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ROGUE SWORD

Chapter 11 - Entrusting a Cat with a Fish

The next day passed in a blur for Kyroo. He barely remembered the interview with the big silver fox that had not introduced himself. The combat instructor, a huge doberman with blood-red teeth who was constantly spitting chewing tobacco into a can had made more of an impression. After watching Kyroo try out a number of weapons on the range for fifteen minutes the big canine was able to pick out a set of weapons that matched his size and style.

"It's not perfect," the big dog had said as he adjusted holsters and webbing on the smaller arctic fox, "but it will get the job done if you're careful." The combat instructor had then spent a half hour coaching Kyroo on how to move and shoot in confined spaces and another thirty minutes coaching him on how to turn the defensive moves he had learned as a security specialist into killing moves before the ride to the airport showed up. Kyroo left with a number of techniques to familiarize himself with during the long lonely flight. He was the lone passenger on the military jet that took him across the pacific so he had plenty of time to rest and practice.

There was no passport control during his tip, which was good because his was back at his cousin's place and all of his other identification had been confiscated when the Canadians had put him in detention. A couple of the US service people at the Okinawa base where he transferred aircraft looked surprised when they heard his American accent but they did not ask about it. They did not talk to him at all other than to direct him into a reconnaissance aircraft. When the light plane landed on the deck of the rolling aircraft carrier a pair of large German shepherds in marine uniforms escorted him below decks. They held a door open and Kyroo stepped inside. They took up their stations outside the steel door and slammed it shut behind him.

"Well hellooo, gorgeous."

Kyroo turned around to see a blonde vixen with impressive curves approaching him. She was dressed in a tactical suit that clung to those curves unlike any tactical suit was supposed to, and Kyroo could not help but let his eyes wander over them.

"They have limited size options." The vixen said as she offered a paw. "Apparently only a few mission specialists are as short as I am and none of them share my, uhm, other attributes." She ran her free paw over one breast, across her taut belly and down to her thigh to demonstrate. "My name ids Delores, by the way, and I'm in charge of this little shindig."

Kyroo took her paw and wondered if he should shake it or kiss it. Before he could decide a large grey wolf that had been seated in an easy chair facing away from them stood up and approached.

"Zac. Zac Ember." The wolf offered, stopping a few feet away and frowning slightly at the sight of Delores and Kyroo frozen in the moment. Did Kyroo detect a hint of jealousy there? If so it was gone in an instant as Kyroo stepped away from the vixen and shook Zac's paw vigorously.

"Kyroo Echos." He told them. "Is this the whole team?"

"Genghis will join us at the objective." Delores informed him. "His real name is Hu, Hu Liaoming, and he works out of Beijing, or did until recently. He can get into North Korea on his own so he has gone ahead to liaise with a contact inside the Yak Mountain complex. They will guide us in with the device and then we'll set off to rescue our two agents."

Confusion showed on Kyroo's face. "Device?"

Delores waved him over to a table covered with notes and diagrams. "Allow me to bring you up to date."

Her tone turned professional as she described the plan that F.O.X. HQ had come up with. "Rogue One, that's us, our first job, is to get a small nuclear device, codenamed 'Swordfish', into the compound and place it near the experimental reactor the North Koreans built for the project the allies dubbed 'Rogue Sword'. The reactor is known to be unstable, and they are lacking the final piece of the puzzle that will make it controllable." Delores told him. "When our device goes off it will create a sub-nuclear chain reaction that will spread to their reactor and the whole place will implode, wiping out any evidence that we were there, along with anyone still inside. That should take care of the scientists that Fisher may have given the secrets he stole to. It's suspected that he might be inside the complex too; a bonus if it's true. If he is there we can't let him escape, so if you see him you are authorized to whack him on sight, just to make sure."

The next step, she explained, was to locate and free the agents already held hostage. Then they had to get themselves and the two agents out to the recovery point before Swordfish went off.

"The timings look pretty tight." Kyroo commented.

"They are, and the priority is setting off the device. It has a timer but if there is any threat of it being disarmed one or more of us will have to stay behind to defend it or set it off manually. Getting ourselves out is our next priority. If we run out of time we have to clear the site before the bomb goes off, with or without the prisoners. F.O.X. needs agents and we can't waste good talent going after a lost cause."

"You're talking about the tall green-eyed vixen and the other fellow I saw her with in Harbin." Kyroo said anxiously. "She's why I'm here. We have to save her ... them, I mean."

"So I've been briefed." Delores thought that sending the kid on this mission had been a mistake, especially since he seemed to have formed some sort of emotional attachment to Vikki, but he was not without compassion for the newbie. Plus they were short experienced agents, and even a great river does not refuse to take in small streams, according to a Korean proverb she had come across while preparing for the mission. She put a paw on the white fox's cheek. "Look hon, Genghis and I both went through the Academy with her. We'll do all we can to save her, especially since we'll have to answer to Silver when we get back."

"Silver? Is that the big fox with the salt-and-pepper fur that's sortta in charge?"

Delores nodded. "The green-eyed vixen is his mate in every aspect but legally and also the mother of his four year old kit. He's the one who issued the orders to abandon the search if we don't locate them by a certain time, but I for one am not looking forward to facing him if we get back without her."

"He's not the easiest of guys to get along with." Zac explained, remembering how the big fox had torched half a dozen cat-bat hybrids the year before.

"Yeah, I hear that." Kyroo agreed as he drifted away from the pair. He was still trying to digest the fact that the intimidating silver fox and the vixen he had been dreaming of for five years were sort of mated and had a child. They must have gotten together not too long after the afternoon on the blue leather couch if the kit was already four, he calculated. The thought of it made his mind reel. What would he say to her when they freed her, if they freed her. Would he just stick out his paw and say .... "Hey," he turned back to Delores, "I don't even know her name. What is it?"

"You can refer to her by her codename, Ruby." The blonde vixen said. "Anything else might be dangerous to her kit if you're captured."

"What about you two and this Genghis fellow. You all seem to know her."

"I don't." Zac stated. Although he had heard her real name around the Academy he did not feel that it was his place to tell the stranger.

Delores stuck her digits in her mouth and fumbled around for a bit before pulling out a molar. Kyroo could see a blank space near the back of her jaw. She displayed the tooth. "Poison." She said mater-of-factly. "You have not been fitted with one, but we can take care of ourselves." She popped the tooth back in. "Don't worry though, if it looks like capture is imminent one of us will take care of you too."

"Gee, thanks." Kyroo replied dryly.

