Alex Rider (アレックス・ライダー Arekkusu Raidā) is the titular main protagonist of the Alex Rider series, written by Anthony Horowitz and illustrated by Hirohiko Araki. He is a boy spy for MI6, the British international intelligence service. Only fourteen-years-old, Alex was forced into this occupation after MI6 noticed his many talents.
A few months after his birth, Alex's parents were killed in an airplane "accident." Alex was then raised by his uncle, Ian Rider, who worked uncover for MI6. That was until Ian himself was killed when Alex was fourteen-years-old. After his uncle's death, MI6 allows Alex's best friend and housekeeper, Jack Starbright, to become his legal guardian. In the first novel, Stormbreaker, Alex is sent to investigate the Middle Eastern billionaire, Herod Sayle. Posing as the computer-whizz and competition winner "Felix Lester," Alex learns of Sayle's plan to kill hundreds of thousands of children using a modified smallpox virus hidden inside the Stormbreaker computers he manufactures.
In the second novel, Point Blanc, Alex is sent to investigate Dr. Hugo Grief, the head teacher of Point Blanc Academy, a school for rebellious rich kids located in the snowy French Alps. Undercover as "Alex Friend," the son of a billionaire, David Friend, Alex discovers Hugo's plan to replace the students with clones of himself, surgically altered to look like them. Feigning death, Alex goes back with the SAS to storm the academy. After returning home, Alex is attacked by the final clone, Julius Grief, who looks exactly like him. The two fight at Alex's school and one of them are killed, however, it is left ambiguous which Alex survived.
In the third novel, Skeleton Key, having survived against his doppelganger, Alex is sent to Cuba to look into the affairs of General Alexei Sarov. Two CIA agents accompany him, though are soon killed as Alex becomes Sarov's prisoner. Sarov explains his plan to drop a nuclear bomb to force the Russian President out of power, and wants to adopt Alex, as he reminds him of his dead son; but when Alex stops his plan and declares that he'd rather be dead than have Sarov as a father, the man shoots himself.
In the fourth novel, Eagle Strike, after witnessing Sabina's family almost being blown up whilst on holiday, Alex tracks down the man responsible, Yassen Gregorovich, and learns that he's in contact with the famous singer, Damian Cray. After investigating Cray, Alex is taken hostage as Cray reveals his plan to launch 25 nuclear missiles to destroy all the drug plantations around the world on board Air Force One. Alex defeats Cray by pushing him into the plane’s engine, killing him.
