Becoming Agent Rider

Playing Consultant Around The World

"Sí, Director, mi tío me enseñó," Alex replied. (Yes, Director, my uncle taught me.)

Cortez nodded and said in a slight accent, "Agente Martinez y Agente Moreno are usually quite good at following orders. But seems you have a way of getting people to talk. Your uncle's teaching as well, I assume?"

"... I don't think that had anything to do with my training."

"No?" Cortez questioned as he waved the teen into a conference room, where an assistant was putting a stack of folders next to the toast and jam. "Perhaps your natural charisma then. Breakfast?"

"Yes, thank you," Alex replied, putting his luggage in a corner near the door.

Cortez smiled. "Yes, I thought you might be hungry. It is an early flight. Perhaps some coffee or tea while we work?"

"Tea, please."

Cortez snapped out instructions in rapid Spanish to his assistant, who hurried off to get some tea. And just like that, Alex signed the promised non-disclosure agreement while scarfing down the toast and the two of them got to work.

Over the next four hours, they went through a similar process to the one he'd had with Crawley in debating which agents to pull out and what the next steps for the remaining agents should be. There were just a few differences. The first was that they alternated between speaking in English and Spanish. The second was that, instead of being the main decision maker like MI6 had him do, he was just a consultant here. He gave his insights and opinions, but the final decision rested with Cortez. Sometimes, Alex wasn't even told what the decisions were. And lastly, Alex was on a much tighter schedule so they had to rush through everything. Each intelligence agency would only get about half a day to spend on this situation with him. As a result, the session was like sprinting through a relay race, passing information or bouncing ideas off of each other as quickly as possible to reach the end goal. He doubted the sessions with the other countries would go much differently.

As soon as Cortez finished making decisions based on the teen's information, Alex was given a number to contact - just in case he thought of anything else that might be relevant - before being hustled off to the airport again. This time, it was a two-hour flight to Paris to meet with the DGSE. He swept his section of the plane for bugs as a precaution, then spent the flight in a video call tutoring session with Smithers and Redwing, taking notes and doing worksheets.

Upon arrival, like the Spanish, the DGSE had sent the same agents as last week to receive him from the airport. However, like last week, these agents were more reserved and all the interactions were purely professional. Other than that, everything else was more or less the same, including an offer of food - for lunch this time - at the start of the session.

After Director Pierre Dewatre had made his decisions, there was an unexpected hour left until he had to be at the airport. With a lack of things to do at the French intelligence agency, Alex asked to visit Sacré-Cœur. The director raised an eyebrow but approved it, under the condition that the two agents accompanied him the whole time until he was on the next plane. Alex agreed easily. There was nothing about the visit that the DGSE couldn't know about. After all, it wasn't like they could read his thoughts on why he was visiting the cathedral.

Fifteen minutes later, Alex was staring up at the grand basilica, with the silent agents on each side of him and luggage by his feet. He looked around, trying to picture where Yassen might have stood witness to his parents' secret rendezvous. In his mind, he could almost see his father's swift strides up to the top of the stairs, anticipation of seeing the love of his life making him careless enough to fail detecting Yassen's continued presence. And his mother, pregnant and alone, waiting anxiously for her husband to show up. To see for herself that he was alright. Himself, unborn and unaware of the three important people nearby, but still very much present. It was the most tangible thing he'd ever had in memory of his parents. Alex burned the image into his mind, jaw tightening involuntarily as he tried to control his emotions, and left with only a brief backward glance. The silent agents followed along, exchanging confused looks.