Point Blanc, The Graphic Novel ( PDFDrive )

LIVERPOOL STREET We’ve heard He sent the panic from Alex. signal fro m his po rtable satellite transm itter this m o rning, at 1027 hours his tim e. I wonder. Al ex has been He sent the We have to at Po int Blanc fo r just signal, Alan! pull him out. one week, yes? And we kno w he didn’t want to That m eans That’s no t go in the first place. he’s either found the po int. Alex so m ething o r he’s in danger. Either is special. way, we can’t just sit back and do nothing! I wasn’t suggesting that. Alex m ay no Yo u seem to be lo nger be 100% fo rm ing quite an attachment to Alex, rel iabl e. Mrs Jo nes. Yo u have children o f yo ur own, do n’t yo u?

We can’t go Alex m ay have the blundering into proof yo u need Po int Blanc witho ut to connect Grief firm info rm atio n. with the deaths o f This is Franc e we’re Roscoe and talking abo ut. If we’re Ivano v. seen to be invading their territory they’ll kick up o ne hell o f a fuss. Besides, Grief And he m ay not. has bo ys fro m so m e o f the wealthiest fam ilies in And if Alex the world. We go storming co ntacts us in and the who le thing co uld blo w up into a major ag ain? internatio nal inc id ent. … Then we’ll go in. Assum ing he’s no t already dead. A twenty-four And it co uld hour delay sho uldn’t play to o ur m ake m uch difference. favour if he’s We’ll put an SAS unit m anaged to stir o n standby. If Alex i s things up. in tro uble, we’ll find Fo rce Grief to sho w his hand. o ut so o n eno ugh.

POINT BLANC ACADEMY 24 HOURS LATER Hey, Alex! Co m ing to Latin this m o rning? Latin’s a waste o f tim e. Is that what yo u think? You’re the o ne who ’s wasting his time, Alex. Whatever. Yo u enjo y it.

Co m e o n, there must be a way to o pen it fro m this side, to o … Hm m m . A raised butto n… Wo ah.

S for “sous-sol”… the basem ent.

What the-? S o what’s in here…? That’s Tom! But I just saw him at breakfast… Jam es!

Co m e o n, come on… Alex! What are you doing here? Shhh, keep yo ur vo ice down! We haven’t go t m uch tim e… What happened to you? They cam e the night befo re l ast. Dragged m e o ut o f bed and into the l ibrary. There’s a lift- Behind the Nothing. No o ne armour, I kno w. would tell m e what What did they say? was go ing o n, they just threw m e in here! Yo u’ve been here fo r All o f us. I do n’t two days? But I just kno w how or why, but that’s what’s go ing saw yo u upstairs, do wn. I’ve been here having breakfast! fo r months. They’ve m ade duplicates o f us, I’m Paul, by the way. dude. Paul Roscoe.

Roscoe? Ho w did yo u get Are yo u Michael down here, Alex? What’s go ing on? Roscoe’s son? …No thing. Yeah, why? All right, My nam e isn’t listen carefully. Alex Friend, it’s Alex Rider. I was sent here by MI6. And everything’s go ing to be o k. They’re sending peo ple in to free you all. Yo u’re… Dude, what are we No! a spy? waiting fo r? Let’s get outta here! So rt o f. I suppo se.

Yo u’ve go t to I’ll com e wait. There’s bac k, I- no way do wn the mountain. -prom ise. S tay here fo r no w and I’ll co m e back with help, I promise. It’s the only way. But I can’t- You have to . Trust me, Paul. I’m go ing to lo ck yo u back in, so no bo dy will kno w I’ve been here. But it wo n’t be fo r long.

Alex, wake up. Dr Grief wishes to speak to you. You have caused us a gr eat deal of inconvenience… Alex Rider. You have wasted our Oh, tim e and m oney. For that there are m i cr ophones you will be punished. concealed in the cells. We hear d It is not a ever ythi ng. punishm ent you will survive. You can’t do anything to m e. I know everything. I know about the Gemini Project, and I’ve alr eady told MI6 what I know. They’r e on their way here right now.

