| “ | Julia Rothman: Nile was a star student there; he's a perfect killer - or he would be. Unfortunately he was one rather irritating weakness.
Alex Rider: You mean his disease? Julia Rothman: No it's rather more annoying than that . |
„ |
| ~ Alex Rider and Julia Rothman discuss Nile's weakness. |
Nile (surname meant to be Griffen, as revealed in the Alex Rider Mission Dossier) is a secondary antagonist in the Alex Rider book Scorpia.
Biography
Nile is an agent in SCORPIA. He is said to have been the number two in his class. Nile is very effective at every art - especially martial arts and murder.
Nile has the same grace as Yassen Gregorovich. He can glide stealthily to locations. He is unfortunate in that he has vitiligo, a skin condition in black people which makes their skin white. Nile is described as "he should have been handsome; but in fact he was a complete mess."
Nile worked with John Rider at SCORPIA. He then ascended the ladder till he was Julia Rothman's henchman.
Nile was at the Widow's Palace in Venice when Julia Rothman had her birthday. Nile was the only man who didn't wear a costume. He came in when Alex was being threatened by Julia's pet snow tiger, and switched what looked like a TV remote, sending the cat to sleep.
When Nile met Alex, the name Rider didn't register so he threatened to kill Alex if the latter tried to escape. Alex attempted to use martial arts against Nile, but expecting this, the latter knocked him out and flung him in a basement cell when he knew Alex knew of SCORPIA. Nile was berated by Julia because she knew what the name Rider meant so she frantically got into the cell to save Alex - but found he had swum out through the sewers.
Nile was assigned to blow up Consanto Enterprises, a drugs manufacturing company, and kill its director, Leibermann. Nile met Alex when he killed Leibermann, and he saved Alex, killing the director instead. Nile took Alex to SCORPIA's hotel, where he met Julia Rothman, who inducted him into the organization.
Nile seemed to become friends with Alex in SCORPIA, apologizing for trying to kill him, and saying how foolish he was for not realizing Alex's importance. But he did warn Alex not to betray them, because then he would have to kill Alex for real.
Nile showed off his martial skills in the organization and set Alex on his first murder mission to kill Mrs. Jones of MI6, because she had arranged for John Rider to be "killed." Alex couldn't kill her, and MI6 interrogated him, sending him back to blow SCORPIA open.
Nile interrogated Alex with Julia Rothman when he returned, and asked Alex what killing felt like. Alex said he felt nothing, and Nile agreed, saying he felt the same in his first kill, but he learned to enjoy it with time.
Nile and Julia Rothman took Alex to see Invisible Sword, the operation, being conducted, and when Alex saw the nanoshell dishes were being set on a hot air balloon, he contacted MI6, who contacted the Army, who launched an attack. Nile set on a course for protecting the operation; he got out his samurai blades and whirled them round.
Alex was revealed to have sided with MI6 and Julia Rothman wanted him dead. Nile was furious at the betrayal but he was assigned to climb up the balloon rope after Alex. It was then that Nile was revealed to have vertigo as well as vitiligo, and being mortally afraid of heights, which is why he was number two instead of number one. Nile climbed the rope, only reluctantly, and got to the top, trying to kill Alex. Nile then promised he would kill Alex slowly, and then had Alex mocked Nile by saying how would he get down because everything was so small from up in the clouds. Alex then shoot propane gas at Nile and Nile fell burning off the balloon to his death.
Trivia
In the graphic novel adaptation of Scorpia, Nile is shown having earrings, whilst the novel never says anything about him having earrings.