Ugo Carnifex, also known as Count Ugo Carnifex, was a Sardinian warlord, businessman and head of the clandestine organisation, the Millenaria. The character served as the primary antagonist of Charlie Higson's 2006 Young Bond novel, Blood Fever.
Biography[]
Background[]
Ugo Carnifex was one of three children born to a poor family in the Supramonte mountains of Barbagia, Sardinia. Initially subsisting as a goatherd, Carnifex and his younger brother, Guido, joined the Italian Army during the First World War and fought against the Austro-Hungarian Empire along Italy's north-east border. At the battle of Triangular Woods he suffered a head wound; the shock of which caused his hair to turn prematurely white. Cut off behind enemy lines, his four-man group took refuge in a deserted palazzo and hid in a septic tank. The experience would haunt Carnifex; inculcating a lifelong mysophobia (fear of uncleanliness). After emerging, a violent standoff ensued with Hungarian soldiers - concluding with the three remaining men (Ugo, Guido and a Hungarian named Zoltan) unexpectedly discovering the owners' hidden treasure. Guido, a religious man, objected to taking it. Ugo murdered him and made a pact with Zoltan to bury the trove and retrieve it after the war. However, the duplicitous Carnifex returned first and claimed it for himself.
With his newfound wealth, Ugo returned to Sardinia and adopted the title "Count". His sister, likewise benefitting from his status, fashioned herself as "Contessa" Jana Carnifex. Fancying himself a modern Caesar, Carnifex resurrected the Millenaria secret society and spent lavishly; constructing an extravagant palazzo complex around a tin mine (which Ugo would claim to be silver and credit for his ill-gotten fortune) in the Gennargentu massif. Despite its superficial grandeur, the fantasy Roman complex - with its vast dam, town, colosseum and aqueduct - was a shoddily constructed vanity project designed to showcase his ambitions and maintain the veneer of wealth. As his fortune dwindled Carnifex turned to selling stolen art via his uneven partnership with pirate Zoltan the Magyar and an Eton College professor, Peter Haight.
Blood Fever[]
During the Summer of 1933[2], one such act of piracy resulted in the murder of a British aristocrat and the abduction of his daughter, Amy Goodenough. Carnifex would eventually seize the girl from Zoltan with the aim of wedding her to solidify his aristocratic pretensions; callously murdering her tutor, Grace Wainwright. Meanwhile, Carnifex's acolyte Love-Haight organised an Eton trip to Sardinia in August 1933[1], smuggling stolen art out of the country under the guise of attending Ugo's carnival. One of his inquisitive pupils, a young James Bond, uncovered the Count's scheme to expand his secret organisation and stumbled across the imprisoned Amy Goodenough. Bond was ultimately betrayed by his school master and was brought before Carnifex for interrogation. Unwilling to divulge the identity of the person who helped him find Amy, Carnifex had James taken to a mosquito-infested marsh, bound him to the ground and left him there to be tortured by the swarm of hungry insects.
Bond succeeded in sowing the seeds of division - tricking Carnifex into believing the disgruntled Zoltan had enlisted the boy's help. James would eventually escape with the aid of a vengeful Barbati girl, Vendetta, whose brother Mauro had been murdered by Carnifex. Her village's subsequent attempt to strike back at the Count was quashed by soldiers led by his Scottish mercenary, Smiler. Bond was narrowly rescued by Zoltan and his pirates. Despite being outnumbered, they orchestrated an assault on Carnifex's palazzo as James secretly rescued Amy Goodenough from her cell. The vengeful and dying Zoltan blew up the poorly-constructed dam - sending a tsunami of water and sludge pouring down the mountains. Ugo Carnifex was crushed under his beloved Sikorsky seaplane and the entire complex was entombed under a thick layer of mud.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Carnifex is derived from the Latin for "butcher".
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Higson, Charlie (5 January 2006). "Chapter 5: The Tombs of the Giants", Blood Fever, Young Bond (in En-UK). London: Puffin Books. ISBN 0141318600. “I’m taking an expedition there at the end of the summer, to look at some of the monuments.”
- ↑ Higson, Charlie (5 January 2006). "Prologue: The Magyar", Blood Fever, Young Bond (in En-UK). London: Puffin Books. ISBN 0141318600.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