Your friends m ay be If MI6 does com e, on their way, but I do not they will f ind nothing think you told them anything. wr ong. And you will We sear ched your luggage have disappear ed. and f ound the Discman transmitter. “I am s o sorry, Mister British It can only send a signal, Agent, but Alex not a m essage. ran away. My m en are looking for him , of cour se, but I f ear he has died a cold and lingering death on the m ountainside. Such a tragedy.” Even if they d o kill m e, it will m ake no difference. N obody will guess what I have done her e. The Gem ini Project will succeed. It has alr eady succeeded. The wor ld now belongs to m e. Hm m m . You m ean it Heh belongs to the heh heh. kids you’ve hir ed to act as doubles.

“Hir ed”? You have no i dea what you’ve seen, do you? Your little m ind cannot begi n to encom pass what I have achieved! Listen carefully, When you go scr eam ing Alex, and I shall to your death, you will descr ibe to you the Gemini Project. under stand that you could never hope to I am from beat a m an such as I. South Africa. P er haps that will m ake dying easier for you. In f act, I was one of its When you said foremost biochemists. wer e going to ki ll m e, I didn’t r ealise you m eant by boring me to death. The anim als in From the University this building ar e of Johannesbur g, via souvenirs of m y the Cyclops Institute tim e ther e, all in P r etor ia, I eventually shot on safari. becam e Minister I still m iss m y for Science. countr y. It is the m ost beautiful on the planet.

Once, Alex, Enough. the white people of South Afr ica r uled Let him have his little joke. Ther e ever ythi ng. will be plenty of pai n for him later. Under the laws the r est of the wor ld called Apartheid, black people could not live near white people. They could not marry white people. They had separ ate toi lets, restaurants, bar s… They had to carry passes, and wer e tr eated like animals. Yeah. It was di sgusti ng. N o! It was perfect! But as tim e passed, I saw it would be shor t- li ved. The r est of the wor ld was ganging up on us. I f or esaw the day that a criminal like N elson M andela could take power !

How weak and pathetic the wor ld was becom ing… determined to give away a great countr y like m ine to people who had no i dea how to r un it. Oh, gr eat. Another wannabe Wor ld conq uer or. I looked ar ound and saw On the contrary, that the people of Am er ica it has been the am bition and Eur ope had becom e stupid of very few m en to r ule and weak. The f all of the Berlin the entir e wor ld. Hitler , Wall only m ade things wor se. Napoleon, Stalin… G r eat Soon, even Russia was inf ected m en, remarkable m en! with the sam e disease. And I thought to m yself , how m uch stronger the wor ld would be if I r uled it. How m uch better. Men like me!

What do you know about Mere child’s play! But who did you nuclear transplantation, Ten year s bef or e Dolly, clone? Not Mrs Stellenbosch, Alex? Or “cloni ng”, to I per fected the dr eam use the laym an’s ter m . of every biochem ist I hope… on Ear th… You m ean Human cloning! like Dolly the Sheep? You f ool. I cloned myself! The stupid As minister for science r ules hampering I was able to use political prisoners as hum an gui nea other scientists did not apply in pi gs for m y experim ents! South Af r ica! After twenty years, I was f inally r eady. I stole a ver y lar ge Sixteen exact am ount of m oney copi es of m e, with my br ains, my am bition, from the governm ent my determ ination! and m oved here. And soon af ter , I cloned m yself - not just once, but sixteen times!

Wer e they all as m ad as you, too- I waited fourteen year s f or the babies to becom e boys. Tom , Hugo, Eva her e was an C assi an… interrogator for the and James! South Af r ican Secr et P olice. But why? She cam e with m e, to look Hugo Vries will after m y children. inherit a fifty per cent You’ve met stake in the G lobal som e of them . Diam ond m arket. Childr en of par ents with great wealth or power ar e of ten… tr oubled. Father s with no time for their sons, sons who despi se their par ents… These wer e m y tar gets. I wanted what they had… Or will have. Tom McMorin’s Joe Canterbury’s m other owns f ather is at the newspaper s all P entagon, his m other over the wor ld. a senator. What better star t for a life in politics? P er haps even President of the USA?

