An action-packed spy novel for middle and high school children. The first part of the adventures of 14-year-old Alex Rider. Alex was told that his guardian died in a car accident, but this is not true: in fact, his uncle was a spy for British intelligence MI6 and was killed. The loss of the agent brings the MI6 investigation to a dead end, and the head of the Special Branch of the Secret Service makes a knight's move: Alex, blackmailed by him, must take a crash course in the survival of British commandos and, armed with gadgets from the MI6 laboratory, complete what his uncle started.