NAME: Joe McClaine (Len Jones)

AGE: 9

BORN: Hampstead, London 1st April

POSITION: W.I.N.’s Most Special Agent

HEIGHT: 4’3"

HAIR: Sandy/blonde

EYES: Brown

​

Just an ordinary boy - that’s Joe 90. But through the genius of his adopted father, Joe has become the World Intelligence Network’s top secret agent. And Joe 90 is just nine years old.

Born in Hampstead, London on 1st April, Joe was orphaned at the age of 12 months when both his parents were killed in a car crash. Nothing more was known of his mother and father, but having no close relatives to take custody of him, Joe was sent to Caxton Manor Orphanage in East London. The orphanage became mother and father, sister, brother and cousin to the infant.

Life in the orphanage had its disadvantages, yet the boy they called, simply, ‘Joe’, thrived within the vast community of children his own age. But when he was old enough to grasp the simple values of life, he realised that something was missing. That something was a family life, a mother, a father, and a real home.

​

Like all small boys, Joe was very interested in cars. And it was his interest in cars that forced his presence upon Professor Ian McClaine. It was a summer in London, and the Caxton Manor Orphanage had arranged an outing in the city to see the sights. As the small party of uniformed children passed down Fleet Street, a gleaming green car caught Joe’s eye. It was certainly no ordinary car and Joe decided to investigate the unique vehicle further. Breaking away from the "Crocodile", he climbed inside the car and scrambled behind the seats to chance a glimpse at the twin aero turbines. To his horror, the car swept off, carrying him away as a stowaway. The driver of the car was Ian McClaine.

​

On reaching the McClaines’ house, Joe made his presence noted. Instantly, the McClaines and Joe became united in friendship. The friendship was stimulated so much that the McClaines paid regular visits to the orphanage and, in turn, Joe was allowed to spend weekends at their home in Culver Bay.

​

Joe adored his two new-found friends, and for the first time he experienced the family life he had been missing, becoming a real person instead of just another name in a register. And his new foster-parents grew fond of little Joe. So fond, in fact, that adoption procedure was started to allow Joe to cherish family life forever.

​

The adoption went through without a hitch. Joe became part of the family unit - he became Joe McClaine. He was now five years old and for the first time in his life he had a real mother and father and a real home in Culver Bay, Dorset. Joe became an ordinary boy, and went to an ordinary school, Culver County Junior School. But tragedy was to hit the McClaine household a year later, when Mary McClaine was killed in a car accident. It was a bitter blow to Joe, for it was the first time he had felt deep emotion, the loss of a loved one.

​

But thanks to his upbringing, tragedy slipped into the past. Joe continued his existence living to the full once more, only this time terribly conscious of his adopted father. He became very attached to his father, sharing the same love for electronics and scientific research. And he helped his father, during his vacations, to work on the brain child that was to become the BIG RAT.

At school, Joe was not academically inclined - one field in which he failed to emulate Ian McClaine. Instead, Joe’s love turned towards the football field, fishing and pop music, though he still appreciated the rather more classical forms of music.

​

In his spare time, Joe loved to go fishing or camping with his father and to help him in his laboratory. It was great to have someone to share his life with - a father. At the age of eight, Joe became engrossed with the exploits of a fictitious secret agent, longing to copy his literary hero. So engrossed in the idea of becoming a secret agent was the young eight-year old that he started a gang with his local friends. They sent coded messages amongst themselves and executed imaginary assignments, hoping that one day fantasy would give way to reality. It was Joe’s love of adventure and the outdoor life, as opposed to academic studies, that overjoyed Joe McClaine when he was chosen to become a secret agent for the World Intelligence Network, when Professor McClaine’s fantastic invention of the BIG RAT changed his life of an ordinary boy into that of real life spy adventures.

​

It was a dream come true, but just another of so many dreams that have come true in the nine year life of Joe McClaine, known throughout the world as JOE 90.

