A Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons story

For 2006 Halloween Challenge

By Chris Bishop

PART 2

Chapter 1 – Back on Duty

“You’re sending me on an assignment?”

Colonel Blue nodded at Captain Scarlet’s question, as they both walked out of the elevator at the lowest level of the Underground Base. The Spectrum commander had given Scarlet a rapid briefing as they were making their way there, and it was with some bewilderment that the English captain now considered his upcoming mission.

“Let me get this straight… you don’t completely trust me, but you allow me to leave your base – which location must not become known at any cost – and that, after you have revealed all your secrets to me?”

“Not all our secrets, Paul. Far from it. And give me a little credit, please.” After walking down a corridor toward a large door – which, Scarlet reflected, could easily let an SPV pass through it – Blue punched a security code into the keypad. The door slid open in front of the two men. “I do not intend to let you go on your own,” Blue added with a grin.

“You don’t say… You’re assigning me a guardian, then?”

“I’m assigning you a partner.”

Invited by Blue, Scarlet crossed the threshold… and stopped in his tracks as soon as he cleared the doorway, looking around in wonder.

He was inside a huge natural cave, with a rocky, arched ceiling high above their heads, half covered with stalactites, and a smooth man-made concrete floor that led to a large, underground lake. The whole place looked like a hangar, with aircraft lined up on one side – helijets and planes, painted with camouflage colours – and armoured vehicles and speed cars. Moored to docking bays that jutted out into the lake were a number of ships, of different sizes and shapes. Most of them looked like submarines – while the largest of these ships resembled small-sized carriers. There was a helijet on the deck of one of them, with technicians busy folding its rotor blades neatly against one another, and checking that its floats were well clamped to the deck.

“Great Scott…” Scarlet muttered. “This is quite a sight…”

“Impressive, isn’t it?” Blue commented. “Welcome to the Cave, Captain. This is where we store our means of transportation.” He invited Scarlet to follow him towards the carrier with the helijet onboard. “This is also the domain of a very good friend of yours.”

As he said these words, one of the men checking the helijet floats got to his feet and turned to them. Scarlet wasn’t sure he recognised him at first, until the man smiled broadly, jumped from the deck and onto the dock to approach them.

“Captain Grey,” Blue said in welcome. “Is she ready to go?”

“Only waiting for your order, Colonel Blue,” Grey answered. He grabbed Scarlet’s hand before the latter could even react and pumped it vigorously. “Hey Paul! So good to see you again after all these years. You haven’t changed a bit, sport!”

“Brad.” Scarlet responded to the energetic handshake in kind, smiling in turn. “Brad, I nearly didn’t recognise you at first! That look becomes you…”

“It’s just a way for you to say I look much older now,” Grey answered. “Not like you, apparently. Oh, I know all about the jump through time thing. Must be pretty disconcerting, right?” He gave another lively shake of Scarlet’s hand before letting go of it. Scarlet was sure it would take long minutes before the feeling came back to his fingers. “So, it looks like you’re coming back into the game?”

“Apparently. Are you by any chance the person who’s coming with me on this assignment?”

Grey was shaking his head, when a voice came from behind Scarlet in answer to his question: “Captain Grey rarely goes on assignments other than commanding one of our vessels. He will merely take you to your destination, Captain Scarlet. But he will not be the one to go with you on the assignment.” Scarlet turned around to find Captain Black and Lieutenant Brown approaching them. Both men were holding huge rucksacks.

“You will be my partner, Captain Black?” Scarlet asked, lifting a brow, as he took note of the bags.

“Me? I’m just playing delivery boy, Scarlet.” Black gave Blue a large bracelet, which Scarlet examined with interest, noticing it was covered with all kinds of electronic devices. Then Black turned to him again, and tossed his bag towards him; Scarlet caught it with both hands just as it collided with his stomach. “Lieutenant Brown is going with you.”

“Brown?” Scarlet said with obvious surprise. “But…”

“Don’t worry, Paul. The kid’s good.” Black gave an encouraging pat on Scarlet’s shoulder. “I taught him all I know.” He grinned at Scarlet, then left them to follow Grey to the carrier behind them. Scarlet exchanged glares with Brown and held his stare in silence. Then, responding to a call from Black, the young man briefly nodded his salutations to Blue, and jogged to join his mentor who was climbing on deck. Scarlet followed him with his eyes.

“Brown?” Scarlet repeated, addressing Blue. “Adam, you can’t be serious… he’s just a kid…”

“Don’t let his age fool you, Captain,” Blue answered. “Black didn’t lie: the kid is good.”

“Still very young…”

“You were very young too, when you had your first mission with the WAAF, weren’t you?”

“Not that young… You really expect him to…‘keep his eye on me’?”

“Did I say he had to keep his eye on you?”

“Not in so many words… but yes.”

“I’m actually assigning him to assist you. He’s good – but he needs experience.”

“Oh sure. You’re a pitiful liar. Besides, the kid hates me.”

“No… he doesn’t hate you. He’s just distrustful of you. Don’t worry, he won’t shoot you in the back at the first move he might find suspicious. Chip is quite efficient in his work. He’ll do fine.” Blue seemed to find this conversation somehow amusing. Which didn’t please Scarlet at all; he didn’t like anyone having fun at his expense – even if he was a friend.

“I’m not worried,” Scarlet retorted, putting the bag down. “But maybe you should be worried for your man – and for this mission. What if I’m really not to be trusted?”

“I’ll take that risk.”

Scarlet frowned. “Colonel… that thing you want Brown and me to search for in Cloudbase’s wreckage...”

“The Quantum Transmitter.”

“Yes. The same thing that was used to trigger the bomb that destroyed Futura City… fifteen years ago…”

“And that sent you to this time. Similar, yes.”

“It’s important, then?”

“Quite frankly, I don’t know exactly how important it might be. But I’d rather not wait any longer to find out.”

“But you’ve waited all these years already. Why the rush now?”

