A Cat Hidden in Plain Sight

Prologue

Behind every façade, there's a secret far deeper and darker than you could ever realize.

My name is Alexandra Rider but most people called me Alex. There all gone now. Everyone who had called me that. But that's not important anyway. I'll leave myself moping for another day. I hate to even think back on my old life. Too much darkness.

After I had lost everyone important to me, I left. Hard to believe MI6 actually let me, but I think they realized that I was too far gone. That I was slowly giving into the darkness because nothing was holding me back. It made me dangerous and it made me a liability. So they let me go. Of course not without a few strings attached.

I could create a new identity and life for myself as long as when I had recovered I could continue my work and missions with them. They even dialed back on the suicide assignments and made it so they were decently lethal. They also made me a legal agent with all the professional equipment and paycheck. Doesn't seem like much but hey it's a lot more than it sounds.

I knew that I could never be able to fully escape their clutches but I was semi ok with it. Once you enter this life, it gnaws at you. Starts to eat away at your humanity, and the pieces that you end up losing, well, you never really get them back.

So I left and I became somebody else. Alex Rider died but Cat Valentine was born.