Scorpia
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 Scorpia Cover |
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| Author | Anthony Horowitz |
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| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | Alex Rider series |
| Genre(s) | Adventure, Spy novel |
| Publisher | Walker Books (UK) |
| Released | 1 April 2004 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 336 pp (first edition, paperback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-7445-8323-3 (first edition, paperback) |
| Preceded by | Eagle Strike |
| Followed by | Ark Angel |
Scorpia is the fifth novel in the Alex Rider series of books by British author Anthony Horowitz and was published in 2004. It takes place from a few weeks after the fourth book, Eagle Strike, to nine days before the sixth book, Ark Angel.
[edit] Plot summary
The book opens in a secret meeting room of Scorpia, a mercenary organization. Scorpia stands for Sabotage, CORruPtion Intelligence and Assassination. Julia Rothman, one of the heads of Scorpia, who is giving a debriefing of the progress of Scorpia's latest project to the other heads of Scorpia, codenamed "Invisible Sword". She is a beautiful woman and has the wealth of her late husband. Julia says over the departure of Max Grendel from the SCORPIA executive board that all things come to an end, as her husband used to say. The book mentions that Julia Rothman's multimillionaire husband fell to his death off a seventeen-story building two days after their marriage. Scorpia has devised a plan to kill all the schoolchildren aged 12 and 14 in Britain, however, their means and motive have not been disclosed other than the fact that they are being contracted by a Middle Eastern client worth an estimated $5.3 billion US. 73-year-old Max Grendel, the oldest founding member of Scorpia, whose grandchildren (Hans and Rudi) will be the same age as the targets, announces his retirement, and Mrs. Rothman presents him with an executive briefcase as a retirement present. However, when Grendel opens the briefcase (monogrammed with his initials, M.U.G.), he finds it is filled with venomous scorpions of the Parabuthus species who sting him repeatedly, killing him while is on a gondola on the canals of Venice which would take him to a cemetery.
Meanwhile, Alex Rider is on a trip with his friend Tom Harris in Venice, still struggling to comprehend the massive revelation that Yassen Gregorovich told him, shortly before his death. Alex now knows his father was an assassin for Scorpia, one of the finest in the world, who also saved Yassen's life. Yassen told Alex to go to Venice and find Scorpia. With the help of Tom, Alex manages to sneak into Mrs. Rothman's party, infiltrating her office. He overhears a conversation between Rothman and Dr. Harold Liebermann, the executive of a pharmeceutical called Consanto He finds a brochure for Consanto, but before he can read more, a tiger, which appeared to have been a rug, comes to life and attacks him. Nile, a handsome Scorpia assassin, comes in and puts the tiger to sleep with a remote control. He asks Alex why he is there, but Alex can only disclose his name. Apparently Nile ignored Alex's remark that he was looking for Scorpia. He is ready to escape, but Nile warns him that if he takes one more step, he will kill Alex. Alex tries to get out anyway, but Nile, a martial arts master and ninja expert, overpowers Alex, placing him in a position to break Alex's neck. Alex is lucky, however, for Nile instead knocks him out and places him in a water chamber, leaving him to drown. Alex manages to swim out, however, and the next day, he tells Tom his entire story on a train trip to visit Tom's brother Jerry.
Jerry Harris, an experienced BASE jumper, agrees to help Alex infiltrate Consanto Enterprises. Alex BASE jumps from a cliff onto the roof, and enters via a fire exit. However, he is spotted by Dr.Liebermann,who is about to call security when Nile shows up. Nile tells Dr. Liebermann he will handle Alex, taking out a samurai sword and throwing it across the hall, and to Alex's surprise, it goes straight through Dr. Liebermann's neck, killing him instantly. Nile sets a bomb to go off, and takes Alex away to see Mrs. Rothman.
Mrs. Rothman meets Alex for dinner in a suite hotel, and she offers to have him join Scorpia. She tells Alex she was falling in love with his father, John, when he was with Scorpia. Alex tells her he does not want to join Scorpia, but would like to know the truth about his father (he was told both his parents died in a plane crash). Mrs. Rothman shows him the video of his father's death.
She tells Alex that his father was an esteemed officer in the Parachute Regiment until he struck and killed a man in a bar. He served a year in prison for manslaughter and was dishonourably discharged from the army. Scorpia became interested in John's services, and hired him as an assassin and teacher at their training school on the island of Malagasto. Rider killed five or six men, and taught countless other assassins. However, Mrs. Rothman tells him he was captured by MI6 as part of a trap on the island of Malta.
MI6, however, offered John back in exchange for a civil servant's son who Scorpia had held ransom and was intending to murder brutally. Scorpia accepted, and an exchange was arranged at Albert Bridge in London. But MI6 double-crossed Scorpia, and a sniper shot John in the back as he was crossing the bridge. Mrs. Rothman shows Alex that Mrs. Jones, deputy head of MI6 Covert Operations and the one who sent Alex on three of his missions, issued the order for the assassination of John. Upon hearing this, Alex decides he wants to join Scorpia.
Alex begins training at Scorpia's "school" on the Italian-leased island of Malagosto, but tells its principal, Oliver D'Arc, he does not have the instinct to kill and he will be unable to be an assassin. This is proven in his tests. To fix the problem, Rothman and D'Arc send Alex on a mission to murder Mrs. Jones.
Meanwhile, Scorpia reveals the motive of Invisible Sword to the government in a letter addressed to the Prime Minister. In the letter, they make four demands of the U.S. government:
- All American military must be withdrawn from everywhere around the world.
