Doc Savage - Plot Twists

Plot Twists

In addition to fast and furious writing, what Doc always gave you was twisty plots. You knew that the bad guys were going to get the upper hand and Doc and his crew would somehow pull something out of their hat, not once but several times! As Doc came to grips with whatever mysterious villian and scheme the story featured, the various groups and gangs would all be working be plotting and scheming.

What follows are some plot synopsis from Doc books. This will spoil the particular stories for you, but will give you a feel for how the typical Doc book flows and there are plenty more!. Remember these books originally came out 1 every month! by a single author!

The Phantom City By Kenneth Robeson

Doc Savage is acosted by arab gunmen with machine guns whose bullets are dipped in poison. They don't realize he is in a bulletproof car, and Doc lets himself be abducted to see what is going on. It turns out they want his private submarine. Doc takes them to the warehouse where it is kept and then overpowers them but before he can learn anything he is shot at by a completely silent gun that shoots steel wing-tipped bullets. Doc spots a beautiful white haired girl who speaks in a language he cannot understand but is attacked and in the confusion everyone gets away.

When Doc and his crew returned to headquarters there was a man waiting for them who tried to charter their submarine. Doc agreed and they all went over to the warehouse where they were attacked by another group of arabs, after a fight the arabs fled with one of Doc's trusty aids trailing them. The trail led back to Doc's headquarters where Doc's aid saw the white haired girl and was attacked by the arabs. When Doc arrived the gang was long gone, but a car pulled up and a guy explained he had been forced to drive a group of arabs at gunpoint, he had come back looking for a policeman to report it to. Doc and his crew jumped in and were driven to a remote house.

It turned out to be a fiendish trap, nothing waited there but an automatic machine gun, attached to a tripwire. Avoiding the trap, Doc set the police to tailing the guy with the car. The chase led to a hotel where the whole gang was holed up. Doc and his men stormed the building but the gang had slid out a hidden exit, leaving only a couple of thugs behind. Doc forced the prisoners to talk and learned that the gang had a ocean going speed boat and was headed for Arabia. In the hotel was a hastily scrawled message from the white haired girl in a language never before seen saying she was a prisoner (Doc eventually decyiphered, discovering it to be a long-dead variation of Arabic). Doc and his crew got the submarine ready for a voyage to Arabia.

When they arrived in Arabia, one of Doc's men was befriended by a local man claiming to be able to take them to the spot the girl had revealed. Instead he hid stolen loot on board the submarine and called the local police. Doc took care of this by throwing millions in gold and jewels over the side before the cops arrived and followed the arab back to his house where he listened in on a message to the gang. Using a direction finder Doc got a line on where their boat was and the group started in pursuit.

When they spotted the yacht it was deserted. Spotting the white haired girl on the rocks they headed in to shore and chased after her, suddenly the arabs popped up from behind rocks and surprised them. The arabs got on board the submarine but discovered Doc had removed some engine parts and they couldn't use it. Making a deal they let Doc, his crew and the girl onboard, but once the sub was fixed they were locked up in a cabin. Doc then discovered why the gang was so interested, it was because the girl had a pure platinum bracelet and said there was tons of the "shiny metal" around, they used it for building houses in their city.

The submarine went up a hidden underground river and into a giant cave. Doc had tricked the arabs and had spread a horrible itching powder around before he was locked up in the submarine, the arabs thought they were going to die and let Doc and his group out for a cure. Doc thought he now had the upper hand, but the arabs tricked him and took some engine parts of their own. Then due to a mistake, a bomb was set off and the river's underground mouth was sealed up causing the water in the cave to start rising. Seeing as how they were all going to die, the gang surrendered and Doc took them all prisoners, cured them and started the sub up the underground river as it slowly filled up.

Finally they arrived on the surface in a giant salt marsh. Spotting something, the went to the edge and got out to explore. Suddenly hundreds of white ape-men desended on them, Doc's group were overpowered and taken prisoner. Doc managed to get back to the sub and let the gang out to fight the apes, he and the girl escaped underwater using diving equipment. When he looked back the gang had joined forces with the ape-men and were taking Doc's friends prisoner. They then took the sub for a joyride in the rising waters of the marsh but managed to sink it.

Spotting Doc and the girl the ape-men chased them all the way to a long lost phantom city unrecorded on any charts and undiscovered by any but one explorer years ago. The "shiny metal" was used in the massive doors, dozens of feet high that protected the city. But when they showed up, Doc and the girl discovered that the city had been taken by another group of ape-men and the girl was captured while Doc just barely escaped. Following the captives Doc discovered that the gang was now in control and his friends and the city survivors were to be executed immediately.

