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Chapter 10: Are they as straw before the wind, and like chaff which the storm carries away? - John 21:18

Silver had been by Marcel's side in the Academy Medical Centre since he had come in three days before, taking verbal updates from Vikki and issuing instructions as necessary. His absence from his Directorial duties was noted, particularly when it came to missing the Minister's weekly sessions with the heads of the various agencies, but he didn't care. In a couple of months his acting Director status would come to an end and his replacement would be in charge. The Minister had agreed to keep Silver on for only two weeks after that, to pass on whatever wisdom he could to the outsider taking his place before his medical discharge became effective. So Silver's 'Give-A-Fuck-Factor' was understandably low.

This day was different in that Doctor Jones had deemed it safe to bring the small black fox out of his induced coma. The first thing Marcel said when his eyes opened was, "Gee Silver, you look like shit."

Silver smiled. "I haven't been getting much sleep lately." In truth, between worrying about Marcel and trying to figure out Rasielle's plot Silver had not slept at all for three days.

"You remember anything about what happened in Washington?" He asked Marcel.

Marcel shuddered as the memories came flooding back. "Yeah. I do. Everything."

"Feel up to giving me a verbal summary?"

Marcel did, and with Doctor Jones' permission Silver led him though the events of that fateful day. Marcel left nothing out, including the Asset's statements about Silver and Vikki's perceived feelings for Marcel.

"Is that why it didn't kill me?" Marcel asked when he was done. "Because it has the same feelings for me as you or Vikki. Along with your physical attributes?"

"I don't know." Silver answered, honestly. "I'm going to have Doctor Gordon, the staff psychologist, go over those bits with you again when you're strong enough. I have what we need for now." He got to his feet, stretched and yawned. "You get some rest now."

"You look like you need rest more than I do."

"Probably, but word came in about the same time you were coming too that reports are coming in from other sources, so I called a meeting to go over everything. The rest of the senior staff are waiting for me in the conference room."

Silver turned to go.

"Say!" Marcel called, making Silver pause in the doorway. "How are Geno and the kits doing? She still away on assignment?"

"Geno is safe in India." Silver informed him, not seeing the need to alarm him with her near-death experience just yet. "Your kits are with your mother and Mrs. Brown at your place."

Marcel nodded, relief bringing fatigue back to the forefront. "I think I'll take a little nap now."

"You do that."

Silver walked briskly in the cool morning air back to the headquarters in order to clear his head. When he arrived, he went straight to the conference room where Vikki, Bill Hanlan and Kain Algorath were waiting for him.

"Agent Ebony is awake." He began, and then noted the look of relief on Vikki's face. Perhaps Marcel's speculation about the Asset sharing their emotions as well as their memories was not so far off the mark, he thought.

"Since the deaths of the American and British liaison agents this is now officially a tripartite effort, so we're recording everything to send over to the CIA and SIS." The rest took that as a hint to keep their comments professional and avoid personal remarks. "I'll start off with what Agent Ebony just told me."

Silver summarized the events leading up to the attack on the Red, White and Blue meeting, leaving out the Asset's comments about His and Vikki's feelings for now.

"So we can add this 'gravity bomb' and solar heat shielding to the mix of things that the Asset has stollen for Rasielle." He concluded. "What does that tell us?"

Bill Hanlan stroked his chin. "I used to teach high school science and geography, but I'm no expert on the sun. It seems to me that Agent Blue was right about the balance of forces at the surface though. I don't think it would take much to blow a big chunk off, but I have no idea how big."

"Chief of Staff," Silver said, turning to Vikki, "make a note to have the Americans send us the specs for that bomb. We need to know just how powerful it is." He swung back to face the others. "Who's next?"

Bill cleared his throat. "Geno reported in from India this morning. The head of the ISRO's Rocketry Division has been working for Rasielle on trajectory calculations on their space agency's computers. We can probably shame them into pulling the data off their system and sharing it with us. Algorath can hack in and get it himself but getting directly from them would be quicker. The asset himself, in this instance at least, also mentioned the sun, so together with what Mar- ... Agent Ebony, found out I think we can safely assume that Rasielle's plot involves doing something to the sun. There was also some valuable information about the Asset itself and its belief system."

"Agent Ebony noted signs of confusion and conflict in his encounter with the Asset.' Silver told them. "Have Doctor Gordon Interview her by phone as soon as possible so he can build a psych profile on the creature. Anything else?"

