| The Voronov Plot (La Machination Voronov) | |
|---|---|
 Cover to the English-language edition | |
| Date | 2000 |
| Series | Blake and Mortimer |
| Creative team | |
| Writers | Yves Sente |
| Artists | André Juillard |
| Original publication | |
| Language | French |
| Translation | |
| Publisher | Cinebook Ltd |
| Date | September 2010 |
| Translator | Jerome Saincantin |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | The Francis Blake Affair |
| Followed by | The Strange Encounter |
The Voronov Plot is the fourteenth book in the Blake and Mortimer comic book series. It was released in 2000.
On January 16, 1957, a rocket takes off from the Baikonur cosmodrome on the orders of General Oufa of the Red Army, seeking to keep its lead over the United States in the conquest of space. As Professor Piotr Ilioutchine had feared, the rocket is hit by a meteor shower and the head falls back to Earth. The team sent to recover it having died under mysterious circumstances, Dr. Voronov, head of a clinic of the KGB, is responsible for clearing up the mystery. His assistant, Nastasia Wardynska, discovers that the head of the rocket is infected with a mutant bacteria, "bacteria Z", which causes death within 24 hours by simple contact. But the Kremlin orders are formal: officially, this case never happened. Defying the orders of Ufa, Voronov forces his assistant to continue his research to understand why young rats turn out be healthy carriers.
In London, Captain Francis Blake and Commander William Steele, respectively heads of MI5 and MI6, are discussing a worrying situation: Steele received a report about the bacterium Z and the willingness of Voronov to use it as a biological weapon against the West. His spy, who turns out be Nastasia Wardynska, recruited by Captain Blake ten years previously, promises to send a sample of the bacteria next month. One night at Baikonur, Nastasia steals a tube test containing the bacteria and sends it to her contact in Moscow, Sergei Pouskachoi. Voronov realizes, and after having confirmation of the betrayal of his assistant, locks her up at the headquarters of the KGB in Moscow, Lubyanka, under the custody of General Orloff and Colonel Ilkor. In addition, the latter intervenes to prevent the exchange of the precious parcel between Pouskachoi and an agent of MI6.
Informed of events, Blake decides to go himself to the USSR to deliver Nastasia and retrieve the sample. To do this, he takes as a cover the identity of Mac Taser, interpreter of Professor Philip Mortimer, official guest at the International Congress in Moscow. On-site, the two friends make contact with Edgar Reeves, scientific attaché of the embassy of the United Kingdom and the MI6 agent. They are developing a plan to rescue Nastasia, but Reeve's secretary, Miss Sneek, is actually a mole and informs Orloff of the presence of Mortimer. Colonel Ilkor, alias Olrik, is certain that Blake is in the vicinity. At a concert organized after his lecture, Mortimer gets closer to his friend Professor Ilioutchine in order to get information about the bacteria. But while the Russian talks of young rats, Voronov surprises the two men behind the scenes and stops Ilioutchine while Mortimer narrowly escapes death.
The next day, Blake infiltrates the Lubyanka disguised as a KGB officer with a fake transfer order regarding Nastasia, but Olrik awaits him and unmasks him. After defeating the colonel, Blake and Nastasia manage to escape after a chase through the city. However, Nastasia is severely wounded in the head by a bullet fired by Olrik and she faints right after telling Blake "the doll has a black head". The same night, Blake travels to Leninskiye Gory Park to meet Pouskachoi, but Olrik is waiting for him again. About to be captured, the captain is saved by the arrival of Reeves and Mortimer who discovered the betrayal of Miss Sneek. After a shootout, Mortimer begins pursuing Olrik, who manages to throw the sample into the Moskva River. In the Park, Pouskachoi utters before dying the sentence "the world of childhood", the name of a toyshop in Moscow. Mortimer, protected by his guest status, decides to go there and get back without problem a Russian doll that contains the bacterium Z sample.
