Alex took in all the details of the car journey, the full description of the two guys in the car, the twists and turns of the journey and finally the destination. The teenage boy was shown into a building and assumed it was the embassy but the car had pulled into a gated entrance into a parking lot. It could have been anywhere.
The office was bare with a desk, two chairs and blinds pulled on the windows. Alex immediately recognized the man sat as the man who had interviewed him and comforted him in Russia, before the arrival of Mrs Jones from London, when she came to pick up her misplaced operative. Alex had known the Russian's could have arrested him, interrogated him, but instead had treated him with gentle kindness. Of all he had crossed paths with during his espionage work, they had not lied to him, tricked him to work for them or treated him with cool condescension. "Good Afternoon, Mr. Rider... Alex. I was quite shocked to receive your request for a meeting" The man smiled, "Please sit, I will have tea and some refreshments brought in. You look tired and hungry."
Alex sat in silence. He drank the hot sweet tea, before broaching his request, not quite sure what he wanted. "You said I could ask a favour, if I needed it, when we met fifteen months ago." Alex put down the glass with a slightly unsteady hand. "I don't know what you know about me, but I need a refuge... a sanctuary... I need to get away. I think I'm a bit paranoid. I don't trust Mrs. Jones or Joe Byrne. I'm sure they will use me again. They will find something to blackmail me with and I'll be back to square one."
"I'm sorry, Alex. What do you mean by blackmail?"
Alex looked at the man behind the desk. "You thought I volunteered for all that shit?" The teenager could not believe they thought he was a patriot. Did they think he was asking a favour as a spook? That he was the enemy and had walked into enemy territory, as no spy had friends, even among allies. Alex shook his head. If he had not been so worn out he would have laughed until he cried. "After Ian died... you know, they told me it was a car crash. I could tell it was a pile of bull shit, so I investigated. I caught the eye of Alan Blunt. That bastard set me up, a test of sorts and I played straight into his hands. I was drugged and dragged of for a nice threatening lunch, continue where Ian left off or loose everything. I worked for them and I got to stay in my home with Jack looking after me or they deported her and I was sent to some home for delinquent kids. They used me, then leant me out to the CIA, thats when we met, after their operation to watch Sarov on Cuba. I wanted none of it. Just home and school. I wanted to be a footballer. Now, I want to disappear."
Antonin said nothing. This was a very different version of events than the background Mrs Jones had told him when he had questioned her personally about using a child in operations. Both Ian and John Rider had been known to Federal State Security and their predecessors, the KGB. The son and nephew of patriots had not volunteered but had been forced into the harsh cruel world of spying and terrorism.
Alex looked at the man, who seemed genuinely unhappy at this revelation. "I... I don't know who to turn to. I have no friends, no family. I feel trapped. Can you help me? I don't know what to do anymore. I can't seem to fit at school. My foster placement just sucks. Do I have any options? I feel like I've lost everything."
"We know of your work. We have kept tabs on you. The fact your housekeeper, Jack Starbright was killed in Egypt."
The russian noted a tension in the boy, here was a child grieving and alone. Used and then left to fend for himself. Pushed to the point where he could not, would not trust those who had used him.
"You know about Cairo... Do you really? The CIA water boarded me. That was an experience I'll tell you. I still have nightmares about that. I can't take showers anymore. I wash like an old man in the sink. Everyone at school thinks I have serious issues. I had a shrink when I first came to America but with OSA and all that shit I can't talk about anything. So I don't talk. Hell, this is treason, asking you for help. I don't care... I had to get away from all the pretending everything was OK when it wasn't. It hasn't been since Ian died."
Alex pulled out a his journal. "I've made notes... its standard pitman shorthand. Everything is in there. No secrets now. You can then suggest what I should do. I've had no follow through, no back up. I think I've been left out to dry... you know, been burned. Left to be a failing student. They have stolen my future. I'll fail or drop out of High School become a bum or trapped in dead end jobs. A nobody. That way I can't embarrass them, can I? Who'd believe I was a teenage spy when I'm a complete loser"
"Alex, we meant it when we offered you a boon. We will help you." Antonin spoke a short brusk set of instructions in Russian, as the journal was taken to be appraised to note the comparison with the details they had no file. Konovalov then really looked at the boy. "You look tired, Alex? Do you want to rest?"
"Umm, I haven't slept in over two days. I was going to go to the YMCA and just crash."
"I ordered my men to intercept you. The Americans have issued a warrant for your arrest under the Patriot Act. You are a known agent of a foreign government, but you also have connections to terrorists. You are being sought as a protective measure not as someone dangerous to approach."
Alex had known he was still under the jurisdiction of his former masters. "So, by running I've played into Byrne's and Jones hands. Great!"
The russian never made rash promises. "We can intercede on your behalf. I can put pressure to bare to keep you safe. You have asked for help. Do you really want nothing to do with your colleagues?"
"Abusers... thats what they are. I'm a school kid. They made me a child soldier." Bitterness bled into every word, before the tired blond relaxed and melted from a hard operative to a lost kid, even if he had no innocence left, he was still only fifteen. "I need what I have never had. I need guidance, I need hope, Antonin. I might be paranioid, but they really are out to get me and I don't trust them not to just lock me up and forget about me."
The day Alex Rider was noted as missing by the San Francisco Police Department as 19th October 2005. Two days after his actual departure from the Pleasures. No one thought to look for Alex in Washington DC on the 21st. The evening flight to Moscow had one last minute addition who went through passport control with a battered Russian passport as twenty year old embassy intern Sergei Volonin. The real intern was on his way to Canada and then back to Moscow on a cargo plane. Antonin Konovalov had lived up to his promise of help to a fifteen year old at the end of his tether. Alex asked for help from a man he barely knew, a stranger who took pity on a child who was failing to cope with his grief, who had broken down and confessed the truth of his misuse by MI6 and their allies.