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Diamonds in the Rough

Chapter Three: Ruddy Face in the Morning ...

Zac woke up feeling groggy and numb, and with a strange feeling down in the groin area. He was aware that he had an erection and an urge to pee, that was not unusual, but there was a warm, wet sensation also. He opened his eyes and saw the familiar ceiling of the hotel room illuminated by the light of the clock radio. But was it his room? He wondered briefly if his encounter with Akira the night before had all been an elaborate wet dream. He was fairly certain that it had not, but he put his paws down to his crotch to check if he had soiled his pyjamas just in case.

His paws encountered something furry, and it was moving. He looked down along his chest and abdomen and made out two fuzzy ears and a short snout where his cock should be. After an initial wave of panic, fearing that some feral flesh-eating creature had invaded the hotel, he recognized Akira's profile and relaxed. This was apparently the legendary wake up blowjob that he had heard and read so much about, but had never experienced.

It was still dark outside, the sun would not rise until after nine, but the face of the clock radio was providing some illumination. Enough for him to see shapes but not to make out details. He laid his head back on the pillow to enjoy the sensation.

Any teenaged male that has tried to paw a morning erection to a liquid conclusion knows just how durable morning wood can be, yet they were so fleetingly fragile once one's bladder was emptied. Since Zac had no intension of interrupting the proceedings to pee this could take quite a while.

After several minutes of licking and sucking Akira must have been assured that the magical meat stick was not about to disappear. She crawled further up in the bed and knelt with a leg on either side of his torso. Raising herself up she reached between her legs and guided his petrified pole to her sweet slit. After rubbing the tip around to lubricate it with the juices that were gathering there she inserted it and sat back, impaling herself ever so slowly.

For the next fifteen minutes she used him, rising up and down on his cock at her own pace, sometimes leaning back to get the tip working on the sweet spot inside, sometimes bending forward and rubbing her clit along his length. She muttered in Japanese the whole time, providing her own narrative, murmuring tenderly at times, crying out stridently at others. All that Zac had to do was lie there and caress whichever part of her was within reach.

She certainly was a sight, rearing up above him, her firm breasts sometimes pointing up to the ceiling, sometimes hanging down close enough to kiss. At some point during her gyrations his erection turned from a piss hard on to the blood infused monster of the night before. But when he came, which he did with such force that seemed to drive him down into the mattress, the morning erection remained, and Akira was able to bring herself off on it shortly after.

When she was done she lay on top of him for a while with his cock still hard inside her, nuzzling his head. After a time she eased off of him and excused herself, padding off to the bathroom where Zac soon heard the sound of the shower running. Not knowing if it was acceptable etiquette to go take a pee while she was in the shower he stayed in the room, crossed his legs and took the opportunity to check his email.

The files filched from the Border Services' computers were there, as Kain had promised. There were flight manifests and hotel reservations going back six months, all cross-correlated with CBSA and Airport Authority surveillance footage. Zac put it all up on the screen and waited for Akira to be done.

The lovely tanuki came back into the room wearing a cotton kimono and toweling her head. "Your turn." She said, and then offered to order breakfast. Zac locked his FOX computer and requested bacon, eggs, sausage and beans, with extra toast, to replenish his energy. Akira wrinkled her snout at his western excess but kissed him as he passed on his way to the bathroom.

After a very long pee and an equally long shower Zac emerged from the steamy room to find that breakfast had just arrived. Akira had ordered soup for breakfast, which she assured him was quite common back in Japan. Before beginning to eat Zac unlocked his tablet and called up Kain's files for her to read.

The Naicho analyst was all business as she flipped from the surveillance photos, to the manifests, to the Japanese passport files on her laptop, to Kyroo's photos from the Bad Dog and back to the manifests. She took a pen and a pad of paper and started a table with names on one side, followed by her guess at the traveller's real nationality, the arrival flight, hotel booking and departure flight. She used a facial recognition program modified by her immigration department to determine nationality to verify her guesses. When she was done she done she picked up the list and studied it with a concerned frown.

"What have you found?" Zac asked as he wiped his plate clean with his last piece of toast before eating it.

"As I suspected, there are many foreign females traveling under false Japanese passports, Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, Cambodian, and others. They must have been smuggled into Japan by the Yakuza first, and then given false papers to fly over here once they had ingested the diamonds. A lot of the 'couples' that booked flights and were actually pairs of these foreigners, one using a female name and one using a unisexual name, like mine."

"How many females are we talking about here?"

"Several hundred, at least. The numbers have been increasing as they established their methodology."

"And they all go back to Japan after a free trip to Canada to resume their life as sex slaves?" Zac said incredulously. "I find it hard to believe that at least a few did not try to defect."

"They were under constant supervision by the Yakuza and their local helpers." Akira noted. "They are taken straight to the Bad Dog Cafe from the airport and there is no record of them ever booking rooms or checking into a hotel. After further research I am convinced that they did not return to Japan."

"But if they did not leave the country after a certain number of days Immigration would start looking for them, and having that many disappearing through a single port of entry would have raised a number of red flags."

"They did not return, but their passports did. They were all registered as passengers on cargo flights bringing arctic char, beluga salmon and other local fish back to Japan for the sushi market. But according to my calculations the planes would have been full of cargo with no room for passengers. Of course, the airline is owned by the Yakuza."

"Don't they have to scan foreign traveller's passports when they leave and pass that information to our people, to check against the 'no-fly' list?"

"Yes, and according to your agencies 'acquired' information the passports were indeed scanned. Every one of the suspect passports was verified by your CBSA before the planes left."

Zac could tell by the glint in her eye that there was more to it than that. "Would my agency's 'acquired' data happen to mention who cleared all of those passports?"

"Ah, yes. It does. The supervisor of the detachment, Patrick Murphy, personally verified each and every one."

"Interesting. I'm glad that we did not submit for a warrant through his office, it would have just tipped him off and given him time to doctor the records." Zac thought for a moment. "I'll let my Headquarters know what's up right away, and we'll have to let Kyroo know that the bear is bent too."

"Bent?"

"Crocked, not straight, corrupt." Zac explained. "So if the females aren't going back to Japan, where are they going?"

It was Akira's turn to think. "The Yakuza have networks in Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, Honolulu, and Los Angeles already and they are expanding east. They must need females here for much the same purpose as back home - massage parlours, strip clubs, prostitutes and sex slaves for the rougher trade. We don't have the surveillance film of the departing domestic flights, but I would bet that if we did we would find the same females traveling with Canadian or American papers." He eyes suddenly went wide. "Zachary, the Yakuza are not smuggling diamonds, they are smuggling females! An operation like this could very well be controlled by Gorou's father, the big oyabun himself! The diamonds are probably just he means to finance their species trafficking. I have checked the street price of stones such as the ones Kyroo was given against the volume they could have moved using these females and the profit margin is too low to interest the Yakuza."