 

 

NAME: Ian McClaine (Rupert Davies)

AGE: 48

BORN: Baron's Court, London 24th June

POSITION: Electronics Engineer

HEIGHT: 5' 10"

HAIR: Blonde

EYES: Brown

 

At the age of 48, Ian McClaine, an electronics engineer, has become one of the scientific geniuses of the twentieth century. His brains, his know-how and his invention of the BIG RAT have helped to keep the present world politically stable, and through him world peace has been stimulated. He is a quiet, stubborn and determined man.

​

Born in Baron’s Court, London, Ian McClaine was the son of a physicist, employed by the British Government Research Department. His mother was a famous novelist. Date of birth 24th June (series is placed 30 years hence).

​

Mac’s early life was spent in the country while his father was commissioned to the top secret research development station in Dorset. It was a favourable move for the members of the McClaine family, giving his mother peaceful surroundings to concentrate on her writing, and giving Mac the dream environment of every young boy: tumbling sands, green fields and the magnetic sea, so very different to the city life he’d been used to.

​

It was during his early boyhood that Mac developed a love for the county of Dorset, and all it stood for, he vowed that wherever life led him in the future, he would always return to the place that had meant so much to him.

​

The young Ian McClaine revelled in the sunshine. His greatest love being fishing, he spent endless hours at sea in his father’s yacht, lazing away his time with a fishing rod. But all this was soon to end, for at the tender age of nine, Mac was sent to Canford Magnor, one of Britain’s leading public schools, in the hope that a good education would bring Mac to emulate his father’s career.

Ian McClaine thoroughly enjoyed his school days. He excelled on the academic front, concentrating his studies on physics, aerodynamics and electronics. In the sports, too, he was tops. By the end of his nine year stay at the school, Mac had attained distinctive honours in his three chosen subjects. He was given a scholarship to Cambridge, an exceptional credit to his ageing parents.

​

Mac graduated to Cambridge University to study electronics and aerodynamics. And it was here that Mac first discovered his flair for ballooning. It was during Mac’s second year at the newly-founded St Lucifer’s college that Mac attended an optional lecture on the art of ballooning. He loved every second of it. After the talk, he trapped the lecturer in endless conversation on the possibilities of piloting balloons in the present day.

​

The next day, Mac decided to try out the lecturer’s theory. Summoning all his financial resources he managed to buy the raw materials used in the construction of a balloon and he set out to design, and ultimately build, his own balloon with the intention of flying it. It took him just three days to formulate a prototype model and then construct the real thing.

​

Having gained permission to use the University’s store of helium gas, Mac put into operation his first attempt to fly his balloon. A large crowd had gathered to see a feeble attempt. But Mac astounded them. The balloon rose into the air, and with the aid of directional navigation, a unique series of equipment designed by himself, Ian McClaine piloted the balloon around the perimeter of the city and landed on the University’s playing fields to a hero’s welcome. This was the first spark that made Mac give up three years of his later years to design and build balloons. But it was also the spark that was to almost cost him his life not three years later.

​

Apart from this act of extroversion, Mac settled down to a normal existence at Cambridge. He studied hard and had excellent results in his yearly examinations. In his last year at University, Mac relinquished all his non-academic interests to concentrate on his studies with the hope of gaining an advanced scholarship to the United States at Stanford University. Mac’s hopes were realised on graduation day, when he received great commendation for his excellent academic results in electronics and aerodynamics. He was granted that elusive ticket to Stanford.

​

But the scholarship had its drawbacks. It was a grant to be used a year hence, meaning that Mac had to "kill" time - kill a year of his life somehow. He decided that his love for balloons should be activated, so he enrolled at the Aerodynamic Academy in London to study ballooning, under the watchful eye of the lecturer who had made the sport so real to him while at Cambridge.

​

In the short 12 month spell, Mac, with the help of fellow students, piloted his balloon on dare-devil journeys around the globe. In doing this he carved a name for himself in the annals of history. He crossed the Alps from Switzerland to Italy; flew a balloon along the full length of the Mississippi; and circumnavigated the continent of Australia. All in 12 months, and all by balloon.

