It was dark and it was cold. There were times when it felt like it had been like this forever. Sitting as still and quiet as was humanly possible for hours on end concentrating your attention on a distant building and its bleak surroundings was difficult to do. And the more you had to do it the harder it became until it was damn near impossible to stop your mind from wandering where it wanted to go. He found himself having to make determined efforts to focus his concentration on the job in hand.
Training for surveillance duties was all very well, but you knew that would end after a given time, be it hours or days, but this… He sighed. Now he understood what people meant when they used the phrase ‘the silence was deafening’. In fact, at times, he wondered if he had lost his hearing altogether and felt an almost physical ache to snap his fingers or hum or shout, just to break the monotony.
This was important work, he knew that, understood and accepted it, but nevertheless, he had grown to hate it. He drew in a deep breath and exhaled sharply, watching the water vapour from his lungs disperse in a cloud. Even that was more than he was supposed to do.
Suddenly he heard the crunch of approaching footsteps through the deep, crisp snow and he tensed against discovery.
As the figure of the man approached from the surrounding trees it became recognisable and with a feeling of profound relief he relaxed.
The other nodded to him in silent greeting, and he returned the gesture as he slithered from the cocoon of camouflage thermal blankets that lined the makeshift shelter of branches.
“Anything?”
He shook his head. “Nada. It’s all yours.”
The entire conversation was hardly more than breathy whispers.
The changing of the guard was accomplished without any additional exchange and he hurried away from the surveillance post to the mission HQ, hidden in a dip in the landscape over half a mile away amongst the trees. He almost got lost, as there was nothing that revealed the wooden cabin – the windows were covered with backouts and there was no smoke from any fire within. He knocked at the thick door and waited, stamping his cold feet and rubbing his gloved hands.
The door opened, but no welcoming light spilled out. He pushed inside against the heavy blackout curtain, and once the door was shut, he stepped into the cabin proper.
“Hi, Rick,” Captain Magenta said, looking up from the game of Mah-jong he was playing with Captain Blue. “There’s hot coffee in the pot and a ‘hottie’ in the microwave ready to go.”
“Thanks. It’s bitter out there tonight.”
“Anything to report?” Blue asked, looking up from his last move.
Captain Ochre shook his head and went to collect a cup of coffee, switching on the microwave to heat the ‘hottie’. “Quiet as the grave.”
“Let’s hope it’s not that,” Magenta remarked.
“I suppose we should be glad the place isn’t crawling with terrorists or Mysterons,” Ochre agreed, “but those four hours seem to last a lifetime.”
“It’s going to get colder,” Blue said. “I don’t envy Scarlet doing the middle watch tonight.”
Ochre shuddered. “Don’t remind me. I sure got the short straw yesterday and it was bad enough then. How much longer do you think this is going to last?” he said, sitting by the heater with his hot coffee and the hottie under his feet.
Blue shrugged. “If the colonel had known he’d have told us. At least we can hope that the fact we’re already into day two means that the discussions are making progress.”
“Do you two realise it is Christmas Eve tomorrow?” Magenta said suddenly. “We should be partying with the Angels on Cloudbase instead of stuck here in the frozen north.”
“Well, we are closer to Santa’s home base,” Ochre teased. “He’ll have no excuse not to drop our presents off.”
“What presents?” Magenta retorted. “I’m damn sure you’re at the top of his ‘naughty’ list!”
“Maybe the meeting will break up before then,” said Blue hopefully. “The colonel did say something about ‘the approach of Christmas focussing minds on reaching an agreement as soon as possible’, didn’t he?”
His colleagues nodded. The top-secret meeting between Futura’s diplomats and representatives of several non-aligned nations was intended to thrash out terms for their entry into the World Government group of nations. The choice of venue, a secure bunker within the Arctic Circle, was chosen to ensure the discussions remained as secret as possible. The USS and the WAAF were providing overt security, while Spectrum was there to ‘watch the watchers’ with a natural emphasis on anti-Mysteron defences.
“I still don’t see why they had to hold their negotiations here,” Ochre replied, adding grumpily, “I wouldn’t have minded spending Christmas in Futura, relaxing on a Caribbean beach and dining at one of their plush restaurants when I’m off duty. I guess the best we can look forward to is ‘special’ Christmas rations of tasteless turkey and stale cake.”
“Christmas is about more than just food, Rick,” Blue said.
“Sure, it is. It’s about family and friends and spending time with them,” Ochre replied. “Speaking personally, I don’t have any family I can spend it with, so my friends are kinda special to me.” He shuffled in his chair, uncomfortable at revealing even this much of his personal feelings.