"She made an interesting comment about 'joining them underground' when he was going to impregnate her. She thinks he was refereeing to a physical location, some place literally underground."

"Hmmm. Has Draco or Henk Cobra checked in yet?"

"Yes." Vikki answered. "Draco reported that as suspected, a number of North Korean rocket scientists have relocated to the Caribbean coast of Mexico."

"What do the Korean's get out of the deal?" Kain interrupted.

Silver answered for Vikki. "Paws-on experience with the latest rocket tech, no doubt. Not only will it aid their nuclear program but like most authoritarian countries trying to prove their worth they will want to start a space program of their own too. It's the new gold standard for superpower-dom."

"Henk was also able to trace Rasielle's other clandestine purchases to Mexico." Vikki continued. "Meanwhile, the sub passed the point where it would have needed to turn north to go to India or Pakistan. It turned southwest to go around the Cape of Good Hope and enter the Atlantic."

"That makes sense." Bill Hanlan mused out loud.

"How so?"

Bill tapped on his keyboard and brought a map of the Atlantic Ocean up on the display board.

"This is the sub's projected course." He said as a dotted red line appeared between the tip of Africa and the Caribbean. "And this is the location where the floating launch platform sank." A red X appeared ahead of the dotted line near the Cayman Islands.

"Now this is Talum, on the east coast of Mexico," A green dot appeared across the water from the red X, "where there is an extensive cave network, over eight hundred kilometers long. It is believed they were created by the same asteroid impact that killed the dinosaurs. More importantly though, many of the caves are filled with water and some connect to the Caribbean Sea."

"Now," he continued as he zoomed in and added seabed shading to the image, "Between the cave entrances and where the launch platform went down is a deep ocean trench known as the Cayman Trough. If Rasielle sank the platform in there it can remain undetected until they need it for the launch. The sub can bring the rocket right into the caves for the North Koreans to prep it for launch then take it back out to sea to the platform. All Rasielle will need then is a couple of large commercial salvage vessels with cranes big enough to raise the rocket onto the platform and it off it goes!"

"And she and her followers remain underground while whatever she has planned for the sun happens." Vikki Observed.

"We can get Henk to see if Rasielle has chartered any ships like the ones Hanlan described and monitor the area for any sign of a launch." Silver said, "but we're still in the dark as to what exactly Rasielle intends to do to the sun and what her end game is. We need some expert input. Algorath, you're our tech wiz. As soon as we get all the data in on the gravity bomb and the proposed trajectory I'm sending you to visit the folks that know the most about the sun."

"Where's that?" Kain asked eagerly, thinking he might arrange a tryst with his secret girlfriend while out of town. "MIT? Cambridge? Zurich?"

Zurich would be easy for Ophelia, he thought, whose death Silver had faked so that she could assume the identity of the world's foremost assassin, the Perfect Stalker. Other than Silver Kain was the only one who knew what really happened to her, but they were forbidden to see each other on pain of real death for the cloud leopard who had mistakenly blamed Silver for the death of her father. Unfortunately for her she had killed several innocent people on her quest for revenge before discovering the truth, so she could never go back to her old life.

With his ability to obscure their electronic trail and her talent for disguise they were able to get together for up to a week at a time in remote locales, where they would proceeded to have more sex than the average newlyweds did in a year. The rest of the time they remained celibate, much to the chagrin of the single females at FOX, and a few males, who admired Kain's slim but solid build.

"No." Silver replied, breaking Kain's fantasy of a romp in some Alpen chalet. "You won't even have to leave town."

"Really?" Kain was puzzled as to who in Ottawa might be world leaders in solar astrophysics. "Are you talking about the University of Ottawa, or maybe the Canadian Space Agency?"

"Neither." Silver replied with a grin. "I'm sending you to Natural Resources Canada.

* * * * * * * *

Natural Resources Canada, or NRCan as most government folk referred to it, was an amalgamation of several science-based agencies and sub-ministries that had once been independent entities. It had formed much like a planet did ... by being stuck together bit by bit until they grew into Ministry status. But instead of gravity it was political force that welded them together. It now contained such diverse disciplines as Arctic studies, mapping, forestry, minerals, advanced materials, explosives, seismic monitoring and space weather. It had offices all over Canada, but its headquarters was located only a couple of blocks away from FOX headquarters. In fact, their seismic monitoring division was in an old castle-like building that shared space on the Central Experimental Farm with FOX. One of their sensors was located underground between that building and the old Dominion Observatory on the north edge of the farm because the National Capital Region was the second most active seismic area in Canada after the west coast. Its presence was why FOX agents could not train with explosives there, because it would disrupt the readings.

