'Touch of the Reaper' by Phil Ford

At the Centre for Organism Research in Nevada, the Mysterons deliberately contaminate Doctor Michael King and his assistant, Dayna Parrish, with a mutated version of Razer’s Disease; the two scientists die in seconds – only to be reborn as Mysteron replicas, each with the power to kill with a single touch. Some time later, the personnel of Spectrum watch these ominous events unfold via a security recording. Colonel White immediately assigns Captain Scarlet and Captain Blue to locate the missing scientists; however, Scarlet’s focus is divided: having seen the Mysteron replication process for the first time, he now finds himself questioning his own humanity. Paying a visit to Doctor King’s wife, Blue and Scarlet clash with Dayna’s boyfriend, the hard-nosed, high profile reporter Dan Lloyd. Following a lead from Mrs King, the two Spectrum agents track the Mysterons to a lakeside cabin. Dayna takes off on a motorbike, with Scarlet in hot pursuit in a Cheetah RRV; a high-speed chase ensues, but Dayna is able to evade her pursuer, and she disappears amongst the streets of a nearby city. Back at the cabin, Blue manages to avoid King’s deadly touch, and succeeds in trapping the Mysteron in the cabin’s cellar. King is taken back to Skybase, where Scarlet and White question him on Dayna’s whereabouts; but the Mysterons use King as a conduit, and, after declaring their war of nerves on Earth in retaliation for humanity’s attack on their base, they cause King to disintegrate. Dayna visits Lloyd and kills him with a kiss, allowing the Mysterons to recreate the reporter as another virus-carrying agent. Back at Skybase, Captain Scarlet realises the real Mysteron plan: by using Dayna to get to her boyfriend, they have a perfect means of assassinating one of the reporter’s most famous friends: none other than the President of the United States of America…

Wayne Forester (Captain Scarlet), Robbie Stevens (Captain Blue), Mike Hayley (Colonel White), Jules de Jongh (Lieutenant Green), Nigel Plaskitt (Doctor Gold)

Directed by Mark Woollard
Executive Producer Gerry Anderson

TX:
UK (CITV):
3rd September 2005 - shown in two parts within 'Ministry of Mayhem'

Notes:
*Featuring Captain Scarlet, Captain Blue, Colonel White, Lieutenant Green and Doctor Gold