Mysterious happenings — cloudbursts in the arid desert, churches and skyscrapers horribly destroyed, priests and pastors oddly maddened, Intelligence agents craftily slaughtered — all these heralded the attack on America by the Son of Kasma — spokesman for a vicious, Oriental cult. The populace flocked to the new religion in self-defense. Our country seemed helplessly doomed... And Operator #5, charged with treason by a power-drunk authority; his best friend’s honor, and his own, held forfeit; his beloved Diane captive to the yellow Messiah, must battle alone against a more cunning invader than ever menaced America before!
James Christopher did not technically belong to the U. S. Secret Service. He was a top agent for an American unnamed Intelligence Service. Answerable only to his superior, Z-7, and carrying a letter from the President of the United States identifying him as Operator #5, Jimmy Christopher carried a rapier sewn into his belt, and in a golden skull hanging from his watch-chain was a reservoir of poison to be taken in the event of capture.
Originally written by master pulpsmith Frederick C. Davis, Operator #5 was a clear forerunner of the spy genre, which exploded in the 1960s when President John F. Kennedy happened to remark that he enjoyed reading Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels. The first Bond film, Dr. No, was released in 1962. Soon, America was surrounded by spies. The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Our Man Flint, and Nick Carter, Killmaster were just a few of the most prolific. Jimmy Christopher was on the job a generation before them all, blazing the espionage trail, and keeping America safe from fascism and other wicked isms.
Into this unprecedented crisis plunged Jimmy Christopher. Only one man, but a man who embodied the American spirit — and stands prepared to perish to protect his country.
Invasion of the Crimson Death Cult is read with stirring intensity by Milton Bagby. Originally published in the September, 1935 issue of Operator #5 magazine.
