SPADS: Special Assault & Destroying Sections. XIII, zoals de man zonder geheugen genoemd wordt, wordt door generaal Carrington in een trainingskamp in Centraal-Amerika geplaatst omdat hij nog gezocht wordt in de USA voor zijn ontsnapping. Maar hij ontdekt ook dingen over zijn verleden.
Captured and imprisoned in the Roca Negra fortress, XIII is being tortured by the sinister Colonel Peralta. But, for all his pain and suffering, he's also in the same building as Maria, the woman who may be his wife. And they have plenty of dedicated, resourceful friends outside... as well as at least one traitor. Still unsure of his past, Jason McLane will have no choice but to become the man known as "El Cascador" to clean up Costa Verde once and for all.
Belarus, in Soviet times. Irina is an unremarkable young woman growing up in an orphanage. One night, a mysterious visitor demands to see her and her best friend Julia. The latter goes first, then Irina is told she won't be needed after all. The next day, Julia has vanished without a trace... Thus begins a quest for truth and vengeance, from Minsk to Moscow to Washington - one that will lead Irina to discover her true calling.
Jason McLane - XIII - has just taken a shot at the pope during an
official visit to Washington DC. If he hadn't, two innocent hostages
would have paid the price. Granted, General Wolf's orders were always
to maintain his cover at all costs, but the plans of the Mayflower
conspirators - the same people that XIII was supposed to infiltrate
but now control him through blackmail - are appallingly more complex and dangerous than just this assassination attempt. American
democracy itself is in danger ...
The agents of the organisation that was hunting for XIII have finally captured him, along with his friends, but he's still refusing his captors' job offer. Forced to give in after they commit an appalling act just to coerce him, he's discreetly brought back to the USA, where he finally learns what they're really after. Meanwhile, Betty Barnowsky continues her own investigation under the FBI's very noses. For both of them, the road leads, once again, to Green Falls...
Jason has managed to give his captors the slip, but he was forced to leave Betty behind, severely injured. After a short but tense episode dealing with the north-eastern mafia, he's off to the next step in his quest: Leiden, Holland, from where half of the Mayflower expedition left, and where his godfather appears to live. But his enemies haven't given up, and the young local guide he's picked brings her own heap of troubles...
Still with Annika, Jason McLane has the documents his godfather left for him to find in the Netherlands deciphered. Once translated, the text offers revelations of breathtaking importance - enough to change the geopolitical map for ever. But the killers sent by the Mayflower Foundation are still after them, while in Afghanistan, Jones and Carrington's situation goes from bad to worse. XIII will have to be on his best game to sort it all out - but at what price?
XIII and his friends, still in hiding from the NSA, now have the riddle from all three silver watches... and Maximilian's gold is within their reach. But the treasure is well hidden. Not to mention that $15 million is enough to attract a lot of unwanted attention. Meanwhile, in Washington, an increasingly desperate Frank Giordino can feel the noose tightening around his neck-and men are at their most dangerous when desperate. All he needs is someone to bring him the right information...
XIII has freed a country, exposed a traitor, reunited with his wife... and found his father. As he deals-somewhat against his will-with the aftermath of the revolution in Costa Verde, Sean Mullway recounts for him his family's history: Irish immigrants, remorseless Mafiosi, Mexican gold, and three silver watches. New answers will also bring new questions and a whole new set of potential enemies just as old ones come back to the fore.
The Mongoose is dead. So is Number I. But, since he was the President of the United States, XIII's friends are all on the run again. McLane, though, has been arrested, and he's being judged in secret by the heads of the American intelligence community. Sentenced to life in a secret prison, he has no illusions that he'll ever reach it. The ruthlessness of the NSA Director proves him right-but he's not the only one who wants XIII dead.
Arrested by the Costaverdean authorities because of pressure from the US, XIII and his friends are awaiting their extradition. Instead, they're freed by Costaverdean troops in disguise. But they can't afford to stick around, as they're still on the run from the most powerful nation on Earth. Desperate for money, McLane decides to go after Maximilian's gold, as Mullway believes he's found the location of the third silver watch. The problem is that the location is under 150 feet of water...
Having escaped from the clutches of Irina's organisation, XIII is on the loose in America but still hunted by both Giordino's NSA and Irina's top assassin, Jessica. As he tries to return to his friends in San Miguel, he's forced to dodge bullets and outsmart various traps and ambushes. With the odds stacked against him, he will have to rely on help from an enemy and his own mounting anger at the constant string of attacks.
Little by little, XIII has reconstructed most of his life and figured out who he is. With one exception: There is still a gap in his college years, when Jason McLane became Kelly Brian. A gap that may mean the amnesiac adventurer is in fact an Irish terrorist, Seamus O'Neil. This flashback brings us back to Boulder, Colorado, and before that to Northern Ireland, to reveal the last piece of the XIII puzzle, and his final identity.