​

But amid the triumph and success, Mac had his set backs, for on the eve of his accession to Stanford, his parents were both killed in an explosion at the family home, when Mac’s father was experimenting with dangerous chemicals.

​

Mac moved from Britain to America and a three year course at Stanford. And it was here that the Englishman met a man destined to be his life-long friend - Sam Loover. Mac and Sam Loover studied electronics together, they followed the same pastimes together, and were virtually inseparable - a friendship that was stimulated a year later when Sam saved Mac’s life after a ballooning accident in the Arizona desert.

​

Life at Stanford came naturally to both Loover and McClaine. Both graduated from the academy with degrees in electronics. Sam moved into government research, while Ian McClaine left for England with an undecided mind about how he wanted to employ his talents.

​

At the age of 24, Mac returned to England, to London and the Aerodynamic Academy to study further developments in ballooning. For three years he studied, putting forward new ideas, going on new safaris with his balloon and conquering many heights. His achievements were headline news.

​

During Mac’s three years of indecision with regard to a chosen profession, he met a woman at the academy with the same ideals as himself - Mary Reed - who was later to become Mary McClaine. Together these two worked to design, build and pilot balloons across the face of the globe.

​

Three years passed, and McClaine was offered a job as electronics controller of a private industrial firm dealing with computers. He accepted the job and stayed with the firm for eight years, graduating from electronics controller to general manager of the company, and the firm thrived on numerous inventions made by this master mind.

​

Mac was now 36, and had yet again come to a milestone of indecision in his career, so he decided to put his inheritance to its best uses. He bought a tiny, picturesque cottage near the sea in his childhood home of Dorset. His intention was to convert the old sea tunnels running under the cottage into a luxury research laboratory. He intended to devote his life continuing his father’s research into advanced computerisation of brain patterns.

​

Mac contracted a building firm to build his underground laboratory, sparing no expense. But the building of the wonder-lab took time, so Mac decided to take a flat in the heart of London and write, so that his knowledge could be passed on to the world. The first book he published was not on electronics but on ballooning - signs of a divided love. Fate then played a great part in Professor McClaine’s life. He decided that he needed a secretary to help with the backlog of unfinished manuscripts. He advertised the position, and a long lost friend - Mary Reed - applied for the job, accepted, and three months later was married to the sandy-haired scientist.

​

By now the world knew the name Ian McClaine. His books on ballooning and electronic aerodynamics were best-sellers. He appeared on television, and everywhere he went he was given celebrity treatment. Then, suddenly, the professor faded from the public eye. His dream cottage was complete, and he moved underground to turn his dreams into wonder equipment, to live the life of a seemingly eccentric scientist. But Mac was a scientist who knew just what had to be done and how to do it.

​

The cottage is a wonderful combination of the old and the new - labour saving devices for housework etc. although these are not used by Mrs Harris.

​

For eight years, the McClaines lived in the country retreat. Mac worked on his experiments and wrote occasional books, and Mary acted as a normal secretary-housewife. It was during these intense but leisurely days that Professor McClaine designed and built his wonder car, a car that could travel on land, in the air and on water, a car built for the performance of its unique tasks as opposed to a sleek, slimline pleasure model, for the Professor did not appreciate fine frills. It was this car that was to bring him together with Joe, the boy he was later to call ‘son’.

​

One morning, Mac was summoned to London by his publishers, to discuss a new book on Mac’s experimental achievements. The Professor parked his car outside the publishing house in Fleet Street and went inside for the discussion. A few minutes later, a party of children from the nearby orphanage passed on a sight-seeing visit to the newspaper centre of the world. Fascinated by the parked car, a small fair-haired boy divorced himself from the main party, intent on looking into the car. But he didn’t stop at looking. The boy climbed inside the cab for further investigation. Minutes later, McClaine came out of the publishing house, got into his car and drove off, carrying the stowaway huddled behind the seat.

