Alex Rider: Scorpia, by Anthony Horowitz (Response 1)

I have read up to page 196 in the fictional action novel Alex Rider: Scorpia by Anthony Horowitz. It is the fifth book in the Alex Rider series.

Summary so far: As a basic overview for those who haven't read the previous books, Alex Rider is a teen spy who was forcefully enlisted into Britain's intelligence agency, MI6. Over the previous novels and missions, Alex had grown to learn that being a spy often reaped great rewards, but also caused an abundance of physical and emotional strees. And, Alex had recently learned about how his deceased father was part of an assassination group called Scorpia. This made him rethink his job as a secret weapon for his country, and decided to travel to Venice with his friend Tom in order to find our more about the criminal organization. Here, he infiltrated an important party with Scorpia members, but was captured and almost killed. However, he had gained important information and made it to a biochemical plant later, meeting one of the operatives, whose name Nile. Nile recognized Alex's last name, and brought him to Mrs. Rothman, the leader of Scorpia. She was quite pleased to see him, and revealed shocking details about his father's death. Still on his enraged adrenaline, Alex agreed to join Scorpia, and went to a special island to undergoe training with a handful of other "students" (all older than him). Despite their age differences, each assassin-in-training had a lot of respect for the heir to the Rider name, and Alex did well in everything except for simulated killing. This made the Scorpia leaders rethink his usefulness, but at the end of where I read, they decided to assign him a mission eliminating Mrs. Jones: the woman who ordered the murder of his father.

Quote and Meaning: "Go to Venice and find your destiny, Yassen had told him. And that was what had happened. He had made up his mind. There could be no going back." This quote shows how deeply affected Alex was by observing the true death of his father. Despite all the good that he had done for MI6 in the past, he now held too many negative feelings against the intelligence agency that he once thought was on his side. He was tired of being a lap dog for the group, and was even more angry at the fact that one of its leaders, Mrs. Jones, had blatantly caused his dad's death. Thus, this quote also shows the theme of knowing the value of what you have. MI6 thought they could use Alex in every way they wanted, uncaring for his feelings. Now, because of their compounding negative actions, Alex gave up on them, and sort of switched sides to be technically evil, working for the equivalent of super-terrorists, the kinds of people MI6 feared the most.