Magenta nodded. “I’m kinda the same. I have family, but I can’t spend time with them because it’d put them at risk. Not only from the Mysterons,” he clarified, “but from my erstwhile mobster ‘friends’ – none of whom I would ever want to spend Christmas with.”
Blue considered his friends’ situations. “You know that kinda puts my reluctance to spend Christmas at home into perspective. I don’t want to spend Christmas with my family – well, to be honest, with some of them – because I know it will be fraught with years-old grievances and recriminations. If I could just spend it with my mom, my sister and youngest brother, I guess I wouldn’t try so hard not to go to Boston for any and all holidays. As it is, I’d rather have no choice but to be stuck here than resenting having to be there.” He gave a bright smile. “Of course, my friends and colleagues are important to me too, and I can see the attraction of a Cloudbase Christmas.”
All three men turned as the door to the small sleeping compartment opened and Captain Scarlet emerged, tousle-haired and stifling a yawn.
“Did we wake you?” Blue asked. “Sorry…”
Scarlet shook his head. “No, I was half awake anyway. You know me – the world’s greatest insomniac. I just thought I’d rather spend the next few hours with you guys than pretend to get some sleep.”
“There’s hot coffee,” Magenta explained, gesturing towards the small kitchen range.
“Thanks, but you know, right now I’d die for a cup of tea,” Scarlet replied, grimacing. “Not the dishwater stuff you Americans call ‘tea’ but some decent ‘builders’ tea’, that the spoon stands up in. This place doesn’t even have a kettle!”
“Look in the right-hand cupboard over the microwave,” Blue said, without looking up from the mah-jong tiles spread across the table. “Rhapsody gave me some of your favourite ‘British’ tea bags and a packet of custard creams. I guess she knew that sooner or later your native weakness would rear its grouchy head.”
“Bless her darling heart,” Scarlet said, brightening up at the news. “She’s a living angel, that woman.” He rifled through the cupboard and found the treasures. “I can heat the water in the microwave, it’s better than nothing. I don’t suppose we have any proper milk?”
“Damn, I knew I forgot to get something. Would you like me to pop out to the corner store?” Blue mocked. “No, there’s just the powdery stuff, Paul. You can’t always expect miracles.”
Scarlet grinned. “I’m happy with even these small miracles, Blue-Boy.” He appreciated that his friend must’ve sacrificed some of his personal kit allowance to bring the tea and biscuits. “However, I want you all to know, that dearly though I value your comradeship and company, these biscuits are mine… and I don’t propose to share.”
“Don’t worry,” said Ochre, eyeing the gaudy yellow packet Scarlet was brandishing with reservation. “I doubt anyone else would want them.”
“That’s only because you don’t know what you’re missing.”
The three Americans chuckled and for a while the only noise was the click of the mah-jong tiles on the table while Scarlet made his tea – or as close an approximation as he could under the circumstances – and went to sit opposite Ochre.
Dunking one of his favourite biscuits into the hot, brown liquid, he said, “Aah, this is the life. Tea and bikkies in good company; you can’t beat it.”
“We were talking about that exact thing,” Ochre told him. “It’s Christmas Eve tomorrow and we were considering where we’d rather be than here.”
“I’m guessing Cloudbase,” Scarlet replied, glancing at his friends.
“Why?” Blue asked, looking thoughtfully at Scarlet.
“Well, Ochre’s supposed to be dead, so to speak, and unless he appeared to his former associates as the ghost of Christmas past, he’d have a lot of explaining to do. Am I right?”
Ochre nodded. “Just about. Mind you, failing Cloudbase, I’d opt for somewhere warm with plenty of wicked temptations enticing me to spend my hard-earned money.”
“Figures,” Scarlet replied, nodding. “Monte Carlo do you?”
“Yeah, as long as they speak English…”
“Las Vegas then.”
“Ideal!”
“And me?” said Magenta. “Why me?”
Scarlet ate another biscuit before he replied. “I doubt you’d want to be in Las Vegas, Pat. Too many possible ex-associates?”
“Damn right.”
“You don’t see your family much, either, which is in keeping with the regulations, of course, but I’m guessing the risk factor would be too high?”
“Were you listening at the door?” Magenta grinned.
“Nah. It’s common sense, isn’t it? Cloudbase seems the best option, unless you went to some out of the way place, but then you’d be on your own… so, I’m sticking with my guess of Cloudbase. And Ol’ Blue-Boy there, well, wild horses have to drag him to Boston for high days and holidays. Internecine warfare isn’t his cup of tea, so quite apart from any other considerations, it’d be Cloudbase for him too.”
“It’d be near the top of the list,” Blue agreed.
