CHAPTER TWO

Central Intelligence Agency

LOGAN CLERK WAS BUSY typing information into the Central Intelligence computers. He was typing up a report about the observations on a lowly criminal. Mark Davis was a suspected drug smuggler, but he worked as a bus driver. The CIA were interested in where his workshop was based, and how he had found the time to have started a drug dealership.

As far as jobs went, Logan knew that for his talents, he had an easy project. Typing—that was all the job consisted of. Typing, and filing reports away. The only reason he was working on an assignment below his skill level was because he'd attracted too much attention…

Logan noticed he was sweating. That was suspicious behaviour for a CIA agent who had nothing to fear. He tried his best to look inconspicuous and blend in. In just an hour he would be meeting with his "partner in crime", Caleb Goterel. But tricking the CIA… it was going to be insanely hard. Thinking back to all the criminals Logan had put behind bars, he wondered what would happen if he was caught.

Caleb's philosophy was simple; we've been in the CIA so we know how they operate. It'll be easy enough to slip through their fingers, like water slipping through cupped hands. Logan had heard it enough times. Still, he frowned he as got to work typing the next line of the report.

As he glanced back at the screen, to check there were no spelling errors, Logan froze. He knew the security cameras would be trained on him, and in a room somewhere, Joe Byrne would be watching. Gulping, he stared at the scrambled message he'd subconsciously typed up.

"The individual in question was seen I hope they aren't engaging in conversation onto with two suspicious men (on further investigation, one of them was found me with a clear connection to a previous drug smuggling operation) play it cool."

It wasn't blatantly obvious, and already Logan had deleted the incriminating words… I hope they aren't onto me. Play it cool. Logan pushed the thoughts out of his mind. He knew that his loyalty had been under question lately. Joe Byrne had been watching him like a hawk. No doubt the computer had already saved a copy of the original paragraph—that was just the way CIA worked.

"Logan." Logan jumped at the sound of his name. He turned around, expecting to be placed under arrest. When he saw it was his old secretary—from before he'd been demoted—Logan visibly relaxed. He was loosing it.

He knew that CIA didn't have concrete evidence against him. The worst Byrne could do was fire him. Although everything was going as planned, Logan's heart was still racing. What if…?

"Logan," his secretary, a young lady called Joanna, smiled at him. "Are you all right? Ever since you've been sent to work down here, you've been a bit jumpy."

"I'm fine." Logan couldn't act too out of character. "What are you doing down here?"

"Mr. Byrne wants to talk to you." Joanna beamed, apparently thinking this was a good thing. "He'd looked quite serious. Maybe he'll be offering you your proper job back!"

Logan grinned, as if he agreed with Joanna. Internally, her words kept repeating inside his head. He'd looked quite serious…Joe Byrne had looked quite serious. It was nothing new for Byrne to look solemn, but Logan knew that the meeting, arranged so abruptly after Logan's slip-up, was no coincidence.

He took a deep breath. The time had come to face the music.

~o~

The bell rang, indicating the end of another school day. Alex was walking towards the school gate with Dylan. "So Sabina's not joining us?" Dylan asked. He lived on the same street as Alex.

"No. She's got some girl's birthday party to attend after school," Alex replied. "She left with Kerry."

"Oh, right, it's Kerry's birthday," Dylan remembered. "So we're not waiting for anyone today?"

"We're free to go home," Alex agreed. He stopped abruptly, realizing something.

"What's up?" Dylan stopped too.

"I need to go to my locker," Alex shrugged, a sheepish expression on his face. "I forgot my phone. I suppose we're not free to go home just yet. Meet you by the gate?"

Dylan nodded. "Yeah, sure. Hurry."

Alex quickly walked back towards the corridors.

Classroom doors and lockers lined the walls as he made his way to his own locker. It was just his luck that it was all the way on the other side of the school. The hallway was empty; all the other kids had already left. As Alex neared an alcove in the locker-wall, hidden partially by a trash can, he slowed down. Someone was in the alcove, talking on a phone.

He wasn't sure exactly why—maybe he'd been a spy one too many times—but the urgent tone of person made him stop and listen. A was girl speaking, her voice familiar…

"You've got to be kidding me!" She sounded upset. Alex wondered if this was just an angry phone call to her ex-boyfriend or something like that. He was about to leave when she said the oddest thing. "Dad, listen to me. I am not asking Alex Rider to—" Alex froze. He recognized the voice. It was Jade.