But where Silver sent Kain was a little farther out of town.

One of the science-based agencies that NRCan had assumed over the years was The Geological Survey of Canada. Among other more traditional mapping and charting sciences they also studied the geomagnetic properties of the earth. Their instruments had once been housed on the outskirts of Toronto, but the growth of Canada's largest city soon forced them to find quieter quarters, so the group was moved to a marshy, rural area on the east side of Ottawa. The land around it was designated as a federally protected area in order to prevent the same thing happening as Ottawa expanded.

The quiet, out of the way facility was a perfect place for another little-know agency, the Canadian Space Weather Forecasts Centre, also know as Space Weather Canada, especially since solar activity had the greatest influence on geomagnetism here on Earth. Space Weather Canada's job was to monitor and forecast solar activity as well as to be the centre of excellence for the impact of space weather effects on satellites, radio systems, electrical distribution and communications. The same solar events that gave us the Northern Lights could also destroy unprotected satellites, disrupt communications, remotely controlled command systems and plunge half the earth into darkness.

As such, some of the world's leading experts on the sun and solar activity worked in the nondescript group of buildings on the edge of the largest bog in Eastern Canada.

"Bring lots of mosquito repellant." Silver advised.

He had not been wrong. Kain could hear the little buggers hovering around his ears as soon as he got out of the ride share that dropped him off.

No one at the Academy, not even Bill Hanlan, could do a convincing job pretending to be a visiting scientist, or even an interested Grad student, so Kain's cover for the meeting with the Director of Space Weather was that of a technical services contractor. It was a subject he could hold his own in. Fortunately for him there was always a tender or two out for such services. Kain just had to break into the government's procurement software and tweak one of them to include the compound where Space Weather Canada was housed, then request a tour of the facilities to evaluate the extent of the work required in order to prepare a bid.

The Director had been surprised to find that his group was included in the scope of the project, more so because he had been asking for the system to be upgraded for several years and had been turned down each time. Still, as a scientist he found the ways and methods of his bureaucratic counterparts more mysterious than the celestial bodies he studied, so he did not call them up to complain about not being informed.

Kain had dressed the part of tech-savvy company rep; someone who knew all the specs and capabilities of the products if not the actual engineering behind them. He wore slacks and a suit jacket with a tie and good but comfortable shoes. The badger that greeted him at the outer door, however, was dressed in jeans an open plaid shirt and sandals.

"Doctor Bains?" Kain asked, a little unsure.

"Yes but call me Nigel. We're very informal here."

They may as well be, Kain thought, recalling that according to the Government Employee Directory everyone working here had the title 'Doctor' before their name.

"Able Kayotik." Kain introduced himself, producing a business card for a company maintained by FOX as a front for such operations.

"Ah, yes, cards." The badger said, searching his pockets. "I'm sure I have some around her somewhere. Anyhow," he said dropping his paws, "you're here to see needs replacing. Please, come in."

Kain noted that the building security consisted of a simple mechanical lock and keypad, with no sign of an alarm system or guards.

"Were you looking at upgrading the security system as part of the project?" He asked.

"Oh, no. There is always someone here monitoring the sun's activity, twenty-four and seven. If anyone suspicious wanders onto the property we just call the police. Hopefully they come before the mosquitoes carry the poor blighter away."

"Don't classified facilities need active monitoring and a quick response team?"

"I suppose they do, but this is not a classified facility. We just keep the doors locked for employee safety, and to prevent thieves from wandering off with the computer equipment; it's old but it would be expensive to replace, which is why you are here, right?"

"Director, I'm not going to steal your equipment!"

"No, you're here to see about replacing it."

"Right, of course."

"Yes. Anyhow, most of the stuff we need upgraded is in the monitoring room here."

The badger swept a door twice as wide as a normal one open and Kain was immediately stunned.

The room was filled with computer workstations and servers, along with dozens of monitors large and small, but it was dominated by the largest TV screen Kain had ever seen indoors. It was almost the size of the projection screen in a small theatre, but the image on it was not projected. It was not the size alone that caught his attention though, but the image displayed there. What it was showing was an apparently live image of the sun, five meters across and in all its fiery glory.

