During school, someone takes a shot at Alex, misses, but hits Tom and puts him in the hospital. Since it seems that Alex is in danger, when a mission to Egypt arises, it is decided that Alex would be a good fit to enter a school that seems to be in jeopardy, minimizing the possible peril for Alex. However, the school is a manipulation by Razim, a new member of Scorpia, to cause Alex to be sent by MI6 to Egypt. When Alex arrives, he discovers a plot to kill the United States Secretary of State is part of a revenge scheme to get back at Alex for all the trouble he has caused Scorpia. Alex finds he is in for more than he bargained for. Scorpia Rising was initially meant to be the end of the Alex Rider series. We see the toll taken by the many missions that Alex has been assigned, and in the process, Alex loses someone he can't afford to live without. It is difficult to believe that one year in the life of an adolescent could be any more devastating than the one Alex has lived through. This book is the most brutal and heart wrenching in the series so far and makes it tough to want to continue reading the rest of the stories. Overall, Scorpia Rising is a hard sell as a middle grade book, but would have been a fitting end to the series.