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Chapter 13: For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. - Hosea 8:7

"Get out of the way!" Kyroo screamed as a large circular chunk of steel and concrete hurtled towards them. The four agents scattered, and just in time as whatever it was that had been blown free of the cavern ceiling landed on the edge of the underground lagoon right where they had been standing.

"What the fuck was that?" Violet asked as Kyroo stepped up and examined the object.

"It's the lid from the shaft leading to the surface." He declared as explosions continued to go off deeper in the caves. "Rasielle probably had the whole roof rigged to blow. Maybe the vibrations from the other explosions set this one off a bit early."

"This is our opportunity!" Zac cried excitedly.

"Whadda you mean?" Violet said, pointing at the spot of blue far above them. "There is no way we can get up to that hole."

"We can't, but the transmitter can. The air in the cavern will rise up and out the hole like a chimney. All we need to do if get the balloon close to directly under it and air currents will do the rest."

Although they were still doomed the possibility of snatching a victory for their mission raised their spirits and they got the data transferred and the balloon inflated in mere seconds. Natasha let it go and they watched as it rose up toward the opening, drifting closer as Zac had predicted.

To their surprise they saw something coming down at the same time ... fast. They had to jump aside again as a large bundle splashed into water close to shore. Before they could examine it, a scream made them look up again. This time it was a living being, hurdling straight down towards the water.

Before she hit the agents could make out two things, one was that the jumper was Ruth Pawstone, who was supposed to be in Belize about this time. The other was that she had some sort of rope tied around her ankles.

As they watched in shock the rope went taut, then it began to stretch and slow her descent. Just as Ruth's digits touched the surface of the water she sprung back into the air. When she came down again the next time her paws didn't quite touch the surface. On the third descent she cut the bungee just before it sprang back and fell a few feet into the azure lagoon.

Zac and Kyroo sprang to retrieve her.

She was sputtering a bit, but none the worse for her dip when they got her to shore. The explosions were getting dangerously close now.

"No time to explain." She gasped as she shook the two off and grabbed the bundle she had thrown down first. "I've got scuba gear here. Do you all know how to use it?"

They confirmed that they did; diving was standard FOX training, along with mountaineering, skiing, hang gliding and knitting.

"You never know when you'll stuck in a frozen cabin in Finland with nothing but a couple of sticks of kindling and a few feral sheep to keep you warm." Silver had lectured them as they fumbled with the needles their first day. "A well-knit sweater and woolen underwear can be the difference between life and death."

Without further ado they pulled colourful diving masks and tanks and flippers out of the bag and started pulling them on. Ruth did likewise. There was no time for buddy checks so once their masks were sealed and the regulators opened they hit the water and swam for their lives.

They were just in time. They had just reached the far end of the lagoon and were diving for the submersed tunnel when there was a horrendous 'BOOM' and the ceiling Ruth had dropped from fell in a million chunks behind them, some as large as a bus. The shock wave drove them along the tunnel, and they had to concentrate on keeping in the center so the rough walls didn't tear the tanks or the flesh from them. When it subsided they were mostly unscathed, and they were able to signal their status to each other before continuing down the long underwater tube.

It got very dark after a while, but never completely black. Eventually the faint glow ahead of them became lighter and then they could see the blue waters of the Caribbean stretching out before them. As soon as they could they surfaced.

"Ruth." Zac gasped as he spit the regulator out. "First, thank you. Second, what the fuck?"

Ruth shrugged. Her large breasts were making it easy for her to float in the salty water.

"Something in your Dudley Do-Right attitude made me feel bad about running off while you guys saved the world. I had my doubts about your ability to survive so I had Marco and Tex put me down in a resort nearby. I, uh, liberated the bungee and a jeep that turned out to be full of scuba gear then high-tailed it over in a to see if I could help out. I was going to try dropping the bungee to you so you could climb out but the explosions were collapsing all the shafts were getting closer so I opted for the water exit."

"How did you know how long to make the bungee?" Violet asked eagerly.

"I guessed. My people don't have much experience with these things, but I've been to a sun dance or two and know a bit about ropes."

Zac interrupted. "Did you see if our balloon made it out before the roof collapsed?"

"Yeah, it went out as I was going in. The transmitter was still attached. Your message made it out."

The four let out a cheer, splashing the water and each other in celebration for a few moments before calming down again.

Violet turned to Zac. "Now what?"

"Now we activate the search and rescue beacons. The Canadian Navy has had a Helicopter Frigate on Humanitarian duty off Haiti for the last two months. They were scheduled to make a port call in Cancun tonight for a replenishment and a little R&R. That should put them just over the horizon about now."

He looked around and noted that the beach was only a few hundred meters away.

"I suggest we head for the beach to wait for them. Maybe start a signal fire. Some of us are wounded and I don't want to stay in the water where the blood can attract sharks."

As they swam for shore Ruth came up beside Zac.

"Do you think that they'll be able to stop that rocket before it launches?" She asked.

"Why?" He laughed. "You got plans?"

"Just a date with a jackrabbit."

"I wouldn't worry. The American and the British navies have a permanent presence down here." He assured her. "Now that they know that their stuff is on a stollen Chinese rocket they'll have surveillance aircraft up twenty-four and seven and they'll sink that sub as soon as it surfaces, if not before. Meanwhile," he added as he rolled over and backstroked his way to the beach, "let's get another balloon ready, Natasha. FOX could probably use some good news by now."

"Sure boss," she said punching him on the shoulder as they swam, "as soon as you explain that kiss you got from Violet earlier."

"Oh, boy."

* * * * * * * * *

Back in Ottawa there had been nothing to do but wait. When a soldier is waiting they clean their weapons, check their gear, and sleep, usually in that order. When commanders, staff and planners have to wait they make contingency plans, monitor the intelligence coming in that could affect the operation and sleep, if they have time.

Silver and Vikki had very little sleep between picking the team to go after Rasielle and the actual insertion. They had been too busy running scenarios with Bill Hanlan and Kain Algorath. Some of the options they considered included: what to do if the team was double-crossed by Ruth Pawstone or her associates, what to do if they were intercepted by American or Mexican authorities, what to do if one or more was hurt in the landing zone, and what to do if the team went in okay but was never heard from again.

Once the team reported that they were all on the ground safe and going in all the FOX Headquarters staff could do was wait and monitor the area.

They had not caught the submarine going in, but the sensors in the area caught it coming out, probably because it was moving too fast to be stealthy. The reason for its hasty departure was evident as sound and vibration sensors began to pick up evidence of underground explosions both large and small in the vicinity of Rasielle's lair.

Things were getting very tense when live satellite feeds showed the caverns collapsing around the shafts that the team were supposed to use for their escape, especially since there had been no transmissions from them as yet. The atmosphere grew even more grim when they picked up a rocket launch from an unknown shaft.

"Could that be the Chinese rocket?" Vikki asked.

"No." Bill Hanlan replied as he read the data the sensors were collecting. "It's much too small and the trajectory is sub-orbital. It looks like it is going to come down in the jungle near the border with Belize. There is a lot of drug trafficking and illegal logging going on there. My guess is that Rasielle, her asset or both have fled the lair."

"Not the Asset." Silver said, his voice deep and certain. "Rasielle wouldn't waste the Asset babysitting the North Koreans. If it's an escape pod then Rasielle is in it and the explosions we're picking up are the destruction of her breeding facility. We have to assume that she had a backup plan, somewhere else out of the way. Algorath, do you have that list of other likely cave systems I asked for?"

"Yes, Silver. Right here. The most likely options are at the top of the list." Kain had ranked the likely candidates by size, isolation, suitability, accessibility and integrity of the local government.

Silver glanced at the list. It was longer than he would have liked it to be. "If Rasielle thinks that her rocket still has a chance of getting away from Earth she will head straight to her alternate hideout. I want every agent we have and every contact watching for suspicious movement to and around these areas, focusing on the top ten."

"And search backwards for any members of the cult she was recruiting from," Vikki added, "as well as similar bio-medical orders outside of North America. Both would have to have moved into or close to the backup base by now."

Silver nodded to Hanlan. It was good thinking on Vikki's part.

Just then they were interrupted by a cry from one of the junior analysts on Hanlan's staff.

"A transmission is coming in from the team!" she cried.

Everyone gathered behind the chipmunk that had caught the communication. They waited silently for her to decipher the transmission.

"They have pictures of the Sub with the rocket." She said as she decompressed the files. "There are also pictures of crates with American and British markings."

"The gravity bomb and the heat deflectors." Kain announced, recognizing the containers. "This is more than enough evidence to get the Allies involved."

There was a cheer from the assembled analysts, but Vikki killed their mood with one question.

