabin.
Let’s say that if someone does
indeed barge in – he might regret it deeply.”
Rhapsody left it there, and Scarlet
didn’t pursue the subject. Instead, he looked down at himself. He couldn’t find any injury on his naked
chest; his skin was unmarked where the arrows had hit him. There wasn’t even a
single scar. “This thing you call retrometabolism… It seems to be working
overtime,” he groused. “How long was
I out?”
“About four hours. It’s night right now.”
“Our ‘friends’ haven’t shown up
yet, I take it.”
Rhapsody shook her head. “No.
And I expect we’ll be quiet until morning.
But just in case, I took some safety measures.” She pointed towards a thick
blanket which was hanging from one of the walls, next to the door.
“That’s the only window. I
covered it and filled all the cracks in the walls, so that the light won’t get
out and give away our position. I
also surrounded the place with tripwires, fixed to empty cans and bottles. The noise that will make should be enough
to wake the dead, let alone alert us to anyone sneaking up on us.”
Scarlet gave her a fond smile,
nodding appreciatively. “You have been busy. Where did you learn these tricks?”
“From you, actually. You were our
instructor in survival within enemy territory, when we were training in Koala
Base, two years ago. You always told us to make sure our position was secured.
Especially when you’re left on your own, and don’t expect any back up to come to
your rescue.”
“So I take it – you didn’t find any
communication device that you might use to contact Spectrum, then?”
“No, I’m afraid not,” Rhapsody replied, grimly
shaking her head.
“Joe must have called the sheriff
with a portable or similar device which stayed with him when they took his body
back to Les Arbrisseaux,” Scarlet mused.
“At seven tomorrow morning, it will
be twenty-four hours since we reported to Cloudbase,” Rhapsody commented. “We’ll
be considered missing in action.”
“They’re probably looking for us,
aren’t they?”
“Possibly, yes. That is, if they’re not too busy with the
Mysterons. I don’t know what their latest threat was all about. However, considering current events, it
seems to implicate the microchip we were sent to retrieve in the first place.
Normally, if Spectrum knows this, this area would be swarming with agents,
looking for us and the microchip as well. I haven’t even seen or heard an Angel
jet anywhere around here. And believe me, there’s no way we would miss that
sound.”
“So that makes you wonder if
Spectrum does know of our situation?”
Rhapsody shifted her position to make herself
more comfortable before answering: “Yes, it does. And that’s odd in itself. I
wouldn’t think the storm that interfered with our communication in the morning
is still raging over the Atlantic. Mind you, it was a monster storm, and it’s
still
a possibility, however unlikely. In any case, “It looks like we’re on our own
for a little while longer.”
She picked up from the floor behind
her the knife she had found in the boat earlier that day, the crossbow with its
quiver of arrows, and a handgun that Scarlet recognised as Mahoney’s.
She put all that between the two of them.
“At Koala Base, you also told us to
be prepared with whatever weapons we had to hand,” she explained. “That’s all
we’ve got to defend ourselves with. There are still ten rounds in the gun, and I
found a full clip in Mahoney’s equipment. Oh, by the way…” She twisted around and picked up a neatly
folded shirt that she handed to Scarlet. “Here, put this on. I threw the other one away.
And,” she added, taking a small basket from behind her again, putting it on the
floor between them, right next to the weapons,” I also have something for you to
eat.”
“Thank you, I’m famished.” Scarlet
slipped into the shirt, without bothering to button it up, and noticed she was
also wearing one, quite similar to his own and far too large for her. He
realised she must have taken both from inside the cabin, from Joe’s clothing.
“You took the opportunity to change as well, I see.”
She smiled thinly. “My sweater was
totally disgusting,” she said, grimacing at the mention of it. “And I also thought that this would be
warmer for the night.”
Scarlet opened the basket and
peered into it to find small pieces of roast meat that looked inviting.
He took one drumstick and bit into it.
“Cold chicken?” he asked, chewing vigorously.
Rhapsody shook her head. “It tastes
like it, but I doubt it’s chicken.
There might not be many running wild in the bayou, if you ask me.”
“Aren’t you going to eat?”
“I ate earlier, while you were
unconscious.”
Scarlet nodded. “Which is why you
know this tastes like chicken,” he commented, taking another bite. “Not bad, I
must say – even if I’m not sure exactly what it might be. Maybe it’s swamp lizard?”
Rhapsody made a face again. “I’m
not sure I really want to know.” She watched her companion with
fascination, while he devoured the drumstick. He certainly looked like he was starving.
Scarlet swallowed the last bite
from the drumstick and fished another from the basket. “How about your arm,
Dianne? I trust you changed the dressing on it as well?”
She nodded slowly in answer to his
question, and to show him, pulled up her left sleeve to show the new, clean
bandage wrapped around her arm. It seemed like an odd coincidence that he should
ask, as it was her next topic of conversation.
“I did more than that, actually,”
she said, pulling down the sleeve. “I was lucky enough to find a fully-stocked
first-aid kit and medicine cabinet inside the cabin… which includes antibiotics.
So I took the opportunity to clean my many cuts and bruises properly.”
“Antibiotics?” Scarlet echoed,
raising a brow.
“And not the kind of antibiotics
you find on the shelves of a pharmacy, either. Rather the kind you would need to
have access to a hospital or a doctor to get.” Rhapsody tilted her head to one side,
scrutinising Scarlet intensely. “What do you know of this Joe Benson exactly?
Was he some kind of doctor?”
“I asked him the same question,
actually,” Scarlet said, swallowing his latest bite. “When I first woke up, and
discovered how he’d patched me up. Very professionally, it seemed to me.
He said he wasn’t a doctor, but… I
had the impression he wasn’t being entirely truthful.”
“Well, he might have had some
training – and some contacts, certainly, to have the kind of medicine he kept in
his cabinet.”
“That seems odd, for a man living
as a hermit in the middle of the bayou.”
“Very odd indeed. But useful, when you think about it. I
imagine you would be exposed to all sort of illnesses living in here. Or expect to have some dangerous
encounters. And I’m not only talking about animals,
either.”
“Human as well, yes,” Scarlet
grumbled.
“What is it those boys want from
him?” Rhapsody added musingly. “The two who attacked us… they mentioned some
‘dough’.”
“Money,” Scarlet realised.
“Yes – they thought we might have
been after it ourselves.”
“It’s insane.
Joe didn’t strike me as a rich man.
He lived very simply here, in the middle of nowhere. He wouldn’t have any… ‘dough’, these boys
would want to get their hands on.”
Scarlet threw away what was left of
his drumstick and picked another piece from the basket. Rhapsody followed him with fascination as
he bit into it.
“How can we say, Paul? You didn’t
know that old man very well.
You only met him a few hours ago – just before he was killed.”
“True,” Scarlet admitted with a
slow nod. “And he wasn’t very talkative about himself. I remember – when he died, he asked me to
‘not let them get it’.”
“‘Them’, the boys – and ‘it’… the
money?” Rhapsody suggested.
Scarlet shrugged. “I can only
guess, yes. But still, it seems so
unlikely.”
“Joe obviously knew the exact
reason why he was killed,” Rhapsody commented. “I guess the only other people
who know that would be his killers.”
“If I ever get the opportunity,
I’ll make sure that little bastard Jasper tells me,” Scarlet promised in a
growl. “If I can keep myself from wringing his miserable neck, that is.” He
looked straight at Rhapsody. “When you checked Joe’s cabin earlier… I imagine
you also searched for the microchip?
You haven’t mentioned it yet.”
She nodded, a little hesitantly. Indeed, if she had not talked about it
before, it was for a good reason. “I went in there specifically to search for
it, yes.”
“Did you find it, then?”
Rhapsody chewed on her bottom lip.
“No,” she said after a brief moment of reflection. “I didn’t find it.”
“It wasn’t in the basket where I
threw it?” Scarlet asked with puzzlement.
“The basket was empty.
The remnants of your uniform weren’t in there either.
Oh, I know they had been there,” Rhapsody quickly added as she saw her companion
ready to argue. “I found traces of blood on the basket.
But I’m guessing someone took them out of there.”
“Well, it sure wasn’t Joe,” Scarlet
replied.
“Maybe it was the sheriff, then,”
Rhapsody suggested. “They would be viewed as evidence.”
“Perhaps,” Scarlet said pensively.
“Masters knew I was wearing some kind of camo uniform when Joe found me.
Joe must have told him when he called him.
So he actually might have taken the uniform from the basket… and the microchip
as well?”
“That’s quite possible, yes. I
almost turned the cabin upside down to find the microchip – thinking that it might have
rolled on the floor, maybe… I found
no trace of it.”
“So now we don’t know where it
could be. Maybe it’s still in Les Arbrisseaux… at the sheriff’s station.”
Rhapsody shook her head. “That’s
possible, but I rather think he might have brought it with him, along with the
rest of the evidence, when he was on his way to deliver you to Spectrum – as he
imagined he was doing.”
“You mean – it could still be in
the car?”
“Very likely. Do you remember seeing anything in the
car that might have contained it? A
box, a bag…?”
“No, but I was sitting in the back,
with the deputy. Masters was
driving. If the evidence, as you
call it, was there, it was with him on the front seat. Or in the boot.”
“I don’t remember seeing anything
like that in the boot. That’s where
I found the shotgun I rescued you with.”
Scarlet grunted with irritation.
“Talk about rotten luck. We were so
close to it… all we had to do was check that car and –”
“Don’t beat yourself up,” Rhapsody
interrupted him. “We didn’t really have time, did we? And beside, we have no way to know for
sure the microchip was there, to begin
with.”
