A “Captain Scarlet and the Mysteron” story
By Chris Bishop
“It was so nice of
you to come and visit me today, my boy…
You should come more often.”
Paul Metcalfe took a sip
of his tea, as the elderly man addressed him with these words in which he could
easily detect a hint of reproach.
He knew him way too well not to suspect that it wasn’t only a mere innocent
remark. Glancing at him across the garden table, he put his cup down on the
saucer and offered an apologetic, yet sincere smile. “Wish I could, Granddad,” he answered, “but I’m afraid
it’s impossible. I’m… very busy
with my job. You know how it is.”
“Ah yes… your job.” The older man humphed, distractedly
playing with the arms of his wheelchair, glaring meaningfully at his grandson. There was discontentment in his old, yet
lively, blue eyes for the space of about three seconds. Then, as quickly as it had appeared, it
vanished; he reached for his
glasses, and started cleaning the lenses with a corner of the blanket covering
his frail legs, making a show of being very absorbed in this task. He gave a dismissive shrug of his
stooping, yet still broad, shoulders.
“Yes, I know how it is,” he said quietly.
“I was in that business myself a long time, as you recall… But I was never too busy to spend time
with my family.”
“Well, it’s not quite the
same. You mostly stayed in
England,” Paul remarked.
“And you have to run
around the globe, I know,” his grandfather swiftly put in. He raised inquisitive eyes toward the
younger man. “Are you sure this job isn’t just too demanding?”
Paul smiled widely. “I’ll be all right, Granddad. Don’t
worry about me.”
“Yes, yes, you would say
that,” the white-haired man mused. “You youngsters always think you have
your whole life before you and that you can tackle everything the world throws
at you. But then, before you know
it, you reach eighty, and then you realise that you’re not as strong as you used
to be… And that maybe you were just a little
too demanding of your body when you were younger.
But at this point… it’s far too late to be able to do anything about it.”
He squinted through his
glasses, and didn’t seem quite satisfied with the result of his efforts. He grunted with frustration and was
about to start again, when the young red-haired woman seated by his grandson’s
side leaned toward him and, with a very charming smile, offered to take the
glasses from his hands.
“Let me do that, Mr.
Blake… That blanket will never do a
good job with those lenses.”
Rhapsody Angel took the
glasses and, producing a fine scarf from her bag, started rubbing the lenses
expertly, under the old gentleman’s curious eyes. When she gave them back to him, Paul Blake examined the
glasses and gave an approving nod, before putting them back onto his nose.
“Thank you, my dear… you
obviously know how to do this.”
“I always used to do it
for my father,” she explained, her smile widening. “Since I was little.
So I got the hang of it very quickly.”
Blake nodded again,
pensively. “Dianne Simms… Paul told
me your father is Lord Robert Simms?” he ventured.
“Yes, sir,” Dianne
answered. She pointed to the teapot and cup on the table. “Do you want more tea?”
Blake accepted with a nod
and the young woman started pouring tea into his cup, as he pursued: “I’ve met
him a couple of times… in the course of my job at the Secret Service. Struck me as a nice young chap… He was the one who helped defuse the
situation during the Icelandic dispute, wasn’t he?” Dianne confirmed the statement with a nod, handing him his
cup. “Very good job. And a very fine diplomat,” Blake
continued. “We should have more like him, today.” He took a sip of his tea. “And how is your mother? I think I remember her too. Tall, black-haired, with green eyes? Name of Mira, yes?”
“No… that would be my
grandmother,” Dianne answered with a careful smile.
“Your father’s mother?”
Blake asked with a raised brow.
“Yes, my grandfather was
named Robert too.”
“Ah yes… Hence the confusion. Sorry about that.”
“No harm done. My mother is indeed tall – well, my
height, actually. And she had red
hair too. Her name is Julia.”
“Now I remember,” Blake
agreed with a nod. “A strikingly
beautiful woman. Just like her
daughter.”
“You are too kind, Mr.
Blake.”
“I’m only stating the
truth, my dear. You are very beautiful. And charming. Just like I remember your mother. Your father was blessed to have two such visions of beauty
under his roof.”
“Actually,” Dianne
answered a little bashfully, “my
parents have not been together for quite some years now. They divorced early
on.”
Blake raised a brow.
“Is that so?” he asked curiously. “Oh, so sorry to hear about that, my
dear. Please accept my apologies. I’m such an old fool…”
“You are not, and you
couldn’t know about that, Mr. Blake.
My mother lives in Italy now… Well,
she has been living there most of the time, for the past five years, I believe.”
“Italy? Why Italy?
Any reason?”
“She has relatives there.
Mum is part Italian, part Irish – and all fire and temper, as my dad used to
say,” Dianne said with a faint smile. Blake answered with a smile of his own and
she moved on: “As for my father… last time I heard, he was on a diplomatic
mission, in the Middle-East. Last month, if I’m not mistaken.”
“Still working, then.
Very nice. Please, give him my regards, when next you see him… if he remembers
me, that is!”
“I will, sir. And I’m sure he’ll remember you.”
“My, you are indeed a
charming young lady…” Blake said,
his smile broadening. He seemed to
be genuinely smitten by Dianne’s personality.
He leaned forward and took her hand in his, and squeezed it gently. “Were I quite a few years younger, I
might be tempted to steal her away from you, Paul,” he said to his grandson,
before delicately kissing the young woman’s hand and winking at her. She giggled.
“You are quite charming
yourself, Mr. Blake,” she noted.
“Almost as much as your grandson…”
“Really,” Paul said with
a raised brow. “I always heard he
was a very dangerous man with the ladies at my age.”
“That’s vile and
preposterous gossip,” Blake defended himself self-righteously. Noting his grandson’s teasing smile, he
shrugged and leaned back in his chair. “At your age, I was already married,” he
then remarked. “And with two
children to look after, my boy…
Including your own mother.”
Paul rolled his eyes.
“Here we go again,” he muttered.
“Be respectful of your
elders,” Blake warned him. “Or
you’ll give a wrong impression to this charming young lady here.” His words sounded harsher than they
really were, and the brightness in his eyes betrayed the fondness he had for his
grandson. His smile widened even
more, and he looked at the two young people in front of him, one after the
other, before nodding approvingly.
“I can’t believe you found someone for yourself… finally!”
“Granddad,” Paul sighed,
a little amused by the statement, “I’m still only thirty-four years old…”
“Well, you might be, but I’m not getting any
younger!” the older man declared forcefully.
“Seeing how long it took you to find someone, I might not live long
enough to actually see you marry her!”
He sat back comfortably.
“Have you set a date yet?”
“No… not yet,” Paul
admitted.
Blake grunted. “Mmm… not good.”
“And the truth to the
matter is… we still haven’t told Mum and Dad,” Paul continued. “Dianne hasn’t
told her parents, either. We haven’t even told our superior officer yet.”
“Your mother doesn’t
know?” Blake inquired. “But she’d
be thrilled to find out!”
“All in good time,
Granddad,” Paul said in a calming tone.
“And it’ll be soon, don’t worry. For now, you’ll have to be happy with
the fact that you were the first in the family to whom we told the news.”
“I’m the first, really?”
Blake said with a grin. “Well, that
is quite an honour, Paul…” He
leaned towards Dianne. “I knew
there was a reason why I took an immediate liking to him, when he was born – and
that was before his mother told me she was going to name him after me.”
Rhapsody Angel smiled
fondly. Her fiancé Paul Metcalfe –
the indestructible Captain Scarlet of Spectrum – shared a lot more than his
given name with his grandfather.
From old photos that the elderly man had showed them earlier, many of which
showed him at Paul’s approximate age today, she could see the aged Blake looked
a lot like his grandson, in those times.
Except for the hair, which was of a slightly lighter colour in the case of
Blake. It was easy to see where Paul got his
good looks… Despite his advanced
age – he was now well into his eighties – Paul Blake was still a very
good-looking man. His hair had
turned completely white, deep lines marked his face and his back stooped a
little, but he still had broad shoulders and a spark in his eyes which were as
blue and vibrant as his grandson’s.
His mind was still sharp, and his speech very clear, and he had no trouble
keeping up a lively conversation on any given subject, as he had proved for the
three hours this visit had lasted so far.
He just had trouble walking, his ageing body finally betraying him after all
these years, and needed the wheelchair from time to time, especially when he had
to travel long distances. But aside
from that, he could be considered to be in excellent health.
“You know that yob
was responsible for my first white hair?”
Blake informed Rhapsody with a conniving smile.
Scarlet was about to take
another sip from his cup. He glared
at the older man. “Granddad…” he said warningly.
“Well, it’s true!” protested Blake. “Always getting into trouble, he was,” he continued,
addressing an obviously interested Rhapsody.
“See that big oak over there?” He pointed to a huge tree standing in the middle
of the garden, not far from them.
“He took it into his thick head to climb to the top.
He was… what… six at the time?”
“Seven,” Scarlet
corrected.
Blake shrugged. “Well, still too young to try to reach
the sky in those days, wouldn’t you think?
Naturally, although I had forbidden him to even try it, what do you think
he did?”
“Climbed the tree, of
course,” Rhapsody said with a nod.
“Of course! And what do you think happened?”
“He fell,” Rhapsody
offered, smiling.
“Indeed! He was halfway up. Fortunately for him,
the lower branches broke most of his fall.
But he broke his arm as he hit the ground...”
“Dislocated my shoulder,
actually,” Scarlet countered.
“Well, anyway… One would have thought he would have
stopped there, now wouldn’t you, Dianne?”
“Knowing Paul, I’m sure
he didn’t,” Rhapsody answered with a note of certainty in her voice. Hearing it, her fiancé rolled his eyes
skywards.
“Of course not… Three months after that, I found him in
the garden of his parents’ house…
Climbing an even bigger tree than this one.”
“Hadn’t you learned your
lesson?” Rhapsody asked mockingly,
turning to face Scarlet.
“Of course I had,” he
replied, quietly taking a sip from his cup.
He winked at her. “By then,
I had more experience in climbing trees… and I knew better than to fall.”
“Ah!” Paul Blake exhaled loudly, before
chuckling. “When I asked him what
he thought he was doing climbing that tree, he answered that my tree didn’t offer much of a challenge anymore. He had to try something bigger!”
“I do recognize him,
there,” Rhapsody remarked in an amused tone.
“As if you never climbed
any trees yourself,” Scarlet
retorted with a raised brow.
“Why yes, I did, of
course. But I never fell…”
“That’s right,” Scarlet
mocked her. “You’re a regular
Dianne of the Jungle…”
She smiled. “Wipe that grin off your face, Metcalfe.
You’ll never catch me wearing a loincloth.”
“Pity…” Scarlet muttered under his breath,
draining the last of his tea.
Paul Blake chortled
loudly. “I like her a lot, Paul,”
he told his grandson. “Please, play
it smart – and don’t let her escape you.”
“I certainly won’t,”
Scarlet grinned, putting the empty cup on the table. “I’m a very lucky man to
have found her – and I do intend to make her the happiest woman in the world.”
“Nicely said,” Blake said
with an approving nod. “Finding the
right person to become your mate, and share your love for the rest of your life
can be adventurous at times, but when you find that special someone…” he smiled contently. “… then everything seems so much
easier.”
He went pensive, watching
as the two young people in front of him were exchanging loving and silent
glances, following his words. For a short moment, he was taken back so many
years in the past, thinking about how he had courted the young woman who would
become his wife for all those years to follow; she had passed away a long time
ago now, the year before Paul was born. It had taken a long time for Blake to
actually get over the hole she had left, and to learn to live again, even
meeting other women, as time went by.
But even that was long ago; for the past few years, he had lived mostly alone,
in this small cottage near Bristol, in the company of a nurse who took care of
him. Paul Blake would have been a
very lonely man today, if not for the family he had founded with his wife – his
children, and their spouses, and then their children – and friends, and
colleagues from days of old, who came to visit him often. He had to admit, though, that his
friends were getting fewer with each passing year – and he dreaded the day he
might become the only one left from the close circle he formed with them.
He shook himself, coming
out of his momentary fugue and went back to staring at both Paul and Dianne. Such a nice young couple, he told
himself; he felt an intense pride and happiness in what his grandson had become
– a handsome man, yes, but intelligent and cultivated, caring and dedicated to
his chosen line of work. A courageous and committed agent of Spectrum, fighting
against all manner of terrorism around the world, no matter how dangerous it
might be for him, and ready to lay down his own life to save others.
Blake knew more of his
grandson’s work than the latter was willing to tell him. The retired Secret Service director
still had contacts that helped him keep approximate tabs on what was going on
regarding World Security – at least, as much as security restrictions would
permit – and when it came to Spectrum, restrictions were as high as could
possibly be imagined. But despite
the difficulties encountered, Blake had been able to glean a little information.
Like that incident in Iceland, last Christmas, during which terrorists had taken
over the British Embassy, in an attempt to kidnap the ambassador’s young
daughter. Paul’s cousin, Jessica, who was a Secret
Service agent, assigned to the child’s security, had been caught in the
crossfire and wounded; it was Paul who had been literally dropped straight into
the middle of the action to retrieve both his cousin and the child in her
charge. According to Jessica, although succeeding in his mission, Paul had been
wounded – and yet, when Blake had seen him, weeks after that, there was no
apparent injury on him – and he never mentioned anything about it. It was a measure of Paul’s
devotion to doing what was right, undaunted by the obvious danger he might put
himself in – and not seeking any recognition, glory or profit from it. For Paul, it was just a question of
‘performing his duty’ and ‘doing what was right’.
He certainly deserves the happiness an exceptional
woman can give him,
Blake reflected. And this young woman here seems like the perfect match for him. They
look like they’re made for each other.
And he was quite
happy with this.
“Must you really go?” he
asked the young couple in a soft, almost pleading tone. “Can’t you stay with me until after
dinner?”
“We would like to do that
very much, Granddad,” Scarlet said apologetically. “But we have to report back…” He checked
his watch. “And I’m sorry to say
this, but we will have to leave you very soon.
We have a plane to catch, which will take us back to base.”
“That’s a real shame.”
Blake sighed deeply, sorry to see them go.
A thought suddenly came to his mind, and he raised his finger victoriously. “But… before you go, I’d like to give you something.”
“Granddad,” Scarlet
protested. “No gift is necessary…”
“I insist!” Blake made a show of standing up, but
his sore and weak legs refused to assist him.
He grunted his bad mood and looked around for his nurse, who seemed to be
nowhere in sight. “Confound it! Where’s that blasted woman, never there
when you need her? Hilda!”
“She must be in the
house,” Rhapsody offered. “Would
you like me to fetch her for you?”
“I wouldn’t want to
impose…” Blake started.
“Please. It would be my pleasure.”
“All right. Just tell her to go into the library. There’s a book there I want her to give
you. Fifth bookshelf, third book
from the left. She can’t miss it.”
“I’ll come back right
away.” Rhapsody left her seat and
walked the distance separating her from the back door leading into the house.
Both Scarlet and his grandfather watched her as she disappeared inside.
Blake then turned to face his grandson, in order to continue a casual
conversation, waiting for Rhapsody to come back.
“Jessica came to visit, a
couple of weeks ago,” Blake announced quietly.
“I haven’t seen her for
months!” Scarlet declared. “How is
she?”
Blake shrugged. “Quite all right, it seemed to me. She has a new beau.”
“Again?” Scarlet said,
rolling his eyes. “This is, what, her third since last year?”
Blake chuckled. “Apparently, the previous one – Bruce, I
think his name was? – had been pretty much shaken by the… ‘incident’ in Iceland,
last Christmas. He started
suggesting to Jessica that maybe it was time for her to retire from this
dangerous career as a Secret Service agent, and to think of starting a new, more
normal job for a young woman.”
“Knowing Jessica, I can
imagine what she told him to do with this ‘new, more normal job’!” Scarlet said, grinning mischievously.
“Rightly so!” Blake frowned, thinking. “This new boyfriend of hers is American,
I think. I don’t know much about him.
I haven’t met him yet, and I don’t know how long it will last… But if he’s not the right man for her, I
do hope she’ll find someone one day soon.”
“Don’t worry about her,”
Scarlet offered. “She knows what
she’s doing…”
“You reckon?” a doubtful Blake asked.
“… AND she will find
someone right for her soon. I’m
sure of it. Someone who won’t be critical of her choice of career and who will
deserve her.”
“Like you and Dianne,
right?” Blake said, smiling at his
grandson, and nodding in the direction of the house. “You do seem right for each other…”
“We like to think we
are,” Scarlet admitted with a brilliant smile.
“You love her very much,
don’t you?”
From where he was
sitting, Scarlet could see the back door of the house opening, and Rhapsody
coming out, a big book in her hands, slowly crossing the garden to come back to
them. He nodded to his
grandfather’s question. “Very much
indeed. I can’t believe I wasted so much time,
not even noticing how much she truly meant to me.”
“While I suppose she was
quite smitten by you?”
“How do you know that?” Scarlet asked, raising a brow.
“The same happened with
your grandmother and me,” Blake answered, chuckling. “And between your Mum and Dad…
Women… they all know before we
do that they will end up with us.”
“Mmm…” Scarlet reflected
with a slow nod. “I guess women are
more perceptive about that sort of thing than we are…”
Blake sniggered again.
“Maybe it’s us who are… just a little more
obtuse.”
Both men laughed out
loud, just as Rhapsody approached them.
She had heard the last words they had exchanged, and smiled as she leaned
down to her fiancé’s side.
“Nonsense. You men are not
as obtuse as you seem to imagine.”
She gave Scarlet a swift kiss on his cheek.
“You eventually figure it out.”
She took a step forward
towards Blake, presenting the book.
“Fifth row, third book from the left.
Is this the one?” He nodded
in answer, but declined the book she was handing him.
“No, keep it. It’s a gift for both of you.”
Scarlet took the book
from Rhapsody’s hands and examined the old leather cover. “An old Bible?”
“Yes. It was given to me many years ago – by
the vicar who married us, your grandmother and I.
It was used on our wedding day.”
He smiled and gestured to the Bible.
“It’s my wedding gift to you two.”
“Granddad… I don’t know
what to say,” Scarlet replied a little awkwardly. “But you know, the wedding is not planned for tomorrow…”
Blake grunted. “An
engagement
gift then, if you prefer,” he retorted in a falsely offended tone. “Yes, I
know you’re not exactly a God-fearing man, Paul, but…”
“It’s a lovely gift,”
Scarlet cut in quickly, before his grandfather started to imagine he didn’t
appreciate the gift. “I realise it
must mean a lot to you… And that
you should part with it…”
“It’s because it does
mean a lot to me than I want to give it to you,” Blake answered.
“Then we are honoured,
sir,” Rhapsody said with a smile of thanks.
“When the time comes, we shall ask the clergyman who marries us to use
that Bible.”
Scarlet gave a sharp nod
in approval of his fiancée’s decision.
Blake smiled slightly, satisfied that his gift seemed to please the young
couple. However, he was not about
to let them believe he was happy with their present choice of waiting for a
later date to celebrate their wedding.
He humphed loudly, and resettled himself comfortably in his chair. “In the meantime,” he grumbled, “don’t
forget to add me to your invitation
list… and reserve me a place in the front pew.”
Both Scarlet and Rhapsody
exchanged an amused smile, not fooled at all by the older man’s falsely grumpy
tone.
“Don’t worry, Granddad,”
Scarlet told him merrily. “We
certainly won’t forget you… and you’ll have the
best place in the house…” He
winked at Rhapsody. “Well… the second best place, that is. I’ll have the best place, of course… by
my beautiful bride’s side!”
Captain Blue met
with Captain Scarlet and Rhapsody Angel in the hangar, just after the latter’s
SPJ landed on Cloudbase. Scarlet
certainly welcomed his friend’s help in taking Rhapsody’s too numerous suitcases
back to her quarters; Dianne had never been able to pack sensibly, and more
often than not, it was his back which
had to suffer the grief of carrying such a heavy load. After both men had escorted the
Angel back to her place, Scarlet kissed his fiancée goodbye, and went to his own
quarters, accompanied by Blue – carrying his
only suitcase and a small carry-on bag.
On entering, he deposited all of his luggage onto his bunk and sat heavily on
it, sighing deeply. “Home sweet
home…”
“How was the visit
to Granddaddy?” Blue asked with a
smirk. “By the looks of you,
I gather it didn’t go too well.”
“Oh, on the
contrary, it went very well,” Scarlet retorted quickly. “My grandfather and I have always got on
well. He was thrilled to learn
about our engagement, Dianne and I.”
“I imagine so.
I suppose he started asking questions about
when the big day will be?”
“Right on the
spot,” Scarlet agreed sombrely. “He
started saying that he ‘wasn’t getting any younger…’”
“… And that he
might not live long enough to actually see the day?”
Scarlet sighed.
“The truth is, he might be right about that, you know?
He’s in his eighties – still a very vigorous man for his age, despite his bad
legs… but he won’t be here for ever.”
Blue nodded
slowly. “I can see your dilemma. You’re feeling guilty about making him
wait.”
“Something like
that,” Scarlet admitted. “Not only
him. But Dianne’s parents, my
parents – who still don’t know about this – the colonel…”
“…Who doesn’t know either,” Blue added
meaningfully.
“Thank you for
pointing that out, Adam,” Scarlet grunted.
“I know I don’t
have to give you lessons in that field, Paul,” Blue continued. “But… don’t you think you’d better tell him too? I kept my relationship with Karen a secret from the colonel for a long time
myself, before finally telling him…”
“… only to
discover he’d known all about it all along…”
Blue smiled thinly
at his friend’s remark.
“Perhaps. But I didn’t know
that at the time, and I felt so much
better after coming clean with him. Believe me, it’s not such a bad thing to
do.”
Scarlet hesitated.
“All in good time,” he said with an awkward smile.
“When I’m ready.”
“When you find the
courage, you mean.”
“Courage is not
something I’m lacking, I’ll remind you.”
“Except when facing the old man. And perhaps your parents as well…”
Scarlet rubbed his
chin thoughtfully. “I don’t think you can compare our situations, Adam,” he
said.
