Becoming Agent Rider

Another Mission?

The day's weather was mirroring his mood - gray and rainy. Alex sat in the armored vehicle he had been led to after landing at Heathrow airport, watching each tiny droplet of water roll down the window pane until they disappeared from his sight. The droplets would rush down until they met a larger droplet, faltering as the merged droplets slowly ran down until it became too heavy, and picked up the pace again. Only to crash head first into the ground below. That alternation of pace was his life and he wondered if it would always be like this. As he stared out the window, he thought over the last three days. It had started out calmly, and slowly, enough with the party he and the Pleasures attended. Then, the pace of events had rushed by as he discovered the bomb and his life with MI6 had caught up with him. After that, the proposition that Byrne offered him was an easy decision to make. He had already put the Pleasures in enough danger as it was. They didn't need him in the safehouse, painting an even larger target on their backs. That left joining the investigation or going back to MI6. He had to admit that he was curious and wanted to find out more about the park bombing but he didn't want to go back to the espionage world. So without hesitation, he had told Byrne that he'd go back to England. Even though there was a high chance of MI6 making him work for them again, especially since he was asking for protection, it was better than putting the Pleasures in more danger or willingly working for another intelligence agency. After making the decision, there were hurried goodbyes to the Pleasures. Edward tried to make him promise that he wouldn't go back to the intelligence world. He promised he would try but that there was no guarantee. He might be finished with the intelligence world but that world might not be finished with him. Liz had pulled him into a hug, telling him to be careful and that they would always be there for him, no matter what. Sabina had looked at him sadly, told him not to do anything stupid, and then given him a short kiss while her parents weren't looking. For security purposes, he and the Pleasures were not allowed to know the details of each other's living arrangements.

Shortly after the goodbyes, early evening had arrived and he was on a flight back to England. It was an 11 hour flight and he would arrive at around noon, London time. During the long flight, he pondered the recent attacks. Something Byrne had said was bothering him. Byrne had assumed that both the Scorpia operative and the triad member were low level agents. But how would the Scorpia operative know to attack during the park bombing then? Because those two couldn't be coincidences. He couldn't figure it out but noticing the time, he made himself get as much sleep as he could. There was no telling what the next day would bring and when he would be able to get a decent night's sleep again. For all he knew, he could be halfway across the globe in another third world country again by tomorrow.

When the plane had landed, he woke up, gathered his duffel bag, and followed the other passengers out. He had spotted the agents waiting for him almost at once but as he had headed over towards them, a pair of men getting off another plane caught his attention. He recognized those men as the Scorpia agents who had been involved in the shooting at his school, Brookland Comprehensive, that prompted his mission in Cairo. Alarmed, he started to change direction in order to follow them but the agents had met him halfway and the brief distraction made him lose sight of the men. He hadn't thought about the shooting in awhile. In fact, he had been so hollowed out after Jack's death that he hadn't even said goodbye to his best friend, Tom Harris, when he moved to America. Startled by this revelation, he went over his memories from the time of the shooting to the day Edward Pleasure had come back to England for him. It was only after this reflection that he realized something about the shooting didn't add up. It made sense if Scorpia was behind the shooting. And now that he had seen the men in England, he was reminded that Tom would need protection. The rest of Brookland were probably safe since he wasn't close enough with any of the people there. He would make sure it was a part of his meeting with Blunt and Jones. Although, if it was Scorpia, wouldn't Razim have mentioned it at his compound in Cairo? After all, he had been interested in emotional pain. That was why he had lost Jack. He hadn't mentioned it though, which led Alex to believe that Scorpia wasn't behind the attack. He had his suspicions but he would have to confirm it.