A few days later, both British are back in their country through a deception. While Professor Mortimer and his team start their research on the bacterium, Captain Blake reports to the Committee of Security. He advises not to warn, for the moment, the Americans of the threat, for fear of starting a new world war and feeling there's something else going on behind the whole affair. In Moscow, Voronov, mad with rage, charges Olrik to retrieve or destroy the sample stolen by suggesting that the Kremlin is involved. He decides to put his plan into action, and in the following days, several personalities, American and European, die suddenly. On his side, thanks to a mole placed at the CSIR, Olrik manages to retrieve the samples and set fire to the laboratory. Fortunately, Mortimer had put away a sample and this last one is duplicated and sent to several laboratories across the country to reduce the risk.
While that the death of personalities around the world keep coming, Mortimer travels to Liverpool, where one of his colleagues has discovered that it is the thymus of the young rats that allows them to resist the bacteria. At a new Security Committee, Blake learns that three Soviet politicians close to the government have died. He understands that Voronov, nostalgic of Stalin, is playing alone and trying to destabilize his country from the inside and the outside to take power. The British Secret Service decide to alert the Russians and Blake proposes a collaboration to the Russian Ambassador who accepts. At Baikonur, General Oufa, made aware of the situation, is responsible for overseeing Voronov, but, determined to settle his scores with the doctor, he gets killed in the laboratory by Voronov, who flees.
Thanks to the documents exchanged between the two tentatively Allied blocs, Mortimer finds out how the bacteria comes into contact with the targets of the doctor: children who offer them flowers and a kiss. The Professor recalls that a few days before the Queen Mother herself was approached by a young Soviet child, but she is still healthy. Understanding that this girl is the key to the cure, he goes urgently to Liverpool, but Olrik is already on site and is heading the port where a Russian cargo ship is waiting with the girl. With the help of Honeychurch, Mortimer arrives first at the port and organizes a trap for Olrik, who is arrested.
The girl, Grace, is revealed to be suffering from sickle-cell anaemia, and Mortimer manages to create a vaccine against the bacteria from her blood. At the same time, the Soviets arrest General Orloff and the other coup leaders and work with police from around the world to dismantle the network of sleeper agents. They ask that they get back Olrik in order to find Voronov, and the British accept on the condition that Nastasia is able leave the USSR freely. The Exchange takes place on October 3, 1957, on a bridge over the Elbe River separating the two Germanys during which Olrik manages to escape. The next day, Nastasia is offered a post to the CSIR by Mortimer while the Soviets launch Sputnik 1.
The first publication in English is by Cinebook Ltd in September 2010. It includes information on the creation of this album.
Oleg Antonovich Gordievsky, CMG is a former colonel of the KGB who became KGB resident-designate (rezident) and bureau chief in London.
George Blake was a spy with Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and worked as a double agent for the Soviet Union. He became a communist and decided to work for the MGB while a prisoner during the Korean War. Discovered in 1961 and sentenced to 42 years in prison, he escaped from Wormwood Scrubs prison in west London in 1966 and fled to the Soviet Union, where he resided until his death in 2020. He was not one of the Cambridge Five spies, although he associated with Donald Maclean and Kim Philby after reaching the Soviet Union.
Janet Chisholm, born Janet Anne Deane, was a British MI6 agent during the Cold War.
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.
Lubyanka is the popular name for the building which contains the headquarters of the FSB on Lubyanka Square in the Meshchansky District of Moscow, Russia. It is a large Neo-Baroque building with a facade of yellow brick designed by Alexander V. Ivanov in 1897 and augmented by Aleksey Shchusev from 1940 to 1947. It was previously the national headquarters of the KGB. Soviet hammer and sickles can be seen on the building's facade.
Mitchell Gant is a fictional character in a series of books written by Craig Thomas. His first appearance occurs in the 1977 novel Firefox as a US Air Force major that steals a Russian MiG-31 Firefox fighter aircraft prototype. In 1982, Clint Eastwood portrayed the character in the film adaptation of the 1977 novel.
The Russia House is a spy novel by British writer John le Carré published in 1989. The title refers to the nickname given to the portion of the British Secret Intelligence Service that was devoted to spying on the Soviet Union. A film based on the novel was released in 1990 starring Sean Connery and Michelle Pfeiffer, and directed by Fred Schepisi. The BBC produced a radio play starring Tom Baker.
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, then was reprinted in a single-volume edition with Part 2 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 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.
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.