“Why not?” Blue
asked with a frown. “What
difference is there between my relationship with Karen – and your relationship
with Dianne?”
“Well… me, of
course.” Scarlet pointed to
himself. “I’m different.”
“Paul, I still
fail to see the point of…”
“You know,”
Scarlet interrupted swiftly, “when we were coming back from my grandfather’s
place, Dianne kept talking about how
he looked a lot like me when he was my age.
And I have to say, it is true:
I am today the spitting image of what he was in his young days. You know what Dianne told me? She told me: ‘So that’s what you’ll look like when you’re eighty.’”
“And…?” Blue asked
in a puzzled tone.
“Adam – I
don’t know what I’ll look like when I’m eighty.
I might still look as young as I look today!”
“And that’s bad?”
Blue asked with a thin smile.
“It is when you’re
involved with a woman, I would say!” Scarlet remarked, a little irately.
“Don’t you think it could put a dent in any relationship, in the long run?”
“In the long run, maybe,” Blue reflected. “In the meantime, I don’t think you
should worry about that.”
“I’m not. But the colonel might not agree.”
“The colonel is
not an ogre, Paul. And I can’t see
him getting all fired up about what – at the moment – is simply a theory – which
might turn out not to be true.” Blue marked a pause. “Because that’s what it is, isn’t it?
You did tell me that, so far, Fawn
hasn’t found anything conclusive about
that aspect of your… condition…”
“No, that’s true,”
Scarlet admitted reluctantly.
“But… I still feel the same as I did two years ago. I don’t feel any different.”
“Well, so do I,”
Blue answered with a smirk. “Maybe
it simply means we’re both in good shape?”
Scarlet gave him an awkward look.
“I say you should put all your fears aside and go forward. Tell the colonel. Tell your parents.
Let the world know how you feel about Dianne.
And that you intend to marry her and be happy with her for as long as
you’re both alive and together.”
Scarlet smiled in
turn and simply nodded in acknowledgement of his friend’s encouragement. “Soon, Adam,” he promised. “I’ll tell
them – all of them – very soon.”
Blue nodded. “Perhaps the question will become
academic. Your grandfather might
tell your parents himself – did you think about that? Your mom is his daughter after all. How many secrets can he have from her?”
Scarlet laughed
out loud. “Plenty, I’d imagine!” he
said with good humour. “Remember,
he was an agent, and then a director of the Universal Secret Service. I should think he knows a lot of secrets, that none of us would
ever suspect – least of all, my mother!”
“Like who shot
your dearly departed Director, for example?” Blue offered.
Scarlet grimaced.
Blue was referring to a recent period of Britain’s history – far too recent for
anyone’s liking – during which monarchist democracy had been abolished, and
martial law had been imposed on the country, holding it for years under the iron
hand of a tyrant who was known only as The Director.
Even years after the civil war that had brought an end to his rule, his real
identity was still unknown. Or kept
like a shameful secret, Blue would rather think.
His death had come about at the end of the civil war, in rather obscure
circumstances, when he was killed by a U.S.S. agent – whose identity was also kept secret...
Even to this day, the real circumstances behind his death – whether it was an
ordered assassination or not, then viewed as necessary to end the terror regime
of the Director – was still one of the 21st Century’s most guarded secrets.
And nobody really expected the U.S.S. to
ever reveal the truth of what had happened.
“Even the colonel
doesn’t know the answer to that one,” Scarlet remarked. “And at one point, he was head of the
British Division of the U.S.S.”
“Yes, but that was
after the civil war,” Blue retorted.
“Your grandfather, on the other hand, was deeply involved with the U.S.S. during that period.”
“The British
section didn’t officially exist in
those times.”
“But it did exist,
you and I know about that.” Blue
nodded thoughtfully. “You think he
might have had a hand in that?”
Scarlet raised a
doubtful brow. “My grandfather? Involved in the death of the Director? Well, if he was, then he would be
Britain’s least celebrated hero!” he remarked.
“But that would surprise me very much.
Murder was not really up his alley. Never has been…” He gave it a second’s thought. “At least, I don’t think so.” He shook his head, chasing the doubt
from his mind. “Anyway, he won’t
say a thing to my parents concerning the engagement.
He told me he would keep it to himself, until such time as I see fit to
tell them myself.”
“A really nice
man,” Blue said, musing.
“He gave Dianne
and me a gift.” Scarlet unzipped
his carry-on bag and fished something out of it, which he handed to Blue with a
large smirk.
“A Bible?” Blue
said, turning the big book in his hands.
“And obviously quite old.”
“It was given to
my grandparents by the vicar who married them,” Scarlet explained, as Blue was
opening the Bible. He failed to notice the expression of surprise on his
friend’s features as he continued:
“So my grandfather thought that…
Dianne and I could carry on the tradition.”
Blue turned a few
pages from the beginning. He
stopped and frowned. “With this
book?” he inquired, looking directly at his friend with a doubtful expression on
his face. “You’re sure?”
“What do you
mean?” Scarlet asked with perplexity.
Blue sighed.
“Well… I don’t know if a clergyman gave this to your grandfather, Paul, but he
obviously didn’t read from it. Check this.”
Blue’s statement
was unusual enough to intrigue Scarlet; he rose from the bed to look over his
colleague’s broad shoulder at what Blue was staring at in such a curious way.
Blue first showed
him the first pages of the Bible – which were completely blank, with no writing
of any kind of them. Then he turned a page and Scarlet opened his eyes wide with
surprise.
The interior of
the book had been cut, in such a way that a small device, of almost exactly the
size of the book, had been inserted inside.
It was made of plastic and metal, with a series of six squared buttons
covering half of it, and a larger metallic disc inserted on the other half.
“What’s this?”
Scarlet murmured.
“I don’t know…”
Blue answered, shrugging. “A recording device, perhaps? Looks pretty archaic though…” He closed the book. “See?
You can’t see what’s hidden inside.
Clever…”
“Not so clever,
I’ve seen the exact same trick in an old western. Except the bad guy was hiding a revolver in it.”
“Why would a
clergyman hide this thing in a Bible?” Blue asked with a frown.
“That’s the same
question I was asking myself about the revolver. The bad guy was a clergyman
too,” Scarlet said matter-of-factly.
He smiled at the annoyed glance his friend gave him. “Maybe it’s not a recorder. It could be a player of some kind. That disc could be a speaker…”
“Doesn’t look like
any kind of player I’ve ever seen,” Blue mumbled.
“Doesn’t look like
a recorder either,” Scarlet pointed out.
Blue opened the
book and after a short moment of hesitation, started pushing some of the
buttons, but they clicked without anything happening. Scarlet took the Bible and did the same, and had no more
success than his colleague.
“Maybe we
shouldn’t touch it, after all,” Blue noted.
“We don’t know what it is.”
“You’re funny,
Blue,” Scarlet grumbled. “You’re
the first to try it, and when it’s my turn, you say we shouldn’t touch it.” He pressed the buttons again, and
grunted. “Well, whatever it is, it looks like it’s broken,” he remarked.
“Or maybe it’s a
matter of getting the right sequence?”
Blue suggested. He took the
book back and made a few more attempts.
Without any more success than previously. Scarlet sighed.
“This is getting
tedious,” he reflected, as Blue gave him back the book. “I’d better put it away for the time
being, and ask Granddad what this gift of his is all about. I’m sure I’ll be fascinated by his explanation.”
“I think that’s
the best thing you could do,” Blue
agreed. “In the meantime, I’ll
leave you. I’ve got paperwork to do
– and if I don’t start on it right away, I won’t be able to make it to this
dinner with Karen later on.”
“Off you go,
then,” Scarlet said, still trying for a new sequence on the buttons. “I’m going to have a shower, and get
back into uniform, before I report to the colonel.”
“See you later,
then. Don’t waste too much time on
this thing. You might break it, if
it’s not broken already.”
Scarlet didn’t
answer as Blue left, and the sliding door closed on him. He tried one last sequence, but since
the new command failed him again, he grunted in annoyance.
“What kind of gift
did you give me, Granddad?” he muttered.
He threw the Bible open onto his work-table with a frustrated sigh, and
didn’t give it another look. I don’t have time for this… I need that shower. He turned on his heel and took his
uniform out of his closet to lay it carefully on his bed, with his boots
standing in front of it. Then, he
swiftly removed his shoes, and directing his steps towards his small bathroom,
started disrobing on the way.
He never noticed
the lights appearing on the buttons he had pushed just a few seconds ago, nor
did he hear the faint buzzing sound that started coming out of it.
“What are you
doing out of your chair, Mr. Blake?
You know the doctor said you shouldn’t stand up for too long.”
Paul Blake looked
sideways at his nurse who had entered the library, carrying a tray on which were
a teapot, biscuits and a cup. He
gruffed and shrugged dismissively; her admonishments had become more and more
frequent as time passed, but he had grown used to them. Not that they had any effect on him
anyway; he would rarely listen to them – especially when he had something more
important on his mind. As he had at
the moment.
“I’m missing a
book,” he grunted, continuing to scrutinize the bookshelves in front of which he
was standing, leaning heavily on the cane that he used when out of his
wheelchair. He didn’t turn around
as she put her load onto the desk behind him. “Have you seen it, Hilda? I know you’re in the habit of removing
my books from the shelves from time to time to do some dusting…”
“Yes – dust is no
good for you,” the nurse replied.
“Especially at your age. You
know that… But you also know that I
always put the books back where they came from.”
“This book is very important… You should never touch it. Now I can’t find it.” He put his finger in an empty space on
the shelf he was staring at. “And
there’s a hole here, where it should be.”
“You gave one to
your grandson before he left,” the nurse reminded him matter-of-factly. “Such a handsome young man he is, Mr.
Blake…”
“That’s not the
same book,” Blake retorted, rather abruptly.
“That was a Bible,
yes?” the woman behind him
insisted, patiently. “You gave a
Bible to your grandson… The nice
young lady came in here looking for it.
I showed her your bookshelves and helped her find it.
It was this book we took.”
Blake frowned.
“Wait a minute…” His fingers grazed the spines of the
book, starting from the first one on the shelf.
“Fifth bookshelf… third book from the left…” He ended up on the empty space he had discovered.
“Ah!” Hilda said
victoriously. “You see? That
is
the book in question.”
“I gave them the
wrong book,” Blake muttered. “It
should have been… third shelf, fifth book.” Saying that, he grazed the said shelf and found the fifth
book. He removed it from between
the others and checked it. “This is the Bible I should have given
them,” he said, turning to Hilda.
“Not the other one.”
She shrugged,
pouring tea into the cup. “A Bible
is a Bible, isn’t it?”
“This Bible was the one that was used at
my wedding,” Blake countered, turning around and leaning heavily on his desk to
lower himself down into his seat.
“And that other Bible I gave Paul…
is something else. Oh dear, oh
dear, oh dear… What a mistake I
made. I really must be getting old…” He sighed.
“That book should never have
left this house. I was entrusted with it so many years ago…”
“Just call and ask
your grandson to bring it back to you,” Hilda suggested. To her, the question
didn’t seem to be all that serious.
Blake humphed
loudly. “You think it is as simple
as that?” he said almost
ironically. She gave a dismissive shrug, and Blake
grunted with annoyance, at first considering her suggestion a foolish one.
You don’t call Spectrum like that for such a thing… Well, it could be serious enough, but Paul was a very busy man. And he was stationed on Cloudbase, far
away from here… At least, as far as Blake knew.
The location of Cloudbase was always changing, and a secret very
jealously guarded.
Thoughtfully,
Blake looked at the phone on his desk.
Maybe Hilda is right, after all…I should call Paul.
This is too important.
He picked up the
receiver. “Leave that for now,
Hilda,” he said, starting to dial a number.
“And leave me, please. It’s
a matter of … national – no, international
– security. So this will have to be a private conversation. I hope you understand.”
Hilda rolled her
eyes, but didn’t comment. Sometimes
this man could be so melodramatic over nothing. International security, really… But she decided to humour him.
After all, he was an old gentleman…
he was entitled to his own fantasies.
“Don’t be too
long,” she said, taking the empty tray with her. “Your tea will get cold.”
She left, closing the door after her.
Blake barely
acknowledged her departure. He got
through to Spectrum London HQ, and after he had given his identity and the
access numeric code required to get through security, he was put through to the
Cloudbase communication centre.
A lilting voice
answered him after a couple of minutes of waiting. “Cloudbase Control, Lieutenant Green speaking.”
“I’d like to talk
to Captain Scarlet, please,” Blake announced.
“I’m his grandfather.”
“Can I have your access code, sir?”
“I thought I just
gave it to your colleague in London?”
“It’s the second code you need to give me now, sir.
That’s the normal security procedure.
To make sure of your identity. It
was provided to you by Spectrum security should you need to contact your
relative on Cloudbase.”
“All right,” Blake
said with a sigh. He should have known that it would not be that easy to contact
someone directly on Cloudbase.
“It’s Alpha, Bravo, three, five, seven... I think.” He waited for a short instant, listening
to the silence. “Is that okay?” he
asked impatiently. “This is rather important.”
“Code accepted, sir,” Green announced diligently. “Captain Scarlet arrived on Cloudbase about an hour ago, and should
still be in his quarters. I’ll put
you through. If he’s not there, you
will be able to leave a message on his voice mail, and he will call you back as
soon as he can.”
“I suppose that
will have to do,” grunted Blake.
“Thank you, Lieutenant.”
“You’ll have contact in ten seconds. Have a nice day,
Mr. Blake,”
Green said in
closing, and Blake wasn’t surprised that he should know his name. He imagined that the information was
held against his security code. He waited the time announced by the
communications officer and then heard the tone at the other end. He hoped that Paul would answer himself, so that he would be
able to resolve the situation. I shouldn’t have kept that Bible, he told
himself. I should have put it into the U.S.S. security vault in London, years
ago. But I was personally entrusted
with it – and I gave my word to keep it with me. And keep it safe.
Oh yes… I did hold to my promise, didn’t I?
Nobody answered
the phone, and Blake heard the short message announcing that he would be
transferred to the voice mail box.
He rolled his eyes. Yes, of course… it would not
be that easy!
He sighed as a
buzzing sound told him it was time to leave his message. “Hello, Paul, this is me…”
After taking his
shower and drying himself off, Captain Scarlet emerged from his bathroom, with
only a towel around his hips, rubbing his hair vigorously with another, smaller
one, and whistling while going through the contents of his carry-all in which he
knew he had left the new aftershave he had just bought during his leave.
He found it at the bottom of the bag, and opened the bottle, splashing a few
drops of the contents into his hands, and then onto his cheeks.
. He threw the smaller towel onto his
desk, atop the open Bible he had left there; still he failed to notice the light
that was now illuminating all the buttons.
He did notice,
however, the blinking red light on his phone, telling him that someone had left
a message on his voice mail, while he was in the shower. He pressed the command
button and the numeric code to access the box, and went to his bed to start
dressing in his uniform.
There was only one
message in the box.
“Hello, Paul, this is me…”
There was a short
pause from the elderly voice of the speaker.
“… Your grandfather.” Scarlet nearly chuckled.
Leave it to Granddad to state the obvious! he told himself. The message continued as he pulled up
his pants: “You know that Bible I gave you…
I’m afraid I made a terrible mistake.
I mean… I did intend to give
you the Bible that was used at my wedding – but I obviously gave you the wrong
one. You see, this… Bible you have…
it’s not really a Bible at all.
It’s just a cover, to hide something inside… an electronic device…”
“No kidding!”
Scarlet muttered, slipping his head through the collar of his charcoal grey
pullover. “We already found that out, Granddad…”
He combed his
still-wet hair, while listening to the rest:
“That book was entrusted to me by a
fellow U.S.S. agent – a long time ago.
He had just learned that he was ill, and would die soon, and needed to
give it to someone whom he knew would take care of it… because he didn’t want
the device the book contains to fall into the wrong hands.”
Scarlet was
putting on his socks when he heard those last words. He frowned and turned to the phone, approaching with
curiosity. “What is this thing, then?” he muttered to himself
“I can’t tell you what it is exactly,”
the voice of his grandfather continued, as
if answering his question directly. “But
what I can say is that it should never have left my house. I have two requests to make of you,
Paul. First, please, don’t try to turn the machine on. I doubt it would work – I know I’ve tried a few times
already, without success – but I would much prefer that you don’t try yourself –
just in case…”
“Too late,”
Scarlet said out loud, with a faint smile.
“And it didn’t work for me either…”
“Secondly, I need you to send the book back to me as
soon as possible,”
the voice of Paul Blake continued. “As I said, I can’t tell you what it does,
but Matthew told me that it was very
important that I keep it very safe.”
Scarlet nodded
pensively, his curiosity piqued. He
started looking around for the book, trying to remind himself where he had left
it.
On the desk. Of course, the towel
is now hiding it.
He removed the
towel. And frowned upon seeing the
illuminated buttons of the device embedded in the book.
He saw the
metallic disc glowing in turn as it steadily rose from where it lay, supported
on a short rod.
“What the…?”
The light became
brighter, and suddenly, Scarlet’s head started to spin and the room seemed to
move around him. Through the phone
speaker, the voice of his grandfather became remote: “So I would appreciate it if you would call me back as soon as possible,
Paul. To confirm to me that you
received this message… I know it
might sound a little ludicrous, when you think about it, but it is not, I can
assure you…”
Scarlet had
trouble keeping his balance, as his head became lighter and lighter. He felt giddy and numb all over; the
light from the disc was becoming more distant, but at the same time brighter,
even larger - as was the desk itself.
He had the absurd impression that everything was now growing…
… bigger…
Bigger and bigger…
Faced with this
unknown phenomenon, panic set in, and Scarlet’s heart started beating faster; he
stepped backward, trying to get away from the source of the light, and his feet
entangled themselves in something behind him. Something like a huge pile of cloth, lying on the floor; he
turned around, trying to catch himself, and he fell face first right into it; at
the same time, he had the very strange impression that the pile was mounting
toward him, getting larger with each split second – seemingly becoming as huge
as mountains, and as deep as valleys.
His head hit
something metallic. He never
realised it was one of the studs from his civilian jacket – which was now as big
as his head itself.
His world became
dark, and he lost consciousness, just as the last words of his grandfather’s
message were heard through the speaker of the phone:
“This is very important, Paul. I’m counting on you. Please call me back. I’ll be waiting for your call. Bye for now.”
Nobody was able to
hear the voice now, as it echoed through the room…
The now seemingly
empty room – on the floor of which was
lying a small heap of discarded civilian clothing.
When Captains
Ochre and Grey stepped out of the
SPJ that had brought them back from Spectrum New York Headquarters, they were
greeted by Captain Magenta, who had just come to meet the London shuttle to pick
up a package. He was waiting for it
on the hangar deck, when his two colleagues arrived.
“So, how was the
trip to my old home town?” Magenta asked with a grin.
“If at least we
had seen the town,” Ochre grimaced, “I guess it would have been less boring.”
“That bad?”
“You know how it
goes,” Grey sighed. “Security
investigations can be quite routine – especially when there seems to be nothing
to be found.”
“So there’s no
leak of information, like Lieutenant Tan suspected?” Magenta asked.
That was the
reason that had taken Ochre and Grey to New York. Lieutenant Tan, the security officer in charge of New York
HQ, had discovered unauthorised radio signals that were apparently coming from
the headquarters’ offices. The
signals had been intercepted, and Tan had launched a primary investigation,
which had turned up nothing out of the ordinary.
He’d reported this to Cloudbase at this point, and it was then decided
that further investigation should be carried out by senior officers – if only to
check if everything was indeed in order.
“Nothing to worry
about then,” Magenta pursued. “It
might only be a false alarm.”
“It would appear
that everything is all right,” Ochre said pensively. “But… Tan is still convinced that his suspicions were right. As for Major Brooks… he’s satisfied that
the investigation proves that security at New York HQ is as tight as he always
thought it would be.”
Magenta nodded
slowly, narrowing his eyes at his two colleagues, guessing at their opinion of
the New York HQ Spectrum commander’s judgement. “I have the impression that you don’t agree with Brooks… and
that you tend to share Tan’s suspicions.”
“Tan is not the
paranoid type,” Grey agreed. “If he
says there was something amiss… then you can bet your bottom dollar there was.”
“It is possible
that, whoever was trying to leak information, he or she stopped by the time we
arrived,” Ochre continued.
“The question now
would be: will that person stay
quiet, so not to run the risk of being identified,” Grey finished, “or will
he/she start again, now that they’ve avoided detection?”
Magenta was about
to answer when the speakers in the hangar suddenly came to life, and a
dreadfully familiar, ominous voice was heard:
“This is the Voice of the
Mysterons… We know you can hear us,
Earthmen… The secrets of Spectrum’s
Cloudbase will soon be revealed by an unexpected source. This will strike a crippling blow to the
Spectrum organisation’s effectiveness.
We will be avenged…”
Magenta, Grey and
Ochre stared for a minute at the now silent speakers; then, they exchanged
significant looks.
“That can’t be a coincidence,” Magenta
remarked.
“Nope,” Grey
agreed. “I think we can safely say
that Tan was right – and that the target of those leaks has now simply changed. But I would never have guessed the
Mysterons were behind this.”
The speaker came
to life again, but this time, with the voice of Lieutenant Green. “We are now on Yellow Alert. All available senior staff captains
report to the Control Room at once.”
With a common nod, and a hasty pace, Grey, Ochre and Magenta left the hangar,
without delay. The technicians were
finishing unloading the equipment from the SPJ and were preparing to taxi it off
the lift on which it was still standing.
Nobody noticed, through the still opened hatch leading to the cabin, the little
furry creature, that showed its nose outside, looking around attentively –
before dashing out and breaking into a run across the hangar floor and then
directly to the nearest air vent, before anyone could see it…
Mike ‘Dinger’ Bell looked around Captain Scarlet’s quarters with some
puzzlement; for the last few years he had been the captain’s batman onboard
Cloudbase, he could never recall him leaving his place in a mess – or even
slightly untidy. Now, there was civilian clothing lying on the floor, tracing a
path towards the bathroom, a couple of towels mixed with them; the shower had
obviously been used very recently, and not cleaned;
the red tunic of the captain’s uniform was still on the bed, alongside
his cap, his gun belt with the sidearm inside the holster, and a pair of shiny
boots looking as if they were standing to attention. Captain Scarlet’s luggage was still on the bed, open, with
half of the contents still inside.