"I see you're stunned." Nigel said as Kain realized his mouth was hanging open. "I was too when I found out we were still using an old plasma screen display from twenty years ago. Cutting edge at the time, I suppose but technology has moved on a bit, hasn't it?"

Kain gathered his wits. "Uh, yes. It has. Impressive that screen that size so works so well though."

The badger sighed. "That has been our problem. If it works why replace it? The corporate management people never look past the current situation, never consider the risk of failure."

"Yes, risk. That is one of the factors in our evaluation." Kain improvised. "What would you say the risk of failure was for this particular item?"

"Well, we would be reduced to having to analyse the raw data by paw so there would be a considerable cost increase for the scientists we would have to hire until we find a replacement, and a delay in the warning system, of course."

"The warning system?"

"Yes." The Doctor took Kain's arm and pulled him closer to the screen, where a pair of other scientists were watching the sun and monitoring the flow of data on smaller monitors. "You see all those little explosions happing on the surface of the sun?"

"Yes. They look like eruptions."

"Those are what you call 'Solar Flares'. Solar flares occur in a power-law spectrum of magnitudes; an energy release of typically ten to the twentieth joules of energy suffices to produce a clearly observable event, while a major event can emit up to ten to the twenty-fifth joules. The mechanisms involved are still not well understood, and we cannot predict the flares, only report on those that occur. The radiation takes about two hours to reach earth and is relatively harmless to people because the earth's atmosphere protects us."

"They are occurring all the time all over the surface of the sun." He continued. "We're just looking at one side but it's happening on the other side too. They are typically very small, but where the magnetic forces are particularly active you can get a Coronal Mass Ejection, or CME. A CME is a significant release of plasma and accompanying magnetic field from the Sun's corona into the solar wind. Look, there's one now!"

Kain looked where the badger was pointing and saw a jet of flame arc out from the surface of the lower hemisphere, near the edge of the disc, then break off.

"Will that hit the earth?"

"No. Earth occupies a very small portion of the Sun's sky, less than an arc second. You see that red oval near the right edge, right on the sun's equator?"

"Yes."

"We've calculated the sun's rotation and the earth's orbit and the time it takes your average CME to reach Earth and determined that most events will miss us by a wide margin, but any CME of significant magnitude that occurs within that oval does have the potential to effect Earth's geomagnetic field."

"That's what causes the Northern Lights." Kain said, recalling the meeting at FOX headquarters.

"And the Southern ones." Nigel chuckled. "Both the Aurora Borealis and the Aurora Australis are caused by the particles blown by the solar winds interacting with the Earth's magnetic field. It helps to protect us from the solar radiation, which could kill most of the organisms on the surface if left unchecked. Still, a big enough CME can produce enough radiated material to destroy unprotected satellites and damage the DNA of the astronauts in the International Space Station. They can disrupt communications and remote-controlled command systems like the ones that control pipelines and dams, causing power outages, oil spills and floods."

"Normally no solar flare or mass ejection would be strong enough to do much more than damage unprotected electronics and start a hell of a light show." He continued. "We can measure them, though and if one big enough to cause damage occurs, we send a warning out."

"Could you get one big enough to, say, blow away Earth's atmosphere?"

"In theory, no, but we don't really know the sun's true limits. Some scientists postulate that such an event did occur millions of years ago, leading to one of the six mass extinction events. The odds of it happening again are infinitesimally small though."

Kain remembered a briefing he had attended on severe weather mitigation. The speaker had explained that while the chances of the eye of a force five hurricane hitting any particular point on the US coast in a given year was infinitesimally small, the odds of one hitting every point along the coast over a period of a few hundred years was a dead certainty. She had illustrated her point by superimposing the track of every storm of force three and above on a map of the continent in a time lapse going back to when hurricanes were first tracked over a hundred years ago. When it was done the entire Gulf and Atlantic coast had been covered by coloured lines.

"If such an event were to happen, though, how much warning would we have before it hit earth?"

"12-24 hours, depending on the size and speed. The bigger they are the slower they tend to move."

"Could an outside event, like a nuclear explosion, cause a destructive solar flare?"

"Such strange questions from a tech." The doctor mused, but he was intrigued enough to answer none the less.

