a ‘Captain Scarlet’ story
by Lezli Farrington
“And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto
the earth” (Revelation 9:1)
Captain
Scarlet grabbed for the edge of the
building as he toppled from the roof. A bullet, lodged securely in his chest
had thrown him off balance, dangerously close to the edge. The white-hot pain
had distracted him for long enough that he had fallen.
He
knew not why, or whom he had been fighting, just that his clutching fingers
brushed the smooth walls, but found no purchase. There was a scream, and he was
falling… falling… falling…
Scarlet
awoke in a cold sweat. Again. His hands shook as he
turned the illuminated face of his alarm clock towards him. 02:47. He’d been
asleep for barely an hour. Silently, he got up and moved into the main room of
his quarters to pour himself a glass of water. He picked up the full plastic
tumbler and moved to an armchair. He sank down into the soft cushions and
focussed his gaze on the illuminated fish tank next to him. The motions of the
fish and the gentle bubbling of the filter always seemed to calm him,
and eventually the dream faded from his mind, leaving behind only a distinct
sense of unease.
He
nearly dropped his tumbler in shock when someone perched on the padded arm of the
chair and put an arm around his shoulders.
“What’s
wrong, Paul?” his wife Dianne, Rhapsody Angel, asked softly.
Scarlet
shook his head. “Nothing, Angel,” he replied distantly, watching a particularly
large angelfish swimming in the tank.
“You
had another nightmare, didn’t you?” Rhapsody absently brushed her fingers
through Scarlet’s dark hair in a soothing motion.
“Hmm.”
“The same one?”
Scarlet
nodded silently. Even though his dream was a distant memory now, it was still
that – a memory. He could still remember his fear, the feel of the air
rushing past him as he fell, the pain of the bullet wound. Every
sensation.
“Paul?”
“Yes,
Angel?” Scarlet replied, matching his wife’s soft tone.
“Is
it… is it the Car-Vu?”
Scarlet
closed his eyes. It was the same question he had been asking himself, over and
over again for the past few weeks. The building he’d been falling from
certainly seemed familiar, but he could never remember what it looked like when
he awoke: the finer details slipped through his fingers like sand.
“I
don’t know,” he answered quietly. “I wish I did.”
Rhapsody
nodded her understanding. It had been twelve years since the events that had
changed her husband’s life forever, but she knew that he had no memory of
what happened following the car accident
that had first claimed his life. Recovering those memories would mean that
Scarlet could finally put that time behind him and move on with his life.
“Come
back to bed, darling,” she coaxed, standing up and readjusting her robe. “Even
you need to sleep.”
“I’ll
be there in a minute,” Scarlet said, distantly.
Rhapsody
pursed her lips, but refrained from speaking. She knew better than to question
her husband when he was in this state of mind. He needed time alone to think
about himself and what had been done to him. He would be okay again by morning,
and she was tired and on duty on an early shift in Angel One. She kissed
Scarlet’s cheek gently and returned to bed.
Scarlet
stayed up, thinking about nothing and everything, until he realised that it was
nearly half past four and there was no point in going to sleep now, so he
quietly dressed and gathered some of his civilian clothes, ready to be packed
in preparation for his shore leave, commencing that afternoon and lasting two
weeks.
He
was just contemplating whether to go for breakfast or not when his seven year
old daughter, Rose, trailed through the lounge area on her way to the bathroom.
“Hi
Daddy,” she mumbled sleepily without looking at him as she entered the
bathroom.
Moments
later the toilet flushed, water splashed into the sink, and Rose reappeared.
“You’re
awake early,” she said, sounding much more alert now.
“I
know. Go back to bed, sweetheart,” Scarlet answered her.
Rose
shook her head. “I’m not tired,” she stated. Briefly glancing at the clock
above the fish tank she added, “It’s oh-five-hundred.
There’s no point.”
“Okay,”
Scarlet sighed, bowing to her logic. She would only be woken again in half an
hour in order to go to breakfast before the duty shift started at 0600h. She
really didn’t sound sleepy either. There was no pleading or persuasion in her
voice, no hint of fatigue. Scarlet studied her carefully, checking for any
other signs of ‘unnaturalness’.
Scarlet
had very little need for sleep, averaging about two or three hours in a normal
night. His body simply didn’t require as much rest as a normal person.
He
had already been reconstructed by the time Rhapsody had become pregnant with
Rose. Seemingly, their little girl had shown no signs of any Mysteron powers,
but occasionally something made Scarlet stop and think. She always knew,
without seeing, if he was nearby, and there was her
broken arm that had taken only three weeks to heal. Every bump, scrape, cut and
sickness had healed quickly, but not quickly enough to be thought of as
retrometabolism. Was this something else to add to the list?
Probably
not, he reasoned eventually. Rose had been sent to bed early so that she would
be ready for the holiday.
“Daddy?” Rose said softly, noticing her
father’s apparent lack of enthusiasm.
Scarlet
looked into the girl’s big blue eyes. They seemed to be questioning him. Rose
was much more at ease with Scarlet’s nature than her parents. That could have
been put down to a lack of comprehension, but Scarlet suspected that she
understood a lot more than she let on.
“Daddy,
it’s not this that matters to anyone,” she said wisely, running a small finger
along Scarlet’s forearm. He shivered when he realised that it was exactly the
same spot as his last injury – something she could not possibly have known.
“It’s here and here,” she continued, pointing to his head and his heart.
“You’re a good guy, Daddy. You can’t worry about what the Mysterons made you
do.”
Scarlet
picked up the little girl and hugged her tightly.
“I
know, Rosie,” he whispered before setting her down on the floor. “How about you
go and get dressed and we can pack your suitcase before breakfast?”
Rose
nodded and ran off to her room. She was rarely allowed off base, and so every
opportunity was special. It was no wonder she was excited.
Before
Scarlet had even gotten the chance to collect a suitcase, Rose had reappeared,
seemingly fully dressed. In her haste, she had buttoned her blouse wrongly.
Scarlet sighed indulgently and sorted out the mess.
“Did
you put your knickers on?” he asked, remembering the tricks he had often
used
whilst dressing quickly at her age.
Rose
nodded proudly, but Scarlet quickly spotted her bare feet.
“Back
you go,” he said, tickling her toes. “You know what Colonel White says about
wearing shoes.”
“‘You
have to wear shoes outside your quarters. It’s a Health and Safety issue,’” she
quoted, mimicking the colonel’s upper class British accent with surprising
accuracy before running back to fetch shoes and socks. Scarlet followed and
took some underwear from her drawers. As the girl started to pull outfits from
her wardrobe, Scarlet heard Rhapsody’s alarm clock sound and his wife’s
accompanying groan of displeasure.
Scarlet
entered the bedroom and reached atop the wardrobe for the suitcase he would be
taking with him that evening.
“Paul?”
Rhapsody said, moving around him. “Would you get Rose up?”
“She’s
already awake,” he replied, catching hold of the suitcase as it fell. “We’re
just packing.”
“I
wish I could go with you,” Rhapsody said mournfully, “but with Harmony and
Melody both ill, it’s not fair to leave the others.”
“I
know,” Scarlet said softly. “I wish you could come too, but I’ll just have to
meet you in England next week, when they’re back on their feet.”
“Promise?” Rhapsody enquired, a small smile on her lips.
