Eagle Strike

Eagle Strike

First edition cover First edition cover
Author	Anthony Horowitz
Language	English
Series	Alex Rider series
Genre	Adventure, Spy novel
Publisher	Walker Books (UK)
Publication date	4 September 2003
Publication place	United Kingdom
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.

Plot introduction

Walker Books plot synopsis:

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.

Plot summary

On vacation, Alex Rider sees Russian contract killer 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 his friend 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 injures 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. While Alex is thinking about what to do, Yassen's eyes flicker open and he tells Alex to think about what he is about to do. Suddenly Raoul, one of Yassen's assistants, grabs Alex 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. 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 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 with only a gadget-enhanced bike sent by Smithers, and he begins investigating Cray. Some initial research yields that Cray had\s 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 captures Alex and puts him 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 to fake death. Alex escapes because the guards leave.

Realizing that he has escaped, Cray sends his forces after Alex; he evades them. 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. Yassen (who is working with Cray), Cray, Sabina, and Alex then have tea, coordinated by Cray, where Cray reveals his plans to eradicate drugs from major drug-running countries, using missiles.

Cray and Gregorovich take Sabina and Alex to Heathrow Airport. Cray creates a decoy with a burning cargo plane about to crash land, which Cray claims is full of harmful nerve gas. During the confusion that arises, Cray, Yassen, Cray's pilot, Sabina and Alex (unwillingly) take over Air Force One. Here, Cray reveals the full extent of his plans. Cray plugs in the flash drive and launches the missiles.

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 a bullet-proof jersey, and attacks Cray. Sabina 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, Alex tells Sabina to stop the nuclear bombs by pressing the self-destruct button for the missiles in the control room of Air Force One.

Before he appears to die, 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..."

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 quick kiss goodbye.

Awards and nominations

• Shortlisted for the British Books MK Smith’s Children’s Book Award.
• New York times bestseller

See also

• Alex Rider