“Because…” Blue sighed. “We didn’t know it might be of importance, until fairly recently. Apparently, the World Government thinks it’s important enough to have sent many expeditions to the Himalayas, over the years, in order to find it.”

“But they didn’t find it?”

Blue grunted. “According to Green, the few men who returned did so empty-handed. Most of them… did not return at all.” He paused. “Cloudbase crashed in a particularly treacherous area. Anything could have happened to these expeditions – from falling into a crevice to being swallowed by a snowstorm or an avalanche – or even encountering bandits, who reportedly are common to the area. That’s why I need you to go there. I know that if anyone can succeed in such a mission, it’s you.”

“Your confidence is really touching, Colonel.”

Blue chuckled. “It’s because I know you.” He presented to Scarlet the bracelet Black had given him minutes earlier. “Here. Put this on. It will be helpful to you.”

“What is it, exactly?” Scarlet asked, as he took the bracelet.

“Various instruments you will need. There’s a radio communicator in there, a tracker and emergency signal, electronic maps and compass, chronometer, short-range radar… Mysteron detector…”

“Mysteron detector?” Scarlet asked with a raised brow.

“We’re a long way from that ‘Polaroid-like’ device we had fifteen years ago,” Blue noted with a faint smile. “And from that back-breaking Mysteron gun too… Our instruments are more sophisticated now. Oh, the Mysteron gun still uses electrons, like the old one – except now it’s handgun-sized.”

“Let me guess – Brown will be carrying one during this assignment?” Scarlet asked, frowning.

“You will be too, don’t worry. Just in case. Do remember that you were not around these last fifteen years, and that therefore, we didn’t need to restrict the availability of the Mysteron gun for your safety anymore … In case it might fall into Mysteron hands and be used against you. It’s standard equipment now.”

“Of course. How silly of me.”

“If the Mysteron gun is using the same technology as fifteen years ago, it’s not the same for the Mysteron detector. We’ve found new ways to detect Mysteron agents now...” Blue pointed to the bracelet Scarlet was strapping around his wrist. “I had this one especially designed for you – to take into account your unique metabolic signature, so it won’t go off whenever you turn it on. As we learned from Doctor Fawn… it’s slightly different from that of a ‘real’ Mysteron.”

“Still good to hear that.” As Scarlet closed the last catch on the bracelet, he heard a beeping sound coming from it, and looked down, to see a small screen coming to life. The word ‘activated’ appeared in red letters onto the screen, and he turned an inquiring look at Blue, wondering what it meant. The latter was watching him gravely.

“Remember the Scarab Protocol?” Blue asked with a quiet tone.

Scarlet blanched. “Oh no…” He glanced down with an incredulous look at the bracelet, then back at Blue. “You had a bomb planted in this thing?!”

“Nothing you should worry about if you are on the level, I can assure you. But if I were you, I wouldn’t try to remove that bracelet.”

“Oh, that’s precious!” Scarlet fumed. “What a friend you are, Colonel!”

“Give me a break, will you?” Blue suddenly cut in sharply, before Scarlet could protest further. “If you were in my place, and confronted with the uncertainty your sudden reappearance represents, what would you do?”

“I…” Scarlet hesitated. Quite frankly, he didn’t know what to say. Blue wasn’t really wrong. He couldn’t take too many chances with such an uncertain situation. He angrily pointed to the bracelet. “You should at least have told me before I put this on!”

“And what? You would have agreed to snap it around your wrist willingly?” Blue ignored the annoyed – nearly murderous - look Scarlet addressed him, and shrugged almost dismissively. “At least I told you about it. But as I said: if you are on the level, you don’t have anything to worry about. We’ll have it removed after your return from your assignment.”

“Small comfort,” Scarlet muttered. He took his rucksack and followed, as Blue was now walking toward the carrier. “You said I would have a sidearm for this mission?”

“It’s waiting for you onboard.” Blue stopped in front of the carrier. “Beautiful, isn’t it? This is Sea Turtle One. We have five of these ships. Submersible carriers. They are unique in the world.”

“Submersible?” Scarlet asked. He was indeed impressed.

“Yes… the only accesses in and out of the Cave are underwater. That way, we are able to avoid detection from above ground. Oh, like all our means of transportation, the subs are equipped with stealth capability. Once it’s turned on, they are totally invisible to sonar and radar.”

Scarlet nodded his understanding. “If they’re submersible… How about the craft they carry? Surely, they can’t go underwater…”

As he said those words, he heard a humming sound. Then, before his eyes, he saw the deck supporting the helijet slowly lowering itself into the ship, while a shield made of multiple metallic plates started moving over to cover the gap, gradually forming a rounded bulge over the deck. Scarlet watched in fascination, as Blue grinned at him.

“Does that answer your question? That’s why it’s called ‘Sea Turtle’.”

“I see why you chose the name. But… it looks more like an armadillo…”

“Don’t say that to Brad – it’s he who chose that name, actually. Anyway, it’s quite appropriate.”

“Sea turtle? Doesn’t it imply that it’s a bit on the slow side?”

“Quite the contrary. Brad explained to me that if sea turtles are slow on land, it’s certainly not the case in the ocean. They can travel great distances – and at amazing speeds. Which is the case for our vessels, too. They’re the latest in supersonic, yet sound-proof, undersea technology…”

“The latest…?” Scarlet asked with a raised brow. “What did you do – steal it from the World Navy?”

“The WASP, actually…” Blue’s honest answer made Scarlet chuckle, almost despite himself. “Hey, since our humble beginnings, after the destruction of Cloudbase, we’ve had to be content with second-hand – I would say even third-hand – equipment. So today I do not have any scruples in actually calling on industrial espionage - not to mention other methods – to get this organisation working as efficiently as possible. Especially if it means saving lives.”

“It does help to have millions of dollars at your disposal too…”

“It does indeed.” Blue paused again. “Are you ready?”

“As ready as I can be. And I promise you, I’ll return.” Scarlet showed his bracelet, glaring meaningfully at Blue. “If only to have you swallow this thing.”

“Threatening a superior officer is not a good way to win his trust, Captain.”

