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What a charming woman...

Tom Harris sarcastically describes Bennett

Dr Myra Bennett is the secondary antagonist of the eight Alex Rider novel, Crocodile Tears. She is the fiancée of the main antagonist, Desmond McCain.

Biography[]

Bennett first appears during Brookland School's visit to Greenfields in Wiltshire. She takes the children and their staff round the place, making it clear that the whole visit is a nuisance and a waste of time. She makes no attempt to be friendly. She is even rude to the teacher, Mike Gilbert. Halfway through the visit she calls it off (because Leonard Straik has discovered an intruder in his office) and rudely orders everybody back to their coach.

Bennett is revealed to be in on Reverend Desmond McCain because she examines CCTV footage of the visitors and notices Alex with the group. McCain orders Alex kidnapped, and after hearing Harry Bulman's account of Alex's military intelligence leagues, McCain has Myra Bennett smuggle Alex out of England.

Myra is very cruel to Alex, who hasn't done anything to her other than sneak into a warehouse and see Bennett come to incinerate the place and almost kill him. The next day, on the way to school, Alex is captured by three of McCain's thugs, who bring him to Bennett. She drugs him with a mind-paralysis drug which will make him drool and unable to walk, and consequently addresses him like an infant. Myra executes a rather clever plan by putting Alex in a wheelchair and making people look the other way when he is being kidnapped before their eyes, because they are too prejudiced to look at someone with mental problems.

In this unique way, Bennett flies Alex to Kenya, where she manipulates him into flying in a crop duster with her and spraying a wheat field with the mushroom fertiliser plague, doing McCain's evil work for him. Alex knows he has done something bad by pressing the switch but only works it out later and runs to stop it.

Bennett is revealed to be engaged to McCain, and they gruesomely torture Alex by taking him down to the river and make him dangle by his arms over a crocodile-infested riverbed. The hungry crocodiles come to snap at him, and the torture is to see how long Alex can last before he falls.

McCain eventually believes Alex isn't with MI6 and came of his own accord, and their meetings were coincidence, but he refuses to call off the crocodiles, as he says Alex should have died long before. But he leaves Bennett with Alex, with a phone to take pictures of Alex's death and video it for his benefit. Bennett, gloating over Alex's coming death, fails to see Rahim, who comes up behind her and throws a knife in her back. She only knows what happened when she lands amongst the crocodiles, who tear her apart.

Although she is eaten by the crocodiles, only one thing of Myra is left: her foot, bitten off just above the ankle, in a shoe. It is this that drives McCain to order Alex's death.

Trivia[]

  • In the US version of Crocodile Tears her last name is "Beckett".
  • She has a very cruel streak and delights in pain and suffering. Her sadism is similar to that of Dr Hugo Grief who wanted to dissect Alex alive. They are also both scientists.
  • It is said that Bennett taught herself how to fly using her understanding of the laws of physics. She is also a lethal sniper as evidenced when she shot out Edward Pleasure's car tyres in an attempt to kill him.
  • She apparently does not use makeup, giving her a plain appearance. This may be a visual reference to her lack of emotion.
Crocodile Tears Characters
Main Characters
Alex RiderAlan BluntTulip JonesJack StarbrightDesmond McCainSabina PleasureLeonard Straik
Other Key Characters
Edward PleasureSmithersLiz PleasureJohn CrawleyRavi ChandraHarry BulmanMyra BennettRahim
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