“No… But if it was in there, and still is, and
the Mysterons find it –”
“They surely don’t know it could be
there,” Rhapsody reasoned. “No more than they would think it could have been
here either.”
“But they’re probably still after
us, because they think we know of its whereabouts.” Scarlet sighed, shaking his
head pessimistically. “This really is a fine mess we’re in, Dianne.
What should we do now?”
“For tonight? Nothing.”
Scarlet stared at the young woman questioningly
and she shrugged. “For the moment, we shouldn’t worry needlessly. We’re safe
right now, with a roof over our heads, and our wounds tended to.”
“Your wounds, you mean,” Scarlet
retorted, a little dryly.
“Our location is secured,” Rhapsody
continued, ignoring his interruption. “We have food, water and weapons, and
we’ll be able to get some rest, by taking turns to keep watch. Just in case someone takes advantage of
darkness to sneak up on us. Though I think it very unlikely. Then in the morning
– we’ll be able to work out what to do next.”
Scarlet grinned at her, if a little
weakly. “You’re an optimistic kind of girl, aren’t you?”
“I certainly am. I’ve always looked
on the bright side of things – every cloud has a silver lining.”
Scarlet grimaced at these words.
“I’m looking hard, but I fail to see where it could be exactly in
this
cloud. It seems pretty dark to
me!”
“Not that much. We can eat to our hearts’ content, for
example.” Rhapsody pointed to the basket between her and Scarlet. During their
conversation, he had managed to eat half of its contents.
“Pass me some of that bird while there is some left… If it really is a
bird. Looking at you eat like an
horse is making me hungry again.”
Scarlet chuckled and reached for
the basket; but in the same movement, he knocked over the half-filled cup by his
side, next to the blanket they were sitting on. The water splashed on the
ground, running towards Rhapsody who instinctively shifted her position to
escape getting wet.
“Oh, sorry, how clumsy of me –”
Scarlet interrupted himself when he
heard the sharp yelp from Rhapsody; he looked at her in concern, and saw the
scowl on her face as she squirmed from her sitting place. She seemed in some
sort of pain.
“What is it?” he asked.
“Were you hurt earlier? Your arm –”
“I wasn’t hurt earlier and my arm
is all right,” she retorted promptly. “No, I… sat on something…”
Rhapsody rose to her knees and
altered her position again, looking at the spot where she had previously sat.
There was a bulge under the blanket, and she pulled back the fabric to check
what it could be.
A metallic ring, as large as a
hand, all rusted and half-covered with dirt, protruded from the ground where it
was half-buried. Rhapsody brushed from it what remained of the dust and tried to
pick it up, only to realise it wouldn’t budge. It seemed fixed there, in something
invisible.
By her side, Scarlet had knelt as
well, and was also looking down at the curious object. “What the devil is this
thing?”
That’s when he noticed the spilled
water was drawing rivulets in the layer of dirt, before finishing its course,
trickling down into a very narrow gap in the ground.
Scarlet narrowed his eyes, as he
checked the phenomenon more closely.
This crack didn’t seem natural to him.
He helped Rhapsody sweep more of the dry dirt aside, digging around the
ring. Barely two or three centimetres beneath the surface, they discovered three
ranks of old wooden planks, laid out flat side by side.
“Looks like floorboards,” Scarlet
commented.
But Rhapsody shook her head.
“Not exactly.”
Brushing away more of the dirt, she
discovered the boards were not covering the entire floor. There were only five of them, and the ring was
fixed to the one in the middle. She swiftly got up and went to fetch the old oil
lamp, along with a flashlight, that she had found earlier in her search of the
cabin. She returned and put the lamp
between them, and kneeling next to her companion, she used the flashlight to
highlight their discovery.
“It looks more like a trap door,”
she commented. She knocked her
knuckles on one of the planks, and it gave a hollow sound. “It seems to cover a hole in the ground.”
“Probably meant to hide it?”
Scarlet suggested. “Or something
in it? Shall we find out?”
Rhapsody only hesitated a second or
two. She was as curious as her
colleague to discover what could be beyond these planks. “At this point, why
not?” She seized the ring embedded in the middle board, all the while grousing:
“I certainly hope it isn’t a coffin, and that we won’t find a dead body in
there…”
“There wouldn’t be such an obvious
ring to open it if that were the case,” Scarlet reasoned.
His companion nodded, agreeing on
this conclusion. She pulled on the
ring, but nothing move. “It hasn’t been opened in a long time,” she commented.
She tried again, with no more
success. Scarlet moved to her side.
“Allow me.”
Crouching near her, he seized the
ring and pulled on it with all of his strength; the board creaked and shifted
slightly. With a second, stronger
tug, the ring tore itself from where it was fixed, taking a large piece of board
with it. Scarlet nearly fell on his
rear, and it was Rhapsody who helped him keep his footing. Both looked down at the large gap in the
broken board.
Scarlet threw the ring aside and
inserted both of his hands into the hole to pull the broken board out of its
place. Already dislodged by his
earlier efforts, it came out more easily, breaking at the end on which he was
standing. He moved aside to remove a
second board, which stood a good four feet long. The third came off
effortlessly, and they now stood next to a gaping, dark opening of about two
feet wide and four feet long.
They peered into the hole, but it
was so dark that they couldn’t even see the bottom. Rhapsody lighted the
interior with the flashlight. The light shone on two large, bulky, spherical
objects, about three feet down, covered with dirt; at first glance, they looked
like huge round boulders.
“There’s something in there,” the
Angel commented. “But… I can’t see what it could be.”
Scarlet lay flat on his belly and
tried to reach for one of the objects; his fingers only grazed the surface,
drawing three streaks in the thick dust covering it. From the texture, he realised it was made
out of fabric. They were not stones
at all.
He sat up, and swung his feet into
the hole before lowering himself into it. Rhapsody handed him the flashlight and he
crouched down to ground level, his body entering the hole completely.
The space underneath the remaining
planks was narrow, the sides all covered with spider webs, and the air musty,
and Scarlet had the impression of being inside a grave. Not wanting to stay in here longer than
was really necessary, he reached the same object he had attempted to catch
earlier. It was a large bag made of sturdy
cotton-like material, plump with its contents, and tied at the top by a rope. He pulled on the object to find it was
heavy; dust fell from it as he lifted it to the floor above his head. Rhapsody was waiting for it, and helped
him roll it onto the floor. He
grabbed the second object – another bag – and brought it up as well. He found a third and a fourth bags at the
bottom of the hole, similar to the first two. He lifted them up as well, one by
one, and then checked the bottom of the hole with attention, to see if there
weren’t more of them. That was all there
were.
Scarlet stood up from his crouching
position, extricating himself from the hole to join Rhapsody.
He was covered with cobwebs and dirt, and he dusted himself vigorously.
Rhapsody was examining the four
bags with curiosity. She looked at
Scarlet with an inquiring look and he shook his head.
“I wonder what’s in them?” he said musingly.
Rhapsody was sweeping the dirt from
the side of the first bag.
The thick layer fell to reveal words printed on the fabric:
Property of the World Bank of New
Orleans
Both Spectrum officers exchanged
glances and out of impulse, simultaneously and hurriedly reached for the rope
holding the bag closed. Scarlet undid the knot and loosened it, opening the bag.
Rhapsody shone the beam of the flashlight right into it.
They gasped when they saw the
contents.
There were literally thousands of
World Government banknotes, bundled in thick wads in the bag.
“Oh my God…” Scarlet breathed,
attracting Rhapsody’s attention, and causing her to turn the light on him. “This
must be Riley’s loot!”
* * *
It wasn’t exactly the first time
Jasper Holland had stayed out in the bayou for the night. The danger wasn’t exactly with staying there,
as long as you had a fire to keep the predators away, but in trekking through it
by night, when you could have hazardous encounters or fall into a bottomless
pit. Fond of the fact that nobody would risk coming into the swamp to bother
them, he and his gang had set up various rudimentary camps such as this one, all
over the area, that they would invariably use whenever they felt like it.
Usually, they would settle around a fire, drink beer and other alcoholic
beverages, have a smoke or two, even entertain themselves with a couple of
girls, when the occasion arose. The camps were well-adapted to their
needs: a couple of shelters made from lopped off branches, a thick bed of
leaves, dispersed around a fire set in the middle of the clearing and at a safe
distance from it, were all the boys needed for their temporary comfort. When
they finally settled in for the night, exhausted by their pursuit of fun, that
would normally be after they had consumed such a quantity of booze that they
could barely feel the chills of the night.
Tonight, it was totally different.
Having downed only a couple of
beers each, Jasper Holland and Dallas Fenmore were not inebriated enough to be
well-protected against the cold. That particularly got on Dallas’ nerves: Jasper
would not allow them to get drunk, as he had the feeling that they might need
all their wits in the morning to resume the hunt.
And that was what concerned Jasper
the most and made him very bad company that night. The two strangers had successfully evaded
him, and he had no idea where they could be, though he felt pretty sure they
were still somewhere in the vicinity.
They couldn’t have returned to town, and the direction they had chosen with the
boat could only get them deeper into Devil’s Bayou and further away from any
civilisation. Jasper and his
companions had covered all the possible tracks their prey could have used to
retrace their steps, and there had been no trace of them.
They couldn’t have gotten very far,
and Jasper didn’t dare call off the hunt so that he and his friends could
temporarily return to the comfort of their respective homes and start again in
the morning where they had left off. Any time lost could give the strangers
the opportunity to escape and Jasper couldn’t afford that.
“They probably died in there,”
Dallas commented. He was seated in
front of the other shelter, sucking on his last bottle of beer, and didn’t seem
as concerned as his leader was.
