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You may have been a war hero in Afghansitan, but they know you've switched sides and that you're working for SCORPIA

—Alex Rider to Gunter

Erik Gunter is a secondary antagonist in the novel Scorpia Rising.

Career[]

Gunter is the head of security at the Cairo International College of Arts and Education (CICAE) in Egypt, but he is also secretly working for SCORPIA.

Scorpia Rising[]

Alex Rider has been sent to the CICAE by MI6, who have become suspicious of Erik Gunter. While there, he tricks Gunter into handling an iPhone given to him by Smithers, then uses his captured fingerprints to gain access to his office. Inside, Alex finds some photographs but he doesn't understand why they are there. Outside he hears Gunter talking on a phone. Alex uses a special gadget to listen in on the conversation, not knowing that Gunter had intended for him to eavesdrop and is trying to lead him to the House of Gold, an old paddle steamer on the River Nile.

On the boat, Alex witnesses Gunter receiving a sniper rifle from an old man named Habib. Gunter then shoots him and blows up the boat, causing Alex and many others to nearly drown. Alex swims to safety and later ends up at the City of the Dead, a cemetery in the north of Cairo, after Jack Starbright is kidnapped by SCORPIA. Gunter appears along with Julius Grief and taunts Alex, just before Alex is taken away to meet Razim.

When Alex is tied up in a van as the US Secretary of State is about to deliver her speech, Erik Gunter explains how SCORPIA are wanting to use Alex as part of their plan, by having him pose as an assassin who would kill the Secretary of State. Evidence would be revealed that Alex was working for MI6, and this would then be used to blackmail the British government into returning the Elgin Marbles to Greece (gaining SCORPIA a healthy sum of money in return). Alex asks Gunter for a cigarette before he dies, but Gunter is suspicious. Alex claims that he simply wants to have one last smoke (even though he doesn't really smoke), and Gunter reaches for a packet of Razim's cigarettes. He is unaware that during the previous night, in his cell at Razim's desert fortress, Alex had captured a large scorpion and trapped it in one of Razim's cigarette packets; he had then discreetly placed it in the coat pocket inside the van. As soon as Gunter puts his hand in the packet, the scorpion stings him and he screams in pain, dropping his gun. With no time to shoot, Alex smashes the gun with full force into Gunter's face, breaking his nose. Then, as he falls back, Gunter's head cracks on the edge of a desk and snaps his neck, killing him.

Sources[]

  • Photo: none
  • General information: various sources, including but not limited to:


Scorpia Rising Characters
Main Characters
Alex RiderJack StarbrightAlan BluntAbdul-Aziz Al-RahimJulius Grief
Other Key Characters
SmithersTulip JonesJoe ByrneErik GunterZeljan KurstYannis Ariston Xenopolos
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