Alex Rider has spent the past year turning into someone he never wanted to be. No teen should have to endure a sniper's gunshot wound, hand-to-hand combat with people twice his size, and the cruelty of men intent on killing thousands of innocent lives. Yet this is the role Alex has reluctantly accepted. Until now. All Alex wants is a normal life back at school. There is more than enough suffering in the world without Alex being part of it. And yet, not coincidentally, it's that suffering that keeps drawing him back to his life as a spy. Suffering is a business like any other. And it's about to cash in like you've never imagined.