There was even a big, thick book left open on the desk, right next to the
telephone and computer.
Bell scratched his ear. He had
heard the call to yellow alert a few minutes ago coming from the speakers – just
after another of those enigmatic threats the Mysterons always issued. So he gathered that Captain Scarlet must
have left in a hurry to report to the Control Room, and didn’t have time to pick
up his things and unpack his luggage.
Which explained almost everything – except why he had left parts of his
uniform lying everywhere…
Bell shrugged. The captain probably
used a spare uniform, or something, for whatever reason that the batman couldn’t
think of at the moment. It wasn’t
his job to try to understand anyway – he was just Scarlet’s orderly and only
needed to keep his quarters clean and take care of his things. Which he would do right now.
He started by cleaning the shower and the
rest of the bathroom, and then came back into the living and sleeping
areas; he picked up in one lump the dirty clothes lying on the floor, but left
the uniform – which didn’t seem to have been worn at all – and threw it all,
unceremoniously, into his laundry
basket. He glanced towards the open book on the desk, but didn’t dare touch it;
he did notice the strange device embedded within the cut-out pages, and shrugged
at the sight of it.
You see odd things on Cloudbase,
he told himself. So he wasn’t that
surprised.
He picked up his basket of dirty laundry and left the quarters, whistling
contentedly after a job well-done.
If he had checked in his basket, he might have noticed the tiny arm emerging
from between the folds of the clothes it contained – and on the sleeve of which
a very small but nevertheless noticeable Spectrum logo was imprinted…
“Where is Captain Scarlet?” asked
Colonel White.
The four colour-coded captains seated around his desk glanced at each other with
inquiring looks, and then every eye turned toward Captain Blue. Ochre, Magenta and Grey had arrived at
the room together, and had not seen Scarlet.
Blue was probably the person who would know his regular partner’s
whereabouts..
“Last time I saw him, Colonel,” Blue answered, “Captain Scarlet was preparing to
unpack his suitcases after his arrival on base. Then he was planning on taking a shower. He might not have heard the threat or
the call with the water running.”
“That would be a plausible explanation,” White agreed with a nod. It was almost unheard of for Scarlet to
miss a staff meeting in the Control Room – especially after a Mysteron threat. The colonel turned toward Lieutenant
Green, seated in front of his station.
“Try to reach him, Lieutenant. Tell
him to join us as soon as possible.”
“S.I.G., Sir.”
“In the meantime, we don’t have time to wait for him,” White continued, turning
to his remaining officers. “Any thoughts of what this new threat might mean,
gentlemen?”
“We were just talking about it while coming here, Sir,” Captain Grey answered. “It would seem that the Mysterons intend
to pursue on Cloudbase what was attempted at New York HQ.”
White raised a curious brow. “But
according to earlier reports, you and Captain Ochre didn’t find anything,
Captain Grey.”
“The fact that we didn’t find anything doesn’t mean there wasn’t something, Colonel,” Ochre noted. “Those signals Lieutenant Tan intercepted surely came from somewhere.
Our spy was just clever enough to stop his transmissions just short of
being discovered.”
“If that is true… then what kind of information do you think might have gone
through?”
“Judging by what Lieutenant Tan intercepted, and the location the signals came
from, we can count our blessings that it was non-essential information, Sir,”
Ochre sighed. “It was in a
relatively low-priority section of the building – but still, the access to it by
non-Spectrum personnel and public is next to impossible – and it’s even less
likely that someone would be able to sneak in a camera or any kind of electronic
device going through all the current levels of security. Captain Grey made sure that the system
installed by Captain Magenta months ago was still as efficient as it was meant
to be.”
“But whatever caused those signals was
very close to a high security section,” Grey continued.
“We were lucky the transmissions were discovered at this point. Or there’s no telling just how far our
spy would have been able to go.”
“So he just stopped,” Blue mused.
“Just like that. To avoid
detection?”
“It would seem likely, yes,” Ochre concurred.
“And now we have this threat against Cloudbase,” Blue said pensively. “You think it’s related?”
Ochre narrowed his eyes. “Think
about it: What if what happened in
New York was just a test?”
“To see how far the spy can get through security?”
“Exactly, Captain Magenta.”
“And now he’s moved to Cloudbase?”
Blue was puzzled. “That would mean
the Mysterons were behind the attempt in New York, then.”
“Or,” Magenta countered, “that the spy in New
York, if an independent agent, was Mysteronised afterwards to do their dirty
work.”
“Either way, it’s a possibility that the events in New York and this present
threat are related,” White remarked.
He turned to Lieutenant Green. “Any
luck contacting Captain Scarlet, Lieutenant?”
“No, sir,” Green answered from his station.
“And I tried everything. His
cap microphone, his personal comm., the base speakers. Everything seems to be working fine, but he doesn’t answer.”
“Odd,” White mused pensively. “It’s
certainly not like him to ignore a meeting.
Captain Blue,” the colonel continued, “you will go to Captain Scarlet’s
quarters and see what could be delaying him.
Inform him of the new developments and tell him to report to me at once.”
“S.I.G., Sir,” Blue said, starting to rise.
“Scarlet’s input in this situation could be essential.” White pursued. “After all, if anybody knows how the
Mysterons work, it is certainly him.
He is still our best asset against them.”
He then addressed his four officers:
“Gentlemen, I want you to study the incident in New York HQ and come up
with answers on how this ‘spy’ succeeded in getting through Spectrum security –
and how his success could be applied on Cloudbase, to get access to our most
vital secrets. I also want security to be increased, to stop the events in New
York from happening here.”
“S.I.G.,” the four captains in front of White chorused.
“I do not have to tell you,” the colonel insisted, “what it would mean if our
most guarded secrets were to be known by the public, or even worse, if they
should fall into criminal hands. It
would have devastating consequences…
Spectrum would not be able to function efficiently in its war against terrorism
– and the Mysterons. Indeed,
gentlemen, as the Mysterons have said, it would be
for our organisation a most crippling blow.”
The sound of whistling echoed in Scarlet’s mind.
Still fighting against unconsciousness, he didn’t recognise the tune at
first; and then, he was able to
identify one of his batman’s favourite refrains; he had often caught him
whistling it, while cleaning his quarters.
It was as awful as he remembered it to be all those previous times.
Bell… for Heaven’s sake, cut that out…
You’re nearly as bad as Blue at carrying a tune…
He was lying on something soft – fabric of some kind, which was also covering
him and weighing heavily on him. A
strong odour made him choke as he tried to take a deep breath.
And then there was the sudden impression of falling, still entangled in the
heavy fabric. He couldn’t hold on
to anything, couldn’t see anything, as he tumbled down inexorably towards the
unknown.
He fell head first into something soft, like a mattress, and found himself
covered by the same heavy and smelly fabric in which he had awakened, pressing
him down with a great weight. He
gasped for air, and tried to focus, as he attempted to push away whatever it was
that was covering him. But it was
so heavy, it was flattening him, and nearly choking him.
He couldn’t see a thing, so deep was the darkness surrounding him.
The whistling Scarlet was hearing was now growing faint, to the rhythm of
receding footsteps. Bell – or
whoever it was that he was hearing – was walking away, leaving him to his fate. He tried to call for help, but his cries
never got through that ‘stuff’ covering him.
Feels like heavy canvas, he
told himself, now hearing only a deep, worrying silence. He couldn’t stand, so he crawled his way
up – hoping to eventually get out of
whatever this thing was.
It seemed to Scarlet that it took endless minutes, and he was starting to feel
terribly hot, when he finally saw a ray of light; with a deep intake of air, he
sighed with relief and crawled toward the light. He finally emerged out of the darkness, breathing heavily
under the effort he had just made, and drenched with sweat. He crawled on his hands and knees out of what looked to him
like a tube, made out of a dark, bulky fabric; then he stood, stumbling on the
unsteady and soft ground under his feet; it was exactly as if he was standing on
some sort of canvas, untidily thrown on the ground. He wasn’t wearing his boots, not having
had the time to put them on earlier, and his toes bumped against something solid
and sharp under the fabric. He
yelped in pain, and nearly fell to his knees.
He stared down, wondering what it was that his foot had hit. He opened his eyes wide with surprise,
when he saw the metallic object protruding from the ‘canvas’.
It looks like… a giant zip?!
Scarlet crouched to stare at it with curiosity.
The thing was at least ten feet long, probably longer as it disappeared
under the dark cloth onto which it was attached – no… sewed on. He shook his head in disbelief.
No, I’m dreaming, surely… who would
build such a thing and to what purpose?
And why would it be on Cloudbase?
I’m still on Cloudbase, aren’t I?
He looked around, his eyes filled with wariness.
All he could see around him was lumps and bulges of canvas – of different
colours, and sizes, lying everywhere, like so many uneven mounds and crevices…
Beyond that, there seemed to be a…
palisade of some sort –-smooth-surfaced and rising high above his head –
surrounding him.
Where the bloody Hell am I?
Looking behind him, he made a double take – staring with wide-eyed astonishment
at the dark ‘tube’ he had emerged from a minute earlier.
On top of the tube, which appeared to be made of a dark grey fabric, he could
see a giant Spectrum logo; he looked down at the one he was wearing on his
sleeve, in some puzzlement. It was
an exact replica… And the more he
looked at his sleeve and at this ‘tube’…
the more he realised how very similar they were.
He slowly rose to his feet, his heart beating faster, thinking he was
dreaming. He nearly pinched
himself to make sure he wasn’t.
No this is real. I am
really
seeing what I’m seeing.
Oh dear God, this thing is a giant sleeve!
“Paul, are you there?”
Captain Blue entered Captain Scarlet’s quarters after dialling the numeric code
to open the door. As it slid shut
behind him, he looked around into the empty living area with curiosity.
“Paul?” Nobody answered Blue’s call. He checked
the sleeping area, wondering if his friend might be taking a nap – which would
be surprising. Scarlet wasn’t the
kind of person to take impromptu naps – especially when on duty. Besides, since his Mysteronisation, the
English captain didn’t need as much sleep as any ordinary human being.
As Blue expected, Scarlet wasn’t there; strangely, though, his open luggage was
still lying on his bed, most of the contents still packed. A pair of red boots stood right next to
the bed, just underneath a uniform tunic, a radiocap and a gun belt. It was as if someone was getting ready
to wear them.
“Paul!” Blue crossed the room towards the bathroom, but he found it also empty. He came back into the living area and
looked around, puzzled. The Bible,
with its strange contents, was on the desk, right next to the computer, the
buttons still dark, and apparently devoid of life.
Except for that, and what was in the sleeping area, everything looked as
tidy as it always was.
“Now where could he be?” Blue asked himself,
muttering.
Could Paul be with Rhapsody? That
was far-fetched, of course – Paul would never miss an important meeting
concerning a Mysteron threat, even to
pass some time with his girlfriend.
If he had been unaware of the threat and the meeting, by some odd chance,
Rhapsody would have known about it anyway, and would have made sure to tell him.
Well, just to be certain, I’d better go
check at her place,
Blue finally decided, pushing the button to
open the door. Discreetly.
As he stepped out, he failed to notice the blinking red light on Scarlet’s
phone, signifying that there was still a message in his voice box…
The first moment of surprise passed, Scarlet finally came to realise what had
happened to him. His last conscious
thoughts, before he woke up in this strange place, was of the bright, blinding
light coming from his grandfather’s Bible, then this sensation of dizziness that
had struck him – and the impression that everything was growing bigger around
him.
It wasn’t the things surrounding me that
were growing bigger,
he realised in shock. But me, who was
getting smaller!
From the vantage point of a smooth, rounded top, made out of a red, soft,
satin-like fabric, on which he was seated, he was now staring at the huge
Spectrum logo he had discovered earlier, rubbing his chin pensively, making a
quick assessment of his situation.
A Spectrum roundel on a sleeve was approximately one and a half inches in
diameter. This one he was staring at was
about half of his present size.
Which made him, roughly, three inches high…
I’ve been reduced to the size of a bloody
action figure,
he growled to
himself.
HOW did THAT happen?!
Oh sure – he knew he had to blame that damnable device he had found in that book
his grandfather accidentally gave to
him – now he knew what it did! – but
what he would have liked to know at the moment was how it could possibly be able to do such a thing. Reduce a man to such a height as he
presently was… it sounded so ridiculous!
And what could it possibly be useful for?
I’m sure the Secret Service must have
thought of a logical, applicable use for it – but for the life of me, I can’t
think of what it might be.
And how the Hell am I going to get back to
my normal size? Is this thing
permanent? Will it wear off
eventually?
Please, let it not be permanent!
He glanced around thoughtfully.
Whatever happened next with his present condition, there was one thing he was
certain of: he had to get out of
here. One look at the ceiling he could see so
high above his head was enough to confirm that
here
wasn’t his quarters. He
remembered having fallen straight into his clothes lying on the floor, knocking
his head against something – he couldn’t recall what –
and losing his senses in the process.
Next thing he knew, he had woken up in this place.
He knew what ‘this place’ was – or rather, he had a pretty good idea.
This was, in all probability, the laundry room.
Somebody – Bell, since I’m pretty sure it’s
him I heard earlier – must have picked up my clothes, and me in them, and
brought me here.
And if he was to follow this line of thought, then Scarlet had to conclude that,
logically, he currently found himself in the middle of what looked like one of
the plastic baskets, in which he
knew all the dirty laundry of Cloudbase’s personnel
was sorted, before being put into the washing machine.
And the thing he was currently sitting on was…
Startled by the sudden realisation of what
it actually was, he nearly jumped down from his perch; and then, he stared at it
with mystification, before starting to laugh.
He had to admit, there weren’t that many guys in the world who would have the
chance to say, in complete honesty, that he had been sitting on top of an
oversized brassiere cup!
That reminded him of that old movie he had seen so many years ago – What was it… ‘Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex but Were
Afraid to Ask’? – he was still
a teenager back then, with raging hormones, and the title sounded so appealing… But if not for a couple of very funny
scenes, and especially the giant
breast featured in one of the movie’s multiple stories, he would have found it
rather disappointing…
He was at this point in his reflection when he heard the sound of a hydraulic
engine starting up, and suddenly felt the ground shake beneath his feet.
No… That’s not the ground… It’s the basket moving.
He looked up. The ceiling overhead
was getting closer, as if the basket was indeed being lifted from the floor; and
then there was a sudden jerk, that threw Scarlet down onto his back; the basket moved sideways, while he
rolled down onto the dirty laundry, to finally bump against the side of the
basket.
Getting unsteadily to his feet, as the basket continued to move, Scarlet raised
his eyes to the opening over his head.
A railing appeared in his line of vision, to which a huge arm was attached – a
arm on the end of which was a large metallic clamp, that was now holding the side of the basket. In one instant, Scarlet realised what
was happening; the fully automated features of the laundry room had been put
into motion, and the content of all the baskets of dirty laundry were being
dumped, one after the other, into the washing machine. The basket in which he was presently standing had just
been grabbed by the automatic system.
I’ve got to get the Hell out of here before
being washed to death,
he told himself with urgency.
No doubt he would drown in all that soapy water, and he certainly wasn’t looking
forward to it – even knowing he would eventually revive.
Would I?
Who knows what this… miniaturisation process might have done to my
recuperative powers! For all I know, I might not have them while I’m this size…
He knew he was only seconds away from being dumped into the washing machine –
and ironically, he also knew it was only at that exact moment he might actually
have a chance to escape. He
hurriedly went through the clothing lying in his immediate vicinity; he found
one of the straps of the bra he had been sitting on earlier, and the unhooked
fastener at its end. It certainly
wasn’t his ideal choice, but it was the best he could do under the
circumstances. Fortunately, the strap was delicate and light enough for him to
make good use of it. If it had been larger, it would have
been useless to him.
He looked up and aimed at the side of the basket – from his point of view,
something like ten feet over his head – and, after giving it some momentum, he
threw the strap like a grappling line.
He missed. A second try was
equally unsuccessful. As he felt
the basket rising steadily and finally coming to a halt, he made a last
desperate attempt. The hook from
the strap end finally caught hold of the side of the basket and Scarlet hung on
to it… just as the trap under the basket suddenly opened and emptied its load
into the washing machine underneath.
Scarlet felt the laundry falling under his feet, leaving him without anything to
stand on. The momentum sent him
flying roughly against the side of the basket.
Yet he held on firmly, gritting his teeth against the sudden pull on his
arms.
He looked down underneath himself.
Hanging on to the strap for dear life, he could see the rest of the giant red
bra dangling below him. And beyond
that, at what seemed like metres from him, there was a huge, menacing, dark
whirlpool, half filled with laundry – the washing machine, with violent jets of
water already starting to fill it.
He blew a sigh of relief when the basket, emptied of its load, slowly but surely
moved away from the washing machine.
From his vantage point, Scarlet could see that another giant mechanical
clamped-arm had grabbed yet another plastic basket and was now moving it over
the washing machine. For a second,
mesmerized by the vision presented by this oversized machinery, he followed the
trajectory with his eyes, before focussing on his problem yet again. The empty basket was being lowered, and
if he wasn’t careful, he would find himself yet again a prisoner inside of it.
The floor was approaching, but it seemed yet so terribly far away. He would risk breaking his neck if he
were to let go too soon. Yet,
what choice did he have exactly?
There!
Just underneath him, there was some laundry lost from
one of the baskets, lying on the floor.
Maybe it would be enough to cushion his fall? It was almost un-hoped for.
He prepared to let go of his improvised safety line, and started
swinging, aiming toward the pile of clothes as the basket approached.
Closer… closer… just a couple of
seconds more…
Unfortunately for Scarlet, all this swaying to and fro, combined with his
weight, was putting too much strain on the delicate plastic hook he was using as
a grappling iron. It broke and let
go suddenly, sending both bra and Spectrum captain flying down toward the floor. Scarlet let out a yelp of surprise as he
fell the distance that he knew was still a little too high. His cry died out in a loud huff as he
landed heavily on the floor.
His last, absurd thought, just before he finally lost consciousness from the
pain, was to remind himself to ask Rhapsody, when he was next able to see her,
whether or not she wore red underwear…
“Colonel White, I can’t find Captain Scarlet anywhere.”
Colonel White raised an inquiring brow at Captain Blue as the latter entered the
Control Room with the news. Captain
Ochre was still present, standing over Lieutenant Green, and checking
information on the computer screen that the communications officer was looking
at. Both he and Green looked up as
Blue approached their commander’s desk.
“I searched everywhere I could think of,” Blue said, by way of explanation. “I even called him several times, using
the comm. It’s like he’s not on base.”
White slowly nodded in acknowledgement of the news. “That’s strange… When was
the last time you saw him?”
“About a half hour before the Mysteron threat, sir.”
“An hour ago, then.” White turned
to Green. “Has any transport left
Cloudbase since then, Lieutenant?”
“No, Sir,” Green answered. “The
London shuttle is getting ready to leave, though.
I was about to give them the green light.”
“Hold it, until further notice,”
White instructed. “No craft is to
leave base until we find Captain Scarlet.”
“What do you think happened to him, Sir?” Ochre asked from where he was
standing.
“I don’t know… But this is unusual
enough to be suspicious.”
“Do you think this might have anything to do with the present Mysteron threat?”
Ochre was asking the question, as he left Green’s side to approach the desk in
turn. Blue gave his colleague a wary look, as he stopped by his
side.
“Whatever do you mean, Ochre?” he
asked suspiciously.
“Well, like the colonel, I’m wondering where Scarlet might be,” Ochre answered
with a shrug. “It is unlike him to
miss a meeting, following a Mysteron threat.
And he’s not the kind to go AWOL like that. Something is afoot, that’s for sure. And considering the latest threat, I don’t believe that
Scarlet’s… disappearance is a coincidence.”
Blue frowned, suddenly thinking he was hearing an accusation in Ochre’s tone.
“How many times does a man have to prove himself to you, Captain?” he asked
abruptly.
“Pardon me?”
“Ochre, two years ago, when he got free of the Mysterons’ control, you suspected Scarlet of foul play,”
Blue remarked in a cold tone. “You
were wrong back then, I will remind you.
And now, just because the Mysterons mentioned an unexpected source…”
“… First of all,” Ochre interrupted quickly before even Colonel White could say
something, “I do not suspect Scarlet of any foul play, Captain Blue. I was
just voicing my concern that something
might have happened to Scarlet – in view of his sudden and apparent
disappearance. He’s been a thorn in
the Mysterons’ side for a long time, and they might have removed him from the
game early on, so they could pursue this threat. And secondly…” He addressed a faint smile to Blue. “I’m as worried about a friend’s
well-being – as you are yourself,
Blue.”
Blue felt embarrassed about his earlier suspicion and lowered his gaze. “My apologies, Captain Ochre…”
“Apologies accepted,” Ochre said in a detached tone.
“Besides,” he added quietly enough,
“Scarlet was nowhere near New York when security discovered the
suspicious transmissions. So he’s
hardly a suspect…”
Blue smiled thinly. “You’re just
saying that to annoy me.”
“You’re sure of that?” Ochre retorted, raising a brow.
The wink he gave Blue was enough of an answer.
White cleared his throat, to recall his officers to order. “That’s all very well, gentlemen, but whether his
disappearance has something to do with the present threat or not, Captain
Scarlet has to be found.
Captain Blue, it would seem you were the last person to talk to him.”
“Pardon me, Sir…” Lieutenant Green
was approaching on his moving chair, calling to his commander to attract his
attention. “Captain Blue might have
been the last one to see Captain
Scarlet in person, but there might be someone else who talked to him afterward.”
“And who that might be, Lieutenant?”
“About fifteen minutes before the Mysterons’ threat, I received a call from
England,” Green explained. “Someone
wanting to talk to Captain Scarlet.
His grandfather, Sir.”
“His grandfather?”
“A Mr. Paul Blake, Colonel. He
insisted that the call was urgent.”
