The Federal Agents Bureau, often shortened to FAB, is a spy organisation headquartered in London with a strong connection to Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward. Despite only having appeared once in Thunderbirds fiction, the organisation has had a regular, yet varied, appearance in various promotional material since 1966.
By the events of Cliffhanger, Lady Penelope was undertaking one last job for the Bureau's leader, before she left the organisation permanently for International Rescue. The mission would see her recover a set of documents, which would result in a dramatic chase down a snowy mountain range.
Behind the Scenes[]
There have been four 'versions' of FAB throughout Thunderbirds, and as is usual for "expanded" media, all contradict each other to varying degrees.
The Federal Agents Bureau originated in the pages of Lady Penelope, a magazine that was spun off from TV Century 21. In issue 1, the organisation is said to be affiliated with International Rescue, and Lady Penelope is its number one agent. FAB would maintain the "FAB Club" section in the magazine, a multi-page feature containing fashion, food, and general advice, until the whole section was replaced with "Penny's 4/Shot" during the magazine's major redesign in issue 103.
It would not be until the combined Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons annual that an attempt was made to bring the organisation "in-universe". Here, the organisation was said to be one of the various spy organisations Lady Penelope had worked with in her pre-International Rescue 'career', and she would eventually take over as its "Supreme Commander". In her position as Commander, Penelope would meet Dianne Simms - who would go on to become Rhapsody Angel in Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons - and the two went on to do many assignments for the organisation. When Penelope left to join International Rescue, Diane would take over the Command position, however not long after the organisation would be forced to close for unspecified reasons. However, this does not line up with the depiction of pre-IR Penelope in the early Lady Penelope comic stories.
FAB was revived for Thunderbirds The Comic in 1992, represented by its 'Head of Communications' Link-13, who acted as the magazine's 'in-unverse' editor (similar to what Agent 21 had been to TV Century 21). Here, it was said to be the body responsible for managing International Rescue's network of agents, founded alongside the rescue arm.
The version depicted in Redan's Cliffhanger would be the first - and only - time the organisation had been clearly depicted in a story. However, it still took some creative liberty and diverged with the previous versions, with Lady Penelope merely just being one of their agents instead of its leader, with that role filled by an unnamed man (and not Dianne Simms, which would line up with the annual version).