“I haven’t officially signed up to your set-up… Colonel.” Scarlet watched as the shield of the Sea Turtle finally snapped into place with a loud clang. “But I’m willing to lend a hand – if it doesn’t mean losing it in the process,” he added in an undertone.

“I knew I could count on you.” Blue walked up the gangway leading to the carrier, and Scarlet followed. Captain Grey was waiting for them, standing on what little was left of the visible deck; some distance from Grey, they could see Captain Black with Lieutenant Brown, just in front of the entrance of the submersible, obviously giving the young man his last instructions. Brown nodded in silence at what Black told him, before disappearing inside, after a last handshake with his superior.

“Captain Grey will take you within flying distance of your destination,” Blue explained. “Once there, the Sea Turtle will surface… and you’ll use the helijet to reach the objective. The approximate location is marked on the map within the bracelet. Sorry, that’s the best we could come up with.” He pointed to the rucksack. “You have your personal equipment in there, and the rest is in the helijet, along with the rations you’ll need for the duration of your journey. You will have three days to find Cloudbase, search the wreckage and retrieve what we need…”

“If there’s anything to be found and retrieved to begin with,” Scarlet commented.

“I know it’s a possibility you might not find anything at all.”

“If you should encounter any trouble, activate the emergency signal,” Grey said in turn. “The Sea Turtle will be within range and we’ll do all in our power to send a retrieving team… That is, if you can’t make it back by yourself.”

“Much obliged, Grey,” Scarlet said in a rather gloomy tone. “Let’s just hope the kid and I will not find ourselves in the statistics.” He moved towards the entrance to the sub, passing in front of Blue, and then Black. The latter raised his hand and put it on his compatriot’s shoulder, stopping his advance.

“Paul…” Scarlet turned to Black, with an inquiring look. Black glanced through the entrance, and down the ladder that Brown had climbed down, just a few minutes before. “Take care of the boy, will you?”

Scarlet hesitated; he could hear a genuine concern in Black’s voice. He considered his answer, for a second or two. “If Junior is half as reckless as his father was…”

“Unfortunately, he is,” Black commented, with a slight smile.

“Then I’ll have my hands full.” Scarlet nodded. “But I promise: I’ll keep a close eye on him – and will do my very best to keep him safe.”

Black nodded his thanks, and Scarlet turned for the last time to Blue, as he stood just inside the doorway.

“Do be careful out there,” the Spectrum commander recommended. “And remember your promise to come back.”

“Oh, I will…” Scarlet grinned. “There’s still a lot more I want to know about this world…”

“I’m not sure you want to know everything,” Blue said in a sombre tone, shaking his head. “But… I will tell you all you want to know…. Ah… within reason, or course.”

“Of course.” Scarlet backed into the entrance, just over the ladder. “See you later, Colonel.”

And he disappeared down into the submersible carrier.

Chapter 2 – White Snows

“We’ll be reaching our launch site in a few minutes.”

Straight after leaving the Cave, the Sea Turtle had set a course south, and had travelled full speed all evening and night, and the rest of the next day undersea, avoiding the World Navy patrols all the way across the Atlantic Ocean. It rounded Cape Aghulas and then sailed into the Indian Ocean in record time, pushing its engines to their maximum capacity – without encountering any challenge. It was only within the Bay of Bengal, off the shores of Bangladesh, that the carrier surfaced, in the middle of the night, keeping all lights and communications off, and in full stealth mode. Time being of the essence, the helijet was quickly prepared, and, its flight plan being already drawn and completed with the last needed details, both Scarlet and Brown climbed aboard, with their required equipment and took off without delay.

The silent and invisible craft flew across Bangladesh, and then over a small region of India and Nepal. As Captain Grey had explained, before they had left the carrier, the Asian Republic wasn’t as hostile towards Spectrum as the World Government had proven to be in the last few years. They mostly ignored the outlawed organisation’s activities – and even if its presence did become known to them on their territory, they would often look the other way. However, Spectrum couldn’t always count on that fact, as, in order to keep a relatively good relationship with the World Government – a relationship that had been deteriorating over the last few years - the Asian Republic might, from time to time, make a gesture to ‘apprehend the dangerous criminals’ that set foot on their territory and fell under their jurisdiction. Grey was just hoping that, these days, the government led by the Asian Director General was in a good mood…

It probably was, as Scarlet and Brown didn’t encounter any major problem during their flight, and soon found themselves approaching their objective.

Before reaching the area they had to search, they made a landing on a safe, uninhabited plateau, to take the time to rest a little, eat, and to refill the craft with fuel transported in jerricans kept in the cargo bay. Then, after a few hours’ rest, they took flight again, and reached the search area, where they started looking around without delay. Brown was flying the helijet, and Scarlet served as co-pilot, consulting the onboard map, and comparing it with the information he had received of the approximate location where Cloudbase had crashed, years ago. Their landing point, where they had to set up camp, was to be positioned in the middle of the search area, to facilitate their mission.

Scarlet looked down through the cockpit windshield, and pointed to the snowy high valley bordered by menacing peaks, and almost entirely hidden by clouds heavy with snow. It seemed to be just below their feet, but in reality, it was still a few miles ahead.

“Over there,” he said to Brown. “That should be the valley where Cloudbase crashed.”

Brown looked in turn and nodded. “I see it. Colonel Blue told me that, according to the locals, this area is considered evil – haunted… or inhabited by demons.”

“The yeti, perhaps?” Scarlet suggested, obviously unimpressed by the statement.

“The name was mentioned…” Brown conceded.

“I don’t believe in indigenous myths, Lieutenant. This is a dangerous area – see how treacherous the topography looks. People bold enough to venture in there might have paid for their audacity with their lives…” Scarlet grinned. “And when they didn’t return, rumours were that the yeti ate them…”

Brown shrugged. “You think that’s what happened to those expeditions the World Government sent to find Cloudbase?”

