CULVER ATOMIC CENTRE

HIGH WYCOMBE, ENGLAND

22:32 hours GMT

The firm but innocent clipping of footsteps broke the monotonous silence that had settled within the ambience of the corridor. The shadow of a security guard gave way as the man shone his torch around the walls, looking vigilantly as he passed. Nodding to himself, he paused at of the corridor, bringing a small device up to his lips.

"Section A42 clear"

A response came moments later.

"Right Harris, I'll put the coffee on."

"Good caffeine'll do me wonders." Harris joked absently. Lifting up the torch again he continued down the halls in his silent vigil. This nuclear centre was often quiet at this time of night, but it didn't make his job any less important.

The Culver atomic centre was a vital power generating station for the south coast of England. As well as supplying almost half of the nuclear power it also functioned as a research station and enrichment site, stockpiling isotopes for almost any kind of reactor in the world. Any of this material would be hazardous in the wrong hands, and that is why a security detail was on constant patrol.

And tonight, that security would be tested.

A little further on from Harris, a room contained a face that belonged to a man whom no one believed was alive. Since the disastrous mission by spectrum to investigate signals on the planet Mars and the discovery of the mysterons, Conrad Lefkon aka Captain Black had been presumed dead. In fact, few within the organisation actually knew he was alive, reconstructed as the Mysteron's principal earth agent. When found by captains Scarlet and Blue after trying to detonate a million nuclear fuel rods he was thought lost again as a he sunk to the bottom of a lake in a Druzynik tank.

Captain Black, however was a not a man- or mysteron- about to be beaten. His alien overseers had given him another mission, and sheer will demanded he obey. The Mysteron agent had been ordered to insert a unstable isotope into the main reactor, to overload and destroy it to cripple the UK's power supply.

Black was waiting for the security detail to go past, but pushed the door too far open and was caught in Harris' torchlight as he approached. The guard straightened up and tensed as he saw Captain black.

"Hey you! What are you doing in there?"

Black discarded the idea of dashing back into the room and bolted out of the door down the corridor. Harris followed, in his mad haste he forgot to call up central control.

"Stop! You hear me? This is a restricted area!"

Unnerved by the man's shouting, Captain Black continued down the maze of corridors. Eventually he came to a stop near a door off to the side marked "DANGER-RADIOACTIVITY" without looking down, he reached in his pocket and spun round.

Seeing that Black had stopped in front of him, Harris too reached down for his handgun.

Black however, was faster as he pointed his gun up at the guard, firing twice.

Harris stumbled as the impact of one bullet brought him to a halt, sending great surges of pain up his left arm. He collapsed to the floor, unable to move quickly enough as the man he was chasing backed away, almost goading him to follow.

He struggled to reach for his radio and fished it out from under him, pressing the emergency button as he passed out.

Over at central control, the radio man on duty dropped his coffee mug as he raced to the other side of the room, the emergency signal whining.

"Harris! Can you hear me? What's going on mate?" his attempts to call his fallen colleague fell on deaf ears. With no reply, the radio man activated the general security alarm. Klaxons and lights suddenly flared up around the atomic centre, standby security men dashing to the posts, gates and doors being locked. The whole place was suddenly like a ship at action stations.

The sudden hive of activity startled Captain Black, muttering to himself, he started down the corridor again in a power walk. Without noticing he passed a security camera, and a whining noise perked his ears up.

"ATTENTION! INTRUDER IN SECTOR A53! REPEAT INTRUDER IN SECTOR A53! FIND AND DETAIN!"

The callout Black guessed was referring to him. He reversed direction back down the corridor, stopping abruptly when he heard footsteps coming from the other end.

"Here He must've gone round this way! c'mon!"

"Get ya stun guns ready! He's already shot Harris!"

Hearing the smattering of voices Black slipping through the first door on his right, not noticing this was door he had passed earlier marked dangerous due to radioactivity.