"Nuclear explosions on the sun are nothing. It would be like throwing a single grain of rice at a locomotive to try to slow it down. Even a small solar flare releases millions of times the energy in the world's entire nuclear arsenal."

"I suppose that it's the enormity of the sun's gravitational pull that keeps it all in place."

Nigel was pleased that a salesperson should know so much about his specialty.

"Yes. That and its electromagnetic field. If either are disrupted the sun could collapse or throw off vast amounts of material."

"I suppose there is nothing that can have that sort of effect."

"Only time, and the depletion of the sun's fuel source."

"Not even a rogue planet?"

"The sun would eat it for breakfast and not so much as burp." The scientist in the badger was clearly enjoying educating the young arctic fox.

"How about a gravity bomb?"

"What? Like they used in world war two?"

"No, like a bomb designed to counter gravity."

"It should be called an anti-gravity bomb then."

"I suppose it should. Could one exist, you think?"

"Well, there are a lot of theories, but no one I know of is working on it in a practical sense. The problem is that while you might counter gravity the objects in the affected area would still have mass, so a large amount of force would still be needed to move them."

"The sun's fusion reactions produce a lot of force though."

"That is true, and a disruption of the sun's gravity near the surface could result in a CME."

"Could the scale of the disruption be controlled, say to blow off most of the earth's atmosphere but not all?"

Nigel looked up and scratched his chin in thought. "Hmmm ... there are far too many factors to calculate without a supercomputer running at least fifty petaflops on a Linux-based system. Your company does not happen to sell those, does it."

"No, I'm afraid that we don't." But I'm going to find out if anyone has bought or leased one recently, he added to himself.

"Well, without one there is no way to predict how much material would be ejected. The slightest error and every living thing on the planet except bacteria will die. It would set life on earth back three billion years."

That's probably longer than Rasielle's plan calls for, Kain thought to himself.

"How big of a CME would it take to do that?"

The badger pulled out an old scientific pocket calculator and tapped in a few numbers.

"Theoretically, but you would need twenty quadrillion kilograms of mass moving at over a thousand kilometres per second. That is fairly slow, compared to your usual CME, but it takes a lot of force to move that much mass."

"And you'd be able to calculate that with the equipment you have here and give sufficient warning?"

"Barring getting a supercomputer, with some new servers and a faster network structure we could provide about forty hours notice, sufficient to move the critical government functions to the old nuclear shelters, but that's about it."

"What could the rest of us do to protect ourselves?

The scientist snapped his calculator shut.

"Absolutely nothing."

* * * * * * * *

They completed the tour with Kain pretending to take notes about the IT requirements while he was really transmitting information back to the Ops Cen. When he was done, he asked if he could wait in the lobby away from the mosquitoes until his Uber arrived.

"I may take a while to get here, if you can get anyone to come out this far this time of day." The Director of Space Weather advised. "We're pretty far off the beaten path."

"That's okay. "I'm a five-star customer and I can work on the proposal while I wait."

"Suit yourself." With that the scientist left Kain alone in the small lobby.

Kain opened the app on his phone for tUber, a ride share group set up by couch potatoes to lazy to learn to drive. He preferred them because the cars were large and comfortable. He entered the details for the ride and was not surprised to hear the familiar 'ping' indicating a message as soon as he finished filling in the last field; as he had told the badger, he was a five-star rider and a good tipper so he expected his request to be taken up quickly.

He glanced at his phone to see who the driver was and when he or she was due to arrive. To his surprise the message said that his car was already waiting outside.

The doors were covered in reflective film to cut down the sunlight that fell directly on the entrance this time of day. Kain had to open them to see the short, paved drive and small parking lot. He peered out without letting the door close behind him in case the app was mistaken about the driver's location. To his surprise he saw a limo waiting on the asphalt with what looked like a black puma in a chauffer's uniform standing beside it.

It looked like a black puma, but Kain immediately knew that it wasn't. Dye could cover up her clouded grey fur and sunglasses could obscure her icy purple eyes, but Kain knew Ophelia Cassidy Sommer by the way she stood with one hip cocked and by the length and action of her tail. That tail, almost a prehensile limb in itself, had a personality all its own, and at the moment it was waving at him from over her shoulder as she leaned against the side of the long black car.

"Get in." She said with a grin, swinging around to open the rear door of the limo.

Kain did as he was told. He was a little shocked to see her here in Ottawa. Silver had forbidden her from contacting him so they usually met in secret in remote locations.