Scarlet didn’t answer, his eyes were scanning the area as the helijet drew closer to it. The winds had became stronger, and were crossing over, threatening to push the craft off its course. Scarlet couldn’t help but marvel at how expertly the young man was handling the controls.

“You’re a natural flyer, Lieutenant,” Scarlet said with an admiring nod. “You obviously take after your father.”

“Colonel Blue taught me everything I know about flying,” Brown admitted. “He told me that my father was nearly as good as he was himself…”

“And your father always said that Colonel Blue was almost as good as he was,” Scarlet chuckled.

“Really? The colonel never told me that…”

“Did he tell you about the time your father flew between Cloudbase control tower’s pylons?”

“No… He did that?”

“Remind me to tell you the story when we have the time. It’s worth hearing. Of course, you had to have seen the control tower to realise how reckless such a feat was at the time…” Scarlet pointed down toward the valley. “Can you get us down through those clouds? According to the instruments, it should be calmer below…”

“I’ll try my best…”

Brown pushed the controls and the helijet plunged into the puffy clouds; Scarlet’s admiration of the young pilot’s skills grew as he watched him using the winds themselves to manoeuvre the craft down where he wanted it, smoothly and effortlessly. Within seconds, the craft emerged beneath the clouds and over the valley below. They could see the ground now; it was very uneven, covered with a thick layer of snow, blasted by the strong winds, through which emerged the peaks of dangerous-looking rocks.

Scarlet grimaced as he looked around with his binoculars, trying to find their quarry. Not surprisingly, he couldn’t find anything in this treacherous landscape. Not even a safe place to land the helijet. There was no way to tell if the ground was suitable for landing under all that snow. For all he knew, the craft would sink down up to its rotor blades or fall into a hidden crevice, if they were not careful enough.

“This is not going to be a piece of cake,” he muttered under his breath.

“In the meantime, we have to land shortly, Captain,” Brown remarked pointedly. “We are flying on our reserves right now, and we should really fill her up, before we do the same as Cloudbase and crash here. Which won’t help with this mission.”

“Right…” Scarlet scanned the area for a few minutes more, then stopped on a specific point ahead of them. He lowered the binoculars and pointed forward. “One o’clock, nearly straight ahead,” he said to Brown. “There’s a large ledge which seems even enough to land the bird. Plus, it would be a perfect vantage point – and it’s almost right in the middle of the search zone.”

Brown narrowed his eyes in the direction Scarlet was pointing. There was indeed an outcrop over there just on the side of a cliff, sheltered from the high winds which were sweeping the peak overhead. It did look like a safe place. “I see it… here’s hoping that the ground underneath all that snow is solid enough to hold the helijet’s weight. Let’s go.”

He tenaciously pushed the helijet forward. Scarlet was looking ahead, towards their destination, when suddenly his bracelet began to emit an insistent beeping noise. He froze, a little wary of what it might be – he had not forgotten the bomb that Blue had revealed was installed in the bracelet. He looked down at it, to see that a little screen had lit up with a small red dot blinking nearly in the middle of it.

“Hold it… what is that?”

“Ground scan,” Brown explained. “Seems your instruments have picked up something, Captain. Might be some life-form, heat… or some kind of power source.”

“Cloudbase?” Scarlet suggested.

“Perhaps… But somehow I doubt it. It would not be working after the crash, right? Certainly not after so many years.”

“I think the same. And I can’t imagine we would find it so easily… Not after so many World Government search expeditions have been unsuccessful in the last fifteen years… And we’ve been here, what, three hours at the most?”

Brown was concentrating on handling the controls, bringing the helijet down as gently as he could on their chosen lading site; until the floats touched down he had very little time to pay much attention to the beeping sound coming from Scarlet’s instruments. The English captain, however, couldn’t detach his eyes from the small blinking red light. He was chewing on his lower lip, trying to figure out what it could be exactly.

“Strange,” he murmured, “but it seems to be heading in our direction.”

“That’s not pos…” Brown stopped himself, just as, from his onboard instruments, a much louder and more urgent signal than the one from Scarlet’s bracelet made itself heard; he knew what that sound was, but nevertheless looked down at the panel in front of him in alarm. “We’re under attack! Something’s coming straight at us!”

Scarlet swore, and rolled his eyes at the realisation of what his bracelet had actually picked up.

Heat source indeed…

“Bail out!” he shouted, as he pressed the panic button to undo his safety belt. That was an unnecessary recommendation, as Brown was unfastening his own belt, then he reached for the bag of instruments stacked behind his seat. Scarlet grabbed their two rucksacks and kicked open the cockpit door. Both men jumped feet first into the snow, and made a run for it, getting as far away as possible from the helijet.

Scarlet actually heard the sound of the missile before he saw it coming, trailing a long tail of white smoke behind it. It passed right over their heads, heading to the helijet behind them. They were still too close and Scarlet, in desperation, pushed Brown down the slope as they reached the edge of the ledge, jumping after him. Both men fell into the thick snow and slid down the slope, their loads escaping them as they went bowling down the steep incline with increasing speed.

They were barely halfway down the slope when the missile hit its target and exploded in a ball of fire that completely destroyed the helijet, sending pieces of metal, snow and rocks all over the place – causing a small avalanche that fell down the side of the mountain, chasing after the two men.

That they managed to escape the threatening rain was like a miracle and when they finally were able to stop themselves from rolling down the slope, both men looked up in disbelief at what was left of their craft –burning like a bonfire on top of what was left of the ledge.

“Okay,” Scarlet gasped, forcing himself to regain a normal breathing rate. “It does look like we won’t be able to make it back on our own, after all…”

“Who could have been shooting at us?” Brown said, gasping as well. “The World Government? The Asian Republic? None of them’s supposed to know we’re here.” He addressed a meaningful glare at Scarlet, but the latter feigned ignorance of the underlying suspicion he detected in the young man’s attitude. He had no time to deal with such fancies.

“Don’t ask me, I’m the newbie in your time,” he said with a snort, getting to his feet with difficulty. He grimaced as he fully straightened up and reached for his back. He had probably pulled a muscle. Fortunately, it would take no time for his retrometabolism to heal that. He glanced at Brown who was standing too, shaking his legs and patting the snow off his clothes. “Nothing broken?”

