—unnamed assassinThe others wished to season your meal with poison ... but I protested, favoring a more personal execution.
Appearing in "A Fortune of Death!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
Supporting Characters:
Locations:
Vehicles:
- Fu Manchu's VTOL jet
Synopsis for "A Fortune of Death!"
Shang-Chi, back in New York, visits a Chinese restaurant called Kwang Tung's. When he has finished eating, he opens his fortune cookie to find a very personal message: "A man very close to you will seek your death, Shang-Chi." With only an instant's warning, he dodges. A robed figure splits his table with a sword. The other diners flee. Shang-Chi takes a polearm from the wall but quickly learns that it's only papier-mâché. Kitchen knives prove more substantial, letting him block the assassin's sword, as does a chandelier that he uses to swing into his opponent and knock him out.
The other waiters pour into the room, but they fare no better than the first attacker ... except for the one who waited on him. This man can take a punch full in the face and keep smiling. Shang-Chi finally dumps him on a cart and rolls him through the front window. He has recognized their fighting styles as Si-Fan, so he knows that his father, Fu Manchu, has once more tried to kill him.
Outside the restaurant he encounters Sir Denis Nayland Smith and Black Jack Tarr. Smith has learned that Fu is about to carry out another nefarious plot, but there's no time to wait for backup. Shang-Chi tells them that he's already going to Fu's headquarters and that they should keep clear. They drive away.
By the time Shang-Chi reaches the building on foot and sneaks inside, Smith and Tarr have gotten themselves captured. He follows Fu, Smith, Tarr, and their captors up an elevator shaft, where the captives are loaded onto a small jet. Shang-Chi flips into a wheel well as the jet takes off. He finds the cargo hold filled with nitroglycerin.
Some time later, the jet lands beside a cave entrance. Fu's people take the captives and the explosives into the cave. Shang-Chi sneaks inside to hear Fu say, "You have pried into my affairs for the final time. ... What was to have been ... a simple symbolic victory ... has now taken on additional significance by serving as the means to execute you." He lights a trail of gunpowder with a torch.
Shang-Chi attacks, but he has to keep one eye on the fuse. At the last second he snuffs out the flame. His battle with the last assassin, though, upset a vial of nitroglycerin. Smith tells him it's unstable and could explode at any second. Shang-Chi rushes to the other end of the cave and throws the vial into the air, where it explodes harmlessly. Only then does he realize what Fu meant by a "symbolic victory"—this end of the cave opens out on the face of Mount Rushmore.
Notes
- This issue includes Value Stamp Vol 1 79, Kang.