"Now, no more happy talk." Delores said, clapping her paws. "We need to go down to the flight deck and rehearse." She knocked on the steel door and the marine guard escorted them through a deserted part of the ship to a large interior aircraft bay. There were no planes present, just a labyrinth of plywood walls and doors.

"The Captain had his sailors rig this up from some plans Silver sent." Delores explained. "It's a close match for the main level of the Yak Mountain complex. We have to familiarize ourselves with the floor plan so we can get the device in the right spot and get to where they believe the prisoners are being held and then to the exit under various conditions. We'll start with a simple walk through."

Over the next several hours they progressed from strolling with maps held in their paws to jogging through the maze of corridors and only consulting the maps at the major checkpoints. They broke to eat and then Delores had them back at, this time in the dark. Finally she had the deck flooded with non-toxic smoke to see how long it would take to crawl from station to station.

"That took too long." She declared after checking the stopwatch she was carrying. "If conditions get too bad we'll have to skip phase two and go right for the escape."

"We can practice some more." Kyroo protested. "I'm not hungry, or tired." He lied.

"We will, after we eat." Delores informed him. "But only for a couple of hours. After that it's forced rest. You can't tell inside this tin can but we've been at this all night and the sun is coming up outside. After a rest and another meal we will need to pack our gear and prepare to leave."

"But ..."

She silenced him with a digit on his lips. "No buts. If he wants to save the maiden fair Sir Lancelot needs his rest. Fatigue will make you screw up more than another few hours of rehearsal will help. Let's go back to our quarters and eat. We can talk about how to manage the different possibilities we might face in the prisoner wing while we eat, okay?"

Kyroo agreed, reluctantly. Zac slapped him on the back as they followed Delores down the hallway. "Don't worry." He told Kyroo. "It may look hopeless but even though I'm relatively new to this myself I've seen worse situations turn around and come out alright."

Kyroo paused at a porthole that looked out over the ocean. There was a bright line of pink on the horizon. Then he spoke without looking at the wolf. "What do you think that she is doing right now?" He asked.

* * * * * * * *

Vikki must have passed out because she was suddenly aware that she was awake and strapped naked on a stainless steel table. _ Still_ strapped naked on a stainless steel table, she reminded herself. That thought banished the numbness she felt and she was aware of the pain again; the incredible, excruciating, endless pain. She cried out involuntarily as it flooded back. Her cries caught the attention of the two Korean rats that the shrew had put in charge of getting information from her. They smiled and chattered in their strange language and her implanted translator interpreted their words as expressions of expectation that she would soon break and tell them everything. They moved to a side table covered with instruments of torture and began discussing what they should try next.

She fought to control herself. She started by choking back the cries and regulating her breathing. She took long, deep, deliberate breaths, held them for five seconds before exhaling equally slowly and pausing for five seconds again when her lungs were empty before repeating the process. Once her breathing became routine she gathered her senses and concentrated on a point between her shoulder blades. A swirling ball of sensitivity seemed to form there. As she continued to concentrate the ball shrunk and became more concentrated. Her vision dimmed, sounds faded away and the pain and all other sensation receded until she could only feel the point on her skin occupied by a single strand of fur. She held it there for a moment and then sent the tiny spot of awareness ranging around her body, checking out each organ, all of her limbs and digits, and every inch of her skin.

It was a technique that she had learned from Silver, who claimed to have picked it up from a Fakir in the Himalayas. Whether that was true or not she had to admit that it helped one focus and made physical sensations from simple irritants to major wounds easier to bear. She had first seen him use it during a stalking exercise in Northern Ontario during black fly season. She had been ready to run gibbering into the woods after enduring less than thirty minutes of the biting, crawling, invasive microbeasts, but Silver had just sat there beside her without batting an eye for the several hours it took the students to find their hiding place. It was her cursing and waving her paws fruitlessly that had given them away. That night, after dousing herself in insecticide and a long hot bath she had gotten him to tell her how he did it. The answer had been the technique that she had spent the next several years learning and practicing.

Like many skills, the more you used it the better you got. Vikki was at the point now where along with controlling the pain she was able to categorize each wound and bruise, getting a clear picture of the damage that had been done and how serious it was. If she kept practicing she would eventually reach the point where Silver was at now, where she could control his heart rate, blood pressure and body temperature, which was all very convenient for defeating lie detector tests. Silver's yogi had been supposed to be able to make images rise up on his skin and regulate the flow of blood to stop wounds from bleeding. That last bit would come in handy right about now she thought, but the rats were not about to let her bleed to death. Not yet. Not until they got her to talk.

She finished by exploring the hole where her poisoned tooth should have been; it was the first thing they removed after restraining them. After she was done she let the ball of energy expand, but did not dismiss it entirely. She would need it once they started in on her again and it was devilishly difficult to summon it when someone was pulling your claws out by the roots, as they had done to her left foot. She wondered if they would grow back or not. They had also driven bamboo shoots under the claws of her right paw, crushed several knuckles on the same appendage, and ripped the calluses off the stump of her left arm. With that, along with a fair amount of blunt force trauma, she had not been in such bad shape since that first mission for the Academy, the one where she lost her arm and almost lost her mind.

She did not know how long it had been since she and Dongo had been caught by the shrew in the supply room. The Koreans were deliberately messing with her internal clock by varying the cycles of light and darkness and the duration of each torture session. But her resistance to interrogation training had taught her to expect that, and not to let it get to her. Time did not matter, only surviving did. Surviving without talking. Everything she could do to keep going she would do. Eventually the ball of concentration would fail her and she would not be able to deflect the pain. Then she would scream, deliberately and loudly. And she would fight, strain against her bonds and beat her head against the table in an attempt to bring about comforting unconsciousness, or death. In the end, if they did not give up, she would die of shock or exhaustion, but she would not talk.

Of course, if they had time they could stop periodically to allow her to recover and then start all over again, stretching it out for years. But Vikki sensed that they did not have the luxury of time. Discovering the infiltrators in their holy of holies had rattled them and they need to know who had sent them and what exactly the opposition knew about their operation in order to decide whether it was safe to continue or not. Shutting down and relocating could delay a project like this for years, if not halt it altogether in this resource starved land. Vikki was determined not to give them that information, and she was sure that Dongo would be equally unbreakable. She would regret not being there to see Leslie grow up though.

There was a commotion on the other side of the room and Vikki turned her head enough to see what had caused it. A new figure had entered the room and the two rats were bowing and scraping as if the Beloved Leader himself had dropped in for a look see. But it was not one of the Kim clan, it was not a Korean at all by the look of his suit. It was a tall, black-furred, weasel-like creature with sharp features and pointy teeth that extended below the lip line. A fisher, Vikki recalled, and not a totally unfamiliar one.