“Not as far as I can see, no…”

Scarlet nodded his satisfaction. “Well, whoever used us as target practice is not very far away from us…”

“How can you say?”

Scarlet pointed to the sky; they could still see remnants of the smoke trail that had followed the missile. Scarlet’s finger traced the trail, going beyond their position and straight ahead of them; the tail went over a ridge, a short distance from where they were standing, and seemed to continue beyond it.

“Despite our rather hasty retreat, I did see that it looked like a small, short-range projectile,” Scarlet explained. “Like it was from a rocket launcher, hand-held weapon. Did you notice its erratic flight trajectory? It wasn’t shot straight at us, but was probably equipped with a heat-seeking warhead…”

“You’re sure?” a doubtful Brown asked.

“Positive. I was Cloudbase’s weapons expert. We had something VERY similar in our armoury back then.”

“Are you saying someone was waiting for us?”

Scarlet shrugged. “I’m saying that whoever tried to shoot us down probably saw us arrive the minute we emerged from the clouds…”

“You mean we might still be being watched as we speak?”

Scarlet grunted. “I doubt it – those people must be over that ridge – which would be blocking us from their view.”

“And vice-versa…” Brown mumbled, looking in direction of the ridge.

“Unless they’re hidden somewhere between the rocks…”

Scarlet took his binoculars, which were still hanging from his neck and checked the ridge carefully. The inbuilt computerised instruments within the binoculars also told him the distance separating them from it. Five kilometres…

“I can’t see anyone in view,” he reported, lowering the binoculars. “What would you say if we go over there and ask our welcoming committee who they are, exactly?”

Brown approved with a nod. “Sounds like a good idea… I’ll follow your lead.”

Scarlet raised a brow. “Do you trust me, Lieutenant?”

“I’ve been told to do so within reason, Captain,” Brown answered truthfully. “If I were to kill you without a good motive, I’ll have hell to pay with the Colonel.”

Scarlet grinned. “I knew there was a reason why I liked Adam so much…” He thumped Brown’s shoulder. “Come on… Let us see who’s over there and why they seem to dislike us so much.”

After checking that the material they had saved when they escaped the exploding helijet hadn’t suffered any damage that would hinder their mission, Scarlet and Brown started walking toward the ridge, silently and very carefully. While the uneven ground and deep snow made their progress extremely difficult, it also had the advantage to give them enough cover to approach their objective, without risking being seen by whoever had taken their craft as a target. As far as they knew, their enemy, after seeing the helijet explode, could very well have assumed that they had perished. If it was the case, neither Scarlet nor Brown had any intention of showing them they were wrong in their assumption – and maybe there was still a chance to surprise them.

It took the two men far more time than they expected to reach the ridge, because of the roughness of the terrain and the fact that they did not exactly follow a straight line to get there. Brown discovered an easy enough route to get over the ridge and to the other side – a gap in the rocky and icy side of the mountain. After they had checked that no-one was guarding that way in, they walked purposefully through it.

Scarlet was looking around, a little edgy. Since the destruction of the helijet, he hadn’t seen a single trace of life anywhere. No footprints, no forgotten item left by whoever had fired at them… No-one about. It was as if the place was totally devoid of life – human or otherwise – apart from themselves.

As if this place is indeed haunted…like the natives say.

Except ghosts didn’t fire missiles.

As they carefully cleared the last rocks hiding the view of whatever was on the other side of the rocky wall, both Scarlet and Brown suddenly stopped in their tracks – and stood there, staring in bewilderment, at the spectacle offered to their eyes. Almost despite himself, Scarlet felt a twinge of pain stab into his heart. He never thought that such a sight would grieve him that way.

Cloudbase was lying there, like a giant dragonfly, her back broken against the rocky and uneven surface of a narrow valley, half covered with deep snow that had accumulated over it during the passing years, and which served as a cover, hiding her completely from anyone who would have been searching for her from the sky. Of the four sets of two nacelles containing the fans and stabilisers that originally kept the base hovering many miles over the surface of the Earth, only one was still attached to the main body, and another was still only visible, lying far away from there, broken in two parts. The other two sets had completely disappeared, as if torn apart by the hand of a gigantic, destructive child. The giant pylons were no more, and the control tower was nothing but an almost indistinct heap of junk, a broken disc, fallen on its side. Only the first part of the word ‘SPECTRUM’ was still visible, the paint faded and covered with snow, the second part looking as if it had been driven forcefully into the ground.

The main body had at least three major fractures – at least as far as Scarlet could see, considering the amount of snow covering it. Through the biggest of them, he could see the multiple layers of floors. There were burn marks – probably caused by massive fires and explosions. By the look of it, if Cloudbase had been inhabited when it crashed, nobody would have survived.

As he looked at what remained of the once mighty and proud base, his home for many years, Scarlet couldn’t help a feeling of deep loss and sorrow clutching at his mind and heart.

“That’s… an impressive sight,” he heard the voice of Brown say, as if through a deep mist.

“That’s a heartbreaking sight,” Scarlet sighed in answer. “There’s nothing but desolation.”

Brown heard the sadness in Scarlet’s voice, and suddenly felt a little inadequate. “I… I mean… this is huge. That thing… really hovered 40,000 feet above the surface?”

“Yeah…” Scarlet said with a tired nod. “It could at that…” For him, it was only a few days before that he was strolling down the corridors of Cloudbase. To think it crashed nearly fifteen years ago, he pondered, still with bewilderment. I will never get used to it… But if he still had any lingering doubt about the truthfulness of his situation… he had the proof there, right in front of his eyes.