Jade suddenly walked out of the alcove, a mobile clutched to her ear. She was fuming. "No, that's a stupid plan! Just because you're—" Jade broke off, catching sight of him. "Alex." She stared at him, frozen, eyes wide.

Alex didn't know what to say. He heard some buzzing come from the phone, and assumed Jade's father wasn't done speaking. But Jade didn't seem to care; she looked too shocked. "Were you eavesdropping on me?" she asked slowly, astounded.

"No—"

"Did you hear any of that?" she demanded. "Because that was, err, private!"

"I was just on my way to my locker," Alex explained. "I'd left my phone behind," he added, trying to sound convincing. It wasn't as if he was lying.

"Okay," Jade looked away. "That's… well, yeah."

"Okay," Alex said, feeling uncomfortable. He continued walking down the corridor.

He found his locker and grabbed his phone. Alex took the back exit out of the building. He'd have to walk around the building to get to the front gate, which would take a while, but he didn't want to run into Jade. She probably thought he was weird for listening in to her conversation. But what was weirder was that her father had plans for him. Alex didn't know what to make of that.

Alex passed the school's back gate, which was open and empty, except for a man walking his dog across the path. Dylan would probably be wondering what was taking him so long.

A shrill bark reached his ears. Alex turned around and saw the man had lost control of his dog. The dog was now coming straight for him. Alex backed up, his back hitting the window of a classroom. The dog looked like a Rottweiler. Alex glanced around wildly, trying to find something that would help him get away. Running seemed like a stupid idea; the dog would chase him for sure.

The dog stopped in front of him. It was snarling furiously, but other than that, it remained still. Alex knew, instinctively, that if he tried to move, the dog would attack.

The Rottweiler's owner, a man dressed in jeans and a blue t-shirt, ran up to them. Alex expected him to put the dog on a leash and take him away. Instead, the man praised the dog. "Ah, good job Bon Bon."

"Bon Bon?" Alex raised his eyebrows. "That explains why the dog's so angry."

The man had dark hair and light eyes. He scowled. "I wouldn't have thought you were in any position to make jokes. I am the one who'll be calling him off, you know."

"Somehow, I doubt you'll do that." Alex had a bad feeling he knew how this was going to go.

"Eh? And what makes you think I won't call him off?" The man looked amused.

"Well, you kind of gave your intentions away when you said, 'good job, Bon Bon'." Alex resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Bon Bon was eyeing him menacingly.

"Believe what you will, kid. You've obviously been a spy too long. Bon Bon, back," the man ordered sharply. The dog stepped behind his owner. "Now, quietly follow me," the man turned to Alex, his voice low. "We've already wasted enough time talking. We can't let anyone see us. Here's what we'll do," he glanced around, checking no one was watching, "I'll go first. You follow after me. Bon Bon will follow you. Oh, and for your own good, don't try to run. Bon Bon isn't the most, um, well-behaved dog we have."

We? Alex wondered. He guessed the man was an enemy; after all, he knew Alex was a spy. Alex weighed up his chances of escaping. He supposed he'd have to follow and wait for opportunity to present itself.

The man seemed to read his mind. "Boy, don't do anything stupid. I'm not trying to kidnap you. I'm from…" he hesitated. "The CIA."

Alex raised his eyebrows again, but nodded. He followed the man out of the school and into a van. Bon Bon was put into the back, where he curled up on a blanket and starting chewing a chicken toy.

Once Alex was seated in the front, the CIA agent turned around. He held his hand out. "Andy Smith," he shook Alex's hand. "Nice to finally meet you, Alex Rider."

Alex cut to the chase. "If you work for the CIA—" Andy snorted at the word 'if' "—why get the dog to try scare me first?"

"Bon Bon wasn't meant to scare you," Andy said, reversing the van out of the parking space. "He's just a dog I'm meant to be training, as part of my next mission. He just got a bit carried away. At least Bon Bon is a good tracker," Andy added brightly.

"The best," Alex muttered sarcastically.

"Look, sorry about that. I'm under orders to take you to HQ without alerting all your school chums."

When they arrived at the CIA building, Alex was quickly ushered inside Joe Bryne's office. Alex couldn't believe that the man was actually going to try convince him to go on another mission, after everything that had happened…

Alex had already made up his mind. Whatever Joe said, he wasn't interested.

Joe Byrne arrived a few seconds after Alex. He apologised for being late and quickly settled into his chair. His office looked the same, as it always did, no matter where in the world they were.