"Did the team make it out?" She asked the young chipmunk

"N- ... no." she answered. "The audio portion of the report indicates that as the Director suspected, the Asset was not there and Rasielle escaped in a rocket. As of transmission time the team were all alive but trapped in the cavern with the underground lagoon. It says they will try to survive the collapse of the caverns by swimming to the entrance of the tunnel to the sea and hope that there were no explosives set to collapse it too." She said, turning to Vikki with a tear in her eye.

"What's the status on those caverns?" Vikki snapped. "How much is left intact?"

The analysts returned to their stations and checked their sources.

"The entire lagoon cavern has collapsed." One of them reported. "Given the interval between their transmission and the collapse they should have had time to swim to the tunnel ... but ..."

"But what?"

"A large portion of the land above that end of the cavern has come down. It's created a slope of rocky debris covering what was the entrance to the tunnel."

"Meaning?"

"If they stopped just inside to wait out the explosions, they are probably under several hundred tons of rock. If they went farther in their way back to the lagoon is blocked." He paused. "It's almost a kilometre to the open sea from there."

Everyone was quiet. They knew from the mission brief that it would take twenty to forty minutes to swim through the underground tunnel. Many glanced at the clock and calculated the time since the collapse and the average length of time an agent could hold their breath. Twice that amount of time had passed.

Silver spoke to bring everyone back on task. "Get that data to our allies, now." He ordered. "Divert the Canadian Frigate we have in the area to the other end of the tunnel. Have them prepare ships divers for a recovery mission." He added somberly.

Most of the staff busied themselves getting the word out to the FOX agents around the world, the allies and any contacts that might conceivably have some information that might prove useful. Silver glanced at his watch, an old heavy analog model that told the time, date, phase of the moon and could be used as a knuckleduster in a pinch. About thirty minutes had passed since the collapse.

"Sir!" the chipmunk who had been assigned to monitor the frequency the team was using cried out. "I'm getting a second transmission ... an update!"

Her news was greeted by an excited buzz. An update meant that someone was alive and had found a way to get a balloon up to the surface, perhaps themselves too.

"They are all alive!" the chipmunk chittered excitedly. "All four of the team, plus one, are making for a beach near the tunnel exit."

Vikki frowned. "Plus one?"

"Agent Embers reports that a rabbit of your acquaintance has come to their rescue."

"Well, I'll be damned."

The news was met with cheering again, louder this time. Vikki let it go on for a few moments before reminding them that they still had jobs to do to exploit the information the team had almost died acquiring. Everyone returned to work with their spirits lifted, determined to do their best to finish what the agents had started.

Vikki turned to the operator in contact with the Navy. "You can change the orders to the frigate to a rescue mission." She said with a smile. Then she glanced at Silver for approval and was surprised to see that he was frowning.

By silent understanding the two retired to a quiet corner of the Operations Centre.

"Darling," Vikki said with concern, "what's wrong?"

"I keep thinking of my counter-insurgency studies." The older fox said, his brow deeply furrowed. "One of the things I learned from studying numerous campaigns is that you are at your most vulnerable when you think you've won."

"We've made preparations for every contingency." Vikki assured him. "Maybe the Asset won't even come. Rasielle must need it more than ever if she's on the run."

"You don't know her like I do." Silver asserted. "We've taken something from her ... twice. She'll want to take something from us."

"I'm not underestimating her." Vikki insisted. "She almost killed you. That puts her on a very short list with the Werewolf, Bloedrye, that Saluki Sweet Tooth and only a couple of others. You're an expert in spotting weakness in your opponents, and you've taught me well. I think we'll be okay."

"I'm just saying, expect the unexpected."

Just then the chipmunk, who was one of the brighter junior analysts, got up from her station and approached the two executives. Vikki gave her credit for her boldness as well as her insight when the young analyst asked, "Sir, ma'am, if the asset wasn't in the caves and not with the rocket, then where is it?"

Vikki looked to Silver to answer.

"Probably closer than you think." He told her. "Much closer."

Vikki took Silver but the arm. "We should go check on Leslie. We haven't seen him in a while."

"Sure." Silver agreed. "We're not needed here for now. Let's return these Special Access files on the way."

With the Asset popping up everywhere wreaking havoc Silver and Vikki had put their son Leslie under the care of the former agent Missus Brown. She was keeping the FOX daycare centre open around the clock to care for the children of the agents and analysts involved in the ongoing operation. It was safer and allowed them to visit their kit whenever they had a few minutes free. Those opportunities had been few and far between lately.

They stopped by the briefing room, where the files they had taken from the Special Access Facility were being kept temporarily. Thy gathered them up in a secure briefcase and headed to the secret entrance in the Executive washroom.

Silver went through the ritual of passwords, biometric checks and hidden doors until the last one opened on the Special Access Facility.

Silver froze as soon as the door opened. "Something's wrong." He said. His Glock had magically appeared in his right paw.

"The lights are on." Vikki said, flicking a switch that removed the safety limits from her bionic arm. "They were always off before."

"Because Melissa doesn't need them." Silver concluded. He moved to the left and indicated that Vikki should go to the right. Together they moved around the desk where Melissa signed out documents for reading and then covered each other as they checked the rows of armoured cabinets that the files were normally kept in.

In the last aisle they saw the crumpled body of the female mole. Seeing no trace of her assailant they rushed to her side and gently turned her over.

She was battered, bruised and bleeding, but she was still alive, barely. Silver began to bind her wounds while Vikki ran to the phone to call the hospital and the operations centre.

While Silver tightened a tourniquet to stop the bleeding in a deep arm wound Molissa's other paw reached out to feel his face.

"Sssilver." She hissed through clenched teeth.

"Yes, Molissa, it's me. Do you know who did this to you?"

"Yesss ... oucch ... you did."

"Me?"

"No. Not really you, but he sounded like you, enough that when he met me on my way back from my weekly Bridge game I let him follow me in. I'm sorry, Silver, but he passed all the biometric checks."

"Don't blame yourself, Molissa, this is a special case. What happened after you came in?"

"He wanted the files you already had signed out. That was my first clue that he was an imposter. When I told him that the Chief of Staff had them in the Ops Cen he was angry, which was my second clue. You never show your anger, dear, no matter how upset you really are."

Silver grinned as he neatened up the bandages. "How do you know when I'm angry?"

"By smell." She replied, tapping her star-shaped nose. "I can tell when you're angry, or afraid like now."

Silver let that one pass but had to admit that the fact that the Asset had infiltrated the holy of holies did scare him a bit. If the Asset could get in here it could get anywhere ... including the daycare centre.

"Why did he do this to you?" He asked Molissa, more to distract himself from his thoughts.

"After finding out that the current files were signed out, he asked for Sir Wilbur's old files, the ones he brought here after the war, the ones dealing with the Nazi genetics program. He came so close that I could smell ... others ... different people ... on him, coming from him. I told him that he could have the files ... if he could find them. He dragged me back here and when he realized that everything is in Braille, well, he sort of lost it."

Vikki reappeared at that point. "Ops has been alerted and is sending a security detail and Doctor Jones is on the way with a medical team. I'm going to disable the defences and open the doors for them."

"As soon as they're here we need to go to check on Leslie."

Vikki's mouth drooped open in shock. "Do you think ...?"

"It's possible." Silver hesitated. "It's what I would do if I wanted to pressure and confuse the opposition. But then, I'm a cold, bloodless bastard."

Vikki stared hard at him before nodding. "It gets the best and the worst of us, and some of the donors to its makeup are even more ruthless than you. Do you think it knows what I'm going to do to it once I get my paws on it?"

"Maybe. The profile Doctor Gordon worked up indicates that the arrogance of all the male agents in its mix will likely overwhelm the compassion or other passionate traits your DNA contributes to the overall matrix, but somewhere deep inside it has all your nicer traits."

"Compassion is the least of its worries. Compression is more what I was thinking of." She said, clenching her mechanical paw hard enough to split the artificial fur covering it.

The security team, lead by 'Rusty' Nayles and Doctor Jones with his medics arrived at the same time.

"Secure this area." Silver ordered. "No one, not even me or the Chief of staff, gets in until the Ops Cen gives the all-clear. And Doc," he turned to the albino wallaby, "take good care of her."

"Like I wouldn't." Jones said as he kneeled by the damaged mole.

"Love you too Doc, but we have to go." Silver jumped up and he and Vikki ran towards the exit.

"Take care Boss." Rusty called after them.

Silver and Vikki locked up their documents in a safe before heading out to the Academy Daycare Centre. When they arrived Missus Brown looked surprised to see them.

"Back so soon, Director? Did Leslie forget his jacket again?"