“Paul Blake…” White muttered,
pensively. “I didn’t know that old goat was still
alive…”
“You know him, Sir?” Ochre asked in surprise.
“It was a long time ago. He was
director of the U.S.S. when I joined.
I knew he was Captain Scarlet’s grandfather, but I thought he was long dead by
now. By God, he must be pushing ninety, now…”
“Oh, he’s very much alive, sir,” Blue explained.
“And according to Captain Scarlet, still in good health, despite frail
legs. Captain Scarlet went to visit
him during that furlough he just came back from.”
“And Blake called him so soon after they had seen each other?” White said with a frown.
“With an urgent call, sir,” Lieutenant Green remembered. “I don’t know if Mr. Blake actually reached Captain Scarlet,
though, or if he left a message in his voice mail, as I suggested, if he was
unable to reach him.”
White was quick to make his next decision. “Captain Blue, return to Captain
Scarlet’s quarters. Search for
possible clues to his whereabouts.
Since it seems unlikely that he left base, then he
must be somewhere. Captain
Ochre, assign Spectrum personnel to conduct a search party.
We must find him.”
“S.I.G., Sir.”
“Lieutenant Green,” White continued, turning his chair towards his aide, “try to
contact Mr. Blake. I don’t know if
his call has anything to do with Captain Scarlet’s disappearance, but at the
very least, we’ll know if Mr. Blake did indeed succeed in contacting him. And maybe then we’ll be able to put a
more specific time to when his disappearance actually occurred.”
It was a constant humming that woke Captain Scarlet from his dreamless sleep. Groaning, he rolled over on the cold
surface of the floor, and sat up; he didn’t have his watch on, so he had no idea
how long he had been unconscious.
It couldn’t have been that long, however; the pain he felt all over his body was
a fair indication that his sleep hadn’t been long enough to be a healing one.
He looked around, wondering about the sound that had awakened him, and at first
felt a little disoriented. He did
remember what had happened before he had lost consciousness, but somehow, he had
hoped that it would all turn out to be a bad dream.
Of course, he wouldn’t be that lucky.
It was with dismay that he now found himself sitting in the middle of the
laundry room, which looked like a huge stage-set straight out of an episode of
that ancient, ridiculous Land of the
Giants TV series that he had caught Captain Ochre watching a few months ago. The humming sound he was hearing was,
sure enough, the washing machine, presently cleansing the dirty laundry.
He rose to his feet and stood unsteadily, grimacing against the pain in his
back. He considered himself lucky
not to have – apparently – broken anything in that fall he had had earlier,
especially considering how hard the floor was, and that he had missed the heap
of clothes he had hoped to land on. Something must have cushioned my fall, he
realised instantly. He couldn’t recall what, exactly.
Not far from him was the red bra that had served him so well as a means of
escape from the basket. A light
flicked in his mind. Now here’s the explanation, he mused. He probably fell onto it, before rolling to the floor.
The others will be so jealous when I tell them about this, he told himself,
a large, mischievous grin forming on his lips.
No way was he going to keep to himself the fact that during this
adventure, he owed the success of his daring escape and subsequent survival to a
flamboyant red brassiere…
The humming sound had increased and was now reaching a crescendo that was
getting irritating to Scarlet’s ears.
More than that, he suddenly realised…
the sound was getting closer.
And it was coming from directly behind him.
Scarlet turned around, suddenly realising that the sound he was now hearing
wasn’t exactly coming from the washing machine – but was an added sound, coming
from another, different source.
He just had the time to jump to the side to avoid
being run over by a robo-vac which was coming straight at him, vacuuming the
floor.
As far as Scarlet was able to judge – considering his now reduced size – this
model was larger than the small ones that often ran in Cloudbase’s corridors –
and which, after its sensors had picked up the presence of any member of the
base personnel, would follow
the walls, to avoid being trodden on.
These yellow, short, disc-like robots performed an invaluable task on base, by
picking up any dirt, lint and dust they would find on the floor, and then
scouring it thoroughly through a dry cleaning process, thus keeping the
environment clean and reducing the risk of germ propagation.
This robo-vac, however, was not only bigger, but also seemed to be performing a
slightly different task, as it now stopped in front of the bra lying on the
floor and seemed to be considering it with interest. It was equipped with a small arm, ending in a pincer-claw,
that now moved to pick up the lost piece of clothing… and throw it into a small
basket mounted on its back.
Scarlet watched the operation with quiet fascination;
his size was now giving him a new perspective on things, and he couldn’t
help but marvel at something that, up until now, he had taken for granted. To him, these small robo-vacs now looked
like giant machines, as if they had been built by – well, aliens from another
planet, come to think of it...
Scarlet didn’t react at first when the robo-vac turned toward him and seemed to
examine him attentively.
Neither did he react when it started moving in his direction.
He only realised the danger it represented when he saw the arm putting itself
into position, directed towards him, and the pincer opened ominously.
Scarlet didn’t wait much longer after that, and broke into a run; as if infused
with sentient life, the robo-vac gave pursuit.
Oh boy… it either ‘thinks’ I’m lint or a
piece of clothing that fell to the floor!
Either way,
Scarlet was very aware that those claws would hurt very much if the robo-vac
should get its… ‘hands’ on him.
Unfortunately, the little robot’s engine was pushing it faster than Scarlet’s
legs were able to run and it was gaining on him fast.
The pincer was getting dangerously closer.
Scarlet sidestepped and jumped behind an empty, discarded basket to hide, and the robo-vac, pushed by its
momentum, passed by, missing him by an inch.
It rolled for a small distance, before stopping again and ‘looking’ all around,
obviously in search of what it was trying to catch. From the safety of his hiding place, Scarlet watched it
warily.
The robo-vac wasn’t a sentient being, of course; so it seemingly forgot about
Scarlet, and simply continued ‘patrolling’ the floor, in search of lost clothes and lint. That would only be momentary, of course.
Scarlet knew he had only seconds before the robot would turn around, discover
him and give chase again. He
wouldn’t be able to play hide and seek with it for long. He had to find a better hiding place, to avoid being caught
by the robot, until someone eventually entered the laundry room, and found him. Then he’d be able to ask – shout – for help, in order to
resolve his dreadful situation.
There was an air vent nearby, at the foot of a wall, and to Scarlet, it seemed
like a perfect place to hide and wait, and to be completely out of harm’s way. He gave a glance in the direction of the robo-vac and saw it
turning to direct itself toward the other side of the room, where a small piece
of unidentifiable cloth was lying on the floor. Since the robot’s sensors were ‘looking’ in the other
direction, Scarlet was able to safely race across the floor and straight towards
the vent.
There was nothing closing the opening, so it was easy for Scarlet to slip in
without any problem. But after
having gone a few feet into the vent,
it was so dark inside that he couldn’t see where he was going exactly. His shoeless feet bumped against
something – the surface of the vent was obviously rough and uneven. He nearly fell face first, and just had
the time to catch himself against the side of the wall. He made one step further…
To suddenly slide into another vent, opening right under his feet. He tried to brace himself against the
wall again, but with no success this time.
Scarlet fell on his back with a loud huff that echoed through the vent… and
started the glide of his life, into a bumpy, dark, and narrow air vent, which
slanted down forty-five degrees into what seemed like the bowels of Cloudbase
itself!
Captain Blue was about to enter Captain Scarlet’s quarters for the second time
that day when he saw Mike Bell coming from one of the maintenance corridors,
whistling a happy tune, as was often his habit when he was working. In his arms, he was holding a neatly
folded pile of clothing. He stopped
when Blue beckoned to him and asked him if he had seen Captain Scarlet. Bell shrugged dismissively at the
question.
“Not since he left for his furlough, a few days ago, Captain,” he answered
truthfully. “I know he came back,
though. I’ve seen his luggage in
his quarters, when I went earlier to do the room. Most of his things were still
packed.”
“So you didn’t see him at all?” Blue
insisted. “Did you notice anything
unusual in his quarters, aside from his unpacked luggage?”
“Well, he had left his clothes lying on the floor, after his shower,” Bell
answered. “That is unusual for
Captain Scarlet, all right, he always tidies his quarters before leaving. I thought he had left it like that, the
same as the luggage, because he had
been called to a meeting following the Mysterons’ threat? There also was an unused uniform on the bed. Probably the captain’s spare uniform…
Must have put his other one on.”
Blue shook his head thoughtfully.
Obviously, he had gone into Scarlet’s room after Bell had cleaned it up.
“Anything else?”
“No… not that I can think of.” Bell
showed the pile of clothes he was carrying.
“I’m going back there right now, though. This is Captain Scarlet’s clean laundry, from the other day. I just picked it up from the
laundry room after leaving the new batch.”
“Leave it to me, Bell, I’m going there myself,” Blue said. “Thank you for your help.”
“You’re welcome, Captain.” Bell handed the clothes to Blue and was about to
leave to carry on with his work, when a thought suddenly struck him, and he
turned to Blue who was pressing the numeric code to enter Scarlet’s quarters. “Oh, I saw an open Bible on
Captain Scarlet’s desk, earlier…”
Blue looked over his shoulder in the man’s direction, just as the door slid open
in front of him. Bell offered a
bashful smile. “The captain never
struck me as a God-fearing man, so I thought it was… a little unusual for him to
have that Bible. Besides, it looked
kind of strange.”
Blue nodded pensively, remembering Paul Blake’s gift to Scarlet. “Thank you, Bell,” he said, simply.
“As I said, Captain: you’re
welcome. I’m glad I was able to help.”
Bell went on his way, and Blue entered Scarlet’s quarters, still very
thoughtful. As the door slid closed
behind him, he went into the sleeping area, and threw the clothes onto the bed,
quite carelessly, before walking to Scarlet’s wardrobe to open it. He found there his friend’s spare red
tunic, still on its hanger. So,
contrary to what Bell had thought earlier, Scarlet had not taken it.
Where could he be?
a frustrated Blue asked himself. He slid the door of the wardrobe closed
and turned around, musing. His eyes
fell on the desk. “The Bible,” he
muttered. Well, not exactly a Bible, he reminded himself. “That device inside…” He went to the desk. The book was still there, of course, and
open on the device Scarlet and he had tried to make work earlier – without any
success. Blue looked at it
suspiciously. What if Scarlet had finally worked out how to power this thing up?
he pondered. But it seemed unlikely
that it could be responsible for his colleague’s disappearance.
Well… how can I say, really?
His attention was caught by a blinking red light on the phone standing right
next to the open book. Blue
remembered Green mentioning earlier that he had suggested that Paul Blake leave
a message on Scarlet’s voice mail if he was unable to reach him.
Seems like old Blake DID leave a message after all, Blue mused. So
Scarlet probably disappeared before he was able to answer the phone? I wonder what his grandfather wanted of
him, that he had to call him so soon after their last meeting?
His conscience had no problem with deciding to press the button to listen to the
message. After all, he considered,
his friend was missing. And if the
message left on the voice mail could provide with a clue to where he could be,
Blue figured that it was justifiable for him to listen to it.
“Hello, Paul, this is me… your
grandfather…”
And the rest of the message made Blue even more suspicious of the device that
was embedded in the old Bible, and that he was presently watching with a wary
eye.
The vertiginous ride finished abruptly when Scarlet landed in a heap of dirt and
fluff that, quite fortunately for him, cushioned most of his fall. The impact raised a cloud of dust that
engulfed and covered him, making him cough and gasp. He rolled and then crawled
to get away from the cloud, to finally stand on his feet, holding himself
against the wall, wheezing and trying to regain his breath. He couldn’t see much
of anything. It was dark, inside
this vent, and only faint rays of light were getting through skirting grilles
fitted into the left wall, at relatively equal distances from each other.
Still trying to find his normal breathing rate, Scarlet approached the grille
closest to him and looked through the slits, to discover where he had ended up.
From where he was currently standing, he had a good view of one of Cloudbase’s
anti-gravity generators, which was humming steadily. If he leaned to the right, he could even get a glimpse of the
second generator. Already huge, by
normal size’s standards, they looked even
bigger
now that he was looking at them in this reduced size.
He blew a deep sigh. The engine room. The lowest
possible part of Cloudbase. It was a huge area of the base; barely a soul
ever came down here as everything was monitored remotely from the Engine Control
Room, by sensors, control panels,
and strategically placed cameras.
If Scarlet wasn’t missing his guess, and judging from what he was able to
see from this point of view, the Engine Control Room – set in a glass-enclosed
balcony, about one storey up, so it oversaw the entire place – was situated at
the opposite side of the room.
He couldn’t actually see it from where he was.
Scarlet tried to push and pull on the grille, but it didn’t budge. It was solidly fixed; he couldn’t get
out. He sighed again and abandoned
the idea quickly. Even if I succeed in escaping this vent and was to walk through this
place towards the Engine Control Room lift, I’d have to find a way to reach the
command button to open the door. I
also have no way to reach the comm. and call for help. And the chance of being spotted on the wire and
pipe-covered floor by a technician in the control room was next to nil.
I have to find another exit,
Scarlet told himself. To
a place where I’ll be more liable to find someone who can help me. A
more ‘inhabited’ section of Cloudbase…
He wasn’t that far from sickbay.
Well, relatively speaking, in terms of real distance! It was still two storeys up and to the right wing of the
Control Tower. As far as he was
concerned, it might just as well be on a far away continent… The walking
distance alone seemed like a discouraging and harrowing task, and he was
dismally contemplating hours of
walking – without boots, and in the worst of conditions.
And that was without counting his odds of being able to find his way in
this ventilation maze – not to mention how the bloody hell he was going to climb
up two storeys.
Okay… first things first – finding a way
out of the engine room – then I’ll improvise.
Maybe I’ll get lucky. People
must have noticed my disappearance, and are looking for me…
Right… but they’re not searching for a
three inch tall midget now, are they?
It’s unlikely they will look under the rugs and through the vents…
He shrugged, dismissing those negative thoughts;
there was little he could do but get on with it. He started by orienting himself, judging
by what he could see of the engine room, and finally decided to walk down the
path in front of him.
He had only walked a very short distance, when he heard a sound echoing straight
ahead. He stopped and listened
carefully. It sounded like
something grating on the surface of the wall – or the floor – inside the vent.
The sound was moving in his direction, coming from a junction he could see
ahead, barely lit by the light coming from yet another grille. He narrowed his eyes when he saw a
shadow come in front of the light and stop.
I am not alone in this vent,
he told himself. This is strange… what
could it be?
He soon received his answer when, from the corner of the junction, he saw a dark
furry head appear, with small ears and a pointy nose, sniffing the air. Scarlet held his breath and kept very
still. The ‘creature’ looked in his
direction, but didn’t seem to see him, as he was standing in the darkest corner
of the vent. Then, it came into
full view, to stand in front of the skirting grille, to look through the slits
into the engine room beyond.
A mouse!
Scarlet observed, as the light coming through the
grille gave him a much better view of the creature. Or a rat, hard to tell
while I’m this size. Big, ugly bugger, too.
And probably dangerous for me in my present condition; those fangs look
like they could cut me in half. I’d
better not get close to it…
He started to step back, very slowly, hoping not to attract the rodent’s
attention.
He wasn’t very lucky with that.
As if it had suddenly become aware of his presence, the animal turned its
enormous head in his direction and stared straight at him…
“Holy… Now this is unusual.”
“What is it, Lieutenant?” Colonel
White, from his circular desk, had raised his head upon hearing Lieutenant
Green’s sudden imprecation. It
wasn’t that often that the young man would voice his reflections in such a way,
so any such reaction from him warranted the interest of the Spectrum commander. But Green reddened when the colonel
addressed him, and seemed suddenly embarrassed at his outburst.
“Sorry, Sir…
I didn’t mean to disturb you. It escaped me. It was a report from Lieutenant Mulberry.”
“Mulberry? From Environmental Control?”
“Technician Terracotta’s military assistant, Sir.
He replaces her during leaves of absence. His report surprised me.
The infra-red sensors have detected movements in the air vents in the
Engine Room.”
“Meaning?” White asked, frowning, failing to see the point the lieutenant was
trying to make.
“Meaning we have rodents in the vents, Colonel.”
“Rodents? Rats?”
“Possibly, Sir. The detected
movements are specific to one section of the vents and are quite minimal. Which would suggest that we only have
one or two of those… unwanted visitors.”
White rolled his eyes. Rats on Cloudbase. Now
that certainly was a rare – nearly impossible – occurrence. With the closed environment of the base,
security in that field was made as tight as it was humanly possible to have it.
All transports departing for Cloudbase were checked and double-checked
before they could leave, with infra-red sensors that would detect any rodents
that might slip in; all Spectrum craft were equipped with the same technology,
to make sure that they were clean all the way through their flights… It was standard procedure, of course. No rodents could be allowed to board
Cloudbase – the consequences of having them onboard could be disastrous,
considering that they might gnaw away at every wire and electronic device they
encountered… Not to mention that they could procreate
at such at quick rate. And then
there was the hygienic aspect of the problem, of course…
Despite all the security to prevent any rodents from clandestinely entering
Cloudbase, and the unlikely event that it would actually happen, the base had
been equipped with the proper equipment to counter the problem should it ever
present itself. It was swift and
efficient, and there was no way it would fail.
White shrugged indifferently.
“Environmental personnel know the drill, Lieutenant. Tell Mulberry to follow
procedures: to seal the section of the vents where the ‘suspicious activities’
have been detected, and gas that section.
The robo-cleaners will take care of the… remains when they get there
afterwards.”
“S.I.G., Sir,” Green answered, turning to convey the orders received.
“And don’t disturb me with reports of rodents again, Lieutenant,” White
grumbled. “We have quite enough to
do right now, with Captain Scarlet’s disappearance and the present Mysteron
threat…”
Just as the rat started to move towards Scarlet, the latter heard an almost
deafening sound echoing through the vent.
The grilles suddenly slammed shut, preventing any light from entering the
vent. He just had the time to see
the rat turning toward the grille in front of which it was standing, before he
completely lost sight of it.
Plunged into total darkness, he waited, trying to figure out what was going on. He could hear the rat moving in front of
him, but couldn’t guess so far if it was approaching or not. Then suddenly, he saw two red dots,
blinking in the dark – and realised it was the rat’s eyes, as it was staring at
him.
Apparently, it had not moved from its spot yet…
As he was waiting for the rodent to make its next move, Scarlet became aware of
a hissing sound. It seemed to come
from all around of him. Sounds like air,
escaping from a breach, or something.
No, not air, he realised suddenly. Gas…
Scarlet knew all about the security features installed in Cloudbase air vents,
in order to get rid of unwanted guests like this rat in front of him. They had all been briefed about them, in
the earlier days of Spectrum, when they were given all the details of the
floating carrier – even the most boring, or those which sounded insignificant
for them to actually know.
Scarlet wished now that he had given them more attention.
Not that it would help me much…
It took barely seconds after he had realised what was going to happen before
small traps snapped open and a concentrated fog was sprayed inside the vent,
enveloping both current occupants; Scarlet coughed loudly, suddenly unable to
breathe properly. He took a lungful
of gas and fell down, face first, onto the rough surface of the vent, his mind
clouding instantly.
The last thing he was aware of was
the eyes of the rat, glaring with a odd red glow, as the creature approached
dangerously close to him…
“Okay, I give up… What is it?”
After his search of Scarlet’s room, Captain Blue had gone to give his report to
Colonel White, showing him the Bible that he had brought with him and telling
him about the message Paul Blake had left in Scarlet’s voice mail. White had not waited a minute longer to
ask Lieutenant Green to access the voice mail and make a copy of the message so
he could listen to it himself.
Then, he had called for Captains Ochre and Magenta to go to the conference room
and ordered Blue to join them, and explain his findings to them. White would
join them in a few minutes.
In the conference room, Captains Ochre and Magenta were looking with perplexity
at the Bible that Captain Blue had put on the table, just between the three of
them. He had opened it and showed
them the device embedded inside, before telling them about Paul Blake’s message.
To Ochre’s question, Blue could only shake his head.
“I don’t know, Rick. And
apparently, Scarlet’s grandfather doesn’t seem to know either. But he seemed to
think that this thing might be so important that he had to call Scarlet to get
it back – as soon as possible.” He
kept silent for a second, staring at the book. “What are you willing to bet that
it might be responsible for Scarlet’s disappearance?”
“How?” Magenta asked, raising a brow. “By disintegrating him or making him
invisible?”
“If he was invisible, he would still be able to
talk
to us,” Ochre remarked with a
mocking smile. “And we would know where he is, unless he wants to make us search
for him…”
“This is no time for jokes, Captain,” Blue retorted sternly. “Scarlet is missing, there is no
question about it.”
“I know. Security is still
searching all around the base for him,” Ochre sighed, regaining his seriousness. “And so far, not a single clue to where
he might be.”
“Or if he’s still on base,” Magenta added grimly.
“If he’s not, then how would he have
left?” Blue remarked. “Nothing’s
taken off from Cloudbase since his return…”
Magenta hesitated. “Well… I don’t
like to point out grim possibilities, but… how about if he’s been thrown out
through an airlock?”
Blue gave him an odd look. “All of
Cloudbase’s airlocks are under automatic supervision. If one of them was to open, it would send an alarm directly
to the control centre.”
“So scratch that possibility,”
Ochre confirmed.
“And what if… he’s been thrown into the incinerator?”
Ochre groaned loudly, noticing Blue’s annoyed – and slightly worried –
expression. “For someone who
doesn’t like to point out grim possibilities, you have an over-active
imagination, Patrick.”
“Hey, I don’t like thinking about that anymore than you do,” Magenta protested. “But the fact remains that Scarlet is
nowhere to be found – and that we’re running out of places to search for him.”
Before Blue could reply, the door behind him slid open, and Colonel White
entered. The three officers stood
up and waited until their commander had taken his seat before sitting again. They had barely settled down when White
started addressing them:
“I have bad news,” he announced grimly.
“Lieutenant Green has not been able to talk to Mr. Blake so far. So we’ve
been unable to ask him about this device.”
“What is the problem?” Blue asked.
“It seems that Mr. Blake has gone to bed for the night,” White explained. “And since he’s taking sleeping pills,
it’s next to impossible to wake him up.