Jason McLane, a.k.a. XIII, seems to have finally accepted his true
destiny. Tired of fighting the powerful elite who control the world,
he has apparently joined them. Of course, he supposedly did so on
orders from General Wolf, so as to bring down the sinister Mayflower
Foundation at last, but ... what if the temptation of power proved too
strong? Janet Fitzsimmons, the Foundation's president, too beautiful? Or the price of integrity too steep for him ... or his friends?
He was XIII's most dogged enemy from the start, but who really was the Mongoose, that mysterious assassin-for-hire who nearly killed the amnesiac hero so many times? During an encounter between him and Kim Rowland - an event that took place just before the start of the XIII series - the merciless hitman tells the story of his childhood and how he became a contract killer. `Anyone would have in my circumstances', he claims. But would they? You be the judge.
When a high-ranking official of a small nation in the Caucasus is killed in a car accident, the plans of a massive multinational corporation are derailed by one man: the unfortunate French trucker who caused the accident. Pressure from the unions in France and the military in Khalakjistan prevents a quick diplomatic solution. So, to secure its own interests, the corporation calls upon the one man who can break the trucker out of prison and disarm the confrontation: Wayne Shelton.
Spirou and Fantasio's friend, the Count of Champignac, asks them to join him in Australia, where he has heard that an ancient monolith is still standing. When they arrive, Champignac's colleague Walker Donahue informs them that Champignac has been abducted by local gangster Sam. The monolith they're after stands in the vicinity of an aboriginal mining village, which is constantly prey to white prospectors trying to steal indigenous resources.
Spirou and Fantasio must save Champignac from Sam's clutches and help him find the legendary monolith while standing by the aboriginal people.
Thirty years after Hooker's betrayal and the massacre at Cao-Dinh, Shelton discovered he had the next best thing to a son ... and lost him immediately. Filled with hatred and rage, the adventurer methodically tracks down Mrs Yoon, Hooker's right arm and murderer of Tran. It's a long and obstacle-strewn quest, but Wayne is a professional. Which does leave the hardest question of all: what will he do once he's found his old nemesis?
During the 1961 floods in Kansas, the Clown is searching a house,
looking for important documents. When the police arrive, though, a
shoot-out ensues that ends in the killer's apparent death. And yet ...
By the time the owner of the house returns, along with Alex Poliac,
the documents have disappeared, and Alex is convinced his old enemy
is still alive. Meanwhile, FBI Agent Laura Kensington is arrested for treason ...
XIII is hiding in France at the Préseaus, after a past more nebulous he even believed possible caught up to him again. But the organisation that's after him hasn't said its last word, and has considerable means at its disposal. It lures Jones, on duty in Afghanistan, into a terrible ambush, for the sole purpose of serving as bait for the amnesiac - who immediately rushes to her rescue. Meanwhile, Betty Barnowsky-Préseau is off to Maine to dig into XIII's past...
Jason McLane is on holidays with Jones at some friends' in Central America, when a peculiar priest offers him startling news: He may very well be a married man! And because nothing is ever simple in XIII's life, his apparent wife is none other than the leader of the democratic guerrillas in neighbouring Costa Verde, Maria De Los Santos-currently awaiting execution in a maximum security fortress. Time for the amnesiac to put his skills to good use again- for Maria.
Is the world barrelling towards the apocalypse? Russian commandoes are positioned around Georgia and its vital pipelines, fanatical terrorists are bent on eliminating Saudi Arabia's reigning family... With oil barons indifferent to the potential damage their stock market manipulations could cause, only one man stands against a scheme of utter cynicism: Larry B. Max. This time, the IRS agent intends to stop his sworn enemy Madsen for good - and rescue the woman he's loved for so long, Kate.
Larry B. Max is an unusual specialist from a little-known branch of the I.R.S. (Internal Revenue Service), the all-powerful tax-collecting agency of the United States, which has every technological method at its disposal to investigate possible links between high finance and high crime.
Max investigates two seemingly-unconnected murders. The former president of an Asian country, who was accused of embezzlement, is bumped off in France. Meanwhile, the right-hand man of a corrupt US mayor meets a grizzly end in the Californian desert. Max finds a strange message stating "Silicia, 10 am, Ocean Drive" and tries to figure out what it all means. Meanwhile, a mysterious young lady seems to be one step ahead of him and erasing one clue after the other.
Larry B. Max is an unusual specialist from a little-known branch of the I.R.S. (Internal Revenue Service), the all-powerful tax-collecting agency of the United States, with every technological method at his disposal to link high finance and high crime.
Max investigates Silicia, Inc., a mysterious company fronting the activities of a beautiful and deadly assassin. For $2.5 million per contract, the killer leaves a trail of bodies and corruption behind her. As the I.R.$. agent closes in on his target, the scale of her web becomes frighteningly clear-and things take an unpleasantly personal turn for Max.
