Velicity Jones: The Blind God Affair
The world's greatest secret agent returns in her very own daily adventure strip, The Blind God Affair, by me and Bryan Coyle!
Produced to promote The Hand Of Glory, these strips ran across social media in the run up to the release of that story.
As an experiment, each episode was released with "alt text" for those unable to see the images, but, rather than straight descriptions of the images, we tried to tell the same story in a different way. You can read the full alternative text further down this page.
If you'd like to know more about how the whole thing came together, you can read a special "behind the scenes" post about the strip here.
Make sure you catch up on all of Velicity Jones adventures so far!
Alt Text
Presented below is the alt text we used when the strip ran across social media. We wanted to try something different with it, and offer up a way to let people follow the story who can’t access the original art that wasn't just dry descriptions.
Did we succeed? Well, you be the judge...
Velicity Jones: The Blind God Affair – Episode 1
In the unrelenting deserts of North Africa, the mercenary group known as Alkhamsa are on the hunt! From atop their horses, they survey the wreckage of The Tully Express, the cargo plane they shot down shortly after take off, as it burns in the searing heat, watching for any survivors.
As their eyes scan the scene, they see it: a lone figure running across the sand. They ride, their pursuit in full swing. Their prey: the world’s greatest secret agent, Velicity Jones!
Velicity Jones: The Blind God Affair – Episode 2
The mercenaries catch up with Velicity easily. “Stay where you are, woman!” the leader orders.
Velicity, however, has other ideas. She pulls her headscarf away and reaches for the stolen sword tucked into her belt, replacing it with the mysterious scroll she’s carrying. “Sorry, lads,” she replies, brandishing the sword with an expert skill. “But if you want the map, you’ll have to take it from my dead hands!”
Velicity Jones: The Blind God Affair – Episode 3
The men of Alkhamsa surround Velicity, aiming their machine guns at her. Even as the adrenaline floods her, she refuses to be scared – after all, she’s faced death countless times in her career, so why should this be any different? She grips the sword tightly, hearing the leather of the hilt twist under her sweating hands. “Well?” she demands, never taking her eyes off the riders. “What’s it going to be?”
“You’re always so dramatic when you’re working, Velicity,” a familiar voice says. Velicity looks up, and sees her former colleague Mabel McCarthy atop a horse, sneering down at her, the sun bouncing off the frame of her glasses. “I always loved that about you,” McCarthy adds. “It made our missions at SIU so much fun.” McCarthy turns her attention to the mercenaries. “Bring her with us,” she tells them in Arabic. “She may be useful.”
The mercenaries quickly bind Velicity’s wrists and drag her along, back to the town where they’ve set up their base of operations. “You’re mad, you know that, right, McCarthy?” Velicity asks, letting an edge of anger creep into her otherwise cool demeanour. “There’s no such thing as ‘eternal life’! The Blind God is a myth!”
Velicity Jones: The Blind God Affair – Episode 4
Thrown down to the ground, Velicity can only glare as McCarthy takes the scroll from her; she knows that one wrong move will cause the men surrounding her to open fire and kill her where she lies. Better to wait for an opportunity, she thinks.
“You know,” McCarthy says, unfurling the scroll. “For the longest time, I believed The Blind God was a myth, too. And you remember how fond I was of my myths, don’t you, Velicity? I remember boring your knickers off back at HQ about them.” She smirks at the memory. “Then your old mucker here actually discovered something interesting: the Labyrinth Of Otos actually exists – and if that exists, it stands to reason that The Blind God sits at its centre. Or, at least, something that will make me a very rich woman.
McCarthy snaps her fingers. One of Alkhamsa brings forward a man Velicity recognises immediately: Beldaki, the archeologist she’d left behind when she tried to get out of the country. The mercenary produces a knife and holds it to Beldaki’s throat; Velicity watches, feeling a pang of guilt for dragging him into this mess. “You remember Doctor Beldaki, don’t you?” McCarthy says, savouring the moment. “You should do, you stole the map from him.” McCarthy smiles at Velicity. “That map, you see, shows the way through The Labyrinth, but it’s incomplete. So, I need a couple of canaries to enter the outer circle and trigger any pesky death traps…”
Velicity Jones: The Blind God Affair – Episode 5
McCarthy and her band of mercenaries mount their horses and proceed to head to the outskirts of the town, Velicity and Beldaki bound and dragged along behind them. “It’s funny,” McCarthy says, amused. “The Labyrinth’s been ‘lost’ for years because archaeologists never thought to ask the locals about it. If they did, they’d have found out it just sits outside of this very town.” She chuckles. “Never underestimate the hubris of Westerners, I suppose.”
