Becoming Agent Rider

Playing Consultant Around The World

Passport and phones? Check. New MI6 laptop that would only be used for tutoring sessions? Check. Briefcase? Check. Smithers-designed yoyo, pen, and his standard field kit of gadgets? Check. The watch was already on his wrist too, having almost never left from the moment he had received it. Since the assignment was administrative and partially diplomatic in nature, he wasn't allowed to bring real weapons - like a gun - so he wanted as many of Smithers' stuff as he could fit into his luggage.

Money? The host countries were supposed to provide for all of his living expenses during his stay in their territory but he brought enough to get himself out of trouble anyways. And then some to set up other accounts, if there was an opportunity.

A week's worth of bulletproof clothes? Yup. Suits and ties for meetings. Casual clothes for flights, sleeping, and exercise. In addition, he was wearing a new trench coat for the ten-degree Celsius weather but had wool coats for winter weather and t-shirts and shorts for summer weather as well. The hidden pockets in all of these would be used to hold anything he didn't want anyone to get their hands on so they were on his person at all times. His different passports and phones, for example. Although, he also had a case lined with lead for the phones to go in during his meetings with the foreign intelligence agencies so that no one could hack into them and eavesdrop on conversations. That would end in disaster if the other agencies ever found they were being recorded in a supposedly secure meeting. He hadn't forgotten the liberties that MI6 had taken with turning his phone into a listening device.

Toiletries? Definitely. They were stuffed in the smallest section of his luggage. Schoolwork and aviation books? Too many for him to possibly get through in a week. Not with the schedule that he was on. He brought all of it anyways. That was everything he would need. Crawley had already notified Brooklands about his absence. Good. He was ready to go. Just one more thing to do. He took out his phone and texted Tom.

Going to be gone for about a week. Abdominal hernia, if anyone asks.

Satisfied that his friend had a heads up, Alex put the phone away and waited for Crawley and the MI6 driver. Tom wouldn't be answering. Besides knowing better than to contact him while he was on "business trips", it would be another four hours before his friend even woke up to get ready for school. He wished he could get that much sleep. But like Crawley had said, his first flight was at 0400 hours so, after another day of training with MI6 and Yassen, he had gotten just under two hours of sleep. He would need to do deep meditation to have a hope of getting any more rest before being thrust into another session of analysis and decisions for the intelligence agencies. Good thing Crawley had booked him in a business class seat again.

Three hours later, Alex landed in Madrid, feeling a little more rested since the deep meditations actually ended up facilitating his descent into sleep on the flight. He was greeted by the same two CNI agents as the week before. The agents grinned and poked fun at him for being back so soon, comfortable around him from the conversation that he had encouraged last time. They even introduced themselves. Álvaro and Emilia. But once they got to their headquarters, which wasn't too far from the airport, both agents retreated into professional aloofness before handing him off to their director, Javier Cortez.

"Hola, Director Cortez," Alex greeted, shaking the man's hand even as he pulled his luggage along to a stop beside him. (Hello, Director Cortez.)

"Buenos días, Agente Rider," Cortez returned politely as he led Alex to one of the top floors. "Muchas gracias por venir hoy." (Good morning, Agent Rider. Thank you very much for coming today.)

Alex merely nodded.

"Mis agentes dicen que usted habla muy bien español. ¿Tu tío?" (My agents say that you speak very good Spanish. Your uncle?)