​

Arriving home, Mac was amazed when Joe revealed himself. In fact, the Professor was aghast. He didn’t know what to do. But he invited Joe in for tea and showed him around the laboratory, demonstrating experiments all afternoon. Joe loved every minute of it. Though only five years old, he revelled in the whole set-up. Soon it was time to return Joe to the orphanage, and Joe was extremely reluctant to part company with his new-found friends, the McClaines. With a pledge to visit Joe in the orphanage and let the boy visit the cottage, Joe finally agreed to be taken home and Mac drove back into London with his cargo.

​

Joe’s friendship with the McClaines increased and they decided then that would take him away from the home to live with them as a family: give him a real family upbringing. So Mac and Mary decided to adopt Joe. The adoption procedure was long, but within six months, Joe McClaine quickly adapted to his role at Culver Bay. Joe was devoted to his parents and indeed, his inquisitive presence stimulated Mac’s powers of experiment.

​

For a full year, the McClaine family lived happily. Joe was sent to the local school while Mac carried on with his new experiments in brain pattern transference. But the happiness of the year was to end abruptly when, in the autumn, Mary McClaine was killed on a visit to Mac’s publishers in London. Her car crashed at high speed on the Dorset to London motorway. It was a crippling blow to both Mac and his six year old adopted son and Mac, ridden with grief, shut himself away in his laboratory to spend endless hours on his newest invention.

​

But, spurred on by the completion of his wonder machine and his new responsibility towards Joe, Ian McClaine completed his task of building a super brain pattern transplant machine - the BIG RAT. It took him three years to achieve what many critics had called impossible and BIG RAT was at last born, born into the service of world peace. For Professor McClaine it was a dream come true. And for Joe, the start of a whole series of adventures that neither father nor son had envisaged.

 

​

NAME: Samuel William Loover (Keith Alexander)

AGE: 44

BORN: Flagstaff, Arizona, USA 15th December

POSITION: Deputy Head of W.I.N. London Office

HEIGHT: 5' 11"

HAIR: Grey

EYES: Blue

​

Sam Loover was born 44 years ago in Flagstaff, a small town in the heart of the Arizona desert*. He was brought up in a family of stability rather than wealth, and his father had great ambitions for his son in the engineering field. William Loover, Sam’s father, wanted so much for his son: he wanted Sam to follow the family tradition of individuality and determination with his chosen career. In fact, he wanted his son to succeed where he had failed and, with this in mind, William Loover had worked his hardest, employing his money as he saw best to further his son’s career.

Being brought up in the Arizona desert gave young Sam a hardened outlook on life. He was an expert hunter and angler, and excelled in all the outdoor activities one associates with an "all American boy". Sam was at home in this wild, rough land, but this "training" was to set Sam up for the job that fate had carved for his future life.

​

At the age of 10, Sam was sent to Phoenix to be educated at Arizona’s most renowned technical school. For Sam, this was a milestone in his career, as he was used only to the local junior school, and being in the bosom of a family that numbered the complete population of Flagstaff. At this early age in Phoenix, Sam studied electronic engineering in the hope that his basic training in this field would yield a place at America’s technological institute at Stanford. But city life was too unnatural to Loover, who had known only the wide open spaces of tumbling sand and wooden buildings. He felt condemned in this concrete jungle.

​

Although stifled in this man-made complex of concrete and steel, Sam continued his studies, forced on by the hidden goal of success that he wanted so much - not for his own material gains, but for the pride and strong family ties that he had with his father. Sam’s drive to reach this goal was stimulated three years later for, at the age of 13, his mother was killed in a freak sand storm that devastated Flagstaff. It was a bitter blow to the close family unit, and Sam was torn between two evils - to return home to his father and relinquish his bonds with an engineering career, or to carry on and materialise his father’s dream. Sam chose the latter.

​

For a further five years, Sam studied for his chosen career, and at the end of his training in Phoenix his dream was realised. Sam Loover was awarded a top scholarship grant to Stanford, having gained outstanding results in electronics, engineering and dynamics. This result could have come at no better time, for his father was dangerously ill in his homestead town. Doctors had given him an even chance of survival. The news of his son’s achievements succeeded where all medicine had failed in promoting a quick and complete recovery for William Loover.

