The Voronov Plot

The Voronov Plot
Date	2000
Series	Blake and Mortimer
Creative team
Writers	Yves Sente
Artists	André Juillard
Original publication
Language	French
Translation
Publisher	Cinebook Ltd
Date	September 2010
Translator	Jerome Saincantin
Chronology
Preceded by	The Francis Blake Affair
Followed by	The Strange Encounter

The Voronov Plot is the fourteenth book in the Blake and Mortimer comic book series. It was released in 2000.

January 16, 1957, a rocket took off from the Baikonur cosmodrome on the orders of the general Oufa of the Red Army that seeks to keep its lead over the United States in the conquest of space. As the Professor Piotr Ilioutchine had feared, the rocket is hit by a meteor shower and his head falls back on Earth. The team sent the recover having died under mysterious circumstances, Dr. Voronov, responsible of a clinic of the KGB, is responsible for this mystery. His assistant, Nastasia Wardynska, discovers that the head of the rocket is infected of mutant bacteria, the "bacteria Z", which caused death within 24 hours by simple contact. But the Kremlin orders are formal: officially, this case never happened. Defying the orders of Ufa, Voronov force his assistant to continue his research to understand why young rats turn out be healthy carriers. In London, Captain Francis Blake and order William Steele, respectively heads of MI5 and MI6, are discussing a worrying situation: Steele received a report about the bacterium Z and the willingness of Voronov to be used as a biological weapon against the West. His spy, who turns out be Nastasia Wardynska, recruited by Captain Blake ten years previously, promises to send a sample of the bacteria next month. One night at Baikonur, Nastasia steals a tube test containing the bacteria and sends it to his contact in Moscow, Sergei Pouskachoi. But Voronov realizes, and after having confirmation of the betrayal of his assistant, makes lock up at the headquarters of the KGB in Moscow, Lubyanka, the custody of the general Orloff and the colonel Ilkor. In addition, the latter intervenes to prevent the exchange of the precious parcel between Pouskachoi and an agent of MI6.

Mis abreast of events, Blake decides to surrender himself in the USSR to deliver Nastasia and retrieve the sample. To do this, it takes as a cover identity of Mac Taser, interpreter of the Professor Philip Mortimer, official guest at the International Congress in Moscow. On-site, the two friends take contact with Edgar Reeves, the scientific attached to the Embassy of the United Kingdom and the MI6 agent. They are developing a plan to deliver Nastasia, but Reeves Secretary, Miss Sneek, is actually a mole and informs Orloff of the presence of Mortimer. Colonel Ilkor, alias Olrik, is so certain that Blake is located in the vicinity. At a concert organized after his lecture, Mortimer gets closer to his friend Professor Ilioutchine in order to get information about the bacteria. But while the Russian talk of young rats, Voronov surprised the two men behind the scenes and stops Ilioutchine while Mortimer narrowly escapes death.

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