This article is about the operation; you may be looking for the 11th Alex Rider Book, Never Say Die.
Operation Steel Claw is the Grimaldi Twin's secret operation.
Objective[]
The purpose was to hurriedly fundraise for the Grimaldi brothers following the collapse of SCORPIA, an organisation both men were previously affiliated with, after SCORPIA had fallen apart thanks to Alex Rider's repeated attempts to foil their various missions.
Method[]
Stage One[]
The Serbian pilot Dragana Novak would steal a Sikorsky CH-53E from the Suffolk Air Show after she poisoned the pilots of the helicopter. She would fly away without anyone noticing, and land it miles away, where it was concealed in a windmill, long before any officials could find it.
Meanwhile, bus driver Jane Vosper would drive 52 students from Linton Hall onto the road, also without anybody noticing. There, she would use a poison as well, feeding the security guards with a box of chocolates, and they would be knocked unconscious.
Stage Two[]
The helicopter would be brought out of its hiding place, with its new driver, Slavko Novak. (Dragana was killed by the Grimaldi's after they deemed her disposable because of an injury that she sustained from a prior encounter with Rider) There, it would fly towards the bus with the many Linton Hall children with a powerful magnet attached to the helicopter's bottom. The helicopter would attach itself to the roof of the bus. It was then for the helicopter to lift up the bus and carry on with it.
The helicopter, with the bus attached to its magnet, was to be lifted to an ancient steam train on tracks. There, it would release the bus onto one of the train's carriages, and it would disappear.
The steam train would drive to an abandoned coal processing factory, where the Grimaldi's would hold hostage of all the children in the bus. They would demand a ransom for the kids, since they were the offspring of the most powerful people in the world, at a price of 250 million dollars. It was up to wealthier parents to cover the shortfall for poorer families that had insufficient funds. Jack Starbright would take care of the kids while the twins would wait for their money.
Outcome[]
- Alex Rider discovered that Jack Starbright was alive and somewhere else, (since in Scorpia Rising, Alex was led to believe that she was dead,) which lead him to a journey that put him in face with the Grimaldi Twins.
- Alex destroyed the Grimaldi's cruise ship, the Quicksilver, which was a temporary setback. In the process, Dragana Novak was injured, and then killed by the Grimaldi's in the hospital.
- Alex followed the helicopter and steam train, leading him to the abandoned coal factory.
- Alex helped the 52 children escape from the facility.
- Alex also indirectly killed the Grimaldi Twins.
Aftermath[]
With the demise of the Grimaldi's, SCORPIA would be irreparably damaged, and the criminal organisation would withdraw from the global stage, only for a new terrorist organisation, Nightshade, to rise to global fame.