​

After a long vacation with his father, Sam returned to the big city life, taking up his elected position at Stanford University to study electronics. It was during this advanced education that Sam Loover met a young Englishman - a fellow electronics student in his first year. This man was Ian McClaine - a man who was to have a great bearing on Sam’s later career.

​

These two men became great friends. It was a friendship that deepened a year later when Sam and Mac were on vacation in Sam’s home-town - when the Arizona desert was almost to claim another life to add to the long roll-call fated to its existence.

​

It was summer. Ian McClaine was dabbling in aerodynamic experiments. He had built a balloon and was piloting it from Phoenix to Flagstaff. Three days out from Sam’s home, a freak storm blew up, forcing Mac’s balloon violently off course, over a rocky uninhabitable part of the desert. The balloon was struck by lightning and Mac was forced to make a crash landing on the jagged boulders, miles from anywhere. He crashed down and on impact he broke his leg. Hopelessly lost, Mac decided to crawl - to crawl anywhere, rather than to stay undefended, at the mercy of the elements. Summoning his courage, he set out on the long journey, a journey to nowhere but disaster.

​

Three hundred miles east, Sam Loover feared for the fate of his friend. Sensing danger, young Loover set out in search of Mac. He was four days alone in that merciless desert, searching, hoping, praying. On the fifth day he found his friend, lying in a small depression in the sand. His leg was broken in three places and he was suffering from extreme exhaustion and exposure. It was touch and go whether or not the two friends would make it home alive. They did, although Mac was close to death.

​

A four-month stay in hospital righted all the wrongs that the desert had inflicted. Mac left hospital mended, with a stimulated friendship, and an even greater love for balloons.

​

It was back to their studios for the now inseparable team of Loover and McClaine. It was a partnership that was not to be broken until Graduation Day. On this day, with grade "A" passes in electronics for Loover and Mac, they split up. Mac went back to England while Sam Loover progressed to a high position with the American government. The partnership was to be brought together 15 years later, never to be broken, on the day Sam was best man at Mac’s wedding.

For Sam Loover a dream had been realised. He was immediately snapped up by the American government for a position within the module of Cape Kennedy - dealing with the electronic aspects of security on the base. From here Sam worked through the ranks. His brilliant application of his subject revealed true genius. He combined his academic brilliance in electronics with his flare and initiative for security. The results were dynamic and, within a short period of time, Loover had revolutionised the security aspects of Cape Kennedy, making it impregnable.

​

It took Sam Loover just five years to establish himself at the Cape. Promotion followed promotion. He became chief security officer at the Government establishment; he was then promoted to security controller for the Western block of the States; and was finally enrolled as Chief Security Adviser to the Secretary for Defence of the United States of America.

​

Sam Loover held this position for just 12 months, for it was an unsung tradition that the US Defence Secretary was also the head and brains behind the C.I.A. When the C.I.A. merged with other Western secret service organisations in 1974, Secretary Calloway was appointed as Supreme Head of W.I.N. and his first action as head of this World Intelligence Network was to enrol the services of Loover as his number one operative agent. Loover was sceptical at first, but realised the potential offered. It was an ideal situation in which to employ his amazing prowess, achieved through his country upbringing and hard study. After much thought he accepted.

​

From then on in his career, Sam Loover never looked back. It was an ideal situation which blended his amazing talents, and released their energy to one common cause. Operating as W.I.N.’s top secret agent, Sam Loover’s record book read like a fictitious spy novel. His daring deeds, quick-thinking and superb judgement and initiative made him master of his trade.

​

For security reasons, none of his exploits as an active agent can be revealed. But recognition was granted in the right places, and after 15 years of active service with the U.S. Head Office in Washington, Loover was promoted to Deputy Head of the London Office attached to W.I.N. In England, Sam was reunited with his old friend, Ian McClaine. It was four years later with the discovery of the BIG RAT that the partnership was refounded, McClaine and Loover working together with one sole aim in mind.

