EXTRACTS: The Modesty Blaise Companion Expanded Edition © 2018 The Book Palace (425 PAGES in Full edition)

T H E M O D E S T Y B L A I S E C O M P A N I O N STORY No. 11 DRAWN BY JIM HOLDAWAY START DATE OF STORY 24th April 1967 (Monday) END DATE OF STORY 2nd September 1967 (Saturday) Two tons of gold is to go by train on a secret route to Paris and Herr Bilke, a brilliant criminal, has plans to steal it and René Vaubois, head of the Deuxième Bureau, knows it. Sir Gerald Tarrant is on holiday with Modesty and Willie Garvin at their Basque villa. At a local pelota match, Tarrant is amazed by the range of and speed at which the balls are thrown using the cesta, the basket worn on the players’ hands. Leaving the match, Willie hails Denise, one of Vaubois’s agents, at a café but she brushes him off. Her companions are suspicious, for they know her as Lysette. She has infiltrated Bilke’s gang and Willie has inadvertently blown her cover. Bilke orders her death and although Modesty and Willie try to warn and save her, she is stabbed. Just before losing consciousness she mutters “Tell Vaubois – Girl Due”. Vaubois has arrived at Modesty’s villa but the message is meaningless to him. They discuss the possibility of a robbery, but none of them can see how Bilke can remove two tons of gold. Later that night Modesty deduces that Denise was trying to tell them the location of the robbery – Gueule du Loupe, a mountain pass on the secret route. Modesty, Willie and Tarrant drive to a village near the pass and leaving Tarrant as back up the set off on foot for the pass. Bilke has had them followed and they are captured. He cannot resist showing off his secret, a stolen device that multiplies muscle power by twenty times. It is housed in a giant skeletal frame and operated by Jules, a former pelota player. “The Magnified Man” will carry the gold and bury it in a nearby cave to be collected later. Under guard, Modesty and Willie watch the robbery, but manage to escape and race to the cave. They find some grenades there and manage to keep the gang at bay. From well beyond Willie’s throwing range, Jules, with his enhanced strength, bombards the cave with rocks but Willie finds Jules’s cesta in the cave and uses it to hurl a grenade. Jules is killed. Tarrant has called Vaubois who arrives with troops by helicopter. Bilke and his gang attempt to flee but are caught. The gold is recovered. Denise is recovering in hospital and Willie visits her to apologise. As a “penance” he is to help her convalesce. I I 216