Following the retirement of Fleming, Geoffrey assumed command of the Secret Service. From there, King Maximillian Acorn ordered him to recruit new members to begin a mission to discover what had become of Queen Alicia Acorn during the Great War. Valdez was personally chosen by Geoffrey to join his team, as he had apparently worked for the Secret Service previously. While he initially seemed somewhat resentful when Geoffrey tracked him down (mentioning that Espio had told him the skunk had been seen on the island), he nevertheless rejoined, partly in order to spy on the Kingdom from within. Presumably unbeknownst to Valdez, Geoffrey had recruited him and the rest of the group so that they could be blamed for any harm that befell the kingdom, though Geoffrey privately doubted that he could h