"Fisher." She said. Her voice was cracked and weak but loud enough to be heard over the rat's mumbled fawning.

"That is correct." The Canadian scientist who had supposedly died on a glacier in Japan said as he walked over to the table and looked down at her. "And who might you be?"

Vikki ignored the question. "You're supposed to be dead."

"A convenience. It is much easier to move in certain circles," he indicated the North Koreans, "when you do not exist in any official databases."

"And you colleagues, the other scientists and researchers at your institute?"

"An inconvenience. I could not leave anyone with knowledge of this project behind so I had my new friends dump them in a crevasse where no one would find them, or know that I not perished with them."

"You put them on ice, eh?" She laughed.

"They said that you were a tough one." He swept her with his eyes, noting the fur soaked with sweat and caked with dried blood, the numerous cuts and bruises and the damage to her paw and feet. "They said that you were quite a looker too, but I'm afraid that I can't see it." He pulled up a stool and sat down so that his head was level with hers. "Why don't you put a stop to all this before you become totally unrecognizable, hmmm? The good doctors here tell me that you had a child, three to five years ago, and none since. That would have been after you lost your arm, judging by the condition of the stump, before they reopened it, that is. Do you have a little boy or a girl waiting at home for mommy to get back from her business trip?"

Vikki stayed silent, but he must have seen her eyes narrow at the mention of a child because he smiled and continued. "What will their life be like without you, I wonder? You have probably considered that already, given your line of work. Is the father a spy too? No, not going to tell me? Never mind, it's beside the point. Your friend, the one-eyed fox who is also missing his left arm, has already started talking, you know."

"Good, then you don't need me."

"I wish that was true, I really do, because I'm not at heart a cruel guy. But we will need to hear your account in order to verify what he is telling us."

"So what did he tell you?"

"Ah, not so fast." He waggled a digit at her as if she had been naughty in class. "We can't have you agreeing with a false story or denying a true one. You have to tell us yourself. " He leaned in so that he was almost whispering into her ear. "I can make this all stop you know. You have outlasted your male counterpart and can take pride in that, but whether you talk now or later does not matter to them." He jerked his head to indicate the rats, who were waiting patiently with steel instruments in their paws. "If you wait too long you will be damaged permanently, crippled and condemned to live out your days in a cold damp cell here at Yak Mountain. We will just lean on your colleague all the more to make sure he is telling us the truth, and you won't benefit at all. But if you talk now I'll see to it that you get traded back. Not right away of course, but before your kit graduates high school for certain, and still in good enough shape to be recognized by your husband. If you talk now."

He was good, Vikki realized, a real persuasive guy. But she doubted that Dongo was talking. Hell, he never spoke more than two words in a row in his whole life. Fisher would probably be giving him the same speech after he left here, if he had not already done so. And she was certain that his promises of freedom were empty. This was, after all, the guy who had killed off his friends and loyal employees when he wanted to disappear without a trace.

"Fisher ..." she gasped.

"Yes?" He said, leaning over the table to look directly in her eyes, eyes that were fighting to remain open as her breath hitched and stuttered.

"Fisher ..." the word was almost a vapour as the last breath of her air escaped her.

"Yes." He said eagerly, his pointy muzzle directly above hers. "What is it? Tell me."

She opened her mouth, drew in a ragged breath, and lunged forward to clamp her jaws on his nose. He howled in pain and pulled back, leaving bloody furrows in his snout. The rats dropped their torture devices and rushed forward to assist him in controlling the bleeding.

Vikki lay back and laughed. "Hey, Fisher!" She called as the rats escorted him out of the room. "Bite me!"

* * * * * * * *

When the three agents gathered on the interior flight deck again the maze had been dismantled. Their gear had been laid out on several folding tables for them to wear or pack as they saw fit. Three large drones sat on the space that elevated the aircraft up to the main flight deck.

"I see we have some recon." Kyroo said to Delores, jerking his head toward the drones. "Are they going to provide top cover for us as we go in?"

"Not quite, honey." The vixen replied as she tucked the last few strands of her blonde hair under a black balaclava. "Those are our ride in."

"What!"

"Come here." She pulled him by the paw to the closest of the three drones. Technicians were just removing the nose cone as they approached. While he watched they pulled out all the interior weaponry and electronics, leaving enough space for one agent with full assault gear. Only one low resolution camera and the gear used for navigation remained.

"How are we supposed to get on the ground?" Kyroo asked. "Parachute?"

"These things have a really short take off and landing distance." One technician told him. "They are quieter than an electric lawnmower and they are virtually invisible to radar. We are going to land you on an old service road where you are going to hop out, reseal the fuselage and get out of the way as we take off and return them to the ship."

"And you'll send six back to get us later?"

"No." Delores answered as she led the arctic fox back to the tables. "They have a couple of stealth helicopters on call, like the ones they used in the Osama Bin Laden raid. But they are not completely invisible, their range is limited and they are a bitch to fly, so they won't send them in unless they know they have a consignment to pick up. They are already in South Korea, brought in with the gear for the annual joint exercises that are going on there now. They will be assembled and running on the tarmac of the closest airfield while we are inside the mountain. They will fly in while the North Korean air defences are down from the electro-magnetic pulse the explosion will release, but only if they get a call from the rendezvous site, a reservoir a few kilometers west of the complex. If there is no explosion or no call then they shut off their engines, pack them back into the crates they came in and send them back to the States."

"Leaving us on our own." Kyroo said dejectedly.

"If we're still alive." Zac commented.

"Oh, sorry. I forgot about the hundreds of elite guards trying to kill us."

"I'm more worried about still being inside when the bomb goes off."

"At least we can control that." Kyroo said.

Zac's brow lifted. "You think so? When was the last time you saw a movie where the government that sent in the nuclear device did not have a failsafe remote detonation capability?"

Kyroo could not think of one, but mention of the device brought something else to mind. "Hey!" He said. "How is the bomb supposed to get there if there are only three drones?"

"It's riding with me, sugar." Delores informed him. "I only take up half the space and weight of either of you. Swordfish will nest snuggly between my thighs until we soar in, lie a big egg."

"I don't want to be there when it hatches." Kyroo said.

"Neither do I, kid." Delores replied as she turned back to her gear. "Now, let's get packing."

They finished gearing up in silence. Behind them the technicians loaded a black cylindrical device into one of the drones. When they were ready the same technicians helped them into their drones, padding them with sections of hard foam before strapping the nose cones back on.