That annoyed Jasper, to realise how oblivious his companion was to the
menace hanging over their heads.
“Would you really count on it,
Dallas?” he asked with only a hint of irritation in his voice. “Maybe they don’t know Devil’s Bayou as
well as we do, but they’re not stupid.
They wouldn’t roam around the place after dark.
So they probably settled somewhere for the night. Much as we’re doing
right now.”
“I’m cold,” Dallas complained. “We
should have returned to Ol’ McCullen’s place to spend the night there. It isn’t
that far, and –”
“Don’t be stupid! You want the
freak and the girl to escape us?” Jasper threw a piece of dry wood into the
fire. “Damn them,” he muttered darkly. “I’m gonna
make them pay for makin’ us look for them for this
long.”
“I bet you anything ‘Crow and Jamie
are there, with Johnny as well,” Dallas commented. “At McCullen’s, I mean.”
“They better not be,” Jasper growled ominously. “But it worries me that we ain’t
heard from them yet.”
Rustling of leaves and snapping of
twigs coming from behind the trees nearby startled both boys and they swiftly
jumped to their feet, reaching for their weapons. At night, nothing good could come from
the bayou, and so they were ready to meet any unwelcome visitors coming their
way. They raised their guns in the direction
of the noises, fingers on the triggers.
They were surprised to see
Scarecrow, springing out of the bushes. He was panting hard, his clothes were
dirty and torn in places, and he had scratches all over his face and arms,
obviously made by the lashing branches he had run through. He gasped in alarm when he saw the guns
aimed at him and he raised his hands in fear.
“Don’t shoot, it’s me!”
Jasper lowered his rifle, imitated
by Dallas; he glared with vexation at the newcomer who was stumbling towards one
of the shelters. “Where were you, you idiot?”
Scarecrow slumped onto the bed of
leaves, seemingly not having heard Jasper, nor recognising how furious he
sounded. He was breathing hard, and
looked haggard and exhausted. “Thank God I found you,” he moaned piteously. “I
ran all the way trying to find this camp…
I hoped I would find you here, but I lost the trail… I thought I would go in circles in the
bayou until I fell into some pit of quicksand…”
“I’ve been trying to call you all
evening on your cellphone,” Jasper snapped, approaching him quickly. “You and
Jamie… But none of you answered! Where did you come from?”
Scarecrow reached for the flask of
water resting against a stone just within reach and swallowed a large gulp.
Feeling he was being ignored and not liking it at all, Jasper tore the flask
from his friend’s hands.
“I asked ya a question, ‘Crow!
Why didn’t you answer when I called?”
“My phone… must have run out of
juice,” Scarecrow answered, his hand reaching frantically for the flask.
Jasper pulled it out of his reach.
“Please, Jasper, I’m so thirsty,” Scarecrow pleaded, trying to catch it.
“Give me some.”
“You’ll answer first, you sissy,”
Jasper seethed between his teeth. “Where’s Jamie?”
“Please, Jasper…”
“I said – where’s Jamie?” Jasper shouted with
exasperation.
“Jamie’s dead!”
The exclamation surprised Jasper so
much that he stopped making further effort to stop Scarecrow from taking the
flask out of his hand. He watched in complete shock while his
seated friend greedily drained half of the flask’s contents. Dallas swiftly approached them and came
to stand by Jasper; he looked down at Scarecrow with disbelief.
“Dead? How come he’s dead?”
Scarecrow, his thirst satisfied,
lowered the flask; he was still breathing hard. “The freak,” he explained. “He
must have killed him.”
Jasper tore the flask from his
hands again. “You mean you’re not
sure?” he asked impatiently.
Scarecrow shook his head nervously.
“The last time I saw Jamie, he was up to his waist in quicksand and he was
begging the freak to get him out…
I ran like hell… I could hear Jamie pleading and crying behind me. And
then, I heard a horrible scream… and then nothing.” He looked up at Jasper in desperation.
“Jamie’s dead, I’m sure of it.”
Jasper looked down at him with a
hard expression. “So you found them. The freak and the girl. Why didn’t you call us? You’re telling me Jamie’s phone ran out
of juice too?”
“We didn’t have time.
The freak surprised us –”
“You mean he was the one to find you, then?”
“No, we found them. And we tried to
get them, and it looked like we had them where we wanted… But everything went
wrong suddenly and –”
“You tried to tackle them by yourselves!?” Jasper interrupted him in
so forceful a voice that it startled Scarecrow. “You idiots! Why did you need to do something so stupid!? You knew the
freak was a handful! I
told you, if you should find them, to
call us! All together, we could have taken them
easily!”
He stood over Scarecrow at his full
height, raising the butt of his rifle, obviously tempted to hit him with it.
The other boy cowered in fear, raising his arms in a futile gesture of
protection.
“I – I’m sorry, Jasper.
We thought – that is, Jamie thought –”
“I don’t care what Jamie thought! Jamie was a moron!” Jasper yelled at
him. “A complete, idiotic bonehead, who had
no business going against my instructions! He thought he knew better and it
got him killed! And you’re very lucky I don’t kill you myself, for good measure!”
Scarecrow blanched at the threat.
Dallas blinked, feeling suddenly nervous.
“Hey, Jasper, take it easy, man.”
“You shut up, you!” Jasper warned, turning to
glare angrily at Dallas. “You’re telling me you’re happy those two morons let our prey escape and that one of them got
killed in the process? We’re down one man, and we’ll be lucky to find the freak
and the girl now!” He turned back to
Scarecrow, eyes glowering. “Where did you two find them?”
Scarecrow hesitated to answer right
away. He swallowed hard. “At Ol’
Joe’s place,” he revealed reluctantly.
Jasper narrowed his eyes at him.
“Joe’s place? What the hell where you doing so far into the bayou? That’s not
exactly the parts I told you to check!”
“J-Jamie had a thought…
That maybe the freak was going back there?” Scarecrow suggested.
It was obvious he was trying to find a pretext, and he wasn’t succeeding very
well.
“Is that so? So why didn’t Jamie
tell me about that?”
“I- I don’t know,” Scarecrow said,
stuttering.
“Don’t lie to me, ‘Crow!”
Jasper roared, standing menacingly over him.
“I’m not lying!” the other boy
cried out, in near desperation. “It was Jamie’s idea, I swear! We went there, and… and we did well to
go, you see? We did find the freak!
And we heard him and the girl talk.”
He rose to his knees and leaned towards his friend, to add in a lower, almost
conspiratorial voice: “They were
talking about Riley’s loot.”
That drove Jasper into silence and
he simply glowered down at Scarecrow with a look so fierce murder could easily
been seen in his eyes.
As for Dallas, the revelation had
astonished him so much he simply couldn’t believe it. “No way!” he countered
sharply. “How would they know about that?”
“I don’t know.” Scarecrow quickly
got to his feet and stood in front of his companions. “Maybe Joe told his secret to the freak?
Remember what the old geezer said to him when he died, Jasper?” he added,
turning to address the blond boy directly.
“He asked him to not let us get it… Riley’s loot, of course! So he must have told him already! That’s why he went back to Joe’s place
with the girl – to get the money for themselves!
And they must still be there right now.
I’m sure of it!”
“Why would Joe tell a complete
stranger about Riley’s money?” Jasper asked with suspicion.
“Maybe he wasn’t a complete
stranger to Joe, after all,” Dallas suggested quickly. “Remember, the guy doesn’t remember a
thing about himself. Maybe he was
already a friend of Joe’s.”
“Doesn’t quite add up,” Jasper
grumbled. “But that ain’t important,
right now.” He glared again at
Scarecrow. “You’re sure these two
are still at Joe’s cabin?”
“I’m positive, Jasper,” Scarecrow
answered with a nervous nod. “They couldn’t be anywhere else. The freak was wounded – and I think the
girl was too. They needed shelter…
at least for the night.”
“If they went to Ol’ Joe’s place to
get Riley’s money,” Dallas then reasoned, “they won’t leave without it.”
“When we found them, it was already
late,” Scarecrow added energetically. “They wouldn’t be able to cross the bayou
before nightfall.”
“Especially knowing we were after
‘em,” Jasper concluded ominously.
He mulled over this new
information, thinking of what needed to be done now. If the strangers were after Riley’s loot,
then it was all the more reason to get rid of them. Not only were they unwanted witnesses,
but they also were potential competitors the gang could do without.
He didn’t care about Jamie Lewis’
death; on the contrary, it rather suited him fine. Jamie had a wild streak that had always
made him difficult to manage; it was never really certain what he would do next,
or what kind of trouble he would get himself into.
He was as immoral and vicious as Jasper himself, but he wasn’t very
bright, and his lack of scruples made him potentially dangerous. Jasper was sure that one day he would
have had to kill Jamie himself, if only to avoid being killed by him.
He rather enjoyed the irony that
O’Hara had done the deed for him; this way, he wouldn’t need to dirty his hands.
Besides, with Jamie gone, it meant there was one share less to worry
about.
Jasper was convinced that Jamie had
ulterior motives to go to Joe’s cabin in the first place; it certainly wasn’t
because he thought that O’Hara and his girlfriend would be there. Something else
was on his mind, and Jasper had a pretty good idea what this something was. And
he also suspected that Scarecrow knew all about Jamie’s reasons to go to Joe’s.
He narrowed his eyes suspiciously
at the taller boy, looking deep into his eyes; he could see fear in them, and
extreme nervousness.
Scarecrow’s mind was far from being at ease.
“You wouldn’t lie to me, would you,
‘Crow?” Jasper asked him very slowly, almost sweetly.