Shortly, the riders arrive at their destination: an unremarkable cave buried in the mountains. McCarthy turns her attention to her prisoners and indicates her men for the near exhausted Beldaki to be forced to his knees in front of her. “Now,” she says, producing a dagger and focusing on it theatrically. “Which one of you should I send in there first?”
“Let Doctor Beldaki go, Mabel,” Velicity says, stepping forward. She watches the men around her carefully, aware of the machine guns aimed at her. “I’ll do it.”
“Actually, Velicity,” McCarthy says. “I’m a great believer in gender equality.” She cuts the rope binding Beldaki’s wrists. “So, we’ll let the good doctor go first.”
She motions for Beldaki to enter the cave. Reluctantly, he gets to his feet and stumbles to the entrance. “And, Doctor?” McCarthy adds. “If you change your mind, I’ll just have you shot…”
Velicity Jones: The Blind God Affair – Episode 6
A stillness hangs in the air as everyone waits to see what will happen. The spell is broken when Velicity feels McCarthy’s hands squeezing her arms from behind and hears her giggle quietly in excitement. But it’s a short lived moment: Beldaki emerges from the cave.
“Changed your mind, have you, Doctor?” McCarthy asks, annoyed. “That’s a shame, isn’t it, Velicity?” she asks. “I suppose I’ll have to kill-”
But her words are cut off when Beldaki collapses to the ground, dead. “My God…” Velicity says, her voice barely a whisper.
“What?!” McCarthy yells. “He was only in there a few minutes!” Both women turn when they hear the shouts of the mercenaries as they turn and run; they know the evil that lurks in that cave. With a grunt, McCarthy turns to Velicity and begins to cut the ropes around her wrists. “Good thing there’s two of you,” she says, angrily. “Your turn, Velicity…”
Velicity Jones: The Blind God Affair – Episode 7
“Sorry, Mabel,” Velicity exclaims. “But it’s past time to put an end to this!” She swings her still bound fists at McCarthy, knocking her old friend off her feet. Enraged, McCarthy grabs one of the dropped machine guns and opens fire. Velicity runs, the bullets tearing into the sand around her, but stops at the edge of a cliff.
“Blast!” she curses.
Behind her, she can hear McCarthy laugh at her. “There’s nowhere to run, Velicity…”
Velicity Jones: The Blind God Affair – Episode 8
“Now, Velicity,” McCarthy says, aiming the machine gun at her. “Time to die.”
She pulls the trigger, but there’s only a click – the gun is empty! Seizing her chance, Velicity charges forward. With a roar, McCarthy swings the machine gun at her, but Velicity ducks under the arc. “I don’t need bullets to kill you, Velicity!”
“I think you need every advantage you can get, Mabel!” Velicity fires back.
“Advantage?! Pah!” McCarthy yells, drawing her dagger again. She advances on Velicity, pushing her back toward the edge of the cliff. “I’m going to carve you into tiny little pieces and scatter them across this valley,” she snarls, raising the knife. “Then I’m going to find The Blind God and claim its treasure, whatever it might be…”
Velicity Jones: The Blind God Affair – Episode 9
McCarthy swings the knife at Velicity, but she’s too quick. Ducking under the blade, Velicity snatches the map from McCarthy’s belt. “Sorry, Mabel,” she says, then turns away, back to the cliff edge. “But I can think of a better place to store the map!”
Velicity hurls the ancient map over the cliff and into the valley below. “No, no, no!” McCarthy screams. “You stupid cow, what’ve you done?! What’ve you done?!”
Velicity Jones: The Blind God Affair – Episode 10
McCarthy turns her attention to Velicity, her face turning red. “I’ll kill you for that, Velicity!” she screams, raising the knife. “Kill you!”
McCarthy charges forward, blinded by the pure, unfiltered rage coursing through her. Deftly, Velicity steps out of the way at the last second, but McCarthy’s momentum is too great: she’s carried off the edge of the cliff and falls to her death with a scream as Velicity – hands still bound – just watches coldly.
Velicity Jones: The Blind God Affair – Episode 11
Days later, back in London, Velicity helps herself to a drink from the ‘office supply’ of Gabrielle Masters, the director of SIU. Masters sits behind her desk, regarding her agent coolly. “You think she survived?” she asks.
“I’ve seen Mabel McCarthy pull of more miraculous escapes, Director Masters,” Velicity says, turning her attention back to her boss. “So I wouldn’t count her out.”
“And The Blind God, Jones?” Masters asks, raising her own glass to her lips.
“I made sure The Labyrinth entrance destroyed,” Velicity adds. “If The Blind God is the key to eternal life, it’s for the best that it stays ‘lost.’”
