In Poul Anderson's A Circus Of Hells, the Merseians realize that they have captured Dominic Flandry who thwarted them at Starkad.
Between two volumes of Ian Fleming's James Bond series, the Russians realize that they have apprehended Bond who had thwarted them on five previous occasions.
In John Sanders' The Hat Of Authority, the Spanish Inquisition realizes that it has captured Nicholas Pym who had prevented Guido Fawkes from assassinating Oliver Cromwell.
In Anderson's The Shield Of Time, Keith Denison becomes a guest of the Inquisition in the alpha timeline.
This chain of associations has carried us from Anderson's Technic History to his Time Patrol Patrol series via Fleming and Sanders. In the first three cases, a secret agent serves one powerful state in its conflict with another. In the fourth case, Denison's only task is to escape from the alpha timeline. The Time Patrol protects all states in the Danellian timeline - as long as the exist. This suggests a line of thought for the next post.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
A CIRCUS OF HELLS is one of my favorite Dominic Flandry stories! Yes, the Merseians captured Flandry and Ydwyr the Seeker led Flandry to believe the Roidhun's gov't was still peeved at him! With consequences that did not work as well as Ydwyr had hoped.
I'm not sure Sanders is right about the Spanish Inquisition. It did not have jurisdiction over the merely secular affairs of the Spanish state. I'm sure the King of Spain had his own spies and spy catchers. But the Spanish Inquisition is a convenient devil figure for thriller writers.
Ad astra! Sean
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