“No, Jasper. Of course not.”
“Because I wouldn’t like it if you
were lying to me. And if I ever find out you were lying, you wouldn’t like it
either, that you can be sure of.”
Scarecrow looked deep into Jasper’s
cold eyes and could see the barely concealed threat hanging over his head.
He swallowed hard, and tried to present a brave façade. “You know you can always
count on me, Jasper.”
He was relieved to see it seemed to
be sufficient for Jasper, as the latter gave him the flask of water in an almost
friendly gesture.
However, there was still the same coldness in his eyes when he spoke:
“Good then. ‘Cause we’ll need you,
‘Crow. You, Dallas and me, we’ll go
to Joe’s cabin, first thing tomorrow morning.
And we’ll kill the freak and his girl and will finally get our hands on
Riley’s money. We’ve been working
too hard to get it – we won’t let a
couple of strangers run away with it.”
“How about Johnny, Jasper?” Dallas
asked him. “Shouldn’t we wait for him? We could use his help too.”
“That useless bum ain’t answering
his phone either,” Jasper snapped. “I’ve been trying all day to reach him to ask
if he had done what he was instructed to do. I hope he didn’t mess things up…
‘Cause he sure will be regretting it. I won’t let him get between us and the
money either.” He nodded quietly. “We ain’t got time to wait for him, anyway. We’ll have to leave at first light, if we
want to surprise our prey.”
Dallas chuckled. “As you said,
Johnny is useless. I rather think he
got lost in the bayou.”
“Good,” Jasper said with an evil
sneer. “If he fell in the same quicksand as Jamie, that sure would suit me fine.
I can do without another bonehead and that’ll make more money to share between
the three of us.”
If these last words made Dallas
cackle wickedly, it sent a shiver down Scarecrow’s spine, and he felt his throat
tightening so uncomfortably that he was unable to take the gulp of water he was
about to drink from the flask.
The thought that Jasper’s comments
could also include him sank into his mind and suddenly made him feel very
concerned about his own safety.
* * *
“Riley?” Rhapsody repeated,
frowning at Scarlet’s words. “Hang
on a minute… you mean… that thief those murderous young bastards were raving
about when they tried to string you up?”
Scarlet nodded slowly, shivering
despite himself at he recalled those uncomfortable moments while he was dangling
from the rope that was slowly strangling him. “You heard?”
“Some of it, yes. Though I was a little preoccupied in
finding a way to help you at that moment.
As I understand it – he was found hanged himself in Devil’s Bayou, years ago?”
Scarlet nodded again, as he tried
to recall the exact words of Jasper and his friends. Somehow, the clues were now slowly coming
into place. “He was killed by an unknown killer – and his loot was never
recovered.”
“That would mean…”
“Joe,” Scarlet realised. “Joe was
Riley’s killer.” He looked at the bags with disbelief, and then glanced at the
hole beside which he and his companion sat. “And he kept the loot under there,
all this time.”
“And that’s the ‘dough’, Jasper and
the others want,” Rhapsody added in understanding. She looked into the open bag
between the two of them, and took a wad out to check it out, shaking her head in
wonder. “There’s about twenty thousand in that lump,” she said. “There must a
little over a million in this bag alone.
How much did this Riley steal exactly?”
She looked again into the bag and saw something else that attracted her
attention, and made her frown in puzzlement.
“I don’t know,” Scarlet answered to
her question. “But if it must be a small fortune.” He was puzzled by the
discovery. “But… why? Why did Joe
kill that man, only to keep the money hidden and not use it at all? It doesn’t make any sense!”
“Perhaps we’ll have the answer to
that question with this.”
Scarlet stared inquisitively as Rhapsody
produced from the bag a folded newspaper that she showed him. Together, they looked at the name and the
date marked in the corner.
“The
Time Picayune, Thursday, July 3rd, 2055. It’s nearly fifteen years old…” She
unfolded the paper and took a look at the front page headline. “‘Daring attack
on the New Orleans World Bank’,” she read. “‘Three dead. Robber on the run with
six million dollars.’”
“Six million?” Scarlet repeated,
opening wide eyes. “Wow.”
“A small fortune indeed,” Rhapsody
muttered.
“Jasper did say he and his friends
were very young at the time of the events,” Scarlet commented dryly. “Too young
to have been involved in them. But Joe would certainly have been around
when it happened.” Something
suddenly occurred to him. “Hang on… Three dead?
I remember the boys mentioning two.”
“Apparently, Riley had an accomplice who didn’t
make it,” Rhapsody explained, reading the article by flashlight. “He was shot by
a security guard just as the two thieves were about to make their escape. Riley
killed the guard in retaliation and an employee of the bank got caught in the
crossfire.”
“A young woman, if I remember
correctly.”
Rhapsody nodded in silence,
pursuing her reading. Her eyes
alighted suddenly at the discovery of new information, and she quickly put the
paper on the floor, between her companion and herself. She pointed at one of the
small pictures accompanying the main article. “Here. That’s the picture of the
young woman in question. Check the name.”
The perplexed Scarlet looked down
at the paper; there were two pictures side by side, those of the two victims of
the robbery. One was of a man,
dressed in a smart uniform – obviously the security guard. The other was of a young woman, in her
early twenties, smiling happily at the camera.
“Anita Benson,” he read slowly.
The penny dropped and he looked back at Rhapsody. “Benson?”
She stared back at him. “How much
are you willing to bet she was related to Joe Benson? She might have been his
daughter, perhaps.”
Scarlet was sceptic.
“Wouldn’t that be too much of a coincidence?”
“I’ve seen much more surprising
coincidences, Captain… either while I worked in FAB as a private investigator or
with Spectrum. I think this is highly possible. That would explain why Joe might
have killed Riley. He didn’t kill him for the money, since he apparently didn’t
make use of it. He killed him to avenge the death of this girl. Whoever she was,
she probably meant a great deal to him. And then he hid this fortune. Because
the money represented the girl’s death, to him it was tainted with blood.”
“And somehow, Jasper and his gang
found out,” Scarlet said with a slow, understanding nod. “They wanted the loot
for themselves. They demanded it
from him…”
“And when he refused, they killed
him,” Rhapsody concluded. “You see, it’s all adding up.”
“I see, yes… and I don’t like what
I see, Dianne.” With a deep sigh, Scarlet sat back, a sombre expression spread
across his face. “Here we are, without the microchip that we want to find, and
that the Mysterons are desperate to get – and sitting on money that we
don’t want, and that a gang of murderous young thugs badly want to get their
hands on. It’s a toss up between which of these two
groups will find us first. And neither of the options is really enjoyable.”
He looked back at the young woman.
“And I fear you’re in far more danger than I am.”
Rhapsody seemed puzzled by this
statement. “What makes you say that?
From my point of view, we’re in the same boat.”
“You think?” Scarlet retorted. “I
don’t see it that way. Take the Mysterons for example. If they find
us, and decide to hurt you to force me to tell them where the microchip is… I might not even be able to save you.”
“You would tell them if you knew, in order to
save me?” The young woman asked with a frown.
“Yes. No… I’m not sure.” Scarlet sighed again, this time in
desperation. “I know that if I knew, telling them would sign our death warrant
just as well,” he said, staring into her eyes. “But I can’t bear the thought of
you being hurt… and of me, being totally helpless to stop it.”
“I can take care of myself,”
Rhapsody retorted.
“Yes, I think you demonstrated that
pretty well. But you’re not like me. You’re not indestructible. You can’t return from the dead.”
Scarlet stared at his companion
even more intently. She became
ill-at-ease under his intense scrutiny, and now seemed to try to avoid his eyes.
“You remember that too, then?” she
asked after a moment’s hesitation. “About you being indestructible?”
“Not exactly. Call it a hunch, if
you will. All the clues were there and I worked it out. I, too, can be a good detective when I
put my mind to it. Indestructible, you say. So not only can I heal from any
wound – I will return from death itself.
Isn’t it what it means?”
“Yes,” she admitted reluctantly.
“So far... you did.”
“So in truth, I cannot die.” A
deeper frown creased Scarlet’s brow. “You left that out when you told me the
Mysterons unwittingly gave me ‘healing powers’. What they did to me had a much
profound impact than that.”
“I didn’t know how to tell you all
there was about you,” Rhapsody defended herself. “I didn’t want to totally freak
you out. And I wasn’t quite sure you
would believe me either.”
Scarlet grunted. “Yes, well… I
suppose you meant well,” he muttered. “But given the circumstances, I think I
would have believed you, however odd or preposterous it would have seemed at
first.” He turned his eyes away, and
fixed the emptiness in front of him. “Let me guess how it works: the Mysterons
use dead people and turn them into their agents. Am I right?”
“You guessed that too?” Rhapsody
asked in a downcast voice.
“Mahoney was dead, and then he came
back as a Mysteron agent,” Scarlet replied laconically. “I might be amnesiac,
but I know ordinary people can’t come back from the dead. It doesn’t take a genius to realise it
would need an alien influence to do that.” He stared at Rhapsody again. “So if I
understand correctly, the Mysterons did the same to me. They killed me to make
me one of their slaves, forcing me to do their bidding, hurting people… like
they did with poor Mahoney.”
Rhapsody confirmed this with a sad
nod. “I’m sorry, Paul,” she said in a contrite voice. “Really, I am. I didn’t
want to confuse you more than you were and to cause you unnecessary grief.”
“And they did the same with your Captain Black
too. I suppose he was a good man, to begin with. Before the whole affair with
the Mysterons, I mean?”
Rhapsody nodded again. “He was.