"What are you doing in Ottawa?" He asked as soon as she was in the driver's seat.

"Happened to be here for a job." She lied. Having taken the identity of the world's foremost assassin, the Perfect Stalker, after Silver had boiled the former alive in his garden pond she travelled the world eliminating criminal gang leaders and corrupt politicians for their rivals. Fortunately, there was always enough of this kind of work that she did not need to take any jobs targeting innocent or honourable victims.

But that was not why she was really there. When she wasn't reducing the number of bad people on the Earth for money she was FOX's ultimate weapon of last resort, a deniable resource impossible to trace back to the Agency, and one that would not be mourned should she ever fall in the line of duty. She was actually in Ottawa because Silver had put her on standby. He wanted her close by and ready for action should an opportunity to send her after Rasielle or the Asset appear.

Kain accepted her answer without asking for her to elaborate. He was not interested in her work as an assassin and was not supposed to know about her work for FOX. He was just worried about being seen together and that Silver would honour his promise to kill them both if they ever were.

"It's nice to see you, but you should not have come to pick me up. Just how did you pull that off, by the way?"

"I used some of the software you gave me for hacking into criminal enterprises to get into their system, then I just waited for your rider ID to come up. You never drive yourself anywhere so I knew I wouldn't have to wait long. I've been outside that lab waiting for you to call up a return ride for an hour. What's in there, anyway?"

"Nothing you need to worry about." Especially since it will do you no good to worry, he thought ruefully, just like the rest of us if Rasielle succeeds.

"Need to know, got it."

"Cas, we shouldn't be meeting here so close to Silver, not with all the watchers our agency has on the streets. Then there's the Counter-Intelligence guys from the rival agencies. They would love to catch an employee of FOX in a compromising position."

"Is that what you had in mind for later?" she grinned over her shoulder. "A compromising position? I'd better loosen up first."

"Seriously though, we can't afford to be seen. We can't go back to my suite at FOX and my family is using the manse in Kanata this summer. The hotels and motels around Ottawa are too risky also."

"Oh, don't worry about where, just worry about recovering in time to go back to work."

Kain had noticed that instead of heading toward the city centre Ophelia had turned south and then east, onto a dead-end road that ended at the start of the Mer Blue Bog hiking trails. Surely she wasn't thinking of parking such a conspicuous car there for a quick session in the back with him? If the cops came along and caught them they would be in three kinds of trouble.

Before they reached the end of the road they came to a turn off with a discrete company sign. Kain could see several shipping containers through the trees as they passed some small industrial facility. The lane looked like it would loop back onto the dead-end road but Ophelia turned onto a lane so overgrown that the branches of the trees and bushes scrapped the top and sides of the limo as she squeezed it through.

They arrived in a sandy clearing with a tall communications tower in the center. The tower was surrounded by shipping containers that were parked and stacked close together. Ophelia drove straight for one of the containers.

At the last second the front end on the box swung up revealing a clean white interior. As soon as the Limo was inside the end swung shut and powerful lights came on inside.

"Cool." Kain noted that the container was barely wide enough for the car. There was no way they could open the doors inside it. He slid over on the seat, expecting her to crawl over the driver's seat to join him.

"No, no." She laughed. "Even though it might be fun we're not teenagers anymore. Follow me!"

She slithered though the sunroof, slid down the windshield and across the hood. Kain followed easily. Once they were on the floor of the container she grabbed him and planted a huge kiss on his lips, one that lasted for a good minute.

"I've been wanting to do that since I saw you. Come on." She said taking his paw. "I'll give you the grand tour."

There was a secure door at the end of the garage container, the kind with bars that engage and a seal to keep all electronic and physical noise inside. It opened onto another container that was set up like an operations center.

"That factory we passed makes mobile Secure Compartmented Information Facilities." She said as they passed the ranks of computers and screens. "I've commissioned several of them and placed them around the world for when I need a safe working base as the Perfect Stalker. The back half of this one is my armoury."

She opened several cupboards to reveal a wide array of weapons that were in no way legal in Canada.

"Living quarters are through here."

The next container was on a ninety-degree angle the first two and the first room in it was obviously a living room/dining room/kitchen combo.

"Most of the appliances run on propane. I got them from an RV supply company. Solar panels on the roof keep the batteries that run the lights and computers charged. This is the bathroom." She said as they entered a small room with a walk-in shower, a small sink and a toilet. "again, all standard RV fittings, but the next room I decorated myself."

