Today was to be a momentous day—but only one man knew why.

If you had told anyone else that this would be the most significant date of the 2050s, they may well have believed you. After all, the public were eagerly anticipating an announcement that the Global Defence Force, or GDF, was finally to be put into operation. The World Council had long since promised an army to keep peace and fight for justice after the Global Conflict had ravaged the world over a decade earlier. The world had been healing since then, as people fought for a better and brighter future. Once the GDF was operational, things would look very optimistic. However, the GDF would not be ready to begin operations for a further two months.

Perhaps then, the significance of the day was due to the Fireflash; an astonishing feat of aeronautical engineering that was set to make its maiden flight. This incredible aircraft was stunning in design, in concept and in execution. Traditionally, commercial airliners were practical and comfortable. They got you wherever you needed to be in the world whilst offering a hint of luxury to those who could afford it. On the other hand, jets were designed with raw speed and manoeuvrability, flying at unbelievable speeds being able to perform outrageous aerobatics for the pleasure of the pilot only. Fireflash was one of a kind. A craft with a capacity for six hundred passengers and yet it could fly at six times the speed of sound, combining the practicality of a commercial airliner with the speed and power of a rocket. It was an outstanding technical achievement. 

But still, it was not the thing that would shock the world. For there was a secret—a terrible and deadly secret—and only one man knew it was about to be unleashed.

The man in question presumably had a name, but it had long since been forgotten to time. Now he simply went by The Hood. He had travelled a long way from the safety of his secluded temple deep in the Malaysian jungle to be at London Airport, but the journey had been well worth it. The secret he knew simply had to be exposed; the world had to see what was being kept from them. And The Hood needed to know more of the secret organisation. At present, he knew very little, but every scrap of information he procured would be utterly priceless.

"You there!" somebody shouted at him. "Let me see your clearance."

The Hood turned around slowly to find that a security guard had discovered his location. Well, it had certainly taken them long enough. "Will your uniform allow me access to the Fireflash?"

The security guard looked bemused. "I'm sorry?"

The Hood had no time to waste. "Will your uniform allow me access to the Fireflash?" Suddenly, The Hood's eyes began to glow a piercing yellow, his glare so menacing it seemed to freeze the security guard in place.

"Those eyes..." he struggled to say, "Those horrible eyes..." For a moment, his mouth hung agape, as if his entire body was paralysed. Then he swayed dangerously, before collapsing into a heap on the ground. In his last few seconds of consciousness his mouth seemed to move involuntarily as he just about managed to utter a single word. "...yes..."

The Hood quickly got to work, stowing the unconscious guard away in a discreet hiding place among the trees, well out of sight of the airport. By the time he was discovered, it would be too late. The Hood stripped him of his uniform and his security badge, which was sure to allow him to traverse the airport without arousing any suspicion. But The Hood had a distinctive look and he had no intention of ever being recognised.

His head was completely hairless, providing the smoothest and shiniest scalp known to man. In fact, the only hairs on his entire face belonged to his aggressively bushy eyebrows, which seemed to give him a permanent scowl. When in public, The Hood had no choice but to disguise himself. He pulled a mask over his face, transforming him into the curly haired, friendly looking and altogether very unassuming Tony.

The Hood emerged from his hiding place and strolled casually and confidently into the airport. His stolen uniform seemed to make him invisible; everybody he walked past either gave him a nervous smile before hurrying away or simply just ignored him completely. There were a few doors that he needed to get through, but his badge made light work of them. It was almost too easy. His disguise fooled all the humans, and his badge fooled all the security systems. Before he knew it, he was on the main runway of London Airport.

The magnificent Fireflash sat on the runway, being tended to with the attention of a new toy on Christmas. Airport staff were working furiously on all areas of the Fireflash, which was impressive given the plane was nearly three hundred metres long. Its central fuselage looked like an enormous spear that could pierce right through the air. Its huge wings started near the centre of the craft and stretched all the way to the rear of the plane at what just seemed to be the perfect angle. Rather unusually, the cockpit was situated at the base of the tail fin of the craft, meaning the pilots could see the whole length of their plane. The tail fin branched out near its top, splitting into two, where the incredible twin turbo atomus engines were situated. It truly was a remarkable spectacle to behold.

