Posted on July 19, 2025August 1, 2025The Man with a Mission (continued . . .) Lukaz Rann brought Vallu’s vehicle to a jarring halt at the cliff edge and rasped an order. Get out ! Vallu’s bodyguards were closing in fast. Jump ! Please ! Spare me ! I’ll make you rich. Anything can be yours, if only . . . The great rocketeer thrust his victim over the abyss and followed after. Eeeeeeeeeeghh ! Lukaz Rann struck the water and sank deeply. Vallu’s been knocked unconscious. I must get him to the surface before he drowns. I’d hate anything to happen to him ! The bodyguards criss-crossed the area where the two had disappeared. No sign of them. They must have perished. But the intrepid rocketeer was alive, and supporting his half-drowned captive. They think it’s hopeless, and are giving up the search. That night, a Trigan fishing boat approached the cliffs, as Lukaz Rann had previously arranged. Well done, lads. Now let’s get out of here. Morning found the rocketeer back in his Vorg castle, with his second victim imprisoned in a dungeon. With so little time left to him, Lukaz Rann took up the next dossier without any delay. And now, another creature whose dis- appearance will sweeten the air of the whole planet . . . Yackrass ! Yackrass was a rabble-rousing Trigan politician. He was also the highest paid performer on the Trigan audivision network. An estimated fifty million viewers switched on his weekly programme. Mustn’t miss old Yackrass. He’s always good for a bit of excitement. Yackrass’s technique was to play upon the public’s fears and prejudices. Currently, he was blazing a campaign of XENOPHOBIA—the hatred of foreigners. Fellow-citizens ! Do you realise that there are over half a million foreign nationals residing here ? Taking all the best jobs ! Treating us like second class citizens ! How much longer are we going to tolerate this pollution in our midst ? Following Yackrass’s outburst, innocent and law-abiding foreigners—Catons, Lokans, Tharvians, and others—were mobbed in the streets and their properties destroyed. Down with the outsiders ! Trigan for the Trigans ! Yackrass had cause for self-congratulation. That very day, he had landed a new audivision contract at double his usual fee. By all the stars, you’re a clever fellow, my dear Yackrass. But retribution was at hand for the spreader of hatred. This instalment was originally published in Look and Learn issue no. 705 on 19 July 1975.
Posted on July 12, 2025July 15, 2025The Man with a Mission (continued . . .) Instants later, Lukaz Rann was toppling headlong down a steep slope. I’ve got to find something to hang on to . . . before the impact ! As the slope came to an abrupt end, his fingers scrabbled and held. High above him, dawn light showed through a small window. So that’s the fate which Vallu has in store for unwanted visitors ! The rocketeer set off on the most tortuous climb of his life, with freedom as the prize and a hideous fate the reward for failure. Is it possible to climb that far ? Safe in his belief that the intruder had met his end, the scientist Vallu had gone to his laboratory. With him was his assistant. To think, master, that this single bomb could destroy an area ten times the size of Tharv City. When are we going to put it to the test ? There is only one way to test it properly. But, regrettably, we are not at war with anybody at the moment. War will come, soon enough. Meanwhile, we have time to go over our calculations, just in case. Master, you don’t really believe that nonsense of Peric’s . . . That our bomb could destroy the entire planet ? Of course not, you young fool. All the same, there’s no harm in making quite sure. I am going to Tharv City for a meeting of the Scientific Advisory Committee. While I’m gone, start checking through the calculations again. One day, someone’s going to discover that Vallu’s reputation is founded entirely on my inventions ! Check the calculations again, indeed. My calculations don’t need to be checked ! Vallu’s Daveli driver waited for his master, unaware of a figure emerging from a window behind him. Presently, the scientist set off for the capital, watched over by his airborne body-guard. Suddenly, without warning, the driver swung the vehicle down a narrow turning that led to the cliffs. Hey ! Something’s gone wrong ! Red alert ! This instalment was originally published in Look and Learn issue no. 704 on 12 July 1975.
Posted on July 5, 2025July 5, 2025The Man with a Mission (continued . . .) The probing finger of light played upon Lukaz Rann. It was immediately followed by a hail of projectiles. The Daveli guard came at him, gun blazing. Lukaz Rann had only one chance of survival— to risk all in a death- defying leap. He connected and hung on ! Roaring out of control, the jet-pack carried the two battling figures up over the edge of the cliff. Lukaz Rann felt his opponent go limp from a lucky blow. He reached and switched off the jet-pack and they fell, locked together. As he rolled clear and picked himself up, the intrepid rocketeer heard more jet-pack engines. They must have heard the shots ! Two more airborne Daveli bodyguards zipped out of the darkness. Do you see anything ? A figure lying over there ! By the time the newcomers had found their stricken comrade, Lukaz Rann had reached the building that housed the evil genius of Tharv. And now to deal with Vallu. The sound of the shots had awakened Vallu, who had leapt from his bed and was scanning the audivision screens that gave him a view of every part of his abode. Is it an intruder ? What are those guards doing ? Are they protecting me properly ? And then, he saw. . . The intruder ! Lukaz Rann trod silently through the building, all unaware that his every move was being watched by his intended quarry. Suddenly . . . Aaaaaaaaagh ! This instalment was originally published in Look and Learn issue no. 703 on 5 July 1975.
