Crocodile Tears Quotes
"It was devilishly hot. The fans had broken down once again and of course the company was in no hurry to replace them."
"When he had money, he would move. He would leave the cramped, two-room flat in Perambur, and go and live somewhere quieter and cooler."
"Ravi was an engineer. His identity badge with his photograph and full name – Ravindra Manpreet Chandra – described him as a plant operator."
"It sometimes occurred to him that wire defined Jowada."
"He was carrying a heavy toolbox. Nobody asked him why he had taken it home."
"A nuclear reactor is at once the safest and the most dangerous place on the planet."
"One man with a dream of watching cricket in London was about to blow them apart."
"People might die. People he knew. Could he really do this?"
"Ravi Chandra entered the reactor chamber of the Jowada nuclear power station at exactly eight o’clock."
"If he hesitated or did anything suspicious, that was one sure way to get stopped."
"A thousand safeguards had been built into the construction and the running of Jowada."
"It was estimated that at least a hundred people had died in the hour following the explosion."
"Alex Rider took one last glance in the mirror, then stopped and looked a second time."
"Nobody could survive all this and stay the same."
"Just try and have a good time in Scotland. See if you can make it past New Year without getting into trouble."
"Forget James Bond. He’d had enough of all that."
"It wasn’t just the clothes. As Alex continued his examination, he had to admit that so much had happened in the last year, he’d almost lost track of who – and what – he was."
"Alex twisted the bow tie again, wondering what he had to do to stop the damn thing going crooked."
"No feeling had yet returned to Alex’s arms and legs. He was filthy, coated in some sort of oily film."
"Water was still streaming down his face. It was in his eyes and mouth. He must look barely human."
"Alex checked that his mouth wasn’t blocked. He found his heart, placed both fists on top of it and pushed hard."
"But suddenly, on the tenth or eleventh attempt, he coughed and water gushed out of his mouth."
"Silver sparks crackled and exploded, hundreds of them, spread out across the darkness, then rained slowly down onto the loch."
"A few more minutes out here and the three of them would freeze solid."
"The man reached them. 'I saw what happened!' he exclaimed."
"Alex heard the sound of footsteps on the shingle and turned round. There was a man hurrying towards them, carrying a blanket."
"I’ll take you to hospital. You’ll be all right."
"By then all three of them had been treated for hypothermia and shock and were tucked up in bed with hot-water bottles and soup."
"The man who had rescued them had left without giving his name."
"Alex hadn’t liked to ask him but it struck him now that something didn’t quite add up."
"But in the end he decided against it. He still wasn’t one hundred per cent sure."
"A marksman positioned on the battlements of Kilmore Castle."
"It was much better to persuade himself that he was wrong."
"Jack was more like a big sister than a housekeeper."
"She knew what he was doing. She had tried to talk him out of it."
"Over their first dinner together he told her what had happened at Loch Arkaig – but with no mention of any sniper."
"It wasn’t my fault," Alex protested. "I wasn’t driving."
"Alex wouldn’t have mentioned the accident at all but he knew it would come out at the weekend."
"Sabina told me. Edward would still be in that car if it hadn’t been for you."
"It seems that every time I’m with your family, something bad happens," Alex said.
"Sabina quickly leant forward and kissed Alex on the cheek."
"The school had a motto and it was even in Latin: Pergo et perago, which sounded like the story of two Italian cannibals but which actually meant 'I try and I achieve'."
"The last time you asked me to cover for you, we were in Venice."
"Paris is beautiful and fortunately we didn’t manage to get lost."
"It’s not anything dangerous, Tom. And it shouldn’t take very long."
"This wasn’t the England of pretty fields and hedgerows."
"It seems a lot of fuss for a bunch of vegetables."
"A lot of work that they do here at Greenfields is sensitive."
"The Lord will reward you according to your works."
"I’m sending Myra to Elm’s Cross tomorrow. We’re closing it down."
"Money is the god of the twenty-first century. It divides us and defines us."
"The motives are irrelevant anyway. What counts is the money."
"I am a thief. But you underestimate me, Alex. I am the greatest thief who ever lived."
"People need a reason to give money, and my genius, if you will forgive the word, has simply been to work out that the reason can be created artificially."
"Once the disaster begins, a few weeks from now, people all over the world rush to respond."
"You can persuade one person to give you a lot of money or you can ask a great many people to give you a little money."
"I made a large donation to the Conservative Party, and as a result I was asked if I would like to become a prospective member of Parliament."
"I am going to inflict terror on you such as you have never known in your life."
"I am talking about taking something very ordinary and agreeable and turning it into something lethal."
"It was as if God has passed judgement on the whole of Kenya."
"Alex watched the sides of his tent turn grey, silver, then finally a dirty yellow as the morning light intensified."
"He lay back and closed his eyes, trying to fight off the demons of fear and despair."
"Alex’s eyes flickered open and suddenly he was angry."
"Why was he wasting time and energy worrying about himself when, in a few hours, half a continent might begin to die?"
"But one sight of the glowering guards reminded Alex. McCain had turned it into his own peculiar version of hell."
"The wheat would be growing taller, turning gold."
"Alex thought of it beating down in the Simba Valley, just two miles to the north."
"Normally, no. There are many horrible things I could do to you, Alex."
"He was reminded of a Roman emperor and his entourage. They were in the imperial stand. He was the gladiator, about to entertain them."
"The water didn’t just rush out. It erupted with such force that it seemed to obliterate the entire landscape."
"Alex turned to see a dark shape on the opposite bank dart forward and launch itself into the water, followed quickly by a second."
"The longest anyone has ever remained where you are is eighteen minutes."
"The pain that you are about to experience is going to be all the worse because you will inflict it on yourself."
"But you, Alex, you have one hope, one chance of survival."
"My men can shoot at the crocodiles and scare them away. But first you have to answer my questions, and I have to believe you."
"You will tell me anything to protect yourself. But I have to be one hundred per cent certain that you are telling me the truth."
"You are a very troublesome boy, and all in all I think you deserve to die."
"I don’t think you were listening to me during dinner. Of course, you will tell me what I want to hear. That is the point I’m trying to make."
"But I have to be one hundred per cent certain that you are telling me the truth. There cannot be even the tiniest margin of doubt."
"Alex thought he was going to fall. Somehow he managed to steady himself."
"The man in question lost his sanity before the end. He was giggling as he fell."