No matter how urgent the situation might be.
Or so his nurse keeps claiming.
She didn’t seem to be all that moved by the fact that it might be a
question of worldwide security.”
“So we’ll have to wait until Blake wakes up to question him?” Magenta asked.
“I had Captain Forest in London sent to his house. Maybe he’ll be able to get through that nurse in person,
better than Green through the phone.”
White pointed to the book in front of him.
“In the meantime, I’ve done some checking of my own and came up with some
details that might be related to that device and might be of use to us.”
“You, Sir?” Ochre asked with curiosity.
“Of course. I was with the
Universal Secret Service, before I became Spectrum’s commander.
So who better than me to check for information involving the U.S.S.?
I kept contact with friends there – who are in high places.”
“You found something then, Colonel?” asked Blue.
“Yes, I checked Paul Blake’s background and cross-referenced it with the U.S.S.
personnel databank to find out if he had been in professional contact with
another agent called ‘Matthew’. As
it turned out, I found a ‘Matthew Harding’ with whom Mr. Blake worked closely,
at the beginning of his career.
Both of them worked at The Bishop Department, but Harding was a senior agent,
while Blake was just a junior agent. “
“Sorry, Sir… The Bishop Department?”
“A very restricted department of the U.S.S., Captain Magenta. It was before my
time, but it already was the ‘stuff of legend’, as they say. It handled some of the most difficult
cases of its time. It was very selective.
At its most active, it never had more than five agents at a time working there.
I didn’t know that Blake was one of those rare agents – which is quite notable,
even if he only was a junior one. “
“You think that this Matthew Harding was the same man Paul Blake mentioned in
his message to Captain Scarlet, Sir? Blue asked.
“It seems likely. Harding left the
U.S.S. when The Bishop Department closed down…
He kept in contact with Blake, apparently. Ten years after retirement, he was diagnosed with cancer, and
died less than two years after that.”
Blue nodded. “Does seem to be our
man. It would be somewhere during those two
years that he gave that book to Blake.”
“Whatever that device might be,” White remarked, “ it would seem that Harding acquired it during his time in the
U.S.S.”
“Isn’t there any mention of this device in the U.S.S. records, Sir?” Ochre asked
with surprise.
White sighed, staring at the book.
“I didn’t find anything, no.” He
reached for it and pulled it towards him.
“But… considering what we heard on this
recorded message, Harding thought this thing might be either important – or
dangerous. So much in fact,
that he didn’t even trust the U.S.S.
with its safekeeping.”
“But he trusted Blake with it?” Blue noted.
White gave a brief nod. He
scratched his ear and cleared his throat, almost uncomfortably.
“I think I know how it went.
In those times, the U.S.S. was the centre of many… irregularities. Corruption, treasons, briberies, sales
of state secrets, murders… Those things occurred on a daily basis. So in those circumstances, it was
understandable that Harding had second thoughts about entrusting the U.S.S. with
something he considered of the utmost importance.”
Blue narrowed his eyes. “Yes… I
think I can understand the dilemma he was facing.”
“You would indeed,” White acknowledged, remembering that Blue had to face a
similar situation while Head of Security at the World Aeronautic Society. “Paul Blake was one of the rarest men
within the U.S.S. whose loyalty could not be disputed. So logically, Harding would give him the book – with the
device inside.”
“Without telling him how it worked?” Ochre remarked.
“Maybe Harding didn’t know?” Magenta suggested.
“Well, that’s something we will never know,”
White asserted in a low voice.
“Harding died a long time ago.”
“Actually, we’re not sure that Blake
doesn’t know how this thing works,” Blue intervened.
“In that message to Scarlet, he just said that he ‘can’t tell’ what it was all
about. That can also mean that he knows but won’t tell.”
Colonel White shook his head thoughtfully. “Either way, we just have to hope
that Blake will be able to give us some indication of what this thing could be.”
“Sir… do you really think this device has
something to do with Scarlet’s disappearance and the present Mysteron threat?”
Ochre demanded. “If you don’t mind
my saying so, I don’t see any real indication that it could… In either case, but
especially concerning the Mysterons.”
“Quite frankly, Captain Ochre, I have to agree with you. But… you know the Mysterons as well as I do. They make use of anything that comes their way to forward their plans.
Blake might not know how this thing works and what it does… but maybe the Mysterons
do. And maybe they will use it to their
advantage – if they haven’t already, to get rid of Captain Scarlet.”
Ochre nodded quietly. “That is a…
reasonable assumption, Sir.”
“We should try to decipher what this
thing is and what it can actually do,”
White declared. “Maybe that
will shed some light on what happened to Scarlet.”
“I just hope he is all right, Sir,” Blue said grimly.
“Of course, he will be,” Ochre retorted, thumping his compatriot’s shoulder in
an encouraging way. “He’s
indestructible, don’t you remember that?”
“Yes, I do remember that,” Blue answered in the same sombre tone, glaring at his
fellow officer. “But I also
remember something else: none of us knows exactly how indestructible he might be. And that, Ochre, is scaring the Hell out
of me…”
Scarlet was now slowly regaining his senses; he felt fine, if a little
light-headed, and had no trouble breathing anymore.
He was lying on his back and had an impression of motion underneath him. As if he was being carried away.
He opened his eyes. He was still in
the air vent and faint light was coming through the skirting grilles once again.
He was indeed moving – or rather, the thing he was lying on was, steadily, and
very smoothly. He could hear the faint sound of a
nearly silent engine, and feel a slight vibration coming from underneath.
Scarlet rolled onto his stomach and crawled to the side of the platform he was
presently on, to find out what his improvised vehicle might be. He discovered he was lying on another
model of robo-vac, this one built with the specific task of clearing air vents
of the dust that might accumulate inside.
It was designed to glide smoothly inside the vents, on an air cushion, exactly
like a small hovercraft, to catch everything it might encounter.
Obviously, it had picked Scarlet up, when he was unconscious – or dead. Which was a logical course of action. The robots would not see the difference
between the miniaturised captain and any dead rodent – or any alien object that
might accidentally find itself in the vents, for that matter. Anything found in the vents by the
robo-vac would be picked up and carried away to wherever it would be dealt with. In the case of a dead rodent, it would
be disposed of quickly; there was no way it would be left inside the air vents,
where it would rot freely and eventually upset everyone with a very disagreeable
odour.
Scarlet speculated that in all probability, the rat, now dead, had also been
picked up by another robot; it was nowhere in sight, and considering how quickly
the gas had acted with Scarlet, it had had no chance to escape either. Scarlet couldn’t say he wasn’t pleased
with that. As far as he could tell,
that rat had decided to make him its next meal, when the gas had struck them
both.
Almost despite himself, Scarlet chuckled. In a way, by killing me, the gas actually
saved my life…
Well, now I know that my recuperative
powers are working as they should, while I’m at this reduced size.
Scarlet wondered where the robo-vac was now carrying him. One look through the grilles told him that he wasn’t exactly
going where he had previously planned to go.
In fact, he had gone in a completely different direction. He now had a view of the interior of the
Spectra-Mart. Which was empty and
dark at the moment.
Must be the middle of the night,
he reflected. The Spectra-Mart is
open from seven in the morning to midnight.
He had no way to determine how long he had been in this… reduced state. He had been conscious and unconscious
much more often than he’d care to admit. That last ‘nap’ might have lasted a few
hours. Considering I was probably
dead. But then again, once my lungs
had been cleared of the gas, it would take only a short time for me to revive…
Now what was he to do? He had to
admit, sitting on this robo-vac and letting it carry him sure beat having to
walk inside these dark vents, until he could find a way to get out – especially
considering that didn’t have his boots on.
Sure, it wasn’t going in the direction he had first chosen, but it was
still heading towards a populated area.
And eventually, an exit would offer itself, and he would be able to find
help.
And eventually, I’ll get back to my rightful size,
he told himself grimly.
Hopefully.
In the meantime, I might as well enjoy the
ride…
“Any news from Adam yet?”
Dressed in a rather attractive powder blue ensemble she had bought recently, an
off-duty Symphony Angel entered the Amber Room where she knew she would find
Rhapsody Angel, on standby duty.
Sure enough, her English colleague was seated on one of the room’s orange sofas,
reading a magazine – or rather, holding it the wrong way up and turning the
pages absentmindedly.
“No, no news yet,” Destiny Angel answered from the counter where she was putting
down her empty cup, after having finished her last cup of coffee. “We were hoping that you would bring us
some.”
“Sorry, I don’t know anything.”
Symphony sat down on the sofa right next to Rhapsody.
“They didn’t find Paul yet.”
She caught sight of the worried expression on her friend’s face and put a
soothing hand on her arm. “Don’t
worry, Dianne, I’m sure he’ll pop up soon.”
“Who said I was worried?” Rhapsody asked, turning yet another page.
“Well… unless this is an old exercise specifically designed for spies in
training, I’m quite sure you’d feel more comfortable reading that mag the other
way up…”
Rhapsody glanced at her magazine, noticed what her friend was driving at and
sighed, before closing it and putting it down on the low table in front of her. “All right, I admit I am slightly
concerned.”
“Slightly?” Destiny repeated in a doubtful
tone, approaching. “Ma chérie, I would say you are beside
yourself with worry.” She sat down
on the other side of the sofa, while Rhapsody glared at her. “You are just being your English self by
not showing it, that’s all.”
“Thank you for your kind words of encouragement, Destiny,” Symphony said in a
somewhat cold tone.
“Oh, that is nothing…”
Destiny took Rhapsody’s hand. “Do
you not worry, Dianne… He will be
all right, you’ll see.” She
produced a large, beaming smile.
“Like he’s always been!”
Rhapsody gave a deep sigh. “I wish I could be sure of that,” she said, almost
whispering. “It is rather strange when you think about it. Just a few minutes earlier, we were
returning from our furlough, talking casually, making plans… And then, he suddenly goes missing.”
“Well, I know the circumstances of his disappearance might look bad, but knowing
Paul, I can assure you that… EEEEEEEEEEK!”
The strident shriek from Destiny nearly made both Rhapsody and Symphony jump out
of their skins. Their ears still
ringing, they stared at her with annoyance and surprise. She was white as a sheet, and had quickly gathered her feet
up onto the sofa in a fearful way.
“For God’s sake, what’s the matter with you?!”
Rhapsody snapped angrily at her.
“I swear, you nearly burst my eardrums!”
Destiny was gesturing wildly in the direction of the floor, right behind the
other sofa in front of them. “I saw a rat
running on the floor. It’s behind there!”
“A rat?!” Symphony was puzzled. To her knowledge, there had been no
previous story of rodents ever being sighted on Cloudbase. The security about that particular aspect of the base was so
tight it was nearly inconceivable.
She left her place on the sofa and slowly walked toward the spot indicated by
Destiny – the latter was following her with horrified eyes.
“What are you doing? You’re not
going to check, are you?”
“Why not?” Symphony retorted
without turning back, and keeping her eyes peeled for anything suspicious. “If there is a rat in here, I…”
She stopped suddenly in the middle of her sentence, upon seeing a little grey
creature darting from behind the sofa and scurrying across the floor, towards a
nearby open air vent, situated just at the bottom of the furthest wall. The creature was just small enough to
pass through a small hole caused by a dent in the grille and disappear inside
the vent.
“There it goes,” Symphony remarked quietly.
“And that’s not a rat, actually.
Only a cute little mouse.”
“I don’t care how cute you find it,”
Destiny retorted obstinately. “That
beast can be a menace!”
“Quite right,” Symphony acknowledged, giving it some thought. “It could chew on anything it finds, and
do some serious damage. We will
have to report this to Environmental Control.”
She turned around towards the table where the comm. link was installed and then
noticed that Rhapsody was gathering her feet up onto the sofa as well, but in a
very poised and dignified way.
Symphony gave her a reproachful – and surprised – glance.
“Oh no, Dianne, not you too! Don’t
tell me you’re afraid of mice!”
“I’m not afraid of them,” Rhapsody defended herself loftily. “I just don’t like them very much.”
Symphony sighed deeply. “Fearless
pilots and ruthless fighters indeed,” she muttered.
“Really girls, you are embarrassing me…” She pressed the comm. link button. “Amber Room to Environmental Control. This is Symphony
Angel.”
“Lieutenant Mulberry speaking,” a male voice answered almost immediately. “What can I do for you?”
“I have an official complaint, Lieutenant.
We have mice in here.”
“What, again?!”
the voice
answered, obviously perplexed.
“What do you mean by ‘again’?” Symphony asked with a frown.
“Yes, what does he mean?” Destiny echoed.
She didn’t think it was still safe for her to dare put her feet down to the
floor.
“We had a rodent alert earlier today,”
Mulberry explained.
“In the vents, near the Engine Room.
We thought that it had been taken care of.
Must be another one… Strange that
it escaped the heat sensors, and that we didn’t get another alert up until now.”
“Mice rarely come alone,” Symphony remarked.
“Well, maybe the sensors didn’t pick up that one because it wasn’t in the
vents…”
“Still bizarre. We should have been able to see it anyway.”
“Well, it is in the vents now. It just ran in there.”
“Stand by…”
There was a moment of silence. Then
the voice of Mulberry was heard again, confirming Symphony’s report.
“Yes, the sensors are picking it up now.
My, this is a fast one… It’s already fifty metres down the vent in the
Spectra-Mart direction. Oh wait…
It seems to be coming back your way.”
“DON’T let it come back here!” Destiny nearly pleaded.
“Say again?”
Symphony gestured at Destiny in annoyance. “You heard, Lieutenant,” she then
said with a sigh. “I have a
hysterical woman on my hands. You’d
better do something quick with this mouse, before the situation becomes
intolerable.” She ignored Destiny’s expression of
outrage – which became even more incensed when Lieutenant Mulberry openly laughed,
hearing the American Angel’s remark.
“I am not hysterical!” Destiny
objected. “I despise rodents. The
convent was full of rats when I was studying there. Plus, I’m allergic to animal fur.
You know that.”
“Checking what can be done…”
the voice of Mulberry said. “Well, obviously, we
can’t use gas in these circumstances.
That vent is the only one for the Amber Room and we can’t close it, without
causing you discomfort. Besides, if
it’s the same mouse, for whatever reason, the gas didn’t work on it earlier. So maybe it won’t work this time either. We’ll have to check on that.”
“Is there an alternative to get rid of that mouse?” Rhapsody asked. “Or will we have to go into the vent and
chase it ourselves?”
Destiny seemed horrified by the possibility.
However, Mulberry’s soft chuckle and the following answer reassured her:
“That vent is too narrow to let a man get
through it. I even doubt it’s large
enough to let one of you squeeze inside it, even the smallest of you. You’d get stuck and might get hurt. But there’s an alternative, yes. It seems that there’s a robo-vac in the
vent right now, near the ‘intruder’ – nearly on top of it, if I can believe the
sensors. So maybe it can take care
of it.”
“How?” Symphony asked. “By vacuuming it to
death?”
“No…
But it can electrocute it. The robot must have sufficient juice in it to
kill such a small animal. And when
it’s dead, the robot will pick it up and dispose of it, like it normally would.”
“Neat. Get rid of that pest then, Lieutenant.”
“S.I.G., Symphony Angel. It won’t take long, you’ll see…”
Scarlet was starting to get a little too comfortable on his ride which was
steadily moving along the vents when he felt it coming to a sudden stop. Intrigued about what might be happening,
he leant down to check on the robo-vac.
The lights on it were flickering as it was turning on itself, just as if
it was searching for something.
It was twirling more and more wildly, to the point where Scarlet, starting to
feel dizzy, found himself with no other alternative but to jump from the robot
and onto the floor of the vent. He
stumbled and turned toward the robo-vac, watching it with perplexity, wondering
what could be wrong with it.
Was it suddenly malfunctioning?
The robo-vac stopped spinning; the sensors were now directed in the opposite
direction from Scarlet, as it if was marking a pause.
“So, what seems to be the problem with you?” Scarlet mused. Tentatively, he reached for the robot
with his hand. He felt a sudden
power surge upon touching it and instinctively stepped back, muttering a curse. His hand was tingling, and felt numb.
Electricity?
The robo-vac then slowly turned around towards Scarlet – and seemed to consider
him with attention.
Somehow, to Scarlet, that didn’t bode very well.
The robot started to move towards him, sizzling as it came.
Bloody Hell… it’s after me… And it’s giving
electric shocks now. The blasted
thing must think I’m a damned rat!
He didn’t wait to discover if the amount of electricity contained in that tin
can would be enough to actually do him any lasting harm. That first surge he received, seconds earlier, hurt… and hurt badly. He turned on his heels and started running down the vent,
putting as much distance as possible between himself and that robot.
The robo-vac gave pursuit, gliding faster and faster each passing second.
Scarlet didn’t have to turn around to know it was gaining on him.
I might be a good sprinter, and
retrometabolism might give me stamina, but what good is that against a machine
that doesn’t feel fatigue? I’m done
for if I don’t find a way to escape these vents!
Scarlet suddenly skidded to an halt when, at a turn of a corner, right in front
of him, bathed by the light coming from the other side of a nearby grille, he
saw a furry head appear.
Oh no!
Not another rat!
He briefly looked over his shoulder to check on the robo-vac. It was quickly getting closer. He returned his attention to the rat,
and watched in total disbelief as it stared straight at him, with its ugly and
fiery little red eyes. Scarlet could have sworn right there that it was the same
rodent he had encountered before and that it had actually recognised him.
But… it’s impossible, isn’t it? That animal must be dead, surely… This one
can’t
be the same…
Unless… it had been Mysteronised or something…
Get a grip, Metcalfe! Why would the Mysterons take a rat
over?! This is the stupidest idea
you could ever imagine!
The rat started moving towards him.
Scarlet groaned.
On one side, an electrified robot; on the other, a rat… Out of the frying pan into the fire. How much worse
could it be?
He froze for a second when the rat suddenly pounced in his direction, silently,
without any warning, its mouth wide open to reveal its sharp teeth, and its
clawed front paws extended towards him.
At the same time, Scarlet could feel the robot’s presence, just behind him, so uncomfortably close.
Years as an experienced soldier made him dodge almost instinctively – at the
last possibly second. He barely
made it, as he plunged under the leaping rat; he felt the razor-sharp claws tear
into the sleeve of his right arm and the back of his uniform, deeply grazing the
flesh underneath. He was unable to
hold back a curse against the fiery pain as he rolled on the dirty floor,
putting himself out of reach of both machine and rodent.
He heard a screeching sound as the rat landed squarely on the robo-vac, stopping
its advance on the spot, and their encounter produced a blinding flash of
electrical light.
Protecting his eyes with his uninjured arm, Scarlet quickly attempted to crawl
away to avoid the dangerous sparks which were falling everywhere around him,
creating images of shadows and light against the surface of the vent. He tried to stand, but he felt
something heavy falling onto his left leg and tearing into it; he let out a
brief cry as he felt it crack, and the sharp pain pulled him down.
He looked over his shoulder; his leg was trapped under the robo-vac, which was
now leaning to one side, its lights blinking sporadically, and dying out one
after the other. Obviously, the
rat’s furious attack had severely damaged it.
As for the rat itself, it was now lying on its side and wasn’t moving.
Fantastic,
Scarlet thought grimly. They took each other out…
A repulsive smell of burned hair hit Scarlet’s nostrils, as he lay there,
looking with disgust at the scene, and he noticed the smoke coming from both
motionless opponents - and starting to invade the vent.
He was unable to move; his leg was pinned down, and hurt every time he
tried to disengage it; he could feel something warm running against it.
Open fracture,
he realised with a practiced knowledge of
these situations. He was starting to feel chilly.
Bleeding out…I’ll be out cold before long.
“Yuck!
So that’s what an electrocuted rat smells like? It’s horrible!”
Trying to regain his focus, Scarlet blinked in surprise. The voice had echoed into the vents. A voice he knew very well.
Destiny’s…
“It was not a rat, just a tiny mouse. I
still
can’t believe you are afraid of them!”
And now Symphony… Scarlet could
barely believe it. Their voices
were coming from beyond that grille in front of which the mouse had previously
been standing.
And close to which he was presently lying…
Well not that close. He could see the light coming through it
but not that much more. He
desperately reached out to it, trying to get even closer, and stretched his neck
to get a better look through it, just as a third voice made itself heard:
“You do realise, of course, that a thing
like that would not have happened if we had a cat.”
“Bite your tongue, Dianne!”
was the swift reply from Destiny. “Do you want my death? Don’t you remember
what happened to me the last time Cloudbase ‘adopted’ a real live animal? I wheezed and choked every time I came
near to it.” She marked a
pause. “Besides, what difference would it have made if we had a cat? I can’t very well see how it would have
chased that mouse inside that vent!”
Scarlet’s mind was working fast, trying to work out where he could be. Amber Room…
It must be the Amber Room…
He had confirmation of that when, through the grille, he was able to see the
floor, which he recognised instantly.
The Amber Room had a very distinctive, unique décor. At some distance from where he was, he
could see the bottom of a sofa, and a pair of very expensive shoes along with a
pair of white boots in front of them, thus demonstrating clearly that two people
were seated on it. Another pair of
boots was pacing on the floor just at the limit of his line of vision.
At last seeing an end to his ordeal – at the very least, he would get out of
this vent, if not regain his normal size – Scarlet took a deep breath of air and
nearly choked, as, in the process, he swallowed a mouthful of smoke. He coughed to clear his throat, feeling
beads of cold sweat forming on his brow.
Quickly, before I lose it…
Then he shouted at the top of his lungs:
“HELP! ANGELS, CAN YOU HEAR
ME? GET ME OUT OF HERE!”
For long, agonising seconds, only silence answered him. He coughed and shouted again, desperately: “ANGELS!
CAN YOU HEAR ME?! I NEED
HELP!”
In the Amber Room, Rhapsody, Symphony and Destiny, upon hearing the muffled,
faint voice, looked at each other with perplexity, each of them wondering if she
had not dreamed it. The look they
could see on each others’ faces was enough to convince them that it wasn’t the
case.
They heard faint coughing, and then the voice called them for a third time: “Angels! Get me out of here!”