It is very well hidden in this valley, he mused, looking around at the high peaks surrounding the valley, and casting their shadow upon Cloudbase. If it wasn’t for that rocket that hit our helijet – and the trajectory we were able to track down – we would never have found it…

“Captain…”

The voice of Lieutenant Brown pulled Scarlet out of his fugue and he turned an inquiring look to the young man. Somewhat agitated, the latter pointed towards a precise point, just at the foot of the fallen Control Tower. Scarlet narrowed his eyes, struggling to see against the almost blinding whiteness of the snow. He saw then, just beneath the huge black letter ‘T’ of what remained of the name ‘Spectrum’ what seemed to have impressed Brown that much. He opened his eyes wide.

“Flaming Nora…”

Skulls – human skulls – thoroughly cleaned and bleached by the sun – were planted on wooden pikes just next to what was left of the tower. Ten of them – no, eight, Scarlet counted – neatly aligned to form some kind of barrier directly in line with the large opening ripped into the hull of Cloudbase, metres behind them.

The first moment of surprise passed, both Scarlet and Brown approached, guns drawn, and looked around carefully.

“So…” Scarlet muttered, “it looks like we now know what happened to the members of those expeditions the World Government sent to find Cloudbase.”

“And you were joking about the yeti having eaten them,” grumbled Brown. “Maybe you were partly right… who could have done that to them?”

“Someone who doesn’t want anyone coming here…” Scarlet noted. “Someone who left that… ‘warning’ to scare off unwanted visitors.”

“The same someone who shot our helijet with that missile, Captain?”

“Seems very likely, Lieutenant.”

“Whoever it is, they must be mad to plant those human skulls here like that.”

“And potentially dangerous,” Scarlet acknowledged, quickly scanning the area with his eyes. “And certainly around.” He looked in the direction of Cloudbase’s wreckage, resting silently there – the large rip taunting him. It was large enough to walk right through it. “Be careful where you put your feet, Lieutenant. I’m sure they’re watching us from somewhere… Waiting to fall on us like birds of prey…”

“S.I.G…” the younger man murmured.

Brown was walking around, inspecting the area with his eyes, his gun still in his hand; Scarlet turned towards his companion, in order to give him further instructions when his eye caught something… just at the young man’s feet.

“Brown! Step back! It’s…”

Too late the warning came, even though Brown stopped dead in his tracks upon hearing it. He heard a whistling sound coming right at his feet and lowered his gaze quickly. He barely saw the net that had been hidden under the light snow as it swiftly rose from the ground around him, and imprisoned him tightly. He yelped in surprise as he was swept off his feet, and taken into the air.

Scarlet had watched in dismay as his young companion had fallen into the carefully laid trap. Now Brown was dangling about six feet up from the ground, feet over head, totally and tightly enveloped in a crude, wide-meshed net that had obviously been made by hand with scraps of whatever kind of fabric had been lying around. Scarlet moved quickly to grab the net as it swung wildly round, threatening to bang its contents against the side of the destroyed control tower. He scanned it closely as he stopped it in mid-movement, noticing how it was now securely sealed at the top by a strong loop of rope, the other end of which was tied up to a long piece of flexible, but obviously strong, metallic rod. It probably had been bent down to ground level, and a mechanism had made it recoil suddenly, probably triggered by Brown’s weight on the net.

Clever…

“You okay, Brown?” Scarlet asked in concern. At first sight, the young man didn’t seem badly hurt – perhaps shaken, more than anything else.

“Yes,” gasped Brown, his fingers clutching through the mesh. “Just… feeling a bit stupid, hanging like a caught fish…”

“Hang on,” Scarlet said, smiling despite himself. “I’ll get you down in…”

He was interrupted as his ears heard another whistling sound – but this time, different from the first one. He saw something coming quickly at him, a split second before it thudded violently against his shoulder and embedded itself deep into his flesh, at the same time driving him to the ground. He gave a brief cry of pain as he fell onto his back, stars dancing in front of his eyes, his fingers letting go of his gun, and his hand instinctively reaching for whatever was protruding from his shoulder.

“Captain!” Brown roared in apprehension from the net imprisoning him.

Scarlet swiftly got to his knees, his fingers closing around the projectile that had hit him. An arrow… he realised, befuddled. What a strange array of weapons their enemies were using, both high technology and primitive at the same time… He tore the arrow from his shoulder, grimacing at the pain.

A new whistling sound… and another arrow came to plant itself in the snow, just in front of his hand. Quickly, Scarlet raised his eyes to the direction it came from, and caught sight of a dark silhouette standing just over the top of Cloudbase’s wrecked hull. That silhouette was obviously holding something that looked like a crossbow – and was aiming it straight at him yet again.

Scarlet jumped behind the wreck of the control tower, just as the new projectile was released. He felt the shaft grazing his arm as he reached his cover.

“Captain!” Brown called again from where he was dangling, seeing his superior officer in danger. He struggled to free himself, but with no avail.

“Stay where you are, Chip!” Scarlet called from his hiding place. The kid was safe as long as he stayed inside his net. Obviously, whoever was shooting arrows at him right now considered him a more immediate danger. Once he had dealt with him – he would turn his attention to Brown.

Well, I’ve no intention of letting him do any harm to the kid…

Scarlet made a quick check of the shooter’s position. He saw him move atop his perch, to get to another spot quickly. Scarlet could see no other movement. One man alone… he realised. There was obviously only one man attacking them, and he seemed determined to kill them both.

The man disappeared from view, and Scarlet gauged the distance separating him from the huge gap in Cloudbase’s side; probably, he would be able to surprise his opponent from behind if he could enter the base. He looked around for his gun, but couldn’t find it – it obviously had been swallowed by the surrounding snow. So… he’d have to make do without it, then. He crawled a short distance behind a heap of snow and then got to his feet, to make a run towards the wreck that was Cloudbase, and the gash in its hull.

He saw his adversary briefly appear again atop the wreckage to swiftly release a new shaft in his direction. It hit Scarlet in the right thigh and with a groan of pain, the Englishman leapt the remaining distance separating him from the large gash. He landed roughly on snow-covered ground, grunting.