Scarlet
dropped the suitcase and swept his wife into his arms. “Dianne, my love, it
wouldn’t be the same without you.”
“Good
answer,” she said, allowing him to kiss her.
Several
hours later, Scarlet collected Rose from her Computer Science lesson with
Captain Green and swung by the Amber Room to find Captain Ochre sitting watch
there alone. He informed them testily that Rhapsody was in Angel One, and
Destiny had gone to the hangar deck five minutes ago. And that he was not
looking forward to his long, boring, cramped, lonely shift in Angel One one little bit, that Scarlet was a lucky so-and-so for
managing to escape and that he was seriously considering not handing over the
note that Rhapsody had left for them. Scarlet winked at him as he ushered Rose
(who was somehow carrying the note) out, towards the hangar and their waiting
plane.
*****
Later
on, Rhapsody was sat in the Amber Room, flicking through a magazine. She threw
it aside, unread, and picked up another. Five minutes later
she threw that aside too.
“What
is it, Rhapsody?” her best friend, Symphony Angel, asked finally in annoyance.
“I
hate it whenever she leaves Cloudbase,” Rhapsody said mournfully, picking up a
newspaper. “Especially when I’m not there with her.”
“Oh,
Dianne,” Symphony said, sympathetically. “Rose is with Paul. They’re fine. What’s gonna happen to them in New
York?”
Rhapsody
absently drummed a pen on that morning’s copy of the New York Times which, despite Symphony’s reassurance,
reported the finding of a body in a city dumpster. “I know,” she sighed.
“I just can’t shake this feeling of dread. What if they decide that this
is the opportunity they need?”
“They
won’t,” Symphony said, moving closer across the settee and squeezing one of
Rhapsody’s hands. “I know that the circumstances weren’t great when Rose was
born, and they tried to get onto Cloudbase a couple of times when she was
younger, but honestly, when was the last time they tried to get her? Maybe
they’ve given up interest, or maybe they’ve realised that she’s not what they
thought she might be, or whatever. There’s not gonna
be a problem now. You wouldn’t be sending her to school in September if there
was going to be any problems.”
“I
suppose you’re right, Karen,” Rhapsody replied, returning the squeeze.
“Besides, I’ll see them next week, won’t I?”
“Atta girl. You’ll see them in
Winchester if I have to fly you there myself,” Symphony said confidently. “Even
if we have to drag the Cherubs up here…”
*****
Captain
Scarlet smiled as Rose stood at the door to the cockpit of the SPJ that Destiny
Angel was flying. It wasn’t that the girl had never been in a plane before, but
the few trips that she had been allowed to take to the surface had taken place
when she was younger and she had tended to sleep right through the flight. Now,
at the age of seven, she was insanely curious about everything and simply
wanted to know what her Aunt Juliette was doing.
He
could scarcely believe that in two short months, she would be going away to
school. The schooling system that had been set up by the agents on Cloudbase
worked well enough, but it was a strain on his colleagues to fit in the
tutoring sessions around their duty, and whilst everyone said that it was a
pleasure to pass on their knowledge to such a willing student, Scarlet and
Rhapsody no longer felt it fair to impose on their lives any further. And, he
suspected that some of the imparted knowledge would not be found on any school’s curriculum – such as how to hack into the
Cloudbase mainframe. As the Mysterons did not seem to have taken much of an
interest in Rose as had been expected, Scarlet, Rhapsody and Colonel White had
arranged for her to attend a boarding school in England this coming term.
Cloudbase would seem quiet without her, though, after all this time.
When
she passed through the door, Scarlet sighed and called out to his daughter.
“Rose, stop pestering Juliette and come and sit down.”
When
he received no reply, he stood up and headed for the cockpit himself. He could
hear Destiny and Rose chattering away in French, as was normal for them. Upon
reaching the door, he could see that Rose was sat in the previously vacant
co-pilot’s seat, studying the instrument panel under Destiny’s direction.
“Rose,
what have I told you about bothering people when they’re on duty?” he scolded
her, adopting the same language as she and Destiny were using.
“You
should not be so harsh, Paul,” Destiny said. “Rose is not ‘bothering me’.
Living on Cloudbase, it is only right that she should learn how to fly a plane
sometime. I am happy to teach her how to read the instruments.”
“Don’t
encourage her, Destiny,” Scarlet told the French pilot. “She doesn’t need it.
Besides, seven is far too young to
learn how to fly.”
“Papa…”
Rose moaned, her bottom lip quivering.
“I
invited her to sit down, Paul,” Destiny said in no uncertain terms. “She is not
bothering me, and I am pleased to be able to teach her. Please, Paul. I do not
have lessons with Rose any more, unlike the others; I would like to show her
this.”
Scarlet
looked at Destiny, who seemed downcast. He looked at Rose, on the verge of
tears. His heart melted - he had never been able to refuse his little girl
anything, and he had not realised how much Juliette
felt left out of Rose’s life. Unlike a majority of the senior Spectrum Agents,
Destiny was not one of Rose’s teachers, having preferred the social life at
university to studying. Destiny had taught the girl French, practically from
birth, and had been so successful that their lessons had stopped some time ago.
Perhaps it was time for them to start again: Rose was starting to lag in her
reading and writing skills.
“Very
well,” he sighed. “Just so long as you don’t actually let her fly this
thing, I suppose there’s no harm in it…”
Rose’s
face brightened up considerably, and Destiny smiled.
“Thank
you, Paul,” she said. “Of course, I will allow Rhapsody to teach Rose to fly
properly. I would not take that away from her.”
Scarlet
nodded, before turning to his daughter. “Now, if Destiny asks you to go back
into the main cabin, you must do so. Don’t pester her.”
“Non, Papa,” Rose replied sweetly, turning her
attention back to the altimeter.
Scarlet
sighed and left Destiny to her lesson. Settling back down in his seat, he
pulled a book from his bag and opened it at the marked page.
“Très bien, ma petite alliée,” Destiny said conspiratorially to her co-pilot.
“You did that wonderfully. Your father was never able to resist a woman who is
upset.”
Rose
giggled. She liked living on Cloudbase very much, but there were so many rules that she was supposed to follow. Aunt Juliette had
long ago taught her how to get around her father, and therefore most of the
rules, by becoming ‘upset’ and threatening tears. It worked quite well with
most of her uncles too and she employed it to great effect when she was being
set homework. It didn’t work on Aunt Karen though, who set lots of homework,
and even more if Rose complained. It wasn’t that she didn’t like learning, but
doing homework meant that she had less time to do fun things like watching
movies, reading or playing cards or chess in the Officers’ Lounge. The
Officers’ Lounge was one of those places that she wasn’t really allowed to go
to, but Colonel White, her beloved Uncle Charlie (except that she couldn’t call
him that) had stopped telling her off for being there, and had told her that as
long as she went back to her quarters during an emergency, and did not distract
the officers whilst they were working, she would be allowed to stay.
But
this September, she would be going to school on the surface. It meant that she
would not be living on Cloudbase anymore, but she would meet other children,
and would be able to play with them instead. It would be a new adventure for
her, and she was almost more excited about that than her upcoming vacation.
The
journey to the surface was uneventful; Destiny did not allow Rose to take
control of the plane, much to Scarlet’s relief, and the two Metcalfes
said goodbye to the Angel pilot at New York before borrowing a
car and heading for their hotel. Their plans were simple: they would spend the
coming week sightseeing in New York, then catch a commercial flight to London
and spend a week with Scarlet’s parents in Winchester, where Rhapsody would be
joining them. No strict rules to bind the child to an adult world, no
distractions, no Mysterons. This was going to be a perfect holiday.