“Paul?!” That was Rhapsody finally voicing the
three Angels’ common suspicions.
“Paul, is that you? Where are you?”
“Down here!”
the voice answered faintly.
“Where?” insisted Destiny as she and Rhapsody stood up and joined Symphony in
looking around, frantically searching for the elusive captain.
There was another cough. “In the vents!”
“What?!” a stunned Symphony replied. “That’s impossible! How did you get there?”
“Never mind that! Get me out of here before
I suffocate! The smoke is getting
to me!”
Rhapsody was already kneeling in front of the vent, through which a thick white
smoke was coming out. As the two
other Angels gathered behind her, she peered inside, but could not see a thing. To her, it seemed impossible that her
lover could be inside that dark and narrow vent.
And even more impossible to get him out of there. The hole through which she was looking
was barely big enough to let the mouse get through.
“We need a screwdriver to remove that grille,” she started. Just saying that sounded absurd enough. Destiny’s voice echoed her thoughts.
“How did he get in there and how can we
get him out? He must certainly be
stuck!”
“I AM stuck!”
Scarlet confirmed.
They could hear his voice more clearly, now that they were leaning close
to the vent. Which was even more
puzzling.
“Then
how can we help you?” Symphony asked.
“Just get your hand through the hole,” Scarlet answered, coughing as he did. “You’ll be able to release me… That’s all I
need to get out.”
“What?!” The Angels were beyond being perplexed now.
In fact, they were beginning to be very much annoyed. And the fiery-tempered Rhapsody was
close to getting angry.
“Paul Metcalfe,” she warned, “if this is some kind of a joke that you concocted
with Rick…”
“It’s not!”
Scarlet now sounded almost desperate. And his voice was growing weaker.
“Angel, I’m stuck here, with a broken leg.
PLEASE, you’ve got to get me out of here quickly.
I assure you, you will all understand in a minute…”
“That’d better be true,” muttered Rhapsody.
“All right, Symphony: I think that Melody has a tool box somewhere on
those shelves over there. Give me a
screwdriver, and we’ll get him out of there.
And I hope for his sake that we don’t find a mike in there…… Because I will not be very happy with that.”
“Colonel White! I’m picking up an
unauthorised signal!”
At the sound of Lieutenant Green’s frantic voice, Colonel White raised his head.
The young man was leaning over the controls of his station, and was staring at
the information appearing on his monitor.
“What kind of signal, Lieutenant?” White asked urgently.
“Radio signals, Sir!” Green briefly
looked up at his commander. “The
same kind of transmissions that were intercepted in New York Headquarters!”
“So our spy did move on to Cloudbase!”
White commented swiftly. “We were
right, then. Someone is trying to
transmit information through our security!”
“Looks like it, Colonel.”
“Can you stop those signals from getting through, Lieutenant?”
“Working on it, Sir! They won’t get
by me, if I have anything to do with it!”
“Good man. Where do those signals
come from?”
“Locating them…” Green’s voice cut
off short. He looked at the
information on his screen with a puzzled look on his face.
“They seem to come from the Amber Room, Sir!”
“The Amber Room?! But how…” White
let the rest hang. For now, the how wasn’t important. Someone – something – in the Amber Room was trying to get information – secret
information – out of Cloudbase to a third party that would certainly make
illicit use of it, in order to weaken Spectrum’s security and efficiency.
He could not permit that to happen, and whoever the culprit might be, he or she
had to be apprehended. Leaving Green to scuffle with the
controls to stop the transmissions, and confident that his aide was proficient
enough to succeed, White swiftly turned his attention to the other problem at
hand, and slapped the base-wide communication control.
“This is Colonel White. Spectrum is Red!
We have a security leak on Cloudbase!
Security, proceed immediately to the Amber Room and secure the area! Search for any suspicious device that
might be used to send unauthorised transmissions. If need be, apprehend ANYONE
you find down there. Spectrum is
Red! Move it, people! This is not an exercise!”
Waiting in the semi-darkness of the vent, Scarlet was beginning to feel sluggish
from the loss of blood he was suffering.
His leg felt so very numb now and he didn’t feel pain anymore. He considered letting himself fall
asleep, and allowing his retrometabolism to do its usual stuff, but he didn’t
dare. He felt that he had to stay
awake, at least until he had been retrieved from this dreadful place – if only
to give guidance to the Angels concerning his position and even maybe some
explanation of what had happened to him.
Well, at least the little he knew of the facts, anyway…
He was listening to the reassuring whine of the screwdriver Rhapsody was using
to unscrew the grille, waiting with expectation for light to fully invade the
vent, when another sound caught his ear.
It was a screeching sound, coming from the opposite direction – very nearby.
Almost dreading what he would find, Scarlet turned his head towards that
direction – looking at the still robo-vac under which his injured leg was
trapped. It was still smoking, but he could see it was still motionless, and all
of its lights were snuffed out, indicating that its power was definitely down.
But beyond it…
Scarlet narrowed his eyes. Through the smoke, he could see movement; the
screeching sound was picking up in intensity, and he saw something rise steadily
from behind the robo-vac. He recognised the furry outline, and saw the long,
fine tail moving, whipping through the air and casting shadows against the walls
of the vent.
Oh no… not again!
The mouse stood up on its back feet, with, surprisingly, enough strength to lift
parts of the robo-vac in the process.
Scarlet felt the pressure on his trapped leg lessening, so he grabbed
that chance to free himself from his position, and crawled away, as quickly as
he could.. It was just in time, as
the robo-vac fell back onto the metallic surface, exactly where his leg had
been. The crashing sound echoing
through the vent almost deafened Scarlet, and for a moment, it seemed to drown
the sound of the screwdriver. It
took a moment for Scarlet to realise that, in fact, that sound had actually stopped.
“Paul?”
That was
Rhapsody’s voice calling to him, with a note of anxiety in her voice.
“Are you are right? What was that
noise?”
Scarlet was about to answer, but thought better of it, as he fixed his eyes on
the mouse that was now stumbling on its feet, just on the other side of the
destroyed robo-vac. It looked
unsteady, dazed, as if it was trying to regain its focus. Scarlet was wary of it.
He wondered if mice were like rats – if the smell of blood would send
them into a frenzy, as he had heard would happen with a band of hungry rats.
He was injured, and by the way he was presently feeling right now, he
had lost a lot of blood – just enough, he was prepared to wager, to actually
learn if his suspicions were right.
“Paul?
Are you all right? Please
answer me!”
The sound of Rhapsody’s voice pulled Scarlet out of his thoughts; his eyes still on the mouse, he tried to
make his way towards the nearby grille, crawling on his back.
Unfortunately, the obviously dizzy mouse had
also heard Rhapsody’s voice – and became aware of
his
presence as well.
It swiftly turned its head to look over its shoulder.
Scarlet’s eyes became wide with total shock.
One of the rodent’s eyes, staring right at him, was bright red – and blinking
unsteadily like a Christmas light, while on that side of its head, from the ear
to the start of the jaw, all the fur and ‘flesh’ surrounding it had burned away
to reveal an intricate piece of circuitry and mechanical parts.
“Oh my God…” Scarlet whispered. “That’s not a real mouse at all… it’s a
robot!”
“Paul?”
That was Rhapsody
again. Scarlet looked in alarm in
the direction of the grille and saw the shadows beyond it move. Huge, feminine fingers appeared through
the mesh and closed on it. “We’re opening
the vent now. You’d better have a
good explanation of what is going on, or else!”
The robot mouse also turned to look towards the vent, its ears moving as if
listening to the voice; Scarlet could hear the whirring of its now damaged
mechanical components as the mouse gathered its feet beneath itself, obviously
getting ready to pounce. He wasn’t
the target; the robot’s eyes were fixed on the grille.
It was planning an escape.
A sharp jerk wrenched the grille out and it was slowly removed from its frame.
“Look out!” Scarlet called loudly.
“The mouse is…”
His cry died on his lips as the mouse made its leap. It skimmed over Scarlet,
knocking him down to the floor in the process.
Dazed, the diminutive captain looked up as the mouse disappeared through
the opening – and what he imagined to be cries of shock and horror echoed
through the vents and into his confused mind.
Women… That’s so typical. They’ll bravely face any Mysteron
assassin, but they’re unable to cope with a tiny mouse…
That was his last thought before finally giving in to unconsciousness.
The three Angels gathered around the now opened vent couldn’t help crying out in
surprise, when they were startled by the unexpected appearance of the mouse
suddenly emerging from the opening.
The most surprised was certainly Rhapsody, who had started leaning in front of
the opening, in order to get a look inside and find out what exactly was going
on with Scarlet. The mouse passed
literally right in front of her nose and slipped by the side of her head,
grazing her ear and hair as it did.
Gasping, she instinctively threw herself back.
“Dirty little bugger!” she muttered under her breath.
She watched with dismay as the rodent quickly darted across the floor, in
no particular direction, in an obvious attempt to escape those nasty humans
surrounding it. It was by pure
chance that it headed straight to Destiny, who had stepped away as soon as she
saw the mouse coming out of the vent.
Symphony was giving chase, and Rhapsody was unsure what the American actually
expected to do if she could get her
hands on the mouse.
The small creature was now at the foot of the bookcase on the far wall, and
suddenly everything came to an abrupt halt.
A very large and heavy book dropped on top of the mouse, squashing it on the
spot and putting an end to its getaway.
Symphony skidded to a stop and looked with mystification at the spot
where the book had fallen. The
words ‘Encyclopaedia Britannica, Book of the Year
2070’ were written in huge golden letters on the cover and seemed to be
taunting her.
Booted feet came into view and Symphony raised her eyes from them and up the
legs and body to finally find Destiny’s features, looking down with obvious
irritation at the huge book.
“And that, petit salopard, will teach
you not to mess with me!” the French girl
seethed between her clenched teeth.
“Congratulations,” Symphony said matter-of-factly.
“You just killed your worst enemy.”
“Hardly,” Destiny said, glaring at her.
“I just rid ourselves of an annoying pest.”
“In the meantime, we’ll have to clean up that mess,” Symphony noted.
Destiny made a face, disgusted at the idea. “I am
not
looking under that book,” she protested.
“Of course not,” Symphony said, amused at her friend’s display. She leaned down and carefully lifted the
book, under Destiny’s wary eyes.
Both Angels fully expected to find a crushed corpse of mingled hair, bones and
flesh in the middle of a little puddle of blood.
Instead, they discovered a destroyed mechanical object, made of false fur,
wires, and electronic circuits, bathed in what looked like oil…
“Well, I’ll be…” Symphony lifted
the ‘mouse’ by its tail and looked at it with curiosity, imitated by Destiny. “It’s a small robot…”
“A what?!” Rhapsody called. She was
kneeling in front of the vent opening again, and had raised her head upon
hearing Symphony’s comment.
“A robot,” Symphony repeated.
“Probably remote-controlled…”
“I can’t believe it...” Rhapsody’s temper was getting the better of her again.
She leaned in front of the opening and looked inside the vent, trying to see
through the darkness inside. She
could see the interior of the vent and now had confirmation that it was definitely too small for her fiancé to slip inside of it. She could barely fit in there herself! She now suspected that something was
terribly wrong. “Paul, do you hear me?
I swear to you, if all of this, mouse included, is part of an elaborate
hoax, I will personally wring your neck!”
“And I’ll be helping her!” Destiny declared, moving from her spot to get close
to Rhapsody.
Before an answer could reach them, the door suddenly slid open, and a group of
five security guards entered the Amber Room, startling the Angels, and quickly
spread around the room.
“What is going on now?” Destiny demanded with a perplexed frown. She watched as the guards started
looking around, into all the corners, obviously in search of something. Captains Blue and Grey entered in turn,
and were now giving instructions to the guards, much to the Angels’ surprise. Captain Ochre followed behind, a
Mysteron detector in his hands.
“Don’t let anyone out,” Grey
ordered. “Look everywhere, don’t leave a single cushion unturned or a book
unopened. We must find this communication device.”
“What communication device?” Destiny asked, approaching. She watched warily as Ochre pointed the Mysteron detector in
her direction.
“I’m sorry for the intrusion, Destiny,” Blue apologised. “But Lieutenant Green discovered an unauthorised radio
transmission coming from the Amber Room.”
“A what?!”
“She’s clean,” Ochre announced, after checking out the picture from the
detector.
“Of course I am!” Destiny protested angrily, as Ochre turned to face Symphony.
“Have you noticed anything in the Amber Room lately?” Blue asked, trying to
dismiss Ochre’s verification of the American Angel from his mind. “Anything strange, remotely out of
place?”
Destiny’s frown deepened. “Do you
want a list?”
Blue frowned, not appreciating the sarcastic note behind Destiny’s tone. Behind
the French woman, he could see Grey’s epaulettes flashing white, and his
colleague answering the call from the Control Room in a hushed tone.
“Clean too,” Ochre announced, after checking on Symphony’s picture. Blue smiled
widely, seeing the X-ray image in Ochre’s hand.
“Did you have any doubt?” Symphony asked, raising a brow.
“It’s just a formality, Angels,” Ochre said, with a reassuring smile. “Your turn, Rhapsody…” For the first time, he and Blue
discovered the English pilot crouched in front of the opened vent. He frowned in perplexity. “What are you doing there?”
“I’m afraid you won’t believe me,” she said with a sheepish smile, looking up
with slight apprehension as a guard cautiously approached her. She realised that her strange position
now looked rather suspicious, in view of what was presently happening.
“Try us,” Blue stated brusquely, while Ochre pointed the detector at Rhapsody.
She hesitated. “Well, it all
started with a mouse running through the Amber Room and into the vents…”
“A mouse?” Blue repeated.
“… And then we heard Captain Scarlet’s voice coming from there…”
“Scarlet?! Rhapsody, that doesn’t make sense…
Mice and Scarlet?”
“One mouse, to be exact,” Symphony
corrected. Blue turned to face her, disbelief plain on his face. She continued, quietly: “Destiny killed
it. Squashed it with the Book of
the Year from the Encyclopaedia Britannica,
to be precise.”
“This is no joke, Angels,” Blue said rather abruptly.
“We are not joking, Captain,” Symphony retorted.
“Blue, Ochre,” Grey then announced, attracting attention to himself. “I just received a message from Green. He lost the transmission. He says it went dead all of a sudden.”
“Did any of it get through security?” Blue asked.
“None, fortunately. Green was able
to intercept and block it. And
then, apparently, it just… died. As
if suddenly cut off in the middle.”
“How bizarre,” Blue murmured thoughtfully.
“Did our presence suddenly interrupt it?”
“Rhapsody’s clean,” Ochre then announced, presenting the last picture from the
Mysteron detector to his colleagues.
“None of them are Mysterons. Not
that I really thought they would be, but better safe than sorry, as they say…”
“Very reassuring to hear that,” Rhapsody said rather dryly. “Captain Blue, we did
hear Captain Scarlet’s voice through the vents.”
“Now then,” Ochre said in a mocking tone, “are you telling us Scarlet has been
transformed into a mouse and that Destiny squashed him?”
“Don’t be absurd, Captain,” an annoyed Rhapsody retorted harshly, at the risk of
seeing herself accused of disrespect towards a superior officer. Her patience was wearing thin. “All I know is that at the moment, we
don’t hear him anymore. He told us
he was injured and trapped.”
Blue was still perplexed; he
approached Rhapsody’s position and crouched in front of the opened vent. “Scarlet has been missing for hours,” he
said, leaning to look into the darkness.
“We’ve been looking for him all over the base. We thought his disappearance might have something to do with
the present Mysteron threat.”
“Maybe he was captured by whoever is responsible for those transmissions we
intercepted, and he’s being kept prisoner somewhere?” Ochre suggested. “Maybe this vent communicates to
wherever he’s being held? And he’s been using that vent to call for help?”
“But
where could that place be?” Blue
muttered. “I thought we searched
every inch of Cloudbase… We might
need the base blueprints if you are right, Ochre.”
“That doesn’t explain why the
transmissions were coming from here,” Grey remarked suddenly, as Blue was poking
his head inside the vent to look deeper inside. “Nor why they stopped suddenly,
when we arrived.”
“It’s the same as in New York,” Ochre remarked.
“Those signals stopped, so we couldn’t find their source.”
Symphony was pensive, watching as the security guards continued their search by
throwing all the books off their shelves and looking behind them. Before long, she realised, the place
would be a fine mess. “Captain
Grey, when did those signals stop exactly?”
“According to Green, about one minute before we came in here,” Grey answered. “Why?”
“I think I know why those signals
stopped, then,” she said thoughtfully.
“You do?” Ochre asked with
surprise.
“Uh-uh. I think their source was effectively
destroyed.” With both Grey and
Ochre turning their undivided attention to her, she theatrically raised her
hand, and produced the half-shattered electronic mouse she was still holding by
the tail. She smiled impishly, when
they opened disbelieving eyes. “And
you thought we were kidding you?”
Destiny, standing only a short distance away, nodded her sudden understanding of
Symphony’s line of thought.
“What is this thing?” Grey asked with a frown.
“The remains of the mouse Destiny smashed,” Symphony replied. “That’s when we discovered it wasn’t really a mouse.”
“That’s some kind of robot,” Ochre realised.
“Yep. And I’m sure that if you examined it
carefully, you’ll find inside whatever communication device was used to send
those transmissions you intercepted earlier – and which were interrupted when
Destiny heroically destroyed this mouse.”
She delicately deposited the electronic mouse in Ochre’s hand, and he
looked at it thoughtfully, musing about this new discovery.
“I bet we’ll find more than a
communication device,” he grumbled.
“How do you wanna bet there’s also
in there a miniaturised but complete kit for the perfect little spy?”
“I’m not betting,” Grey retorted.
“Because I’m sure you’re right.”
“People,” Blue called urgently, pulling his head
out of the vent to look over his shoulder.
“I need a flashlight, quickly.
I found something in there… But I
can’t see what it is!”
“There’s the emergency torch right next to the door,” Rhapsody said, getting to
her feet. “I’ll get it for you.”
It was a warm feeling across his face that pulled Scarlet out of his momentary
unconsciousness, and that prompted him to slowly open his eyes. He still felt a bit drowsy, but the
blinding light now flashing in his eyes made it impossible for him to go back to
sleep. He groaned against the far
too bright light, and raised his arm to try to protect his eyes, and at the same
time, tried to see what could be causing it.
He heard a loud gasp echoing into the vents and leaned his head to the
side, still unable to see past the warm light.
It looked like a powerful projector of some sort – no, he realised, suddenly, it
was a torch. He could see giant
fingers holding it steady, and beyond that, there was a giant blue eye,
surmounted by a blond eyebrow, which was opened in obvious disbelief upon
discovering him.
“Oh, my God…” a very recognisable voice said, in what was probably a murmur,
that echoed loudly inside the vents.
“I don’t believe it!”
Scarlet gave a faint but still very genuine smile upon finally being able to
perceive the giant blond head that he was now seeing stuck inside the opening of
the vent, looking in his direction, slack-jawed and wide-eyed with complete
incredulity. “Hi, Adam,” he said in a slurred voice. “So glad to see you… I never thought I would ever tell you
this, big fellow, but… would you
give me a lift, please? I would very much like to get out of this dreadful
place…”
“Very ingenious,” commented Colonel White.
He was in the Conference Room, standing in front of the table, and looking down
with interest at the motionless object lying in the middle of a handkerchief. Half destroyed, with little metallic
bits and wires lying all around it, and fake hair half burned by the electronic
parts that had short-circuited underneath it, the robot-mouse was lying on its
side, its electronic eyes now dead and dark, staring into nothingness.
Captain Grey, standing next to White, had just finished making his report
concerning the incident.
“Very ingenious indeed,” White repeated, taking the mouse by the tail and
raising it in front of his eyes to check on it more closely. “So that’s what has been causing us so much trouble in New
York Headquarters – and then here, on Cloudbase.”
“Yes, Sir. A closer examination
told us that this robot is equipped with a miniature camera, recorder and radio
transmitter. This is definitely the spy we were looking for.”
“How did it get from New York to here?” White asked with a raised brow, putting
the mouse down onto the table.
“The most likely answer, Sir, would be that this… ‘mouse’ simply stowed away in
the SPJ that brought Captain Ochre and me back to Cloudbase. That should be easy to check, mind you. Surveillance cameras in New York should
have picked up the mouse’s presence at some point.
Maybe even caught it as it slipped inside the plane.”
White nodded slowly. “And once on
Cloudbase, following the Mysterons’ threat, this robot started patrolling the
base, in search of anything worthwhile to record.”
“Yes, Sir,” Grey concurred. “It
seems that its micro-circuitry permitted it to make ‘decisions’ about what was
worth filming and recording, to be subsequently stored in its memory – amazingly extensive, for the size of
that thing. Apparently, the mouse
was capable of logical ‘thoughts’ – and would be able to make decisions about
where to go and what should be recorded or not.
It also had built-in security features. Most of them made the robot act
like a normal mouse… for example, it would run and hide whenever it was
spotted.”
“Like a real mouse would do,” White remarked.
“Exactly. But when cornered, it would also fight
back – even attack, if need be.”
“Did it get much information while roaming the base?”
“Quite a surprising amount, Colonel.
This mouse has been nearly everywhere on the lower deck of Cloudbase. Mainly in the Engine Room. It’s a good thing we intercepted the
transmission right at the start, or we’d be in a lot of trouble right now.”
“And you are sure it didn’t send a
message earlier?” White insisted. “Considering the amount of information
you say it had gathered, it would seem to me that it might have tried to pass it
on to its… ‘owner’, as soon as possible.”
“Lieutenant Green, and the rest of the communication team, are quite positive: no unauthorised message had been able to
pass through. Our security net was
quite effective.” Grey sighed. “Apparently, following the failure of
the previous break-in in New York, the mouse had been able to analyse that any
attempt to transmit a signal would be detected and intercepted. So, it is possible that, once its mission was finished, it
would have returned to the hangar and waited for an opportunity to stow away
inside a departing plane.”
“Then, once on the ground, it would have slipped out of our sight and started
transmitting the information it had stored, to whoever was waiting for it.”
