An earnest business major, Alex had been recruited by the CIA from Bringham Young University. His younger brother was engaged to his high school sweetheart and had indicated that he wanted to stay in Montana and help Lowry Senior run the ranch. Alex needed to get beyond the world of cattle and do something he described vaguely as "that mattered". With his conservative Methodist upbringing, helping in the fight against the bad guys seemed to meet his requirement.

When he told his parents he was going to work "for the government", they were surprised. His father expressed the hope he would be doing something for his country and not just become some pencil pusher sitting in some office and wasting taxpayers' money. As Alex naively believed the CIA was beyond bureaucracy, he assured him with a clear conscience that what he was doing was indeed worthwhile and that he knew both of his parents would be proud of him.

After training, Alex was assigned to the East Asia section of operations due to his rudimentary knowledge of Japanese, having studied the language for three years in college. He took the course because, as he saw more and more Japanese televisions and VCRs being sold in department stores and more and more Japanese cars on the road, he had become convinced that Japan was again a threat to the U.S., at least economically. Unfortunately, his courses were stronger on haiku than on annual reports, but after three years he could read most of a newspaper and have a basic conversation.