Vikki pushed past Silver to confront the retired agent. "Are you saying that someone has already picked up our son?"

Missus Brown looked confused, probably for the first time in her life. "Well, yes ... he did." She insisted, pointing at Silver.

Silver pulled his increasingly distraught mate back. "When did I pick up Leslie?"

Brown blinked. "Five minutes ago."

"Did I say where I was taking him?"

"Not to me, no, but as you were leaving you said to Leslie 'Let's go have some fun'. But ... Silver ... it wasn't you, was it?"

"No Missus Brown, it wasn't."

Her expression changed from confusion to cold anger in an instant. "You're going to go get him?"

Silver nodded.

"I have to stay here and watch over the other children, but when you find him, you bring what's left of him here to me. I'll make sure the bastard never touches another child again."

"It's not your fault Brown. This ... guy ... has fooled a lot of people, including Leslie. We have to go now, but don't let anyone in here until the Ops Cen sounds the all-clear." He pointed to himself and Vikki. "Not even us, got it?"

"Got it, Chief."

"No," he said as he turned to go, "she's the Chief now." He pointed at Vikki. "I'm just a placeholder on my way out."

Outside Vikki stopped Silver. "What do we do now? Where do we look first?"

"Nowhere." He answered. "The Asset will let us know where they are. They won't have gone far."

"How can you be so certain?"

"Because it has the arrogance of a dozen male super agents, tempered by only one female with good judgement." He said, cupping her muzzle with his paw. "It was probably ordered to take Leslie to secure our DNA, Rasielle has always wanted mine and she probably couldn't resist yours either, but with all that ego swirling around it couldn't resist a final confrontation between it and the best agents still living."

"And that would be you?"

"I'm not the best, not anymore, but I'm the last gunslinger in these here parts and it won't be satisfied until it proves that it's better than me."

"I can't just stand here and wait!"

Just then both their watches began to vibrate and wail. It was an internal alarm that indicated a breach of one of the FOX buildings in the Central Experimental Farm.

Vikki with her younger reflexes brought her arm up first and expanded the alarm.

"It's the shooting range." She said.

"Of course." Silver said with a weary shake of his head. "That's where most of the agents in its makeup felt the most comfortable, given that we don't have an Austin Martin or any seductive females hanging around." He looked at Vikki as they set off in a jog towards the range. "Present company excepted."

"You can joke AFTER we get our son back."

"Noted." He said briefly, busy sending instructions to the Operations Centre as they ran.

The FOX combat range was in an old red barn on the edge of the Agricultural Museum beside the botanical gardens. It looked just like any of the other farm buildings in the only government-run urban farm in the world, but any tourist accidentally wandering up to it would be turned away, politely but forcibly, by the largest Rottweiler they had ever seen.

The range could be set up in many configurations. It could resemble the streets of Mogadishu one day or the souk of Tangiers the next. Animatronic inhabitants could be friendly, neutral or hostile, and their weapons could be equipped with blanks, paint balls or live ammunition. All of this was controlled from a gondola overlooking the range, although after being taken over by an intruder it could be over-ridden by members of the FOX Executive staff.

There were two regular entrances to the range, one in the front and one in the back. After the breach several years before they had added a trap door in the roof. Leading up to it were boards placed so as to protrude just enough for an experienced climber to scale the side of the building. All the Agents were good enough to make the climb, and students had to do so in order to get in the range as part of their graduation live fire and obstacle course.

It had been put in after Silver and Vikki's DNA had been stolen by the Werewolf, so they used that route to enter the range. The Asset had showed that it could call on the collected memories of its DNA donors, but it also showed an ignorance of anything that had changed since the samples had been taken.

Most recently the range had been set up to resemble the caverns under the Yucatan Peninsula. Now as they slipped into the gondola they could see that the fake walls and generic hostiles had been moved away to make a clearing in the center of the range. It was the only portion that was lit up, and standing smack in the center of the illuminated area was someone that resembled Silver, wearing a black tuxedo with a white shirt and black bowtie.

It was holding two things in its paws: a Russian Stechkin automatic machine pistol and their son. One was pointed at the other.

They took a moment to study the situation. The Asset was waiting calmly, turning its head and swiveling its ears to cover all possible approaches. Its tail was up and swaying slowly, the way Silver's did when he was anticipating a good fight. Leslie looked calm too. He had been kidnapped and held at gunpoint several times in his short life already and so far, his parents had managed to get him back intact each time. He knew that his best bet was to stay still and wait for either an opportunity to escape or for the head of his captor to disappear in a red mist.

Vikki and Silver waited until their watches signaled that the others they had alerted were entering the building. The Asset, its hearing enhanced by the dim light and focused by a surge of adrenaline heard them too, although they barely made a sound. It tightened its grip on the kit and the gun.

Silver flicked on the microphone in the gondola.

"Good evening. I don't suppose you'd care to release my son, would you?"

"No," the Asset barked with a laugh, "I wouldn't."

"Even when I tell you that Rasielle's plot has failed? Her base in the caves has been destroyed and the rocket will be too as soon as the sub surfaces. Her escape pod was intercepted and shot down by the Mexican Air Force near Belize." Silver lied. "There is no reason to take the boy now."

"You're lying about some or all of it." The asset replied. "I can tell. I will grant you the bit about the base and the rocket, if you knew where they were you would destroy them rather than risk the end of the world, but if she were dead I would know it." It tapped its temple with the butt of the pistol. "We have a connection, like the one she had with her brothers before you incinerated them. She's alive, and free, I'll bet. She'll need fresh stock like this this boy to start again."

"So why didn't you just take him and go to her?" Silver asked, keeping his voice casual while he monitored the movement of the newcomers with the gondola's low-light cameras.

"You know why. This can't be over while one of us is still alive, and I'm including the kit's mother in that statement. If I take him you two will hunt me down across the face of the earth, and that might imperil my mother's holy work. No, I have to end you both here or die trying so that she can begin the task of breeding us back to perfection. But," it snarled, pulling Leslie roughly against its chest, "if I go the kit does too."

Vikki switched the microphone to mute. "How can it believe in that furless common ancestor crap?" she asked. "All the agents in its mix were atheists, or at least agnostics, including you and I."

"Rasielle believed, and a good portion of her DNA underpins its makeup. It has her telepathic abilities, at least." Silver checked the screen again. "The others are in position. Let's hope that Doctor Gordon was right about the other psychotic weaknesses it inherited."

"You won't be able to harm Leslie in my form," Silver said after turning the microphone back on, "or that of his mother. Just like you were unable to kill Marcel."

"You're right!" The Asset laughed. "Thanks for reminding me. I have a few others that will do for your lackeys until you decide to come down and face me fox to fox, and none of them will have any qualms about killing a child."

As it spoke the Asset began to change. Its fur became darker and curlier. Its tail thinned out and shortened until it was just a bare stump with a ball of black fur on the end. By the time it finished speaking it had the form of a black French Poodle roughly as large as Silver.

"Malko." Silver said under his breath. "Send in Miss CC." He whispered into his watch.

Down on the range floor something to the Assets right made a soft squeak and it whirled to face that way. A short figure could be barely made out in the shadows there, but even before it revealed itself to be the white and black party poodle Miss Chienne-Caniche the creature in the form of the Austrian-French Agent Malko's nose was twitching.

Miss CC was in her wheelchair and she rolled forward into the light. On her lap was a silver tray and on the tray was a selection of strong-smelling cheeses and several glasses of rare wines that paired perfectly with them.

"Sacre-bleu." The fake Malko swore as the order from the fine cuisine drifted his way. "Is that a Bleu de Termignon? With a Graves de Bordeaux Two Thousand and one? I must have just un petit morceau ..." He began to reach out with the paw that held Leslie.

Then he noticed that one of Miss CC's paws was hidden under the tray and he snatched the boy back against him. He raised his pistol to shoot but Miss CC raised the tray to use as a shield as she retreated. Cheese and wine flew everywhere, and the Asset almost cried, but it caught itself and quickly changed to a form with considerably less culinary sensitivity.

"The American, Helm." Silver mumbled when he recognized the canine the Asset had changed into. "Gray Muzzle is up next."

From the opposite direction another figure emerged. This time it was the older fox, Gray Muzzle, who tended bar in the Agents' Lounge between stints working as a triple agent feeding the Russians misinformation. He was wheeling a mini-bar with a large open bottle of golden liquid and a full shot glass on it. Both his paws were visible and there was no place to conceal a weapon on the flimsy cart.

The Asset sniffed the air with the sensitive canine nose of the famous American spy. "Twenty-five year-old Kentucky whisky." It said in a smooth, deep baritone. "You won't mind if I have a little sip to wet my whistle. Just, uh, leave the tray there and back away, old feller."

