Mark Dooby sat in the foyer of the Miami Hilton waiting to meet Alex Rider's foster father, Edward Pleasure, and friend, James Sprintz. His brief google search on the Russian's slave had drawn him into Alex's world, his family and friends, the mystery of how Alex had crossed and recrossed the path of the assassin Yassen Greorovich to become his property, his thrall. The agent, now ex-agent was going back college to start a doctorate on criminal psychology. He wanted to get to know the great kid the journalist and the German kid had known, if only to erase his nightmares of Sasha's black face and empty eyes.
The agent spoke with his two invited guests. Both recalled a capable, forthright, intelligent and mature young man. Edward had known him a full year before fostering Alex. The teenager, James Sprintz arrived with his father and a body guard. He also had kept in touch with Alex up until Alex had run away. The Edward told of his encounter with another friend of Alex, the girl who had reported him missing in August 2003 and the hood who had sold him. Alex was likeable and had wanted independence to live his life. Now he was a slave, the teenager never had any luck. His life was a tragedy.
...
There was a very few occasions where even allies in the espionage business talk or are completely open about the subject at hand. Since 1987, enemies had become friends and enemies had become like ghosts, often now within society, not involving foreign powers. Internal state security was as important as foreign intelligence gathering. Joint task forces had seen separate agencies join forces. There had always been freelance players, working for any and some all intelligence agencies.
Joe Byrne had travelled to London. He was approaching retirement, only a couple of months in post and he felt duty bound to tie up a few loose ends, if only to settle his own conscience. It was a strange concept, a spy having a sense of right and wrong, but Alex Rider preyed on his mind. He was having a private meeting with the Head of SIS, a man who had personal insight into the mystery of Yassen Gregorovich, having kept the man imprisoned for nearly a year. Byrne still did not know all the details of how the Russian had escaped British hospitality.
The fifty something Head of the British Secret Service looked like a life long civil servant, not a spy master. He warmly greeted his American colleague "Hello Joe, I've invited Dr. Carl Mathews, who observed Yassen and helped with his interrogation sessions, I also invited Dr. Lucie Dreyfus, she is our psychological profiler and has some insight into both Yassen and Alex's motives and relationship."
The meeting spoke of Alex's severe depression in 2002 leading to his running away. He had fallen through the cracks to work for Marco Spinelli, a man who had contacts with the Russian mafia. A hit on an ex-KGB intelligence officer had lead to Alex crossing Yassen Gregorovich's path.
Even with the Russian assassin's imprisonment, very little was known about the Scorpia operative's past, personal motivations or any pervious partnerships apart from with Hunter, the late John Rider. Rider's notes on Gregorovich were patchy. A good kid who needed a chance. The operation in Mdina in 1987 seemed to have pushed Gregorovich to be a top class assassin, one loyal to Scorpia.
Alex Rider psychological profile showed a boy withdrawing into himself. He had been noted as heterosexual. His attachment to Gregorovich was entrenched after the Cray incident. Alex's work as a stripper and rent boy meant he had accepted homosexual relationships. The profiler stated that Alex had been programmed to have a fluid personality, to change traits to fit into the country, group or section of society to aid survival. The young spy was in survival mode. If Gregorovich loved him, he would love him back. It was an unfortunate byproduct of his upbringing.
...
Yassen prided himself on not having any qualms over working for anyone. Politics meant he steered clear of out and out terrorists or countries that backed those revolutionaries and fanatics. Some jobs were just too dangerous and the Russian's one near fatal accident had been a warning call and he been imprisoned as a result of it. Byrne's request for buying Alex worried him. If the CIA wanted, they could make Yassen's life very unpleasant, if not extremely short. Alex knew his lover was inactive just trying to ponder the next move. They were still living in Italy. They had hired a villa in Puglia. Alex had a job in a bar and Yassen worked as a mechanic. The young Londoner was happy to improve his italian. The locals thought they were friends working their way around Europe. They had been careful not to appear too close. Yassen's italian was perfect and he passed as a native of the Alpine Italy, where the population was more Austrian than Italian. Alex stated his father had been Yassen's good friend, but that he had been brought up by his German mother. It was a simple life, Alex wondered if Yassen had decided to just exist for a while rather than tempt fate and the direct scrutiny of the CIA.
Alex lay awake and knew Yassen also could not sleep. "Are we moving on?"
"Yes, still as tourists. Corfu, across Greece, maybe to Rhodes and on to Turkey." Yassen mused on the hippy trail, then to India. In India, two tourists could disappear into the throngs in Mumbai, Calcutta or Dehli.
"So not working?" Alex wondered if work awaited them in Greece.
"Working, yes. Just not in my previous line of work." Yassen had not called in or picked up any emails. His last message had told them he had a small problem and needed to ay low.
"You're retiring? Just like that?" Alex honestly never expected cold calculating Yassen to do anything other than be the man Scorpia trained him to be.
Yassen shrugged. "Maybe. A short respite to let the CIA lose interest."
"Won't your customer's forget you?"
"Oh no. I am an artist. I found it very easy to pick up work after my last rest period. I worked non stop for Scorpia. I deserve an easier life, hopefully a long life. I am more interested in being alive than rich or successful. Do you want to work? We can always go back to Russia, lots of contracts there."
"No its cool. I don't mind drifting. Whatever makes you happy, darling Yashka."