Zac took up the narrative with a smile. "But it is probably enough to pay off the assayers, Murphy, the airlines involved in their transport, and leave a bit for Gorou and his gang after they dispose of them locally."

Akira clapped her paws excitedly. "Exactly."

Zac's face fell. "That means that there is no pipeline for Kyroo to work his way up. The loss of the stones is going to hit Gorou personally. And it's one thing to act cool and calm undercover when you are dealing with a paw full of cold stones, but I'm not sure that Kyroo will be able to control his emotions once he learn the fate these females are in for."

"We will have to warn him."

Zac looked at his watch. "He's probably already on the plane coming back here. And he's not likely to access his restricted email until after his rendezvous." He looked out the window toward the airport, where another jet with the rising sun logo was just coming in for a landing. "I'm afraid that Kyroo is on his own."

* * * * * * * *

Kyroo heard about the assayer's detention in the dining hall during supper. The story going around the mine was that the head of security was going around chatting with some of the staff in the restricted area when the big clumsy rottie had tripped and spilled his coffee on the weasel's desk. Some of it had gone into the drawers but when Wright refused the Chief's offer of help to clean them out the big canine had become suspicious. He had reportedly brushed the smaller weasel aside and pulled the drawer open to reveal 'thousands' of unaccounted for stones, according to rumour. Kyroo was sure that it would be 'millions' of stones by morning.

He signed onto an account set up for the 'Frank Peters' persona and requested emergency leave from his supervisor, the Head of Security, to deal with a family matter. It was quickly granted as the rottweiler had been expecting the request. Kyroo used the approval to book a seat on the morning flight back to Yellowknife. After that he retired to a tiny windowless room which was bare of any personal items to run the different possible scenarios for the rendezvous though his head. He went to bed feeling very lonely, and he wondered if Zac was feeling the same way in his Yellowknife hotel room. He bet that he did.

The plane was late arriving because of bad weather, and Kyroo realized that he would not have time to take a cab back to the hotel and check in with Zac before he had to meet the Yakuza handler. So he rented a car for the day and put his suitcase and the FOX tablet in the trunk before driving to the meeting place. As instructed he kept a small carryon bag with his toiletries, including the fake deodorant can containing the cash that should have gone to the assayer.

The place designated for the rendezvous was a public bath and sauna. Even though it had been set up to cater to the Japanese tourists no one hassled him for being there. He saw a fair number of westerners in the change room and only a few Asians. He supposed that it must be too early for those who had spent the night gazing at the Aurora out in the frozen air or attempting to procreate in a glass-roofed hut to be up and about. After slipping the unopened wad of cash under the towel tied around his waist Kyroo donned a pair of flip-flops and went to see the attendant, who told him that room number five was ready.

He passed a room with a small pool and made his way down a long damp corridor. The temperature rose the farther he went along it. Room five was at the very end. Before entering the room Kyroo glanced at the thermometer mounted on the door. One hundred degrees Celsius, it read, boiling point! Somewhere in his family's distant past he was sure that he probably had some Scandinavian ancestors that did this sort of thing daily, but it was all new to him. He wondered how long he could last inside at that temperature and how long he would have to wait.

He opened the door, intending to step inside quickly before he lost his nerve, but then the heat hit him like a solid wall. "Woof!" he exclaimed, but he pushed on and entered the sauna.

It was a large room with enough seats for a dozen creatures ranged in a 'U' on three sides with the door and a fir below a container full of rocks on the other. At the moment the air was dry and clear because he was the first one in the room and no one had put any water on the hot stones yet. Kyroo saw a large bucket with a dipper in it and he ladled a scoop of water onto the stones. Immediately the room was filled with steam and Kyroo's fur became damp all at once. But on the up side the temperature went down a few degrees. He applied another dipper full of water and then there was so much steam that he could no longer see the benches. Kyroo felt his way along the wall until he found them and he sat down on the smooth wood.

He came up off the bench with a cry; his ass was burning! The bench must have been as hot as the air around it. How was he supposed to sit down? Standing wasn't an option though, as that put his head in the hottest layer of air and made it hard to breathe. Lying on the floor would likely hurt as much as sitting down, just over a larger area. Was he supposed to sit on his folded towel? Then what would he cover himself with? In the movies guys in the sauna always wore their towels like skirts and kept their parts covered. Maybe the Japanese did it differently.

Then Kyroo had an idea. He took the dipper and poured the water on the lowest bench and sat down in the cool wet spot before it could heat up again. The single layer of towel was now sufficient to keep from cooking all the fur and skin off his ass. Kyroo crossed his legs, wrapped his paws around his knees and waited for someone to make contact.

He heard the sound of running water and saw a stream of liquid emerge from the roof to fall on the hot rocks. The room filled with steam until Kyroo could no longer see his paw in front of his face. He sensed rather than saw the door open and next thing he knew there were two large creatures sitting on either side of him. Then he heard the sound of a fan and the steam was sucked out of the room as quickly as it had appeared.

When he could see clearly again Kyroo discovered that he was flanked by a huge squirrel and some kind of wolf. On the bench across the room from him sat a Japanese hare, Gorou Tsukasa himself, Kyroo supposed. But Frank Peters was not supposed to know too much about the gang, so Kyroo played it cool. "You the contact?" He asked

Gorou regarded his claws for a moment before answering in heavily accented English. "No need for a contact since you got nothing to give to one."

"Oh, you heard about Wright? Yeah, stupid of him to keep the stones right there in his desk where anyone could open it and take a look. But, not all is lost." Kyroo said as he pulled the plastic wrapped wad of bills from under his towel. The thugs on each side of him grabbed his arms and did not let go until they had determined that he had not gone for a weapon. Kyroo tossed the money to the hare. "At east you got his payment back."

Gorou caught the package neatly in mid flip and glanced at it. "You saying you got nothing to do with the loss of the stones?"

Kyroo looked indignant. "Of course not! Do I look like a rat? Or a cheat?"

"You think you did good, coming back empty pawed?"

"Damn right! I got your money back, didn't I?"

Gorou threw the package into the fire below the sauna stones with distain. He didn't even glance at it as it burst into flames.

Kyroo tried to play it equally cool, something quite difficult in the sweltering room. "I suppose this means that I'm not getting paid."

Gorou gestured with his paw and the two heavies grabbed Kyroo by the arms and held him. He struggled to free himself but he was in a bad position and could get no purchase on the slippery wood. He gave up and held still before he used up all his oxygen in the superheated room.