Gray complied with a slight bow.

The Asset approached the tray, keeping Leslie close against him while turning his ears back to detect threats from behind. When he had the kit trapped between him and the tray he reached out and lifted the glass to his lips ... but he stopped before sampling it.

"Oh-ho-ho-no, that would be too easy. Ol' Matt is too sly to let you-all slip him a Micky Finn. How about we let the kit have the first sip? What do you say, boy? It'll put fur in your sack."

It lowered the glass and tried to force Leslie's mouth open at the same time but the shot ended up on the concrete floor, where it sputtered and smoked in a most un-whisky like way.

The asset kicked the tray away angrily, changing again as it did so. When it was done the tuxedo was tight on its shoulders and the trousers were too short for its legs. It was several centimeters taller than Silver now, with the markings of a typical red fox. Even Vikki recognized the famous British agent it had become, one of the few that could rival her mate when it came to a showdown.

"Alright." the creature said with a slight Scottish accent. "Let's stop fucking around. I've lost two wives, three cars and been forced to change guns twice so I doubt that there is anything of sentimental value that you can tempt me with. I also have no problem killing the lad here."

"That's true." Silver said out of the side of his mouth to Vikki. He had studied the life of the British agent who was once his hero and roll model. "After the Second World War he served in a British counter-insurgency unit in the far east where child soldiers were common. He's shot a few kids younger than Leslie."

"Fortunately though," he added as he signaled for the next agent to emerge, "he's wrong about not having anything or anyone to care about."

A small figure in a neat black suit entered the circle of light. It kept its head down until it was fully illuminated, then it looked up, directly into the eyes of the Asset. It was a Japanese Tanuki, a raccoon dog, and something about it triggered one of the creature's inherited memories.

Confusion swept over its face. "Ki- Kissy?" It stammered. "Is that you?"

"No." The tanuki answered with a bow of respect. "I am Akira Tanaka, Granddaughter to Kissy Suzuki, who was mated to a British agent and helped him recover from amnesia after he destroyed his enemy's garden of death."

She moved a step closer. "They had a daughter, my mother, who took the name of the head of the Japanese Secret Service, a tiger named Tanaka, that watched over her. She married one of the local divers and they had me. 'Grandfather' Tanaka helped raise me and eventually used his influence to place me in his former agency." She took another shy step forward and bowed again. Now she was just out of arm's reach from the creature whose face was overcome with emotion.

"I ... I remember Kissy, your grandmother. She was a strongheaded female. She ... she tried to keep me to herself ... but when I had to leave ... to find my past ... she let me go, just like they say you should do for something you love ... but I never went back." It concluded, its voice full of sadness and regret.

It looked down on the face of the little Japanese female beaming innocently up at it.

"I ... I never knew that she ... that there was a child, or a grandchild ... I ... I'm sorry, Akira."

Akira bowed again, sliding her paws into the loose sleeves of her jacket. "Do not be sorry, please. After all," she said, her voice growing more determined as she pulled a naked Tanto sword from her sleeve, "You are not my real grandfather."

The Japanese agent tried to stab the Asset in the side but he spun with the grace of a ballet dancer and blocked the blow with the child in its arms. She dropped and tried to sweep it off its feet but it leapt up and avoided her legs. There was a quick flurry of jabs and countermoves and while Akira could not safely get to it with Leslie in the way, neither could the Asset fire on her in its present form. Recognizing the weakness they were exploiting it changed form to one that could deal with the little tanuki.

It grew slightly taller, but much slimmer. Its fur was still the vibrant red and white of a fox, but the hair on its head turned brilliant scarlet and grew out to shoulder length. The jacket, still too short but looser now, filled out as two large breasts grew under the white shirt.

"My tits aren't that big." Vikki said with a frown. "Are they?"

"Remember, you were in the late stages of pregnancy when they took your DNA." Silver said as he remembered Vikki's milk-engorged globes fondly. Then he lifted his watch to his mouth. "Roll the tape." He ordered.

Akira had taken the opportunity to slip back into the shadows while the Asset was changing to Vikki. It whirled around, looking for whatever the latest threat was but no new agents appeared. There was a sound though, coming through the speakers of the range. It started low but grew in intensity, and it sounded like crying.

Back in the Operations Centre those analysts without children plugged their ears while the room was filled with the wails of a hungry child. Those who had children sighed in relief that it was not one of theirs. On the console everyone could see the image of a baby fox, the child of Vikki and Silver, as they tried to pose with the kit at the FOX Annual Family Picnic twelve years ago. Baby Leslie was having none of it, however, and his arms were flailing with his paws in tiny fists, his tail was snapping back and forth and his maw was opened wide as a most ungodly sound issued forth. Damp spots appeared on Vikki's blouse and she jumped up to whisk the hungry infant away.

If the recording had been allowed to continue one would have heard the crying taper off as Vikki retreated to the nearest secluded bench and then cut to her returning with a sleepy baby and a different shirt. But this scene was on a loop and the crying just went on ... and on ... and on.

In the Range control gondola Vikki rubbed her breasts.

"That clip still makes my tits ache."

Silver pointed. "Look what it's doing to the Asset."

Down on the floor the Asset was on its knees, crying and hugging Leslie to it in a motherly fashion. It had dropped the ill-fitting tuxedo jacket and they could see wet stains on the white dress shirt that it was trying to unbutton so that it could stick one of its lactating breasts into the twelve-year-old's mouth.

Between attempts to breastfeed Vikki's son it tried to change form, but the wails coming from the speakers would snap it back into the vixen's form before it could complete the transformation. It was so helplessly focused on feeding that it had not noticed that Miss CC, Gray and Akira had surrounded it with guns drawn. It had dropped its own pistol and had knocked it out of arm's reach while fumbling with the jacket.

"What are they waiting for?" Vikki asked as tears filled her eyes too.

"I suspect that none of them want to shoot at it while it has Leslie pressed against its breasts for fear of hitting the boss's kit." Silver mused. "That and the difficulty of shooting someone that you are fond of. Even my paw would be shaking if I had to put a bullet in the face of someone that looked like you, especially with Leslie watching."

Vikki frowned then shrugged with determination. "Lend me your Glock."

Silver's Glock appeared in his paw with the usual magical swiftness. He passed it butt first to Vikki. She took it in her real paw and descended the stairs to the range floor.

As soon as Vikki entered the creature's line of sight it stopped crying. A look of confusion came over its face, as if the sight of the person it was imitating was too much for it to comprehend. Then its eyes cleared and it cried out, turning the kit around to face its real mother while wrapping its arms around Leslie's neck.

"Come any closer and I'll kill him." The Asset snarled.

"I doubt that you could do that." Vikki answered, raising her mate's Glock.

The Asset switched positions, gripping the kit's head in its left paw. "I mean it! I'll crush his head with my mechanical paw!"

Vikki was about to remind it that she was the one with a mechanical paw but Leslie did it first by sinking his sharp, new adult teeth into the Asset's left forearm. The creature screamed in surprise and grabbed its injured arm with the other, freeing Leslie. The kit immediately ran to his real mother and buried his face in her midriff.

Vikki pulled him away from her and pushed the distraught kit toward Miss CC. "Mommy has work to do dearest. You go with Uncle Gray and Aunt Marie now. Daddy and I will be with you shortly."

Leslie nodded and allowed the poodle in the wheelchair to take his paw. Gray joined them and the two led the kit away.

Vikki waited until Silver cut the sound and announced that Leslie was safely outside before she stepped forward and leveled the gun at the Asset. She stayed out of reach and aimed directly between the creatures emerald green eyes, but then she hesitated. It was unnerving looking into the same eyes she had seen in the mirror her whole life while trying to put a bullet between them.

The voice of the tanuki came from behind her. "Perhaps the Chief of Staff will honor me," Akira said, "by allowing me to finish the imposter off."

Vikki shook her head. "No. I have to do this." She tightened her grip on the Glock and blinked to clear her eyes.

In the time it took to blink the Asset changed again. Now the remains of the tuxedo fit perfectly again as he had reassumed the shape of Silver. It looked up at Vikki with the same, icy blue-grey eyes as her mate.

"You wouldn't shoot me, would you Hun?"

Vikki's mouth dropped open in shock, but then it snapped shut as her face hardened and her lips writhed, exposing her teeth on one side and then the other.