From what I knew of him, he was a man of high ideals, who wanted to make a
difference in the world. He was very
involved with the creation of Spectrum. The members’ selection, the recruiting,
the training… He was Colonel White’s right hand man – a position nobody else has
filled since he was taken over by the Mysterons. Although, one might consider
that you and Captain Blue are making good stand-ins.”
“And he was a friend?”
“To you?” Rhapsody shook her head.
“I guess you were, but not in the sense you are friends with Captain Blue,
that’s for sure. It was obvious you
respected each other greatly. As for
me... well, let’s say that Captain Black and I didn’t exactly get along.”
“Why’s that?” Scarlet inquired with
curiosity.
“Mmm… He never took me seriously.
I’m the youngest pilot in the Angel flight… Not by much, mind you, Melody is
only three months older than me.
But I guess that the fact that she had a previous career as an elite test
pilot for the WAAF played in her favour. That probably made her worthy in his
eyes. I think he only saw me as a thrill-seeking, little rich girl with a title,
whose parents had paid for flying lessons at some point in her life, and who
couldn’t commit fully to any cause.”
“Little rich girl with a title?”
Scarlet repeated with a raised brow.
She chuckled. “Oh, that… That was Black’s perception, I’m afraid.
He assumed that, because my father, Lord Robert Simms, has the money that comes
with the title. Well… Dad does have some money, and it does
give the family some advantage. But
we never took it for granted.”
“Lady Dianne Simms, then,” Scarlet
said with a slight smile.
“Don’t start, please,” Rhapsody
pleaded. “You’ve teased me quite enough with it in the past.”
“I’m not teasing you now,” Scarlet
said with a shrug of his shoulders. “Did he realise he was wrong about you?
Black, I mean… Before the Mysterons took him over?”
“I don’t know, but you certainly
told him off,” Rhapsody replied, smiling fondly at the thought.
“Me?”
“Yes. That was not very long before he left for
Mars. You told him that the fact that I had been chosen to be a part of Spectrum
should be more than enough for him to realise that I was in my rightful place.”
She looked straight at him. “You reminded him that the selection committee
didn’t just pick anyone at random. They had very rigorous criteria. Especially
when it came to selecting those who would comprise Spectrum’s senior staff.”
Scarlet smiled. “I knew you were an
extraordinary woman.”
Rhapsody flushed. “So are you.
An extraordinary man, I mean,” she amended quickly.
“And that was well before your… encounter with the Mysterons.”
“They took Black as their main
agent on Earth, you told me. But to
all of their other agents, they normally give specific assignments. What was supposed to be my mission for
them?”
Rhapsody hesitated anew, like she
did before. Seeing Scarlet’s
pleading look, she sighed. “You were charged to kill the World President,” she
finally admitted.
His expression became bleak. “Oh
wow.”
“But you only had time to kidnap
him,” Rhapsody added swiftly.
“And you were stopped before you could do something irreparable. You
didn’t kill anyone.”
“That’s a relief. But even so, what I did under the
Mysterons’ influence was very serious,” Scarlet reasoned. “Even amnesiac, I can
realise that kidnapping the World President is an action that would be frowned
upon. I’m glad Spectrum stopped me
before I could go too far.”
“Captain Blue did, to be specific.
He saved the World President and you…” Rhapsody sighed again. “… You were killed
in the process.”
Scarlet blankly stared at her. “Oh.
Killed twice, then?”
“Well, you were dead when your body
was recovered. But you revived afterward, and you were free of the Mysterons’
influence. And we discovered then that you were indestructible. So when you
returned to active duty, you became our best asset against the Mysterons.”
“How could Spectrum have been so
sure I was free, to begin with?” Scarlet asked bleakly.
“I don’t know how exactly,”
Rhapsody replied honestly. “I know you were subjected to tests of various kinds.
And the results of those tests said without a doubt that you remained the same
man you were before… aside from your indestructibility, and
the fact that you couldn’t remember at all what you did under Mysteron
influence, that is.”
“I didn’t remember I kidnapped the
World President?”
“You remember nothing from the
moment the Mysterons took you over, until you woke up in Cloudbase’s sickbay, a
few hours after the World President was rescued.”
“You mean – I remember nothing
between those two first deaths.”
Scarlet became pensive. “So I’ve already had at least one occurrence of
amnesia, if I understand correctly.”
Rhapsody mulled that over. “To my
knowledge, since that first occurrence a year ago, you never had any other
incidence of amnesia. But Paul, I don’t think what happened then and what’s
happening now are related.”
Scarlet nodded, very slowly,
pensively. “How do they do it?” he asked
in a low voice. “I mean… How do they
transform a human body like that, taking control of its mind and giving it these
incredible powers? I mean, it’s so incredible, that –”
He stopped himself suddenly, as he
felt a familiar twinge of pain that made him scowl deeply. His mind seemed to
tear open in a flash of light and he saw a man, wearing a white coat over a
black and light brown uniform, pacing up and down in front of him and talking to
him. The words the man was
pronouncing were mostly drowned by the pain, but Scarlet’s mind was able to
grasp some of them:
“...Original body destroyed…”
“Retrometabolism…”
“This new
body you now inhabit…”
“Exact
copy…”
The memory vanished in a clasp of
thunder that reverberated through Scarlet’s skull and he reached for his head
with a moan, closing his eyes.
Concerned at seeing him suddenly in
pain, Rhapsody reached for him. “You’re okay? You’ve been having a flashback, haven’t
you?”
“Yes,” he said through clenched
teeth. “I think I just saw your Doctor Fawn.” He opened his eyes and looked at her and
before she could say anything, he added: “I am not the original Paul Metcalfe,
am I?”
He saw her hesitation, and felt his
heart sink.
“So that’s how it was done:
the Mysterons killed the original Paul Metcalfe and made a copy out of him.
That copy is me.”
“That’s not entirely true,”
Rhapsody replied quickly. “Technically, it’s only the body which is not
original… A body, which is an exact replica of the original.”
“Exact replica, you say,” he
repeated with bitterness. “Not quite
exact, if you ask me. This body can’t be destroyed. Not
like the original.”
“Paul, that doesn’t change anything
about who you are,” Rhapsody said with
insistence. “The Mysterons made a mistake when they created one of their first
agents of destruction, all those months ago.”
“You mean me.”
“They copied the body, gave it
retrometabolic powers… but they also, inadvertently, transferred all of what
made Paul Metcalfe the man he was into this new body. Your mind, your personality… your soul,
so to speak, all of this is now residing inside this new body of yours. You are the same man, the same person you
were before the whole ordeal with the Mysterons. Remember the tests I told you about. There could be no doubt left on that
question.”
“How do you know, Dianne?” Scarlet replied a
little harshly. “How can we know that, without a single doubt? It seems impossible to me to take the measure of a
man’s soul. And that raises questions about my current condition. About the fact that I can’t remember a
thing about myself.”
“What about it?” she asked with a
frown.
“How do we know it isn’t somehow a
scheme of the Mysterons’? The mind of Paul Metcalfe might be gone, and it might
be an opportunity for them. They created this body – they might try to take it
over again. That might explain the amnesia. That might also explain that each
time I try to remember, I get those awful headaches.
They
might be stopping me from remembering. What if –”
“Paul, please stop it.”
Rhapsody reached to touch Scarlet’s
face with her hand to interrupt him. That silenced him instantly, and he turned
to look straight into her blue eyes, which were now filled with sorrow for him.
“I wouldn’t worry about that
unduly, if I were you,” she said in a voice as calming as she could muster. “I
know that falling back under the Mysterons’ hold is your worst nightmare, and
they did try at least once, to our knowledge. They failed, because of this
indomitable will of yours.
They probably made that will even stronger, by making you
indestructible.”
“Dianne –” Scarlet started.
“I know you feel vulnerable right
now,” Rhapsody interrupted, not allowing him to continue. “But you’re far from
totally helpless. Your will to live
is still there, and you proved it more than once since this assignment turned so
bad. Besides,” she added with conviction, “if the Mysterons were really trying
to take you back under their yoke, they wouldn’t have been trying to kill you
since yesterday morning.”
“That might be beside the point,
since I am indestructible to begin with.” Scarlet saw the reproachful way the young
woman was looking at him, and he added, quietly: “Forgive me.
You’re probably right on all points, but I can’t help feeling confused
and worried. I saw how those men who killed the sheriff’s deputy were acting –
so mercilessly, and without any remorse. I saw how ruthless young Mahoney was.
He was prepared to do anything to get
the microchip from me. If I was like that when the Mysterons took me over, and I
suppose I was…” He stopped,
shuddering at this single thought, and sighed deeply, lowering his eyes. “I
guess what I’m trying to say is… the
last thing I want to do is hurt you, Dianne.”
“You won’t,” Rhapsody said with a
reassuring smile. “I don’t worry about that, Paul. I trust you.”
“You trust me…” Scarlet scowled in
deep frustration. “Me, the man who cannot remember his own name.
The man who can barely defend himself…”
“That’s not true and you know it.”
“…Am I still a man, to begin with?”
Rhapsody frowned at these last
words which were added in a morose voice, more as an afterthought than a real
question. “Whatever do you mean?”
she asked carefully.
“You know exactly what I mean,” Scarlet retorted
bluntly, raising his head to meet her eyes again. “With what I’ve been learning
about myself – what the Mysterons did to me… how they transformed me into this…
indestructible, unkillable being…”
“Man,” Rhapsody corrected. “You’re
definitely a man, Paul.”