- The U.S. is given six months to dismantle its atomic weapons program.
- A sum of one billion dollars must be paid to the World Bank.
- The President must resign immediately.
Scorpia adds that they have arranged for the murder of all 18 members of the British soccer reserves as a demonstration, and there is nothing the government can do. Sure enough, Alan Blunt and civil servant Sir Graham Adair witness all 18 members, including the coach and manager, drop dead inexplicably upon arrival at Heathrow airport despite the heavy security measures put in place..
As the government investigates, Alex infiltrates Mrs. Jones' heavily-guarded apartment, disguised as a Scottish pizza delivery boy. He fools the guards into thinking he is going to a different floor with a reprogammer disguised as a promotions card, and then knocks out another guard with a blowgun disguised as a straw. Using the "olives" on the pizza, which are actually thermite charges, he silently blows up the locks and enters her apartment with a pistol that was hidden in a bottle of Coca-Cola. But when he sees Mrs. Jones, he hesitates, and Mrs. Jones attempts to talk him out of it. He finally fires at her head, but she was protected by an invisible bulletproof glass, and the lone bullet in the pistol fires wide at the last second. Alex is arrested and taken to see Alan Blunt.
Blunt is furious, and takes Alex to a meeting in Cabinet Office Briefing Room A to tell him of Invisible Sword. Alex is horrified to read Scorpia's letter. It is determined during the meeting that Scorpia had embedded nanoshells into the bloodstream of the soccer players while they were in Nigeria. The nanoshells were hidden in vaccination for yellow fever, and, although coated with gold, contained a lethal(but small) amount of cyanide which would be activated by satellite dishes. COBRA determines Scorpia will use the same method to kill the schoolchildren, who had received vaccinations earlier. They begin a search for unlicensed satellite dishes and quickly find some atop a hill, but MI6 is skeptical of such an obvious plan. Just making one mistake too many irritates the PM's director of communications, Mark Kellner, as well as all MI6, so much that Kellner resigns late in the book.
Knowing the satellite dishes were a decoy, MI6 sends Alex back to Scorpia, knowing he is the only possible method of infiltration. Alex was given an alibi of a massive car crash to present to Julia Rothman when he returns. However, Alex realizes he himself was injected with the nanoshells during an inspection by a Scorpia doctor.
Mrs. Rothman thinks Alex should witness the conclusion of Invisible Sword, and takes him to an abandoned church called The Church of Forgotten Saints. Alex sees the satellites are in fact concealed in a balloon, and must be activated at a height of 1000 feet in order to work. Alex, however, is horrified, and accidentally lets slip "You can't kill children just to get rich!" Mrs. Rothman grows suspicious, as she never mentioned children, and finds the retainer, smashing it. However, she refrains from killing him, letting the nanoshells do their work instead.
The SAS arrives, and Alex makes his escape, beginning to climb up the rope of the balloon. Mrs. Rothman orders Nile to follow him, but Nile hesitates. Alex and Nile reach the top of the balloon as it reaches 100 metres. Nile unsheathes one of two samurai swords and throws it at Alex, but misses due to the sun's glare. Nile is again hesitant, and Alex realizes the assassin is scared of heights. Alex psyches out Nile, and tears into a cable connected to the burner with the first samurai sword just before Nile throws the second. A ball of fire is released, knocking Nile off the balloon and falling 333 metres to his death. At the same time, the satellites are damaged by the fire and the balloon plummets, saving the schoolchildren. The satellites fall and hit Mrs. Rothman just as she is escaping from the SAS in disguise as a bag lady, killing her instantly. It says in the novel: "She was crushed, driven into the pavement, flattened like a creature in some hideous cartoon".
Alex is debriefed by MI6 one week later, and he learns that his father was not an assassin, but was actually working deep cover for MI6. Some of the assassinations were faked, and he was secretly tipping MI6 off for years. The bar fight was also staged, as well as his imprisonment. MI6 decided to pull him out after Mrs. Rothman fell in love with him, staging a massive firefight on Malta and letting Yassen Gregorovich escape. Mrs. Jones tells him John came up with the idea of staging his own assassination. There was a squib in his jacket, and the Scorpia agents were distracted while they tried to kill George Adair (Graham Adair's son who was warned by John of the upcoming firefight). MI6 gave John and Helen a vacation to France shortly afterwards, but Alex had an ear infection at the last second. However, Mrs. Rothman somehow found out John was with MI6 and was still alive, and arranged for a bomb to be placed on the plane.
Meanwhile, as Alex learns the truth, a Scorpia assassin waits across the street on a rooftop, ready to shoot Alex in the heart with a Ruger 10/22 sniper rifle. As Alex steps out onto the street, he is shot, and sees his parents in a near-death experience. The novel ends with Alex appearing to be dead, however during the exact moment he was shot, Alex stepped off the sidewalk causing the bullet to miss his heart by half an inch, and exit through his arm. This is not revealed until the sixth installment in the series, Ark Angel.
[edit] Trivia
As much in the Alex Rider book series, SCORPIA (Sabotage, CORruPtion, Intelligence and Assassination) is an allegory on the SPECTRE from the James Bond series by Ian Fleming (SPecial Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion).
[edit] See also
| Anthony Horowitz’s Alex Rider series |
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| Books |
| Stormbreaker - Point Blanc - Skeleton Key - Eagle Strike - Scorpia - Ark Angel - Snakehead |
| Other media |
| Stormbreaker (film) - Alex Rider: Stormbreaker (video game) |