Grey nodded, concurring to that statement.
“The robot only attempted a transmission at the end, because it was
trapped, and in danger of being destroyed.”
“An ultimate, desperate effort, until Destiny smashed it to pieces,” White
murmured with dry humour, looking down at the mouse. “Do we know where it comes
from and
who it was supposed to be transmitting
to?”
“Ah, yes… Searching records with
appropriate key words did provide us with information about this – from old FAB
files. A counter-espionage agency had been
working on a similar project – dubbed ‘the Mighty Atom’ – some forty years ago.
One of the prototypes had been stolen, and was never found. But they had worked on a second one – more advanced – only to
abandon the project once complete because it didn’t seem that there could be a
useful application for it. The new
prototype had been stored in a vault since then.. And then, everyone forgot about it. Until two weeks ago, when it disappeared.”
“Stolen, of course.”
“The security cameras picked up a rather
indistinct image of the thief, and we’ve been given a description of the man.
And it is a rather familiar description, Sir: tall, dark-haired, male Caucasian with a pale complexion,
dressed in black …”
“Captain Black?” White said, raising a brow.
Grey nodded in confirmation. “I’ve
asked for a picture of the culprit, just to make sure.
But I have no doubt that it is him, Colonel.”
So, I suppose we don’t need further proof that the presence of this mouse on
this base is indeed the work of the Mysterons, then.”
“There’s no doubt about it, Sir,” Grey agreed.
“Yes, this is indeed very ingenious. Small, swift, capable of getting anywhere
unnoticed… The heat sensors would
not even be able to pick it up, because, as it’s not a warm, living being, it
would not generate any heat.”
“The only heat the sensors in the vents actually picked up was in fact
Scarlet’s,” Grey confirmed.
“And they mistakenly assumed he was a rodent,” White concluded. “Mmm…
I suppose this is kind of amusing, but I doubt that Captain Scarlet would
be able to see the humour in it.”
“I don’t think he would, Sir,” Grey agreed, fighting to keep the smile off his
lips.
“Especially since he was gassed, because of this mistake,” White continued. “The gas, of course, had no effect
whatsoever on the mouse – since it wasn’t alive to breathe it.” He paused for a second. “How is Captain Scarlet, anyway?” he asked.
“Aside from… ‘being small’, that is.” He had seen Scarlet earlier, not
long after he had been recovered from the vents by Captain Blue. White had to admit, at that very moment,
it was probably one of the biggest surprises he had ever had in his life, seeing
his best man reduced to a midget only a few inches high. Well, right next to discovering
the Mysterons’ existence, probably…
And then, right next to finding out a man can be brought back to life after
having been killed…
Why does it always have to happen to
Scarlet, anyway?
Grey sighed. “He’s very frustrated,
apparently. Mind you, Sir, anybody
who’s been reduced to three inches tall would feel the same way as he does at
the moment. I know I would.”
“As would I,” White said. “Well,
Doctors Fawn and Lavender are examining him – and the device in this book, that
seems to be responsible for Scarlet’s present state.”
“Captain Magenta is also studying that device, Sir,” Grey confirmed. “But so far, nothing has been found to –
help Scarlet get back to his normal size.”
A buzzing sound interrupted him before he could continue and White leaned over
the table to press the comm. button.
“Yes, Lieutenant?”
“The SPJ from Bristol just arrived, Sir,”
the voice of Lieutenant Green announced.
“With Captain Forest and his guest.”
“Thank you, Lieutenant. I’m on my
way to the hangar.” White turned to
Grey, taking his cap from the table.
“With any luck, here’s someone who might be able to shed some light on the
mystery surrounding this strange device and Captain Scarlet’s present state. At least, let us just hope so… for
Scarlet’s sake.”
Captain Forest was gently pushing the wheelchair down the ramp leading off the
SPJ and onto the concrete floor of the hangar, towards the waiting Colonel
White. The latter was fighting the urge to
actually salute the elderly man sitting quietly in the chair, with his cane
across his knees, and looking around him with barely-contained curiosity.
When Charles Gray had joined the Universal Secret Service many years ago, Paul
Blake, then a junior Director, was already close to retirement. But due to the many irregularities that
occurred daily in the British Section of the U.S.S. at the time – such as
infiltration by double agents, corruption, treason and even murders – Blake, a thoroughly honest man in a
period where such men were absolutely invaluable to the Service, had stayed a
few years longer. Along with a few other trustworthy agents – such as Charles
Gray himself – Blake had contributed greatly to the investigation and the
subsequent cleaning up operation that followed.
Blake’s last action within the U.S.S. was to recommend Gray as head of
the U.S.S. British Section in London, knowing full well that the younger man
would pursue the task of keeping the U.S.S. clean and safe.
As he watched the old man being rolled in his direction, Colonel White could see
the spark of recognition in his blue eyes, from behind those thick lenses he was
wearing.
“I know you,” Blake said, nodding his head meaningfully, staring into White’s
face, as Captain Forest stopped the wheelchair in front of his commander.
“Welcome to Cloudbase, Mr. Blake,” White declaimed formally. “I am Colonel White.”
“Colonel
White, mmm?” Blake said with a raised brow. “A lighter shade of pale, it would seem
to me.”
Colonel White smiled faintly. Close
to ninety or not, the old man still had all his wits.
I hope to be as sharp as he is when
I’m his age…
“It is good to see you again, Sir,” he told Blake candidly.
“So this is where you ended up,” Blake pursued.
“Commander in Chief of Spectrum…
Nicely done, Charles… or should I say, Sir Charles? They
couldn’t have got a better man for the job… or the honour.” He smiled in turn.
“It is good to see you too.”
With a motion of his hand, White invited Blake to follow. He walked alongside the wheelchair, as the older man pushed a
button that powered up the chair’s silent motor, and send it rolling forward. As for Forest, he followed just behind,
silently, as they all moved towards the airlock leading out of the hangar.
“I hope the flight wasn’t too inconvenient for you,” White told his guest.
“Are you kidding? It’s been ages since I had such an exciting time!” Blake
protested. “And the view from the
window of the plane of this…
floating carrier, was worth the whole trip.
Too bad I didn’t bring my camera…”
“My officers would have had to confiscate it,” White said matter-of-factly.
“Naturally.”
“Naturally,” Blake repeated, in almost the same tone.
“Though it’s not as if I would have sold the pictures to the highest
bidder, is it?”
As a sudden thought struck him, remembering the content of the last Mysteron
threat, Colonel White turned towards Captain Forest, with a look of
interrogation, without even slowing his pace.
“He’s clean, Sir,” Forest responded reassuringly to his commander’s mute
question.
White knew the answer referred to the fact that Blake was free of any weapon or
recording device – and to the confirmation that he had successfully passed the
Mysteron Detector test as well. He
thanked his junior officer with a brief nod, just as Blake stopped his chair. He glared meaningfully at White, who had
stopped walking.
“Now, surely, Charles, you didn’t think for a second that I…”
“Forgive me, Mr. Blake,” White interrupted him quickly.
“But we had a little… problem, recently, with… er… unauthorised recording
devices, here on Cloudbase.
Surely you would understand
that we’re not leaving anything to chance.”
“Even to the point of suspecting me?” Blake grumbled.
“Believe me,” White replied in a conciliatory tone, “Spectrum has to stay
vigilant every minute of the day…
Especially in our fight against the Mysterons. They have a way of apparently using
‘friends’ and ‘relatives’, people you thought you knew and trusted all your
life, to carry out their plans.”
“They fight dirty, these Mysterons,” Blake reflected, narrowing his eyes.
“Indeed, they do, Sir.”
“I think I can relate to that kind of fight, ‘Colonel’. As you may well know.”
Blake gave a sigh, the question now obviously settled in his mind. He put his chair in motion again,
directing it towards the exit.
Colonel White started walking by his side, Forest still following behind. Blake turned again to White. “Right, so since I’m… ‘clean’, as your
captain so delicately put it, I suppose I’m permitted to ask for a grand tour of
your base, then? Of course, we’ll
leave out any restricted area…”
“I’ll be glad to give you the tour myself, Mr. Blake,” White answered with an
approving smile. “That is, as soon
as we have attended to the business that brought you here.”
“Ah yes… Of course,” Blake
confirmed. “I’m guessing it has to do with that
‘Bible’ I gave my grandson by mistake?”
“In a nutshell, Sir… yes. We…
encountered a small problem with the device it contained.”
At the sound of these words, Blake stopped the chair again, and spun it towards
White, who had stopped in his tracks.
The older man narrowed his eyes to the colonel in an inquiring way, a
suspicion forming in his mind.
“Knowing my grandson, I’m fairly sure
he’s in some kind of trouble.”
White raised a brow. “You know your
grandson well, then,” he noted.
“Of course I do. Now, then. What has he done to himself, this time?”
White shook his head. “All right, I
will tell you… and then show you.
But I have to tell you: you might
not believe any of this…”
In one of Sickbay’s laboratories, Captain Scarlet, seated on a small box on a
table, and now healed from his earlier wounds, was waiting impatiently. Right
next to him was a huge microscope, through which Doctor Fawn was looking,
examining a sample of his blood, while Doctor Lavender, head of Cloudbase’s
Research and Development Centre, and Captain Magenta were working at a nearby
table, studying the device inserted inside the Bible, and consulting between
themselves. Captain Blue and
Captain Ochre were also present as observers, standing next to Fawn, and
impatiently waiting to see what results the research had turned up concerning
their friend and colleague’s appalling situation.
To say that Scarlet was not in a good mood was putting it mildly.
As far as he was concerned, nothing was going right; he was still a three-inch-high midget, but now, of all the humiliations,
he was out of proper clothes to wear.
His uniform had taken quite a beating during his adventure in the vents, so he
had been forced to take it off. He
was now wearing a kind of tunic that Blue had improvised for him, made of a
piece of handkerchief with a hole cut in it for his head, and tied around the
waist with a rather-too-long strip of the same fabric.
The oh-so-tiny uniform
desperately needed a good cleaning before it could be worn again. Rhapsody Angel had volunteered to wash
it, stating that she didn’t really trust the Laundry Room not to lose it, if it
was put in with a regular load of washing.
Since she couldn’t be present in Sickbay
while people were attempting to find a way to get Scarlet back to his rightful
size – at least, not without the risk of revealing their relationship – Rhapsody
was feeling rather powerless, and welcomed the opportunity to make herself
useful. Scarlet was also only too pleased to
accept her offer, considering that that uniform might be the only decent thing he had to wear, if the efforts to bring him back
to his normal size took much longer. He missed Rhapsody, but in a way was also
grateful that she could not be there.
He couldn’t bear the look on her face when she saw him in this
too-vulnerable form – he had seen it earlier, and although she was trying to
present a brave façade, she could not hide her distress from him. He could also see a very similar
expression on all of his friends’ faces – Blue’s especially, whose sympathy and
compassion were so very obvious…
And perhaps... a
certain amount of amusement? Scarlet pondered. He had seen a peculiar spark in Blue’s eyes earlier - and he wasn’t all that sure that he
had not seen the same – ever so brief –
in Rhapsody’s eyes either.
Do I
REALLY want to know what that was all about?
On the same line of thought, Scarlet barely could tolerate to be yet again
considered an object of curiosity,
and to be treated like a guinea pig, by Fawn – whom he knew, however, to have
only his best interests at heart –
but especially by Lavender, whose inquisitive mind was only fascinated by
whatever scientific information such a situation presented to him. At least, Scarlet knew he could fully
count on Edward to actually do everything in his power to help him. After all, he was his friend…
“It’s a fine mess you’ve got yourself into this time, Captain.”
Hearing Fawn’s grunted remark, Scarlet came out of his fugue and raised his
head, furrowing his brows in protest and glaring at Fawn, who was still looking
through his microscope.
Some friend…
“Me?!” Scarlet lashed out in surprise. “What are you saying, Doc? That I put myself into this situation on
purpose? Need I remind you that I am the victim, here! I had my leg nearly torn off by a mouse,
and…”
He was suddenly interrupted by the loud guffaw of Captain Ochre; Blue looked a
little embarrassed by the obviously amused attitude displayed by his compatriot
and was nudging him with his elbow to try to shut him up. Since he had come into the room a good
half-hour before, to see what was going on, Ochre had tried to keep quiet – but it was obviously too much of a temptation
for him not to say anything and have a
good laugh at Scarlet’s expense.
Scarlet knew Ochre well enough to suspect it was his colleague’s own way of
hiding his own discomfort and concern for a friend.
Maybe he was attempting to make the situation less strained. However, even knowing that didn’t help
to calm Scarlet’s fiery temper in the slightest. He doesn’t have to try so hard, though… Scarlet’s temper rose one
degree.
“And what are you laughing at?” he asked angrily, lashing out at Ochre.
“You should have heard yourself,” Ochre answered, wiping a tear from his eye. “‘I
had my leg nearly torn off by a mouse’,” he said, giving an almost perfect
imitation of Scarlet’s English accent.
“My God, this is too funny…”
“There was nothing funny about it,”
Scarlet complained forcefully. “If
you had been in my place, Ochre, you wouldn’t think so, either!”
“Sorry,” Ochre said, with an expression that plainly said that he was anything
but repentant. “I mean, I’m sure it
wasn’t all that peachy for you down there… in the vents.” He obviously had
tremendous trouble not to laugh, and was hiding his smile behind his hand, in a
falsely thoughtful posture. “Say,
it must have been interesting too.
While you were gazing into the Amber Room, you had a good vantage point from the
floor – I think Symphony was wearing a skirt, did you…”
“OCHRE!” Blue objected loudly, suddenly worried that his colleague would go too
far in his train of thought.
“I’m
kidding!” Ochre said with a mischievous smile.
“Say, why are you here, exactly?” Blue asked with irritation. “Don’t you have anything to do, anywhere
you have to go – anyone else you might
want to pester?” The tone was
becoming insistent, but Ochre affected not to notice.
“I’m here for moral support,” he said in a casual tone.
“Well, you’re not helping any!” Magenta said from his station.
“Don’t listen to him,” Scarlet called in Magenta’s
direction. “And concentrate on finding a solution
to my problem.”
“I’m afraid it’s not as easy as it sounds, Captain,” Doctor Lavender then
remarked, standing up straight and removing his glasses.
“Captain Magenta and I have been studying this device for several hours,
and have not even come close to discovering
how
it actually works.”
“Do you really have to find out how it
works?” Scarlet said irately. “All
you really need to know is the right combination to get me back to normal size,
isn’t that right?”
“No,” was the combined answer from Lavender, Magenta and Fawn alike. The latter still had his eyes glued to
the eyepiece of his microscope.
“What do you mean, no?”
“We mean that if we don’t actually know how it works, and considering we don’t
have any idea of the combination that was used to ‘downsize’ you, it might be
dangerous to try any combination on
you and see if it will work,” Fawn explained.
“What danger could there be?” Blue asked.
“He’s indestructible, yes?”
Lavender made a sucking sound. “Oh, well… that might be part of the problem, you
see… If we get the combination
wrong and the experiment goes haywire, how would the captain feel if he should
end up as an indestructible and formless mass of flesh, bones and blood?”
There was a stunned silence, following which Scarlet swallowed hard. “I wouldn’t
like that at all,” he confirmed.
“So, that’s why we need to take this easy,” Fawn said, still looking into his
eyepiece. “Be patient, Scarlet.”
“Easy for you to say,” Scarlet
mumbled, scowling. “You’re not the
one who hardly comes up to the knee of a Barbie doll.”
“Let alone a real life, grown-up woman,” Ochre said with a grin.
“Captain Ochre,” Doctor Fawn said warningly, “if you are unable to hold your
tongue, I will have you forcibly removed.
We need to work in peace and quiet and you
are not helping with your idiotic comments!”
Before Ochre could reply, one way or the other, the door slid open. An elderly man in an electric wheelchair
entered, followed closely by Colonel White.
Everyone stopped what they were doing;
at the sight of the visitors, Scarlet jumped from his box and stood up.
“Colonel White,” he said in confusion.
“At ease, Captain,” White said with a gesture.
“I brought you a visitor…”
“Granddad,” Scarlet said with surprise in his voice.
“What are you doing here?”
“Dear God in Heaven,” Paul Blake answered, rolling astonished eyes at the sight
of his reduced grandson. “Paul,
what on Earth have you done to yourself?
I told you not to touch that device. Look what it did to you!”
“Now wait a minute here, Granddad,” Scarlet protested in annoyance, frowning
deeply. “You should know that your
warning came a little too late.”
“A little all right,” Ochre said in an
undertone, chuckling. That won him
an incensed glare from Captain Blue, apparently the only one to have heard him.
“Did you know what this device could do?” Scarlet asked as his grandfather
stopped the chair in front of the table.
“Well, yes… and no, actually,” Paul Blake confessed.
“To tell you the truth, Matthew never told me exactly. I just had some suspicions of what it
might be used for, you see. Rumours
going around the Bishop Department at the time… and some barely concealed
comments made by my superior. They
all sounded ludicrous, really… And
I even thought at some point people were leading me on…
Now I see it was not the case.”
“No, it certainly is not the case,”
Scarlet mumbled.
“I had no idea a man could be reduced to
that
size,” Blake continued.
“What size do you reckon the people using that device would go for?” Colonel
White asked.
“Oh… in what I thought was only banter, my superior mentioned something of about
one to two feet tall, I suppose.”
“Which is a lot taller than I am at the moment,” Scarlet remarked. “So probably a different combination of
the keys would give a different size.”
“That seems to be the case,” Lavender approved, leaving his table, and
approaching with Magenta. “We need
to find what numeric code was used, before you were reduced to that size,
Captain Scarlet – and find what numeric code will ‘undo’ the process.”
“Can’t you remember that code, Captain?” White asked.
Scarlet sighed. “No, Sir. I’m sorry to say.”
“Sir,” Captain Blue then added, “Captain Scarlet and I – we punched so many
different keys in so many different orders, it’s simply impossible to recall. I’m afraid I can’t be of any help,
either. I wish I could…”
Blake sighed. “Well, when I was
told earlier that there was some sort of problem concerning the device, I took
the precaution of bringing this with
me.” He searched in the inside
pocket of his vest, and produced a small black notebook; he handed it to Fawn. “Matthew gave it to me. At the same time he entrusted me with
the device, all those years ago,” he explained as Fawn opened the book to look
inside, with Lavender leaning over his shoulder to get a look too. “It’s filled with graphics, scientific
formulae, notes…”
“… And what looks like numeric codes,” Lavender murmured, in an interested tone.
“Well, I think this thing might help us a lot in our research, don’t you think,
Doctor Fawn?”
“Do you reckon?” Blake asked with a brow raised in doubt, and shrugging his
shoulders. “I tried reading that
stuff, it was all Greek to me.
Couldn’t help me to work out how to use the device either.”
“Well,
we might be able to understand it
enough to help your grandson,” Fawn told the old man, with a reassuring smile.
He closed the book, much to the dismay of Doctor Lavender who was still reading
it with absorbed interest. “We had better get on with it, too,” Fawn continued,
turning around. “If you will excuse Doctor Lavender and
me…”
“Of course, Doctor,” White acknowledged with a nod.
“This is so very interesting,” Lavender said, following as Fawn stepped towards
the other table. “Have you read
that note on the second paragraph, Doctor?
So that is how it is done… How fascinating…”
The rest was lost to prying ears as the two doctors put the book down on the
table and started studying the contents, consulting in low tones and oblivious
to everyone else’s presence. Colonel White turned to Blake.
“I think we’d better leave our resident scientists to their work, Sir. If I know them, I’m sure they’ll come up
with a solution in no time – and will get your grandson to his regular size,
once they have deciphered the contents of that notebook.”
“I’m so very sorry about what happened to you, Paul,” Blake said, looking at
Scarlet with a contrite expression. “I’m
aware that this is all my fault…”
“No, it’s not,” Scarlet reassured him with a smile.
“You couldn’t know what would happen, Granddad. You were right: I shouldn’t have touched that thing, without knowing what it
would do.”
“Well, you could hardly know that it
could do that to you,” Blake reasoned.
“That’s a fact,” agreed Scarlet.
“So maybe we should blame it all on a very foolish accident?”
“An accident that actually had a purpose,” Blue remarked with a smirk. “Let’s face it, Scarlet, if you hadn’t
been reduced in size the way you were, this spying mouse would never have been
discovered in the first place.”
“And the Mysterons might have succeeded in their threat this time,” Ochre
agreed, with a smile of his own.
“But they failed. All that because
Spectrum’s tiniest hero ever ended up in the same air vents as their diminutive,
furry spy robot…”
“Mouse? Air vents?
Spy robot? What are you all
going on about?” Blake sounded and
looked perplexed, as he looked inquisitively at each officer surrounding him.
“It’s a long story, Granddad,” Scarlet said with a deep sigh.
“Indeed, and a very interesting report it will make, Captain,” White remarked,
permitting himself a slight smile.
“That is – when you’re big enough to use your computer keyboard. In the meantime, I’ll take your
grandfather to the guest quarters, and
bring him up to date with what you and your colleagues have been telling me of
what happened. I believe you’ll be
quite busy, in a short while, when the good doctors attempt to ‘enlarge’ you.”
“To six foot one, not an inch shorter,” Scarlet said in a gloomy tone. “At least… I hope they’ll get it right
and it’ll be over soon!”
Following the departure of Colonel White and Paul Blake, and then of Captains
Blue and Ochre, Doctors Lavender and Fawn, with the help of Captain Magenta,
became very absorbed in studying the notebook Blake had handed them. A few hours after that, they felt
confident enough to put their newly acquired knowledge to work and attempted
three experiments to get Captain Scarlet back to his own size.
All of them, unfortunately, failed miserably.
The ‘Minimiser’ – as they learned it was called, from the notes in the book –
did produce a display of blinding light and sound, as the book said it would –
and as Scarlet had reported from his previous experiment – but nothing actually
happened. Much to Scarlet’s growing
frustration, but to Fawn’s actual relief.
“Back to square one,” Scarlet muttered dejectedly , sitting down heavily on his
box, after the last failed attempt.