Gorou gestured again and the two thugs dragged Kyroo toward the stove, extending his right arm toward the fire as they drew closer.

"Hey! Hey!" Kyroo protested as he felt the fire singe the fur on his paw. "What gives? I told you, I'm no stoolie. Would they let me waltz out of there with a hundred grand of their stones and give them over to you? I still have my smuggling method. That's got to be worth something to you!" The hare remained silent, and Kyroo could hear the claws on his outstretched paw sizzle.

After a full minute the hare nodded and his goons released Kyroo. He plunged his damaged paw into the bucket of water to keep it from blistering.

"No, you don't get paid." Gorou answered Kyroo's earlier question. "No diamonds, no money. Violet tells me that you want to come work for us. That true?" Kyroo nodded where he was kneeling by the bucket. "You want to work for us you got to do something to make up for this loss." The hare paused and Kyroo wondered if he was going to demand that he chop off one of his digits. But the mobster had reached a different decision. "We're keeping the money from disposing of your diamonds, to make up from what we lost when our diamonds were lost. Any objections."

"No, no. Keep it." Kyroo waited for acknowledgement but the hare just sat there on the bench staring at him. "Can I, uh, go now ... Sir?"

"One more question. Why did you register under different name?" The hare looked up as tried to remember. "Ki-ro Yi-kos?"

Kyroo's well rehearsed response leapt to his lips. "It's a fake ID I use so the cops can't track my movements. It helps to keep the heat off my real name, so I can get security clearances and such."

Gorou grunted and nodded in acceptance. He waved a paw and his guards left Kyroo's side and went to sit on the bench. "Report to Violet for your next assignment. Take a dip in the pool on your way out, it will help cool you off." The gangster leaned back and barked something in Japanese. The big squirrel got up and poured more water on the rocks, flooding the room with steam again.

Kyroo got to his feet. Sensing that he had been dismissed he made for the door while he could still see it. The corridor felt much cooler than it had before but Kyroo still felt hot because he was sweating all over and his wet matted fur was holding the heat in. A refreshing dip in the pool sounded like just the thing. Hadn't he heard that his distant relatives, hardy Scandinavian arctic foxes, carved holes in the ice covering the fiords to jump in after a sauna? What harm could a dip in a nice warm public bath do? He turned right into the pool room, took two steps and dove right in.

Kyroo discovered that the Yakuza leader had failed to mention that the water temperature of the pool was exactly ninety-nine degrees below that of the sauna. Any cooler and it would be frozen, and Kyroo was frozen by the shock of immersing himself in the icy water. After a few seconds of sinking without breathing, convinced that his heart had stopped beating, he breathed in - a mistake as he was near the bottom of the pool. He emerged sputtering and shivering, with the firm conviction that his ancestors had been crazy.

* * * * * * * *

After his sauna and an invigorating dip in the cold pool Gorou Tsukasa and his body guards drove out of Yellowknife to one of the Aurora viewing platforms his front companies owned. It was noon and the chances of seeing the Northern lights were next to zero, but there was one car already there when they arrived and a lone figure in a parka on the platform. Gorou recognized the sedan and had the hulking squirrel park the Mercedes beside it. After the wolf ran around and opened the door for him Gorou told them to wait in the car. He went up the stairs alone.

The figure waiting on the platform turned as the hare approached. His parka had a Canada flag logo and the letters CBSA sewn into it above the left breast. "Morning, Gorou." Murphy said when the hare stopped in front of him. "Or should I say 'good afternoon'? It's so hard to tell in this frozen wasteland."

"You surprise me, Mister Murphy. I thought that you liked it up here?"

"Me? No way. I only got sent here because some of the executives in CBSA couldn't take constructive criticism."

"Such as?"

"Such as they should go fuck themselves." Murphy roared out a laugh. "But I like you, Gorou, and I'll stick around here as long as there is a profit to be made." He slapped Gorou hard on the back.

The Japanese gang leader was looking forward to the day he could have this uncouth bear who presumed to be his equal killed, but for now he need the bear's services. "I understand that the Canadians have sent in another investigator, from the Justice Department this time, and that a Japanese security analyst is working with him."

Murphy wiped his nose on the back of his glove. "Yep. They were in the other day, following up on the RCMP file. But they didn't know anything new, and they haven't been back to ask for the manifests or the video from the airport. When the geologists at the mine examine those stones of yours they grabbed though and find out that they came from some other part of the world they may come sniffing around again."

Gorou had to admit that the Border Services agent was correct in his assessment. It had been very bad luck to lose those stones, if it was luck at all. There were only a few creatures other than his faithful Yakuza members that knew about the stones and if one of them had squealed ... He could not really afford to clean house and recruit new local helpers, although he would if it was necessary, even to the point of getting rid of the talented Violet if it came to that. But he would hate to lose her. If only there was only some way to know for sure.

"Have these investigators mentioned anything to any of your colleagues?" He asked Murphy.

"Not before the weekly security committee met this morning." Murphy had volunteered to be the CBSA representative on the committee, which was attended by all of the security and intelligence agencies with representatives in Yellowknife. If anything came up related to his Yakuza employers or their business interests he would hear about it.

"Alright then." Gorou pulled the package of bills that he had switched in the sauna for the similarly wrapped bundle of newspaper that he had thrown on the fire. Waste not, want not, that was his motto. He passed them to Murphy. "There is enough for two monthly payments in there. Bring me some useful information about the investigation and I'll double it."

Murphy opened the package and thumbed through the bills. "There was one thing, something odd about the Canadian wolf."

"Odd?"

"He said that his name was Zachary Ember, from Ottawa, and I checked his ID to verify that. But then he asked to use my shredder and he pulled out another set of ID, a territories driver's licence and health card, and shredded them. I didn't get a good look at the name on them but I'm certain that it wasn't Zachary Ember. The creature in photos on them didn't look like him either, the fur was too pale."

Gorou thought hard. "Could the name have been Frank Peters?"

Murphy shrugged. "Maybe. I couldn't swear to it."

"Did he come alone?"

"Naw, he had that cute little Jap racoon with him."

Gorou implored the gods for patience. "No, I mean when he arrived in Yellowknife."

"Couldn't say, we don't monitor domestic flights."

"Can you get me the airport video surveillance and flight manifests from the day he arrived?"

The big bear scratched its chin. "It could be done, but it's risky, 'cause I'll have to get airport security involved and they'll want to know why I'm interested in a domestic flight."

The Yakuza leader pulled a smaller bundle of cash out and gave it to Murphy. "Do it. Here is a down payment, to cover your 'expenses'. Let me know the instant you have any information."

"You got it partner." Murphy pocketed the cash without counting it before lumbering off the platform and over to his car.

