Synopsis: Airplanes and ships have been disappearing mysteriously in the South Pacific, including the latest Boeing 233 flight to Papeete carrying Bill Ballantine. Bob Morane is sent to investigate, and is confronted with the bizarre master (an extra-terrestrial super-brain) of the "Terror Archipelago" and his diabolical inventions : giant crabs, insect-like ray-throwing robots, harnessed lightning, magnetic barriers and balloon-like wardens strongly reminiscent of those used in The Prisoner, not to mention the master's seemingly immaterial minions.