“Don’t be a pessimist,” Doctor Fawn said encouragingly. “At least, you didn’t end up a pulsating lump of living
flesh…”
Scarlet grimaced. The Cloudbase
medical chief officer had not hidden his concern during the tests that they
might go terribly wrong and something dreadful might happen to Scarlet. Going against Lavender’s wishes to go right ahead with the
experiments, he had insisted that a series of trials were run on inanimate
objects – a baseball, a piece of cloth, even a few fruits. The objects had not been reduced, unfortunately, but at least
they had stayed intact. And Fawn
had finally agreed to submit Scarlet to the effects of rays produced by the
device. After all, the results
might be more encouraging with a living person…
It was not to be the case.
And it had not done anyone’s morale any good. Especially Scarlet’s.
“That should have worked,” Lavender had proclaimed, checking in the notebook.
“Are we sure we have the right number sequences?”
“Those we tried seemed the most likely,” Fawn sighed.
“Maybe Green and I should get together,” Magenta offered, “and run a program
listing all possibilities of number sequences.
Taking into account the information in the notebook, we’re bound to find
one that works.”
“It might take an awfully long time!”
Scarlet reflected. “It sounds like
playing the lottery.”
“We might not have much choice,” Fawn
retorted. “And we could program it
into one of the medical robots, to keep pressing sequence after sequence, to
make it quicker…”
“Still with me playing guinea pig, though,”
Scarlet grunted.
“It might not be a solution,” Lavender intervened, thoughtfully. “Maybe one of the sequences we tried was
the good one. We might be
overlooking details, a few relevant data that we should have taken into
consideration. Like an outside source, maybe… that might have caused the process
to fail.”
“Like what?” asked Fawn.
“How about nuclear radiation emanating from Cloudbase’s reactors?” Lavender
offered. “I mean, it could have
caused an interference that might have somehow changed – or temporarily
disrupted – the normal miniaturising effects – or even the enlargement effects.”
“I doubt it very much,” Magenta retorted.
“Considering that this base runs round the clock, with state-of-the art
equipment that need to be
ultra-efficient, and that people are living here twenty-four hours a day,
Cloudbase uses the cleanest form of nuclear energy you can imagine. Our reactors
are under constant watch.
Possibility of nuclear emission – however faint – is close to zero. Nothing to cause any
harm to personnel or equipment. So
I can imagine that it would not affect
the Minimiser either.”
“How about solar flares?” Lavender
asked.
“Don’t you think they were taken into consideration when they put this base up
here, in the stratosphere?” Fawn remarked in turn.
“Cloudbase has been equipped with the best solar shields you can
imagine.”
“I don’t mean your ‘regular’, run-of-the-mill flares, Doctor – I mean something
huge, that might have disrupted the device, even temporarily – of course, one
would have to admit that it would have also been felt throughout the base – it would have disrupted the instruments
too.”
“And we would have known about it,” Magenta remarked.
Lavender went pensive. “Cloudbase
is equipped with a cloaking device, yes?”
“Stealth capacity?” Scarlet said.
“Yes… The best there is, actually.”
“So the base can move about without being spotted by every radar and satellite
in the world,” Magenta continued.
Lavender nodded slowly. “If it had
been turned on at the moment the Minimiser reduced Captain Scarlet…”
“It could have caused a magnetic interference,” Magenta admitted.
But Fawn shook his head dismissively.
“But Sickbay is normally informed every time the stealth capacity is used. Because we need to shield our equipment
against the effects of the stealth.
I don’t remember having received such a call.
I will have to check the logs.”
He stared meaningfully in Scarlet’s direction. “And there is Captain Scarlet’s unique physiology we might
also consider...”
Scarlet scowled. “It didn’t stop me from being miniaturised to begin with,” he
noted.
“No… but we do know that the average size this device usually reduced its
subjects to was between one and two feet tall,” Lavender remarked in turn. “Your
Mysteronised and retrometabolic body does generate a faint, nearly undetectable
radiation that might cause havoc with the Minimiser’s circuits.”
“The same kind of radiation that causes Scarlet – or a Mysteron – to be
impervious to X-rays,” Magenta said with a slow nod.
“Exactly,” Lavender confirmed. “Now
to find out if it has caused irreversible damage to the effects of the device… “
“Let’s not jump to conclusions,” Fawn cut in suddenly, seeing that Scarlet was
getting ready to protest Lavender’s assumption.
“It might be that this radiation – or whatever else might have caused
possible interference with the Minimiser –
is simply delaying the reversal effects. Scarlet might still regain his size with time.”
“What do you mean,
‘with time’?” Scarlet asked with a frown.
“It is possible,”
Lavender agreed, not listening to the worried captain.
“And another
thing: what if it was possible for
Scarlet’s own retrometabolism to eventually have the opposite effect?” Fawn
continued.
“You mean it might actually bring
him back to his normal size?” Magenta queried.
“Granted, the miniaturisation effect is
not exactly an injury or an illness – but it’s also not a normal state for
Scarlet.”
“No – but it’s not far off of one,” Lavender retorted.
“Can I disagree with this assertion?” Scarlet tried again. “It is not normal
for me.”
“The way the Minimiser works,” Lavender continued, addressing Fawn and ignoring
Scarlet’s interruption, “is by somehow ‘shrinking’ the space of the constituent
atoms of the object or person – as far as we were able to ascertain. In that
case, it’s not taking it very far
off ‘normal’ if the subject is two feet tall instead of six.”
“Try three inches,” Scarlet corrected.
“Still, the spaces between the atoms are not the same,” Fawn observed. “And if the retrometabolism should
consider that ‘abnormal’… It might bring Scarlet back to size by
itself.”
“Why didn’t it do so already?” Lavender asked.
“Good question,” Scarlet concurred.
“I don’t know – retrometabolism is still
a mystery in itself. We’re still
unsure of how it works. Maybe it
needs a ‘boost’ – something to trigger it.”
“Like Captain Scarlet being injured?” Magenta remarked.
“I’m stopping you right there, gentlemen,” Scarlet suddenly interrupted, unsure
if he liked the direction this conversation was taking. “I have been injured – a number of times already – since I’ve
been in this condition. Remember –
open fracture of the leg and loss of blood?
And that was only the last injury I received.”
“Now then,” Lavender remarked, as if finally acknowledging Scarlet’s presence,
“it seems that refutes your theory, Doctor Fawn…”
“Maybe not, Doctor. Maybe that,
just as in the case of your ‘solar flare’ or ‘stealth field’ theories, the
re-growth effect might be delayed, for some reason.”
Lavender shrugged. “You are the
expert on Scarlet’s physiology, Doctor.
So, what do you propose we do?”
“Tonight, I propose nothing.”
“Doc?” a concerned Scarlet queried.
“It is late,” Fawn continued, looking at his watch. “Past one in the morning.
We’ve been at this for hours, without a break. And I don’t know about you, but I’m knackered. It’s been a long day, and I can’t think
straight anymore. I suggest we call
it a night, and continue tomorrow.”
Scarlet didn’t seem too pleased with the suggestion and was looking down, with a
scowl on his face – like a kid who didn’t get the toy he wanted so much. It made Captain Magenta smile, almost
despite himself.
“You probably need sleep as much as we do, Paul,” he noted in a affable tone.
“You must be dead on your feet – if you’ll pardon the expression.”
“I hate to admit it, but it’s true I’m shattered,” Scarlet answered with a sigh.
“To the point where I will probably need a whole night of sleep.”
“All right then, I will ask a nurse to prepare you a room,” Fawn interjected,
fearing the normally uncooperative captain would change his mind.
“Don’t worry, Paul,” Magenta offered reassuringly to Scarlet. “We
will
get you back to normal.”
“Of course we will,” Lavender concurred.
“You couldn’t be in better hands, Captain. Me with my scientific and electronic knowledge… Doctor Fawn
as the definite expert on your physiology…
And Captain Magenta with his… er…”
“… Wits?” Magenta offered with a raised brow.
“Thank you. We will find a solution
of your problem, Captain Scarlet.”
“For starters, tomorrow, Green and I will work on that program,” Magenta added. “While the good doctors work on examining other avenues.”
“And who knows,” Fawn interjected quickly. “Maybe we’re looking at this all
wrong too. Maybe the effects of the
Minimiser are only temporary and they will wear off eventually, without any help
from us?”
“We’re bound to find a solution,” Magenta added. “Just wait and see.”
“I just hope it’ll be soon, Pat,” Scarlet said grimly. “ ‘Cause I will admit – I don’t think I will ever feel
comfortable living in a doll’s house for the rest of my life. For starters, you
can be sure that I would not hear the
end of it from Captain Ochre. And
that is something I would not be able to bear at all, believe me!”
It was dark in the Sickbay room assigned to Captain Scarlet when Rhapsody Angel
silently pushed the door and entered, carefully tiptoeing so not to make any
sound at all. There was only a
small lamp, on the table right next to the bed, barely lighting a corner of the
room, where a man was sitting on a chair, almost dozing. He straightened up when he saw the visitor and acknowledged
her presence with a nod.
“How is he?” Rhapsody asked in a whisper.
“Asleep,” Captain Blue answered, standing up.
“Which is more than I’ve been able to do myself. Lucky dog…”
“I would hardly call him ‘lucky’, Adam,” the young woman remarked with a faint
smile.
They approached the bed cautiously.
It had not been turned down, and on top of it, there was a cardboard shoebox,
which had been lined with several pieces of cloth, to act as mattress and
blankets. His head resting on one
that was rolled to form a pillow,
and covered by another, Captain Scarlet was sleeping peacefully and soundly. He didn’t even stir at their
approach.
“Sleeping like a baby,” Rhapsody acknowledged in a whisper. “I don’t remember having seen him sleep that deeply, except
when he’s regenerating.”
“Or so stressed out he’s ready to drop with exhaustion,” Blue pointed out. “I can only guess that this present
condition isn’t easy for him to swallow.
Not to mention the ‘experiences’ he had in the vents…”
“Poor Paul,” Rhapsody sighed. “Even
this shoebox is too big a bed for him.”
Blue smiled faintly. “I’m sure he’s
very mortified with all this – ‘being treated like a guinea pig again – or
worse, a toy’, he told me earlier.” He chuckled. “I think the one
thing he might die of would be embarrassment.”
“He’s a proud man,” Rhapsody concurred.
“You have to put yourself in his shoes.”
Blue threw up his hands. “Believe
me, I do – and I hope something like that will
never
happen to me.”
“I shouldn’t be surprised that you are staying here, watching over him,”
Rhapsody said with a fond smile.
“You’re a good man, Adam,”
Blue shrugged. “Hey, he’s my
partner – and more important, he’s my friend.
The fact is, he looks so vulnerable at the moment – almost as much as when he’s
asleep, retrometabolising. Frankly,
if by some odd chance, something were to happen to him, or someone went after
him while he’s that way, I doubt he would be able to defend himself. Even if there’s a guard at the door, I
feel I have to be here. He would do
the same for me.”
“You can’t help worry about him, can you?”
“No.” Blue tilted his head to the side.
“The same for you, isn’t it?”
“Of course,” she answered, shrugging.
“I felt miserable not being able to
come earlier. To stay away from him
during all that time, waiting to see if
he would be all right. I nearly
decided not to give a fig about our secret anymore and actually come over. But I thought twice about it, and I realised that – well, Paul was in good
health – just reduced in size. So
he really didn’t need me to make a fool of myself right there by fretting over
him.”
“It didn’t stop you from coming here now,
though,” Blue remarked.
“Of course not – I waited as long as I could.
And I have a cover story, anyway, if someone should wonder what I’m doing
here at this hour of night.”
“You just finished your stint in the Amber Room and you decided to pay a visit
to a friend before going to bed?”
“Well,
that and…” She smiled and produced from her pocket the tiny grey uniform
that she had taken earlier in order to wash.
It was now clean, dry and neatly folded. “I can always say I brought this back for him to wear when he
wakes up.”
Blue chuckled. “He’ll be eternally
grateful to you, Dianne. Having
nothing more to wear than a crude tunic made with my… er… handkerchief … is something else that’s upsetting him.
He told me earlier that if he had been reduced to an Action Man or a Ken
size, instead of an action figure’s,
at least he could wear different clothes!”
Blue’s attention was suddenly attracted by a very faint mumble, coming from the
shoebox on the bed; also hearing it, Rhapsody turned in that direction. By the way the box was moving, it was
obvious that Scarlet was agitating himself in his sleep; indistinct mutterings
were reaching their ears, but they were unable to make out what he was saying.
“Nightmares?” Rhapsody suggested.
“Must be dreaming of giant mice,” Blue remarked.
Rhapsody glared at him, but said nothing. He cleared his throat.
“I think we’d better wake him…”
The two of them stepped closer to the bed, and Blue was wondering how he would
actually be able to wake his friend up,
without being too rough with him in the process, when he noticed the box
was now moving more wildly as Scarlet’s thrashing increased considerably. Now beginning to worry, he leaned down
to peer into the box, and prepared himself to call to his friend loudly – and
stopped, his jaw dropping and his eyes wide open with wonder.
Scarlet had started growing…
Already, his size had reached the length of his makeshift bed, and as he
continued to grow, the cardboard sides started breaking up.
As they gave out under the pressure applied to them, Scarlet suddenly
opened his eyes, dozy with sleep.
He first noticed Blue and Rhapsody standing over him, gawking with obvious
astonishment, but then, in a split second, he realised something was happening
to him.
The shoebox finally collapsed underneath him, and dazed and confused, Scarlet
wrestled with what was left of his improvised blankets, as if they were enemies
trying to choke him. They were
growing smaller in his hands by the second, barely enough to cover him now, and
he was still growing, at considerable speed.
He sat up, and in his disorientation, tried to step out of bed. He naturally miscalculated the distance
between his feet and the floor, before Blue and Rhapsody could even stop him. He
fell face first onto the floor, grabbing the bed sheets in an ineffectual
attempt to stop himself, and dragging them along with him. Fortunately for him, he was now big
enough for the fall not to cause him any serious injury.
Sprawled on the floor, the stress on his body was now so tremendous that he was
shaking like a leaf, and drenched with sweat all over. He was gritting his teeth against the pain and moaning.
His head felt as if it was exploding. Why
does it hurt so much to grow, when I felt next to nothing when I was shrunk? That doesn’t seem right… He tried to
force his eyelids to open but screwed them shut again almost immediately, the
room spinning around him, amplifying the effect of dizziness and vertigo he was
feeling.
It seemed to take an awfully long time – longer than it actually was. Scarlet barely felt the hands reaching
for him, and the sheet that someone covered his shoulders with; the pain was
finally fading away, and the pressure against his temples vanished. Breathing hard, he rose on one elbow and
finally dared to open his eyes, very carefully.
The room wasn’t spinning anymore, and there were faces – concerned faces –
hovering in front of him.
Normal-sized faces…
Those of Rhapsody and Blue.
“Paul?” Rhapsody asked with obvious
apprehension. “Are you all right?”
“I am,” Scarlet murmured wearily. “I’m back…”
“You certainly are!” Captain Blue said with a wide grin, squeezing Scarlet’s
shoulder in a friendly fashion. He
had a feeling that his colleague probably preferred Rhapsody’s brand of welcome: she had knelt in front of him, and put
her arms around him to embrace him warmly.
“You gave us quite a scare,” she told him.
“You don’t know how glad we are to see you back to normal!”
She kissed him on the lips and he responded to the kiss, but it was brief, and
Blue and Rhapsody helped Scarlet to rise to his still unsteady feet. He swayed momentarily, a wave of sudden
dizziness hitting him; Blue held him up, as Scarlet, shivering, instinctively
gathered the sheet around him to cover himself.
“Whoa, take it easy, big fella,” the blond captain recommended. “That ‘re-growing’ process you just went
through looked like it was difficult – and painful.”
“It was,” Scarlet confirmed.
“Although I don’t know if it was normal to be that painful. But hey… I’m
back. That’s all that counts.” He looked down at himself, and realised
he was stark naked under the sheet. No wonder I’m cold, he reflected. He wondered what exactly
could have brought him back to size.
Did one of the previous sessions to which he had been subjected finally kick in,
after, according to one of Lavender’s theories, its effects had been delayed by
whatever outside source? Did his
retrometabolism reverse the process?
Or did the effects of the miniaturisation rays simply wear off?
“I bet Fawn – and Lavender – will want to run a battery of tests to see how I
am,” he muttered darkly. “I’m so not looking forward to this…”
“Well, we’ll make sure they will leave you alone for a little while,” Blue
offered. “After all you’ve been
through these last few hours, I think you deserve a good rest.”
“I’m all for it.” Scarlet was
looking intently in Rhapsody’s direction.
There was a spark in his eyes that Blue had no difficulty interpreting. He gave a slight smirk. Despite
Scarlet’s previous statement, it was fairly obvious that resting was not
foremost in his mind.
Blue cleared his throat. “I think
it would be best to inform Fawn that you’ve woken up – and that you are now back
to your normal size.”
“Am I?” Scarlet eyed up his friend,
evaluating the difference in height between the two of them. Blue was already taller than he was, by a good two inches. Scarlet was just making sure that it was still only two
inches. He smiled approvingly. “Yes – I think I’m really back to
my normal size.”
Blue chuckled. “I’m pretty certain
that Fawn will want to make sure of that,” he asserted.
He looked at Scarlet, then Rhapsody in turn, musing, noting the way they
were looking at each other. Then he
nodded, and gave an encouraging pat to his friend’s shoulder, before moving
towards the door, slowly, still looking at them. “I… think I’ll get a coffee
before going to Fawn… And take my time drinking it. We’ll be back… say,
in a half hour?” Scarlet smiled
thankfully at him, and Blue answered with a smile of his own. “Good to have you
back.”
“Good to be back,” Scarlet answered simply.
“And please, bring me some clothes when you come back – before I freeze
to death!” Blue grinned, and went
out.
Left alone with his fiancée,
Scarlet turned to her. She was
looking up at him, with eyes as bright as his.
“Half an hour?” she grimaced.
“A shame it isn’t an hour…” Scarlet conceded quietly. “I guess there’s limits to how long Adam can wait before
telling Fawn – without risking his just wrath.
At least, we’ll have a few minutes, just the two of us. Alone.”
The smile on Rhapsody’s lips spoke volumes. “I… brought you this.” She showed him the tiny uniform she
still held in her hand. He
chuckled.
“I don’t think that’s going to fit me now…” he reflected with good humour.
She gave him a odd look, but didn’t answer to the barely-concealed tease.
She used her hand to measure herself against him, and nodded thoughtfully, when
her hand reached a certain position near his shoulder. “Does look as if it’s the right spot,” she remarked
matter-of-factly.
“Does look like it,” he approved, nodding in turn.
“Is there… a way we can make sure you’re back to your right size again?”
Rhapsody asked, almost innocently.
Scarlet’s smile broadened as he extended his arms, and brought her against him,
holding her as close as he could, and leaned to kiss her tenderly, longingly.
He hardly paid heed to the fact that the sheet covering him was now starting to
slide off him. He was just in time
to catch it and wrap it around his hips before it ended up on the floor. Rhapsody caught his movement with her
eyes, and smiled mischievously.
Oh, this was so tempting… But…
“Later,” he whispered, bringing her close to him once more.
They exchanged another passionate kiss, and Scarlet grinned inwardly. He
wondered for a fleeting second if he should ask her about red underwear…
The thought quickly fled his mind.
THE END
Okay, I will admit it – this is not really
a Halloween story, as Halloween has not been mentioned anywhere in it.
But
– you might want to consider this very odd story might find a place in the
Halloween selection because of its weirdness – and that it could be, in fact, a
‘treat AND trick’ tale. Hope
it has been as fun for you to read as it was for me to write.
‘Paul Blake’ was a recurring character of
Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s last Supermarionation series, ‘The Secret
Service’©, in which he was ‘portrayed’ by the Captain Scarlet puppet – under
a brown wig and wearing spectacles.
As it was already speculated by Century 21 that Paul Blake was Captain Scarlet’s
grandfather, I simply extrapolated that he was his maternal grandfather.
The ‘Minimiser’, of course, also comes from
‘The Secret Service’©, as it was the tool used by Father Stanley Unwin to
reduce secret agent Matthew Harding to a – ahem! – puppet-sized midget.
‘Thunderbirds©’
fans will also have recognised in the tiny robotic ‘spy mouse’ featured in this
story has been inspire by, and is an upgraded version of ‘The Mighty Atom’,
from the episode of the same title.
Mike ‘Dinger’ Bell, Captain Scarlet’s
batman, was created by Marion Woods for her story ‘Silent Majority’.
I’m grateful that she let me borrowed him. There is also a mention in this story of Engineer Terracotta,
although the character does not appear – who also is the creation of Siobhan
Zettler for the story ‘Sikako’.
Lieutenant Tan, Captain Forest and Doctor
Lavender are my own creations – they had previously appeared – respectively, in
‘A Question of Trust’ ‘Spectrum is White’ and in ‘Parallax View’.
Other characters, except for the original cast of ‘Captain Scarlet and
the Mysterons’©, also are my own.
The ‘robo-vac’ has been inspired by a
mention of similar machines in one of the Captain Scarlet annuals or magazines.
Similar robotic vacuum exist today, although obviously not as
sophisticated as those patrolling the different sections of Cloudbase in this
story. The name ‘robo-vac’ as been suggested by my friend Mary J. Rudy.
My thanks go to Hazel Köhler and Mary J.
Rudy for their invaluable help, notably at beta-reading this text, and to Marion
Woods, Siobhan Zettler, Sue Stanhope, Clya Brown and Caroline Smith for their
continuing encouragement and either suggestions or inspiration.
‘Captain
Scarlet and the Mysterons’ ©, is still the creation
of Gerry Anderson and Sylvia Anderson, and the
rights of the classic series, once owned by Century 21, ITC/Polygram and now by
Carlton International. I do not own any of those
rights, and simply had borrowed the characters for a fraction of time in order
to write this story.
Thanks
to Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and to all who have been involved in the original
series, which still provides us today with much joy and entertainment.
Happy Halloween 2005.
Chris Bishop.
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