Fif teen of the wor ld’s From their arrival, m ost promising childr en the boys wer e kept cam e her e to P oint Blanc, under obser vati on. and wer e r eplaced with sur gically alter ed clones of m yself. Sur gically alter ed? You r eally have M y doubles That m an, Baxter… been busy, Alex. watched their tar gets to lear n Baxter was a their m annerism s Har ley Str eet plasti c and habits, even sur geon with gam bling their voi ces. debts. It was his job to oper ate on m y fam ily. To alter their skin colour, f aces, even their bodi es. But any par ent Wr ong! would know it wasn’t their son, These ar e busy people, even if he looked with no time for their childr en. They sent their the sam e! boys her e because they wanted them to change! Nature is also on our He m ay return hom e side. Dur ing an absence taller, fatter, thinner… of six weeks, a f our teen- year -old boy can change even his voi ce will have changed. And par ents r em ar kably. will sim ply say: M y, how you’ve gr own!

R oscoe did not believe what he saw. Neither did that idiot R ussian, General Ivanov. They did not guess what r eally happened, but they knew something was wr ong. But R oscoe Still, two out of noticed, didn’t he? sixteen is not such That’s why you a catastr ophe. had him killed. Gemini has been an Tom orrow’s first lesson outstanding success. is double bi ology. My childr en The last of the childr en r ecently asked to se a human will return to their dissection. Tom orrow, fam ilies in a few I will grant their wish. day’s tim e. Of cour se, I m ust di spose of the originals. They will die pai nlessly. Throw him in one of the high security cells! But not you, Alex R ider. We shall not use anaestheti c. I expect it will be very painful for you.

Yeah, r ight. Not unless I could take him with me. Take his belt, shoelaces and ever ything in his pockets. Herr Grief suspects the boy m ay attem pt suicide. This is all poi ntless, you know! MI6 will be here any minute! 1100 HOURS Any m inute…

1300 HOURS 1500 HOURS 1700 HOURS 2000 HOURS 2300 HOURS …

…So m uch for MI6. 0200 HOURS 3… 2… 1…

C ool. Don’t wor r y, boys, I’ll be back for you…

First floor… The laundry. wher e am I? Hm m m … That gives m e an i dea. All still her e,

Lucky they didn’t bother repairing the wi ndow…

…Ther e. Not bad f or an ironing board. Black runs all the way down, eh? Well, first tim e for everything…

TWO MINUTES LATER I want two m en on snowm obi les He’s improvised to f ollow him down. som e kind of sleigh or toboggan. Perhaps N ow! he’s not such an idiot af ter all. True. Ver y well, What about the unit have our m en in at the f oot of the mountain? Whatever the van r eady the he’s using, he’ll be machine gun. unable to cr oss the railway line into the I would have liked La V all e De Fer. to watch him die, but Alex R ider will never m ind. Let us be a sitting duck. r etur n to bed. And I will see both of you in m y office tom orrow m orning.

Wooooo- hoo!

What the…? Uh oh… Woooah! Feuer !

folge Ihm! Jawohl! Wooooah… Mmmf !

Yeah! Ha ha! Woah!



Warte… nicht schie ssen bis er n her ist! hier Ko mmt der junge. La Val l e De Fer… …And there are the train tracks James mentio ned. Feuer!

Woah! Verflucht! Here goes nothing!

Wooo-hoo! Ha ha! So long-

-Oh, no .

GRENOBLE HOSPITAL 0500 HOURS Frau Stellenbosch? Ich ha be gute nachrichten f r sie…

I a m Eva Stellenbosch, assistant directo r o f Point Blanc Academy. I understand o ne o f o ur students, Alex Friend, was bro ught here this mo rning. Ah, yes. Take a seat, Mrs Stellenbo sch. The do cto r will be o ut in a mo me nt. *Sniff* Please remain Ma da me seated, Madame. S tellenbo sch? He bro ke bo th arms, his collarbone and o ne o f his legs. His skull was fractured. we operated as so o n as we co uld, but there was massive internal bleeding and he went into shock. Yo u must under sta nd, I’m sorry, Madame. Alex tried to snowboard Alex Friend is dead. do wn the mo untain at night. He co llided with a train at high speed…

I… I must inform his family. Is he Swiss? No … no , he is English. His father, Sir David… I’ll have to tell him. Thank yo u, Do cto r. I’m sure yo u did everything yo u co uld.