Scarlet
liked this hotel, having stayed at it on several previous sojourns to New York.
Magenta had suggested it initially as somewhere low-key but still with a
certain level of standards with both the rooms and the food. Scarlet had
worried initially, all those years ago, that it might be well-frequented by the
mafia, considering the source of the recommendation, but his concern had turned
out to be unfounded, and he had returned again and again, normally with
Rhapsody, Blue and Symphony, whenever the girls wanted to do some serious
shopping in
the Big Apple.
Scarlet
reclined on the luxurious double bed and allowed himself to relax properly for
a moment.
“Daddy,
Daddy! Where shall we go first?” Rose demanded, bouncing onto the bed beside
him and shattering his peace. “Can we see the Statue of Libty?
Uncle Rick says it’s a big, green lady but I think he’s teasing me. Ladies
aren’t green.”
Scarlet
struggled to stop himself from laughing – it was a perfectly reasonable
observation, and she couldn’t possibly begin to grasp the reason the statue was
green.
“No,
he’s right – the Statue of Liberty is a big, green lady,” Scarlet confirmed.
“We can go and see her tomorrow, if you want.”
Rose
frowned. “Can’t we go now?”
Scarlet
did laugh softly at that point. “Rosie, it’s nearly night-time. Don’t you want
to get some sleep?”
Rose
shook her head. “Not tired.”
Scarlet
sighed. “Okay then, how about this? When it gets dark, we can go up to the roof
and look at the city. Until then…” He pulled a travelling chess set out of his
bag. “Why don’t we practice, so that you can beat Uncle Pat when we get back to
Cloudbase?”
Rose
nodded eagerly, and helped him to set the board up.
Next
morning, Rose frowned across the water at Liberty Island, having clambered up
the quayside railings for a better view.
“It’s
a silly colour for a lady,” she announced.
A
couple of passers-by looked scandalised, whilst Scarlet was still trying to do
his utmost not to laugh.
“It’s
just what she’s made out of, sweetheart,” he said. “She’s made of copper.”
“Copper’s
not green,” Rose said stubbornly. He should have known better, really:
Lieutenant Copper’s uniform was certainly not green. Born and raised in
Spectrum, Rose knew more colours off the top of her head than he did.
“It
goes green when it gets old.”
“Like
bread?”
Scarlet
smiled and squeezed her shoulders gently. “Yes, sweetheart, like bread.”
Rose
frowned. “So, is she furry?”
He
sighed. “No, sweetheart, she’s not. They shave her to stop that.” In
retrospect, he probably should have tried to explain it properly last night,
rather than somehow finding himself in this ridiculous situation.
The
frown deepened. “Even her hair?”
“Probably. It does seem a bit silly, that, doesn’t it? We can go on a boat and see her
closer, if you want.”
Rose
shrugged indifference, and they went for ice cream instead. Scarlet was
grateful, as it distracted Rose from the furriness (or otherwise) of Lady
Liberty.
“You
told her what?!”
“I
know,” Scarlet said, sighing. “I admit, it’s probably
not the best thing I could have told her.”
“You
don’t say?”
Rhapsody said, scathingly. “You
shouldn’t confuse her, Paul.”
“She's
not confused,” he countered; “she understood perfectly that copper goes mouldy
when it gets old...”
There
was a deep sigh on the other end of the radio. “But it doesn't get mouldy! You'd have been more accurate
if you said that it gets green rust!”
“That
didn’t occur to me at the time. Her mind was going with ‘mould’; I just went
with it.”
“She's
seven years old!”
Rhapsody replied. “What
you actually did was decide that you’d be lazy and
just go along with her explanations.”
“Seven-year-old
logic is difficult to dispute,” Scarlet sighed. “It wasn’t the best
decision I’ve made all day. I thought you’d find the idea of having to shave
fuzz off the Statue of Liberty funny.”
There
was a moment of hesitation in which he knew his wife was picturing it. “I suppose it is quite amusing, when you put it like that,” she said, a small quaver in her
voice. “How was the
rest of your day?”
The
next day, Symphony found a note waiting for her in the Amber Room. Opening it,
she immediately recognised Rhapsody’s elegant handwriting. The message was
simple, yet curious: ‘Meet me in my quarters after your shift.’ Symphony
frowned. Whatever could Rhapsody have planned?
She
soon found out. Upon reaching the Metcalfe’s quarters, she found Rhapsody sat
amidst a pile of classical movie discs and nail varnish.
“It’s
so peaceful without them,” she declared. “I’ve had a bit of a clearout, and found all these films. It’s been so long
since it’s been just us girls…”
Symphony
smiled. Rhapsody seemed to have bounced back from her dejected mood and seen
the lighter side of having such spacious quarters to herself for a change. She
had cleared away Rose’s toys and given the place a good clean,
by the smell of things. As she sat on
the sofa, Symphony noticed a suspicious bottle on the table.
“Wine?” she enquired.
“It’s
non-alcoholic,” Rhapsody explained. “Now, do you fancy ‘Casablanca’ or ‘Bridget
Jones’s Diary’ to start off with? And just wait until you hear about Paul’s
explanation for why copper goes green…”
*****
“THIS IS THE VOICE OF
THE MYSTERONS. WE KNOW THAT YOU CAN HEAR US, EARTHMEN. WE HAVE BEEN WATCHING
YOUR FUTILE ATTEMPTS TO FIGHT US, AND WE GROW WEARY. WE INTEND TO TAKE A GREAT
WEAPON AND TURN IT AGAINST YOU. WE HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN.”
“Well,
it could be any number of things, Colonel,” Captain Blue said immediately, the
moment that Colonel White had sought opinions on the matter of the threat. “The
Mysteron gun does seem the most likely target, or they could be referring to a
nuclear weapon.”
“Well,
that narrows it down,” Ochre grumbled, not in the best of moods.
White
sighed. “It is a rather ambiguous target, isn’t it? Captain Blue is correct.
Lieutenant Indigo, ensure that every Spectrum base checks its complement of
Mysteron guns, and doubles the guard on them until further notice.”
“SIG,
sir,” the young Russian communications officer said efficiently, already typing
the commands into his console.
“Captain
Magenta, Captain Green, I’m sending you to WAAF headquarters, to ensure that
their nuclear weaponry is properly secured. Grey, Blue, Ochre, search for any
other targets that the Mysterons may be referring to,” White continued. “We
cannot afford to be taken by surprise with this.”
“SIG,”
the five captains said briskly.
“Should
I recall Captain Scarlet?” Lieutenant Indigo asked as the senior officers filed
out.
“I
don’t see any reason to interrupt his furlough at this juncture,” White said.
“I am certain that the other captains can cope without him this once – they are
perfectly capable officers, after all.”
“This
is useless!” Ochre complained, for the sixth time, many hours later. “I mean,
what couldn’t it be? We’ve got
nuclear weaponry all over the world; half of it pointing at Mars! We’ve got
Mysteron guns at every Spectrum base.”
“This does have a ‘needle in a haystack’ feel
to it,” Blue agreed, “but they’ve given us less to go on before now. We’ve got
to keep looking.”
Grey
scratched his earlobe nervously.
