Le Bâton de Plutarque

Plot

The title refers to the scytale, a military coding system and one of the oldest messages in history. We know that the story takes place during World War II in 1944 when Olrik will be present and our heroes will visit Gibraltar and London. The plot will reveal why Blake and Mortimer live in Park Lane.

Synopois

In spring 1944, a flying wing of the Third Reich heads to London to destroy the seat of Parliament at the Palace of Westminster. British air defense was ineffective up with the speed of the jet, Captain Francis Blake, squadron leader aboard the aircraft carrier The Intrepid, was sent to meet with the prototype aircraft in Golden Rocket reaction. After an aerial battle dominated by German, Blake managed to prevail by projecting its own device against the enemy craft. In his parachute landing, he met Major Benson, a member of the secret services, he accompanied him to the Cabinet of War. The order of Benson, Lieutenant Harvey Clarke, introduced him to the work of the intelligence services. The presence of Blake saves trawler secretly carrying military equipment to attack a U-boat. Impressed by the capabilities of the young pilot, Major Benson decided with the agreement of the Gray Admiral, Chief of Staff, to give him a secret mission to prepare for World War III. Indeed, services have accidentally discovered that in the greatest secrecy, Empire Yellow Basam-Damdu sets up an impressive military arsenal and preparing to attack the West as soon as World War II is over. In this regard, the British built two secret bases: that of Scaw Fell in England and the other in the Strait of Hormuz. Blake's first mission is to assist an engineer in a crucial military operation for the Normandy landings.

The next day, Benson, Blake Clarke and travel to the base Scaw-Fell, hidden in a valley under artificial cloud in the Lake District. Blake pleased that the engineer with whom he must work is none other than Professor Philip Mortimer he met twenty years ago in India. The two friends summarize their course before visiting the factory. At dawn, Benson, Mortimer Blake Clarke and depart for decryption center GC & CS at Bletchley Park. While Mortimer Blake unveils plans for its revolutionary weapon, the Swordfish, a mysterious individual spying. In the evening, the two friends are introduced to two descramblers: Zhang Hasso, a defector from the Yellow Empire and Colonel Olrik, a specialist in Slavic languages. Going to bed, Mortimer realizes that some shots of Swordfish were stolen. Meanwhile, Zhang Hasso, who expressed no confidence in Blake Olrik at the diner, discovers that he is a double agent in the pay of yellow. Surprised by the colonel, he manages to make him believe he also works for the Yellow Empire. He has no time to warn Blake and Mortimer since his last visit the next day mission to Gibraltar.

Blake and Mortimer cast off in the Strait of Gibraltar tags designed by the teacher to make it to the Germans to a significant concentration of Allied submarines in the Mediterranean and thus divert attention from Normandy. After an eventful arrival on the rock, they join the base controlled by the Colonel Longreach, whose order is Lt. Brandon Clarke, twin brother of Harvey Clarke. The tags work perfectly, but Blake and Mortimer find a spy within the base attempts to reveal the deception to the Italians. After a brief investigation during which Blake recalls several strange events that occurred in London and Bletchley Park, his suspicions fall on Brandon Clarke. Mortimer and sergeant Duffelton, he confronts Clarke who tried to flee. Mortimer realizes that he and his brother Harvey communicate via the packages they send through an encryption system dating back to ancient Greece, scytale or stick Plutarch. Brandon confesses his betrayal before committing suicide with a cyanide capsule present in his jaw. In London, Major Benson, feeling disgraced, confronts his brother Harvey kills before fleeing with Olrik. The latter shade without emotion and left for Lhasa with Hasso who has no choice but to follow.

June 6, 1944, when Allied troops landed in Normandy, Blake attends the funeral of Major Benson where his widow explains that the Clarke brothers held the major responsible for the death of their father in the Great War. It proposes to Blake to rent a floor of the house she owns at 99 bis Park Lane. In September 1946, British intelligence services learn that the attack of the Yellow Empire is imminent due to indications of Hasso, became an undercover agent in Lhasa, but politicians do not want to hear about. Blake joined the basic Scaw Fell unaware that a transmitter placed there two years by Lieutenant Clarke indicates its location to Yellow.