Partner, Gorou thought as he turned to leave, if I have time I'll have you castrated before you die.

* * * * * * * *

Zac and Akira had stayed at hotel hanging about the lobby waiting for Kyroo to show up. When they saw him walk in Zac plucked at his right eyebrow, giving him the sign to meet in his room in ten minutes if it was safe. Kyroo acknowledged by rubbing his snout with his thumb. Zac and Akira went up to Zac's room after Kyroo had cleared the lobby, leaving the door slightly ajar. Kyroo joined them shortly after.

Kyroo gave Zac a full account of what had transpired at the mine and since. Akira explained her theory that the real object of the scheme was species trafficking and Zac concluded with their suspicions that the Border Services agent Murphy was involved.

Kyroo recalled the doped up looks on the faces of the females they took the stones out of and Violet's evasive answers. "That fits with what I saw." He confirmed. "But after reading Violet's file I can't believe that she'd be involved in that sort of thing. It's too much like what she suffered as a kid."

FOX agents were selected, among other things, for their ability to read people and Kyroo, despite his unorthodox entry into the Academy, was no exception. Zac had to trust his impressions regarding the punk poodle. But as the nominal leader of the mission he also had a decision to make - to cut and run with what they had, turning the investigation over to the real cops, or to stay and try to prove Akira's theory. He explained his dilemma to the others.

"On the one paw," he said, "we can successfully conclude the mission to shut down the diamond smuggling operation simply by exposing Murphy and Violet. With the CBSA logs and the fake passport data the RCMP can make a case against them. But there is no direct evidence of the Yakuza's involvement. There is no record of the conversation in the sauna and neither Violet nor Murphy is likely to talk until Gorou and his thugs are safely out of the country, not if they want to live to see the trial. So the Yakuza go somewhere else and figure out another money laundering scheme to pay for the sex slave smuggling."

"On the other paw, if we can learn more about this operation we may find something to nail them with and put an end to their species trafficking scheme for good. But it's going to be dangerous, especially for you, Kyroo."

"I can manage." Kyroo assured him. "Violet seems to have taken a liking to me and I think I can work on that. I'm supposed to see her today to get my next assignment. She may just be in denial about what is really going down, refusing to see what is right in front of her snout. After all, she only sees the females when they extract the diamonds. I'm pretty sure that she has nothing to do with where they go or what they are used for after that. If Gorou's not around I'll see if I can get her talking about her childhood again. If I can break her down maybe I can get her on our side, get her to turn against Gorou."

"That's pretty risky." Zac commented. "You would have to reveal yourself as an undercover operative and it's game over if she refuses .... or worse if she just pretends to go along."

Akira nodded in agreement. "Many of the abused become abusers themselves." She noted. "It may take a professional handler to turn her against the Yakuza."

"I'll only attempt it if there is no alternative. We probably have a few days before they collect enough diamonds for another attempt to certify them. And the authorities will need that time to obtain the evidence Kain gave us, but legally this time. So why not give it a few days? If we don't get anything new by the time they're ready to move in I can always go hard on her to cough them up. I'm sure that at least one of the females that went through her club has turned up dead somewhere at some time, and that makes her an accessory to murder. If appealing to her guilt doesn't work I can always threaten to have her locked up in a little room with no fresh air to breathe or fish to eat for the rest of her life if she doesn't cooperate."

Zac's brow wrinkled as he thought through their options. "But for now you're going to try to seduce her?"

"Yes. I made a few arrangements last night while I was stuck at the mine."

Zac got up and rummaged in his bag. He brought forth a USB stick, an ordinary one, not the special FOX issue. "Then take this" he said, "It might be useful."

Kyroo took the proffered stick and looked at it, turning it over in his paws like it was some sort of talisman. Akira leaned in, equally curious.

"What's on it?" He asked. "Silver's secret techniques? The lesson plans from the Advanced Seduction course? Doctor Gordon's list of fifty erogenous zones?"

"Better." Zac said. "Lionel Richie."

"Lionel Richie?" Kyroo asked, puzzled.

"Ah! Li-on-el Ry-chie" Akira sighed, leaning back. "And you did not tell me you had it Zachary." She sounded disappointed.

"Really? Lionel Richie?"

Zac closed Kyroo's paw over the USB. "Really. Use it wisely."

Kyroo put the USB in his pocket with a befuddled look on his face. "What are you two going to be up to while work on Violet?"

"We'll get into the data and try to figure out where all these females were sent to." Zac answered. "And maybe we'll get Kain to take a look at the Yakuza's bank accounts and tax records. If we can't nail them for trafficking we may at least get them for tax evasion."

Kyroo shrugged as he stood to leave. "It worked for Capone." He said as Zac checked the hallway. With a nod from Zac he was off.

By the time the young Arctic fox had showered, groomed his fur and applied cologne said to appeal to canine species the afternoon was wearing on. The sun was setting and it promised to be another unusually cold night when he stepped out of the hotel and headed for the rental car. It wasn't a long walk to the Bad Dog but Kyroo opted to drive because he had donned thin, tight jeans and a silk form-fitting shirt that Delores had picked out for him, saying that they complimented his body style. With just a light leather jacket to complete his ensemble even walking to the car was brutal. He wondered how the street hookers that he had seen in the Market area of Ottawa in their high heels, miniskirts and tiny jackets could stand it in winter. Maybe they had no choice, he thought, and his sympathy for the trafficked females went up a notch.

He parked the rental behind the Bad Dog and tried the back door. It was locked this time, but there was a closed circuit video camera above a buzzer so he pressed that, smiled into the lens and waited. The door was opened a minute later by one of the big polar bears. Not knowing which of the twin bouncers it was Kyroo greeted him with "Hey, compadre! Looks like we're going to be colleagues." The bear did not speak, or move out of the doorway. "That means we - work - together." he said, carefully enunciating each word. "Comprendrais?"

The bear moved just enough for the slim fox to slip past by squeezing between the doorframe and a surprisingly solid if sizeable gut. "Smartass." The bear rumbled from a foot above Kyroo's ears.

"Where's Violet? I'm supposed to report to her." Kyroo said in more subdued tone.

"In da office."

"Thanks."

Kyroo wove between a few dancers that were adjusting their skimpy costumes to make his way to the office. One of them called "Hey, pretty boy!" And another pinched his butt, but he was still intact when he knocked on the office door. "Come the fuck in." Violet Yelled from inside.

Kyroo stepped inside and closed the door. On seeing who it was Violet slid a pile of papers that appeared to have the seal of the government of Canada on them into the top drawer of her desk. After the papers were secured she sat back and looked him up and down, taking in the tight low cut jeans and the shirt with the top two buttons open.

