From Eroica With Love, manga by Aoike Yasuko. Discussions, fan fic (hosted elsewhere) and fic recs.
Re-readings #9 - The Alaskan Front
The Alaskan Front is one of the longest Eroica stories. Summarising it here is going to be a challenge!
We begin by finding that James has managed to collect all those lost banknotes that flew out of the case Klaus chucked out of the plane at the end of Veni Vedi Vici – except one. James being James, he is determined to collect the last one. So James and Dorian set out for Germany, in order for James to steal the last hundred marks from the Major himself.
This is the reason they are hiding at the Schloss when the Chief arrives to tell Klaus about his next mission: to go to Alaska, and recover cargo that was lost in a plane crash during World War II. The plane had been carrying a printing plate to produce counterfeit US currency, and a valuable art collection belonging to Field Marshal Hermann Göring. As the cargo had been sealed in a water-tight container, the printing plate could still be used to produce counterfeit currency if it fell into the wrong hands, and the art collection was very valuable.
Naturally, Dorian wants to get in ahead of the Major and recover the art collection, and James is overjoyed at the possibility of having a plate that will let him print his own money. Klaus and the Alphabets set out to Alaska. Because being sent to Alaska has always been seen as a big threat, they are miserable.
Dorian and his thieves, meanwhile, are travelling in the same direction. James, in an uncharacteristic fit of extravagance brought on by the prospect of being able to print his own money, has chartered a Concorde and they are travelling in luxury, with champagne laid on. Furthermore, as soon as they land, James sets about buying a cabin and some land on the shores of Tazlina Lake, where the cargo is thought to be submerged. The usually tight-fisted James feels he can spend some money since he is about to be as rich as he wants to be. This cabin plays an important role later on.
Unknown to both, a third group arrives in Alaska at about the same time: Mischa the Bear Cub and a group of fellow Soviet spies, out to thwart Iron Klaus.
The fourth group of players in the story is the FBI, who have been alerted that a notorious art thief has come to Alaska. They are also supposed to cooperate with the NATO party, but Klaus locks horns with the FBI men straight away. Our dear Klaus is very intolerant, critical and suspicious. I guess those are things that help make him a good spy but it doesn’t endear him to people he’s supposed to work with.
At this point of the story, Aoike-san is developing the humour with these four disparate groups acting independently of each other, each trying to get the upper hand and none of them (as yet) really aware of what the others are doing. In fact, Dorian and his thieves are the first to pinpoint Klaus and the Alphabets and to know what they are up to: at Tazlina Lake, the Major and his men are searching the waters for the sunken plane and the cargo it contained. Round one to Dorian.
Dorian is also first to spot, and recognise, Mischa the Bear Cub. Realising that he, too, is interested in the salvage operation, and wanting to keep him from interfering, Dorian and his men plot how to get the Russians out of the way. They do so by spiking the Russians’ food with laxatives, giving them all a severe case of upset innards, and the Russians are taken off to a medical centre for treatment. Readers spot what the Russians do not: the medical centre is staffed by Dorian’s men, and the aim is simply to keep them all out of the way.
[Aside: I love how the Russian spies are tucked up in their hospital beds with their fur hats and dark glasses on. A great example of Aoike-san's visual jokes.]
However, before they all end up in hospital, we do learn from the Russians that one of their compatriots has infiltrated the FBI, passing as an American. This man, going by the name of Ford, gives himself away inadvertently referring to something he overheard in a tapped phonecall and Klaus confronts him and learns about the Russians’ mission.
Klaus goes to a cabin on the shores of the lake, where he expects to find Mischa – but instead he finds that Dorian is occupying the cabin. Klaus is livid that the thief is interfering in his mission once again. If Dorian hadn’t detained the Russians in the fake Medical Centre, Klaus reasons, he would have found Mischa in the cabin and captured him.
The FBI are unaware that their ranks have been infiltrated and that there are other Russian plants around the area. Klaus basks in the small triumph of being the one to alert them, and then he sends them on a wild goose chase to a remote location to capture Eroica.
Klaus and the Alphabets re-commence the salvage operation at Tazlina Lake, covertly watched by Dorian and James, and Mischa (who has escaped from the Medical Centre) and one of his fellow Russians.
The precious cargo is raised, and loaded onto a jeep, with a helicopter as decoy.
A complicated chase scene follows, which ends with Klaus, the jeep, and the cargo being dropped back into a lake and Dorian on the shore watching anxiously for signs of life.
PART TWO TO FOLLOW.