​

As Deputy Head of W.I.N.’s London system, Sam Loover took complete charge of agent’s operations, combining three staff divisions into one. Though reducing his own field work to a minimum, Sam Loover was, and still is, the master mind behind most of the World Intelligence Network’s greatest achievements. He is a true credit to world peace.

​

​

​

NAME: Shane Weston (David Healy)

AGE: 45

BORN: Carson City, Nevada

POSITION: W.I.N. Deputy Controller, Supreme Commander of W.I.N. London Office

HEIGHT: 6'

HAIR: Grey-brown

EYES: Steel blue

​

As Supreme Commander of W.I.N., London office, and Deputy Head Controller of the entire W.I.N. Organisation, Shane Weston has blazed a trail as a secret agent for all to follow and emulate. For the past 20 years, he has been one of the world’s top undercover agents, operating across the face of the globe. His achievements are second-to-none!

​

Shane Weston was born in the United States of America, in Carson City, a small township on the edge of the great Nevada desert. The son of a small-time ranch owner whose mother was a Cherokee Indian, Shane Weston had an unhappy childhood. When he was seven, his mother died of an incurable illness and the hardship and uncertainty that ended her life affected the boy’s early life. It affected him so much in fact that he became very much a "loner", preferring to spend days on end in the wide expanse of the desert, climbing and swimming, rather than spend his time with his father, whom he had grown to dislike.

​

It was during his exploits in the desert, living dangerously and taking his life in his hands with every new challenge, that Shane Weston developed super-efficient senses and extremely powerful strength and ability to accept and execute the most dangerous of self-chosen assignments. His love of the rough and wild country taught the young Weston to use his wits and keep his head in any situation.

​

Being alone for so many days on end and so far removed from his father, Shane Weston grew so far away from his only parent that he treated him as a stranger. Both father and son were at fault in the relationship, neither wanting to accept the other. And so, at the age of 12, Shane decided that the best thing to do was leave home. With very little education behind him, save his own talents, Weston left the Nevada homestead and travelled east hoping to find the elusive pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

​

The next four years were spent on the road. In and out of menial jobs, he earned enough money to travel further, living rough and sleeping at the roadside. It was a tough life, which Weston accepted and thrived on: a tough training course to harden his already concrete senses with a glazed exterior.

​

But at the age of 16, the young Weston decided to stop running away from life, to go back and accept the convention of living in the twentieth century. And so, faced with the unenviable proposal of re-joining his father, he took the only way out he saw fit and joined the US Army as a marine, signing on for an eight year stint.

​

The army was the life for Weston and he revelled in the new challenges put before him. Enlisting as a private, Shane Weston was determined at this stage of his life to carve a career, picking up the remnants of his former life and moulding all his experience and super-human senses left to him from a long line of Cherokee Indians, together hoping that the end product would be good.

It was, and Shane Weston slotted easily into the jigsaw pattern of army life. But he still remained the eternal loner, preferring not to make too many close friends: to exist for himself. And Weston's flare for challenges made him set himself new and more difficult targets to achieve. He decided that he had to reach the position of Commander by the end of his eight year service, a target that he was to pass with flying colours. After his initial two years training and preliminary service, Weston was promoted to the rank of Corporal and given charge of his own platoon. With promotion came active service overseas in America’s role as "Peace Officer" of the World, so Weston and his platoon were posted to trouble spots in Asia.

​

It was here that Weston excelled. In the resulting minor skirmishes and occasional pitched battles in America’s voluntary peace keeping acts, Weston became the Marines' hero. His outstanding record was a credit to the service. Time after time, he was left in charge of a suicidal post for which all hope was lost, and time after time, he managed to survive the onslaughts of the enemy, reasserting the role and changing certain defeat into glorified victory. And with his heroic deeds came reward from back home. Promotion followed promotion, medal followed medal, and at the end of a three year period as war gave way to peace and the troops were returned to the States, Shane Weston stood supreme. But now it was Captain Shane Weston with the distinctive order of valour, The Purple Heart, pinned to his breast.

