The Unscrupulous Servant

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Episode 27 of The Trigan Empire

The Unscrupulous Servant
aka The Imposter
De gewetenloze bediende (Dutch title)
The Unscrupulous Servant (Dutch title, translated)

Written by Mike Butterworth
Illustrated by Don Lawrence

The Unscrupulous Servant was originally published in 8 instalments in issues 489 (29 May 1971) to 496 (17 July 1971) of Look and Learn magazine.

It is reprinted in Volume 7 of The Trigan Empire—The Collection (the Don Lawrence Collection).

It is reprinted in Volume 3 of The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire (Rebellion).

Plot summary

Ritto is the servant of Colonel Nils Zenna. Trigan is at war with the neighboring country of Cato. Zenna, together with his gunner Voss, must fight against Cato. They fly over the jungle of Daveli, where they are attacked and shot down. Sergeant Voss manages to free himself from the wreckage but cannot find Zenna. However, he does find Zenna’s identification tag and takes it with him.

After a trek through the jungle lasting three Lunar years, he returns to Trigan. Everyone thinks he is Zenna, and he lets them believe it. Back at Zenna’s house, his servant discovers that he is not Zenna. Ritto has spent all of Zenna’s money and even has gambling debts. He forces Voss, in Zenna’s name, to borrow money everywhere, threatening to reveal his true identity otherwise.

Zenna is called up again for the war against Cato, but he cannot fly at all. Still, he manages to take off and is shot down. During the crash, he takes two Cato planes with him and thus saves Janno. Trigo now even sees him as a hero.

One night, Cato’s men enter Zenna’s house. Ritto has invited them to place a laser cannon there. The house is in a highly strategic location from which many targets can be destroyed. When the cannon is ready, Cato’s men plan to destroy Trigo’s palace. That is too much for Voss, and he attacks them. At that moment, Janno arrives. He overpowers the Cato men, takes Voss outside, and blows up the cannon so that everyone believes Nils Zenna is dead.

Ritto is sentenced to the mines, and Voss has become a tailor in a remote corner of the empire. What happened to the real Nils Zenna, no one knows.