"I'm sorry, but we aren't hiring any male strippers at the moment."

Kyroo leaned back against the door with his arms crossed and put one ankle across the other. "That wasn't the opening I was hoping to fill."

"You trying to suck up to the boss, sweet checks?"

"Outrageously." Kyroo walked over to her desk and leaned down, resting on his forearms so that their eyes were on the same level and his muzzle was inches from hers. "I owe you a dinner, and I know just the place."

"Oh yeah, where?"

"It's a surprise." He straightened up and extended a paw. "Coming?"

"Naw, just breathing hard." She joked, but she put her paw in his and allowed him to help her to her feet and across the room. She withdrew it though when they were in the hallway. "No need to get those bitches gossiping." She said, jerking her head toward a pair of strippers that were looking their way, whispering and giggling.

Violet was dressed in short skirt and a fuzzy sweater, with bare legs and high heeled shoes. She grabbed a padded jacket from a peg by the back door but left it hanging open, as if the sub-freezing temperatures were just a bit of a chill. Kyroo escorted her to the car and opened the passenger door for her. He waited until she was settled in then he went around to the driver's side and got behind the wheel.

"Going to tell me where we're going now?" She asked as she propped one muscular leg up on the dashboard.

"Nope." Kyroo pulled out from behind the strip club and headed farther out on the peninsula.

Kyroo had done his homework on the Yellowknife gourmet scene. It seemed that all the best places were in Old Town, and they were all named for their owners. There was Bullock's Bistro, where they had eaten the other day, the Wild Cat, the Mustang, and even a place with a floor show called the Dancing Moose. But the best place for fish, according to tourist and foodie reviews, was out on Rock Island, a place called the Smokehouse. According to the posts it was crowded every night and soon ran out of their signature dishes but a phone call and a small bribe had reserved a table and two portions of wild pacific salmon in Frank Peters name.

"Ah, the Smokehouse." She said when Kyroo turned onto the bridge connecting Old Town's business district with Rock Island. It was an easy deduction since the Smokehouse was the only restaurant on the island. "You know that we'll never get in."

"One can always hope."

Violet was suitably impressed when the waiter showed them to an empty table, and even more impressed when he told them that the chef would start on their orders right away. "What did you order?" She asked, leaning over the table and placing her paw over his.

"That too is a surprise." He said with a smile that showed his brilliant white teeth.

The drink server brought them drinks that he had also ordered in advance, a Jack Daniels on the rocks for her and an Italian peasant wine for him. At the same time the waiter dropped off a pate of Alaskan king crab and toast. That was followed by spicy seafood chowder and buns. Then there was an octopus salad that Violet eyed suspiciously for a minute before trying it and discovering that she loved it. The salmon steaks for the main course were large, thick and perfectly cooked. She almost swooned when she breathed in the scent of salmon, butter, garlic and spices. And finally there was dessert, a selection of ice cream including pistachio, rum raisin and a vanilla so creamy it came with a warning.

There were pauses between each course where they could talk and Kyroo tried to keep the conversation on her and her early life. She was surprised that he remembered so much of what she had said the other night; telling him that it was rare to find a male that actually listed. Kyroo just smiled and listened some more as she went on to detail some of her more outrageous adventures, but she was avoiding the really personal stuff.

She was about to reach the climax of a story about how she had fooled her foster parents into not beating the rest of the foster pups. "... and then my foster father, the son of a bitch, he grabbed me by ... by my ..." her voice trailed off and she dropped her head to stare at her empty plate.

Kyroo put both of his paws on one of hers. "You know, Violet, I can tell that you had a hard time. I can hear it in what you don't say and see it in the look in your eyes. I know because I had a bad time when I was a kid too." It wasn't true, Kyroo had a grown up in a warm and loving family. But one night just after he joined FOX he had been in the agents' lounge with Marcel while the senior agent's mate Geno was away on a mission and his mother was sitting their adopted kit, Alden. Marcel had had a more to drink than normal and had started to tell the Academy's latest recruit about his childhood in the slums of Toronto. The diminutive black fox had told Kyroo in great detail about the physical, mental and attempted sexual abuse at the paws of his step-father, and the years of living on the streets after he castrated the bastard.

Kyroo repeated Marcel's story as if it was his own. He tried to put all the raw emotion that he had heard in Marcel's voice into his. He looked down in mock shame when he talked about the things Marcel had been ashamed of, and glared with anger when he recounted details borrowed from Marcel's encounters with his step-father and other deviants.

When he had joined Doctor Gordon told him that his psychological profile was almost the same as Marcel's, with a high index for helping those weaker than himself, but he had never passed through a catharsis to turn him into a stone cold agent like Marcel was. But, Doctor Gordon had assured him, if he lived through his first few missions he was sure to come upon one of those life changing situations which would either make him or break him. Thinking of that, and of everything Violet and Marcel had gone through to make them what they were today made him sad. When he came to the part where Marcel had lost all of the kits he had been protecting in an abandoned store in Ottawa a real tear trickled down his cheek. He wiped it away quickly but not before Violet had seen it.

That seemed to knock down the last wall that stood between them. Through dessert and after, while they sipped strong sugary liqueurs, Violet talked about the hurtful side of her childhood. She told Kyroo about the love and hate she felt for her mother. Of the years she could remember in Japan and the way her beautiful mother would comfort her when the local kids teased her. The hate for her when she went away every evening, and the final betrayal when she had Violet shipped back to the States. She described her abuse at the paws of her foster parents in great detail, alternating between snarls and teary eyed tremors.

When she was done she sat back, heaved a great sigh and wiped her eyes on her arm. "Anyways, now I'm a big girl and no one can force me to do what I don't want to do anymore."

"Yes, of course." Kyroo was thinking about Gorou in the sauna and wondered how true her statement was. "I met your boyfriend today, Gorou. He seems like a nice guy."

"I'll bet!" Violet barked out with a laugh. "But he's not really my boyfriend. More of a business partner with benefits."

"Whose benefit?"

That made her frown. "Let's get out of here, I need a smoke."

Once they were in the car Kyroo started the engine while Violet rolled down her window and lit up one of her filterless smokes. He put the car in gear and drove to a small lookout he had scoped out in Google Earth and parked there. It afforded a good view of Yellowknife Bay and the floating houses there. There was a prolonged period of silence while Violet puffed furiously and Kyroo toyed with the USB in his pocket which Zac had given him.

"I have to get back to my club." Violet growled after the silence became unbearable. "Why did you stop here?"

"Because I don't want this night to be over yet. Because I want to find out if I have any chance at all with you. I want to know how it really is between you and Gorou. What is he really up to, and what hold does he have on you?"

