Disclaimer: I do not in any way own Captain Scarlet; that honour goes to the wonderful Gerry and Sylvia Anderson. I only own the plot of this story and Lieutenant Onyx. Special thanks go to Chris Bishop for beta-reading this and ironing out any mistakes and to my friend who drew the amazing cover image for me
"This is some university," Captain Magenta noted with approval as he stood in front of the main building of the University of Hamburg along with Captain Ochre and Captain Grey.
The flights from Berlin International Airport to Hamburg Airport had gone smoothly, with no Mysteron attacks on either journey, but they had all been warned numerous times by Captain Scarlet not to let their guard down at all, as the Mysterons would be certain to exploit it.
"It's magnificent," Grey agreed. "The architecture is simply stunning. Where is the conference going to be held?"
"Outside the Auditorium."
The voice of Suzanne Vögel sounded from behind them and the four officers turned around. The Chancellor of Europe was standing by the side of the black Audi which had brought her from the airport to the university. Through the open door, the Spectrum officers could make out Captain Blue's uniform; he had been nominated to ride with Frau Vögel in the car.
"The Auditorium is located near the main campus in Von-Melle-Park," the Chancellor continued as she walked up to them and Blue followed her out of the car. "There are also some teaching buildings located in that area. If I can remember correctly, they are the science labs, the economics department, and the centre for mathematics and social sciences. Of course, they are not the only courses available at the universität; the other teaching buildings are located around the city."
"Will you be visiting the other buildings?" Ochre inquired.
Frau Vögel shook her head. "Nein, I will just be giving my speech outside the Auditorium and then I will be returning to Berlin."
"Nonetheless, I think it would be worth checking out the other faculty buildings," said Captain Scarlet, joining them at the entrance from where he and Lieutenant Onyx had been talking to the Spectrum Berlin personnel who had accompanied them from the German capitol.
"SIG," Blue's cap microphone dropped down. "I'll contact all members of Spectrum in the area and tell them to go over the buildings with Mysteron detectors."
"What about this building and the Auditorium, Captain Scarlet?" Onyx asked quietly. "Should we examine those as well?"
"Already in progress, Lieutenant," Scarlet replied. "Spectrum ground agents are currently scanning the area with the detectors and setting up defensive perimeters. The university staff is also being tested, as are the students. They assured me that it shouldn't take more than three quarters of an hour. What time is the talk meant to begin, Frau Vögel?"
"At midday, Captain," she responded. "It is due to finish at half past one."
"That gives the Mysterons at least an hour and a half window to attack," Grey muttered. "We'll need to be on constant alert."
"Maybe more than that," Magenta frowned, checking his watch. "It's quarter to eleven now. The Mysterons might be planning to attack before the speech begins."
"That's a good point," Scarlet frowned. "Okay, we'll move into a room in the main building which has already been cleared."
"SIG," Blue nodded as his cap microphone swung back up. "The ground agents say that the cafeteria has the all-clear so we can wait in there until everything and everyone has been cleared."
"Right." Scarlet turned to the other four officers. "We'll wait in the cafeteria – and no, we can't eat anything, Magenta! - until everything's ready for the conference. The Angels are already patrolling the area, so to make sure there won't be an aerial attack."
"SIG, Captain Scarlet," Magenta replied, a little sulkily. He followed Grey, Onyx, Ochre and Frau Vögel into the main building. Blue pausedand turned around to see Scarlet staring out across the street, frowning slightly and obviously deep in thought.
"Paul? Are you alright?" he asked.
"What?" Scarlet glanced at him. "Oh, Adam… I don't know. I can't quite put my finger on it… I just have a hunch that somehow, the Mysterons have everything in position for their attack."
The replica of Doktor Tanenbaum attached the final two wires into the device he had been working on ever since he had returned to the university. After almost seventeen hours of building and perfecting his contraption, it was finally complete.
"Now," he muttered darkly, admiring his handiwork with a thin, cruel smile, "The Mysterons' revenge will be carried out! The Earthwoman will be destroyed and the Earthmen won't -" A knock on the door interrupted his monologue.
"Doktor? Are you in there?" It was the voice of Karla, Tanenbaum's assistant. "Can I come in?"
"Nein!" the Mysteron agent snapped back, with an annoyed growl. "I'm working on something and I cannot be disturbed!"
"Are you sure, Doktor?" Karla sounded puzzled. "I'm really sorry to disturb you, but I need to come and collect the textbooks I left in your office yesterday. I need them for a course in the afternoon."
Dr Tanenbaum grounded his teeth in frustration, looking down at the device he was working on. He couldn't move it right away, and when Karla would enter, she would see it. The irritating Earthwoman simply would not go away so he would have to get rid of her. The Mysterons' plans could not fail.
"Doctor, this is really important," Karla said through the door.
