I am already regretting reading this one chapter at a time. This didn't end on a cliff-hanger but seriously I LOVE THESE BOOKS SO MUCH!!! Let's get straight into it shall we?
Alex, Sabina and Edward are still at this party, and it's obvious that Desmond McCain is insanely rich. If there's one thing that Alex comes across frequently, it's rich people. Unfortunately it's usually rich people who are trying to kill him, so this doesn't bode well for Desmond. Especially after what I cunningly deduced in the last chapter ;) Horowitz describes the lavish wealth that McCain evidently has and how he seemed to have drenched this party in money. As raffle prizes you can win a car, a motorbike or a 2 WEEK TRIP TO THE CARIBBEAN. Where is this man, somebody please introduce me! Anyway the point is that all the money is going to charity, and that's another suspicious thing about Desmond McCain. All the people in the Alex Rider books who give money to charity tend to be bad guys. It's just the way it is. So already it seems we've found our one for this adventure.
Anywaaaay, after a possibly scathing remark about ABBA - which is not so great because I was practically brought up with those songs and find them cheesy but awesome - Alex and Sabina head outside to get away for a bit. It's never really been confirmed what their relationship is exactly. They're close friends, but are they too close? There are some hints at various points but Horowitz never addresses it fully. It's certainly not central to the plot, and I suppose what with all that's been going on in Alex's life it's not like he needs the added worry of a girlfriend, but that doesn't mean he can't feel, and they seem good together.
Sabina seems to me like she wants something more: especially when she says that she misses him when she's away (she moved to San Francisco after the events in book 4), but either Alex just doesn't pick up on it or he's honestly not into her in that way, it's not clear.
Anyhoo they go to look for her dad as they're ready to leave, and they go different ways. Alex walks into this huge Casino room, and it's here that he meets Desmond McCain and where I started shouting at him for being FRUSTRATINGLY DETERMINED TO WIN. Basically McCain spots Alex hovering and invites him to join a game of Texas Hold 'em. Naturally Alex knows how to play (I swear this guy knows everything) and sits down with them. Desmond is awfully reminiscent of Damian Cray, and if I didn't think more highly of Horowitz, I'd say he'd run out of villain ideas, but he's better than that. Maybe this man, who has been so clearly set up as a potential 'baddie' is actually the opposite, and Horowitz is preparing to blow our minds with his genius.
I certainly hope this is the case, because what happens next is so comparable to Alex vs Cray that you cannot miss it. They're playing this game and the stakes are high. Alex had no money with him, obv, so McCain lent him some of his own. I don't really understand the rules of the game, but basically, Alex beats McCain (after a lot of tension building, and me screaming at Alex to please stop playing because this can only end badly) in front of a whole audience. One of the themes of these books is how adults react to being beaten/outwitted by children. It's not usually a good one. Here, McCain has been beaten, but also lost thousands and thousands of pounds too. With Damian Cray, the guy was promoting a new video game and Alex nearly beat it in his first go, in front of a huge audience, until Cray sneakily jerked Alex's arm, making his character die. See the similarity?
Alex, as always when he ends up winning lots of money from a rich man he doesn't trust (which seems to happen a lot) asks to just give it to charity, which is even more of a slap in the face to McCain, as it's his money, and the charity in question is his charity, First Aid (who, it's noted, helped the nuclear explosion we read about in Chapter 1). He brushes it off, naturally, as he's hosting this party and must be seen to be gracious, but Alex humiliated him and knows it. Think about the black tulips Alex. Think about the tulips. This cannot end well.
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