"Sorry that we have to do this down here," one of them said as he stuffed Kyroo in, "but no one else on the ship needs to know what these babies are carrying tonight. We did put these in though." She switched on a battery operated night light in the shape of a popular children's television show that they had glued to the inside of the nose cone.

"I'm more of a Pinkie Pie fan myself." Kyroo commented on seeing the blue Pegasus with the rainbow lightning bolt on her rump.

"Sorry. That's all the ship's stores had in stock. Unless you want to trade with the wolf for a Sponge Bob?"

"What about the blonde vixen, what's she got?"

"Nothing. We did not want to risk putting anything that might build up an electrical charge in with her other cargo."

"I'm fine then." Kyroo was left wondering if the technical staff actually knew that 'the other cargo' was a nuclear bomb as they sealed him in.

They each had a short-range radio and they conducted a communications check before signaling that they were ready to go. The next sensation was one of rising up as the platform lifted them up to the main flight deck. Once the movement stopped Kyroo heard the engine in the rear of the drone come to life. It was loud in here, as he had been warned that it would be since all the noise suppressing material was on the outside. He pulled his ear protectors on just as the engine revved up and the drone began to roll into takeoff position. There was no need for the steam catapult to get them off the deck, and the drone did not even pause before going to full throttle and lifting off.

The flight in was uneventful. They maintained radio silence, only to be broken in an emergency, so Kyroo amused himself by making shadow puppets in the dim light cast by the blue pony night light. Their estimated flight time was two hours - one to reach the coast and another to cross the mountains between it and the complex. They were not flying high, only a couple of hundred feet above the water, but Kyroo felt the air pressure change as they dropped down to sea level for the coastal approach. From that point onward the drone would follow the terrain, turning to follow the rivers as long as they were going in the right direction, climbing up over the ridges and swooping down into the next valley when they were not, avoiding towns and the myriad military installations that surrounded the nuclear research centre.

Kyroo was glad that he had never suffered from air sickness, yet with every change of direction or altitude he wondered if it would be followed by the sound of anti-aircraft fire and the sting of shrapnel. He almost lost control of his bladder when he felt a sharp bump, and only realized that they had landed when the sound of the engine dropped to a quiet idle. He fumbled with the interior catches that released the nose cone, remembering to turn off the light before he cracked the seal, and slid out onto a gravel surface.

He spun around to assess the situation. The drones were lined up on the road, one behind the other. Both Zac and Delores were out, and both were facing outwards, listening with their ears up and their mouths open to increase the chance of catching any noise in the area. Kyroo joined them, facing up the road since his drone was first in line. The three stayed like that for a full minute before anyone moved. As long as everything was going according to plan they would operate in silence, just in case the Koreans had listening devices deployed that their contact was not aware of.

Zac tapped Kyroo on the back and indicated that he should put the nose cone back on his drone. Kyroo complied and then moved to the drone Delores had arrived in to wait for the wolf to help him ease the device out. It was heavy, but well balanced, so the two of them could carry it with one arm each and keep one arm free for firing. Zac, who had spent many hours at the Academy learning to shoot with his off paw, carried his gun on the left. Kyroo took up his station on the right and they lifted the device and moved down the road while Delores replaced the nose cone on the last drone. Locking it down set off a signal and she had to scurry to clear the road as all three drones came back to life and began rolling up the road. They reached take off speed quickly now that they were empty and the agents lost sight of them in the dark before they left the ground. They could hear them make a climbing turn somewhere above them and then the engines scaled back as they reached altitude and began their long flight back. The sound was gone a moment later.

Delores took the lead. Zac and Kyroo followed. She kept the pace slow so as not to exhaust them before they reached the complex. After a few kilometres they reached a stone bridge over a dry river bed, the kind that would be full of raging water in the spring and after a thunderstorm, but for now it was empty. She signalled them to put the device down in the shadows by the abutment and follow her down the bank until they were almost under the arch. There they stopped.

"A lovely night for a stroll." Someone whispered in English from the blackness under the bridge.

"Only if one has the leisure to do so." Delores completed the exchange. She would have recognized Hu's voice and he hers but the phrasing let them both know that they were not under duress and that things were as safe as they could be considering they were uninvited guests in a hostile country. Two figures crept out from under the bridge to join them. Kyroo, whose eyes were now well adjusted to the dark, could see that the first was a slim corsac fox, a species common in northern China and Mongolia, he had learned during his recent stint in Harbin. Kyroo guessed that that was the one called Genghis. The second one was a cat with a marbled coat and elliptical eye slits, a species that made the mountains in eastern China and the Korean peninsula its home.

"I'm Hu Liaoming, formerly with the F.O.X. Beijing office." The corsac said, confirming Kyroo's guess. "This is Pan, or so he claims." He gestured to the cat. "A deep cover Chinese agent inside Yak Mountain, but not for much longer. He doesn't speak English, but I can translate for him. He's going to guide us in."

"Can he be trusted?" Zac asked.

Hu shrugged "To an extent."

The Chinese agent said something that the three new arrivals did not understand. "What did he say?" Delores asked.

"He wants to know what Zac said." Hu translated.

"Tell him." She instructed. "Let's see what has to say about it."

Hu turned and said a few words in Chinese. The Chinese agent replied. Hu responded and an animated conversation ensued. The phrase 'Da Bi' was repeated several times, mostly by the Chinese agent. After a minute more Delores interrupted them.

"What are you two babbling about?"

"We were just comparing the relative attributes of Asian species verses Western species." Hu said innocently.

"I picked up some Mandarin when I was working in Harbin." Kyroo injected. "And 'Da Bi' means 'Big Nose'. It's a popular insult against Westerners, who tend to have longer noses than their Asian counterparts." He pointed first to Delores then to Hu's shorter muzzle."

"Very clever round eyes." The cat responded in English.

Hu gave the cat a sour look. "You said you didn't understand English!"

"I said I did not understand 'the' English, what with their adding sugar and milk to their tea and all their other barbaric habits. Their language, however, is easy compared to Mandarin."

Hu shrugged again. "This is Pan. He speaks English ... apparently."

"And you can trust me to accomplish the mission." Pan added.

Zac pressed his rather long muzzle against the cat's short snout. "I wonder if your mission is the same as ours."

Pan smiled in a way that did not convey humour. "To an extent."

"We're wasting time." Delores said, standing. "How are you going to get us inside, Pan?"

"There is an emergency escape tunnel that lets out under this bridge." Pan explained. "I have disabled the alarm, set the cameras that monitor it on a loop and unlocked the door at the far end so we can get back in. It leads right to the reactor, where we need to place the device."