“I
hate to seem callous,” he said to the others, “but has anyone thought that the
target might be Scarlet?”
“I
don’t think ‘callous’ even begins to cover that!” Ochre said. “God, and you say I’m insensitive.”
“Actually,
he’s got a point,” Blue admitted. “We do tend to use Scarlet’s ability to heal
as a kind of weapon against the Mysterons, just by sending him on kamikaze
missions. How many times have we only thwarted one of their plots because he
did something that we couldn’t?”
“I
can’t believe you two!” Ochre exclaimed righteously. “You’re thinking of Paul
as some kind of… thing. You’re thinking like… like…”
“Like
Mysterons,” Blue finished. “Yes, we are. I think Grey’s on to something.”
White
listened to Grey’s theory stoically, his face giving no hint of his thoughts
towards either the idea itself, or of Grey for having
thought something so terrible about a friend.
“It
is plausible,” he agreed. “Your reasoning is sound – the Mysterons most likely
do think of Scarlet as a weapon that we use against them, as they once used him
against us. Lieutenant Mauve, please
contact Captain Scarlet.”
Mauve
touched several controls on his board, frowned, and tried again.
“I
can’t seem to raise him, sir,” he said eventually. “His communicator is
offline.”
“That
is highly irregular,” White said sharply. “Are you certain?”
Mauve
pressed more controls, which only served to irritate White. The Colonel had
gotten used to having Green there, who not only would have re-checked the line
before reporting the fault, but probably would have been able to tell White
precisely what the problem was. These two new officers, Indigo and Mauve, just
weren’t up to Green’s standard yet, which was infuriating.
Finally,
Mauve nodded. “I’m sure, sir. I’m not getting any error messages from the
comm., so it’s either so badly damaged that it can’t send an error report, or
the battery has expired.”
“Let
us hope that it is simply the latter,” White said, turning back to the senior
officers. “Captains Magenta and Green appear to have everything under control
with the WAAF, and the electron rifles are all securely contained by our ground
forces. Therefore, the three of you should retrieve Scarlet as quickly as
possible and return him and Rose to Cloudbase.”
*****
Scarlet
was glad of his accelerated stamina after a week of following a suddenly hyperactive
seven-year-old around Central Park Zoo, the American Museum of Natural History
and the Empire State Building. On the very last day, he took her back to
the hotel’s rooftop, from where they had observed the city on the first night.
Rose
tried to lean closer to the edge, wriggling out of her father’s arms.
“Hey,”
Scarlet said, laughing, “you’ll fall off if you go any further.”
She
slipped back and sighed happily. “I like New York,” she stated.
“I
like it too, but we’re going to Granny and Grandpa’s tomorrow,” Scarlet
reminded her gently as he set her back on the ground. The moment he released
her, Rose stiffened and her face darkened.
“They’re
here,” she said, barely above a whisper.
“Who’s
here, sweetheart?” he asked.
“Them,”
she said, her eyes wild with fright.
It
was at that point that he started to feel a little nauseous, and he realised
exactly who Rose meant – the Mysterons. Bastards. He couldn’t even have a normal holiday with
his daughter without them causing trouble. More worryingly, Scarlet didn’t have
a clue whether they were after him, or her.
“Okay,”
he said, taking her hand and trying to keep his voice calm, “let’s get out of
here and call Spectrum.”
He
walked quickly to the elevator and pressed the call button. He tried not to
groan as his Mysteron-induced sickness increased in intensity as the lift car
made its inexorable journey upwards. He looked at the stairs. They were the
only escape, but Scarlet knew that Rose would never be able to run down them
fast enough to escape anyone, let alone a Mysteron agent. He scooped her up in
his arms and headed for the stairwell, relieved to find his symptoms lessening
slightly as he moved away from the lift. Rose didn’t make a sound, but Scarlet
could see the fright in her eyes. His daughter knew, or at least had some
inkling, of the reason that her holidays to the surface were limited even more
than her parents’ shore leave allowed for. It was still feared that the
Mysterons were interested in her because of her heritage.
Scarlet
pushed open the door to the stairwell, but halted as Rose shook her head.
“Not
that way,” she told him. “He’s coming that way.”
Scarlet frowned and back-peddled to the lift. Perhaps he had been
wrong about the agent coming that way, and he was starting to trust her instincts
about the Mysterons more than his own. She had sensed the agent before he had,
and his sixth sense was, after all, far from perfect.
“Rosie,
are you sure?” he asked as his nausea became worse again.
The
little girl’s eyes flickered between the stairs and the elevator. “Oh, Daddy, I
don’t know,” she moaned. “I’m scared.”
He
kissed the top of her head gently. “It’s okay, sweetheart, I won’t let them
hurt you.”
As
the lift approached the roof level, Scarlet recalled a pile of old crates piled
against the back of the lift shaft. Quickly, he secreted Rose behind them.
“Stay
here, sweetheart,” he said. “Don’t come out, no matter what.”
Rose
nodded, her eyes huge and bright with tears. He hated
to leave her, but there was no way that Scarlet would
let a Mysteron find him here, right in front of his daughter’s hiding place.
Instead, he stationed himself right in front of the elevator doors, wishing
that he was armed with something other than his radio.
The
radio! He could at least alert Spectrum to the danger. He pulled the pen-like
device from his pocket. His heart plummeted when he saw that it was off. The
battery had gone flat, although he was certain that he had charged it just
before leaving Cloudbase. Yes, he had used it to speak to Rhapsody in the evenings,
but not that much, surely? Could it be faulty? Or, even, a Mysteron-induced
fault? That seemed the likeliest explanation.
On
the edge of his hearing there was the distinct sound of a helicopter. Surely it
was too much to hope that it would be Spectrum, coming to his rescue?
“Looks
like you guys were right,” Ochre said urgently as he and Blue screeched to a
halt in front of the hotel. “That was Black who just went in there. And
Helicopter B30 is reporting sighting a man on the roof matching Scarlet’s description.”
“He
always did love that view,” Blue said. “Come on – there’s no time to lose.”
The
elevator doors opened and Scarlet found himself face to face with an armed
Mysteron agent. His heart sank as he recognised the hotel’s bellboy. What was
his name again, Tim? No, Tommy; always such an efficient, gentle young man who,
as he recalled, was engaged to be married. Two more lives ruined by the
Mysterons. Tommy advanced on Scarlet, who stepped back,
deliberately away from Rose’s hiding place before planting his feet firmly and
standing his ground before the Mysteron agent. Tommy laughed coldly at his
defiance and nausea swept over Scarlet again.
“Where’s
the girl, Scarlet?” the Mysteron asked, glancing around, but keeping the gun
trained on Scarlet.
“What
girl?” Scarlet asked, trying to sound genuinely confused.
“Don’t
play games with me, Earthman,” the
agent growled. “Or perhaps you want me to kill you in front of her?”
Scarlet,
distracted, hadn’t noticed the second Mysteron agent appear from the stairwell
until he heard a voice behind him.
“Where
is she, Scarlet?” the new man inquired coldly.
Scarlet
froze, recognising the voice of this new agent instantly. A
slow, cold, inhuman voice.
“Black,”
he said, barely above a whisper, turning to face his former colleague. “Do you
really think I’d tell you?”
“Very
well,” Black said, “I shall find the child myself.”
Scarlet
swallowed and willed himself not to glance over towards Rose’s hiding place.