She opened a regular door and Kain found himself in a bedroom that was dominated by a king-sized bed that filled most of the room. Before he could comment she pushed him hard from behind and he fell down onto the middle of the big square mattress. He was expecting to sink in a bit, as Ophelia loved thick feather mattress covers, but was surprised again when he almost bounced back out before settling down with a gentle rocking motion.

"No way! A waterbed! Who uses waterbeds these days?"

"They're making a comeback." She said as she pounced on top of him. "They are more durable and puncture proof than ever before."

"Good thing." He said, noting that her claws were out as she began to pull at his clothing.

"Besides, you know what they say about waterbeds ... push once, get three free. It's the next best thing to fucking on a trampoline, but that would be too dangerous in a confined space like this."

"Do all your SCIFs have water beds?"

"Naw. I put this one in just for you."

She had him down to his boxers and removed them with a flourish, not surprised at all to find him already partially erect. She giggled and fell back on the bouncy bed.

Taking his cue Kain got to his knees and began to strip her also. He found that she was wearing nothing but blood-red lace panties and a bra under the black Chauffer's uniform.

"Sexy." He said licking his lips in anticipation. "I like the new fur colour too, but isn't it cultural anticipation?"

"Hey, it's not like I'm showing it off on EweTube."

"With this look you could be on OnlyFawns."

She giggled. "Who says I'm not?"

Kain decided not to ask. Instead, he concentrated on removing her bra and panties with as much paw-to-body contact as possible. That involved sliding his palms the whole length of her legs and under the delicate lace then reversing course with his thumbs hooked around the red silk ribbon that held them together. Then he drove his knees down of the bed and flipped her over when the return wave lifted her up into the air. Just as with the panties he began at her feet and worked his way up and down to relieve her of her bra.

"Mmmmm ... you've got such soft paws from working on a keyboard all day."

"And you are amazingly soft all over considering how much lean muscle tissue you have."

"Stick to the paw work, lover, and leave the repartee to the real spies."

Kain mumbled something she could not make out but by then he was massaging her thighs, letting his digits brush gently against her warming vulva with each pass. She stayed face down on the slowly rolling waterbed and enjoyed it.

Kain knew every muscle and tendon in her body, just like she knew his. He could tell that she had been injured lately as the damaged muscles were still stiff and hard. He used his strong digits to work away the stiffness, returning the bunched bundles to their proper configuration. He also pulled and tweaked the tendons and sinews, stretching those that were contracted and firming up those that were loose. All the while though his paws kept drifting back to those places on her body that responded to his touch with moist heat and blood-infused tissue. She must have enjoyed it because even her over-active tail was stretched out with just the tip waving slowly back and forth.

He continued to massage her, moving from her legs to her lower back and then her shoulders as he inched forward on his knees, gently nudging her legs apart as he went.

By the time he had loosened the knots in her neck his knees were up against the tops of her thighs and her legs had spread wide to accommodate them. Looking down he could see the firm globes of her ass and the split mound of her sex a little farther down between then. Ophelia was one of those women whose vagina could be seen from behind more so than from the front. She claimed that sex from behind was more enjoyable for her because of that, although she had no trouble achieving orgasm from the front, while on top or upside down. And while Kain appreciated the intimacy of face-to-face coupling he had to admit that nothing turned him on like the sight of his cock sliding in and out of a cunt framed by a tight ass.

He continued to massage her, slipping his paws between her and the smooth satin sheets that covered the water mattress. He rubbed them around and under her large, full breasts, feeling the nipples harden against his palms. He leaned over her as he went, sliding his knees back until his hips were against her butt, his stiff cock nestled between them.

He began to rock slowly back and forth, picking up the rhythm of the water moving beneath them. His cock slid between the cheeks of her ass, excited by the warmth of her silky fur. He toyed with the idea of going straight for her tailhole, but the tension he had felt through her skin earlier made him opt for a less drastic approach.

Easing his hips back a bit more he was able to angle his cock down and when he moved forward again it slipped between her gaping vulva and the satin sheets, which were already damp from her excitement. His cock was dripping clear lubricating fluid too in anticipation and as he drew it back and forth between the two his cock became as hot and as wet as the cunt that was massaging it. When it was slick with their combined juices and aching with expectation he pulled back, lifted her hips with a paw on her pelvis and slit it into the warm, wet and welcoming gap.

