American Secretary of State
The American Secretary of State is an unnamed minor character in the final novel, Scorpia Rising. She is described by Joe Byrne as a "hardliner," and is central to Scorpia agent Abdul Aziz al-Razim's plan to have the Elgin Marbles returned to Greece. A potential rival to the US President, the Secretary of State is in Egypt to make a speech denouncing Britain as a world power - a speech guaranteed to give her international attention. Razim plans on having her assassinated in the middle of her speech by Julius Grief, a look-alike to Alex Rider, who is known to the CIA as a British spy, and then let the real Alex's body be discovered, before threatening to expose MI6's use of a teenage spy unless the Elgin Marbles are returned to Athens. However, the plan fails when Alex manages to reach Julius and distract him, causing him to fire a shot, alerting her bodyguards to the presence of an assassin, and allowing them to hurry her to safety.
The Secretary of State may be based on Hillary Clinton, the incumbent Secretary of State at the time the book was released, although Clinton was largely supportive of the Special Relationship with the United Kingdom
Read more about this topic: List Of Alex Rider Characters, Protagonists
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“The truth is, the whole administration under Roosevelt was demoralized by the system of dealing directly with subordinates. It was obviated in the State Department and the War Department under [Secretary of State Elihu] Root and me [Taft was the Secretary of War], because we simply ignored the interference and went on as we chose.... The subordinates gained nothing by his assumption of authority, but it was not so in the other departments.”
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