Becoming Agent Rider

Down Time Ends

Alex groaned as the sound of a phone ringing woke him up. Rolling over to look at the clock, he was surprised to see that it was nine o'clock on a Saturday morning. He had gotten a full eight hours of sleep, the first in a long time. It seemed that the meditation had helped a lot. He still had nightmares that left him covered in sweat but it wasn't bad enough to wake him up and send him retching into the toilet anymore. Rolling onto his back again, he ignored the ringing phone, thinking that Jack would get it. Then, he froze and his heart clenched painfully as he remembered that Jack wasn't around anymore. Sighing, he got up, blinked away the last remnants of sleep from his bleary eyes, and padded downstairs to answer the phone.

"Hello?"

"Your presence is requested at the Royal and General Bank to discuss your account," a female voice said emotionlessly on the phone.

"I'll be there."

The dial tone was all that could be heard as soon as Alex finished his reply. He stared at the phone, slowly putting it back in its place. Typical intelligence agencies, Alex thought. They never bothered with niceties. It had only been three days since his meeting with Jones. He wondered what he was being called in for this time. Shrugging, he went upstairs to do his meditations before getting ready for the day. He would find out what Jones wanted when he got to the bank.

A couple of hours later, he found himself being led by Morris, in stony silence, to Jones' office. Morris clearly didn't like his presence and that was fine with him. Alex knew Jones wanted him to convince the man to accept him but he just couldn't be bothered at the moment. In any case, he didn't know how to do that yet. Rapping sharply on Jones' door, Morris opened it without waiting for a reply and gestured for him to go in. The door closed behind him, leaving Alex alone with the head of MI6.

"Alex, take a seat," Jones said. As he sat down, Jones pushed an envelope towards him. "These are the documents for your legal emancipation. Now that you are no longer MI6's ward, the documents for the trust fund that Ian left for you is also included. You have full access to it. In addition, the Rider family has always made investments and owned several properties. Those are also yours now. The documents in there will detail everything."

Alex looked at Jones in surprise. He had known about the trust fund but this was the first time he was hearing about the investments and properties. Slowly taking the documents out of the envelope, he flicked through them. Apparently, there were mutual funds portfolios in England, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Japan, and the United States. The properties were in the same countries and most of them looked like safehouses. All of these countries were ones where Alex could speak their language with some degree of proficiency, if not speaking like a native. Looking up at Jones again, he asked, "How many people knew about the investments and properties?"