The general spares Alex's life yet again, but punishes him through psychological torture. Alex attempts to escape the mansion by hiding in the boot of a car, but is caught by Sarov using a heartbeat detector.

He has Alex hidden in a former slave house when President Kiriyenko arrives. The next day, Sarov tells Alex about his son Vladamir, who was killed in the war in Afghanistan, and his plans to adopt Alex as he shares many traits with Vladamir, due to their similar physical appearance and personalities. He also reveals that Conrad planted an explosive on the 'Mayfair Lady' to prevent the Salesman alerting the authorities. Sarov stops him at the last second and Alex passes out.Īlex wakes up in the Casa de Oro and meets with Sarov, who says he had known all about the cave, and he promises to tell Alex what he plans to do with him. Although Alex reluctantly tells the truth when interrogated by Conrad, he decides to kill Alex anyway by feeding him into two large grindstones in a sugar mill. When he resurfaces, Alex is captured by Conrad, Sarov's disfigured right-hand man, who drugs him. When they do not return after a while, Alex dives in and, after a close encounter with a shark, discovers a mechanical spear trap disguised as stalactites and stalagmites that had impaled Turner and Troy, which kills the shark as well. Alex goes with them but stays on the boat while Turner and Troy go underwater. The two CIA agents reluctantly reveal their suspicions and their plan to infiltrate Sarov's residence – the Casa de Oro - by scuba diving into a cave underneath the house that features a ladder formerly used by smugglers that leads to the grounds. In Skeleton Key, Alex notices a Geiger counter in a Game Boy Advance ( Nintendo DS in later publications) console he was given by his 'parents', deducing that Turner and Troy were sent to the island to search for a nuclear bomb. At this point, it is left ambiguous who causes the explosion. Turner blames Alex for causing the explosion, but Alex insists he wasn't responsible. Suddenly the ship explodes, killing everyone on board.

While both Alex and Turner escape by jumping into the sea, the Mayfair Lady tries to run them down. Alex sneaks aboard the boat and causes a distraction by setting fire to it, before knocking out the Salesman by using a drugged dart in a special mobile phone (given by Smithers). The Salesman, however, is aware of Turner's true identity and plans to kill and dump him in the sea. Turner meets a criminal known as 'the Salesman' on a classic motor yacht, the Mayfair Lady, (correctly) suspecting that the Salesman was involved in the sale of uranium to Sarov. Much to Alex's frustration, the two CIA agents are openly unhappy about bringing Alex and they attempt to withhold as much information from Alex as possible. En route to Skeleton Key, the 'family' of Alex, Turner, and Troy stop in Miami.

The CIA is concerned about the actions of Sarov and his meeting with Russian president Boris Kiriyenko (a childhood friend of Sarov's) in a few days' time. He is partnered with two CIA agents, Tom Turner (renamed 'Glen Carver' in American versions of the novel) and Belinda Troy, who are sent with him to Skeleton Key to investigate Sarov. After a second attempt on his life is made while surfing on vacation with Sabina Pleasure, whom he befriended at Wimbledon, both MI6 and the CIA arrange to send Alex away for his own safety. While managing to foil the Chinese Triad gang Big Circle's attempt at match-fixing, Alex is targeted by the triad gang. MI6 Chief of Staff John Crawley approaches Alex at school and offers him tickets to Wimbledon where he goes undercover as a ball boy to investigate a break-in. Meanwhile, after the events of Point Blanc, it is revealed that the real Alex Rider survived the fight with his clone. Because this is a threat from his point of view, General Sarov switches off the runway lights when the plane is about to take off and turns on another set of lights that cause them to fall into crocodile-infested waters. In the process they attempt to blackmail him into giving them a quarter of a million more dollars otherwise they will go to the American authorities. On the fictional island of Skeleton Key, off the coast of Cuba, three men meet and supply General Alexei Sarov with uranium. ( June 2021) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise.

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Eagle strike anthony horowitz