Black turned away, in precisely the right direction, and had barely taken a
step before the Spectrum officer cried out: “No!”
Black
turned his head to look at him. “So, she is here,” he observed. “This would be
much easier for everyone if you cooperated, Scarlet.”
“Never.”
“Very
well.” Black
turned his back again, and Scarlet lunged at him. Tommy fired almost instantly,
sending the Spectrum captain staggering backwards. Before he could fully
comprehend what was happening, he tripped over the low wall surrounding the
open roof of the hotel. He grabbed desperately for the edge, but to no
avail.
Black
felt a surge of triumph as he heard the child’s muffled cry. Really, that had
been too easy. He started towards her, but as he advanced, he began to feel
disorientated, nauseous even. Perhaps this was what Scarlet felt in the
presence of Mysterons; what the humans naïvely called
his ‘sixth sense’. How unpleasant. And how impressive for such a small child to
cause the reaction in Black – the potential she had!
There,
those crates – it was where he would have hidden her, if he were in Scarlet’s
shoes and, as he moved closer to that location, the disorientation and nausea
grew worse. She was certainly hiding there. She could not be permitted to
escape his clutches this time, no matter how badly she was affecting him.
Spectrum agents were in the vicinity; he had to get her to safety, away from
this place.
Rose
watched in terror as Captain Black stalked towards her. He must have heard her,
even though she’d tried to keep quiet when her daddy fell. She hadn’t been able
to help herself – they had hurt him very badly, this man and nice Tommy who
gave her sweets when Daddy wasn’t looking. But, Black looked sick, and he
stumbled several times in the last few metres. He placed a hand onto a crate
near her head and she scooted further back into the shadows, trying to keep as
small as possible.
There
were footsteps clattering up the distant stairs, a muffled curse that sounded
like Uncle Rick. Spectrum was coming to rescue her: if only they could get
there quicker.
“Rose?”
Black said, his voice hoarse.
She
cowered further back.
“Rose,
I know you’re scared,” he said. “And you should be scared of me, but right now
you need to trust me.”
He
sounded funny, not like he had earlier. And he didn’t ‘feel bad’ now either. Maybe
she could trust him, maybe… maybe he wasn’t Captain Black at all, but the other
man she was once told about. Maybe he was…
“Uncle
Conrad?”
A
bark of laughter forced its way from Black’s lips before he could stop himself.
He couldn’t think of a nickname he deserved less but… to have called him that
meant she understood, even though he didn’t. Jeez.
Her
head peeped out from the stack of crates and he crouched before her. She’d
grown so much in the two years since he had last seen her – growing more and
more like her mother every time. Tears streaked her face, although she wasn’t
crying at the moment. He brushed them away gently. Just then, there was a
gunshot from near the stairs, and he was glad he was blocking her view,
especially when he heard the distinctive whine of an electron rifle: no child
needed to see that.
“Spectrum is here, Rose,” he said softly. “You
have to go with them before my masters try to make me hurt you again. Do you
understand?”
The
little girl met his eyes and nodded. Hell, she really did: they were right
about her – she comprehended so much now, when she was just a little kid. She
was going to be magnificent one day, and he had to make sure that it was
Spectrum that benefited from that. Even if she never reached her full potential
with them, he couldn’t let the Mysterons have her. Even if that would save his
own life; he couldn’t begin to imagine how much he was going to be punished for
this ‘transgression’.
Black
stood and held out his hand. “Come on,” he said.
Captain
Blue turned as he heard his goddaughter call “Uncle Adam!” to see her walking
towards him, clutching Captain Black’s hand.
“Get
away from her, Black!” he roared, raising his pistol. His heart leaped into his
mouth, seeing Rose so close to Black. And she seemed fairly content to be with
him, despite having had every single Spectrum agent explain, with photographs,
that he was a very dangerous man and she should shout for help immediately if
ever she saw him.
Black
said something to Rose that neither Blue nor Ochre could make out, then he let
go of Rose’s hand. She hesitated, and at his reassuring nod, she ran to Blue.
He picked her up immediately, breathing a sigh of relief that she was safe,
knowing that Black was covered by Ochre.
Black
walked forwards a few steps, then stopped. He held out
his hands to show that he wasn’t armed.
“Adam,”
he said. Blue blinked in surprise by Black’s use of his first name, and his
soft, strained voice. “Get her out of here. She’s important to them.”
Blue
looked at the child in his arms, his best friend’s little girl. How
could she… Oh, no, it couldn’t be…? Not her, surely?
Oblivious
to Blue’s inner turmoil, Rose kept her eyes firmly on Black, chewing on her
bottom lip in a way that made Blue think she was concerned for him, rather than
about him.
“Why
should we trust you, Black?” Ochre snapped. “You’ve done nothing but deceive us
since the war started.”
“Please,
just get her out of here,” Black pleaded, sounding worse than before. “I don’t
know how long I’ll be…”
Blue’s
epaulettes chose that moment to flash grey.
“Not
a great time,” he said as his mic dropped down. His
eyes didn’t leave Black.
“I’ve
found Scarlet,”
Grey informed him.
Black
looked ashamed. “I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “Paul went over the edge.”
“Was
that Captain Black?” Grey
asked, shocked.
Rose
suddenly gasped in surprise and said: “Bye, Uncle Conrad.”
A
pained expression marred Black’s features. “I hope I earn that name some day,” he said as he vanished from sight.
“Dammit,
yes, it was but he’s gone now. You know what to do.”
“SIG.”
Rose
squirmed awkwardly in Blue’s arms and he set her down. She was getting big and
heavy now, too heavy to hold for long. Immediately, she shot towards the
stairs. The two captains exchanged confused glances before shouting “Scarlet!” simultaneously
in realisation and setting off in pursuit.
Blue
and Ochre, despite their obvious advantage over the child, did not catch up
with Rose on the stairs, and emerged into the crowded lobby.
“D’you think she went back to her
room?” Blue said softly, aware of the attention that his and
Ochre’s brightly coloured uniforms were drawing to them.
“Maybe,”
Ochre replied, casting an experienced eye over the crowd of conference-goers in
the reception, who appeared to be milling about, chatting to each other.
He
noticed a small figure emerging from the other stairwell, next to the hotel
entrance, and bolt outside.
“There
she is!” Blue called out to him. “She changed stairs to avoid us.”
Too bloody clever,
kid,
Ochre thought as he pushed his way through the crowd after Blue.
They
had to get to Rose before she found Scarlet: Ochre knew that Scarlet and
Rhapsody were always very careful about what they allowed Rose to see
concerning her father’s abilities. As much of a joker as he was, Ochre, like
most of the Cloudbase staff, thought the world of Rose, and was proud to be one
of her ‘uncles’. He didn’t want her to see Scarlet dead any more than her
parents did. He and the other Spectrum officers could comprehend the fact that
it wasn’t the end, but personally, Ochre didn’t relish the idea of explaining
it to the kid. Someone else could have that job, many years down the line,
thanks very much. He might just take
the job of explaining about wandering off, and ‘stranger danger’ to her though;
something she had never had to worry about on Cloudbase. He’d seen far too many
missing children cases over the years, and he was not about to let anyone add
Rose Metcalfe to that list.
Whilst
finishing off his task of taping off the area around Scarlet’s broken body, at
a sufficient distance that no one would be able to make out his features, Grey
was distracted by his epaulettes flashing golden and his cap microphone
dropping into place.