"Then let's get going." Delores commanded.

Hu and Pan led the way with silenced pistols drawn. Zac and Kyroo hefted the device and followed them. Delores brought up the rear, turning around periodically to check behind them. The tunnel was illuminated by dimly glowing green panels every three meters, but after the dark of the overcast night outside they cast plenty of light. The floor was smooth stone but the walls were rough so they had to be careful to stay in the middle of the tunnel. That was difficult for the two carrying the bomb, and they had to grit their teeth to keep from crying out in pain when the sharp rock cut into them. Fortunately the tunnel was fairly straight and led downhill at a slight angle, but it was long and their legs were aching by the time they reached the steel door at its far end. The door was slightly ajar.

Delores checked her map by one of the glowing panels. "We're here?" She pointed to a spot on the paper.

"Yes." Pan confirmed. "Just outside the reactor lab. This tunnel was built for the lab staff to escape in case of a meltdown. The best pace for the device is in this corridor here." He pointed to a spot behind the reactor, opposite the lab. "That is as close as you can get without waltzing right into the lab, but it is close enough."

"And isolated enough to give us a head start on finding the prisoners." Hu added.

Pan frowned. "That is not part of my mission. The longer you delay setting it off the more chance there is that they will find it and disarm it or move it away from the reactor."

"One of us will stay to guard it." Delores said as they cautiously opened the door and stepped out into a deserted hallway. "They can join the rest in the tunnel when we get back." She led the way, counting the doors and turning as they had in rehearsal until they came to a service corridor behind the reactor. It was low and narrow, and they had to carry the device by the ends to get through. Delores pulled out a radiation detector and watched the gauge as the level rose. When it started to taper off she held up a paw and backtracked.

"There." She pointed. "The reactor pile is right on the other side of the wall."

After they set the device down Zac and Kyroo backed away, giving Delores room to kneel beside it. She pulled a small tool kit out of her pouch and opened the control panel on the casing. She entered a code, hiding it from the others behind her paw. She turned on the timer and then she set it or an hour. It beeped twice to acknowledge that the instructions were saved. She closed the cover and locked it down before putting the tool kit away.

She held up a small black pad with several buttons. "If things go bad I can set it off remotely. I can also add time to the countdown with the remote. There is also a manual override on the device itself." She showed the others where it was. "But there is no delay on it. As soon as you turn the red handle it goes off. But we do that only if it is about to fall into enemy paws." She looked at her three fellow Canadians. "Now, which one of you is going to stay behind and guard it?"

"I will." It was the cat Pan that had spoken.

"You?" Kyroo asked. "How can we trust you?"

"I remind you that my country wants this complex destroyed just as much as yours does, otherwise I would not have led you here in the first place. My mission is to see that it is destroyed, not to help you rescue prisoners. Don't worry, I'll make certain that it goes off."

"I'll stay too." Hu said.

The cat barked a short laugh. "If the Koreans have treated your agents the way they normally deal with spies then you will need all four of you to carry them back. Even if they are still alive I'm sure that they are in no shape to run back up the tunnel."

Delores it her lip as she considered their options. The clock on the device, visible through a window in the panel cover, was already down to fifty-eight minutes. "Okay." she said. "Pan stays while we go find the others. Let's move."

Kyroo frowned, but like the trained agents he followed Delores without question. The four of them cleared the service corridor by the opposite end and turned right to follow the path that they had rehearsed to get to the prison wing.

As soon as they were out of sight Pan checked his watch. They would need five minutes to get to the prison wing and another five to ten to locate the prisoners. Plus five to get back, longer if they had to carry the others. Thirty minutes tops. Then they had to run up the tunnel and head down the dry river bed toward the reservoir. They should be at a safe distance by the time the device went off because the explosion would be sub-nuclear, a fizzle. Just enough to start a chain reaction that would melt down the core of the reactor and destroy everything, and everyone, inside the complex. From here it would take ten minutes to reach the far end of the tunnel at a dead run. Give it another five minutes just to be safe. He checked the timer. There were fifty-five minutes left until detonation. That gave the Canadians ten minutes of leeway ... If things went according to plan. Of course, no plan ever survives contact with the enemy, he reminded himself.

Pan pulled a tool kit almost identical to the one Delores had from under his jacket. He quickly removed the cover form the control panel. Using an ultraviolet scanner he examined the key pad where the blond one with the large breasts had entered the code. Their mole in the American atomic labs had only been able to narrow the possible codes down to five possibilities, but the keys that had been used matched one of them. Pan entered that code and was relieved to hear the double beep of acceptance.

Ten minutes to reach the end of the tunnel, he thought, plus five for safety. Add another five and the Canadians would just be heading back this way when it went off. He adjusted the timer to read twenty minutes and then changed the code for the remote. He pulled another electronic device out of his pocket to confirm that the timer it displayed matched the one on the bomb. They both changed to nineteen minutes at the same time. His remote could not change the timer, or set off the device, but that was okay; even if some guard patrol stumbled onto it after he left by the time they reached someone with the authority to act it would be too late to stop it from destroying the complex. If they moved it there might not be enough of a reaction to vaporize those at the far end, where the Canadians would be, but they would die of radiation poisoning soon enough, and the discovery of their bodies would only help deflect suspicion away from the Middle Kingdom.

Pan replaced the cover, locked it down, and stowed his tool kit. He turned to leave just as the timer changed to eighteen minutes.

* * * * * * * *

In a secure room deep in the interior of the Canadian Embassy in Islamabad Kain Algorath was monitoring the data streams inside the Yak Mountain complex. He did not know that it was the Chinese who had supplied the server addresses and codes to get in, or that they had done so in the belief that he would not have time to do more than monitor the security channels. They were wrong. He not only had the security channels under his complete control, he was monitoring the communications, downloading data from the research server and listening in on several frequencies that Silver had given him. One of them was the frequency the nuclear device was operating on. It was an extremely low frequency and could easily be mistaken for interference from an electric motor, but armed with the exact frequency and the decryption codes Kain was able to separate it from the background noise.

He heard the device acknowledge when Delores set the timer for sixty minutes. He was surprised to hear it acknowledge a new setting some five minutes later. Examining the stream in isolation he was able to determine what the new setting was. As soon as he did he opened a communication channel with F.O.X. headquarters.

"Connect me with the Chief of Staff." He told the Duty Officer that answered. "We've got a problem in Korea."

