Alan Blunt

Alan Blunt is the head of MI6 Special Operations. He is an aloof, impassive, and ruthless man. Throughout the series he is known for wearing a grey suit and grey glasses and being driven around in a Rolls-Royce. From the book Point Blanc, it is said that he had graduated with a First-Class Honours degree in mathematics from Cambridge University. He is married, but his wife is only mentioned at the end of the last book, Scorpia Rising. Blunt is dedicated to his job and has a very analytical mind. Like many spy-masters in popular culture, Blunt is portrayed as being emotionally unattached to anything he does and whatever means he uses.

After Alan Blunt dismissed Alex Rider's suspicions of Damian Cray and his attempt to destroy half the world, he was severely humiliated and was only narrowly able to keep his position. He insists on continuing to use Alex despite of his youthfulness, the death of his uncle whilst on an intelligence case, and the fact that he has encountered near death more times than most intelligence agents would be expected to in their careers; after Alex is almost assassinated in Scorpia, however, he agrees with Mrs. Jones not to use him again, although the CIA and ASIS continue to use Alex. During the events of Crocodile Tears, when Alex goes to MI6 to ask them for help with a journalist who has learned the truth about him, although Blunt continues to treat Alex the same way he always does when meeting Alex in person, he demonstrates a surprising level of concern for Alex when talking to the Prime Minister, expressing pride in Alex's accomplishments and showing disdain at the Prime Minister's decision to bomb a location due to the risk to Alex.

In Scorpia Rising, it is revealed that Blunt is being forced into retirement by his superiors and has recommended Mrs Jones to take his place. He is planning to take a six-week tour of Europe with his wife. He has also being asked to join the board of directors on the BBC. When the body of Levi Kroll, a member of the original board of Scorpia, is washed up on the shores of the Thames with an iPhone that references a school in Cairo. Blunt wants to send Alex to investigate the school but Mrs Jones disagrees. However, after a sniper tries to kill Alex, the young man is offered a deal: to take the mission and therefore get out of England to be safe. It is later revealed that it was all part of Scorpia's plot to frame Alex for the death of the American Secretary of State while killing him along the way before blackmailing the British government out of the Elgin Marbles with the knowledge that MI6 had used a teenage boy as a spy. The mission ended in success: the executors of the plot; Abdul-Aziz Al-Razim, Julius Grief and Erik Gunter; were killed by Alex, the Secretary of State was saved, Scorpia was disbanded and its leader, Zeljan Kurst, was arrested and put on trial by Interpol. However, Jack Starbright was killed in the operation by Razim.

As Mrs Jones becomes the new head of MI6, she tells Blunt that she knows he was the one who hired the sniper that forced Alex into the mission in the first place. Blunt doesn't deny it and says that as the new head of MI6, Mrs Jones will need to make just as difficult decisions and choices. He quotes the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche that he who fights monsters must take care not to become one himself, warning Mrs Jones of the dangers of the job. He sums up that no matter what Alex went through Scorpia have disbanded and the American Secretary of State survived so the ends justified the means. In the end, he was mentioned to receive a knighthood.

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