Plot
The United Kingdom is shaken by the revelation of the existence of an espionage network in the country. At a meeting at Scotland Yard between intelligence (MI5 and MI6), Scotland Yard and the Home Office, Captain Francis Blake, Director of MI5, explains that whenever its services take a track, spies manage to disappear without a trace. Only a message carrier by name of Jennings was arrested. He then speculates there is a mole within the Intelligence Service. The same night, at the Centaur Club, Blake explains to Professor Philip Mortimer the difficulty of dismantling such a network where are agents unknown even among themselves.
The next day, during the interrogation of Jennings, a photograph of his contact is revealed: to their surprise, it's Captain Blake. The latter escapes with Jennings after a chase on a motorcycle with his former deputy, David Honeychurch. A few hours later, Mortimer is escorted to his apartment which is to be searched by police. Made aware of recent events, he refuses to believe in the betrayal of his friend, even in the face of mounting evidence. He thinks rather that he is in danger and that he must find him to help him. He remembers while the day before, Blake told him about innocuous way of his escape to his cousin Virginia in Yorkshire. After escaping surveillance by the police, he travels, with the help of a wanderer, to the North of England in a freight train to avoid police checks. He then travels to Seanberry by bike where Virginia already seems to know him and waits for him.
Meanwhile, Blake and Jennings arrive in London via a postal van. Entering a home in the English countryside, Blake faces his old enemy Colonel Olrik and his man, Jack, killing Jennings. Olrik is not convinced by the betrayal of Blake, and to test it, he orders him to kill Fielding, an agent of MI5 in captivity. Blake does not, and manages to knock out Olrik and Jack at the end of a struggle during which Fielding is seriously injured. In order to escape, he triggers a fire, which forces Olrik and his men to hurriedly leave the residence before firefighters arrive.
In Seanberry, Virginia reveals to Mortimer that she is a sleeper agent (aka 'cousin') in the service of Blake and that the betrayal of the latter is just a covert operation to infiltrate the spy network. But in the early morning, things get complicated when the Home Secretary, the only person of significance knowing of the operation, is the victim of a car "accident". In addition, the Chief Inspector Glenn Kendall finds Mortimer and stops him. About to be arrested, the Professor jumps into the convertible with Virginia who manages to lose his pursuers. She takes Mortimer to a farm where he exchanges his clothes with a man like him to deal with the police. In London, Honeychurch – who turns out also to be part of the operation – is caught red-handed by the Under-Secretary of State for the Home Office, Harold Doyle-Smith, in person.
Mortimer is driven to Scotland where he finds Blake in a cromlech. He then discovers they are right next to Ardmuir Castle where is a scientific seminar. Blake tells him that Olrik's plan is to kidnap the brightest physicists of the Kingdom and make them work on behalf of a foreign power. The thug then appears with his men and the two friends split up to evade them. Mortimer, surrounded, jumps into the water from the top of a cliff, while Blake gets in a car, of which the occupant turns out be the Under-Secretary of State Harold Doyle-Smith. Blake then reveals to him his secret operation and, arriving at the Castle, Doyle-Smith gives him the benefit of the doubt. When Blake sees the six fingered hand of industrialist Adrian Deloraine, he recalls Fielding's warning and understands that the Under-Secretary of State is the Mole. Without being able to react, he finds himself locked in a dungeon with his deputy Honeychurch.
During this time, Mortimer, who everyone thinks is dead, is stuck on a ledge of the cliff. He follows an underpass taking him to a secret submarine base located under the Castle. Quietly, he releases Blake and Honeychurch. While the latter warns the SAS, Blake and Mortimer sabotage the generator base and then, at the end of a struggle between Mortimer and Olrik, the propeller and rudder of the submarine. A firefight rages between the two sides until the SAS invade the Castle and the base. Everyone is arrested except Olrik, who manages to escape by sea plane. Blake and Mortimer are awarded from the hands of the Home Secretary the Victoria Cross for service rendered to their homeland.
Blake and Mortimer is a Belgian comics series created by the Belgian writer and comics artist Edgar P. Jacobs. It was one of the first series to appear in the Franco-Belgian comics magazine Tintin in 1946, and was subsequently published in book form by Les Éditions du Lombard.
