Eagle Strike
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| Eagle Strike | |
 First edition cover |
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| Author | Anthony Horowitz |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | Alex Rider series |
| Genre(s) | Adventure, Spy novel |
| Publisher | Walker Books (UK) |
| Publication date | 4 September 2003 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 240 pp (first edition, paperback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-7445-5943-X (first edition, paperback) |
| Preceded by | Skeleton Key |
| Followed by | Scorpia |
Eagle Strike is the fourth book in the Alex Rider series written by British author Anthony Horowitz. The book was released in the United Kingdom on September 4, 2003 and in the United States on April 12, 2004.
Contents |
[edit] Plot introduction
Walker Books plot synopsis:[1]
| “ | Reluctant MI6 agent Alex Rider is relaxing in the south of France until a sudden, ruthless attack on his hosts plunges him back into a world of violence and mystery – and this time, MI6 doesn’t want to know. Alex is determined to track down his friends’ attackers, even if he must do it alone. But it’s a path that leads to a long-buried secret – and he discovers something more terrible than anything he could have imagined. | ” |
[edit] Plot summary
Alex Rider's adventure starts when he sees the Russian hitman Yassen Gregorovich aboard a yacht while vacationing in France. Alex, hoping to avoid losing vacation time, convinces himself that Yassen is simply vacationing or doing something that has nothing to do with him. That afternoon Alex and Sabina Pleasure go for a walk, and upon returning they see the Pleasure's house, where he has been staying with Sabina and her parents, explode; the explosion severely harms Sabina's father. They are told it was a gas leak which caused the explosion, but Alex knows that Yassen caused the explosion.
Alex heads for Yassen's boat, where he finds Yassen, and assumes he is sleeping. He is about to shoot Yassen when Yassen flicks his eyes open, and tells Alex to think about what he is about to do. Suddenly Raoul, one of Yassen's assistants, grabs him up from behind and knocks him out. Yassen, Raoul and another assistant, Franco, force Alex to enter in a bullfight. However, he uses his training to outwit the bull, and he escapes the arena by severely injuring Franco, who would have killed Alex if he tried to escape. He escapes, but Yassen has already left in his motorboat.
While in the boat, he memorized a number on Yassen's phone. He dials the number and hears multi-millionaire pop star Damian Cray on the other end. He hangs up. Although MI6 refuses to support his evidence, Alex is now back into the spying game, although alone with only a gift (a gadget enhanced bike) sent by Smithers, and he begins investigating Cray. Some initial research yields that he is a multi-billionaire pop star that has spent thousands of dollars on his new video game console, the Gameslayer.
Alex goes to Paris to meet with a photographer who worked with Edward Pleasure, Sabina's father, and then to Amsterdam where the base of Cray Software Technologies is. Cray puts Alex into a life-size version of his first Gameslayer game, which is how he recorded his so-called 'pain synthesis'. Alex avoids booby traps such as electrical shocks and arrows shooting out of the walls. In the middle of the maze, Alex kills a snake. Seeing guards ahead, he puts the snake blood in his mouth and all over his body and fakes a spear through himself. He walks up to the guards pretending to die. Alex escapes because the guards left to get a clean-up crew.
When the guards realize that Alex has escaped, they chase him in cars and on motorcycles. The gadgets on Alex's bike save him from the guards with machine guns. Alex runs all the cars and motorcycles into the river. Alex returns to London with a flash drive, a vital piece of equipment for Cray's plan "Eagle Strike", where he finds that Sabina has been kidnapped and will be released for the ransom of the drive. Alex then goes to Cray's mansion with the drive. When he arrives, he reveals a nozzle of super glue on the end. Cray in turn reveals Sabina, who has been, under Cray's orders, bound and gagged. Cray out-maneuvers Alex by threatening to cut off Sabina's fingers with scissors if he doesn't gives him the drive, stating he would like to keep Sabina and kill her. Alex reluctantly agrees.
Cray and Gregorovich take Sabina and Alex to Heathrow Airport, planning to execute them later. Cray creates a decoy with a burning cargo plane about to crash land that is "full" of harmful nerve gas. During the confusion that arises, Cray, Yassen, Henryk (Cray's Dutch pilot), Sabina and Alex (unwillingly) take over Air Force One, since the US President is in England. Here, Cray reveals the full extent of his plans. He plans to launch nuclear weapons at several drug plantations in order to eradicate the drug trade. Cray plugs in the flash drive and launches the missiles at the world.
Once on board, Cray orders Yassen to shoot Alex and Sabina. Yassen refuses, so Cray shoots him. Cray then shoots Alex. Sabina attacks Cray, who overpowers her and prepares to kill her. Alex gets up, revealing that he's wearing the bullet-proof sports jersey given to him by Smithers, and attacks Cray. Sabina then pushes Cray on top of a food trolley, which Alex pushes out of the plane's escape chute, causing Cray and the trolley to be sucked into one of Air Force One's engines. This obliterates Damian Cray, but the trolley jams the engine, blowing it apart, forcing Air Force One to crash land. Henryk, the pilot, is so nervous that he crashes the plane and breaks his neck. Too weak to move after the plane crash, Alex tells Sabina to stop the nuclear bombs by pressing the self-destruct button for the missiles in the control room of the Air Force One.
Before he dies, Yassen reveals to Alex that Alex's father was a contract killer like himself, as well as a friend. He tells Alex to go to Venice: "Go to Venice, find Scorpia, and you will find your destiny..."
At the end of the book, Sabina tells Alex that her father decided that their family has to move to San Francisco to get away from all the stress and tension of nearly getting killed. Sabina tells Alex that they can still keep in touch and that she can visit London again, and leaves, though not without giving him a passionate kiss. Watching Sabina Pleasure walk away Alex is unsure if he will ever see Sabina again and watches her leave him for what could be the last time.
[edit] Awards and nominations
- Shortlisted for the British Books MK Smith’s Children’s Book Award.
- New York times bestseller
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Skeleton Key (PDF). Walker Books website. Retrieved on 2007-05-22.
[edit] See also
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