* * * * * * * *

Delores, Zac and Kyroo made it most of the way to the prison wing before encountering any of the complex's staff. The first creatures that they came across were mountain hares in security uniforms. Knowing that all of the Palgan Yeou had been sent away simplified the rules of engagement: shoot anything that moved. The guards never had a chance. As they had rehearsed, Zac took the one on the left while Kyroo fired on the one on the right. Both made clean shots with their silenced pistols. Both felt a little queasy when they saw the blood and the crumpled bodies. It was not the first time either had taken the life of another, but it was the first time either had done it in cold blood. But Zac's training, and Kyroo's desire to impress, won out over emotion, and they fell in behind Delores and Hu as the two senior agents took over the lead.

The next two corridors were empty. Around the third corner they knew that there would be a guard station with two occupants fifty meters down a straight hallway, but it was facing in toward the prison wing, so they should be able to come up on the occupants by surprise. They turned the corner four abreast. It was unfortunate for the F.O.X. agents that the outgoing guards had not left their post when the shift changed forty minutes earlier, preferring to stay behind and gossip about the unusual events of late. It was more unfortunate for the guards. Fifty meters is an extreme distance for a pistol with a silencer, but four agents firing as quick as they can pull the triggers puts a lot of lead in the air. All four guards fell in the first few seconds, however one fell behind the desk from fear. He looked up and saw the panic button on the underside of the desk and pressed it. As a result an alarm began screaming from the speaker above. Alerted to the existence of a live guard all four agents began firing on the desk at ground level and then worked their way up. The guard was struck by eight bullets, four of which were fatal.

"Damn." Delores swore. "That's going to bring a lot of unwanted guests. We'd better hustle." She stowed her pistol and unslung the submachine gun from her back. The others followed suit.

Every door from that point onward was a possibility, so they made their way down the corridor two on each side. They kicked in doors two at a time while the others covered the kickers. Room after room proved to be empty. Halfway to the end of the hallway a number of guards with weapons at the ready skidded around the corner. Delores and Hu engaged them before diving into the open doorways of the rooms they had just cleared. Zac and Kyroo took up the fire as the guards scrambled back. Taking care of the immediate threat, the two younger agents leap-frogged down the hall firing at anyone that peeked around the corner. On the last leg Zac tossed a grenade and banked it off the far wall so that it arced toward the hidden guards and when it went off both rolled into the intersection and came up firing. After one burst it was obvious that all of the guards were dead. They took up stations facing up and down the unexplored corridor and signaled for Delores and Hu to continue clearing rooms.

A pair of rats came out of a room three doors away from Kyroo at a run. He cut them down before they could turn away.

A horse, cracked voice came from the room they had exited. "Ha! That'll teach you, you naked-tailed sadists!"

Kyroo recognized the voice. It was the tall vixen he had seen in Harbin. He wanted to rush right into the room but the self-discipline that had made him good at his security job held him back. "Hey!" He called to the others. I've located one of them!"

Delores and Hu had just finished clearing the last room on the other corridor. "Which door?" She asked.

"The one with the dead rats in front of it."

"Hold your position." Delores signaled to Hu and the two ran to the open door, stopping before going inside or exposing themselves. The blonde vixen said something, and Kyroo heard a mumbled reply. The two agents disappeared into the room, reappearing a minute later with the tall vixen between them. They half carried, half dragged her back to the intersection and around the corner. Kyroo was shocked to see that her left forearm was missing, the stump bloody as if it had been recently removed. As soon as they were safe Delores pulled out a field medical kit and began treating the taller vixen for shock and loss of blood.

"Dongo is in the room just past hers." Hu informed Zac and Kyroo. "She could hear him screaming through the wall. I'll cover your six."

The wolf and the fox moved as one unit. Without talking Zac, the larger of the two, took up position opposite the door to kick it in while Kyroo moved to cover him. When the door burst inward the fox leaned in, saw another pair of rats cowering in a corner and fired. Jumping up, he followed the wolf into the room. On an operating table in the middle of the room there lay a naked red fox. He was missing one arm and had an empty eye socket, but it didn't look like either injury was recent. He did have plenty of new wounds though, especially around the groin where it looked like they had split his penis in two lengthwise. Zac pulled out a knife and began cutting away the straps that held the injured fox down.

As they hefted him onto their shoulders the prisoner grunted and pointed toward the door. Zac and Kyroo turned in time to see a furry black figure in a suit dive into the hallway. The figure turned its head to look back as they struggled to bring their guns to bear on it without dropping the prisoner. It was gone before they could fire, down the hallway away from where Delores and Hu were tending to the vixen.

Zac lowered his gun and gave Kyroo a stern look. It had been Kyroo's job to check the corners of the room on each side of the door before going in. If the third creature had had a gun they would both be dead now. Kyroo lowered his head and his ears flattened, acknowledging that he had screwed up. Zac slapped him on the shoulder and gave him a 'thumbs up' to indicate that it was okay; they were still alive and the lesson was learned. He pointed to Kyroo and then to the door. Kyroo let him take all of the weight of the injured fox while he checked the hallway for an ambush, exposing himself as little as possible. He could hear footfall in the distance, but there was no sign of the one that had escaped. He had recognized the fellow though, it had been the Canadian scientist that was supposed to be behind all this, Fisher. He was tempted to go after him but he held his ground. Capturing the scientist was not part of their mission. Instead, he waved Zac forward and took up a cover position as the wolf guided their charge back to where the others were. Kyroo backed down the corridor to join them.

"Fisher was there." Zac informed the others as they treated the fox he had rescued. "But he got away." He did not elaborate and Kyroo was thankful for that.

"If he stays in the complex he's toast." Delores said as she pulled out her remote to check the countdown. "We found them pretty quick so we still have ... Holy Shit!"

"What's wrong?"

"There's only five minutes left in the countdown! It's been reset."

Hu said something in Chinese that Kyroo recognized as one of their stronger curses. "Pan." He muttered.

"But you can fix it." Zac said. "Can't you?"

"Yeah. Give me a second." Delores stabbed at the remote, entering the command code and then waiting for the cheery double beep. Instead there came a single sour tone. She tried again, and again. After the fourth try her shoulders and head slumped.

"We're locked out." She said without looking up. "The bomb goes off in four minutes."

* * * * * * * *

Kain used one of the Yak Mountain complex's radio channels to communicate with the bomb. They already knew that whoever had changed the countdown had done so through the control panel, not the remote. That could mean that the remote had been destroyed or Delores had been taken out. It was possible that one of the others had opened the device and changed the timer because something was stopping them from searching for the prisoners, and they had fallen back to reset the countdown before fleeing up the tunnel. That or someone had tampered with it to include the F.O.X. agents in the casualties. There was no way of knowing without being able to see who had done it, and all the surveillance cameras in that zone had been switched to show a loop from before the infiltration.