Her tail snapped once. "Wouldn't shoot you? You, who belch beer in my face all night long after watching the hockey game?" Her tail snapped again. "You, who leaves brown streaks on the clean sheets with your rum-fuelled farts?" Her tail snapped a third time. "You who never <BANG> puts the toilet seat down <BANG> when you get up to pee at night?" <BANG><BANG>

The Asset lay crumbled and bleeding at her feet with two holes in its head and two in its chest. The blood was barely oozing, indicating that its heart had stopped pumping already. Silver had already descended from the gondola and was reaching for the smoking Glock.

"Wow, Vikki. I never knew you felt so strongly about ..."

She whirled on him, the Glock level with his heart. "And you spray piss ALL over the rim and the floor. Who do you think has to clean THAT mess up after sitting down in a porcelain bowl full of chilly water, eh? ME! That's who."

"Can, uh, we talk about this later?"

"We're talking about it NOW!"

Silver looked down at the unwavering Glock.

"Okay, okay. No more beer on hockey nights. I'll wear pajama bottoms if I'm feeling gassy and, uh, I ... I promise to sit down to pee ... but only at night ... and I'll make sure the seat is down before I leave the room."

Vikki lowered the gun, slightly, and her face softened, but she was still riding the adrenaline rush after shooting something that looked like her husband, and that tends to make one babble after intense action.

"It really is for the best, dear. The doctor said you should lay off the beer, and I read that sitting to pee helps empty the bladder more effectively for males of your age."

"Uh, right ... okay ... we should, uh, go ... now."

"And those wet farts are just plain disgusting." She continued.

"Vikki, honey, we're on a live channel."

"What? Oh! I mean ... I'll bet the Asset had some of those problems ... not you though ... because ..."

"It's okay." He assured her while taking the gun and slipping back into its hiding place. "I retire in a month anyway. What do I need with a reputation?"

"Sorry." They walked past the bewildered tanuki, who had not quite understood all the English terms the tall vixen had used. Akira would watch over the body until a security team could cordon off the area so Doctor Jones could examine it.

They both switched off the communications channel on their watches as they walked back to FOX headquarters.

Vikki slipped her paw into Silver's. "What about Rasielle?" She asked. "are we going to have to do this all again in five years? I don't think I could take it knowing she was out there and still after our son for his DNA."

Silver squeezed her paw. "Don't worry, hun. I've got it all under control."

* * * * * * * *

Several important things involving FOX personnel occurred over the next few weeks.

The Assault team was brought back to Canada by the naval Frigate that had picked them up on the beach. But before Vikki called them in to the Chief of Staff's office to debrief them she read the report of their rescue written by the ship's Captain.

She sat patiently sat and listened to Zac's very precise and succinct verbal report. It seemed to cover everything, including how Ruth Pawstone showed up to save them at the last minute. There was one omission that Vikki was aware of though.

"What about the party on the beach?" She asked without changing expression.

Zac's mouth opened and closed several times but no sound came out.

"Busted." Violet swore under her breath. "Nice working with you guys." She opened her mouth to confess, but Zac beat her to it.

"It's my fault, Chief. When we were flying in Temporary Agent Russel noticed that the plane's bar was stocked with highly flammable Russian Vodka, Mexican Tequila and French Cognac. I ordered her to slip the miniatures into her pack in case we needed more incendiaries. When we arrived on the beach, I discovered that the bottles were still intact. I, uh, authorized a victory libation ... then a toast to Miss Pawstone ... then Agent Echos pointed out that we missed my birthday while training for the mission and ... and we ended up finishing the bottles ... improvising some instruments ... having a dance competition ... then people started taking their wet clothes off ..."

Vikki did not so much as blink, but she let her aura convey exactly how little his bullshit had fooled her.

"All with the morale of your team foremost in your mind, I'm sure." She said. "Well, congratulations, Agent Ember. You did the best you could and influenced a formerly hostile actor into helping you, which resulted in an ultimately successful mission. The Americans torpedoed the rogue sub with the rocket onboard as it began to surface along with the stolen sea platform. The sub sank in the trench where the pressure crushed the whole works, destroying the rocket and the bomb. The techs working the platform surfaced and surrendered. The Brits lost their solar blockers and China is out one rocket but the loss of life was restricted to Rasielle's followers, a bunch of North Korea's best rocket scientists and the mercenary crew of the sub."

Vikki stood up, came around the desk and shook Zac by the paw. "Congratulations, Senior Agent Auburn."

"Wha- ... what?"

"Auburn. That's your new code name. Now you really do have something to celebrate. I expect to see you in the agent's lounge buying drinks for everyone ... and two for me." She added with a smile.

"Th- ... thank you, ... Ma'am. I don't deserve this."

"Yes, you do, now go on. I'll be by for those drinks later." The four agents turned to go, slapping ac on the back as they headed for the door. They were almost out when Vikki said, "Except you, Temporary Agent Russel. You stay behind for a moment, please."

Violet cringed but turned with a defiant look to await her fate.

Vikki sat back down behind her desk. "Incendiaries, eh?"

"Chief, I can explain ..."

"Don't bother. Zac's version will look better in the archives than you pulling a Captain Jack Sparrow on a Caribbean beach. That is not what I want to talk to you about." She indicated that Violet should sit in the comfortable guest chair on the other side of the desk.

Violet sat, her suspicions roused.

"We have established a position for a permanent Assistant Executive Secretary. Miss CC's therapy is going well but she will have to undergo a series of operations to regain full use of her legs, and she'll need a reliable assistant. I'm considering you for the position."

"You're pulling me out of the field agent program?"

"Not a t all. You'll still be able to go on field assignments when Miss CC is not in recovery or on vacation. Eventually, of course, you will have to choose between the field and an administrative career. Talk to Miss CC about it, she was quite the badass before taking the job and she's proven that she still is on several occasions."

"Huh. Well, whadda ya fucking know? Do you need an answer now?"

"No, but there is one other thing ... at this level here is a mandatory dress code."

"Aw fuck. I knew there was a catch."

"Before you decide, I had the Academy Sketch Artist draw this up."

Vikki passed a portfolio sized folder across the desk. Violet opened it and saw that the artist had drawn her in various versions of business attire with moderate length skirts, slacks and dark jackets over colourful blouses, some with her in heels and others with flats, but in each one she still had her purple mohawk.

"You'll get a clothing allowance so you won't be out of pocket for the requisite wardrobe, and when you are working with the field division you can wear anything you want."

"Hmmm ..." Violet said, scratching her chin. "They do look kinda slimming."

* * * * * * * *

In the Director's office another ceremony was taking place. Silver had called Kain Algorath in to discuss his part in the planning and execution of the mission, and to announce another promotion.

"Given the level of your involvement in the planning and execution of our most important missions," Silver began, "and the fact that you will continue to operate in the field when required the Chief of Staff and I have decided to promote you to Senior Agent status. Congratulations, Senior Agent Alabaster."

Kain took the paw the Director offered. "I don't know what to say."

"Say you'll be in the lounge buying drinks in about ten minutes. And tomorrow you are officially on leave."

"Leave? Like a vacation?"

"Yes. I've been going through the records in preparation to pass over the job to the new appointee, clear up the administrative backlog sort of thing. Everyone that has leave credits has to use them up, and you have the most unused credits of all the staff. Starting tomorrow you are off for a month. Get out of town, visit exotic places, go on a cruise ... get laid, for Christ's sake. The word around the Ops Cen is that you live like a monk."

"I'll, uh, do my best, Director."

"I'm sure you will."

* * * * * * * *

Marcel was released from the hospital the same day that Geno was brought back from India under a false identity provided by her friend Constance's lover. He informed her of the recent promotions. He had been consulted and while he agreed with the two promotions he felt obliged to point it that Geno had been an agent longer than either Zac or Kain.

"She is the best individual agent we have." Silver assured him. "But she lacks leadership experience. Now that you are Senior Agent Supervising you will have to arrange for her to get some."

Geno took the news well. She was more pissed about missing the beer call than being overlooked for promotion herself. After hugging and kissing the kids and putting the still recovering Marcel to bed she left them all under the care of Marcel's mother while she went back to FOX to finish filing her report.

While she was there Delores Johnson and Dongo Fett came out of the executive suite smiling and laughing and with an arm full of files.

"I'll see you in the Lounge after I lock these up." Delores told Dongo before walking over to where Geno was working. "Hey, girl, how's it going?"

"Hey Babydoll. Other than dying once too often on this one it went as smooth as could be expected."

"Yeah, I heard. You and Marcel add any more to the family while I was away?"

"Naw." Geno said cheerfully, but her head dipped to hide a suddenly sad expression. "Four is enough. Besides, the adoption agencies want to prioritize couples who don't got no kids yet."

Delores, who was possibly the best body language reader in the Academy caught the expression and the disappointment behind Geno's words. More than once the two busty sirens had sat up drinking and talking about what they rally wanted from life. in Geno's case, after a drink or two too much, that inevitably came down to having naturally born children.

