Alex Rider is a spy working for M16. He is the youngest person that works for them but even though he is young he is still very impressive. He has saved millions of people and if it weren't for him the world would be gone. In this story Alex must stop the rich criminal Nikolei Drevin from destroying the pentagon.
The story begins as Alex Rider is leaving M16's headquarters and gets shot by an assassin. This bullet had just barely missed his heart but still hits him. He is injured badly and is sent to a hospital. In the hospital at night he is walking downstairs because he wants to go outside. He sees 4 criminal walk into the hospital and sees them kill the man at the desk and then hears them say they are going to capture a boy that was in the room next to him. He tricks them into following him and making him think he is Paul Drevin the person they came to get. He knocks each of them out but their driver comes and knocks Alex out.
Alex found himself in a room alone. Soon the same people he had knocked out came to the door. He is led to a room with their leader in it. He thinks that this is Paul and says that they are going to cut off his finger to get money from his father. Once he says he is not Paul they leave him in the building and light the building on fire. He escapes and tight rope walks across to the building next to it and then passes out.
He is then invited to come with Paul and his father for a vacation as a reward for pretending to be Paul and by doing that he saved Paul. They were going to leave for New York soon but first there was a soccer match betweens Alex's favorite team and Nikolei's team.
The game was pretty even throughout most of the match. Then Alex's team scored. They were ahead for the rest of the game until in the end Drevin's team gets a penalty shot. Their best player went to take it and was expected to score but missed the net. Alex sees Drevin take out his cell phone and talk as if giving orders. Later that day the player that missed the shot was killed. Alex now had the idea that Drevin may be a criminal.
Once they got to New York Alex finds out that his passport is out expired. He is taking to the FBI and is giving gadgets. He finds out the passport wasn't expired but it was a fake one so that he could be away from Drevin and be given gadgets. He was also told how Drevin is a criminal and they want him to spy on Drevin.
Alex is then returned to the Drevin's and they go to the place that Nikolei is doing his project. He is working on the first hotel in space. After a few days of vacation at the island Nikolei finds out that Alex is spying on him. He tries to kill him but Alex escapes but once again they catch him. He is tied to a chair and Drevin tells Alex his entire plan. He says that the evidence about him being a criminal is in the Pentagon so he is going to blow up his hotel in space called Ark Angel and make it so it lands on the Pentagon destroying all the evidence they have about him.
Alex gets help from the FBI and they kill Drevin. The one problem is that the bomb is still set to explode. Alex goes into space and must stop the bomb from blowing up or at least put it somewhere else in the ship so that it won't land on the Pentagon.
He goes up and finds out that the leader of the group of men that tried to kill him is there. He fights with the leader called Kasper and eventually kills him. He finds the bomb and puts it in the center and then leaves. The bomb explodes but all of the parts land safely into the ocean.
