April 1987
A
FISTFUL OF JUDEXES
Reporter
Mattie Storin interviews Michel Kerjean, leader of the Judex Society,
a security business dedicated to battling crime and corruption on the
Channel Island of Jersey. The Society is named after a masked
crime-fighter in Paris, before the War. Detective Sergeant Jim
Bergerac of the Bureau
de Etrangers intervenes
when a group of Judexes at Diamante Lil’s café become rowdy. An
older detective named Teddy Verano helps him deal with the Judexes.
On returning to the Bureau, Jim is greeted by his secretary, Peggy,
who tells him Chief Inspector Barney Crozier wants to see him. Jim
asks his former father-in-law Charlie Hungerford what the Law and
Order committee plans to do about the Judex Society. The real Judex
tells Jim Kerjean created the Society to discredit the vigilante, who
he blames for the death of his grandfather, a criminal named Morales.
Kerjean is backed by BlackSpear Holdings. Jim mentions his
relationship with Susan.
Short
story by Nigel Malcolm in Tales
of the Shadowmen Volume 11: Force Majeure,
Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Black Coat Press, 2014. Mattie
Storin is from Michael Dobbs’ novel House
of Cards,
which features the appointment of a fictional Prime Minister of Great
Britain, Francis Urquhart. Therefore, the Mattie Storin in Malcolm’s
story must be the CU counterpart of the character seen in Dobbs’
book, which takes place in an AU. Michel Kerjean is the grandson of
Robert Morales (née
Kerjean) and his lover Diana Monti, who died in battle with the title
character of Louis Feuillade’s 1916 film serial Judex.
Detective Sergeant Jim Bergerac, Diamante Lil, Peggy Masters, Chief
Inspector Barney Crozier, Charlie Hungerford, and Susan Young are
from the British police drama Bergerac.
Teddy Verano is a private eye featured in books by Maurice Limat.
BlackSpear Holdings is the name by which Paul Féval’s
criminal society the Black Coats is known in the 20th
and 21st century, as seen in fiction by Jean-Marc Lofficier.
