Disclaimer: Captain Scarlet and The Mysterons
and the characters therein belong to Gerry Anderson and other entities. I make no claim to it at all.
___________________________
The photograph was lit by the
setting sun. If one looked carefully,
one could discern that it had been taken on a military base in a desert,
although exactly where it was in the world was not apparent. Two men were framed in its center. One looked to be in his late thirties, the
other just entering his. Both had dark
hair, and wore jeans, t-shirts and leather jackets -- if they were military
men, they were obviously off-duty. The
older man was grinning widely, his cock-eyed sunglasses revealing one greyish brown eye that glittered with mischief and rare
unguarded joy. He had his arm slung over
the shoulders of the younger man, who was grinning weakly and looked positively
green.
One might have guessed they were
brothers.
*****
"You've never been on a
motorcycle?" Conrad Turner asked in disbelief, "it's the closest
you'll ever get to flying on the ground, Paul.
You can't be serious?"
"I'm afraid I am serious,"
Paul Metcalfe replied, getting slightly nervous at the amused and roguish gleam
developing in his friend's eyes. He had
the feeling he should start running away, "The opportunity just never
presented itself."
Conrad smiled.
*****
It was an unpleasant and depressing task,
but it had to be done. Captain Black was
not going to be returning to Cloudbase any time in
the foreseeable future. His quarters
had to be cleaned out and his belonging put into storage. Colonel White decided that of the available
members of Spectrum's senior staff only two would be appropriate to go through
the belongings of the intensely private man that Conrad Turner had been;
Colonel White himself, and Captain Scarlet.
It was taking much longer than either had expected.
"...next thing I know, I'm
holding on for dear life as we're tearing across the outback," Captain Scarlet chuckled, "all the time
Conrad is shouting into the wind that I should really learn how to drive one of
those contraptions...just in case!"
Colonel White shook his head,
laughing. He watched Scarlet study the
picture lingeringly, as if to burn its image into his memory, before he closed
the album it was in and began to reach for some paper to wrap it in.
"I can't imagine that Conrad
would mind if you kept that picture, Captain Scarlet," White said in a
clipped tone that betrayed emotion, even as it was meant to sound emotionless.
Scarlet opened the album again and
removed the photograph from its protective covering.
"Thank you, Sir."
He set the picture aside, and they
resumed packing up Captain Black's belongings.
~fin~
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