Becoming Agent Rider

Information Exchange

"Yes," Alex said simply. To him, there was no question as to whether he wanted to hear the information.

"Alright," Mrs. Jones resignedly agreed. She didn't want to manipulate him anymore so she had given him a choice but hoped that he would refuse. For his own sake. Pushing a button on her computer, she turned the screen so they could all see Byrne's dark and tired face.

"Alex, I'm glad to see you've made it to London!" Byrne exclaimed with relief. "My agents had reported you as the target after they took down the gunman and cuffed him. Thankfully, there were no casualties."

"Must've been quite the surprise to find out the triad you had in custody had a twin," Alex sarcastically replied without thinking. He was pleased that no one else had suffered from the attack but frustrated that the triad had clearly escaped the CIA the first time around.

Ben widened his eyes and stared at Alex's bold response while Mrs. Jones and Byrne only coughed - one in mild amusement, the other in a mixture of amusement and embarrassment. "Yes, well, he escaped while we were transporting him to another location. The agents responsible for this oversight have been demoted and sent back to training. Frankly, I suspect a mole." Everyone in the office was surprised at this revelation. Not because of the idea presented but because of the CIA director's willingness to admit his suspicions to another intelligence agency. "But that's not why I made this call."

He took a deep breath before saying, "The Pleasures were attacked two days ago." Alex's heart stopped and he couldn't breathe. Sensing this, Byrne hastily added, "They're fine. Just a little shaken up. They've also been moved to another location since then." With that, Alex let out a deep sigh of relief, closing his eyes for a moment while the director continued on. "We didn't manage to capture anyone but the triads left a message. It said the Pleasures were going to be their main target if you didn't give yourself up by tomorrow on Albert Bridge just before midnight." Byrne paused on seeing Mrs. Jones and Alex stiffen at the location given but was forced to ignore it for now as the new head of MI6 waved a hand for him to continue. "I'll let Mrs. Jones handle that situation but I hope neither of you are thinking of sending someone, or sending Alex, to meet with them. The other reason I called is that we weren't aware that Alex was in Berlin when our agents followed a lead on the park bombing to the capital. We've determined the next bombing to be sometime tonight at Unter den Linden Boulevard and have a plan to counteract it. The agents caught up to the escaped triad at the train station purely by chance. That was when we realized Alex was there. Mrs. Jones, is there anything I should know about the situation? Because we both know that if Alex is involved, then it changes everything."

Mrs. Jones studied Byrne and the other occupants of the room for a long while before coming to a decision. "Joe, I assume you are aware of the monosuncane situation?" Byrne nodded so the head of MI6 continued. "Before he retired, Alan wanted Alex to go undercover among the Sinaloa cartel to find out more about the drug while we negotiated with Scorpia and the triads." Byrne grimaced at this, disagreeing with the method but knew it was the way Blunt operated. Gesturing to Ben, Jones said, "I sent Alex with Agent Daniels to Germany for a vacation instead. The agent we ended up sending on the mission was killed shortly after he arrived at his destination in Mexico. This morning, Alex ran into a monosuncane deal and overheard them talking about a shipment coming in tonight on the Spree. As soon as I heard about it, I ordered their return to England and an agent has been sent over to Berlin to look into it." Looking at Alex, she suggested, "Why don't you describe everything you saw and heard, starting from when you first noticed the drug?"