“Grey,”
panted Ochre’s voice, “Rose has escaped. I reckon she’s coming to find her
dad.”
“Right,”
Grey replied calmly. “I’ll keep an eye out for her.” He attached the coloured
tape to a bicycle rack on the wall of the hotel and scanned the perimeter of
his fencing. A small but inevitable crowd of rubberneckers was gathering at one
edge, trying to see what had happened. A few were pointing, not at the body,
Grey noticed, but at a small girl who had ducked under his barrier and was
running towards him. Grey raced to her in an attempt to catch the girl before
she could reach Scarlet, but it was too late. Grey watched in horror as Rose
knelt by her father’s side and stroked his hair.
“Rosie?”
Grey said gently, so as not to startle the child.
“Does
Daddy always look like this when he dies?” she asked, her voice trembling
slightly but otherwise calm.
Well,
I’ll be damned,
thought Grey. She does know.
“No,
Rose, not always,” Grey told her, pulling her slightly away from Scarlet. Her
hands and knees were slick with his blood. Grey pulled out his handkerchief and
wiped at the girl’s hands.
Ochre
and Blue soon arrived and cleared the crowd with the assistance of Spectrum New
York’s ground forces. Grey gently picked up Rose and carried her to the SPV,
leaving Blue and Ochre the distasteful task of picking up Scarlet’s shattered
body. It wasn’t something that Grey had ever gotten used to, and he wondered
how Blue coped with it on such a regular basis. Grey recalled being told once
that Blue prayed every time Scarlet died. Grey wished that he had the faith to
do that.
Finally,
Blue and Ochre finished moving Scarlet to the other SPV and had arranged for
the ground forces to deal with the dead Mysteron agent on the roof.
“Who
gets to go with him?” Ochre asked bluntly, wiping his hands on his trousers and
praying that Blue would take the body. However, he realised with a start that
if that were to happen, he and Grey would have to cope with Rose in the other
SPV; she would doubtlessly be full of questions. Neither was an appealing
prospect.
“I’ll
stay with Paul,” Blue said finally. “I’m more used to it than you. You go with
Grey and Rose. He’s got her settled for now. We’ll meet up at the airport.”
“Rhapsody’s
gonna kill us,” Ochre moaned to Grey as they drove to
the airport.
“We’ll
just explain it to her,” Grey said calmly. “I’m sure she’ll understand.”
“Yeah,
right,” Ochre scoffed. “Rose wasn’t supposed to know!”
“I
did,” Rose chimed in helpfully.
“What?!” Ochre was stunned, and turned to
stare at the young girl. The SPV swerved, and he looked back to his monitor
quickly.
“I
always know when Daddy dies,” she said, as if it was the most obvious thing in
the world.
“Who
told you, Rosie?” Grey asked, hugging the child on his lap tightly. “Is it your
mommy, or someone else?”
Rose
shook her head. “No, no one,” she told him. “Mommy sometimes tells me that
Daddy’s been hurt, but I always already know.”
“I’m
sorry, Paul,” Blue said to his insentient friend. “She saw you.
Couldn’t be helped – she pulled a fast one on us. She’s getting more and more
like you the older she gets, God help us all. She’s taking it pretty well, all
things considered, but perhaps it hasn’t sunk in yet. Unless, of course, she
knew; I wouldn’t put that past her. She always seems to know whenever you’re
around. And them. You should have seen her with Black
– all that work we did to get her to recognise him, and the first time she sees
him, he’s ‘Uncle Conrad’. Typical, isn’t it? I wonder why? I can’t see them
loosening their hold; not whilst he’s on a mission.”
He
hesitated, gathering his thoughts.
“Black
said she was important to the Mysterons,” he began hesitantly. “Maybe he was
wrong, maybe he was lying, but what if he wasn’t? Rose
trusted him enough to take his hand, so maybe I should trust him about that.
What if she is special? What if the threat was about her, not you? God, that’s
almost impossible to think about, isn’t it? But, buddy, what if I’m right? ‘A
great weapon’ she sure ain’t – not right now, anyway…
But maybe, one day… I can’t think about that, either; it’s just too horrible.
That poor kid – she’s never going to know a life outside of Spectrum now, is
she? What’s this; three? Four times they’ve tried to get
her?
“As
for you, it’s not like you not to charge the battery in your communicator.
Real useful that was, not being able to warn you that you were in danger.
I suppose I’d better call them, let Dianne know you’re both safe. She’s going
to kill me when we get back, isn’t she? And I won’t bounce back like you do.”
With
a reluctant sigh, he contacted Cloudbase and updated Colonel White as to the
situation.
“Has
Rose seen her father?” the Spectrum commander asked.
“Yes,
sir,” Blue said with a sigh. “She escaped our custody and went to find him. She
seems to be okay; she’s in the other SPV with Grey and Ochre
at the moment.”
“The
child was bound to find out one day,” White said. “She is quite
mature enough to understand.”
“I
hope so, sir,” Blue responded. “Sir?”
“What
is it, Blue?”
“The
threat, sir,” Blue said cautiously. “I think it was
about Rose, not Scarlet.”
“Indeed?”
White mused. “Are you certain?”
“No,”
Blue admitted, glancing over at the crumpled form of his friend before
continuing: “but I think Scarlet was killed because he was in the way. The
Mysterons didn’t seem particularly interested in ensuring he wouldn’t come
back.”
“That is most troubling,” White said.
“You and I will have to discuss this once you are back on Cloudbase.”
“SIG,
sir,” Blue said with a heavy heart.
Less
than fifteen minutes later, Blue had rendezvoused with the others at the New
York base and transferred their two charges onto a prepared SPJ, ready for the
return to Cloudbase. Grey volunteered to continue with his babysitting duties
and, right that moment, Blue was more than happy to
let him field the awkward questions that were bound to be flying around the
cabin. He therefore volunteered himself as pilot, and Ochre agreed, only
because of Blue’s fearsome reputation as a back-seat pilot.
Rose’s
eyelids began to droop almost as soon as they were in the air, a fact that
greatly pleased her two guardians. Once she was fully asleep, Ochre took the
opportunity to check on Scarlet, who was travelling in a small side cabin, out
of Rose’s sight.
“How
is he?” Grey asked softly.
“Still
dead,” Ochre replied in a grumbling tone as he re-entered the main cabin.
“R&D should invent something to check this for us.”
“Funny
you should say that,” Grey said. “Scarlet was telling Blue and me just before
he left a few days ago that Doctor Fawn’s suggested something similar, to
measure his rate of recovery. I’m sure it wouldn’t take much of a modification
to alert us when he starts breathing.”
“The
sooner, the better,” Ochre groused as he returned to his seat. “He’s a real
mess right now; it’s making me kinda queasy just
looking at him.”
“Ochre!” Grey hissed, indicating to Rose.
“She’s
sound asleep,” Ochre pointed out. “I wouldn’t say something like that if she
could hear me – what am I, insensitive?”
White
had been expecting Rhapsody’s visit. Her transit time from Angel One to the
Control Room was impressively short on that occasion – an improvement of almost
ten seconds on the previous best, set by Symphony when Captain Blue had been
injured.
“Please,
Colonel,” the pilot begged as she screeched to a halt in front of his desk, “tell me what’s happening?”
