The Case of the Secret Inquisitors is the seventh short story in the fifth anthology of Biggles Air Police short stories which is entitled Biggles' Chinese Puzzle. The anthology was first published in May, 1955 by Brockhampton. In the anthology, the story is preceded by The Case of the Missing Constable and followed by Operation Starlight.
The story has been adapted in comic form also with the same title The Secret Inquisitors in Issue 11 of the Adventures of Biggles comic series published by Action Comics of Sydney, Australia.
Synopsis[]
There has been a string of mysterious disappearances of important scientists and government officials. Biggles sets himself up to be the next one...
Plot[]
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There has been a string of disappearances of important scientists and government officials. Some had been found dead. The secrets they held appear to have been extracted from them and sold to foreign powers. In more recent cases, they appear to have been brainwashed. Their minds had either been "emptied" or the victims had ended up with values and beliefs entirely opposite to what they espoused at first.
Major Charles of the Intelligence Service tells Biggles there is an aviation angle. One of the victims raved about a white aeroplane and cowers at the sound of aircraft engines. The body of another victim showed injuries consistent with having been thrown from great height.
Biggles speculates that this might be the work of an individual trying to extract secrets to sell to the highest bidder. He offers to pose as the holder of valuable secrets (a war office geologist) with the intention of becoming the next victim.
After a rapid press buildup, Biggles settles down in his new persona at a West End hotel to await the enemy's move. This happens quickly. He is gassed while in a taxi and then taken by ambulance to an airfield and transfered to a white aircraft which flies him to an old castle-like building somewhere on the west coast of Scotland.
His pilot and also the master of the operation is Dr Kahn. He tells Biggles he works for a "master-group" interested in revolution in the UK. He had developed highly refined techniques of mind control. Not only could he extract secrets or "empty" a person's brain, in his more recent experiments, he could now "fill" it with ideas of his own choosing. This would be worth a lot of money to foreign powers.
Biggles asks Kahn if he was afraid to be alone with his victim. Not at all. Kahn shows him a fountain pen which could inject a powerful anaesthetic. Biggles now asks for a drink and pretends to be poisoned. The doctor rushes to catch Biggles as he falls. Biggles grabs him and during the scuffle, he manages to take control of the fountain pen and inject the drug into Kahn. After Kahn loses consciousness, Biggles dons Kahns flying kit. Thus disguised, he is able to walk out and take off in Kahn's white ambulance plane without being stopped. He then returns with Raymond and a force of policemen to mop up Kahn's operation.
Characters[]
The Special Air Police/Scotland Yard[]
- Air Commodore Raymond
- Biggles
- Ginger Hebblethwaite
Others[]
- Major Charles
- Sir Neville Barker
- Maxwell Harrington
- Pierre Lefebre
- Adamson
- Peter Bard
- Kin Yen
- Doctor Kahn
Aircraft[]
- Unidentified ambulance aircraft
- Auster J1 Autocrat
Places[]
Visited[]
- London, Scotland Yard - Raymond's office
- Hotel in the West End
- Sanatorium on the west coast of Scotland
Mentioned[]
Research Notes[]
- Biggles apparently has a moustache. In this story, Biggles had to shave his moustache as part of his disguise.
- Algy and Bertie do not appear in this story.