Kent Blake of the Secret Service #14

Aug 23

Aug 23 Kent Blake of the Secret Service #14

Kent Blake

Kent Blake finds himself a prisoner of middle eastern warriors who are in the employ of the spy Myra Tangier who have buried him up to his neck in the desert. After taunting him with swords, Myra decides to leave Blake to die in the sand, hoping that at night the desert jackals will eat him alive. Left to bake in the sun, Kent Blake keeps his mind off how thirsty he is by thinking back to how he got himself into his current situation:

He was sent on a mission to Tel Aviv by a British general who is sending Kent to locate Professor Stefan Braun an atomic scientist who had fled the Iron Curtain after being forced by the Russians to create a new H-bomb, but went missing in Tel Aviv. After their plan landed, Kent is told by the British captain that his son is working for the foreign services and working in deep cover, and should he cross paths to say hello.

Kent Blake travels to the town where the professor was last seen. He meets with the man who rented to Braun and is given a water filled doll that is sold to people in gift shops. Examining the doll, Kent notices the word "Beshar". But before he can learn what it means, the two men are attacked. The informant killed and Kent knocked out. When Kent is brought around by an Arab beggar named Semel whom he asks what Beshar means. Kent is informed that it is the name of a small desert tribe and offers to bring him there for a price.

However as they travel the desert they come across a band of Dervishes, religious fanatics who hate westerners. When they attack, Semel appears to side with them in order to save his own hide. The band is with Myra Tangier and this is how Kent Blake ended up getting buried up to his neck in the desert.

Finishing his recollection Kent is surprised when Semel and Myra return to dig him out. Myra having decided that Kent Blake -- whom she is attracted to despite being her foe -- could not bare to let him die in such a fashion. They then travel to the Beshar camp and locate Professor Braun. Braun informs Kent that he has given up his scientific ways and live a life of peace among the the Beshar people. He gives his notes to Kent, and refuses Myra's offers to give her the plans with. Suddenly the village is attacked by the Dervishes, but Kent manages to drive them off with a gun, but in the aftermath of the battle Myra escapes. Returning back to Tel Aviv, Kent is surprised to find out that Semel is really the son of the British general who assigned him his case.

Recurring Characters

Kent Blake
Myra Tangier

Kent Blake

Kent Blake is sent to Florida to stop a communist spy who has been using a location off the coast to exchange information to spies operating in the United States. With the aid of the coast guard, Kent gets the drop on the spy while he is aboard a fishing boat. Although he captures the spy, he tosses the cask with his information containing the name of communist spies. As Kent is ordering the coast guard to come back with diving gear, the communist spy escapes and swims away.

Later, the coast guard returns with diving gear and Kent puts on a diving outfit and jumps into the ocean to recover the cask. As Kent is down below, communist spies attack the coast guard ship and send down their own man to kill Blake. Kent manages to defend himself and slay his attacker even after his air hose is cut. Getting to the surface, Kent slays the other communist agents, their blood attracting sharks that attack the lone spy who tries to escape.

Recurring Characters

Kent Blake

Kent Blake

While on their trail to locate stolen secrets from Washington, Kent Blake and Colonel Kruger go to meet an informant on a New York dock only to arrive too late to stop him from being murdered by a communist spy. Searching the informants body they find a new rocket generator and a pack of Dutch Clover seeds, leaving them to wonder where the spies are located.

Examining the rocket generator was crafted using specially prepared diamonds, they decide to pay a visit to Joseph Wolfe who works in the diamond industry. Along the way, Kruger informs Kent that Wolfe assisted counter espionage forces during World War II, and assisted in getting a German scientist out of Nazi Germany. However in questioning Wolfe they come to a dead end in their investigation.

Kent decides to follow the Dutch Clover seeds as a lead and learns when the next shipment of the seeds is scheduled to land in the United States. He secretly watches a shipment leave the docks and follows the delivery truck which by seeming coincidence takes him back to Joseph Wolfe's house. There, Kent is shocked to see the man who stabbed their informant going into the property and decides to follow him.

Kent is then captured by Wolfe and his men and is shown his operation: that he and his spies have been constructing the rocket generators from his green house and then smuggled to Moscow. However, Kent manages to grab a pruning knife and uses it to take Wolfe hostage and escape, locking all the spies in the greenhouse. After knocking out the lone man outside, Kent then turns on the green houses steamers baking the communist spies inside until the authorities can arrive and take them prisoner.