“Oh yeah? How exactly can you tell, Dianne?” he
challenged her. “Even if inside I’m the real Paul Metcalfe, this body of mine
was created by an alien entity. It
can’t be destroyed. It can heal
itself from any wound. Does that sound human to you?” He swallowed hard, and
added in a low voice: “Face it,
Dianne. You’ve certainly been wondering about it
– just as I’m wondering about it right now.”
“What makes you say that?” she
asked with a deepening, suspicious scowl.
“You said it yourself earlier: I
don’t have anyone in my life. I know I have feelings… I know I care deeply for
you, for instance. Those feelings must have been there before, but, I don’t
know, maybe I’m holding back. Maybe I’m stopping myself from acting on them,
because I feel like I don’t have the right to.”
“That’s utter nonsense,” Rhapsody
retorted.
“Is it?” Scarlet breathed out. “You
will tell me that, deep down, you’re not having doubts about it yourself? Not
even in the slightest?
Maybe it’s even the reason that held you back as well, earlier when I
kissed you.”
Rhapsody glared at him with
disbelief. “Are you really thinking it would be the reason
why I didn’t respond to your advance earlier?” She shook her head dejectedly, an
expression of hurt in her eyes. “You think so badly of me?”
“I would never think badly of you,”
Scarlet protested in a low voice. “I’m only saying that I fully understand if –”
“Paul Metcalfe,” she interrupted
him firmly, “that’s certainly not the reason why I held back and you should know
that. And if you believe otherwise,
then you’re as dense as any other man I know… Which fully proves, without a doubt, that
you are indeed a part of the human race.”
And with that, she kissed him full
on the mouth, with such fire that it made Scarlet gasp in surprise.
It didn’t take long for him to answer to this ardent kiss, though, and he did it
with the same fervour, his hand reaching to stroke her cheek.
Then, as a doubt crossed his mind, his palm cupped around the outline of
her jaw and he gently pushed her face away from his.
As they both gasped to regain their
breath, Scarlet looked deep into Rhapsody’s eyes, searching them, wondering if
her gesture was sincere, or if she had only kissed him out of sympathy, without
truly meaning it.
He couldn’t see any uncertainty or
pretence in these eyes. They were burning bright with barely contained desire, a
yearning that he too felt deep within himself.
“What are you doing?” he breathed
out, with uncertainty.
“Do I really have to explain it to you?” she
retorted in a voice as low as his.
He thought he understood then that
she meant for this to be more than a kiss. He shook his head with hesitation.
“Earlier, you said it wasn’t a good idea. Are you sure…?”
“That was earlier. Now it’s
different.” She tilted her head to the side, resting her cheek in his hand. “You
don’t really know me at all if you’re
asking if I’m sure.”
He swallowed hard, and shook his head again,
very slowly. “That’s right, I don’t know you.
But I’d certainly like to know you now...”
Rhapsody’s hand gently touched his bare chest,
and he shuddered almost despite himself, as if electricity had passed through
every nerve of his body; he felt his desire for this woman mounting in him, and
he knew she was fully aware of what this simple touch had awakened in him.
He promptly pulled her lips to his
and they kissed again, with deep passion. Scarlet felt Rhapsody’s arms slide
under his open shirt to snake around his back and shoulders, as they drew closer
to each other. Clumsily, impatiently, his fingers fiddled with the buttons of
her shirt; she probably found him too slow, as she came to his rescue to
unfasten the remaining buttons. They
didn’t even stop kissing as he slipped the sleeves off her shoulders, being
mindful of her wounded arm. As she
discarded the shirt, she rose to her knees, and Scarlet did the same, to enfold
her in a strong embrace.
They broke the kiss only to take
breath again. Squeezing her eager, slender body against his, Scarlet nuzzled
against her neck, feverishly kissing her bare and tender skin. He heard her
sharp gasp of delight and felt her naked breast pressing harder against his
chest. She was so close to him that
he knew his desire was too obvious for her not to notice, just as much as he
couldn’t ignore the plain evidence that she wanted him just as much. And clearly, they couldn’t deny it any
longer.
He was still hugging her neck, and
it was at this most inopportune moment that he felt it again.
The awful headache pain hit him
between the eyes, so agonising, so much worse than any he had felt before. It
was a pain such that he had trouble thinking straight. He moaned, closing his
eyes, and he desperately clutched the young woman in his arms, like a man about
to drown, holding on to a lifeline.
“Dianne…” he whispered into her
ear. “I’m sorry…”
Rhapsody heard the deep pain in
that hoarse, shaky voice and knew instantly that something was wrong. Scarlet
was shivering in her arms and it wasn’t out of anticipation. Gently, she pushed him from her and took
his head between her hands to look into his face. It was pale as death itself
and was a total mask of pain; his nose was bleeding.
The sight of it tore her heart
apart.
“Paul – what is it?”
Rhapsody’s gentle yet anxious voice
reached Scarlet’s mind and he made an effort to answer, to explain how sorry he
was to be unable to meet her expectations. It was as if his head was filled with
cotton, with the pain increasing at each passing second. His ears were ringing and there was a
coppery taste in his mouth. His
hands let go of her, and he tried to reach his head but found he couldn’t; he
was now shaking too much.
“… Headache… Too strong… I can’t…”
That was all Scarlet managed to say
before darkness engulfed his mind and his head lowered against Rhapsody’s
shoulder. He barely emitted a groan
before passing out.
When she felt Scarlet’s arms losing
their hold on her to drop seemingly inert by his sides, Rhapsody gently but firmly held on to
his limp body which was now leaning against her, and she sat down heavily onto
the ground. She looked into his face again, to realise he had lost
consciousness. She could feel his
heart beating wildly in his chest and knew he was still alive, but in a bad way.
A lump formed in her throat and she felt tears pricking at seeing him so
helpless.
Fighting off her tears, she cradled
him protectively, stroking his hair, kissing his forehead, and rocking back and
forth as if he was but a sleeping child in her arms.
It’s so unfair,
she told herself with bitterness.
Why does he have to suffer so? He’s the last
person on Earth who deserves such grief.
“Sleep,” she whispered in his ear.
“Get some rest, Paul. You’ll be better in the morning...
We’ll get you back home soon, and then we’ll get you sorted out. Don’t worry,
you’ll see – everything will be all right.”
Rhapsody promised herself, there
and now, that she would guard him fiercely from anyone who might want to hurt
him. She would see that he got
safely through the night, until he recovered.
And perhaps well after that, even.
* * *
Seated at his desk, Doctor Evers
looked up at the two men his secretary had introduced into his office and who
now stood in front of him. Like many
of the inhabitants of Les Arbrisseaux, Evers didn’t like any strangers in the
area to break the peace and monotony of everyone’s quiet life. The events of the
last twenty-four hours had certainly proved the townspeople right, and these two
new visitors could only mean more bad news.
They looked very solemn in their
uniforms, as they officially handed him their credentials. He had never met the likes of them
before, and really, he should have been impressed; but somehow, at this late
hour of the night, he failed to feel anything but weary. The previous day had been a long and
harrowing one.
“Spectrum, huh?” he said, clearing
his thoughts and looking down at the identity cards and then the papers
displayed in front of him. “About time you finally showed up, too.”
The taller of the two – a blond man
with a distinguished accent – tilted his head to one side and looked at him with
curiosity. “We’re sorry, sir. We were on red alert, and rather busy
with some pressing matters. We
didn’t become aware of your call to our New Orleans office until a few hours
ago.”
“Really? So in order to attract your attention,
maybe we should have reported that we were invaded with terrorists. With these… how do the newspapers call
that group? Oh yes, Mysterious.”
“You mean ‘Mysterons’, Doctor,”
said the other officer, a dark-haired man, who was obviously an American.
“Mysterious, Mysterons, for me it’s
all the same.” Taking a file from
his desk, Evers stood up, to eye the two officers more levelly. He was a short man, and both of them were
much taller than he was. “The point is, gentlemen, that we expected you much
sooner. A lot has happened between
the first call the sheriff made to you yesterday morning and the one I placed
later in the evening. If you would care to come with me…”
Both men nodded at his invitation
and followed Evers out of his office, to stroll down the silent main corridor of
the small clinic.
“You’re doing the night shift,
Doctor?” the blond officer asked as they climbed a staircase to reach the second
storey.
Evers scoffed. “Night shift, you’re
kidding me? This is Les Arbrisseaux, son,
not a big city. This isn’t a proper hospital, as you can see, but I’m doing my
best. When there’s an emergency at night, the attendance nurse gives me a call
and wakes me. If it’s a real emergency – something beyond my
modest talents – we call Baton Rouge and we have the patient transferred there.”
They walked down another corridor,
passing by a series of doors, until they reached the one at the very end, in
front of which Evers stopped and turned to his visitors.
“I’m only here tonight because I
was told to expect your arrival soon after my call. He glanced at the closed door. “And also,
because he’s my oldest friend in town, and I wanted to keep close to him. Now please, be quiet while in there, will
you?”
“Of course, Doctor.”
Evers turned the handle and slowly
pushed the door open. The three men
entered the small room quietly, and then approached the bed, where the patient,
a burly black man, hooked to tubes and monitors, was resting with his eyes
closed.
A nurse was seated on a chair
nearby, reading a book, and she raised her head at the three men’s arrival.
“How is he, Willa?” Evers asked
her.
“The same, Doctor,” she said
quietly. “He hasn’t awakened yet.”
Evers thanked her with a nod and
went to check the information from the machine by the side of the bed, which was
beeping constantly and regularly.
He nodded with satisfaction, and then turned to address the two Spectrum
officers waiting patiently behind.
