Eagle Strike
 Second edition cover | |
| Author | Anthony Horowitz |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | Alex Rider series |
| Genre | Adventure, Spy novel, thriller |
| Publisher | Walker Books (UK) |
Publication date | 4 September 2003 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 388 pp (first edition, paperback) |
| ISBN | 0-14-240738-0 |
| OCLC | 122264679 |
| 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.[1] It is set mostly in Southern France, Paris, Amsterdam, and London.
Eagle Strike follows Alex Rider as he goes to rogue to stop a madman celebrity from launching 25 nukes at various locations across the world to stop the drug trade.
Plot
In a prelude chapter that takes place 15 years before the main series, two unnamed assassins travel through an Amazon jungle in search of their target. Locating him, they prepare to take him out from his secret hideout before he boards a helicopter. However, a black widow spider lands on the neck of one of the assassins, compromising the mission. Changing his position, the second assassin manages to hit the black widow and take out the target with a single shot from his sniper rifle. Once escaping, the assassin thanks his partner for saving him before heading back to civilization.
After the events of Skeleton Key, Alex Rider is on holiday in the south of France with his friend Sabina Pleasure, where he spots Yassen Gregovich at the beach and follows him, but stops after a close encounter that endangers him. Later, the house that Sabina and her family are staying in explodes, injuring Sabina's father in the process. Convinced it was Yassen, Alex locates him on a yacht but is captured by Yassen's associates, and Yassen sends him to fight a bull. Alex manages to escape from the bullfight and discovers that the man Yassen was recently in contact with was a billionaire pop star-turned environmentalist, named Damian Cray.
Failing to convince MI6, Alex starts his own investigations on Cray and attends Cray's launch of a new game Feathered Serpent, in which he participates in a demonstration. His suspicions about Cray grow as the next day Alex hears about the death of a journalist who was questioning Cray over the violence of the game. He then locates a journalist named Marc Antonio, a friend of Edward Pleasure, in Paris, who was investigating Cray. Marc reveals what he has been investigating Cray and a deal he made with a man called Charlie Ropper, an American NSA agent. Marc is killed by Cray's men, while Alex manages to escape. Alex sneaks into Cray Software Technologies in Amsterdam, where he hears Ropper and Cray talking about a flash drive, before they start arguing about the deal. Ropper is then trapped in a room, and two million dollars worth of nickels (owed to him by Cray as part of their deal) is poured on top of him, both paying and killing him. Cray catches Alex as he tries to sneak away and puts him in a real-life version of Feathered Serpent. Alex manages to escape and steals Cray's flash drive. A pursuit breaks out between Alex and Cray's men across the streets of Amsterdam, which Alex narrowly survives. In response to Alex stealing the flash drive, Cray captures Sabina and holds her for ransom. Alex attempts to force Cray to release Sabina, but Cray outmaneuvers him and forces Alex to hand over the flash drive. Cray then explains his reasons for attempting to have Sabina's father killed and having Antonio killed.
Cray reveals his plan, code-named "Eagle Strike": he will board Air Force One and use its missile room to launch nuclear missiles at major drug-running factories around the globe to eradicate the drug trade, at the cost of millions of innocent lives. Leaving Sabina and Alex locked in the room together, Sabina and Alex apologize to each other and reconcile. Yassen comes in and forces the two to put on nuclear-proof suits. After creating a diversion using a plane full of fake nerve gas (which Alex saw back at Amsterdam), he, Yassen, Alex, and Sabina sneak aboard Air Force One at Heathrow International Airport. Cray plugs in the flash drive and activates the missiles, before asking the pilot to fly them to Russia, where Yassen will be honoured as a hero. After Sabina insults Cray, Cray demands Yassen to kill Sabina and Alex, which he refuses. Yassen is then killed by Cray before Cray shoots at Alex.
Sabina goes berserk and attacks Cray. Before Cray can kill her, Alex, saved by a bulletproof jersey (given to him by Mr. Smithers), gets up and fights Cray. After an intense fight that progresses across the entire plane, Sabina and Alex manage to push Cray out and into the jet engine, vaporising him instantly. The engine is destroyed, causing the plane to lose control and crash before take off. Alex and Sabina survive the crash, but Alex is wounded and Sabina is forced to initiate the self-destruct button to destroy the missiles. As Yassen lays dying, he reveals to Alex that he knew his father, John Rider, and he had worked with him as an assassin. He even shows a scar on his neck, which shows that Alex's father had saved him once (Referring to the prologue). Yassen then tells Alex he must go to Venice, and find someone called "Scorpia", before he dies.
At the end of the novel, Alex is visited by Mrs. Jones, who apologises for not believing him, and questions him about the final interaction between him and Yassen. She asks whether Yassen told him anything. Lying to her that Yassen shared nothing important, Alex vows to discover the truth of Yassen's story and prepares to find Scorpia. Later, he meets with Sabina, who tells him that she and her family are moving to San Francisco. Sharing a kiss, the two go their separate ways.
References
- ↑ 1955-, Horowitz, Anthony, (2004). Eagle Strike (1st American ed.). New York: Philomel Books. ISBN 0142406139. OCLC 53252746.