He had turned to face her, but she was looking down at where his paw was plucking nervously at the bulge in his jeans the USB was making.

"What's in your pocket?" She asked suspiciously. "You've got something in there, I could see it through those skin tight jeans and you've been playing with it all night. It's too small to be a gun or a knife and too narrow to be a package of condoms so what is it?" Kyroo froze, afraid to answer. "Boy if you are carrying a wire I'm going to skin you myself! Pass it over."

He worked his digits into the tight pocket and pulled the USB out. She snatched it and examined it under the dome light, but there were no markings to indicate what was on it.

The rental had a GPS display that could double as a tablet with a USB port beside it. She plugged the stick into it and a second later a large icon of a musical note appeared on the screen. She put the pad of her first digit on the icon and the dulcet tones of Lionel Richie burst forth.

"Helloooo, is it me you're looking for?"

Violet was staring at Kyroo. "Lionel Richie? Are you shitting me?" She pulled the USB out of the console violently and tossed it out the window, followed by the butt of her cigarette.

"Violet, I ..."

"Shuddap. Come here." Her paws shot out and she grabbed him by the lapels of his tight shirt and pulled him towards her before he could react. Their mouths connected hard, and her tongue was in his an instant.

Her paws were all over him, tearing at his shirt, pulling at his fur, fumbling with his belt buckle. He responded with the same urgency, pulling her sweater up, burying his digits in her purple mohawk, grouping between her thighs. It was like his senior year in high school all over again, where he had spent several evenings tongue wrestling with a delectable corgi named Lisa-May Duning in the front seat of his father's Volvo as he advanced from first base to third. He never did make it to home plate with Lisa-May, but with Violet it seemed to be a foregone conclusion. He rolled his head back and forth against hers and wished that he had rented a full-size car instead of an economy model.

Releasing him momentarily Violet pulled her arms out of her sweater so that it was bunched around her neck. As he had suspected, she had been wearing nothing underneath. This left her torso fully exposed for him to explore. He took the opportunity to run his paws over her small breasts, feeling the nipples already erect and hard against his palms. She broke off the oral wrestling match to nibble on one of his pointy ears. He lowered his muzzle and sucked on first one and than the other breast. She stuck her tongue inside his ear and he moaned at the explosion of sensations as the nerves normally attuned to vibrations in the air were assaulted with that warm, moist and wiggly appendage.

Now that his mouth was at her breast his paws were free to go after bigger game. He pulled her skirt up around her hips with one while the other dove down between her thighs, aiming for the little triangle of space at their apex. In high school this maneuver would signal the start of the battle for third base, which might go on for quite a while before he female participant either signalled surrender by parting her legs or ended the contest with a determined slap or a shove. Violet's reaction was somewhat different, in that she somehow managed to suck his paw in against her love mound and lock it there between her muscular thighs. Kyroo could not pull it out of he tried, not that he wanted too, because he found panties that were already damp and exuding that scent that drove males insane.

His digits wiggled and waggled against her mons as he worked her panties to one side. Clutching at her bum with his other paw he sought the opening to the moist gateway that he had uncovered. One digit found it and he ran it up and down until he had spread that moisture along its length. Her inner lips blossomed like the petals of a rose and parted to allow him access to the source of that dampness. After three more strokes he could bend his digit and slip inside to the first knuckle. Then it went in to the second, and finally the third joint disappeared inside her and his palm rubbed up against her clit.

Their mouths were back together as he explored inside her with his tongue at one end and paw at the other. She was growling under her breath whenever their lips became unsealed, especially when his pads passed over her clit. He alternated drilling deep with making little circles around that hard nub of flesh and was rewarded with a gasp as she threw her head against the seat. But she was back in the game an instant later, forcing him back as she went for his groin. She had undone his belt earlier and now managed to undo the button at the tight waistband as well as the fly. Now she worked her paw inside the skimpy shorts he had worn and clutched his thickening member. She stroked it until it was long and hard enough to stick out on its own and then abandoned it while she pulled the shorts down under his balls. The elastic cut into them, clamping off the tube that would eventually send a hot load of spooge to his shaft.

The windows of the car were steamed up and Kyroo was sure that no one could see what they were doing inside, although they could probably make a pretty good guess from the noises they were making and the occasional paw put against the windshield to steady them. The only problem was the restrictive space available. She was trying to crawl onto his lap but the steering wheel was getting in the way. He would have climbed over the centre console to her side but there was very little room to do so.

"Violet." He gasped when their mouths next parted. "Don't you think it would be better if we take a break and take up where we left off at your place?"

She grabbed his head by the long patches of fur on his cheeks and said "I think you better get that cock inside me, lover boy, because I may get bored and leave you to paw off in the car if I don't get some good fucking RIGHT NOW!" She did, however, manage to release the seat back at the same time and pull him over to her side. She also pulled her legs up until her knees were up at her shoulders, freeing the passenger's leg space for him. She slid down on the seat until her gapping pussy was on the edge. All that Kyroo had to do was to kneel down and insert his eager penis.

He did. Holding himself up off of her on his extended arms he slid his throbbing rod in until his aching balls slapped her ass. By bending his knees he found he could withdraw that slippery spear until just the tip remained inside. Then, clutching the sides of her seat with his paws and pushing with his legs he drove it home again.

Kyroo loomed above her, sometimes using his legs and sometimes rocking his hips to piston his prick in and out of her. When he used just his hips he could rub his torso against hers, and she could wrap her mouth around his. But when he reared up on his arms and used his legs the only point of contact was between cock and cunt, a moving hot spot while the rest of their bodies were chilled by the cold air that was creeping into the car.

The cold was not the only thing that was getting in. The lookout point had been dark, well away from the nearest streetlight, but now Kyroo realized that he could see her better. A greenish purple glow was making its way through the condensation on the windows. A moving glow that he first mistook for a passing car before he realized that the Aurora was making an appearance.

It had never been so bright on those cold winter nights north of Ottawa when Silver had the agents out training in the bush at thirty below. The light seemed to come from everywhere at once and it rippled, like it was being reflected off water. By its light he could make out the details of her body below him, the heaving chest, the trembling nipples, the tension on her face as she neared orgasm and the glistening wetness of her sex as his cock slid in and out of it. The light danced on her taut thighs and lit up her face. For the first time Kyroo began to understand the magic and the wonder that they held for many cultures, and why a couple might spend a small fortune for a night of love in a glass-topped hut.

