Stormbreaker

Blunt is the chief of MI6’s Special Operations division and Alex, Ian, and Mrs. Jones’s employer. Alex describes him as a man with an “expressionless” face and who “seem[s] to have less life than anyone in the cemetery” (8). In addition, Blunt is practical and objective, putting the defense of his country above everything else. Upon seeing Alex’s athletic skills and inquisitiveness, he recruits him. He admits to Mrs. Jones that he is willing to send Alex to his death if he can stop a potential threat from Sayle’s project, highlighting The Moral Complexity of Espionage. Alex initially perceives Blunt as somewhat paranoid, but Blunt’s worries are proven right when Alex learns about Sayle’s plan.

Though Blunt appears cold, he admires Alex’s talents, calling him “extraordinary” and telling him that his courage and inquisitiveness would make him a valuable spy for Britain (34). Throughout the novel and the rest of the series, Blunt is shown to care about Alex, and he helps him remain enrolled at his school and live in his uncle’s house. He also renews Jack’s visa so he can continue to take care of Alex. Blunt sees his recruitment of Alex as a necessity to keep Britain and the world safe, and he continues to employ him in the sequels.

Mrs. Jones is Blunt’s secretary. She is described as a fairly masculine woman who frequently sucks on peppermints and whose breath “always smell[s] faintly of mint” (84). She frequently gives spies and others within the British government instructions. For example, when Alex breaks into the Science Museum and shoots the prime minister and Sayle, Mrs. Jones instructs the guards not to shoot him.

Mrs. Jones is practical and willing to do what is necessary for her country and the world, but she is more sensitive than Blunt. She frequently reminds Blunt that Alex is still a boy and that they should be careful not to put him in too much danger. Furthermore, she tries to make Alex feel more comfortable and secure by acting in a maternal manner. This makes Alex wonder if she has children. She tries to reassure Alex that MI6 values him as a spy, but his relationship with her remains complicated throughout the series, reflecting The Moral Complexity of Espionage. However, Alex learns more about her in the later novels and starts to believe that she truly cares about him.

Sayle is an Egyptian multi-millionaire and the founder of the technology company Sayle Enterprises. He was born into a large, impoverished family in Cairo, but a wealthy British couple adopted him and took him to England. His initially idyllic life in England became unpleasant and distressing when he began school and found himself the victim of severe racist and xenophobic bullying at the hands of several English schoolboys, one of whom would grow up to become the prime minister. Although Sayle became successful, lingering prejudices and Sayle’s trauma made him bitter and vindictive toward England, especially English schoolchildren. He sees all English schoolchildren as snobbish, including Alex, despite him being respectful toward Sayle before he learned about the Stormbreakers’ purpose. He wants to bring the prime minister and all of England anguish for making him feel unwelcome as a child.

Sayle hides his hateful and cruel personality behind charm and generosity. His outward generosity even deceives Alex, who initially finds Sayle’s plan to give English children computers a kind act and does not understand Blunt and Mrs. Jones’s distrust. When he tests the Stormbreaker, he is amazed by how engaging the learning programs are and admires Sayle’s business and technology savvy. Sayle’s façade begins to fall when he becomes furious after losing a game of snooker to Alex. After Alex learns about Sayle’s plan to kill English schoolchildren, Sayle instructs his butler, Mr. Grin, and servant, Mrs. Vole, to murder him. Sayle’s failure to accomplish his plan leads to Yassen killing him.

Yassen is a Russian contract killer who works for an unnamed organization sponsoring Sayle’s Stormbreaker. Mrs. Jones establishes him as Ian Rider’s killer, presumably on Sayle’s behalf when Ian learned of Stormbreakers’ purpose. As a contract killer, Yassen sees his profession as a business and a means to make money. He is intolerant of failure and willing to kill anyone who gets in his way or appears to be a liability or “embarrassment” (233). For example, he kills a security guard for dropping one of the metal boxes unloaded from the submarine. He also remorselessly kills Sayle after his plan fails.

He is cold and mostly unsentimental, seeming to have empathy or compassion only for Alex. To Alex’s surprise, Yassen tells him to return to his normal life and no longer work as a spy: “Killing is for grown-ups and you’re still a child” (234). This interaction humanizes Yassen and implies that he has a moral code of some sort, not killing Alex because he is still a boy in spite of Alex’s threat to kill him. Yassen’s ambiguous moral code supports The Moral Complexity of Espionage. Their interaction at the end of Stormbreaker is followed by another one in one of the sequels, which reveals hidden depths about Yassen and his connection with Alex’s family.