“Well, yeah,” Scarlet added reflectively, “You do have the wherewithal to go anywhere you’d like – and frequently have done.”
“What about Grey?”
Scarlet thought for a moment. “I think he’s the anomaly. He’d go home to his family. He doesn’t speak about them much, but I know he keeps in touch with them.”
Blue nodded. “He left Chicago long enough ago when he went to the World Navy Academy in San Diego, so I don’t suppose people he knew from back when would even remark on his change of circumstance. Lucky guy.”
“And you, Scarlet, where would you rather be?” Ochre asked, after there’d been a moment’s silence as they contemplated Captain Grey’s apparent good fortune.
Scarlet drained his cup of tea and carefully re-wrapped the end of the packet of biscuits, reluctant to meet the gaze of his friends. Finally, he replied, “That’s a hard one to answer, Rick. I love my parents, they’re the only family I have really and they both know what happened to me now. I count myself blessed that they’ve both accepted me as their son – still their son, I mean. I still worry that somehow the truth of my situation will impact them in some obscure way – even more than I worry that I’m putting them at risk every time I go home. And, I love my home. Not merely in a jingoistic way, but I love the countryside and everything about it, even the weather! I always have.” He looked up and gave an embarrassed smile. “Probably past generations of military Metcalfes have left their patriotic imprint in my DNA.”
“Hey, you’re talking to three Americans. We understand patriotism and loving your country,” Magenta reassured him. “It’s second nature to us.”
“I know, but we Brits tend to be… less demonstrative about it.” Scarlet chuckled. “Even though, underneath it all, every one of us knows without any doubt that we’re really the ‘Top Nation’.”
“Stuck up and pompous, you mean?” Ochre suggested, but it was obvious that he was teasing.
“Watch it, you colonial rebel.” Scarlet responded in the same vein.
“So, you’d go to Winchester?” Blue asked, keen to stop the conversation deteriorating into the usual good-natured bickering between Scarlet and Ochre.
“No, even given what I’ve just said, I’d go to Cloudbase, because that’s the heart of Spectrum. When all’s said and done, Spectrum is where my heart really lies now. And, what’s more, it always will in the future, however long that turns out to be.” He looked up and gave a wry smile, adding, “Because let’s face it, guys, I’m likely to outlast everyone and everything I love and value now, so I think investing that ‘affection’ in the concept we’re all living our lives by – one that will outlast the present inhabitants of Cloudbase too – puts my situation into the proper perspective.”
His friends sat in silence as they each contemplated the reality behind Captain Scarlet’s miraculous powers of retrometabolism. This man, who so bravely and willingly put himself into danger to protect their all-too-fragile lives, was truly alone in a seemingly unending future. What that future contained was, naturally, a mystery to them all, but they knew with certainty that despite suffering the pain of every wound and the trauma of every death he experienced, Scarlet would continue to put himself between them, and possibly generations of future Spectrum officers, and death.
It was Blue who broke the silence.
“Well said, Paul. I think we’d agree what Spectrum stands for – the preservation of all life on our planet – is something we all subscribe to and whatever petty concerns we have, if we had to face the choice, none of us would put our personal preferences before that goal.”
“Yeah,” Ochre and Magenta said in unison.
Scarlet gave a brisk nod of his head and deliberately sought to lift the mood from the sudden serious turn it had taken. “Of course, in the short term, I want to be in two places at once… well, no, what I really want is to be in Winchester but with all my friends from Cloudbase with me. And that ain’t going to happen any time soon!”
“Being in two places at once must be the dream of every human, I think!” said Blue.
Scarlet glanced at the clock on the wall. “I’d better get suited up and go and relieve Grey or I know for certain there’ll be one man who won’t be wishing me much goodwill this Christmas!”
“You’ve got plenty of time,” Magenta remarked. “You’ll be early.”
Scarlet was already heading towards the sleeping compartment to change and he looked back at them before he went into the room. He grinned.
“Probably, but maybe Brad will consider it as an early Christmas present?”
“If Santa’s listening, I hope he gets that meeting wrapped up ASAP so we can go home tomorrow,” Ochre said.
“Amen to that,” Blue replied. “After all, it is almost Christmas and they do say that miracles can still happen.”
Author’s Notes:
My sincere thanks go to Hazel Köhler for beta-reading this short story in the midst of her pre-Christmas preparations. Thanks also to our redoubtable Colonel-in-Chief, Chris Bishop, for her wonderful website and her stewardship of the Scarlet Fandom through the years. There is such a wealth of fantastic fiction to enjoy on the site!
Thanks to everyone who read the story – I hope it entertained you and that you have (or had!) a wonderful Christmas and a very happy New Year.
Marion Woods
06 December 2024