He could tell that she was getting very close to cumming. She was moaning and grunting and cursing as she clutched at his sides and pulled on his hips, urging him toward his own climax. But no matter what she did Kyroo's orgasm was being held in check by the band of elastic material pressing up under his balls. He was afraid that if he did not get some relief soon that he was going to rupture something down there. He was tempted to stop for a moment and pull the constraining shorts down to his thighs but he did not dare disappoint the panting poodle, who now had her ankles crossed just above his tail and was bucking her clit hard against his pelvic bone with each contraction of her mighty thighs.

Fortunately she came soon after, with a scream that rent the air inside the little car. She threw her had back on the passenger seat and beat at the window and driver's seat with her paws as her body went through a series of spasms. Kyroo took advantage of the distraction to slip a digit under the waistband of his shorts to relieve the pressure on his tubes. As if sensing that the way was clear his sack contracted and spat a great wad of red hot spooge through the gateway. Other muscles took up the task and he went off inside her in a series of shots that he was sure had drained him. At least it seemed to have drained him of his strength, as he collapsed on top of her.

They lay like that for a minute or two, panting and adding another layer of frost to the inside of the windows, until Violet said "Get off me you big lug."

Kyroo thought for a moment then lifted himself off of her and flipped back into the driver's seat. He started the engine and turned the heater on high. Meanwhile Violet pulled her skirt and sweater down then straightened up the passenger seat. "Well," she said, "that was fun."

"Oh yeah." Kyroo agreed. "Just like back in high school."

"When was that? Last week?"

"Har-har." The side windows were not clearing so Kyroo rolled then down so the rubber seals along the top of the door would scrape off the excess frost. That caused a mini snow storm on each side of the car. Violet cursed as the cold flakes landed on her bare legs but Kyroo screamed as a pile landed on his lap. Her looked down and realized that his cock was still sticking out of his pants, lying on his thigh like an abandoned sausage. He went to tuck it back inside the tight jeans but Violet laid a paw on it to stop him.

"No." She commanded. "I'm in the mood for more fun." She stroked it tenderly and it twitched back to life. "I live at 97 Qakuqtuaryuk. You drive; I'll take care of this little fellow." She leaned over to his side of the car as she spoke and finished by taking him in her mouth. Independent of him his prick responded by swelling to fill the warm moist space. "Oh, one more thing." She said lifting her head. "Get there before I'm done or you sleep alone tonight." Then she swallowed his dick again.

"Uh, how do I get there?"

Violet replied around a mouthful of cock. "Or-ee, is-ee." Sorry, busy.

Great, Kyroo thought. Then he remembered the GPS. He turned it on and pressed the icon to set a new route. He selected the territory from the drop down menu and entered the first few letters of Yellowknife and touched the screen to select the town. Then his paw froze above the screen. "Violet, ah, how do you spell .... whatever it was you said."

"oo-ay-ay-oo-oo-ee-oo-ay-er-eye-oo-ay." She said, her mouth still full, and then laughed, a strange and interesting sensation that helped to fuel his erection.

"Right. I get it. No help from you." Kyroo tried to remember what she had said. Was it Quackquarteryuk, Kacumquatik, or maybe Cacaquartup? He started scrolling through the possibilities as she worked her tongue back and forth across his shaft and up and down with her lips. Most of the streets in Yellowknife had been named after the Scottish fur traders that had first built an outpost here, he supposed, but there were a few with Dene names. They were all multi-syllabic and most started with a 'C', a 'K' or a 'Q', however there were three that looked close. He programmed in the first one and put the engine in gear as soon as the voice from the GPS told him "Go straight and turn right in one hundred metres".

He wove through the streets of Yellowknife. It was not late and they were by no means deserted. He looked down at his lap when he had to stop for a traffic light and noted that Violet's head with its dark purple mohawk was almost invisible in the dark interior of the car. Just her bouncing white ears gave away the fact that he was getting some head. Kyroo turned the intensity of the dashboard lights down as far as they would go and kept well back from the crosswalks as he drove through the downtown core.

"A-a-ah!" Kyroo cried as they approached the first possible address. She had poked the tip of her tongue into the slit on the end of his cock and tried to suck the knob off at the same time. The result was a deliciously painful sensation like his cock was being turned inside out. A few repetitions of that made the veins stand out like they were carved onto his shaft, and his balls were making that familiar clutching motion that meant they were preparing the next load for delivery.

"Here we are!" He called as he pulled up in front of the first address. It looked like an office building but you never knew, there could be apartments on the upper floors.

Violet looked up and chuckled. "Nope." She went back to stroking and sucking on him as Kyroo punched in the next possibility.

They were off across town again, and now Violet was humming a merry tune as she deep throated his joint. He could feel the vibrations right down to the roots of his cock. She rocked her head back and forth and up and down in time to the music. Kyroo wished that his shorts were still pressing on the back of his balls, but unfortunately they were free as birds and being caressed by her paw, which did not help his attempts at resistance. Fortunately the second address was not too far away.

Kyroo's heart sank as he pulled up at the address he had entered. They were in front of the local Veteran's Legion Hall. He didn't even bother announcing it as he frantically pounded the third address into the GPS.

The route took them the rest of the way through downtown, past Kyroo's hotel and back toward Old Town. Now she was sucking and slurping and jerking him at an accelerated pace as she sensed his need to cum. Kyroo opened the window and let the cold air blast him. He thought of his Grandparents having sex. Then he tried to review his tax returns for the past three years. Nothing was working, and he clamped down desperately.

His voluntary muscles were fighting a losing battle against his involuntary ones and they were still more than a kilometre away. "Ot uch ime eft." She said from his lap. No, he agreed, not much time left.

"Bear left." The GPS instructed. Kyroo jerked the wheel and went into a skid on the slippery road, almost taking out a grizzly that was approaching on the driver's side. He controlled the skid and raced down the main road of the peninsula. He was going to lose, and Silver would skin him alive for blowing his chance to get closer to her.

Silver's perpetually disapproving face loomed in his mind, and that did the trick. His spooge froze mid-release. Blood flowed out of his extremities, including his penis, as fear of the FOX Chief of Staff replaced desire and lust. The young arctic fox went even paler under his white fur and Violet cursed as he went limp in her mouth.

"You have arrived at your destination." The GPS announced as Kyroo pulled over to the curb. He looked out the window and moaned. He should have known it; they were parked right across the street from the Bad Dog Cafe. Violet must live upstairs.

He felt movement at his groin and looked down to see Violet tucking his limp cock back into his jeans. She zipped him up and buckled his belt. Then she straightened out her clothes and grabbed her purse from under her seat. She put her paw on the handle and opened the door before turning back to Kyroo. "I'd say 'Coming?' but it looks like you aren't .... not at the moment. But if you follow me I think we can change that." And with that she stepped out, slammed the door behind her and strode towards a darkened doorway to one side of the club.

