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Brent Cleever, born William Frazer (PROSE: Biography — 21) and better known as Twenty One, was a Senior Special Agent for the Universal Secret Service.
Biography
Early life
Cleever was born William Frazer in Kahra in 2018 to space pioneers Sir William Frazer and Lady Frazer, (PROSE: Biography — 21) who were early colonisers of Mars, (PROSE: This is 2065) having settled there in 2009. (PROSE: Biography — 21) He was educated at Kahra University and graduated with degrees in mathematics, space navigation, music, (PROSE: Biography — 21) commercial management and salesmanship.
According to one account, Cleever went on to work with the Kahra International Toy Company. On his first representative trip to Venus, he was involved in the breaking up of the Organisation For Liquidation, Extermination, Terrorism and Arson. As a result of this, he was approached by S, the head of the newly formed Universal Secret Service. (PROSE: This is 2065)
According to another account, Frazer joined the Martian Space Academy following university, graduating as an astronaut in 2036. He was transferred to the World Space Patrol headquarters, then in Washington, as aide to Air General Steve Kalizki. Frazer inherited his father's title upon his death in 2037. As Sir William Frazer, he moved with Kalizki when the General was promoted to the post of Director of the Universal Secret Service. To protect their families, they both followed normal USS practice and changed their names. Kalizki became Zodiac, also using the codename S, while Frazer became known as Brent Cleever. (PROSE: Biography — 21)
In the USS
Junior career
On holiday on Venus in 2039, Cleever became involved with an attempt to assassinate the Venusian President but his "brilliant handling" of the case led to the destruction of the would-be killers. Almost immediately, he had his first encounter with the newly-formed crime syndicate SOFRAM. Caught by SOFRAM agents, Cleever was only able to escape thanks to the aid of a child's toy. Returning to Mars, he contacted the Century 21 toy company and asked them to make toys to his designs and specifications. This idea was an immediate success and, although he was almost killed twice by his own toys, they were soon standard issue to all agents.
At some point after this, S decided that the USS should take over the Century 21 toy factory and use it as a front cover for the Service. At the same time, he hired Tina Palamac as chief designer. In 2041, Cleever was made Senior Special Agent Twenty One and quickly established himself as the agent of the USS. (PROSE: Biography — 21)
Missions with Tina
Twenty One's adventures from 2045 to 2055 were detailed in USS files and later publicised by special permission of the World President. Due to security requirements, however, all illustrations of Twenty One were artist's impressions as no photograph had ever been taken of him or any other USS agent. (PROSE: Biography — 21)
News from Washington once indicated that sixty agents from the Marine Commando Division had been dispatched to Triton to give aid to Agent 23, who was searching for the missing Agent 21. (COMIC: Plague of Death)
In December 2046, after the failiure of Senior Special Agent 24, S told Twenty One to go to Great Britain in order to overthrow the Director, the head of a military dictatorship, so that Britain would be permitted to join the World Government. Although he and Agent Tina Palamac were initially forced to swim four miles to Wales when the World Navy submarine they were aboard was attacked, Twenty One and Tina were able to work with the revolutionaries to uncover a traitor within their midsts and blow up the Director's palace in London by using a toy aircraft loaded with atomic bombs.