Whoever that guy is – whatever side he’s on – he’s certainly a good shot…

He heard footsteps echoing from above, and realised that his adversary was coming down for him. If he stayed there, he would be an easy target. Swiftly, Scarlet pushed himself to his feet, his teeth clenched against the throbbing in his leg. He limped, almost falling, far away from the opening and deeper under the wreckage. There were tears and splits everywhere, leading off from these devastated rooms, and half-crushed corridors with torn-out doors could be seen, and Scarlet realised that his enemy could appear from anywhere to kill him. He certainly knew the labyrinth that Cloudbase had become much better than Scarlet did himself.

He stopped when he realised the footsteps were approaching his position. He listened carefully, trying to figure out where it was coming from exactly. From that half-destroyed corridor on the left, apparently… Scarlet chewed his lip, and looked around. Ahead, the large rip ran deep into Cloudbase; part of the sky was visible in some places. To the right…

Scarlet noticed the heap of distorted metal, leading directly up onto the next level, to an indistinct room. An easy enough climb, if he had not been wounded, but with his bad leg and his sore shoulder…

Nevertheless…

Like the first time, Scarlet pulled out the arrow from his leg, biting his lip so not to cry out. Blood started pouring profusely from the fresh wound. Then, he threw the shaft deeper into the rip. Staunching the flow of blood from his thigh by pressing his hand against it, he climbed up the heap, as swiftly as he could… just as he heard the sound of his opponent approaching behind him.

As he reached the level above, Scarlet looked down, in time to see his adversary appear below. Heavily dressed in fur, with coat, boots and hat, the man was advancing very carefully, looking at the ground as he did so; he was now carrying his crossbow across his broad shoulders, and was holding a handgun in his right hand. He was obviously expecting to execute Scarlet up close once he found him.

If you think I will end up as yet another skull for your collection, mister, you’re badly mistaken…

Scarlet lay in wait, as the man slowly approached under his position. He never looked up, all his attention drawn to the ground, soiled with blood, and he advanced until he reached the large smear left on the spot where Scarlet had stopped to remove the arrow. The man crouched down to examine it more closely. Scarlet moved above him, as silently as a cat.

The man got up on his feet, and looked ahead into the rip where he could see the arrow, lying ahead on the ground. Probably he realised at this instant that he’d been led into a trap, because he hesitated suddenly – and raised his head.

Too late.

Ignoring the pain in his leg, Scarlet leapt from his perch straight at his adversary, without giving him time to react. The man raised his arm, trying to get a good shot at him with the gun, and his finger squeezed the trigger – but the bullet went wide. Scarlet landed on him with his whole weight, driving him to the ground with great force. The man fell roughly onto his back with a loud huff, and rolled to the side.

Scarlet did everything in his power not to land on his bad leg, but it was all he could do to avoid any pain. Grimacing, he rose to his feet, looking down at the man lying there, motionless – obviously unconscious. His gun lay only a metre away from Scarlet’s feet. He hobbled towards it, grunting under the effort, and leaned down with difficulty to pick it up. His back was hurting again.

He heard his adversary moaning as he regained his senses. Scarlet approached, aiming the gun at the man. At the same time, he activated the Mysteron detector in his bracelet, as Brown had taught him. Considering all the effort this man had put into stopping and killing Brown and himself, and seeing that he had killed a number of people prior to that, from the evidence found outside Cloudbase’s wreck, Scarlet wasn’t dismissing the possibility that he might indeed be an agent of the Mysterons.

But the reassuring beeping sound he heard told him it wasn’t the case. He stood over the gasping man who was slowly pushing himself up from his lying position. He cocked the hammer of the gun, and the sound made the man stop his movement.

“Stay where you are,” Scarlet said between clenched teeth, spitting out each word. “Don’t make any false moves… or I’ll shoot!”

“Kill me right away!” the man demanded in a raging, coarse voice. “Kill me, and be done with it, you Mysteron scum…”

The sound of that voice – different and yet so familiar – made Scarlet freeze on the spot. It COULDN’T be possible… And yet…

He watched the man rise to his knees and lift his head proudly and defiantly. He had completely white hair, long and unkempt, sticking out under the furry hat, and an equally white and too long beard, which hid his chin and cheeks; the skin of his face was marked with more lines than Scarlet remembered, and tanned a deep nut-brown, but he still recognised it easily – especially those intense blue eyes that now were looking up at him with such intensity and the same surprise – and hesitation born out of disbelief – that he knew had registered in his own face.

“Oh, my God,” Scarlet whispered, “it can’t be…” He glanced once again at the Mysteron detector on his wrist, just to make sure. But there could be no doubt the man was human – unless the instrument was defective. He didn’t think it was the case. Forgetting the gun, he got down on his knees, at the man’s level. “Colonel White…” he said, taking him by the shoulders and looking into his disbelieving face. “It is you… You’re alive!”

“Scarlet,” White mumbled in a low voice, obviously unsure if he should believe his eyes. “It can’t be you… You’re dead.” He shook his head, doubt obvious in his features. “It must be a Mysteron trick…”

“I was thinking the same of you… but the instruments say you’re clean. Colonel… it really is me…”

“No Mysteron?” murmured White. “No ghost?” He raised his hand and tentatively touched Scarlet’s face. The fingers trembled, then they touched something solid and recoiled, almost instinctively.

“No more than you are,” Scarlet said, now smiling. “You nearly killed me.” He looked into the confused man’s face. “And I nearly killed you… Are you all right? Can you stand…?” While saying that, he was helping the older man, who didn’t offer any resistance, to get on his feet.

“I’m all right,” White confirmed in a still unsure – and somewhat gruff – tone. “These old bones are still very solid, despite the passage of time… And I had to keep myself in shape in this Godforsaken place.” He sighed as he finally stood up – as straight as he always had been years before. He turned to Scarlet yet again, frowning. “You… haven’t changed a bit.”

“Well, there’s a reason for that,” Scarlet said, with a shake of his head.

“And I’m sure it makes… an interesting story.”

“It certainly does. But how about you, sir? Have you been here all this time?” Scarlet asked with a frown of his own. “Isolated? Hiding inside the wreck of Cloudbase?”

