Alex Rider soon found himself sitting in a leather chair and sucking on a peppermint in Alan Blunt's office on Liverpool Street.
Blunt was furious. "Do you realize Alex that this boy Colin is now dead?"
"Sir, I had nothing to do with his death. He was chasing me. Not the other way around. Now can I please go?"
"No, Alex, you may not. This is more serious than we feared. Instead of accepting that their son died because he was drug mad, Colin's parents want to sue you twenty three million dollars. This is of course absurd under the…."
"No it's not! Their son is dead! It doesn't matter if he was a drug addict. He still died. But you wouldn't feel his parent's pain because you're a cold hearted…"
"Alex!" Blunt roared. "We will refuse to allow them to sue you under one condition."
"Oh no! Another case of black mail! I'm not going anywhere crazy."
"It's not much, just an investigation into the disappearance of a boy at a school in the English country side. You would blend in perfectly. You probably wont find this boy and well have to tell the parents that he's…"
"You see! It takes you no pain to tell parents that their son is dead!"
"Please calm down Alex."
"I can't go. I have too much school work to catch up on."
"You can do that once you're done with this assignment. I won't take long, only a few days of search and then we'll turn it over to the police."
"Okay, but only for a few days."
As Alex walked to the subway station, he couldn't believe that he had just accepted to go on another mission.