Alex Rider: Luck of the Goddess

The Late Welcome Party

S

Heads up, this is basically just the actual chapter from the book, you can skip most of it, but there is a conversation with Simon if you just want to skim it.

Alex knew exactly who the man was. The two of them had met following the attempted assassination of the American Secretary of State just two months before. The man was Colonel Ali Manzour and he was the head of Jihaz Amn al Daoula, the Egyptian State Security Service. He had taken charge of the situation then and presumably had come here to do the same now. Alex wondered how Manzour had found out he was here. Could it be that Edward Pleasure had contacted MI6 after all and that they had in turn informed the Egyptians?

Alex had barely spoken to Manzour when the two of them were in Cairo. He had been so shocked by what had happened – by the death of Jack – that he'd been in a sort of daze. But now, on this second occasion, he found himself taking a liking to the intelligence chief who was already drawing a cigar out of his top pocket, biting the end off and lighting it. Despite the battledress and gold jewelry, he looked like an overworked teacher and was actually telling Alex off as if he was one.

"If you were going to come to Egypt, you should have told me first," he was saying. "We cannot have English schoolboys running around the place killing people, even scum like these. It is against the law and it is very annoying."

"I didn't kill anyone," Alex said. Even as he spoke, one of the men who had attacked him was carried past on a stretcher. It was the one he had hit with the cannonball.

"You may not have killed this one," Manzour agreed. "But I suspect that it will be a long time before he can tie up his shoelaces or even remember his own name."

"How did you find me?" Alex asked, praying it had nothing to do with his conversations with Simon. He didn't want to get him roped into this as well.

Manzour blew out smoke and gestured angrily with the cigar. "Do you think I am so stupid that I do not know who is coming in and out of my country? I was alerted by the officer who made the very grave mistake of stamping your passport in the first place." So that was interesting. MI6 hadn't been involved after all. "For this act of folly, he shall be sent for six months' retraining!" Manzour went on. "I hope you were comfortable at the Hotel Neheb. Yes! That is the flea pit in Cairo where you stayed. We looked for you there and when we did not find you I guessed that you must have returned here. I followed you by helicopter ... at great expense, I might add. And lucky for you! If I had arrived one minute later you would have been shish kebab!"

That wasn't quite true. Even if the Lee–Enfield had jammed, he could still have used it as a club to defend himself. Not to mention Simon's nervous circling above. But Alex didn't argue. "Thank you," he said.

"You're welcome." Manzour didn't smile.

"The people who attacked me ... they worked for Razim." Alex watched as Bandage was dragged out feet first, his head and shoulders trailing across the sand.

"They were nothing but dogs of the gutter," Manzour snapped. "It was stupid of them to come after you. Now one of them is dead and several of the others are seriously maimed. But forget about them! I hope you are satisfied with yourself, Alex. You have, I am sure, caused great upset to the people who were looking after you in America and you have achieved nothing. What exactly were you hoping to find?"

"I don't know, really," Alex said. "But I did find something. I'll show you."

Alex walked back through the fortress, snatching up his watch as he went. The strange thing was that he felt a lot better than he had in a long time. It was as if the brief burst of action had jolted something inside him and woken him up after a long sleep. He was back in control. He blamed it on the half-god part of him. Manzour followed him into the prison block and into Jack's cell. Alex crouched down and pointed to the word he had found, scratched into the wall beneath the bunk.