Final preparations for take-off were seemingly underway, and The Hood took his opportunity. He assisted a group of workers wheeling a ladder towards the left wing of the Fireflash. Staff were frantically rushing all over the place, with all of them far too preoccupied with ensuring the maiden flight was a success to notice a lone figure working where he shouldn't be.

"Final checks!" somebody called out. The Hood decided to graciously assist in the very last of all the checks. He climbed the ladder he had helped with a few moments ago, through a hatch on the underside of the wing until he was aboard the undercarriage.

After locating the landing gear hydraulics, he quickly got to work, opening up his toolbox and securing two very delicate devices to each other and to the mechanisms of the craft. One of the devices was a simplistic red cylinder. The other device was far more complex; a metallic box with several lights, switches and wires protruding from it. The Hood double checked the wiring before carefully and slowly flicking the switches in a precise order. A red light began to flash.

"Perfect," The Hood said, his eyes transfixed on the label on the device. It read: Auto Bomb Detonator Unit. "Enough explosives to smash the atomus engines. If this doesn't bring International Rescue on the scene... nothing will."

*

Aboard the cockpit of the Fireflash, Captain Hanson was finding it difficult to contain his excitement. All final checks were complete. All passengers and luggage were aboard. All safety announcements were finished. The maiden flight of the Fireflash was about to begin, and the best day of Hanson's career was about to start. He smiled as he looked at the window, thinking of how proud his four-year-old daughter would be when she saw the news that her daddy had piloted the first ever commercial Fireflash—a moment that would no doubt go down in history.

"This is London Tower," buzzed the voice of Commander Norman through his headset. "You are clear for launch. And good luck."

"Roger, London Tower," Captain Hanson acknowledged. "Initiating take-off procedure."

His co-pilot, Derrick, nodded. With his classic pilot's hat and aviator sunglasses, he looked extremely cool, certainly far cooler than Hanson. But Hanson was the experienced pilot here, Derrick was something of a young hotshot. The two pilots activated the controls and slowly wheeled Fireflash into position on the runway. Once they were perfectly aligned with the arrow straight strip of tarmac, they began flicking a wide array of overhead switches to ready themselves for take-off.

The safety light on the runway turned from red to green. It was time. Hanson adjusted a few dials very slightly before taking a deep breath and grabbing the wheel. Under his control, the Fireflash lumbered forwards, until Hanson gave the wheels some help by firing up the main engines.

"Atomus engines at five percent," Derrick read out. "Ten percent. Fifteen percent. Rate of acceleration is constant."

The Fireflash was really picking up speed now, gliding smoothly along the runway. The wonderful aerodynamics of the machine were practically begging for it to leave the ground. It desperately wanted to point its nose to the air, to be free, to sail off into the sky. Suddenly, the wheels seemed to lose their grip with the runway, as if they could hold the Fireflash back no longer. They were airborne.

"Through the sound barrier!" Derrick cried as there was a satisfying crack to let them know they had passed Mach speed. Hanson concentrated as hard as he could on giving Fireflash the perfect trajectory to help them rocket skywards. The engines would do the rest. "Height thirty thousand feet. Mach two point eight, two point nine... Mach three."

"Reheat," Hanson ordered. The twin atomus engines gave a final burst of power as the thrusters seemed to ignite, giving the Fireflash just the burst it needed to reach top speed.

"Mach five point three. Height forty thousand feet."

"Level off." Hanson and Derrick both leant their wheels forwards, gently guiding Fireflash to a horizontal position. They were now safely cruising through the air. Hanson couldn't help but smile. It had been the perfect take-off. After a few minutes had passed, Hanson was satisfied that everything was as it should be. It was time to make a captain's announcement.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking," he began, "We have completed our take-off procedure and are flying at a height of fifty thousand feet. You may now unfasten your seatbelts and refreshments will be available. We will be arriving in Tokyo in just over an hour."

"Well done, Captain," Derrick said as he shook Hanson's hand. "We'll go down in aviation history for this."

"We haven't landed her yet," Hanson reminded him, although he would be lying if he didn't agree. When it became clear that all was in order, Derrick stood up.