White grunted. “Someone… had to guard it. To keep scavengers out.”

Scarlet nodded. “Well, I’m sure that also makes an interesting story. But before we exchange our explanations, what do you say we… free my companion from his rather uncomfortable position?”

White agreed with a slow, still uncertain nod; still unsure if he should fully trust him, Scarlet made sure the older man walked in front, keeping very close to him, while trying to look inconspicuous. He was still limping heavily on his wounded thigh, but he could already feel the itching, announcing that his retrometabolism had kicked in and was taking care of his injuries. Before long, his leg and shoulder would be as good as new.

They walked back the way Scarlet had come and soon emerged out of Cloudbase, to direct their steps towards the spot where Brown had been trapped; the latter was still hanging in his net, but his position had shifted slightly, an indication that he had struggled to get free, without much success. When he saw Scarlet coming back with another man he didn’t know, he stopped his efforts and turned in their direction.

“Captain!” he called. “You’re alive! You captured that scum!”

White briefly stopped in his tracks at this insult before starting again. Scarlet winced. “That’s not quite accurate, Brown,” he said with a little hesitation.

A bemused Brown watched as they both approached him, and noticed that the stranger, who was still marching up front, increased his pace, putting some distance between him and the following Scarlet. The apprehensive Brown saw the man open his coat and his hand close around the handle of a knife, hanging from his belt.

“Captain, look out!” Brown warned, suddenly becoming agitated. “He’s got a knife! He…”

Before Scarlet could do anything about it, White grabbed the rope holding the net up and sliced through it with the knife in a single stroke. The net and its load fell heavily to the ground. Brown landed on his back with a loud groan. Scarlet grimaced. That’s gotta hurt…

He came to a stop right next to White and watched in concern as Brown, despite the pain he was surely in, angrily disentangled himself from the net, muttering barely comprehensible insults and various words of irritation. Scarlet quickly glanced at White to discover his old commander was quietly sheathing his knife, without a single worry in the world.

Brown got to his feet, and finally emerging from under the net, threw it aside in annoyance. He glared furiously in White’s direction.

“You crazy old man!” he shouted. “You nearly killed me!”

“More than once, I believe…” White deadpanned.

Brown purposefully walked to him, his face pale with fury, his fists clenched in rage. “Why, you, I should…” He stopped in his tracks and the words died on his lips, as he reached White; the latter had swiftly unsheathed his knife again, and was now threatening the younger man with it. The blade was but an inch from his throat.

“Watch it,” White warned between his teeth, glowering at Brown. “I’ve grown accustomed to peace and quiet, living in these parts for all these years. Either you calm yourself down… or I will do it for you.”

Brown swallowed hard, but his eyes didn’t fall under the colonel’s intense stare. He clenched his teeth. “I don’t know if you’re mad, or…”

“Insulting me will not help your case, son,” White replied, very coldly. “So I advise you to change your ways.”

“Or what? You’ll take my head and add it to those other poor souls over there?”

“I think the two of you have started off on the wrong foot.” Scarlet stepped forwards, and putting his hand on White’s wrist, in a way not to antagonise him, pushed the blade down, away from Brown’s throat. “Chip, believe me, you don’t want to get in this man’s bad books…”

But Brown snorted, with obvious contempt, not really taking heed of his partner’s cautionary counsel. “Captain, this man tried to kill us…” He turned to White. “That rocket that destroyed our helijet – and nearly ourselves… That was yours, wasn’t it?”

“You were trespassing,” White noted. “I didn’t invite you in…”

“Well, excuse us if we didn’t phone first!” snapped Brown. “We didn’t realise this was a forbidden zone!”

“It is. Didn’t you hear it was haunted? You did see the warnings… You’ve just mentioned it yourself.”

“So you don’t deny that’s your work, then?” Brown gestured towards the row of skulls, planted on wooden pikes behind them. “Now if that isn’t proof enough that you’re out of your mind…”

“You really think I’m as mad as you imagine, don’t you, boy?” Brown didn’t have to speak; the way he was glaring at White was enough of an answer. The older man nodded slowly. He raised a brow, addressing Scarlet, whilst not taking his eyes from the incensed Brown. “Your… friend… is the frantic sort, isn’t he, Captain?”

“I’m afraid he takes very much after his father,” Scarlet agreed. “And like his father, he’s also… a bit reckless.”

“If you say so yourself, knowing how reckless you can be, then he must really be quite a case,” a poker-faced White remarked.

“You know this man, Captain?” Brown asked, his tone still edgy.

“Quite well, actually. Lieutenant Brown… this is Colonel White.”

“White?” Brown’s face, already pale with anger, suddenly changed to an expression of disbelief.

“Brown?” White turned to Scarlet, finally breaking eye contact with the younger man. “Any relation to…?”

“His father,” Scarlet answered with a nod. “This is Steve Blackburn Jr.”

“Now I see what you mean – about him being reckless.” White turned again to face the now silent Brown, who was still staring at him incredulously. “And yes… I can see the resemblance too.”

It was Brown’s turn to look at Scarlet. “Shouldn’t he be dead?” he asked in a murmur, frowning.

Scarlet contented himself with smiling, while White huffed loudly, obviously annoyed at the remark. “I wish you would all stop saying that.” He turned towards Cloudbase. “Come. You lads must be cold. I’ll make you some tea and then we’ll talk.”

“Just like that?” Brown growled, watching as the man started walking away, his back turned on them. “He’s inviting us for tea, and we have to believe he’s on the level? I don’t believe this guy!”

Scarlet put a calming hand on his shoulder. “Better do as he says, Chip,” he advised cautiously. “You will never have the last word with him. Take my word for it.”

Chapter 3 – The Ghost of Cloudbase

Colonel White had established his ‘camp’ inside what was left of a second lieutenants’ room – in a section of Cloudbase’s main body which had withstood the force of the crash, years ago, and which had not been damaged by flames or smoke at the time. All the electronic systems were, of course, defective, as they were in the rest of the wreck