Ali Manzour

Do-Gooder
Full Name	Ali Manzour
Alias(es)	Manzour
Origin	Scorpia Rising
Occupation	Head of the Jihaz Amn al Daoula, the Cairo secret service
Powers / Skills	Business skills, bilingual nature, charisma, wealth, authoritative air
Hobby	Controlling Cairo's police and anti-terrorism unit, eating sweets
Goals	Keep order in Cairo and Egypt
Family	His daughter, Shaida Unknown wife
Friends / Allies	Joe Byrne Alex Rider Intelligence Agents
Enemies	Scorpia Terrorists
Type of Hero	Counter Terrorist, Business Hero

“	Out of the question. I have men who are experienced in this sort of thing. Unit Triple Seven. They do not need your help.	„
	~ Ali Manzour showing his protective nature to Alex

Ali Manzour is the head of the Jihaz Amn al Daoula, the Egyptian secret police in Cairo designed to fight crime and corruption. Ali Manzour is a main protagonist in the penultimate Alex Rider novel, Scorpia Rising, as well as the finale, Never Say Die.

Biography

Ali first appears after the failed assassination attempt on the American secretary of state, and he is all flustered and alarmed at the rapidity the situation spiralled out of control. Ali Manzour is described as a pleasant enough man, keen to keep order, but he has a serious eating problem and is really overweight. He dresses flamboyantly and extravagantly in a striped white suit.

Ali Manzour comes up to Joe Byrne and demands an explanation for the events that have happened. Ali wants to blame Joe but for some reason he cannot, he just says it was Joe's business because it's his politician who the assassin failed to shoot. Ali is just more interested in how an assassin snuck in through fifteen CIA agents and a courtyard full of Cairo police. Ali Manzour is also confused how "journalist" Erik Gunther was killed by a scorpion in the middle of Cairo because, as Ali knows, there are no scorpions in Cairo and especially not in Media vans.

One of Ali's men runs in and says he found a young boy outside asking to be let in. When he is described the boy, Joe knows it's Alex Rider and demands for him to be let in. Ali disbelieves all of Alex's story, about his evil doppleganger being the assassin, but unlike many agents in the series, Ali Manzour doesn't laugh at Alex, he just sends the guard down to check it out.

When the man returns, he is very excited and stares at Alex like he's a ghost. Ali Manzour believes now Alex's story is true.

Ali then says he and Byrne will head the operation to either kill or arrest Razim, the true mastermind behind the operation. Ali Manzour is then told by Alex that he will head for a war with Razim because of all Razim's high tech weaponry which Alex can turn off. Alex interests Ali by saying he will pretend to be Julius, the doppleganger, and fool Razim. He then impresses Ali Manzour by saying he wants revenge on Razim and wants a gun in this field. Ali reluctantly agrees and they head out.

Outside, they ambush the SCORPIA pilot, who is forced upon torture to tell them the password for the fortress, which is Selket, the scorpion goddess of death. Ali Manzour then asks Alex, in an almost paternal way, if he's sure he wants to do this. Alex says absolutely and leaves with the CIA and Egyptian soldiers. Ali then turns to Byrne and says something awful happened to that boy (Alex) and he feels bad for him. Joe agrees and the two go back to work.

Afterward

Ali Manzour returns in the sequel, and tenth Alex Rider novel, Never Say Die.

Alex is recovering in San Diego, and he is suffering from Post traumatic stress disorder due to Razim, and he one day gets an Email from someone he believes is Jack Starbright, his deceased guardian. Rather than jump to conclusions and believe it's her ghost, he rationalises that Razim did not kill Jack, only playing out her Jeep blowing up when he had her kidnapped beforehand.

Alex sets out to Egypt before he goes anywhere else, and confronts his demons by returning to Razim's fort. He hires a taxidriver to take him there, and on the way is accosted by some shady men in the town of Siwa. These men make a deal with the driver to ambush Alex in the fort of Razim.

When Alex outwits the dimwitted assassins in the fort, Ali Manzour bursts in, accompanied by his agents. He is angry with Alex for not going with him from the start, because when Alex saw intelligence agents approaching the hotel, he believed them to be foes and panicked and ran. Manzour berates Alex for this, but takes him to tea.

Shaida, Manzour's daughter and a professional hacker, adds some gadgets to Alex's laptop, such as a self-destruction sequence and a host of surveillance technology so Alex can talk to Manzour and his team wherever Alex is. Unfortunately, this is the last Manzour appears. He reluctantly shows Alex footage of Jack's death, and claims this proves she is dead. Alex, however, is clever enough to see the edit: a bird is not there in one shot, but flies over the explosion. So, Alex realises that Jack is alive, and, against Manzour's wishes, sets out to find her. Manzour does, however, keep in contact with Alex through his daughter Shaida, at least until Alex visits the liner of Draganar Novak, the SCORPIA assassin, and is forced to detonate his laptop to cause a distraction when he sneaks onboard.