Ophelia gasped as his rod sank into her. She was wet and ready but the sensation of his thick prick moving inexorably deeper sent a bolt of electricity though her all the same. She was almost disappointed when she felt his balls against her pubes and he could go no deeper, but the feeling when he pulled it out was almost as good.

Laying on top of her, with the waterbed absorbing both their weight, Kain was able to thrust and caress at the same time. His paws were firm, but smooth on her torso, and his thrusts were long and slow. When he pressed down they displaced water, which then rebounded off the edges of the bed, lifting her up to meet him on the next plunge and easing them down as the pressure increased.

As she had said, it took hardly any effort to keep the stoking motion going, and Kain was able to maintain the pace for a dozen minutes before either of them showed signs of approaching climax.

Ophelia was first. She was breathing harder and using the muscles inside her twat to squeeze his cock as it moved inside her. That made it harder for him to ignore his own rising excitement, but he fought to keep the pace and hold it off.

Her hips were rising under him as she moved one of her paws between her legs to rub her clit. Kain took some of his weight on his forearms and squeezed her between them as the new angle forced him to increase his speed. To compensate he ended each thrust with a flick of his hips so that his pelvis squashed her digits down on her clit, stimulating her all the more.

He wasn't sure which one of them came first, if either. All he felt was a sudden wave of warmth around his cock after one last squeeze and an almost painful sensation at the base as a huge wad of spooge forced its way through the tight gates of her twat and though his cock.

For her part, Ophelia remembered squeezing and screaming as her insides turned to molten lava while his cock throbbed and shot inside her.

After a few moments of pressing his hips hard against her until the last shots had fired Kain began his stroke again. The movement brought her several smaller orgasms, which made her clamp down around his moving member. Not only did it feel warm, but the sensation of having the last bits of cum squeezed out of the slowly deflating tube made his balls twitch because now they were firing on empty.

When she finally stopped cumming Ophelia relaxed her hips, lowering the two of them back into the welcome warmth of the waterbed. Kain rested his head between her shoulders and hugged her again. His cock remained inside her, softer now but still heavy and swollen from the extra blood in its veins. He wondered if it would get hard again if he left it there, and wished that he could leave it in her forever.

Ophelia enjoyed the feel of it inside her too, but she knew that their time together was limited.

"Hmmm ... a little less energetic than our usual reunion sex." She murmured beneath him.

"Is that a complaint?"

"No. It's nice to take it slow and easy sometimes, especially since I don't know when or if I'll be able to see you again before leaving town."

"Hummm, there is that. I'm afraid that Silver and Vikki will be expecting me back at FOX soon to discuss the data I sent them."

"Then we better get you cleaned up." She said as she rolled out from under him.

Kain was sad that they could not have another, more athletic session in the big waterbed, but Ophelia compensated by joining him in the shower stall and proving just how lithe a cloud leopard could be.

"I don't know how we did that without breaking the shower." Kain marvelled as they towelled off and got dressed.

"I had it reinforced like a handicap stall in anticipation of sharing it with you one day."

Back in her Chauffeur uniform, Ophelia led him out of her container complex and into the limo. She backed out of the garage container and pointed the car back to the city centre.

They were quiet on the drive, neither speaking until they were just a few minutes away from the Central Experimental Farm where FOX Headquarters was hidden.

"Where do you want me to drop you?" she asked.

Kain thought for a moment, about their future as fugitive lovers and the possibly very limited future of all life on the planet.

"How about the pharmacy on Carling?" he answered. "I'm running short on sunscreen and it's shaping up to be a long hot summer."

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

Natasha Winters © EmberWolf

Violet © Gray Muzzle

Saira Rasielle © SilentRampancy

Carlos © Carlos the Penguin

Dante Draco © Dante Draco

Henk and Dunya © Henk Cobra

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

Book IX - Diamonds in the Rough

Book X - Agents Lounge

FOX Flashback Novels:

Scarlet Necklace

The Finland Express

Other FOX tales:

Accounts Payable

A gambler's Share

An Opus for a Penguin

Casino Naja

Daffodils

Deep Thunder

Fear

Hard at Work

It's a Wonderful Furry Life

La Vie en Rose

Life of the Party

Not a Bed of Roses

Rest Stop

The Dead of Night

The Mark of Cain

The Volunteer

When Worlds Collide (a FOX/MLP crossover)