Plot
In February 1958, at Simla, Indian warlords came together around Acoka, former risen Emperor of India, who tells them they are developing a "new weapon" that will allow India to take revenge on the West. After his speech, Acoka talks with Major Varitch of the Red Army participating in the operation, and they agree to take revenge on Blake and Mortimer.
Many years ago, the young Philip Mortimer returns for the first time in several years in India to find his parents. In Bombay, he helps a compatriot, Francis Blake, plagued with extremists. The two young men became friends during their journey by train. After having escaped a bomb attack thanks to the fact of having been knocked out of Ambala station, Philip finally gets to Simla, where he finds his parents. The next day, he finds his childhood friend, Sushil, who is very cold with him. Invited to come and listen to the speech of Acoka, the young Scotsman falls in love with Princess Gita. During the reception organized by the Mortimers in honor of their son, Acoka appears suddenly and ordered the guests to leave his country and Philip away from his daughter. Archibald Mortimer, the disappointed by his son's attitude, decides to return him to England the next day. At night, Philip goes on his date with Gita but, arriving late, misses it. The next day, at Simla station, Acoka comes to accuse him of being the cause of the suicide of his daughter and curses him.
Back in February 1958, in London, Mortimer, awakened by a nightmare, is about to join the team of the British Pavilion of the world exhibition of 1958 in Brussels. At the same time, in Antarctica, Professor Anartapur supervises the unloading of a fragile equipment for the Indian base of Gondwana. In a secret underground cavity, he finds Acoka and Major Varitch escorting Colonel Olrik. The Emperor explains to the latter that he will have to work on the plan and that he will win the opportunity of revenge on Mortimer. In Brussels, Mortimer makes Blake visit the British pavilion where a permanent radio contact with the Halley Antarctic base is set up. At the French pavilion, the two friends meet the Professor Labrousse who is about to leave for the French Antarctic base.
On the street, a cyclist passes a message to Blake, which forces him to admit to his friend the real purpose of his visit: a conspiracy against the West by several poor countries linked to a traffic of uranium to the World Expo. The message advises to look on the side of the Congolese pavilion, the two friends decided to take a look. In Antarctica, Acoka is about to send the spirit of Olrik to sabotage Expo thanks to his sarcophagi and the radio link between the British pavilion and the base. Shortly after, in Brussels, all electrical equipment around Blake and Mortimer flashes and stirs, leading to damage in the Congolese pavilion.
Blake and Mortimer then meet their old friend and servant Ahmed Nasir, now the Indian intelligence officer. Together, they conclude that there is a spy in the British pavilion team. Nasir joins the team to find out the traitor, while Blake and Mortimer go to the Soviet and American pavilions, where the strange phenomena recurs until the appearance of the face of Olrik on a screen. The two friends understand that the link between the pavilion and the British base is related to the phenomena and Nasir reveals Badju Singh, the assistant of Mortimer, is the traitor. The same evening, the three friends question him and discover that he exchanges a parcel of uranium with Bert Van den Brand, the foreman of the Congolese pavilion. Arrested thanks to the intervention of the Congolese, Van den Brand tells them that Singh has to go to the Indian Antarctic base on the freighter Ravi Kuta. Blake, Mortimer and Nasir decided to join Professor Labrousse in South Africa to secretly embark with him aboard the ship La Madeleine to the Antarctic.
The Adventures of Blake & Mortimer is a Belgian comics series created by writer and comics artist Edgar P. Jacobs. It was one of the first book series to appear in the Franco-Belgian comics magazine Tintin in 1946, and was subsequently published in book form by Belgian comic book publisher Le 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 Time Trap by the Belgian artist Edgar P. Jacobs was the ninth comic book in the Blake and Mortimer series. It appeared in book format in 1962.
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, then was reprinted in a single-volume edition with Part 2 in 2011 (ISBN 9782870971697).
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. It first appeared in book format in 1955, then was reprinted in a single-volume edition with Part 1 in 2011 (ISBN 9782870971697).
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 Francis Blake Affair was the thirteenth Blake and Mortimer book and the first one not to be written by Edgar P. Jacobs. It was published in 1996.
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 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.
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 encryption systems 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.
