Scarlet and Destiny have been taken prisoner and are being tortured for information on the whereabouts of Skybase. Both refuse to answer. When they are returned to their cells for the night, Scarlet manages to pick the lock on his cell door using a nail retrieved from the floor of the interrogation room. He frees Destiny and they manage to make a getaway on a motorbike. Before long, though, they are caught by a Rhino and ordered back to their training exercise on resisting torture.

Shortly after reprimanding Scarlet for his reckless behavior, the base commander, Astrid Winters, receives a telephone call and leaves the training facility at high speed. However, the brakes in her car have been cut, she fails to make a tight turn and her car ends up in the loch. Moments later, both she and her car are recreated, and she speeds back to the base.

Winters sneaks into Scarlet's bedroom. He wakes up and they fight until she reveals that all isn't as it seems. She is there to help them. In conference with Destiny and Scarlet, she reveals that the Mysterons are individuals, and that there are some who do not believe that the war is justified. She has been sent to tell Spectrum how to defeat the Mysterons, but she will only reveal her secret to Colonel White, in person.

Back on Skybase, Destiny puts the offer to White, who agrees that it sounds like a trap. However, he cannot dismiss her out of hand. Destiny also passes on the message that the Mysterons intend to blow up the World Science Congress. Blue still suspects that it is a trap, whether Winters is telling the truth about the Congress or not.

Back at the base, Winters is getting increasingly paranoid about the other Mysterons finding her before she is able to pass on her message. Her suspicions are proved to be correct, and paratroopers storm the castle. They manage to escape and make it to a Rhino. From there, Scarlet is able to take the Mysterons' helicopters out and they make their escape, closely pursued by one of the paratroopers in another Rhino. Scarlet decides that he doesn't like the idea and turns around, playing chicken with the Mysteron paratrooper. They collide, and the Mysteron's Rhino is flipped onto its side. Scarlet then shunts it into the loch. Winters then reveals that whilst she is Mysteron, she does not have retrometabolism.

Blue and Ochre find that Winters was telling the truth about the World Science Congress, and they locate the bomb with eight minutes to spare. However, Ochre admits that she can't diffuse it, and they are forced to air-lift it to a place it can detonate safely. They are pursued by the Mysterons, but Blue manages to outsmart the pilot and destroys the other helocopter before heading out towards the river, where he jettisons the bomb with only seconds to spare.

Scarlet and Winters manage to make it back to the castle, but there are still paratroopers at large. Destiny arrives in the nick of time and saves them before choppering them to a secret location to meet with Colonel White. However, before she can reveal the Mysterons' secrets, she is shot by Captain Black and is taken by the other Mysterons.

Quotable Scarlet
Winters: Captain Scarlet, what on Earth do you think you are doing?
Scarlet: Escaping?

Winters: As a species, the Mysterons have evolved a hundred millennia beyond the human race. To us, you're really nothing more than spores in a lab experiment.

Winters: Perhaps one day you could be a danger to us, but equally, perhaps you will learn to suppress your primitive instincts.
Scarlet: Our primitive instincts? You're the ones out to destroy us.

Ochre: Four minutes, Adam.
Blue: Time to grab a take-out on the way.

Winters: How's the arm?
Scarlet: I'll live.
Winters: I know. But tell me; how do you survive, Scarlet?
Scarlet: I don't understand.
Winters: You're a Mysteron/human hybrid, Scarlet. How do you live with that?
Scarlet: No, I'm human. The Mysterons messed with me once, but that's just history.
Winters: You're a human psyche in a body the Mysterons built from retrometabolised matter. You're neither one species or the other. But, when this is over, at least we'll be company for each other.



Did you spot...?
...the Spectrum insignia on the interrogator's uniform? Dead give-away.
During the chase, one of the motorcyclists crashes into a dry-stone wall, which moves under the impact.
Hours must have passed between Scarlet's last bout with the torturer and the Mysteron attack on the castle, but Scarlet's injuries still haven't healed.


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