Desmond McCain is the main antagonist in Crocodile Tears, the eighth Alex Rider novel.
In Crocodile Tears
Alex Rider first encounters McCain in Kilmore Castle, ScotNew Year's along with Sabina Pleasure and her father, Edward Pleasure. Alex manages to beat McCain at a game of cards and wins £25,000 as a result. He decides to give the money over to McCain's charity, First Aid, not knowing that it is in fact a sham. Previously, McCain had reluctantly agreed to be interviewed by Edward, in order to avoid any suspicion that he might be hiding something. However, after overhearing Edward and Alex talking about GM crops, McCain has reason to believe that they know about his plan (which is not revealed at this point, and in fact Alex had simply been talking about his homework). Fearing that his plans could be exposed, McCain has one of his accomplices shoot out a tire on Edward's Nissan X-Trail, plunging him, Alex and Sabina into Loch Arkaig below the castle. The trio barely escape with their lives and very nearly freeze to death. Later on, when Alex is on a school trip to Greenfields (a company which deals with GM crops), he witnesses McCain speaking with the director of Greenfields, Leonard Straik. Straik is in fact working for McCain to produce a living substance described as a type of 'mushroom soup', which when applied to crops, would eventually make them poisonous (by adding an extra gene which would activate the release of a poison known as ricin within thirty-six hours). McCain plans to poison a number of crop fields in Kenya with this substance to cause the deaths of millions of people across Africa, then steal the money given to his charity and use it to lead a new life in South America. McCain calls his scheme Poison Dawn. He also shoots his own fake advertisement for the disaster by creating a fake African village with models of dead animals, to increase the overall sum of money donated to First Aid. McCain kills a journalist named Harold Bulman after he tells him everything he knows about Alex, and he later kills Leonard Straik by shoving a poisonous Marbled Cone Snail (generated at Greenfields) down his throat. Having learnt of Alex's address from Bulman, McCain has Alex kidnapped one day and smuggled into Kenya by his sadistic fiancee, Myra Bennett. He has dinner with Alex while telling him his master plan, but threatens him the next day by leaving him to be eaten by crocodiles (after forcing Alex to tell him everything he has told MI6 about McCain and his plans). Luckily, Alex survives the attack with the help of an Indian agent named Rahim, who had been sent to kill McCain after he was found to be behind an attack on Chennai. After Alex foils his scheme, McCain confronts him at a Kenyan airport after he shoots Rahim dead. Eventually, Alex hides behind a stack of oil drums next to a runway and rolls one towards McCain, but he stops it with his foot. However, he is unaware that Alex had attached an exploding gel pen (given to him by Smithers) to the bottom of the drum, and it explodes seconds after. This causes the oil drum to explode as well, resulting in McCain being burnt to death in a devastating plume of fire, his body is left 'charred' and 'unrecognizable'. Unfortunately for Alex, he himself is burnt by his own attack and ends up in hospital.
Physical Appearance
Desmond was an immensely large and powerfully-built black man. He was bald, with grey eyes and an incredible aura of extravagance and power. He wore a crucifix in his ear, a sign of his turn to Christianity during his prison sentence. His most distinguishing feature was that his face was permanently, devastatingly marred: After Buddy Sangster beat him in his boxing career by dislocating his jaw, and the plastic surgery went wrong, leaving one side of his face almost out of sync with the rest of his skull.
Personality
Desmond was an immensely intelligent, ambitious, ruthless, eccentric, resourceful and enigmatic man. He was a determined social climber to the point of being as greedy hypocrite. In public view, he was incredibly warm and greeted his friends and acquaintances with kindness and generosity. However, he concealed a bitter, murderous and independent side that was, all in all, malevolent and villainous. Desmond showed bitterness towards his racial bullying as a child, and claimed that it had stayed with him all his life. He was also a cold-blooded sadist who enjoyed causing pain. He expressed this during his boxing career. His breakdown occurred when Alex Rider foiled his schemes and he lost his self-control altogether.
Sources
- Photo: none
- General information: various sources, including but not limited to:
- Crocodile Tears by Anthony Horowitz
| Crocodile Tears Characters | |
| Main Characters | |
|---|---|
| Alex Rider • Alan Blunt • Tulip Jones • Jack Starbright • Desmond McCain • Sabina Pleasure • Leonard Straik | |
| Other Key Characters | |
| Edward Pleasure • Smithers • Liz Pleasure • John Crawley • Ravi Chandra • Harry Bulman • Myra Bennett • Rahim | |