Ark Angel characters

Appears from the start

Fourteen, and in a London hospital recovering from a bullet wound to the chest. He is weak, bored and under no illusions about how close it was, and he has been told he must do nothing strenuous for months. Being in the wrong room at the wrong moment ends that.

Appears from the start

The American housekeeper who has raised Alex since his uncle's death, and who has spent his convalescence at his bedside. She has stopped expecting MI6 to keep any promise it makes about leaving him alone.

First appears in chapter 2

A boy of about Alex's age in the same private hospital, the son of one of the richest men in the world. Lonely, over-protected and permanently surrounded by security, he has almost no experience of ordinary friendship and is glad of anyone who talks to him as a person.

First appears in chapter 4

A Russian-born billionaire who made his fortune in the years after the Soviet collapse and now lives in London, where he owns a Premier League football club and is one of the most visible rich men in the country. His current project is Ark Angel, the first hotel in orbit, and it has swallowed a great deal of money. He is charming, generous to Alex, and used to being obeyed.

First appears in chapter 4

The head of MI6 Special Operations, who takes an interest as soon as Alex is anywhere near Drevin, and who has no scruples about a boy who is still recovering from being shot.

First appears in chapter 4

Blunt's deputy, who visits Alex in hospital and puts the department's request to him with more tact and no less determination.

First appears in chapter 6

MI6's gadget-maker, as fond of Alex as ever, who sends him off with equipment concealed in the things a boy would take to a Caribbean island.

First appears in chapter 9

A young woman working for Drevin's organisation on Flamingo Bay, competent, watchful, and rather more interested in Alex than a member of staff would need to be.

First appears in chapter 11

The leader of Force Three, an environmental extremist group that has declared war on Drevin's space project. His shaved head and face are covered with tattooed leaves and vines, and he speaks about the planet with the calm of a man who has decided that ordinary people are an acceptable loss.