"Very well then!" he hissed. He reached behind for the heavy gas canister he had brought with him.
The door handle rattled as Karla opened the door and entered the lab. She gave her mentor a smile before turning her back on him and reaching for the pile of textbooks she had left on his desk before he had left the university the day before.
"I'll just get these books and leave you to whatever you're doing, Doktor," she told him. Her eyes fell on the device set there on the desk, and she frowned with perplexity.
"I don't think so, Earthwoman!" Tanenbaum's voice snarled behind her.
Her eyes barely had enough time to widen in surprise before the Mysteron clubbed her over the head with the gas canister. He smiled wickedly as Karla's unconscious body slumped to the floor.
"And now to take care of you," he said ominously. "Before the Mysterons assassinate Suzanne Vögel. We will be avenged!"
"Our ground agents have cleared all the staff and students attending the conference," Captain Scarlet told Suzanne Vögel as he led her up the steps onto the temporary stage that had been erected outside the Auditorium. "Also, the Auditorium itself and the surrounding area have also been cleared."
"I am very glad, Captain Scarlet," the Chancellor smiled, glancing around as university students and lecturers alike began to fill up the seats which had been set up opposite the stage.
"Spectrum ground agents are in key positions on the ground," Captain Blue informed her, as she took her place at the forefront of the stage where a microphone on a stand had been installed. "And the Angels are patrolling the area."
As soon as he said that, there was the sound of jet engines and Frau Vögel and the university members looked up to see the three Angel aircraft soar overhead.
"Spectrum does not leave much to chance, do they, Captain?" Frau Vögel said to Blue.
"No, ma'am," he replied. "In light of the Mysteron threat, your safety is what is most important to us."
"And I am thankful that the Earth has an organisation like Spectrum defending it," she smiled. "Now, I believe that everyone is here and that it is time for the speech to begin."
"So it is," Blue grinned back. He and Scarlet stepped down from the stage, but remained in front of it, keeping their eyes on the Chancellor.
Scarlet frowned and put his hand to his head; he was starting to feel slightly dizzy. He was unsure whether it was the heat of the day or his sixth sense. He took in his surroundings to see if he could pick up on anything that the Mysterons might try and use against the Chancellor. All he could see however, where a couple of bikes leant against some trees and an old, beat up VW Golf parked a not that far away.
He narrowed his eyes to the car. What is it doing here, anyway? Possibly it's owned by one of the university's students…
"Captain Scarlet, are you alright?" Blue whispered to him.
"I'm not sure," Scarlet whispered back. His headache was slowly increasing and he was starting to feel even more nauseous. Blue frowned slightly before moving to the other side of the stage, keeping a watchful eye out for any sign of a Mysteron attack.
Up on the stage, Frau Vögel cleared her throat. "Guten tag. I must say that it is a real pleasure for me to be -"
"Everybody, get down!" Scarlet roared suddenly. His sixth sense had pinpointed the danger, and that sent him springing onto the stage and tackling the Chancellor to the ground, just as the Golf exploded. Small parts of flaming debris landed near the end seats on the side where Scarlet had been standing. Instantly, the air was filled with the sound of screams and the crashing of chair as students pushed past each other in desperate attempts to flee the scene.
"Everyone please, remain calm!" Blue tried to make his voice heard over the pandemonium but it was no use. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Captain Ochre and Captain Grey weren't succeeding either in their attempts to calm everyone down and he could only assume that Captain Magenta and Lieutenant Onyx were having the same problems. As soon as he had though this, however, Onyx appeared by the left hand side of the stage, climbed onto it and walked to the centre.
"Everyone calm down!" she ordered in fluent German, her voice ringing out loudly across the area.
It seemed to have the desired effect as the chaos quietened down and everyone turned to look at her.
"Please follow the Spectrum ground agents to a safe location and remain there until the all clear is given," Onyx continued in her clear voice. "And until then, please remain calm for your own safety."
Onyx then climbed back down from the stage, as the university students began to follow the ground agents away from the Auditorium. A few feet from there, Captain Scarlet was helping Frau Vögel to her feet.
"I'm sorry about that, Frau Vögel," he said, a little sheepishly.
The Chancellor shook her head, breathing heavily. "It is no problem, Captain Scarlet," she gasped. "I-I believe that I must thank you greatly. You just saved my life."
She turned around, her eyes setting on what remained of the car; it was now burning with a raging fire. "Was anyone hurt?" she asked in concern.
"It doesn't appear so," Blue said. "I saw first aid personnel already on the scene… They'll make sure everyone is all right. Our concern is your safety. Are you alright?"
"Yes, I am…" She checked herself. "Not a scratch, thank you. And that fire...? It must not spread around…"
"The car is isolated enough for that not to happen," Scarlet replied.