​

Back to America came the somewhat quelled character of Shane Weston, now 22 years of age. His love for campaigning had to take a back seat now that the World was nearing peace, and he had to step in line with the more conventional attitudes of an army in peace time. Reluctantly, Weston adopted these attitudes realising that he had just three years outstanding before he became a civilian, three years that passed slowly, with Shane Weston marking out time as a desk-bound Captain dealing solely with defence security, a life he didn’t cherish.

​

With the dawning of his release from active service, Weston realised just in time that he was not yet fit to take up a life as a civilian and so decided to seek further positions in his army career. He joined the Army Intelligence Network, thus signing himself on for a further 10 years. But with the increased service came an increase in promotion and Weston's aims had been realised, for, with the advent of accepting the post, Weston was promoted to the rank of Commander!

​

At last, Shane Weston had found the life for which he was suited. Though a commander in the field, Weston was assigned as an active intelligence agent, the army’s equivalent to the secret agent, and attached to the CIA. As one of the top agents for the service, Weston saw tremendous action both in the USA and abroad. He revelled in every moment of his employment, gaining outstanding recognition for his valuable services - services achieved with the help of his extraordinary supersensitive powers. For two years, Weston worked as an active field agent for the CIA, serving his country abroad. It was while on active service in Britain that he met a young English girl, Sue Denver. After completing the assignment - which ended in success with Weston smashing an enemy plot to destroy London - Weston returned to the States taking Sue Denver with him as his wife.

​

Now married, Weston thought of retirement from the service, but he shunned the idea and continued in the only business he knew how to handle. Times changed, and with it he saw the decline of the CIA to be co-opted into the new Intelligence Network - W.I.N. - and Weston was the immediate choice as active agent for this new network, this time attached to the United States divisional section.

For nine years, Weston worked hand in hand with W.I.N., smashing enemy infiltration on numerous occasions and gaining himself recognition for bravery throughout the underworld realms of the World's Secret Service. But then, at the age of 35, his career almost came to and abrupt and merciless end.

​

It was while on assignment in South America that Weston came up against Lomax Brunt, an underworld assassin employed by the enemy to deal with death. After hunting the enemy killer from town to town, the two super-men met in the Amazon jungle. The meeting was a chanced rendezvous. Both were out to kill the other, and it was only a question of who would survive. In the resulting duel, Brunt was shot three times in the heart, but still refused to die before inflicting a serious wound to Weston’s spine. Both men fell to the blood-spattered jungle carpet and when W.I.N. homed in on the position they found brunt dead and Weston dying.

​

A two year spell in hospital followed the encounter, after which Weston was retired from active service to become deputy head of the American zone of W.I.N. In this new role, Weston excelled himself, planning campaigns and counter-planning to outwit the enemy, he even trained his agents to reach the peak of super-human ability. He got results and the name Shane Weston virtually took over from the W.I.N. organisation.

​

For five years, Weston headed the secret service files of W.I.N. - American zone, before being called to higher offices in appreciation for his inexhaustible services. Appreciation came in the form of promotion to Head of the W.I.N. office in London, and with this job came the added responsibility as Deputy Head of the W.I.N. Organisation, a great honour bestowed on a man who deserved far more.

​

For two years now, Shane Weston has been in charge of W.I.N. in the London office, working hand in hand with his deputy, Sam Loover. To his own active agents he is the boss - the man who knows the game and how to play it! He has the experience and know-how to back up this statement. At the age of 45, Weston knows the capabilities of his men: he trains them himself and is sure that they are the best in the world. His career with W.I.N. is at its peak now, his record will remain legend forever. One thing is certain: when Shane Weston accedes to the Number 1 position in the World Intelligence Network as Supreme Controller, peace will echo around the world for a long, long time.

 

 

 

ADA HARRIS

 

Mrs. Harris is about 55 years old. Born in London. She visits the cottage every day to clean and sometimes makes small meals (Mrs. Thursday type). She is thoroughly dependable but not very imaginative when it comes to understanding the unusual interests and activities of the McClaine family.