SAINT-GEOIRS AIRPORT, GRENOBLE

GRENOBLE HOSPITAL You know, you’re lucky to be alive. Yo u sho uld have at least broken something.

Smithers’ ski suit pro tected me. And the fence sort of caught me o n the way do wn, even if it was barbed wire… Let’s sta rt with the big questio n. I called for help two days ago. Where were you? I’m sorry, Alex. But Tha t wa s my sto rming the Academy co uld next questio n. have got you and all the other bo ys killed. We had to mo ve in slowly, wo rk o ut what was go ing o n. Ho w do yo u think we found yo u so quickly? So why do you want Grief to think I’m dead? Since we got your Fro m what yo u’ve signal we’ve had people to ld us he plans to replace fifteen boys, in the mo unta ins. When yes? And all tho se bo ys the snowmobiles are prisoners at chased yo u, they heard the academy. and followed you do wn o n skis. If Dr Grief tho ught yo u’d survived, he wo uld When yo u fell immediately kill every one off the train, they o f tho se bo ys. If we’re go ing radioed for help. to take him by surprise, our only hope is to make believe you’re dead. “Take him by surprise”?

And wha t’s- oh. no. No way. Yo u kno w the building. Forget it! I’m no t The library, the secret going back up there, lift, the guard po sitio ns, I almost got killed trying to get away! the priso n cells- We’ve assembled Are you mad? an attack squad. tha t’s who followed yo u last night. They’ll set o ff to night, as so o n a s it’s dark. They’re armed, experienced and ready. there’s just o ne thing they don’t have. You’ll be looked after. You’ll be completely safe- No! All right. I can Hello, C ub. understand your Ho w’s it go ing? feelings. But there’s so meo ne I want you to meet.

Wolf! What are Alex has do ne a you doing here? very good job so far. But there are still fifteen They called me in to young prisoners at Po int clear up the mess Blanc, and our priority you left behind. is to save them. So rry I didn’t Alex says there bring yo u flowers are about thirty guards and grapes. in and aro und the scho o l. So where were you when I was being chased do wn the mo untain by homicidal snowmobile riders? Yo u seemed to The only chance tho se be do ing fine o n boys have is for an SAS your own. unit to break in. And tha t unit will Where do es Alex knows the scho o l, be co mmanded the boy come the po sitio n o f the guards by Wolf. into this? and the lo catio n o f the prison cells. He ca n lead yo u to the lift- No. He can tell us everything we need to kno w right here and now.

We’re going in on skis, and there might be bl ood. I can’t waste one of my men holding his hand! I don’t need to have my hand held! She’s right, Bes ides , I know Point Blanc one of the better than any of boys up there you. I’ve been there… is my friend. and got out again, I promis ed I’d no thanks to you. help him. How? By I can look getting killed? after myself! Alex is right, he can E nough! look after himself Wolf, I hold perfectly well. you personally res pons ibl e for his safety. So he’s going with you, tonight. He’ll lead you in to the Academy, but take no further part in the operation. Y eah, I- No, hang on…

TWO KILOMETRES NORTH OF POINT BLANC

Two patrolling. Guards ? One on the roof. Then let’s take him out firs t. Sweet dreams.

One down. Sure. Onl y about twenty-nine to go… Move out.

Unh! Where’s this lift? The l ibrary. Follow me.

Quite a pl ace. Right, let’s go and get the kids - No, wait! What? Why? All right. Y ou, get down there and s ecure that corridor. If we’re found, it’s the firs t place Grief will look. There’s a guard down there, too. You’ll have to knock him out. I jus t remembered… Sir! The cells are w ired for s ound. If you break the kids out, Grief will know. We should In Grief’s private deactivate the rooms. They’re on al arm. Any idea the other s ide- where it is?

E indringl inge! Al arm! Get down! Uhh… There goes the Look out! element of surprise… More guards!