"But that would mean getting a sperm donor from a second cousin or similar," Geno would conclude before crawling away to sleep it off, "and I don't think Marcel would go for that."

Delores studied Geno, who had gone back to working on her report to cover her discomfort. The blonde fox sighed and made a decision that she hoped would either go undetected or that she would be forgiven for.

"Dongo and I just shut down Russia's clone and genetics program." She told Geno. "We eliminated everyone with any significant knowledge of the techniques that Rasielle perfected for them. Fortunately, that was not many." But gratifyingly, she told herself, it had included that tailhole Filipov. "Anyway, we got all her data before destroying the labs." She tapped the pile of files. "It's all right here. I'm just on my way to lock them up in the Special Access Facility. 'Eyes only' and all that crap."

Delores stood up and picked up the pile. "Chin up, kid." She told Geno. "Dreams really can come true."

As the vixen walked away Geno wondered what she had been talking about, then she noticed that Delores had forgotten one of her files. Geno opened her mouth to call the vixen back when the title on the file caught her eye.

It read "Overcoming species incompatibility in breeding - a simple workaround".

Geno picked up the file. It was very thin, but the markings and warnings on the file cover were clear - this was a Special Access file to be read only by those authorized by the Director of the agency. She ran a claw along the edge of the cover.

Down the hall Delores was taking her time in the agent's washroom before calling the Chief of staff to escort her to the Special Access Facility. She was not surprised when Geno came rushing in with the missing file.

"Uh, Senior Agent Amber, you left this behind." Geno said, holding out the file.

"Why thank you Agent Wefa, I would have been in a pile of shit if I'd let that go astray. I owe you one."

"Uh, think nothing of it." Geno said, biting her lip and looking away. "I, uh, ... I gotta go ... finish my report."

"You do that dear." Delores said, as she hugged the file to her chest. Once Geno had left the room she slipped a paw into the cardboard folder and smiled as she felt the lingering warmth of the photocopier on the sheets inside. "Good luck Kitten." She whispered.

Back in the agent's workroom Geno rushed though the rest of her report while keeping her purse close by. When she was done she left the Academy hurriedly on foot, headed for the nearby apartment she shared with Marcel and their adopted kits. She stopped at a public washroom and locked herself in before pulling a sheath of folded photocopies from her purse.

The formulas and equations on the papers made no sense to her, but she did recognize the names in a note that Delores had added to the file. It indicated that the only creatures left alive capable of producing the elixir for inter species breeding were Saria Rasielle and two cobras working out of a casino in the thousand islands region.

The next day Geno took that day off and took a drive south. When she got back a groggy Marcel asked her where she had been and she told him that she had needed to blow off some steam so she had visited a casino and had lunch by the Saint Lawrence River.

"I'll bet you were meeting your secret lover." He relied, trying to instigate the kind of fight that would end in amazing grudge sex before the kits got home from school.

He was disappointed when she just shrugged and said, "No, of course not."

Three weeks later she received a text on her private cell phone. She left the Academy and drove to a secluded restaurant that had private rooms to meet a female cobra with red and black markings.

The cobra showed Geno a case holding six syringes. "Half a syringe for you and half for your mate a few days before you are most fertile." Dunya advised her. "It will change your eggs and his sperm for about a week only, so fuck as often as you can in that period." Then the snake smiled and showed her forked tongue. "I've added a little booster to make sure he can perform to standard, and to increase the likelihood of conception."

"How can I thank you?"

"You don't need to. Giving us this formula moves Henk and I a step closer to fulfilling our dream too. And who knows, maybe one day we will commercialize it and thousands of other mixed-species couples can be fulfilled too."

Geno had been tracking her periods as a matter of course and had been taking her vaginal temperature since visiting the casino where the snakes kept their lab. She was certain that she was ready. Marcel was all healed up and would be returning to duty the next day. Geno found him napping when she went home with the package of syringes.

"Hey! What was that?" Marcel cried and slapped his neck as he was awoken suddenly by a stinging sensation.

"Mosquitoes." Geno said as she hid the now empty syringe. "They have been really bad this year. But now that you're up," she added as she leaned forward and let her tits slide out of her tank top on either side of Marcel's snout, "wanna fuck?"

* * * * * * * *

Kain immediately sent his secret lover, Ophelia a.k.a The Perfect Stalker, an encrypted message informing her of his extended vacation. He had not had the opportunity to see her again when she was in Ottawa and only knew that she had left when he revisited the field near the bog and found that the shipping containers she had commissioned were gone. That was not unusual for her; she often had to act quickly to track down the criminals and despots she killed for her regular clients and even quicker when she was working secretly for FOX.

Her reply came back the next day. She wanted him to meet her in Cyprus. She had made all the local arrangements and would meet him at the Nicosia airport once he told her what flight he was on.

Kain used his own anonymous server to arrange several flights and identity changes in order to keep his forbidden liaison with Ophelia secret from Silver, who had promised to kill them both if he ever caught them together again.

Kain was the only creature alive other than Silver and the former Director, Tancred Williams, that knew that Ophelia was still alive; she was supposed to have been executed for the murder of several Intelligence officials she committed in the United States and Canada, as well as the attempted murder of Silver. But the current Director, who had been just a senior agent at the time, had spared her on the condition that she take the place of the world's recently deceased premier assassin, work for FOX on demand and never see anyone she knew in her former life, including her lover, Kain.

She had accepted on the promise of an eventual pardon but had violated the rules when she went to Kain's rescue in the lair of the yellow monkey, exposing the truth about her situation. As she had also saved Silver's mate and several other FOX agents in the process Silver had allowed her and Kain one last fling before separating forever. Ophelia had, however, scratched her secure cell phone number in reverse on Kain's chest while they made energetic love, and they had been secretly seeing each other a few times a year ever since.

On the final leg of his journey Kain wondered where Ophelia had arranged for them to stay. On their shorter visits they usually stayed in exclusive luxury hotels where they could order anything they desired from room service and never have to leave the suite. For longer stays they usually stayed at all-inclusive resorts where they could blend in with the other vacationers at the beach or on excursions. Once they had even tried a B&B but Kain found hidden cameras in the bedroom, so they left immediately. Ophelia had delt with the voyeuristic owner and when she was done the fellow had to sell all his properties to pay his hospital bills.

He was envisioning something like the luxurious Elysium Hotel in Pathos or the exclusive Amathus Beach Hotel in Limassol, maybe even the five-star Hilton in Nicosia, which would make a nice central pied-a-terre. No matter, he told himself, whatever she picked it was bound to be nice.

He was a little surprised to see that she was not at the airport when he landed. Instead, he found an old goat holding a crude, paw-written sign with the false name he was using on it.

"Madam Andoula's friend?" the goat snickered with a knowing grin when Kain introduced himself. It was a cover name Ophelia had used before.

"Yes." He told the old fellow.

"Follow me please."

Confused, Kain dutifully got in the back seat of an ancient Citroen and endured the bumpy ride into the heart of Nicosia.

The car eventually stopped in a small square near the old city wall on the Greek Cypriot side of the divided city. The square was dominated by an open-concept tavern in its center. It was early in the afternoon and there was only one patron on the patio. Although that patron was wearing a concealing black dress and a wide-brimmed black hat Kain recognized Ophelia immediately by her extremely floofy and active tail.

The tip of her tail, which Ophelia claimed had a mind of its own, waved to Kain as he paid off the driver, although Ophelia herself gave no indication that she had seen or recognized him. After seeing the old goat off with a generous tip Kain walked over and sat down opposite her at the small round table.

"Interesting locale." He said, tilting his chin to the ancient mud and stone buildings that surrounded the small square. "Are we waiting for someone here or does this place just have the best coffee in Cyprus."

"We are staying nearby, actually." She informed him.

Finishing her coffee with a flourish she stood up and headed for one of the three-story stone buildings. Kain followed. When they reached the front door she knocked in a pattern resembling a popular Greek folk tune and waited.

Kain stepped back when the oldest and ugliest female alligator he had ever encountered answered the door with a toothless grin. The old reptile said something in a language he did not understand that was additionally corrupted by her lack of dentures. Ophelia seemed to have no trouble understanding the cracked and wrinkled gator though as she responded in fluent Greek.

The gator stepped back and opened the door wide for them. Ophelia, apparently familiar with the layout already, walked past the old lady and headed for a steep staircase at the end of the hall.

Kain glanced into some of the rooms they passed on the way. Each held a young female in a state of undress. They were of varied, exotic species. An onyx crocked a digit at him, inviting him in.

