Parker is having a smoke and reading a paper when he sees a car pull up outside. The door bell rings and when he answers it he meets Warren Grafton, who says he has an appointment with Lady Penelope. Parker lets him inside.



Parker says Penelope will be slightly late and asks Warren to go and wait in the lounge. As he walks off, Parker twists a statue, which actually acts as a communications transmitter. He calls Penelope, who is driving in FAB 1, and tells her Warren Grafton has arrived. Penelope says she is on her way but will be late.



She is going to be late because she is being followed, and wants to lose the two guys after her. They start taking shots at her, but she deploys smoke from out of the back of her car.



However the other car drives through it and one of the men starts shooting at her with a machinegun. Penelope hoped it wouldn't have had to come to this but it seems she has no choice. She uses FAB 1's rear guns and fires back at the other car.



The car is hit, and crashes off the side of a hill, exploding on the way. Penelope tells Parker she is on her way back, and he tells Warren this. As Parker leaves, Warren pulls out his lighter and reveals it isn't what it seems -it has some kind of tracker device in it, which he starts to use. Whatever it is he is looking for, it seems it is under the floor of this room.



He knows that he will have to disable the alarms, and places a device next to some wires on one of the windows. Penelope then arrives, and she and Warren take a seat. Penelope understands that wants some money -he is looking for investors for his Pacific-Atlantic monorail company. Over 500 miles of track have already been built, and they have the most fantastic monotrain ever designed -it is completely automatic. He is looking to get a total of $40,000,000, and tells Penelope that if she invests, she will get a straight cut into their profits via shares. Penelope says she doesn't have that much money but Warren says the paintings in this room are worth millions, and then of course there is her famous jewelry collection.



Parker then comes in with some tea, but also says he has a telegram for Penelope. He passes it to her and it is one he has written -it states that Warren's chauffeur is a crook. As Parker leaves the room, Penelope says that she knows someone who is interested in the latest technology, and is also very wealthy. Whilst she isn't interested in investing, she is sure he will be and will have him contact him.



Outside, the chauffeur is taking pictures of the mansion, but stops when Warren leaves. Warren says goodbye to Penelope and says he looks forward to hearing from her friend. He gets into the car, which drives off. He says that he didn't get any money out of her, but is going to be contacted by one of her rich friends. However, he found out where Penelope's valuables are, and has rigged the alarms -they can come back and take them later.



Meanwhile Parker explains that he has seen the chauffeur before, and his name is Malloy. He was in an American mob, so it is likely that this Warren Grafton character must be up to no good. Penelope decides to contact Jeff Tracy. She says there isn't exactly a problem yet, but Jeff is willing to listen if there is something they can do to prevent a problem from happening. She mentions Warren and his company, and Scott says that Grafton's company has been having issues with the U.S. government over safety concerns. Jeff says he is always on the look out for interesting engineering investments, so he will check this out.



Meanwhile, in New York, Warren is having a meeting with his lackeys. Via their illegal methods, they have raised around 21 million dollars already. Warren says he will be meeting with Jeff Tracy soon, and will surely get money out of him, plus he also has a plan to rob Lady Penelope of her jewelry collection.



Sometime later, Jeff, Tin-Tin and Brains are onboard Warren Grafton's monotrain. Jeff thinks the train is impressive, but asks why the government never backed this project. Warren says he never asked them -he'd rather have guys like Jeff to benefit from this private enterprise. Brains is also impressed, but hopes the train has been thoroughly tested. Warren says it has, and that some of the biggest men in the country are behind this project -men like Jeff Tracy, who stay out of the limelight.



He says that whilst the monotrain is completely automatic, they have a fleet of helijets patrolling the track, so if there are any problems, they'll know about it. One of these helijets is passing over the track when a storm starts. The pilot, Joe, reports to base there aren't any problems with the track in this sector, but he's going to move back due to the storm.



However, his helijet gets struck by a lightning bolt, and he loses control. The helijet dives, and whilst Joe ejects, the helijet crashes into part of the monorail, badly damaging it. The Joe's parachute gets caught on part of the monorail track, as he tries to contact base to warn them to stop Warren's train -the automatic signals for this part of the track have been damaged, meaning it won't stop when it reaches this sector.



Warren is still trying to impress Jeff with his train, such as the fact that they can pack up to 500 people on it, but doesn't seem to be convincing him. He decides to show them the train's engine, a marvelous feat of engineering. He lets Brains and Tin-Tin take a closer look at it whilst he tells Jeff he would be a fool not to invest in his company.



Meanwhile, the storm has ended and another helijet has been sent out. The pilot of it, Stan, lands near the damaged section of monorail. He sees Joe and says he'll winch him up to his helijet, but Joe tells him to contact the base first as they need to get the train stopped. Meanwhile, Warren ensures Jeff and the others about how safe the train is, but then he gets a signal and says the radio is going off. He excuses himself from the room.



The three discuss what they have seen and are not happy. It seems Warren Grafton is more interested in money than lives, and Jeff says those types of people usually end up in one place: jail. Meanwhile, back in England, it is late at night and two of Warren's men have entered Creighton-Ward Manor. They start to get to work on the door.



