Michael Bale is an agent with MI5.
Sort of, though he is an unwilling one. He is pretty much extorted into working with them though that will not be for a while after we meet him. Initially he is a well respected officer with the Metropolitan Police in London. He is at that time in the Close Protection line of work and because of the stellar reputation he has earned over the years, he gets assigned to guard some very high level officials, up to and including the Minister of Defense. And since the relationship between the UK and China has undergone some not so good changes, that leader's life is considered particularly at risk.
But Bale's "transition" of sorts from working for the Met protecting people to his forced work with MI5 comes from an unusual direction, one told to us pretty early in our following him. (As indicated, the MI5 part will remain obscure for a while.) We learn right away that Bale was still grieving the loss of his beloved sister, Katie, who had died as a result of bad drugs given her by a low-life pusher named Warren and Bale had a plan to turn his anger into something productive, albeit totally illegal. That is where a mysterious entity named Nemesis will come in and Bale's life will change forever.
We are given a marvelous description of him in the opening paragraph of the first recorded adventure when he looks in the mirror and after noting a "quizzical stare" looking back at himself, tells us: "Michael James Bale. Age forty-three, no distinguishing marks. A nondescript face, nothing to make him stand out. Not the tallest of men at six foot one, but solid. One hundred and eighty-five pounds of gym-toned muscle honed at his local boxing club. Good genes too. Strong, and in good shape. In his prime, pretty much." To his wife of over a decade, Roz, he is and always has been 'Mickey'. She would have added his wonderful green eyes and his disarming grin but then she was not the one doing to looking in that mirror.
Good Lines:
- About a .22 sub-sonic pistol Bale had been given by a friend who assured Mickey it was "as quiet as a nun's fart".