"So, Alex," Joe placed a few files on his desk. "Sorry about, err, Bon Bon. Andy tells me the dog got a little excited, to say the least. I assure you, I never meant to make it seem like I was forcing you to come see us."

"Of course not," Alex said, his tone sarcastic. He sighed. "So why am I here?"

"First of all, believe me when I say I didn't want you to get involved. Especially in light of your last mission. But it seems I don't have much choice; you'd be prefect for the job."

"I've heard that a lot," Alex reminded Byrne.

Byrne looked a little apologetic as he continued. "You see, during the past few weeks an agent of ours—a guy named Logan Clerk—was behaving oddly. We'd found evidence of him having lunch with an ex-CIA agent, one that was kicked out of this service because he had attempted to take it down from the inside. Needless to say, he'd failed, and all in all it had been an amateur attempt. However, we couldn't let the meeting between him and Logan slide.

"After we cranked up the pressure, Logan cracked. He confessed everything; their plan and how it was meant to work. The only problem is that Logan isn't the main brain behind the plan. He only knows certain parts of it; basically, only what he was required to do."

"And you believe he's telling you the whole truth?" Alex asked sceptically.

"Of course not. We're still investigating his every move," Byrne assured. "Now, the ex-agent he's working with is the mastermind behind the plan. Logan claims to only know what their long-term goal was: to steal all our funding from us, and to sabotage our computers, files and systems. A setback like that, if it happened, could possibly destroy us. It's unlikely that something like that could happen, but it's better to be safe than sorry."

"How does this concern me?"

"Alex, the man Logan is working with is called Caleb Goterel." Joe Byrne opened a file and drew out some sheets from it. "It says it in here somewhere… ah, here we go." Joe passed a sheet of paper to Alex. Alex stared at it. His eyes widened. "His daughter is Jade Goterel."

"Oh." Alex met Byrne's gaze. "I actually overheard her talking to her father, just before Andy found me. Apparently her dad had some plans, to do with—"

"Yes?" Byrne was trying to hide his eagerness.

"Me." Alex frowned. "But if he's trying to take down the CIA, what do I have to do with anything?"

"You?" Byrne looked thoughtful. "Perhaps he knew we would ask for your assistance… Listen Alex, like I said, we wouldn't normally ask you to help. You're just in the right place."

"You mean America?" Alex said, his eyes hard.

Byrne pretended he hadn't heard. "Look, all we require is for you to keep an eye on Jade. Logan told us that Caleb likes to check in on his daughter. If you ever see him near the school, or if Jade tells you she plans to meet her father after school one day—"

"We're not very close," Alex said.

"No, but you could be." Joe sighed at Alex's uninterested expression. "You both attend Sans Francisco High School. It's the perfect set-up. We need you to become close to her, close enough that she'll tell you about her father. After all, teenagers need someone to talk to. Her mother is dead, so she's probably bursting to talk about her problems."

Alex felt sorry for Jade, but he wasn't convinced. "Are you seriously asking me to spy on someone? Again?"

"No. Yes. Sort of." Joe looked guilty. "It's not as if you have to. We're already placing an agent in your school, undercover as a new teacher. I believe you might enjoy working with—"

Alex shook his head.

"No?"

"No," Alex repeated firmly. "I'm not going to spy for you."

Joe Byrne leaned forward. "I'm not asking you to say yes or no. Think about it. Either way, I figure you should know what's going on. You might have been confused had I not told you about all this. After all, this way, when you get involved—"

"What makes you think I'll decide to get involved?" Alex said angrily. He'd had enough. All these secret services assumed they knew him so well, but what did they really know? Nothing! Alex stood up. "Goodbye, Mr. Byrne."

Joe seemed unperturbed by Alex's tone. "Alex, if you really want to leave I'll get my secretary to show you the way out. But in case you change your mind…"

"Why?" Alex said coldly. He brushed some hair away from his forehead, glaring at Byrne. "Why is it that every time something goes wrong, both you and MI6 never hesitate to ask me? Sure, you act apologetic, but if you were really so sorry you had to get me involved, why ask in the first place?"

"Because you're too much of a spy." More than anything, Joe Byrne sounded sad. "Admit it, Alex. You've got a knack for spying. If I hadn't asked for your assistance, you would have ended up getting involved anyway. At least this way, you know whose side to be on."

"Do I?" Alex retorted.

It was only as he began heading out that Alex realized he'd forgotten all about Dylan.