"You bitch." Kyroo mumbled, hurrying after her

* * * * * * * *

The evening was wearing on by the time that Murphy called Gorou on a pay phone to set up another meeting. The Aurora was out in strength and that meant that the tourists would be also; meeting at the viewing platform would not be an option. Gorou instructed him to come to the warehouse. Murphy did not like going there but his information was urgent so he would have to bear it.

Murphy parked far away and circled the block on foot before using the shadows to approach the side door. If what he suspected was true he could not be too careful. Someone had turned the outside security lights off and the big bear silently thanked them for that. But the security cameras must have had an infrared capability, because he could hear their little electric motors as they swivelled and zoomed to track his progress. As further proof of this, the lock on the door disengaged as soon as he reached it.

The interior of the warehouse was as dark as it was outside until Murphy closed the door. Then all the lights inside the windowless building came on at once, blinding him. He stood his ground even though the smell of blood and rotten meat was nauseating and waited for his eyes to adjust. When they did he involuntarily looked around at the pale objects piled up on the floor and hanging from the ceiling and shuddered. This place always gave him the creeps.

He spotted Gorou and his second-in-command the kitsuni standing in the middle of the warehouse floor and he walked over to join them. "Gorou, Smoothie." He greeted them with a nod.

They returned his greeting with the slightest of bows and tight little smiles, thinking that if Murphy could read Japanese body language he should have been very afraid. But even if he could they thought that he was too stupid to be scared when he should be, so they made no attempts to disguise their polite distain.

"You have something for us Mister Murphy?" The kitsuni asked.

Murphy pulled out his smart phone, pleased to see the two Yakuza tense up when he reached inside his coat. He opened the photo gallery, found the image he wanted and passed the phone to Smoothie. "Bad news." He said. "Looks like you guys really brought the heat down on you when you killed that cop."

Smoothie passed the phone to his oyabun. Gorou examined the picture on the screen. It was a still image from the airport security camera that covered the domestic arrivals gate and showed the Arctic fox calling itself Frank Peters walking beside a large grey wolf.

"Those two flew in from Ottawa together." Murphy told them' then paused. "Ask me how I know."

The corners of Gorou's mouth turned down. He did not like playing games, but he indulged the bear. "How do you know that they were travelling together?"

"The flight was full, but the manifest was missing two names. That means that their identities were suppressed. This wolf," he reached over the screen and pointed, "Zachary Ember, supposedly from the Justice department, was one of them. I'm betting the fox beside him was the other because no other arctic foxes were listed on the manifest."

"We only suppress identities for extreme security cases." He continued, "For religious leaders, heads of state, rock stars .... and spies, our spies. Now look at the next photo." The Japanese hare slid his digit across the screen and a photo that was obviously taken in a bathroom mirror of Murphy wearing a white lace bra and panties appeared. "Uh, the other way." Murphy suggested. Gorou swiped twice in the opposite direction and came upon another security camera frame, taken in the airport lobby this time. It showed the Arctic fox and the wolf talking to the tanuki from the Naicho. "This proves that they knew each other. Later that day the wolf and the racoon show up at my office asking questions about Inspector Brown and his investigation. But the next time this fox shows up at the airport he's getting on a plane to the mines under the name of Frank Peters, the name you asked me about."

Gorou was actually impressed; the bear had done his homework. "What do you make of all this?" He asked, aware that one can find wisdom in the strangest places.

"They are not from justice, or the RCMP." Murphy offered. "But they're not CSIS either. There are rumours of another agency though, a secret agency that has operatives with guns and the authority to use them. My guess is that only that kind of agency can get the concessions that were made for these two."

Gorou had to admit that the crooked customs officer had a point, but in his experience the Canadians were too straight laced and polite to have a real secret agency; they just did not have the political will. But the wolf and the fox were certainly working for some government body, and he intended to find out which, and how much they knew. "Do they know about the main cargo?"

"I don't see how they could." Murphy answered. "They haven't submitted a warrant for the entry or exit records yet. If they are the kind of agents I suspect they are dangerous, sure, but as long as they don't know what's really going down we can continue to operate safely I'm sure."

And now you reveal your stupidity, Gorou reflected, brought on by greed. The organization he had sworn himself to, the Yamaguchi-gumi, was larger than this one operation. It was an important source of revenue, yes, but there are other ports of entry with cooperative officials and other goods they could smuggle inside the main cargo to finance their movement and throw off the scent. If they packed up and left now the Canadian authorities would think that they had given up and abandoned the blood diamond scheme. They would never suspect that the real objective was to provide for a growing network of illegal sex slaves, or that the effort had merely relocated. Of course, he mused, looking at Murphy, all the loose ends will have to be tied up.

"When do you go on shift next?" He asked the bear.

"Not until next week. I thought it best to keep an open calendar, you know, just in case."

"Very wise." Gorou nodded to his lieutenant, who had been working his way around behind the corrupt customs officer, to where several sharp hooks hung from tackle made of thick ropes and steel pulleys. The lawyer Hayate 'Smoothie' Hashishita showed that he had not acquired his nickname in court but from the fluidity of his movement as he grabbed one of those hooks and neatly skewered the bear through the neck with it and danced away before the jets of blood could stain his suit.

Murphy clawed at his throat and crimson bubbles formed at his lips as he tried to scream but could only manage a low gurgling. Smoothie sauntered over to the wall where the hoists were controlled and hauled on the rope attached to Murphy's hook. That produced a scream as the bear's head came back and one hundred and forty kilograms of struggling fur and fat were lifted off the warehouse floor to hang suspended by the bones of its neck. Higher and higher he went, until he was up in the rafters with the morbid displays that bothered him so much.

His struggling slowly ceased as his brain, deprived of blood by the pierced arteries in his neck, was starved of oxygen. The scarlet shower raining down where he had been standing obliterated his footprints before it tapered off to a slow steady drip.

Smoothie returned to stand in front of Gorou, giving the puddle of blood a wide berth, and gave his leader a mid-depth bow. Gorou returned it to the same depth, as befitting one who has performed well.

"Your instructions, oyabun?" He asked in Japanese.

"Bring the white fox and the wolf here. We need to know what they know."

"Yes, oyabun, and the half-breed poodle too? Our spies in her club report that she has been very close to the Arctic fox lately."

Gorou waved a paw dismissively. "Leave her out of it." He caught a fleeting look of disappointment on the kitsuni's face and added with a reassuring smile. "Someone has to stay behind and take the heat."

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

Book VII - Rogue Sword

Book VIII - Firestorm

Kain Algorath © Marcus X Light

Joel Grigori © Joel the Lemur

Zachary Ember © EmberWolf

Kyroo Echos © Kyroo Echos

Violet © Gray Muzzle