Two months later, in February 2047, Twenty One was with Dai when World President Nikita Bandranaik officially welcomed Britain to the World Government. (COMIC: Down With The Director)
Mission to Astra and resignation
While on a mission to the rocket base of Mikhal, in Bereznik, Twenty One uncovered a plot to kill both the World President and the Astran Kaplan. Although he was able to escape on the World Navy submarine WN7, he was seriously injured by an explosion. He was taken to Kiel Hospital in Kiel to recover but Tina was killed on protection detail in a firefight with Bereznik agents. After his recovery, Twenty One went to Astra to supervise the development of the Andromeda Project, eventually finding the spy and saboteur to be Debbie Latimer, the secretary of Senator Imbo Kento. Returning to Kahra, Twenty One announced his intentions to hunt Tina's killers but when S forbade him, he resigned from the Service. (COMIC: Andromeda Or Die)
Cleever eventually managed to reach Bereznik, with a little help from Dai who was now Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Following a brief stint as X Two One, an agent for the Bereznik Secret Police, Cleever found Colonel Paternik and handed him over to the authorities in Berlin, leaving him at the mercy of the World Court. (COMIC: The Bitter Cold Dish) After defeating threats to his life from both the USS and the Secret Police in the forms of Bruce Silver and Hans Surbeck respectively, who were each the opposite of their agency's normal approach, Cleever decided that he wished to rejoin the USS. Returning to Mars once again, he met with S in his office expecting a court martial for his crimes but S only shook his hand to welcome him back, telling him he had been missed. (COMIC: The Long Road Back)
Missions with Jack
After Tina's death, Twenty One took on Jack Reed as his new assistant. In 2047, Twenty One invented deadly flies, designed to be used for World Senate security patrol. At a meeting of the World Senate, he and Jack were assigned to protect the Saturnian delegates but a cat had damaged one of the flies and erased its memory banks which resulted in it targeting the World President and Twenty One himself. He managed to climb on the outside of the senate building up to the top floor to retrieve his samples case so another of the flies could do battle with the rogue element. The malfunctioning fly was the victor but Jack was able to destroy it by swatting it out of the air. Jack was glad the affair was over but Twenty One joked that the toughest part, the official inquiry, was yet to come. (COMIC: Deadly Fly)
After SOFRAM stole a planatomic missile and threatened to destroy London if Twenty One wasn't handed over and the USS disbanded, he was roused from his bed on Mars and arrested to be taken to the Kahra spaceport, and subsequently the World Security Council meeting in Washington, by a captain. The World President forbade him from tracking down the submarine with the missiles as his absence could not be risked but allowed him to brief Jack on the situation and send him in his place. He was transported to the location of the handover in New York but Jack was able to succeed in knocking out the SOFRAM agents on the submarine with the missiles, allowing him to escape with just a few holes in his bullet-proof vest. He immediately raced to the submarine with other World Government forces and helped to detain the head of SOFRAM, although he and Jack were later given the near-impossible task of protecting him until the government investigation committee could meet.
After some time, Twenty One and Jack collected the head of SOFRAM from World Army Camp David in Canada where he was being held. They organised a convoy to move at night but their car was soon run off the road. The chase continued without them. The trio took the overnight bus to Crassville and then boarded a goods train on the trans-America monorail. SOFRAM blew up a section of railway but they nevertheless continued in their carriage and briefly escaped the SOFRAM agents down a mountain. When Jack got stuck in a bear trap, their prisoner saw a chance for escape and Twenty One pursued him but he was knocked out by the leader when he attempted to tackle him. Upon everyone awaking, there was a brief battle with the SOFRAM agents but their gunshots caused an avalanche which resulted in their deaths and the trio boarded an aircraft to complete their journey although it was later shot down by more enemy agents. Twenty One rescued the head of SOFRAM for some quicksand but he later jumped in front of a bullet aimed at the USS agent, not to save him but to protect the secrets within his head. He and Jack received a grilling from the World President for their efforts, telling them that the fiasco would go down as a black mark on their confidential files. (COMIC: An Eye For An Eye)
As USS Director
In 2055, Twenty One took over from S as the Director of the Universal Secret Service, who had been promoted to the World Security Council with responsibility for counter espionage. (PROSE: Biography — 21) Twenty One was still in charge of field agents and the administrative control of the USS in 2065. (PROSE: This is 2065)
The Undercover Screening Department of 21 provided top secret reports about the activities of Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward to TV Century 21. (COMIC: Mr. Steelman, PROSE: Marineville Waits!)