In a daring rescue, Doc got everyone out of the city and onto the rising marsh in little boats. Stopping at the sunken sub, he retrieved food, water and guns. They then holed up in the hills next to the mouth of the underground river and the situation was a standoff. But Doc was using sensitive listening devices he brought along and heard when the underground blockage had given way and the river started flowing again. Getting his men to safety on an island they watched as all the gang were swept away in the suddenly-active river.

Doc and his men left guns with the city survivors so they wouldn't have to worry about the ape-men, and prepared to leave in their now-revealed submarine. Some of the gang was interested in the platinum until they discovered there was none, the girl had a bracelet given to her by an explorer and the rest of the "shiny metal" was simply lead.

So ended the adventure of the Phantom City.

Quest Of Qui by Kenneth Robeson

People were amazed when the luxury yacht Sea Scream came upon a drifting apparently abandoned ancient Viking longboat. As the ship came alongside a band of Vikings popped out and took over control of the yacht. Keeping an engineer to work the motors the Vikings left their old ship and dissapeared.

When the viking ship was finally rescued, Johnny (Doc Savage's archaeologist aide) examined the ship and pronounced it authentic! furthermore it belonged to a long lost group of Vikings known as the Qui. A report came in of the ship having been sighted off Nova Scotia and Johnny jumped into a plane to search.

Flying over the Labrador coast Johnny sees a dying man on the snow, landing he is jumped by hidden gunmen. Escaping he grabs a radio and turns it on but is captured before he can radio for help. The gang is sure that Johnny is there because Doc has got wind of their game and torture him to get the information. When he refuses to tell, they tie him up, throw him into a grave and pour water over him. The water begins to freeze almost immediately.

Doc Savage was listening to the groups special radio, the carrier signal indicated that someone had left their radio on when a Viking knife came out of nowhere and hit him in the back. His bulletproof vest stopped it but nobody was around! Then Monk called saying he was narrowly missed by a Viking spear which came from nowhere. The group raced to Ham's apartment but when they got there the place was ruined and Ham was gone.

They found his clothes later and Doc examined them finding a secret message from Ham. Following the clue they raced to the river and found the car sunk in the water as well as the sunken Sea Scream. Ham had left a clue in the abandoned car so Doc and his team went to a mansion. There they were attacked by something unseen that left large claw marks in the ground. Reaching the house they were treated to a story about a gang that stole fancy long distance planes. The owner had only one left which he offered to Doc, but Doc had better planes in his wherehouse. On the way they found Ham, unconscious with no idea what had happened. When they got to the wherehouse they discovered that the gang had destroyed part of it, the part that held planes.

Taking the millionaire and his servant with them Doc and his band headed for Labrador following the radio signal. They spotted a destroyed plane and landed. Discovering Johnny's radio they looked for him but were attacked by a plane. Getting their plane into the air Doc and the enemy ship fought an aerial duel with Doc coming out the winner, but the enemy plane escaped. When he landed they discovered Johnny's clothes in the frozen grave but no Johnny.

Johhny had been rescued because he could speak ancient Viking and he was supposed to translate for a golden haired girl. Before she could be questioned about Qui, Johhny and the girl escaped, running from the gang on foot. Johnny was getting away when he fell into a crevice, the gang showed up and shot into his clothes a dozen times.

Doc Savage searched and discovered the girl, she told him she is a slave of the Qui. She was taken by the escaping men because she could navigate by the stars and knew the location of Qui. A plane came by and shot at them, they were separated in the fight and the gang captured the girl.

While Doc was gone, his group and was surprised by the butler. He took them all captive and flew the plane to where the gang was. When Doc returned there was nothing around, so he started out in search of Johhny. Coming to the crevice he went down into it to look closer to Johhny's body, only to discover it was clothes filled with snow and a trail down the bottom. Following it he came through a crack in a cliff into a cultivated field!

Doc came to a high wall, crawling through a small hole he is attacked by dwarves. Allowing himself to be captured he was taken to a holding pen where he met Johnny - now clad only in underwear and near freezing. Johnny tells him that the Qui - the dwarves have lived here for as long as anyone can remember and captures anyone who comes along, including Vikings, to be their slaves. The gang had escaped in an old Viking ship and came back with a lot of guns. As the gang landed and started the battle, Doc escaped the pen and rescued Monk, Ham and the others who were prisoners in the planes. Taking the gangs extra ammunition with them they escaped, only to be recaptured by the dwarves as they destroyed the planes.

Unfortunately the gang joined forces with the dwarves and decided to kill Doc and his gang. First they were forced to dig up the Vikings treasure buried when they were captured hundreds of years ago, then as they were about to be shot, Doc created a distraction and his group escaped. They were persued across a dangerous stretch of beach as the tide was coming in, the gang following were swept away in the rising freezing waters.

Doc and his men sailed back to civilization on another Viking ship laden with gold and used the treasures to set up a fund to provide the Qui with some of the comforts of civilization.

So ended the adventure of the Quest of Qui.

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