Never Say Die (novel)

Never Say Die is the 11th novel in the Alex Rider series, written by British author Anthony Horowitz. It was published on June 1st, 2017 in The UK .

The novel begins with a Serbian mercenary pilot infiltrating an air show in Suffolk to steal a Super Stallion on loan from the United States Air Force. The helicopter is then hidden in the English countryside on a gimmicked landing pad that re-positions it vertically, allowing it to be concealed inside a dummy windmill. The theft and disappearance of the helicopter makes its way to Mrs. Tulip Jones, head of MI6 Special Operations, who launches a hunt for it without success.

Alex Rider, living in San Francisco as the ward of Edward and Liz Pleasure, has been unable to fully acclimatize to life in America after the death of his guardian Jack Starbright in Cairo, experiencing PTSD-induced flashbacks and drifting away from his friend and former love interest Sabina Pleasure. One afternoon, while checking his email, Alex discovers a message that reads "ALEXX I'M AL - " and realises that Jack might still be alive: the apparent misspelling of his name was a private joke between the two of them.

With the help of computer geek Johnny Feldman, Alex is able to retrace the message, and sneaks away from the Pleasure family when they go on holiday. After beating up a pair of bullies who had picked on him and Feldman in the past, Alex gets a plane ticket to Cairo in order to retrace his steps from where he last saw Jack: at the now-ruined Scorpia fortress in Siwa. Discovering Jack's cell, Alex finds the name "Grimaldi" scraped into the wall, but is ambushed by a group of bandits formerly in Scorpia's pay who want revenge on him: he fights them off and is unexpectedly rescued by Colonel Ali Manzour of the Egyptian Secret Service, who he had encountered in Scorpia Rising.

Colonel Manzour, displeased by Alex's presence, is ready to repatriate him and dismissive of his evidence that Jack may be alive. Reviewing the footage of Jack's death with the colonel, Alex suddenly notices a discrepancy when a bird that was flying in the corner of the screen as Jack drove away vanishes too abruptly when the car exploded, revealing that the footage was faked: convinced, the colonel has his hacker daughter Shadia retrace the original message to Saint-Tropez, where he also reveals that two suspected Scorpia members, the ex-Mafiosi Grimaldi brothers, have supposedly been sighted. Alex decides to continue his search, and the colonel reluctantly exfiltrates him with an Alpha Jet.

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