In February 2065, TV21 published an encoded assignment for all USS special agents which requested that they tell Twenty One should they want a trip in Fireball XL5. (COMIC: Power Play)
One week in April 2065, TV21 acted on orders from Twenty One when they printed his USS secret bulletin Contact 21 on page eighteen. (COMIC: Duel of the Daleks)
Recieving plans on how to build model Daleks from Agent Howard Whitehead, Twenty One told him that he liked his ideas and that HQ staff had already built some and were planning a mock battle with models of the World Government Army. He further commended him by stating that he had brains and was sure he would be able to devise a means of escape if ever in a tight spot. (PROSE: From Howard Whitehead)
Twenty One informed Agent Peter Ayliffe that Agent 0031, who had been assigned to take Ayliffe's recently-invented Identicode to the Dalek Emperor, had not been heard from since. (PROSE: From Special Agent Peter Ayliffe)
Twenty One explained to aspiring agent Derek Connell how reports from the Stingray and XL5 teams were relayed to Earth so quickly. Working on the same principle as television, radio waves carrying the pictures were fed through a special wave accelerator which boosted their speed to faster than that of light. (PROSE: From D. Connell of Essex)
After obtaining a guarantee of safety from David Corley intended for the Kaplan Minus which invited him to Essex, Twenty One revealed to him that the guarantee had been received after Steve Zodiac left for Astra and, as the Minus was now dead, he assured Corley that it would be given to the new Kaplan instead. (PROSE: From D. Corley)
Twenty One replied to Agent R. Miles, who had made a spy game and enclosed it in a letter, suggesting that a similar game be given away as a prize. He gave Miles details about the TV Century 21 Summer Extra which HQ staff did indeed devise a spy game for. (PROSE: From R. Miles)
Philip Bevan sent Twenty One a letter about his theories on the anatomy of the Dalek that also told him about his weekly comic, Thriller. Twenty One replied, telling Bevan that he was interested in seeing a copy of the publication at some point. (PROSE: From Philip Bevan)
When Agent J. Gray wrote in to answer Agent Connell's question about the identity of Lady Penelope, they stated that "by secret detection" they had discovered that she had applied for a job as a part owner of an emergency rescue service. Twenty One confirmed the authenticity of this intelligence, adding that she would be joining the Tracy brothers and "their fantastic crafts" in Thunderbirds later in the year. (PROSE: J. Gray)
Agent E. Oglesby contacted Twenty One with an inventory of the special tools in their possession after Twenty One had done the same. He told Oglesby that they had presented a "good report" and that agents should always take care of their equipment, among which was the Dalekode, because "they never know when they might need it". (PROSE: E. Oglesby)
When Agent 671107 contacted Twenty One concerned that they were being observed by enemy agents, he told them that there were no Senior Agents currently assigned to their area but noted the possibility that these suspected enemies were just some junior agents practising. (PROSE: From Agent 671107)
Responding to a photograph sent in by Agent R. J. Landen of a replica of Dr. Who's time machine that they had created, Twenty One said that it was a "fine piece of work" and was certain that other agents would wish to see it. (PROSE: Agent Inventor)
In 2066, Twenty One complimented Agent Mason on their report about Zeg, which identified the Red Dalek in the week's password, stating that they were "obviously a keen follower" of the Daleks' story. (PROSE: Password Report on Red Dalek)
In 2067, Alexander Knight of Glasgow wrote to Twenty One to request information on T.J. Younger, who had recently replaced Nikita Bandranaik as World President. In response, Twenty One printed a short biography which had to be bare in details for security reasons. (PROSE: Information Service)
In 2069, the USS reported that Twenty One and Tina Palamac, assisted by their robotic dog Kingdom, were poised to enter a SOFRAM base on the Moon. (PROSE: Stalemate!)
Behind the scenes
The character of Agent 21 originates from the TV Century 21 series 21.
Following on from his introduction to readers of TV21 in January 1965 and his comic debut some months later in June, Brent Cleever appeared onscreen in the Thunderbirds episode 30 Minutes After Noon, which was first broadcast 11 November 1965. The character was voiced by David Graham and was notably portrayed completely by a human actor instead of a puppet due to only his hands being seen. Twenty One (pronounced "Two-One" here) was also referred to as Sir William Frazer in the episode, though Frazer was not confirmed as the TV21 character's birth name until the later publication of a biography in the 1966 Annual.