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

E X P A N D E D E D I T I O N T H E M O D E S T Y B L A I S E C O M P A N I STORY No 2 DRAWN BY JIM HOLDAWAY START DATE OF STORY 23rd September, 1963 (Monday) END DATE OF STORY 2nd January, 1964 (Thursday) Dr. Alexius Kossuth, an Hungarian born scientist who fled to the U.S.A., has developed a laser ray with military potential. While attending a scientific conference in Rio de Janeiro he is kidnapped from under the noses of his C.I.A. minders. They think he has been taken on to the yacht of De Sã, a shady Brazilian millionaire. In London, Sir Gerald Tarrant asks Willie Garvin to look into the kidnap, solo, without Modesty. Willie refuses but agrees to go to see Modesty with Tarrant. When she learns that Kossuth was once in an internment camp she had also been in as a child, her empathy with him brings an instant offer to help. The C.I.A. are sure that Kossuth is on De Sã’s yacht, now on its way from Rio to Freetown. To get on board the yacht in mid-ocean, Modesty and Willie are “shipwrecked” in its path. The yacht rescues them. Although the agent controlling the kidnap, Kaverin, is suspicious they manage to search the yacht, but cannot find Kossuth. As they near Freetown, Kaverin sets a trap for them, using a locked cabin as bait. Willie is caught breaking into it and he and Modesty are made captive. As the yacht sails on from Freetown they plan their escape, still without having found their man. He has been disguised as one of the crew but now reveals himself to them, after having overheard orders for their deaths. To prevent this, he will help them to escape. His actions make them realise that the kidnap was a fake and that Kossuth is co-operating in it. They knock him out, overpower the crew on the bridge and run the yacht aground, escaping with Kossuth who is still unconscious. When he revives he tells them he must go back. His daughter is being held hostage and will be killed if he does not. Modesty faces a grim dilemma - to complete the job for Tarrant, causing the death of the child or let Kossuth go, saving the child but failing Tarrant. She knocks Willie out and allows Kossuth to return to the yacht. She and Willie make their way back to London to face Tarrant. He tells her that the Americans, who had been trailing the yacht, came to rescue it while it was aground. Kaverin shot Kossuth in cold blood to stop the Americans getting him back. It seems that the daughter/hostage story was a trick. Modesty goes down to “The Treadmill” and Willie consoles her with a night out poaching. 207