"The firefighters are already on their way," Onyx confirmed, pulling up her cap microphone. She nodded to her colleagues. "I just called the University security. They confirmed that."
"We need to get you back to Berlin immediately," Blue told her.
Behind him, Magenta was rushing up to join the group in front of the stage, Ochre and Grey right behind him. "The Spectrum ground agents have a car ready to take you back to Hamburg Airport," Magenta added. "Captain Grey and I will accompany you with them. It is highly likely that the Mysterons will try and attack again."
Frau Vögel nodded, her face still very pale.
"I understand," she replied. "I shall go with you. Danke again, Captain." she nodded to Scarlet. "And Lieutenant Onyx," she turned to the younger woman. "Congratulations are in order for you too for the way you controlled the crowd and calmed everyone down. Where did you learn to speak such good German?"
"I studied it at school," Onyx replied, her cheeks reddening very slightly. Frau Vögel nodded, not noticing the small blush.
"Frau Vögel?" a Spectrum ground agent walked up to her. "We have your car ready and the SPJ is prepared to take off for Berlin International Airport."
"Danke," the Chancellor nodded.
She followed her escort from the stage towards the main entrance of the university, flanked by Magenta and Grey.
"Now then," Scarlet turned to the other three colour-coded officers. "Let's wait until the firemen arrive to put out the fire, and then see if we can find out why that car exploded."
"It's strange that it didn't test positive on our Mysteron detectors," Ochre said, frowning."Maybe there was a fault?"
"I definitely felt my sixth sense go off," Scarlet frowned. "But maybe the car wasn't a reconstruction? Didn't Frau Vögel say that the science labs were located nearby? Well, maybe the Mysteron agent, whoever he is, used some of the chemicals from there and they wouldn't have shown up on the detector."
"That's a good theory, Scarlet," Blue nodded. "I remember that we found out that the university offers a course in explosives when we did the security check. Captain Ochre, go to the science labs and see what - and who - could have pulled something like this off."
"SIG."
Ochre went off in the direction of the science labs. The sound of sirens approaching alerted the officers that the fire brigade had arrived to extinguish the fire.
"Once that fire has been put off, we'll examine this car and see what made it explode," Scarlet continued, turning to Blue. "Captain Blue, call Colonel White and update him on the events."
"SIG," Blue replied and his cap microphone swung down.
"That was some very clear distribution of orders, Lieutenant," Scarlet said to Onyx, as they slowly made their way towards the smouldering car.
"Thank you, Captain." Onyx gave a small smile; she was rather unused to getting so much praise.
"By the way, how did you make yourself heard over all that noise?" Scarlet inquired. "I was rather busy trying to shield Frau Vögel, all I could hear around me was the crowd panicking. It must have been hard."
"Oh, it was… the microphone. It was available, so I simply used it," Onyx explained hastily.
Scarlet nodded and walked ahead. Inaudibly, Onyx breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that nobody had heard the slight echo in her voice which could not have been created by a microphone, nor had they noticed that the microphone had been turned off and her voice didn't come out of the speakers.
"Have you found anything?" Ochre asked as, a couple of hours later, he joined the other three Spectrum officers at the scene of the explosion.
"Nothing," Scarlet grumbled, sifting aside chunks of metal that had been blown off the car's body when it had exploded. "Have you?"
"We might have," Ochre smirked slightly. "Turns out the University' expert, a Doktor Heinrich Tanenbaum, was last seen by one of his students, leaving his lab at half past eleven, carrying a package of some sort and going in the direction of the Auditorium. He was then seen leaving right before the speech began."
Scarlet frowned. "Sounds like this Doktor Tanenbaum could be our Mysteron agent."
"It gets better," Ochre held up a bunch of keys. "We got the keys for his lab and the cupboards in it."
"Excellent." Blue stood up and brushed the dust from his knees. "Let's go over there now."
.
As the Spectrum officers made their way over to the science labs, the man dressed all in black who had caused the car crash which killed the original Dr Tanenbaum was watching them through a pair of binoculars. Captain Black lowered them and checked his watch; the Mysterons' plans were continuing right on schedule. By now, the Earthwoman would be on an SPJ to Berlin and Dr Tanenbaum would be on his way from Hamburg to Berlin to finish the assassination.
He raised the binoculars to his eyes again. The Spectrum officers had arrived at the entrance to the science labs and Captain Scarlet was talking to another Earthman in a white lab coat. Black scanned the group, his binoculars coming to rest on Spectrum's newest member, dressed in the colour of his own codename.
Lowering his binoculars again, he initiated contact with the replica of Doktor Tanenbaum.
"This is Captain Black, relaying instructions from the Mysterons. The Spectrum officers are getting closer to discovering our plans. Be on guard. Should they come after you, you know what you must do, especially regarding their newest officer. The Mysterons always reclaim what is theirs."