White
pressed two buttons on his console, firstly causing a stool to rise from the
floor and secondly dropping the privacy screen between them and Lieutenant
Mauve. Rhapsody perched on the edge of the stool, her fingers not quite
releasing their death-grip on her flight helmet.
Rose
stirred in her seat and opened her eyes to stare straight at Grey, who was
seated across from her. As he met her eyes, she smiled and nodded slightly,
before falling asleep again, her head inclined just ever so slightly towards
the compartment where Scarlet lay.
Frowning
and unnerved by the sudden realisation that the child sat sleeping in the chair
opposite was not entirely human, Grey called out to Ochre to check on Scarlet’s
status.
“Well,
he was dead about a minute ago when I checked,” Ochre responded, moving
nevertheless. “Hey, wait, he’s breathing now. How did you guess?”
“I
didn’t,” Grey replied, dryly. “Rose did. I’m sure she did.”
“What
do you mean?” Ochre asked, coming into view. “How could she have known?”
“She
woke up, just now, smiled and went back to sleep,” Grey said. “It must have
been that. How, I don’t know: you’ll have to ask Black next time you stop and
have a chat.”
“It
wasn’t like that,” Ochre said sharply. “He was human. Looked like hell too.”
“That
was probably the best opportunity we’ve had in years to get rid of him.”
Ochre’s
eyes blazed with anger. “Could you have done it in front of her?” he hissed at
his comrade, indicating to the sleeping child. “Shot her ‘Uncle Conrad’?”
“You’re
kidding?” Grey looked stunned, his accusative mood evaporating in light of this
news.
“Wish
I was,” Ochre said, slumping back into his seat. “I heard her clear as day. Who
the hell taught her that?”
“No
idea,” Grey said, “but I can’t believe it would be any of us.”
“Me
neither, but she’s picked it up from somewhere.”
“Maybe
Black himself?”
Ochre
shook his head. “He seemed as surprised as we were; said he didn’t deserve the
name.”
“Well,
he’s got that right. And I’ve noticed on the photos that he’s been looking
worse and worse for a while now.”
“Maybe
Scarlet and Blue have been right all along and he’s still human,” Ochre mused.
“That would explain why he’s aging when Scarlet isn’t.”
“Yeah,
it would,” Grey agreed. “I wonder if he knows what he’s doing, then? At least Scarlet has the luxury of not remembering what they made him do,
which was practically nothing compared to Black.”
Ochre
fell silent, deep in thought. Sure, he had never really liked Black, even back
at the beginning of Spectrum, but no-one deserved that.
*****
The
plane was barely in the hangar when the hatch was released and Rhapsody threw
herself into the cabin.
“Rosie!”
she cried, hugging the little girl fiercely. “Are you all right?”
“Yes,
Mommy,” Rose said. “I was scared for a bit, but then Uncle Conrad saved me and
it was okay again.”
“Uncle…
uncle…” Rhapsody stuttered, releasing Rose in shock. Ochre could see her
mouthing the word ‘Conrad’, trying to understand what Rose had said. He wasn’t
sure that he understood, and he had been there.
“Captain
Black was there,” he offered. “He didn’t seem to be under the
Mysterons’ control.”
Rhapsody
nodded wordlessly, eyes wide as she tried to assimilate the disjointed
information she had received about the events on the roof of the hotel as well
as what she was being told right now.
“He
was fighting with them,” Rose explained. “He was winning for a bit, too, but
then they took him back.” She frowned suddenly, the way Scarlet did when he
didn’t agree with an order. “They were going to hurt him. They didn’t like that
he helped me.”
“I’m
sure they didn’t, my darling,” Rhapsody said soothingly. “Now, you go back to
our quarters with Captain Ochre whilst I talk to the others, okay? I’ll be
there as soon as I can.”
“Okay,”
Rose agreed, slipping out of her seat and taking Ochre’s hand. The look of
relief on Ochre’s face was unmistakable as he all but fled the scene.
“Paul’s
fine,” Blue said to Rhapsody as he emerged from the cockpit and pointed the
med-techs towards the back of the plane, where Scarlet and Grey were. He made
sure that Ochre and Rose were out of earshot before continuing: “He’s taken a fall
and a bullet, but he regained vitals about half an hour ago. He’ll be on his
feet in no time.” He stopped the moment he realised that his forced
cheerfulness wasn’t putting Rhapsody off in the slightest. He thought that she
might actually be calm after hearing how she had spoken to Rose, but he’d been
wrong. She was mad as hell; blue eyes blazing, fists clenched, the air
practically crackling around her.
“I
can’t believe you let her see him like that!” Rhapsody screamed at him. “Hell,
Adam, I thought you had more sense than that! You know how we feel about this!”
“I…”
Blue started to reply. The med-techs scarpered as quickly as possible behind
Rhapsody’s back. Blue had never seen them get Scarlet out of a plane so quickly
before.
“I
can’t believe that you let her out of your sight! You know what she’s like –
she’ll go to any lengths to find her father and you let her go!”
“We…”
“She’s
only seven years old! She’s not ready to face something like this!”
“Dianne!”
Grey shouted. Rhapsody was so shocked that the tirade of abuse she had been
about to hurl at Blue never managed to make its way past her vocal cords.
“Now,”
Grey continued calmly, “if I might draw your attention to what Rose said about
Black for a moment, you might be able to put some perspective on this.”
Rhapsody
frowned. “What has that got to do with anything?”
“Dianne,
she just told you that Black was fighting the Mysterons off, then
they took him back over. She knew that; no one told her. Hell, I didn’t even
know that until just now.”
“Me
neither,” Blue added helpfully. “She also knew that they were about to teleport
him away before they did it.”
“And…”
Grey picked up the thread, “she knew the moment that Paul regained his
life-signs, even though they were at separate ends of the plane, separate
cabins even. Dianne, Rose is not stupid, and she is very perceptive when it
comes to the Mysterons and her father. She knows that he dies and comes back to
life; she says she knew before this happened, and I believe her. Honey, she
knows everything, and look at her: she’s the same,
happy little girl she always was.”
Rhapsody
started to tremble as tears welled up in her eyes. “Oh, God,” she choked as
Blue enveloped her in his arms. “She’s just a little girl. She shouldn’t have
to deal with this.”
Blue
guided Rhapsody to a seat and held her as she sobbed into his shoulder.
Blue
eventually palmed Rhapsody off on Symphony and set out for his meeting with
Colonel White. These little meetings were cropping up more and more regularly
these days and whilst he knew that it was good that the colonel trusted him,
confided in him, Blue got the distinct impression that White was grooming him
as a successor or, at the very least, an official second in command and he
wasn’t sure that he liked that. As flattering as White’s faith in him was, the
camaraderie between him and his fellow officers was certain to change if he
suddenly outranked them.
White
was standing in one of the observation tubes when Blue entered the Control
Room.
“Ah, Captain Blue. How is Scarlet?”
White asked as the younger man approached.
“Well
on the way to recovery, sir,” Blue informed him, stepping into the tube. “He
should be up and about soon enough.”
“And the rest of the family?”
Blue
shrugged. “Rose seems to be okay and Rhapsody’s shocked and still pretty upset
about it, but you know her – she’ll get over it. I left her with Symphony.”
“Did
you tell Rhapsody of your concerns?”
“No,
I didn’t want to scare her.”
