Alex lay on his back and stared at the helicopter. Amarken was defenseless and Alex killed him anyway. His maneuver had worked.
Alex was lucky that he was wearing a water proof jacket because Amarken's blood would have soaked his normal clothes.
He looked behind him and saw two police helicopters directly behind the helicopter he was on. He saw Alan Blunt holding a megaphone with half his body out of the helicopter.
"Robert Clay, you are under arrest for the attempted murder of thousands of people," said Blunt into the megaphone.
A black gloved hand came onto the roof of the helicopter. It was another one of Clay's men. He was holding Clay's chain gun and had the chain of bullets trailing behind him. How many more men did Clay hire? Alex thought.
Clay's man started to spit bullets out of the gun at the second helicopter. It was hit a few times and flew away.
Two armored military helicopters flanked Blunt's helicopter. They started to open fire on Clay's helicopter.
Clay's man was shot dead by the helicopters. His chain gun was sliding off the helicopter. Alex dove for the gun and grabbed the chain of bullets just before it was about to slide off the ledge. He had a plan.
Alex tied the end of the chain to the rotors pole. He grabbed the gun part and fell off the helicopter. He was soon dangling from a long chain of bullets far above Boston.
Alex had though that the chain would be much longer, but it wasn't and his plan failed. He had wanted to get close enough so he could jump off and onto a building rooftop. He was still thirty feet above the buildings, and he didn't want to take the risk of mistiming his jump.
Robert Clay strapped on a parachute and stood on the landing gear of the helicopter. He slammed the door. Alex saw two guards pounding their fists against the door, trying to get out. Clay just smiled manically and waved good bye.
Clay jumped off the landing gear and opened the parachute. He started to flutter down toward Alex.
The military helicopters moved in for the kill. They slammed the helicopter with a barrage of bullets. It exploded in a ball of orange and yellow.
The chain that was on the rotor was destroyed in the explosion and Alex was sent falling.
He thought that he would be dead in a second. As soon as he hit the ground, his skull would shatter and that would be the end. Once again he was wrong.
Two hands grabbed him and clung onto him. He looked behind him and saw that he was in the arms of Robert Clay.
"You have a very rare talent Alex Rider. Why do you choose to work for those MI6 rats? They give you nothing in return. If you worked for me, I would let you share my riches. With your skill and agility, we could have even more millions!" he said.
"If I hadn't killed your thug, you wouldn't be saying that."
"If you hadn't killed my "thug" you wouldn't be saying anything at all. You would be dead!"
Alex remembered a similar proposition that General Sarov had made in Murmask. Alex had said that he would rather die than have a father like him. That response had made Sarov commit suicide on the spot.
"I would rather be dead than work for you," said Alex.
"We can arrange that," said Clay. He dropped Alex.
They were only four feet in the air. Alex landed on his back.
"Get up!" ordered Clay. Alex obeyed.
"Move!" Clay took out a pistol and pointed it at anybody who walked by.
Clay ordered Alex to run. They together began to run toward a black van. Clay told Alex to get into the van. He did.
There were five men in black in the van. There was also a man with battle armor on. One his chest was a giant silver scorpion.
"Here are the last five men," said the armored man. "I trust that they will make another good addition to your army."
"Actually, they are my army," said Clay. "The other men weren't as useful as I expected."
"I see," said the armored man.
"Is the bomb on board?"
"We have it in the back.
"Good. It's six o'clock right now. We will have to do this now."
"But the shipments of salt for the water aren't going to the aquarium until two."
"I know, but the police know what we are doing. We'll just break into the aquarium and place the bomb at the bottom of the giant reef tank."
"Okay, but we should be as quiet as possible."
"Don't worry. I have a detailed blueprint of the aquarium. If we break into the utility entrance, we could steel some aquarium diver scuba gear. Then, we can put a towel over the bomb tom make it look harmless. Two of you men can swim to the bottom of the giant, cylindrical, main reef tank and place it at the bottom. I and two men will stand at the top of the tank to supervise. When it is set, I want the other man to come and take out his gun. The two men flanking me will reveal themselves and I will escape in a motor boat that is docked on the pier outside the aquarium," Clay explained.
It was a plan that Clay had quickly made up. But the motor boat was planned to be Clay's getaway vehicle. Alex saw large flaws in the plan. He hadn't been mentioned.
"This boy will be with me and the two men at the top. I want two of your men to drown him," said Clay.
That's what would be his fate: Drowned at the bottom of a nationally known aquarium. But Alex could just scream for help. He could scream that the men he was with were terrorists and that the filter was a bomb. The police would be there quick as a wink. Clay would be arrested and even if he did fight the police, he would be shot dead.
"Once the boy is drowned, the police will show up," said the armored man.
"Exactly, I want one of the men to hit the over ride on the bomb to detonate. Clay thought for a moment. Then he said, "No, no, no. Forget drowning the boy and revealing who we really are. We just want to plant the bomb and get out of there," said Clay.
"Good. That was what I was thinking."
"But what if the cops do show?"
"Then he fight, but I will escape in the boat as planned. You can do what ever you want with the boy at that point."
"Very good plan indeed," said the armored man.
"Thank you. Now please brief your men and we can get on with this."
Alex could still shout for help. But he was sure that Clay would shoot him dead at that moment. It would at least get the police there. But other than that, Alex was out of ideas.