Chapter 4: Introductions

The next week flew by, as Alex took up Mr Donovan's offer and started to advance himself in the area of mathematics, and found that once he understood what was being said in the number sentences, he excelled at it. Maths was quickly becoming one of his more favoured subjects. Alex found he could submerge himself into the world of figures for hours on end.

So it was with great excitement that he had ended the week with, provided he didn't think about the mission that was coming up.

Alex arrived at Los Angeles airport, only to have to wait two hours to get through customs. Once outside the airport, a man in a chauffeur uniform approached him.

"Rider?"

Alex nodded.

"Follow me please." And the man led Alex to a rather comfortable looking car.

"Hop in."

Once in the car, the driver started the engine, and they drove in silence for a couple of minutes before the driver spoke.

"My name is Aaron Strong," he began. "As you have probably guessed, I'm an agent for the CIA. Sorry I can't tell you much, but I hope you enjoy your trip."

"Thanks Mr Strong," Alex replied.

The trip lasted for half an hour, when they finally arrived at a quiet part of town. Strong led Alex towards a high sky-rise building under the name of Crating Industrial Association. CIA.

Inside the building, Strong directed Alex through the door on the right. Upon entering, Alex noticed two men in the office; the office he found himself in was exactly the same as the Miami CIA Headquarters that he had been in only a couple of weeks ago.

Of the two men standing in the room, Alex immediately recognised Joe Byrne, the man that was about sixty, with grizzled white hair and moustache. The other man was wearing a suit rather like Crawley's, his hair was black and short-cropped, and wore a tired expression on his face. Probably from working too hard on the case.

"How are you Alex?" Byrne asked.

"Fine thanks," he replied.

"Thank you so much for agreeing to work with us once again. Might I introduce you to FBI Special Agent Donald Eppes? I'll hand the rest of it to over to him."

"Yes, well, as you probably know. Teenage students, students your age, have been disappearing from CalSci College," Agent Eppes began, clearly quite unsure of how he was supposed to address Alex, but definitely not like Turner and Troy were during his last mission. Agent Eppes was more accepting, but still, nevertheless, surprised at the sight of him, which was fairly well hidden, after the initial shock.

"Though we have a few leads on this case, such as; personality, and Charlie – my brother – is working on an equation for the disappearances or the like, but that's about it. We don't even have a suspect.

"You know you're here under the guise of an English Exchange student to study math under Charlie – which are true by the way – and lodgings are arranged so that you are staying with him at his house. That way seeing you in my company won't be quite as unusual, and you can report any findings to me without much suspicion.

"You have been given gadgets, as I understand, to help you do your job?"

"Yep"

"You know what you'll be doing. I'll try to get you into some of our conferences, as much as I can.

"OK. Let's get going, to my car.

"Thank-you Mr Byrne." Agent Eppes finished.

"You're welcome. Alex is a very good agent, despite his age."

"I'll keep that in mind."

Alex followed Agent Eppes to his jeep, and got in.

"Geez, this is weird. When I asked the CIA for them to put in a spy at the College, I never expected a child, even if the disappearances were of children from your age group. Oh, and by the way, Charlie doesn't know about his student being a spy, and I hope to keep it that way if possible." Agent Eppes said after awhile.

"Don't worry, I won't tell the professor," Alex replied. "You're handling it better than the CIA agents, I worked with a couple of weeks ago did."

"Thanks, well at least you won't be as suspected as an adult."

"Yeah, it has worked before. Worked so well in fact, that some maniac General wanted to adopt me." Alex failed to mention the fact that General Sarov had already known he was a spy when they met.

"Really?" Agent Eppes raised his eyebrows.

"Yeah, really."

That exchange released the tension between them, and as they drove to the Professor's house, Agent Donald Eppes and Alex Rider became firm friends, and were on first name a basis with each other.

During the drive, Don briefed Alex on the students that had gone missing, while having conversations about baseball, soccer, softball, and the like. Intertwining the two aspects of the talk.

It was all too soon that Don turned into the driveway of his brother's house. The house itself was rather grand, brown bricked with a luxurious green lawn.

Don and Alex entered through the front door, and Alex was confronted with a very roomy hallway, leading into the lounge, dining room, and kitchen.

Don gave him a quick tour of the house, and just as they returned to the lounge, a man roughly in his sixties with grey hairs sitting on the sides of his head and a bald patch in the middle came through the front door and into the lounge. Followed by a younger man with dark curls crowning his head in a messy but rather elegant manner.

"Hi Dad. Hey Buddy," Don acknowledged the men, and at once, Alex realised that the young man was Professor Charles Edward Eppes, his maths teacher.

"Hey Don," the professor responded. "Just came back from the airport, but we didn't catch the kid. What's his name again?"

"Alex Rider, Charlie," Mr Eppes reminded his youngest son for the billionth time.

"I told you I was going to pick him up," Don said, after catching Alex's eye. "And I have him right here." Don placed his hand on Alex's shoulder, drawing attention to him.

"Oh, hello Alex. I'm Alan Eppes, their father," the older man said, gesturing to the two younger men.

"Please to meet you Mr Eppes."

"Alan. If you're living under this roof, call me Alan. I'll go insane if I was being called 'Mister' all the time."

"Sure, Alan."

"Hi kid. Umm…Alex. I'm Charlie Eppes, your soon to be math professor. Of course, by soon, I mean from my perspective. Perspectives of different things, people, et cetera, have different…"

"Ah Charlie?" Don interrupted. "I'm sure you'll be able to lecture Alex a little later."

"Oh, right. Well, hi."

"Hello Professor Eppes."

"Charlie. Please."

"Yes Prof… Charlie."

After the initial introductions, Don returned to his FBI office, and Charlie went into the garage to work on some mathematical equation or other. Alan left Alex to get himself settled in, but not before telling him not to hesitate to call if he needed anything.

It was a very warm welcome, and Alex felt as if he was a part of the Eppes family already.