“This is the town’s sheriff,” he explained in a
low voice. “He was found on the river bank a few hours ago – just before
sundown. Drenched to the bone and suffering from hypothermia. He had a bullet in his chest, and his
clothes were torn. We figured his
body had been dragged down the river by the wild currents. Obviously he’s the
victim of some kind of attack. He’s very
lucky to still be alive. A weaker man would have surely died but…” He looked at the man lying on the bed. “…
Leonard Masters is made of sterner stuff.
His condition is stable now, and he should make a full recovery. But he has yet to wake up to tell us what
exactly happened to him. He’s been unconscious since we found him.”
“Do you know what happened to him?”
the dark-haired officer asked.
Evers shrugged. “One can only
guess. Last afternoon, he and his deputy,
Alan MacGibbons, were on their way to deliver a suspect into Spectrum’s custody,
as instructed by your New Orleans office. But of course, you know about this,
right?”
The blond officer chewed on his
bottom lip, hesitating to give an answer. Evers watched them carefully.
“You don’t have the suspect in your
charge, right? Leonard never got to
meet with you at all?”
“No,” the blond man replied, and he
didn’t seem inclined to extrapolate on the question. “Please, continue, Doctor.”
Evers sighed. The officer’s answer
confirmed his suspicions.
“Later in the day, we found
MacGibbons dead on the road passing through the woods and leading out of
the parish. His body was riddled with bullets. Next to him, there was another dead man,
a stranger to anyone in town. He
looked like he had been run over by a car. He was dressed in a uniform… You
know, those kind of uniforms hunters or soldiers wear when they want to hide in
the woods?”
“Camouflage uniform,” the blond man
said grimly.
“Yes, one of those. Actually, quite
similar to what the suspect was wearing when he was found in Devil’s Bayou by
Joe Benson – a recluse who lived there on his own… before the suspect allegedly
killed him.”
“Allegedly?” the dark-haired officer repeated.
“The sheriff had his doubt about
his guilt. Despite the fact there
were witnesses to the murder.”
“Sounds to me like your sheriff
didn’t find these witnesses credible,” the dark-haired man continued.
“They might not be, but considering
the events…” Evers glanced at his
patient. “I’m guessing that the unknown man who was found with MacGibbons was
the suspect’s accomplice, trying to help him escape.”
The two Spectrum officers didn’t
show any visible reaction to the doctor’s assumption.
“And what makes you say that?” the
blond man asked evenly.
“The sheriff’s car was found by the
river by fishermen in a boat, a few miles upstream, just at the boundary of
Devil’s Bayou. It wasn’t difficult
to find, actually: the smoke could
be seen from miles around and indicated its position quite clearly.”
The blond officer tilted his head
again. “I don’t follow you.”
“The car had been set on fire… by
whom, we don’t know. There was a
dead body inside, burned to a crisp.”
“A body?” The blond man showed a
concerned frown. “The suspect, you
think?”
“The body was totally
unrecognisable. But no, I don’t
think it was the suspect. He’s a
tall man, and the body is very visibly that of a much smaller individual. Also,
there were three off-road vehicles at the scene, badly damaged. It looked like there had been a war there, by
the looks of things. We couldn’t find the riders.”
“And do you know who these riders
are?” the blond officer asked.
“Well, we think those vehicles are
those owned by some of the boys who were witnesses to Joe’s murder in the first
place. Young men who spend their time riding across the county on those infernal
machines of theirs. We haven’t seen them around town since around noon, so we
don’t know where they could be and what could have happened to them.”
“And the suspect?” the dark-haired
man asked. “Where do you think he is now?”
“He must be hiding in Devil’s
Bayou. That’s where he would go, after escaping the sheriff’s custody. Prints
were found leading in that direction anyway.
Multiple prints. They were so muddled up that it was impossible to
actually know how many people went through there or what happened exactly.”
“Devil’s Bayou,” the blond man
repeated thoughtfully, exchanging glances with his companion.
“The sheriff was found afterwards.
It was a relief to realise he had survived whatever happened. Maybe the suspect escaped and the boys,
who saw the whole thing, followed him in Devil’s Bayou? They were all over town earlier in the
morning, saying how they were big heroes by helping the sheriff arrest him.
Maybe they wanted to repeat the exploit?”
“Doctor, please stick to the
facts,” the blond man said with a frown which showed his irritation. “It’ll make
our job much easier if we don’t have to deal with speculation.”
“You want facts?” Evers said
roughly. “I’ll give you facts, officers: the boys’ parents are worried, and the
townsfolk are restless at the moment. What, with the thought of a murderer
running around freely in the area…
I’ve never seen unrest like this for the last fifteen years, since that
robbery in New Orleans, when the thief hid out in Devil’s Bayou. If the body found in the sheriff’s car
should turn out to be one of those missing boys – I can only imagine how people
around here will react!”
“Let’s not get carried away,” the
dark-haired officer swiftly interjected. “Doctor, when you called our New
Orleans office, you mentioned pictures of the suspect. Can you show them to us?”
“Yes, of course.”
The tone of their voices had risen, and Evers
was beginning to feel concerned that it would disturb his patient. He addressed one last look at the still
body of Masters, and then gestured in the direction of the door. “I think we’d
better leave first,” he said, lowering his voice.
The two Spectrum officers nodded
and they left the room; the doctor closed the door behind, and turned to his
visitors again. He opened the folder
he had in his hands and took out one large picture that he gave to the blond
officer who was standing closer to him. “You might not believe it, but those are
X-rays pictures we took of the suspect when he was taken into town by the
sheriff last morning. He was
apparently dead at the time, but obviously… he wasn’t.
Scared the hell out of one of my nurses when he woke up in the morgue
too.”
The blond officer glanced at him,
before looking at the first picture; it showed a clean, regular picture of
Captain Scarlet’s face. He handed it to his colleague, who nodded upon seeing
it. “I believe you, Doctor,” he said, checking the other pictures.
He discovered the first of Scarlet’s proper scan pictures and he carefully
checked it out before looking inquisitively at Evers.
“That was taken with one of those
newest machines,” the doctor explained. “I’ve always been reluctant to use it –
always preferred X-rays. But seems
like I didn’t have any choice in the matter. It’s of the suspect, of course. You’ll
probably notice the grey mass in the middle of his skull… It’s not clear, but it
looks like some kind of projectile.
I think it might be responsible for his amnesia.”
“Amnesia?” the blond officer said
with a frown of perplexity. “You say this man is amnesiac?”
He exchanged glances again with his
companion, who looked just as doubtful as he was. Evers was watching their reactions
carefully.
“Why, yes. He said he couldn’t
remember a thing… Why he was here, why he killed Joe Benson… He did say his name was O’Hara, but I
doubt even that was true.”
“O’Hara?” the dark-haired man
echoed, raising a brow.
“Yes. ‘Scarlet’ O’Hara, actually.”
The Spectrum officer shook his
head. “Man, and I thought he had no sense of humour…”
“You know that man, then,” Evers
then realised. “When I saw the
results of the first X-ray scans and after he woke up in the morgue like he did,
the sheriff and I remembered the Spectrum communiqué we received some months
ago… so we knew we should contact you.”
“Who else has seen these pictures,
aside from the sheriff and yourself?” the blond officer asked, while checking
the other pictures.
“No-one else. I gave a set of the suspect’s pictures to
the sheriff, so he could give them to Spectrum, when he left to meet with them.
I guess they must have been destroyed along with the car. Will you tell me what’s going on,
officer…?”
“Captain. Captain Blue.” He pointed at a third
picture with his finger and showed it to Evers. “This is not your suspect –
O’Hara, as you called him.”
“This one? No, it’s a pic of the unknown dead man we found with MacGibbons. The one wearing the camouflage uniform. As you can see, he showed a regular
picture under the X-ray scans as well.
Which made me think he and O’Hara were somehow related.”
“In a way.” Captain Blue showed the
picture to his colleague.
The latter nodded vigorously upon
seeing it. “Jack Palmer,” he said
matter-of-factly. “According to our files, he was part of Major Montgomery’s
team.”
“Right, Captain Ochre. This seems
to confirm our suspicions.” Captain Blue turned to Evers. “Were other strangers sighted in the
area, Doctor?” he inquired. “Other men dressed like this one?”
“Or a young woman?” Captain Ochre
suggested in turn. “Nice-looking, red hair, blue eyes?”
“No, nobody else but O’Hara and
that other guy,” Evers replied.
He noticed how his answer seemed to cause concern in both officers. “Are
you saying there are more of these people around? What’s going on, Captains?”
Blue closed the folder.
“I’m afraid I will have to confiscate these pictures, Doctor Evers, and I will
have to request that you hand over any copies you might have kept in your
files.”
Doctor Evers was looking from one
man to the other, with deepening confusion. “Captain… will you tell me exactly what’s
going on?”
Blue hesitated, unsure how to
answer. “I’m afraid, Doctor, that this is confidential information.”
That wasn’t exactly the response
Bill Evers expected; he didn’t like it one bit.
“Confidential information? How can
you stand there, and give me such bull? A killer is on the loose, the sheriff is
seriously wounded and his deputy is dead! Added to that, there are some kids
missing for hours! Why, this whole mess is partly Spectrum’s fault to begin
with! If you had come to town to
take custody of the suspect instead of instructing Leonard to bring him to you
when he called you earlier today, this would never have happened!”
Captain Blue heaved a deep sigh.
He couldn’t very well tell the truth to this town doctor – that Spectrum had
never received the sheriff’s call to begin with and that it had been intercepted
by a Mysteron agent implanted at Spectrum’s New Orleans office – and that
Spectrum actually only discovered that very much later.