Fortunately though, the nuclear device that the Americans had donated for the mission had some undocumented features that only a few of the technicians that built it knew about. One of them was a video recorder. With the master code that Silver had obtained from the agency that built the device Kain was able to access it and see who had changed the countdown. He did not recognize the face of the marbled cat that showed up slightly distorted by the pin-hole lens. He transmitted the image back to Ottawa where the Academy computers could run it through their databanks.

"It's one of the low-level technicians form the complex." Bill Hanlan informed him a minute later over the link to Ottawa. "The Chinese deep cover agent, Pan."

"Looks like we've been double crossed." Kain said as his paws flew on the keyboard. "Pan must be halfway back to China now."

"Can you fix it?"

"Yes." Kain used the master code to override the control panel and put the countdown back to forty-five minutes. Then he reset the local code to the one Delores had been given, enabling her remote once again. "There. That ought to do it, professor."

Back in Ottawa Bill Hanlan checked Kain's work and nodded to himself. "Looks good, Kain. Best to keep an eye on it though ... just in case."

* * * * * * * *

Delores sat up as her remote emitted a triple tone. The display had changed to forty-five minutes.

"We're back in business boys." She said as she jumped up. "Genghis and I will take the lead with Dongo." She stooped to get her shoulder under what was left of the injured fox's left arm. "Zac, you and Kyroo take her and bring up the rear. Remember that they know we're here and could come from any direction."

The two younger agents lifted the damaged vixen carefully. She was able to stand but she was still weak and wobbly. They moved off after the first group, turning at regular intervals to check behind them.

Progress was slow. Twice they were blocked by small groups of technicians, but a few rounds into their midst dispersed them. Once a group of guards caught up with them. While Delores and Hu dragged their charge around the next corner Zac and Kyroo put the vixen down and knelt in front of her to take them on.

"Give me a gun." She croaked as bullets whizzed about them.

"We're not that desperate ... yet." Zac replied. Hu returned at that point to pull her back to where they had stashed the other prisoner. When he disappeared around the corner Zac and Kyroo fell back, leaving a grenade on a trip wire behind. Delores and Hu were ready so Zac helped with the fox while Kyroo got under the other arm of the vixen and they ran down the corridor toward the escape tunnel. Behind them came an explosion and a number of screams, but no further sound of pursuit. Delores slowed to a trot and then signalled a halt. She left Zac and his burden and went ahead to check the next intersection with a mirror on a rod.

She came back with bad news. "The hallway is blocked by a large group of guards that have barricaded the approaches to the reactor. We'll be cut down before we get halfway there. We'll have to find an alternate route." She pulled out the map and her remote. Zac and Hu crowded in to help. Kyroo stayed with the injured.

The vixen he remembered so well from the episode of the blue couch looked groggy, but she recognized him. "You're a long way from Harbin, kid. How did you get mixed up in this?"

"I went back to Ottawa and, uh, applied for the job." He said. "Silver, your mate, sent me after you."

"Bastard should have come himself." She said. "But I guess he had to stay home and take care of Leslie."

"Leslie?"

"Our kit. He's four now. I'd show you a picture but I don't bring that sort of thing on a mission. Also, I'm naked. You should not be looking, even though you have seen it before, you naughty boy."

Kyroo blushed, even though he had not been looking at her, not like that. The drugs were making her a little light headed. Maybe now he could get the answer to the question that had been burning in him since the sight of her in Harbin had awoken all of those memories.

"Can I ask you something?" He ventured.

"Depends on what."

"What's your name?"

She looked puzzled for a moment, squinted as if trying to make something out, then her eyes cleared. "That's right. We have not been properly introduced. My name is ..."

"Shit!"

Kyroo spun around. "Now what?"

"The countdown just changed back to ten minutes."

"Shit."

* * * * * * * *

Pan was almost to the end of the tunnel when he checked his timer. It was linked to the bomb but could only receive; the Chinese secret service had not had time to get the complete specifications for the American device the Canadians were bringing in. He was shocked to see the numbers change from five minutes to forty-five. Somehow the Canadians had changed it back.

He could leave, he supposed, and make his way back to China using one of the false identities he had stashed along the route, but his bosses would not be welcoming him with open arms if the Canadians made it out alive, especially if the bomb failed to go off for any reason. Reluctantly, Pan turned back.

Fortunately the guards setting up a perimeter around the reactor room had not remembered the tunnel that let in behind their posts. It took him eight minutes to reach the device and he was breathing hard when he did. As quickly as he could he removed the panel and entered the code the blond vixen had used. It still worked. Wondering how they had managed to guess the code he had changed it to, he reset the timer to ten minutes. That would give him just enough time to clear the tunnel before it went off. This time when he reset the code he entered a string of twenty some digits in random order. Let's see them guess that, he thought, as he ran out of the service corridor and toward the tunnel.

* * * * * * * *

Kain saw the signal indicating a change in the countdown and immediately accessed the video file. "Pan's been back." He informed headquarters. "He must have a way of monitoring the device's signal."

"He really doesn't want our boys and girls to leave the party early, does he?" Hanlan commented. "But Mom said to be home early so they have to leave."

"Let me see what I can do." Kain replied as he checked the security cameras. He located the agents and discovered their predicament. Tapping into the complex's communications channels he switched one to the frequency of their short-range radios.

"Rogue One this Rogue Three." He said, using the codenames from the plan Hanlan and his staff had put together.

"Rogue One here. Is that you dicking around with Swordfish?"

"Not entirely. Most of it was your new friend's doing. Don't worry about it. I'll give you all the time you need. I have eyes on you and it looks like you could use a little help."

"You got that right. What can you do for us?"

"How about a game of red light, green light?"

"You're on. Give us a few seconds to get ready for the first round. On my mark." On the monitor Kain could see her explaining to the others what was going to happen. They slung their machine guns and pulled out their silenced pistols before taking up positions close to the intersecting hallways. "Ready in three ... two ... one ... mark."

Kain switched off the lights in that sector of the complex. He waited three seconds then switched them back on. On the monitor the four agents that had entered the hallway under cover of darkness opened fire on the guards who were standing around blinded by the glare. Kain switched the lights off again before the guards could react. Three seconds later he turned them on again, and the guards opened fire immediately, but the agents were nowhere to be seen. Confused, some of the guards jumped over the barricade, and fell to bullets fired from directly below them. Kain switched the lights off again. When they came on for the final time the F.O.X. agents were behind the barricade and the remaining guards had their backs to them. Kain left the lights on because after a couple of seconds there were no more guards left capable of fighting. He winced as Delores walked around and finished off the wounded while the others went to bring Vikki and Dongo forward. They could not take prisoners, and a quick death was better than being consumed by the meltdown he supposed.