"Uh, Cas?" Kain leaned forward to whisper in Ophelia's ear. "We appear to be in a bordello."

"That's right. The madam here has information that I need and has offered to put us up until my business here is done." She began to climb the stairs.

"Does, uh, Silver know about this?"

"I'm here on his behalf." They arrived at a stout door on the second floor. She turned to face him. "Don't worry about this place. The owner has done business with FOX before, in fact, it was a ten-thousand American dollar ... grant ... that got her started."

"Her?"

Ophelia did not answer, but just rapped on the door.

"Come in." A deep but still feminine voice called.

Ophelia opened the door and waved Kain ahead. Kain took one step inside and then tried to back put again.

The room had but one piece of furniture, a gigantic round bed. Laying in the middle of the bed was a naked sow of such elephantine proportions that she covered most of the mattress. She was huge, she was pink, and she was naked.

Ophelia pushed Kain the rest of the way in and closed the door behind them. "Raphael, this is Tina. She owns the place."

The sow waved the pinky of an éclair encumbered trotter at Kain before addressing Ophelia. "Ohhh ... sexy white foxy." She said, pursing her lips as if she could taste him. "Andoula very lucky cat. Tina happy to share with you."

A chill went up Kain's spine. "Sh- ... share?"

"Tina has information we need, and she needs a little favour. That's where you come in."

"I don't want to cum in anyone at the moment." It was true, the sight of Tina's massive mounds of pink flesh had caused his cock and balls to retreat inside his pelvis like a cold shower.

"Him funny." Tina laughed. "Remind me of little black foxy that was here twelve, thirteen years ago. Little black foxy Tony very good to Tina. Make Tina verrry happy. Your foxy make me happy too?"

"He's a genius at what he does." Ophelia assured the sow, pushing Kain to the edge of the bed. "Why don't you, ah, show him what you need?"

Kain closed his eyes. If he was going to have to lay this portly, porcine Punta he would have to do it with his eyes closed.

He felt her take his paw and pull it toward her. "There are buttons Tina needs pushed." The pig said as she drew him in. "Andoula say white foxy good at pushing buttons."

He knew that agents were supposed to be detached about this sort of thing, but Kain was terrified. He also knew that Ophelia used sex as a weapon to entrap her victims, and he did not mind, but she never did it in front of him. He tried to steel himself and remember all the techniques FOX and Ophelia had taught him to pleasure a female. This mission of hers seemed to depend on it.

He almost jumped out of his skin when his paw came in contact with something made of hard plastic. His eyes flew open and he saw that Tina had pulled a laptop computer out the folds of her fat and placed his paw on the keyboard.

"Tina do lots of business online nowadays." The sow said. "Live camera shows, videos, appointments and payments. But Tina's business not exactly legal in Cyprus. Cyprus police keep trying to get into Tina's files. Andoula say white foxy can stop them."

Kain expelled all his breath in relief. "Ye- ... yes ... yes I can ... Tina. If you'll just give me the computer, I can fix you up in a couple of minutes."

Kain had seen a lot of things in his IT days, but downloading security software of his own design in front of a three-hundred pound naked Madam while cleaning bits of pastry out of the keyboard was a new one. While he worked Ophelia sat down beside Tina, seemingly oblivious to her condition, and began a conversation in Greek.

Kain finished up by routing all of Tina's communications through an anonymous server on a satellite fixed over the Mediterranean. That would make it virtually untraceable as well as uncrackable.

"There you go, Tina." He said as he passed the laptop back. "The police won't bother you anymore." He turned to Ophelia. "Do you have what you need?"

"Yes." She said, but her tail was waving wickedly like it was about to pull something on him.

"Then I guess we can ... go?"

Tina placed a heavy trotter on Kain's thigh. "Unless you want stay with Tina a bit. Tina show you good time, foxy boy. Fella's have paid ten thousand for time with Tina."

Kain managed not to jump back gibbering in fear, but his face when t whiter than his fur. "N- ... no thanks ... Tina. I mean ... Andoula has to be getting on her way and I promised to drive her ... wherever it is we're going.

Both Tina and Ophelia were laughing at Kain's distress. "Sorry Tina." She told the sow. "Not today. Maybe I'll bring him back this way when we're done."

"You do that. Tina like the nervous funny ones, and he remind Tina of Tony."

Ophelia blew the sow a kiss as she led Kain out of the room. Kain stayed silent until they got to the bottom of the stairs, then seeing no one around but the ancient gator lady, knitting in her rocker by the door, he asked her what that was all about.

"Tina has a lot of contacts in the government as well as the criminal underground here on the island." She told him. "Besides being in high demand in certain quarters she is also very shrewd. She took the Ten-thousand Marcel gave her by accident and turned her one-sow business into the first really high-class, international bordello in Cyprus."

"Marcel? Our Marcel gave her ten grand ... by mistake? How did he explain that to Silver?"

"You'll have to ask Marcel. Anyway, FOX has kept contact with her ever since, and when they sent out a list of suspicious activity to watch for Tina was kind enough to reply. Seems that the same kind of thing that Rasielle was doing in Mexico is happening here in Cyprus, but on a smaller scale. Silver sent me here to negotiate with her and she promised to find out where Rasielle was hiding in exchange for some upgraded network security. Of course, I immediately thought of you. Lucky for me that Silver placed you on forced leave."

"Yeah ... lucky." Kain's brain couldn't quite handle the coincidence, but it was put out of his mind when Ophelia stooped short of the front door and opened the door to one of the entertainment rooms instead.

"We have a couple of hours to kill before we need to head out." She said as she led him inside and pushed him back on the bed. "Any thoughts as to how we spend that time?"

Upstairs Tina turned on her laptop and activated the cameras hidden in the room she had lent the cloud leopard and her foxy friend. She smiled and rubbed her clit as the cat locked her ankles around the fox's neck and he rose up on tip-toes and finger-tips to drive his long pink cock deep inside her. He very much reminded her of that little black fox, she thought as her digits dove deeper, very much.

After two hours of energetic sex and a quick wash from the sink in the room, Ophelia and Kain headed out. She had rented a Land Rover which was parked nearby.

As they drove toward the coast Ophelia filled Kain in on what she had learned.

"Rasielle likes caves it seems." She began. "Being mostly comprised of limestone, Cyprus is riddled with caves. These include many, many sea caves, among which is one said to be the home of the cyclops defeated by Ulysses in the Odyssey. There are also many inland caves designated as bat sanctuaries, but according to Tina, Rasielle and some of her fanatics are holed up in one closer to the sea."

"She bought the land around the cave and hired a construction company to expand it and install equipment that would make it self-sufficient. It has access to the sea so there is no shortage of water. Desalination plants and Hydrogen separators provide fresh water and fuel for her generators."

"Now that the rocket has been destroyed there's no sense sealing herself in." Kain commented.

"Not yet anyway, but she can if she needs to hide out for a few years until the heat wears down. Anyways, It's my job to go down there and kill her."

"How are you going to get in there? Rasielle will be on high alert after the raid on her Mexican facility."

"I'm not going down there. We are going to kill them all from the surface."

"How do we do that?"

"Tina's contact in the phone company told her that there is still a line running into the caves, as well as active power lines. If she hasn't cut herself off from the world yet I think you can hack into her system and take control. I, uh, borrowed a few things from you place in Kanata before I left." She jerked a thumb to the back of the land Rover. Kain flipped a canvass tarp back and saw some of his familiar gear among the weapons, explosives and chemicals there.

"Okay. What do I do once I'm in? Lock the vents open so you can pour ... what? ... chlorine gas down the vents?"

"Naw, not nearly certain enough. They may have gas masks or breathing apparatus down there. I was thinking of something a lot more ... flashy."

She declined to elaborate as they drove into the sunset.

When he could smell the sea on the night air she pulled over and they hastily hid the Land Rover under some bushes they uprooted. Then, using a GPS she led him cautiously onward. They crawled the last five-hundred meters, looking for guards and traps along the way. Eventually they arrived at a squat green utility box beside a steel shaft cover similar to the one Zac and his team had reported in Mexico.

"Check it out." She told him.

Kain opened the box and examined the wires and cables. "The power is still on, regulated through this transformer here." He said, pointing at a sealed unit. "The data line is fibre optic, fairly easy to splice into without setting off any alarms. Give me two secs here."

He took some tools from the kit Ophelia had 'liberated' from his family's manse and fiddled with the cable.

"There. I'm in. now we plug it in here ..." He inserted the end of the new cable into a hardened laptop. "Turn on the analyser ..." Two sets of lines and patterns filled the screen. Kain adjusted them until they matched. "Override the command console ... and voila! We're in charge now."

"Do you have access to the environmental controls?"

