For the similarly named project made by SCORPIA, see Operation Invisible Sword.
Operation Invisible Man was a project spearheaded by Alan Blunt and created by MI6.
Objective[]
Its goal was to intimidate Harry Bulman and stop him from probing Alex Rider's MI6 activities.
Method[]
MI6 first orchestrated a morning headline 'Journalist Killed' and then drained Bulman's oyster card of its remaining value. When Bulman intended to withdraw cash, his debit card was rejected and retained by the machine. He repeated the process with a credit card using a different machine but the same thing happened.
The journalist went to his car, where he had some spare money, but realised it had been taken away and another vehicle had replaced it. He attempted to call the police and failed, since his phone could not connect to any network. He then used a phone booth to contact the authorities but was told there was no record of his vehicle's license plate.
Eventually, Bulman went to the bank and had a talk with the manager, who told him his account was closed. He then noticed from a newspaper that his picture was on the front page, and learnt he had apparently been found dead in his apartment.
Bulman returned to his apartment only to find the lock had been switched. He attempted to break in but then realised a police car had stopped close to him. They asked to look inside his briefcase and found a knife with dried blood on it. As a result, they arrested him and brought him to an interrogation room.
The police claimed he was Jeremy Harwood, an escaped prisoner from Broadmoor, and had killed Harry Bulman, whose blood was on the knife. His DNA and fingerprints matched that of Harwood's.
The officers left the room and John Crawley entered. He warned Bulman to forget about Alex Rider's activities; if he ever went near Rider, approached any newspaper editor or even mentioned the boy's name, MI6 would wipe him off the earth.
Outcome[]
Despite MI6's deterrence, Bulman nevertheless told Desmond McCain and Leonard Straik about Alex Rider's activities, allowing the priest to investigate further. McCain then killed Bulman with a gun for being greedy and failing to maintain complete silence.