Kain reset the clock on the device while the agents got ready to continue their escape. He kept one eye on the tunnel cameras as he did. Pan was halfway to the exit, running like it was the Boston marathon, but instead of checking his pulse every few minutes he was checking something in his paw. The link to the timer Kain supposed. Sure enough, as soon as the clock reset the cat skidded to a halt and turned around. Kain could not hear him, there were no audio monitors in the tunnel, but he could guess what the little feline was saying.

"Rogue One, your friend is on his way back to Swordfish." He informed Delores. "Wait at the next corner. I'll let you know when he is clear and then you can make a run for it. I'll see if I can't keep him occupied at Swordfish long enough for you to get safe."

"Rogue One, roger."

Kain sat back and cracked his knuckles as he was in the habit of doing before starting a live hack against an equally talented opponent. "Okay Mister Pan," he said to himself, "let's see what you've got."

* * * * * * * *

Pan used every swear word he knew in all four of the languages he spoke before he left the tunnel, so he made up some new ones as he ran to the device. They mostly involved the blonde vixen engaged in painful and probably impossible sex acts with industrial appliances. He loosened the screws holding the cover on the control panel and threw it aside. Entering the vixen's code brought forth the upbeat double beep. She must have a master code to be able to reset it remotely, he reasoned, for there was no sign that they had returned in his absence. He had no idea of where the Canadians were, but if she was still using the remote they must be somewhere outside the perimeter the guards had set up around the reactor. He jabbed a digit at the buttons to reset the timer for ten minutes, but then he changed his mind. He entered five minutes instead. Then he sat back and watched what would happen.

Two minutes passed and Pan was about to give up and reset it to ten to make his escape when the display changed to thirty minutes. Pan changed it to ten. Two minutes passed and it changed back to thirty. If they need thirty minutes they must still be fifteen or twenty minutes away from the tunnel entrance, he guessed. And if it took them two minutes to change the clock there must be some sort of delay when using the remote. Pan used the tool kit to open up the control panel itself. Peering inside, he spotted the antennae that the signal went out over. If he disabled it they could not change the timing again. He used a small pair of wire cutters to clip off the antennae, and then he reset the clock to thirteen minutes. He sat watching it as it changed to twelve, then eleven, and finally to ten. Three minutes had passed and they had not been able to set it back. Satisfied, he jumped up and hit the ground running. Running for his life.

* * * * * * * *

Kain Saw the signal for the device disappear from his monitor. The cat had taken the bait. In the few minutes that it had taken him to reach the device the others had entered the tunnel and started moving to the exit. Assuming that the cat put at least ten minutes on the clock for his own escape, at the pace they were moving they should just make it outside before the thing went off. That was cutting it close, but it was the best Kain could do for them. On the security monitors he could see the cat racing for the tunnel entrance.

Kain chuckled. "Pan, you are going to be so pissed."

* * * * * * * *

Pan skidded to a stop before the tunnel door. It was closed but that was no big deal, it was designed to open from this side with a push in emergencies, like a fire exit, and he had set it to that mode earlier. He pushed, and nothing happened. He shoved, but the door refused to budge. He slammed his body against it repeatedly until he felt a rib break, but the door resisted all his efforts. He rested his head against it and tried to think. Looking down, he saw several spots of bright fresh blood form the cuts he had inflicted on himself trying to open the door, but he also noticed several spots that were already dark and tacky. Dropping to the floor he examined it more closely. There were a number of his tracks going back and forth on top of the ones the Canadians had made coming in, but there were also a set of theirs going out, along with two different sets of tracks made by bare fox feet.

They were gone, he realized, and somehow they had managed to lock the door behind them. Did they know that he was back inside? Probably. They had played him by letting him reset the timer twice while they put some distance between them and the bomb. The bomb that would go off any minute now.

Pan decided that he did not want to die. He could disarm the bomb by simply shutting off the timer. With the antennae gone there was nothing they could do about it. To hell with the Middle Kingdom and the Hermit Kingdom and the whole lot of them, he thought. He could escape through one of his other backdoors, collect some fake papers from a cache nearby and make his way to South Korea, where he could sell the secrets he knew in exchange for protection from his own agency. He turned back and began a limping trot back to where the device was still hidden.

He made it back with just a minute left on the clock. Since he had left the panel uncovered it was quick work to turn off the timer. Now, with the antennae disabled, the only way to set off the device was with the manual override. Pan patted the red handle tenderly, and carefully. It was unmarked. Maybe when the Koreans found it some idiot would turn the handle to see what it did. Wouldn't that be a joke?

"Who's down there? What are you doing?"

The voice was shrill, and familiar. Pan looked up to see the shrew, Madam Lee, bearing down on him. He recognized her immediately, and he also remembered several horrible nights spent in her bed before she grew bored with him and moved on to another lover. A shiver went through him.

"Pan?" She said as she closed in. "What are you doing in this sector Pan? This is a restricted area! There are infiltrators in the complex and ... what is that thing you are fooling around with? I'm calling the Guard!" She stopped three metres away and pulled a radio out of her smock and spoke rapidly into it.

He heard her use his name and Pan knew that his cover was blown. There was no way he could escape now. The Koreans were not known for their gentle forgiving nature, not when a double nine project was involved. He wrapped his paw around the red handle and called over to Madam Lee. "Hey, I heard that you understand English."

"Yes. I used to be a translator back when the International Atomic Energy Agency was still allowed to inspect." She answered, momentarily taken aback. "Why?"

"Because this device is American," he replied in English, "and it's speaking to you."

"Really." She said sarcastically in the same language. "What is it saying?"

"It says 'blow me'."

And with that he turned the handle.

The FOX Academy series:

Book I - The New Breed

Book II - The Werewolf of Odessa

Book II.5 - The Love who Spied Me

Book III - The Curse of the Yellow Monkey

Book IV - Wait for No One

Book V - Dawn of Vengeance

Book VI - Unnatural Selection

Kain Algorath © Marcus X Light

Ophelia Cassidy Sommer © Devil Kitty

Joel Grigori © Joel the Lemur

Geno © Coyotek

Dongo Fett © Dongo Fett

Zachary Ember © EmberWolf

Grey Muzzle © Grey Muzzle

Kyroo Echos © Kyroo Echos