Joe gets Stan winched up to his helijet and the two see that part of the monorail has completely collapsed. If the automatic signals are out, the design of the train means it cannot be stopped -there is no manual control for it, it is automatic only.



The train continues towards trouble, and the radio call Warren got explained to him what had happened to a section of the monorail track. He tells Jeff and the others what is going on, and how the train cannot be stopped. They go back to take another look at the engine, but Brains says there is nothing he can do with it without a circuit diagram. Warren begins to panic, saying they only have 15 minutes, but then says they may have 20 or even more -he just doesn't know. Jeff tells Brains and Tin-Tin they'll have to just try. Meanwhile, back in England...



...Malloy and Selsden, Warren's two goons, have entered the mansion. Thanks to Warren dealing with the alarms earlier, they have entered undetected, and head into the lounge. They pull back a large rug and see a button. Selsden presses it and part of the floor slides open, revealing a safe. Selsden starts working on getting the safe open, although Malloy tells him to keep it quiet.



Stand and Joe are still at the damaged monorail section, when part of it completely falls away. The damaged section is over a canyon, and if the train comes through here now, it will plummet. On the train, Grafton is going more and more crazy. Jeff whispers to Brains he'll contact Tracy Island, although Brains says it is too late for International Rescue to do anything. Jeff says he knows, but they will be needed for after the crash. He then tells Warren to try sending a signal out to International Rescue, as he's heard you can contact them from anywhere and they somehow pick it up.



Jeff makes the call via the train's radio, and is sure not to give anything away to Warren. He just gets into contact with John and tells him that the train is out of control, and four people are in danger. John reports back to Tracy Island, saying that the train their father is on is going to crash. Scott and Virgil know they won't make it in time, but prepare to take off in Thunderbird 1 and Thunderbird 2.



Brains and Tin-Tin have swapped some wires around and Brains tries to get the train's brakes to come on, but it doesn't work, and the train continues to pick up speed. Back in England, Selsden tells Malloy that it won't take him long, and then he cracks the code and gets the safe open.



As soon as they do this, alarms go off in the rooms for both Penelope and Parker. Malloy and Selsden start taking everything, unaware that they are being watched as there is a hidden camera in the safe. Penelope contacts Parker and has a plan, but Parker thinks they might already be too late.



With all the valuables secured, Malloy and Selsden head back to their car. But before they can get out of there, they have to jump out as they are shot at -Penelope and Parker made it in time and fire at them from the windows. Parker hits the tyres of the car, making it useless. The two take cover in some bushes, but Malloy sees the garage nearby and says that there must be a car in there they can use instead.



Parker wonders how the two got in without setting off any alarms, and Penelope says they must have put them out of action somehow. FAB 1 then crashes through the garage, as the two crooks are now using it as their getaway car. This turns out to be a mistake, as Penelope twists a bedpost...



...which acts as a remote control for her car. Malloy no longer has any control, and the car just keeps spinning around in a circle. Penelope says they can go back to bed and deal with the crooks in the morning. Meanwhile, the monotrain is still going at full speed, and is nearing the canyon.



However Brains has time to make one last attempt at making the brakes work, and he does it -the brakes are activated. But due to the high speed the train is going at, it takes it a while to slow down, and when it finally comes to a stop, it is right next to the damaged section of the track. Stan and Joe see that the train has stopped, and call the emergency services whilst they head back to base.



As they leave, Thunderbird 1 arrives. Scott finds out that Virgil is just 6 minutes away, but it is clear that the train is still in danger -the other side of the bridge is in danger of collapsing now, and it begins to explode and crumble. Scott was going to try and push the train back but realises that the bridge will no longer take the weight. He tells the people inside the train to move to the very back of it and get out from there.



Warren gets the door open, but the ground is badly broken and is clearly in danger of falling away -they can't get out from there. Scott tells everyone to hold on just as Virgil arrives in Thunderbird 2. He gets Thunderbird 2 to hover above one of the monotrain carriages and then lowers the magnetic grabs.



The grabs attach to the carriage Jeff and the others are in, and then Thunderbird 2 ascends, taking the carriage with it. This happens just in time as the bridge collapses and it and all of the other carriages fall into the canyon. Virgil moves Thunderbird 2 out to a safe place, where he places the carriage down.



Jeff says that after the government enquiry about this crash, Warren can look forward to a nice holiday behind bars. Warren says Jeff is wrong and he'll get away with the enquiry, and will end up being the president of the greatest monorail company in the world. Sometime later, Warren Grafton makes another speech -in jail. He and all of his other goons are in cells, and none of his men want to hear about how one day he'll turn things around, and is wasting his time talking about it. Warren says that time is one thing they've all got plenty of in jail.


NOTES

When part of the bridge falls away, you can briefly see some human fingers appear in the bottom right corner, helping pull the bridge apart.

Why Penelope is being followed by two guys at the start of the episode is never explained.

When Selsden tells Malloy it should only take him about a minute to open the safe, Malloy's torch starts to smoke -the bulb has become so hot it is setting the case alight.

In "Vault of Death" is was revealed that Penelope could barely drive, but in this episode, she seems to be a fine driver.

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