 

​

​

W.I.N. – WORLD INTELLIGENCE NETWORK

​

This is an organisation similar to M.I.5. or C.I.A. Its Head Office is in Washington, U.S.A. London is the location of its second biggest office from other offices and agencies all over the world.

The world is split into an eastern and western block. The aim of World Intelligence is to assist in maintaining the balance of power by whatever means in their power - but mainly through the expertise of their intelligence agents and their most special agent - JOE 90. W.I.N. is not a rescue organisation nor is it a police force.

​

Until Joe 90 there were 89 London based agents in operation. Joe became the 90th - hence JOE 90.

​

Communications are by special satellite and a network of transmitters.

​

​

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BIG RAT – Brain Impulse Galvanascope Record and Transfer

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This is Professor McClaine’s brain child, the culmination of a lifetime’s interest and research in the field of electronics. It is housed in his top secret underground laboratory at the cottage where he and Joe live. It is a highly sophisticated electronic machine capable of recording the brain patterns of one person and transferring them to another. In the course of events, a number of "tapes" have been collected, but it is usually necessary when a JOE 90 mission starts to go out and get the brain recordings of the expert whose knowledge is needed.

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To receive the brain transfer Joe sits himself comfortably in a special chair; this rises up into a circular "cage". Once inside, the machine is switched on, the "cage" begins to revolve - the tape is run.

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Various electronic noises and psychedelic light effects are produced as the transfer begins to take effect. To Joe, this is a matter of routine and not an unpleasant experience - in fact he seems to enjoy it all.

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After he has received the brain transfer, the recording works only when he wears a pair of special glasses with a set of built-in electrodes which connect to his temples. Wearing the glasses, Joe has the ability, skill, experience and knowledge of the expert. Without them he is just another boy.

The exact technical details of the way in which the BIG RAT works are a closely guarded secret, known only to Professor McClaine. There are, of course, plans, circuit diagrams and other technical details stored away, but even if found it would require something of the genius of Professor McClaine to understand them.

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JOE 90’ SCHOOL BOY’S CASE

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This is not an ordinary school boy's case. Although it looks good, it does not give away its very special secret. It was presented to Joe when he first became Agent 90 by World Intelligence Network - London.

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When the lid is opened up in the normal way by two small clips near the handle, it simply discloses a compartment which contains Joe's exercise books - English, Maths etc. and other usual items like a set of colouring pencils, protractors, pens, rubber, pencil sharpener etc.

Nothing unusual about that. But the thickness of the case is deceiving and beneath this compartment there are two other cleverly concealed compartments.

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To open these, the case is turned over so that it lies flat on what is normally the lid. At the foot of the case are four little studs - one in each corner - for the case to stand on when not in use.

To open the first of the compartments, one simply turns the stud on that side of the case to release the lid - this then lifts up revealing a compartment which contains Joe's electrode glasses (without which the recorded brain patterns cannot function), the special W.I.N. badge presented to him by Shane Weston, a silencer for the gun and two special reports.

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The other compartment is opened in the same way: the stud on that side of the case is turned, the lid released and inside one finds Joe's automatic pistol (it is small, light and will fire 200 times without reloading), a small transistorised pocket transmitter enabling Joe to keep in contact with W.I.N. HQ - London or any other agent in the field, 2.38mm ammunition clips and two more secret reports.

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The case is of vital importance on Joe's missions and would normally go with him everywhere.

 

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Mac’s Car

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This is a car built by Mac to his own specifications. Its lack of design and unusual appearance is explained by the fact that, as a Professor-type, Mac has concentrated on performance.

It travels quickly while as a hovercraft or on land, sea or in the air. It has retractable wings and fins. Retractable wheels.

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In the air its maximum speed is 300 miles per hour.

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On the sea 70 knots.

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On land 200 miles per hour.

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It uses a special high octane essence and does about 20 miles to the gallon. It is powered by two powerful jet engines.

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Colour: Metallic Viridian green

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SAM LOOVER’S CAR

Modern two door saloon. Metallic silver grey.

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Gas turbine job. Does 200 miles an hour.