Maritsa

Maritsa
Character information
Born	--, Sabana de Robles, Cuba
Hair	Black; long, thrown over her face
Eyes	Dark
Nationality	Cuban
Affiliation	Independent, Sociedad Suicidio
Status	Active
Behind the scenes
Role	Ally
First seen	Heads You Die
Last seen	Heads You Die

"La vida es lo que hacemos mientras esperamos la muerte. [Life is what we do while we wait to die]"

― Maritsa.

Maritsa was a fictional Cuban teenager from the impoverished village of Sabana de Robles, and best friend of Jagua Solares. Serving as both an ally and antagonist, the character appeared in Steve Cole's 2016 Young Bond novel, Heads You Die.

Biography

Early life

Described as "tall and painfully thin, with dark skin and long black hair thrown over her face", Maritsa was a tough Hispanic girl from the poor Cuban village of Sabana de Robles. Her family had close ties to the Solares family; with her mother effectively becoming a substitute parent to the young Jagua Solares after the death of her mother and the absence of her father Audacto. Even after Audacto became extremely wealthy in 1930, changing his name to "Scolopendra", Jagua and Maritsa continued to be close friends. They were members of a club for diving named the "Sociedad Suicidio" or "Suicide Club" due to the potentially lethal nature of diving in such rudimentary equipment. They dived for jewellery, pottery and coloured glass to sell to tourists in Havana. Just one of the ways their family supported themselves, her father also resorted to more questionable means - hiding stolen items.

Heads You Die

In the summer of 1934, while in Havana, she was the subject of a kidnapping attempt by Scolopendra's thugs - Ramón Mosqueda and El Puño. After years of physical and psychological abuse, Jagua had absconded and he believed Maritsa could lead him to her. They were prevented by the intervention of the young James Bond and she fled. Maritsa and Jagua would later rendezvous at the home of her father's research chemist Gerald Hardiman, who had promised to smuggle Jagua out of the country. However, Scolopendra had abducted him; forcing him to resume work on an antidote for a novel poison he had developed. Hardiman's two charges - James and Hugo Grande - arrived home and a tense standoff ensued with the mistrustful girls. They all learn to trust one another and they search the city for the chemist. Hugo and Maritsa scouted around the New Town, working their way through lock-ups and equipment stores owned by Industrias Scolopendra. They accidentally reunited with James and Jagua whilst investigating a warehouse in a rundown part of the centre of Havana. Jagua retrieved her old diving gear from the building and the group headed along the coastline by motorcycle/sidecar to the Playa Caimito to investigate a sunken ship stolen from Scolopendra by a CIP operative.

From a stolen boat on the surface Maritsa and Hugo operated the bellows and pumped the fresh air down through the water to James and Jagua's primitive diving equipment. While they were searching the wreck the group were ambushed by an American CIP team. Seeing the Scolopendra-emblazoned boat, the team opened fire on the teenagers and Maritsa was forced to flee along the coast until she was caught by the harbour police, and handed over to Scolopendra along with his boat. Released from custody and bribed with $500, Maritsa betrayed her friend's hiding place in Sabana de Robles to the villain and his NKVD lover, La Velada. Unknown to anyone present, the money was laced with a highly aggressive poison and, rigged with an incendiary device, quickly burst into flames to destroy the evidence. The poison was absorbed through her skin and La Velada estimated she had only a week to live before dying painfully. Later, Bond and his friends foiled Scolopendra's scheme to release thousands of the notes into the British economy and retrieved an antidote developed by Hardiman. It is implied she was given the treatment and was studied to improve the cure.

Images

An official illustration of Maritsa by artist Kev Walker.