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twice.
    United Kingdom: See Herod Sayle: Sayle Enterprises, Cornwall. Dr. Marius Grief: Point Blanc Academy, France. Damian Cray: Cray Software Technology, Amsterdam. Julia Rothman: Scorpia executive. Operation Invisible Sword.
    United States: FILES CLOSED. Possible link with General Alexei Sarov—Skeleton Key. Nikolei Drevin—Flamingo Bay (termination of Ark Angel project).
    Although it has so far proved impossible to confirm details, it appears that in the space of one year, AR has been involved in six major assignments, succeeding against impossible odds. He has survived assassination attempts by both Scorpia and the Chinese triads.
    Current status: available.
    Footnote: In 2006, the FBI attempted to recruit a teenage agent to combat drug syndicates operating out of Miami. The boy was killed almost immediately. The experiment has not been repeated.
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    Secret service files are the same the world over. They are written by people who live in a very black-and-white world and who, by and large, have no time for creative imagination…certainly not if it gets in the way of the facts. The various pages on Alex Rider had given Brooke a vague impression of the boy. They had certainly been enough to set his mind working. But he suspected that they left out as much as they revealed.
    â€œHe’s in Australia,” he muttered.
    â€œYes, sir.” Damon nodded. “He sort of dropped in on us from outer space.”
    Brooke smiled. “You know, if anyone else told me that, I’d swear they were yanking my chain. He really went into space?”
    â€œHe was pulled out of the sea a hundred miles off the west coast. He was sitting in the reentry module of a Soyuz-Fregat. Of course, the Americans aren’t telling us anything. But it’s probably no coincidence that according to NIWO, the Ark Angel space station blew up at around the same time.”
    NIWO is the National Intelligence Watch Office. It employs around 2,000 people who keep up a constant surveillance on everything happening in the world…and outside it.
    â€œThat was Drevin’s big idea,” Brooke muttered. “A space hotel.”
    â€œYes, sir.”
    â€œI always had a feeling he was up to no good.”
    There was a moment of turbulence and the plane dipped down. The dog, in its basket, whined. It never had cared much for flying. But then they steadied and continued in their arc over the clouds, heading northeast to Sydney.
    â€œYou think we can use him?” Brooke demanded.
    â€œAlex Rider doesn’t like being used,” Damon replied. “And from what I’ve read, there’s no way he’s going to volunteer. But it did occur to me that if we could find some sort of leverage, he would be perfect for what we need. Put a kid into the pipeline and nobody’s going to suspect a thing. It’s exactly the same reason the Americans sent him to Skeleton Key—and it worked for them.”
    â€œWhere is he now?”
    â€œThey flew him over to Perth, sir. A bit of a hike, but they wanted him somewhere safe and they settled on SAS HQ at Swanbourne. He’s going to need a couple of days to wind down.”
    Brooke fell silent. With his eyes permanently covered, it was always difficult to work out what he was thinking—but Damon knew that he would be turning over all the possibilities, that he would come very quickly to a decision and stick by it. Maybe there was no way that ASIS could persuade this English kid to work for them. But if there was a single weakness, anything they could use to their advantage, Brooke would find it.
    A moment later he nodded. “We could connect him with Ash,” he said.
    And there it was. Simple but brilliant.
    â€œAsh is in Singapore,” Damon said.
    â€œOperational?”
    â€œA routine assignment.”
    â€œAs of now he’s reassigned. We’ll put the two of them together and send them in. They’ll make a perfect