"Well, I'm gonna head on over to the wing lounge and have a word with the passengers. See how they're doing."

"Passengers?" Hanson raised an eyebrow. "Or passenger? I saw her too."

Derrick couldn't hide his grin. "You have to admit she looked pretty cute." Hanson, being married, did not answer. "Figured there was no harm in seeing if she's impressed by pilots."

"One word of advice from your captain," Hanson started. "All the girls who are impressed by pilots and sunglasses aren't worth it. Fun while you're still young, but when you actually meet someone special, you'll see."

Before Derrick could leave the cockpit and try his luck with the attractive passenger who had caught his eye, Commander Norman's voice buzzed through their radio. "London Tower to Fireflash. Reduce speed to low safe cruising. Return to London at a height of ten thousand feet."

Hanson and Derrick exchanged confused glances. "London Tower, please confirm. We're nearly halfway to Tokyo."

There was a moment of silence on the radio. "I'm about to play you a message we just received. That should clear things up." Hanson and Derrick now exchanged worried glances. Something must be wrong.

"Is that the control tower?" a recorded voice said. It had some kind of Asian accent, but Hanson couldn't pin it down. "I just thought you would like to know that a bomb has been placed in the landing gear of the Fireflash that has taken off for Tokyo. The instant it touches the ground, it will blow the aircraft into a million tiny pieces, and release radioactive material over a large area." The recording finished.

Hanson shook his head in disbelief. "Surely it's a hoax?"

"It may well be a hoax but we can't take any chances. Return to London Tower and we can scan the Fireflash and find out the truth."

"Roger, London Tower," Hanson conceded. Norman was right. Even if it was some kid playing a prank, it wasn't worth the risk. Hanson and Derrick collectively turned the craft around and dipped its nose forward causing it to lose height. They reduced the engine power so they flew at just above stall speed. Hanson made a quick announcement, claiming a minor technical fault and alerting passengers to fasten their seatbelts. There was no need to panic—yet.

"London Tower to Fireflash, we can see you on our radar," Commander Norman updated them. "In order for our scan to be sufficiently detailed, we will need you to fly as close to the control tower as possible."

"Roger, London Tower," Hanson said, preparing the craft for approach. "This sure is some maiden flight..."

They thundered past the airport control tower, tilting their wings to expose the undercarriage of the Fireflash to the tower's scanning machine. They must have done a good job because they weren't asked to do a repeat run. For what seemed like forever, they circled London, anticipating the results.

"What's keeping them?" Derrick cried out.

"They'll call when they know," Hanson replied, trying to keep the situation and his young co-pilot calm. "Let's not get jumpy."

"Fireflash, this is London Tower." Derrick jumped at the sudden transmission. "Confirming there is a bomb. It's placed in the hydraulics system of your landing gear."

Hanson winced at the news. "Roger, London Tower. Permission for emergency landing."

"Negative!" Commander Norman yelled. "Landing is impossible. The bomb is placed so that the impact of your landing gear would cause it to detonate. Remain in the vicinity."

"Well, what are we gonna do?" Hanson asked, the bleak reality of the situation sinking in. "We can't circle London Airport forever."

"What is your endurance?"

"With our atomus engines we could still be flying for months," Hanson explained. "But Fireflash wasn't designed to be in the air that long, nor was this flight prepared for that. Our anti-radiation shield will need servicing in another two hours or we'll be exposed to a fatal dose of radiation."

"Is there any chance of reaching the bomb?" Commander Norman asked.

"The only access to the hydraulics is from a hatch on the outside of the plane," Hanson said shaking his head. "We can't reach the bomb, we can't land and if we stay up here forever we'll get radiation exposure. We don't stand a chance."

Commander Norman clearly forgot to turn off his radio as he let out a desperate sigh. "They haven't got a chance. We've just got to sit here and wait for them to die."

*

Unbeknownst to the crew of Fireflash, thousands of miles above Earth, in a secret satellite space station, a solitary figure was listening to their conversation. This man was John Tracy and he seemed very interested in the predicament of the Fireflash.

"As far as I can see London," Hanson said, "Only a miracle can save us now."

John Tracy gave a very small smile and spoke only to himself. "That's just what you might get."