Atlantis Mystery by the Belgian artist Edgar P. Jacobs was the seventh comic book in the Blake and Mortimer series, first published in Tintin magazine from March 30, 1955, to May 30, 1956. It appeared in book format in 1957.
The Yellow "M" by the Belgian artist Edgar P. Jacobs is the sixth comic book in the Blake and Mortimer series. It was first published in Tintin magazine between 6 August 1953 and 3 November 1954 and later appeared in book form in 1956.
The Mystery of the Great Pyramid, Volume 1: Manetho's Papyrus by the Belgian artist Edgar P. Jacobs was the fourth comic book in the Blake and Mortimer series, first published in Tintin magazine from March 23, 1950 to February 21, 1951. It appeared in book format in 1954.
The Necklace Affair by the Belgian artist Edgar P. Jacobs was the tenth comic book in the Blake and Mortimer series.
The Mystery of the Great Pyramid, Volume 2: The Chamber of Horus by the Belgian artist Edgar P. Jacobs was the fifth comic book in the Blake and Mortimer series, first published in Tintin magazine.
S.O.S. Meteors: Mortimer in Paris is the eighth comic book in the Blake and Mortimer series by Edgar P. Jacobs. It was first published in Tintin magazine.
Professor Sató's 3 Formulae, Volume 1: Mortimer in Tokyo is the eleventh book in the Blake and Mortimer series. It was written and drawn by Edgar P. Jacobs and was the last book of the series to be drawn by him.
Professor Sató's 3 Formulae, Volume 2: Mortimer vs. Mortimer was the twelfth book in the Blake and Mortimer series. It was started by Edgar P. Jacobs but after his death, completed by Bob de Moor, and was finally published in 1990.
The Voronov Plot is the fourteenth book in the Blake and Mortimer comic book series. It was released in 2000.
The Strange Encounter is the fifteenth book in the Blake and Mortimer series created by Edgar P. Jacobs. Published in 2001, it was written by Jean Van Hamme and drawn by Ted Benoit who had already contributed to the series with The Francis Blake Affair in 1996. Whereas that book dealt with espionage, this story combines elements of detective and science fiction of the sort present in Jacobs' original stories.
The Sarcophagi of the Sixth Continent, Volume 1: The Universal Threat is the sixteenth Blake and Mortimer book in the series.
The Sarcophagi of the Sixth Continent, Volume 2: Battle of the Minds is the seventeenth Blake and Mortimer book in the series.
The Curse of the Thirty Denarii is the nineteenth Blake and Mortimer book in the series. The story was written by Jean Van Hamme. Its completion was delayed with the death of the artist, René Sterne, on 15 November 2006. The book was completed by Sterne's girlfriend Chantal de Spiegeleer and was released on 20 November 2009.
The Gondwana Shrine is the eighteenth Blake and Mortimer comic book in the series. The book was published in France and Belgium on March 28, 2008.
The Secret of The Swordfish was the first story in the Blake and Mortimer comic album series by Edgar P. Jacobs. It describes how a far eastern empire takes over the world and the adventures of two Britons as they try to bring about the development of a weapon which will enable them to fight back. Drawing elements from the recent events of World War II as well as the emerging Cold War, the trilogy is set in an alternate reality of the 1950s, in which a Third World War is played out.
The Oath of the Five Lords is the twenty-first Blake and Mortimer book in the series. The story was written by Yves Sente. The book was drawn by André Juillard and was released on the 16 November 2012.
Plutarch's Staff is the 23rd adventure in the Blake and Mortimer series. It was written by Yves Sente and drawn by André Juillard and Étienne Schréder, with color by Madeleine de Mille. The volume was released on December 5, 2014. It was pre-published as a series of daily comic strips beginning in April 2014 in Le Soir, and repeated in the summer in Le Télégramme. The title refers to the scytale, a military coding system and one of the oldest messages in history.
The Septimus Wave is the twenty-second book in the Blake and Mortimer series. It is written by Jean Dufaux, illustrated by Antoine Aubin and Etienne Schréder and released in 2013. The book is a sequel to The Yellow "M" and deals with Colonel Olrik's past with Septimus.
The Testament of William S. is the twenty-fourth album of the comic series Blake and Mortimer, written by Yves Sente and drawn by André Juillard, based on the characters created by Edgar P. Jacobs.
