Every day brought a fresh disaster. The climax came when a fighting-craft of the Trigan Air Fleet was shot down by its own coastal battery. The pilot was Janno, who managed to eject and land safely. That was close! I nearly joined my illustrious ancestors then! The news was brought to the Emperor, whose powerful countenance was beginning to show the strain of his ordeal. There’s no telling how or why it happened. The officer who gave the order to open fire has disappeared without trace. The arch-fiend is behind it, as always! Brag—we’ve got to stop him! What is this secret weapon he’s using against my empire? Only one man alive has the brain to answer that, brother—Peric! Peric? The man who helped the fiend to escape? Must I set him free? Ah, Brag, I must try every means possible, I suppose . . . A message was sent out to the prison island of Zerss, and the strange cell was lowered from the sky.Out stepped Peric, the wisest man on Elekton. You are to be taken to His Imperial Majesty. I am at His Majesty’s command, now as always. At the Imperial Palace, Peric studied the dossiers on all the disasters that had befallen the empire. When he had finished . . . Well, do , you have the answer? Yes, it is quite clear. I will write it down for you, Imperial Majesty. Peric scribbled a few words and passed them to his Emperor. Can this be true—is this the answer? Yes it is—and you can use the same weapon to destroy him! And by all the demons of Daveli, I’ll do it, too! At dawn the next day, countless printed leaflets were scattered from the air over the length and breadth of the empire. One of these leaflets found its way to “The Worst Man on the Planet”. What is it, Soyab? It’s for you—a personal message from Trigo himself! I think the disasters must have driven him mad! I think you are right, Soyab. The fool is as good as making me a present of his Imperial Crown!
This instalment was originally published in Look and Learn issue no. 524 on 29 January 1972.
