Skeleton Key (Alex Rider)

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Captain Hermann de Wynter is a minor antagonist in Snakehead. He is the Dutch captain of the snakehead's container ship, the MV Liberian Star, which is used to smuggle illegal immigrants into Australia from elsewhere. Following his parent's demise, Alex’s paternal uncle Ian Rider adopted Alex and raised him in his house in Chelsea, London. Ian and Alex had a close relationship, doing practically everything together when Ian was home, which was not often as Ian was also secretly a secret agent who worked for the Special Operations Division of MI6. Alex also befriended Tom Harris, when he was six. Tom tells Kyra how he and Alex came to be best friends. Apparently, when he was six, Alex was being bullied by some older kids. Tom didn't protect him but, Alex 'stood up for himself like he always does.' Later, Tom had a laugh about it with Alex and they became friends. [20] Belinda Troy is a minor protagonist in Skeleton Key. She was a CIA agent partnered with Tom Turner (Glen Carver in the US version) and Alex Rider on a mission to Cuba to investigate General Alexei Sarov. She and Turner do not take to Alex, because he is a minor, and believe he is unnecessary and could put their mission in danger. When Turner is kidnapped on the Salesman's boat, it is hinted that she has feelings for him. She is killed in the same manner as Turner while attempting to infiltrate Sarov's headquarters. She is described as being "a couple of years older than he is (Turner), slim, with brown frizzy hair tumbling down to her shoulders".

ALEX RIDER SERIES SKELETON KEY dirty plates. There was no sign of the guard and for a moment Alex thought he‟d lost him. But then he saw a figure disappearing behind a series of translucent plastic strips that hung from the ceiling to the floor. He could just make out the man‟s uniform on the other side of the barrier. He hurried forward and went through. Alex realized two things at the same moment. He no longer had any idea where he was—and he was there on his own. He was in an underground chamber, banana-shaped, curving round, with concrete pillars supporting the roof. It looked like an underground carpark and there were indeed three or four cars parked in bays next to the raised walkway where he was standing now. But most of the space was taken up by trash. There were empty cardboard boxes, wooden pallets, a rusting cement mixer, bits of old fencing and broken down coffee vending machines, thrown out and left to rot on the damp cement floor. The air smelled bad and Alex could hear a constant whine, like an electric saw, coming from a garbage compactor just out of his sight. And yet the area was also used for the storage of food and drink. There were beer barrels, hundreds of bottles of fizzy drinks, gas cylinders and, clustered together, eight or nine massive white boxes—refrigerators, each one carrying the label RAWLINGS REFRIGERATION. Alex looked up at the roof. It was slanting upwards and the shape reminded him of something. Of course! The raked seating around Court Number One! That was where he was—in the loading bay beneath the tennis court. This was the underbelly of Wimbledon all right. This was where all the supplies arrived and where all the trash Left. And right now, ten thousand people were sitting just a few metres above his head, enjoying the game, unaware that everything they consumed throughout the day began and ended here.

Sister" Jeanne. She has "the look of a matron at a private clinic," is well-built, with chestnut hair which always looks fake, and wears too much makeup to disguise her age. She has medical responsibility for the Numbers. When he met Alex, Sarov was sixty-two years old, but looked "twenty years younger". Sarov is described as not being particularly tall, but he "radiates power and control". He also has short grey hair, pale blue eyes, and an emotionless face. He normally dresses in either suits or his old Red Army uniform. [3] Bulman is referenced again in Scorpia Rising, where Razim is mentioned as having obtained Bulman's notes.

The Big Circle (collectively) is a secondary independent antagonist in Skeleton Key. They are a Chinese Triad gang involved in drugs, vice, illegal immigration, and gambling. Alex first encounters them at the Wimbledon tennis tournament when they attempt systematic match fixing to earn money in bets. After Alex foils this plan, he becomes a major target of the Triad, who send a high-ranking member after him in Cornwall. After this member fails too, Alex is sent undercover with CIA agents Tom Turner (Glen Carver in U.S. publications) and Belinda Troy for his safety. At the end of the book, Mrs. Jones reveals she bargained with the Triad in a prisoner exchange to leave Alex alone. The second is in Snakehead, where the watch Smithers provides him is deactivated by Ash and he eventually escapes using an exploding coin. Alex is described as being a strikingly good looking 15 year old boy, with fair hair (as said in Stormbreaker) or light brown hair (as said in Crocodile Tears and Scorpia Rising) and a handsome slender face that would “attract plenty of girls.” He also has serious brown eyes and a slightly hard, narrow mouth.In the epilogue of the novel, it transpires that when Alex explained his predicament to George Prescott, his office heard their conversation through Prescott's radio, which was still turned on. Initially, they didn't believe Alex, but when they discovered Prescott's death, they immediately notified MI6, who in turn warned the Russians. Alex is depressed after everything he has been through, but Sabina approaches Alex and invites him on holiday with her family in France for a couple of weeks, cheering Alex up. She was in charge of Operation Invisible Sword. This came from a request from a Middle Eastern billionaire to destroy Anglo-American relations, who would pay Scorpia one hundred million pounds to do so. Her plan was to insert poisoned nanoshells into the children's bloodstreams via immunisation injections, which they would receive at school. Scorpia would then make demands of America which they would never accept, such as complete nuclear disarmament, threatening to kill thousands of British children if refused. After America refuses, Scorpia will destroy the capsules, releasing the poison and killing the children. She would then make the same threats in New York, but with more reasonable demands, which they will agree to, thus destroying the alliance between Britain and America.