As soon as the altar call was over, Matthew walked into the church and watched Father Unwin take his seat.

“I’ve had a call from Spectrum!” he whispered excitedly, “We’re needed like never before, Father.”

“Oh nortyinteruptylode of a lostymornyteabold,” mumbled Father Unwin.

“Speaking in tongues again, Father,” whispered Matthew.

“You know from my past sermons that the gift of tongues isn’t gibberish. It’s the ability to hear a foreign preacher in your own native language, to help the spread of the gospel and the growth of the church,” said Father Unwin, “I only feign gibberish as a code for you to follow on our missions.”

Soon a meeting was held at Cloudbase convened by Colonel White. In attendance were Jeff Tracy & Hirum Hackenbacker aka Brains (of International Rescue), Commander Shore and his daughter Atlanta (of W.A.S.P.), Shane Weston and Sam Louvre (of W.I.N.), Mike Mercury (pilot of Supercar), Steve Zodiac and Venus (of Space City), Father Unwin and Matthew (of B.I.S.H.O.P.), and finally Colonel White and Captain Scarlet (of Spectrum).

 Several secrets were laid out on the table, lest earth simply have none left to protect after a final conflict with the Mysterons.

Hirum Hackenbacker came up with a master plan.

“I believe I can modify the shrinking device that Father Unwin uses to conceal Matthew on his assignments,” said Brains, “I can increase its capability dramatically, so that it could shrink an entire planet and its population right out of discernible existence. They’d still be alive in a plane so small that they would pose no more relevant a threat. Then International Rescue would use Thunderbird Three to transport me and the device to Space City, where I would help their technicians to fit it to Fireball XL-5’s armoury. Then Steve and Venus and their Robot would take it into position to shrink the planet Mars and all the Mysterons. Then we’ll reverse all of the modifications to restore the device with its original reduction and enlargement capacity to Father Unwin.”

“Shrink the whole planet and its population,” summed up Colonel White, “It’s a daring plan. In the mean time, Spectrum, W.I.N. and W.A.S.P. could cope with any coming Mysteron threats, and keep them busy thinking that we’re dealing with those, so that they don’t suspect our real plan. I don’t fully understand the Mysterons’ power for observing us though, or how much it depends on Captain Black’s whereabouts.  They may yet get wind of our plans. I think that Steve Zodiac and Venus should take Captain Scarlet and Captain Magenta with them to Space City now, and have them accompany the regular Fireball team on the mission to shrink Mars.”

“WIN will provide our regular agents,” said Sam Louvre, “I can’t put a ten year old boy at risk of being killed and replaced by a Mysteron. He’s used to doing temporary replacements himself.”

Alan Tracy had just recently taken over from John for the monitor duty, which they shared in monthly cycles in Thunderbird Five.

Father Unwin explained the shrinking device’s principles as best he could to Brains, who then took it back with Jeff to Tracy Island, modified it, and loaded it aboard Thunderbird Three. John sat on a couch in the Tracy lounge room, which began descending on a moving pole, at the touch of a button from Jeff Tracy. Soon the couch reached an underground conveyance and moved sideways to another pole and was raised into the lower cockpit of Thunderbird Three, where Brains was waiting … with one more passenger: Braman his robot.

John took Thunderbird Three’s elevator up to the upper control room and launched the great craft out of its silo and through a circular recreation complex with perfect accuracy, up into the clouds and then into space, until it reached Space City.

“I brought along a robot of my own,” said Brains to Steve, “I’ve tested him against my own chess playing abilities, and his calculations helped us on the Sun Probe rescue, when we suffered complications. I’d like to see how he interacts with your robot.”