Since this very morning, Spectrum
had been kept on their toes by the Mysterons, answering a threat to Futura City. It
was now perfectly clear that it was nothing more than a wild goose chase –
Spectrum had never suspected that the aliens were making their move here, in
Louisiana, trying to get for themselves the very thing that Scarlet and Rhapsody
had been sent to retrieve. The
Mysterons had made use of the violent storm that had raged over the Atlantic –
effectively cutting contact between Cloudbase and its missing officers. Blue didn’t dare think they had actually
influenced the weather itself – he didn’t want to imagine that their powers
would extend that far – and instead, preferred to think that Nature had thrown a
fluke they had used to their advantage.
As time passed, Scarlet and
Rhapsody’s extended radio silence had started to cause concern. Deprived of his
best agent, and despite the threat seemingly hanging over Futura City which should have, in all rights, gathered all
of Spectrum’s attention, Colonel White had instructed Lieutenant Green to
conduct an investigation, to learn what could have happened to the two missing
agents.
Green’s research had been
relatively swift; he first discovered that Major Philip Montgomery, the leader
of the W.A.A.F commando team Scarlet had been assigned to accompany to
Louisiana, had not reported to his superiors either, for a long time. Further research by the W.A.A.F at the
major’s residence had led them to find Montgomery’s dead body, lying in his
bath, with a bullet through the head. The discovery had caused some confusion
within the W.A.A.F., because Montgomery was supposed to have left for his
assigned mission with his team – and had even signed the flight order before
leaving New Orleans, shortly before dawn. Spectrum, of course, understood
immediately what had happened.
In parallel to this discovery,
Green also found out that a call had been received at the communication office
of Spectrum New Orleans, originating from the small town of Les
Arbrisseaux, only a few miles off the location to which Montgomery’s
team, along with Scarlet and Rhapsody, had been sent. Green only had to check the communication
kept on file to realise that it was indeed related to the missing officers’
disappearance – although he didn’t have all the details. Following this, the
inter-administrative liaison and communication officer in New Orleans was
revealed as a Mysteron agent and disposed of accordingly.
Now guessing that the Mysterons had
taken Spectrum for fools with a decoy threat on the capital city of the World,
Colonel White had then decided to send Blue and Ochre to investigate in Les
Arbrisseaux, all the while keeping the main body of Spectrum forces in
Futura, just in case it might yet be another distraction.
It turned out now that it wasn’t
the case.
Blue didn’t know exactly what the
object of Scarlet and Rhapsody’s assignment was. He could only imagine that it
was something very important and potentially dangerous too, if Colonel White
suspected the Mysterons wanted to use it to carry out their current threat.
“Doctor Evers,” Blue said in a
calming voice, “let me assure you that Spectrum takes the situation very
seriously. You do not have to worry
about anything. We’ll deal with the
situation and will see justice done.”
“That’ll better be the case,
Captain,” Evers growled ominously.
“Because the people in this area might just do things their own way, if
they feel you are not taking care of things. If ever they should get their hands
on O’Hara –”
“O’Hara, as you call him, isn’t
your concern,” Blue interjected, a little more roughly than he intended. “And I would advise your fellow citizens
not to take any action against him or anyone else.
It might have serious consequences.”
“Is that a threat?”
“You misunderstand me, sir.
It’s just a piece of advice.”
“Hang on…” Evers eyed Blue with
suspicion as something suddenly occurred to him. “Scarlet, that’s a colour,” he
said, almost accusingly. “That’s not his actual name, it’s a codename. That
guy’s one of yours. Isn’t he?”
At first, Blue was reluctant to
answer the question. Then finally,
he gave a brief nod, staring intently at the physician. “Things are not what
they appear to be, Doctor,” he said in an uncompromising voice. “He is indeed a Spectrum officer, and he
was here on assignment when we suddenly lost contact with him.”
“In Devil’s Bayou?” Evers said with scepticism. “What could
possibly have brought him to that hellhole?”
“I cannot tell you the nature of
this assignment, Doctor, I’m sorry.
However, what I can tell you is this:
it’s likely that very dangerous men are currently roaming around the
area. It would be a good idea if people stay clear of these men for their own
safety.”
“And report any sighting of these
strangers,” Ochre added in turn.
“Discreetly and without taking any risk. You should have a town meeting
called so that the population is informed.”
Evers was now beyond confusion.
“At this time of night? You’re kidding, right?”
“It’s very urgent, Doctor,” Ochre
insisted. “And it’s imperative that
we go to Devil’s Bayou as soon as possible in order to –”
“Now I know you’re kidding,” Evers interrupted swiftly. “Nobody travels into Devil’s Bayou at
night, Captain. No-one in the area
will guide you there, if that’s what you’re thinking about. It’s too dangerous. However urgent it might be, you will have
to wait until morning.”
Blue scowled. “It might be too late
in the morning. Not only for our agent. For those boys you mentioned earlier
too.”
“Don’t you think I know that?”
Evers snapped. “They know the dangers of Devil’s Bayou as well as anyone else
around here. If they’re in there tonight, they would have settled down for the
night somewhere to wait until daylight.
And your officer would be wise to do the same himself. But quite frankly,” he added with a sour
accent to his voice, “I must say I don’t care much what might happen to him. Because I still have doubts about his
involvement in what happened to Leonard and –”
“Doctor Evers!” The door leading to
the sheriff’s room suddenly opened, interrupting him, and Willa the nurse
appeared in the opening, all excited. Almost startled by her sudden appearance,
the three men turned to her and she addressed the doctor directly, frantically:
“You better come, Doctor.
It’s Sheriff Masters. I think
he’s about to wake!”
For a split second, obviously
surprised by the news, Evers hesitated. Then, he turned to both Ochre and Blue,
standing behind him. “Wait here, gentlemen. I have to check on my patient.”
Both Spectrum officers nodded and
they watched as Evers followed the nurse, carefully closing the door behind him.
“About time he woke up,” Ochre said
in a low voice. “And I hope he’ll be able to talk. We might finally understand
exactly what has been going on.”
He looked straight at his companion’s grim expression. “You’re concerned about Scarlet.”
“I am. I’m still trying to figure
out how he can be amnesiac. In any case that explains why he hasn’t tried to
make contact with base to begin with.
He might be very vulnerable right now.”
Ochre hesitated to voice his own
apprehension. “You don’t think, by any chance, the Mysterons might have taken
him back under their control? When
he came back to us, last year, he didn’t remember a thing about what he had done
as a Mysteron agent. That might explain why that Palmer guy might have tried to
help him escape.”
Blue shook his head. “I don’t think
that’s the case. If there is one thing we know about Mysteron agents, it’s that
there’s no loyalty between them. Despite Doctor Evers’ assumption, I don’t think
Palmer was there to help Scarlet escape.”
“Then why was Palmer there, with
the dead deputy?” Ochre asked. “Kill him? Capture him? Make him tell him and his friends if he
found that thing he came here to find?”
“You’re a better detective than I
am, Ochre. You might find that
answer before I do. For now, I don’t
want to jump the gun and think the worst might have happened.”
Both friends knew that ‘the worst’
for Scarlet, was indeed to return to Mysteron control. Neither of them really wanted to think it could
really happen.
“Actually, I’m more concerned about Rhapsody,”
Blue moved on. “When Cloudbase was finally able to receive the transponder
signal from her Angel fighter, it was to tell us that her craft had crashed.”
“She’s a resourceful girl,” Ochre
commented. “With any luck, she would
have bailed out before it was too late.”
“Let’s hope for that, yes.
And if she did, and she’s alive out there, we have to find her - and Scarlet as
well. When we do, we’ll also find the explanation for his amnesia, and for all
that’s been going on in this area since they came here on assignment.”
Ochre stroked his chin
thoughtfully. “The doctor seems to think Scarlet returned to Devil’s Bayou – and
we ought to assume Montgomery and his men might be there too. Maybe even
Rhapsody.”
“Maybe the object they’re looking
for is still there? Maybe that’s why Scarlet has returned there – to complete
his mission?” Blue suggested. “That is – if he went there of his own accord.
Montgomery and his men could have taken him there by force.”
“To get the object?” Ochre asked.
“Do you have any idea what is it exactly?”
“Colonel White mentioned a
microchip. But further than that… I
don’t know. The colonel wouldn’t tell.
It seems it’s highly top secret.”
“It must be something huge, if the
Mysterons thought of using it for their current threat.”
Blue nodded thoughtfully.
“In any case, I don’t think the Mysterons have it yet.
They wouldn’t still be in the area.
And we know they’re still around.”
He looked at his colleague. “Their helicopter was sighted about one hour before
sundown by the W.A.A.F surveillance satellite and according to the signal from
its transponder, it’s currently landed somewhere in the middle of Devil’s Bayou…
apparently waiting.”
“Might be a good idea to have the
Angels pay it a visit...” Ochre commented thoughtfully. “But in the morning, when we start our
search, since we can’t count on going into the Bayou tonight. We should contact base to get a
helicopter. We’ll cover more ground faster.”
“Good idea.” Blue was now looking straight at the door
leading into the sheriff’s room. “If Masters is in any state to talk, I want to
speak to him. While I contact the colonel, I think you’d better go get the
Mysteron detector from the SPV outside. Considering his current state, I don’t
think the sheriff is a Mysteron agent, but –”
“ – As we know Mysterons are not
always retrometabolic, it’s something to consider,” Ochre concluded. “Better be
on the safe side, yes.” He paused
for a second. “The doctor won’t like it at all, Blue.”
Blue’s expression became hard.
“Probably not, but you know what?
I don’t give a fiddle what that doctor might like or not.”
“No,” Ochre replied, smiling as he turned around to slowly walk down the corridor. “I never thought you would.”
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