White
nodded. “Quite right. There is no sense in alarming
any of them without due cause. Tell me, Captain; what led you to your
conclusion?”
Blue
gazed out at the clouds, turned orange by the setting sun. “Believe it or not,
sir, it was Captain Black. He was right there, as human as ever. He told us
that she was important.”
“In what way?”
Blue
sighed. “I have no idea; he didn’t get a chance to tell us more than that
before they teleported him away.”
“Do
you know why Captain Black was himself?”
Blue
hesitated.
“Captain?”
“I
have a theory,” Blue said softly. “It’s pretty unbelievable, and if I’m right
then I really don’t like it, but…”
“You
wonder whether it was young Rose’s presence that was protecting him from
Mysteron control?”
Blue stared at this commander, surprised that the
same idea seemed to have occurred to him
too. “You don’t think it’s crazy, then?”
“Not after all you’ve told me,” White said. “It’s an
interesting, if disturbing, supposition. Not one that I would be keen to see
tested in the near future, at least.”
“No,
sir,” Blue agreed readily. “And that’s something else – even if I’m wrong and
this threat wasn’t about her, even if Black was wrong and she isn’t
particularly important to the Mysterons, she is to us and the Mysterons can still use her
against us. We’re all far too close to that kid to ever let anything happen to
her.”
“Yes,”
White growled. “This is precisely the reason I did not want families on this base. If that girl had been anyone else’s
child…”
“I
know, sir,” Blue said. “But she isn’t, and there’s a good reason she lives
here.”
“A
fact that has become all too evident,” White said with a sigh. “Even if you are
wrong, and I pray that you are, we cannot take the chance of sending her away.”
Blue
shook his head. “It’s all she’s talked about for about a month. I hope she
understands.”
“She
will have to,” White said. “However, the threat is passed for now…”
“Sir?”
“You know how the
Mysterons work, Captain: they have failed this time and will no doubt turn
their attention to something else. For the immediate future, whichever
of them was the target is safe,” White said with a sly smile. “And I see no
reason to alarm Scarlet’s parents by not having them turn up as scheduled,
especially since Harmony and Melody are well again. What do you say?”
“Perhaps
they should have a discrete escort, just in case,” Blue suggested, keeping his
expression carefully neutral.
“Of
course, Captain,” White said. “Is there anyone in particular you had in mind?”
“Someone
the elder Metcalfes are familiar with, obviously.
Anyone else would arouse suspicion.”
“Obviously.” White’s eyes were
twinkling with amusement. “I suppose that you and your wife should begin
packing immediately. The weather forecast is excellent for next week.”
Blue
snorted. “I know England too well, sir, and your definition of ‘excellent’
weather is different to mine – I’ll be taking my sou’wester.”
White
chuckled as Blue left the Control Room.
Scarlet
awoke in Sickbay to a crowd: sat in his usual spot by the bed was Blue and,
beside him, in a second chair, sat Rhapsody Angel who was holding Rose tightly
in her lap. All three were beaming at him.
“Daddy!” Rose cried joyfully, reaching out for
him. He leaned over and, with Blue’s assistance, he
pulled her up onto the bed and hugged her tightly.
“The
big secret’s out,” Blue said in response to Scarlet’s questioning look.
“Apparently, someone was keeping a secret of her own, too.”
Scarlet’s
gaze turned to his daughter, who shrugged nonchalantly.
“You
all think it’s weird when I know things,” she said in a soft voice, “so I
didn’t tell you.”
Scarlet
gave her another tight squeeze. “You can always tell us anything, my little
Angel. Anything at all, even if it’s weird.”
Some time later, Colonel White
appeared in the doorway.
“Am
I interrupting?” he asked, seeing the four of them happily chatting about the
zoo.
“No,
sir,” Blue said quickly, getting smoothly to his feet. “I need to be going
anyway. Rose, why don’t you come with me? I hear that Magenta is looking
forward to a chess rematch.”
Rose
grinned. “Okay. I’m going to kick his fanny this time.”
“Rose!
What did I tell you about that word?” Rhapsody scolded.
“Not
to use it in the UK,” Rose said immediately as Blue helped her off the bed,
grinning madly.
There
was a short pause, then: “I suppose I did. Go on, and make sure you do beat
him.”
Blue
shepherded Rose out of Sickbay.
Scarlet’s
eyes narrowed. “Why do I get the feeling that was set up?”
“To
some extent, it was,” White admitted as he took the newly vacated seat.
“Captain Blue is well aware that there are certain things that need to be
discussed.”
“What
do you mean, sir?” Rhapsody asked.
“Based
on his interaction with Captain Black, Captain Blue has suggested that the
latest Mysteron threat might have been directed at Rose,” White said. “I see no
reason to dismiss his concerns.”
Scarlet’s
shoulders slumped. “He’s right: they were
after her. She was the only thing they were interested in. I was in their way.”
“I
hardly think I need to say this,” White said bluntly, “but Rose cannot ever go
to school.”
“I
know, sir,” Scarlet replied. “It’s just too much of a risk. We’ll have to
arrange a tutor for her; we can’t keep relying on our friends and
colleagues. Rose will be so
disappointed.”
“I
suspect that she will understand, considering the events on the surface,” White
said.
“What
do they know that we don’t?” Rhapsody asked desperately. “Rose is harmless –
she wouldn’t hurt a fly. She’s certainly not some kind of weapon, as that
threat said. She can’t be.”
“We
may never know,” White said kindly. “The Mysterons are bound to know more about
Rose than we do; including the potential she may or may not have. All we can do
at the moment is to keep her safe. Now, about your furlough…”
He
really is an old softie, Scarlet mused as he climbed aboard the SPJ the next
morning along with Blue and Symphony, bound for Winchester. According to
Colonel White, they were going as a guard, just to make sure that the Mysterons
didn’t try anything again, but Scarlet suspected that it was firstly for his
and Rhapsody’s peace of mind and secondly to give Blue and Symphony some time
off without an official furlough.
Whatever
White’s reasons, Scarlet was determined that this week was going to be one to
remember for his friends and family. As for him, he wasn’t altogether convinced
that the Mysterons would give up on Rose so readily; he would be on his guard
the entire time, ready to defend his little girl, whatever the cost to him.
Author’s note
This has certainly been a long time in
coming: I referenced this tale in my last submission, way back in 2006! It
feels good to finally have it finished, and I hope you have enjoyed reading it as
much as I enjoyed writing it. As fun as it is to write Rose as a child, I think
I’ll have to let her grow up a little, and get on with producing a sequel now.
It’s in the pipe-line, I promise.
The title is taken from the book of
Revelation. It’s the idea of revelation itself, rather than Armageddon that
prompted the particular choice. That, and the ‘fifth
angel’ made it seem particularly appropriate.
Many thanks to Chris Bishop, who not
only puts her all into hosting the Spectrum Headquarters, but has
also beta-read this story and patiently gone over all of my revisions with a
fine-toothed comb. I’m a tweaker, though, so any
errors or omissions are my own.
I also need to thank Captain Burgundy
(aka Lieutenant Lake) for her contribution: we role-played the radio
conversation between Scarlet and Rhapsody (she was Rhapsody), and had enormous
fun doing so.
Thanks must also go to the Scarletinis, who have welcomed me back to the community
with open arms. You’re all wonderful.
Lezli
4th August 2012
Any comments? Email
the webmaster