"Yep."

"And the water separators?"

"Ditto."

"Okay. I want you to cross connect the hydrogen generators with the oxygen generators and shut off the outside air."

"You plan to suffocate them?"

"Not quite. Once you've done that I want you to feed hydrogen and oxygen into the system in these proportions." She passed Kain a slip of paper with some notes on it.

"Where did you get this?" Kain asked as he began the process of replacing the air in the cave with the hydrogen/oxygen mixture.

"Bill Nye the Science Guy's website. There is enough oxygen for them to breathe normally and the hydrogen won't harm them either. They'll never know what's happening until it's too late."

"Chemistry was not my strong point, Cas. What is going on?"

Ophelia, who had majored in biology and chemistry before going rogue, explained.

"Neither gas is particularly dangerous by itself, but when you mix the two they become explosive. If we fill the cave system with this gas mixture it will become one big bomb."

"And how do we set it off once it's full?"

"Remember the transformer regulating the electrical flow? Know what happens when the full power of the transmission line goes straight into a house?"

Kain had seen a lightning strike on a tv cable blow a ninety-pound television off the wall. The flying TV had been accompanied by sparks and the outlet had caught on fire.

"Yep."

"Good. Let me know when the environmental sensors indicate the proper volume."

It took four hours of redirecting the hydrogen and oxygen from the storage tanks into the caverns atmosphere before they were saturated. Then Ophelia placed a small charge on the transformer, one just sufficient to damage it enough to drain the coolant, at which time the transformer would overload and send four-thousand volts of electricity down the shaft.

"We best not be on top of this thing when it goes." Ophelia advised.

They retreated to the land Rover and watched the area above the caves though binoculars. They saw the bright flash of the small charge a second before they heard the sharp 'crack' of its discharge. Two minutes later there was a louder 'boom' and a burst of flame from the utility box. Then there was a much louder explosion and the ground heaved up. The lid of the shaft they had been over and several others blew off as flames shot out of the holes. Then the ground came down again, leaving a depression where it had been flat before.

"Jesus Christ." Kain said, lowering his binoculars. "No one could have survived that!"

"Maybe." She said from inside the land Rover.

Behind him Ophelia was dragging more equipment out from under the canvas. When he looked he saw that it included advanced scuba gear and powerful lights.

"You're kidding."

"Gotta make sure."

"It's got to be unstable down there. You could be killed in a collapse."

"I'm already legally dead, so no biggie."

His face heated up. "Is Silver making you do this?"

"No. Silver just told me to make sure the bitch was really dead this time. I intend to bring back proof."

"You're crazy."

"Yeah, well you have to be in this line of work. Drive me to the coast while I get in the wetsuit then you skedaddle back to Nicosia. I'll make my own way back once I'm done."

"Where will I meet you?"

"Why, at Tina's, of course." She snickered. "And while you're there, don't do anyone I wouldn't do."

Kain had no choice but to do as she asked, she was, after all, the world's most effective assassin now, and proof of mission accomplishment was just part of a day's work. But he sat by himself in the locked room of Tina's brothel for a very, very long time worrying about her.

* * * * * * * *

Two days later in Ottawa Silver was sitting in the office of the Deputy Minister of Public Safety with his Chief of Staff. Today was the day that his replacement would be revealed and begin the two-week turn-over period.

The DM was rattling on about "planting the seeds of future growth" and "synergy through cross-pollination of agencies". Silver was starting to feel like the plants in his rock garden, but kept his face in a neutral expression that a champion poker player would have been proud of. Vikki tried to do the same with somewhat less success.

There was a 'ping' from Silver's phone. He reached over with one paw and turned the screen on while continuing to face the DM. He managed to open the urgent message that had come in and read it out of the corner of his eye. A FedEx package had come in from Cyprus. It contained part of a rib cage with an arm and a tattered wing attached. DNA testing at the Academy labs confirmed that the remains were that of Saira Rasielle. The mad cat-bat was dead for certain this time.

Sliver closed the message and caught Vikki looking at him with brows raised inquisitively. He dipped his head slightly and winked at her when the DM was not looking. She sat back with a contented smile. Whatever else this day brought she could be assured that the threat to her son was eliminated.

The DM's secretary's voice came over the intercom. "The Director Designate has arrived."

"Send her in." The DM replied as he stood and adjusted his jacket. Vikki and Silver stood also as the office door swung open and a female in heels stole in.

For the first time in a long time Silver lost his composure when he saw who it was.

"What the fuck? Is this some kind of joke?"

The tall, slim, black-furred feline in the tight dress and stilettos was none other than Sylvia Roy. When Silver had last dealt with her she had been a Director General from Corporate Services in Agriculture Canada. At the time AgCan was supposed to take over the buildings occupied by FOX among those of the Central Experimental Farm in exchange for space at a government facility west of the city, but Roy had killed the trade when asbestos was discovered in the walls.

"What the fuck indeed." Roy said as she turned on the DM. "Clarence, you promised me an important agency, not the mouldy infected shit hole that these people run."

"Sylvie ... Miss Roy ... I assure you ..."

"Assure me my ass! I didn't go down on your pathetic excuse of a cock all those years for you to pawn off some tiny division with no set mandate on me. What happened to CSIS, or FINTRAC? Christ, even the Privy Council Office would be better than living in the middle of a farm!"

"No need to discuss details here, Sylvie ... dear. I'm sure I can find something suitable for you."

Vikki interrupted their lover's spat. "Does this mean that the move to replace Sil- ... the current Director is off?"

The DM looked flustered. "I ... well ... I suppose so." He walked over to Silver and shook his paw. "I can't find a replacement before the three-month probation period is up and I'm compelled to give you the job, so congratulations, you're no longer 'acting' Director of your agency.

Vikki clapped her paws and jumped up and down once before catching herself and standing sedately beside her mate.

"Thank you, Deputy Minister." Silver said evenly.

The career public servant in heels walked over to shake Silver's paw too, then she turned to Vikki.

"You should be happy that I turned this position down." The cat sneered. "I'd be a lot tougher on you than this fox ever was."

Vikki placed her left paw, the bionic one, on Sylvie's shoulder and squeezed just hard enough to make the bones crack. "Looking forward to working with you too, wherever you end up ... dear."

* * * * * * * *

Epilogue: 25 years later

"Hurry UP!" Geno screamed up the stairs to Marcel. "We're gonna miss the goddammed wedding!"

"Not like we've never been to one." Marcel complained as he came down the stairs adjusting the black bowtie she was forcing him to wear. "How did Silver ever manage to tie these things?"

Geno met him at the base of the stairs and began to adjust the tie. "Honestly, Marcel, you're the Chief of Staff now. You should learn how to dress the part."

"I wasn't chosen for my fashion sense."

"Good thing. Canada would have been overrun for sure otherwise."

"You're one to talk. This is the first time I've seen you wear a bra since Dwain graduated Med School."

"It was a special occasion." She sighed. "Besides, there is no dress code for the Senior Agent Supervising. I can wear what I like."

"And what the male liaison agents like." He said, stepping up to her, his snout on a level with her cleavage.

"Not now." She said, pushing him back. "We'll be late. Wedding now, grudge fuck after the Father Daughter dance." She suddenly remembered something and started going through her purse. "Wait a sec ... I forgot something upstairs."

She pushed past the short black fox, now dusted with grey, and ran up the stairs. She went into her wardrobe and felt around for a switch that released a hidden panel. She reached inside and pulled out a black leather pouch. Unzipping it she confirmed that there were still two syringes left inside. Then she refilled the pouch and stuck it in her purse before closing the panel.

"Hurry up!" Marcel yelled from the foyer. "We're gonna miss the goddammed wedding!"

Marcel, whose driving had not improved over the years, had hired a Limo to take them to the church and the reception afterward. When they got there mostly everyone had already gone inside. Just the priest and their other children were waiting.

Geno saw that the red fox Aldwin, their oldest adopted child, and his wife were looking anxiously at their watches. Belinda, the puma they adopted next, was shaking her head as she and her wife stood arm in arm. Charles the Artic hare, their third adoptee, was arguing with his rabbit mate in much the same way that Marcel and Geno did, and she hoped that they would not miss the wedding by sneaking away for some make-up sex.

Marcel nodded to Dwain, Doctor Dwain, he reminded himself. The cougar had positioned his wheelchair near the entrance to the church. Freddy, their seconds natural child, was standing behind the chair. From this angle you could not tell that the black fox that resembled his father so much had the tail of a cheetah. Then there was Gail, who was all fox but with Geno's emerald eyes. The recent teen was jumping with excitement and holding her paws palm out, urging her parents to hurry. Beside her were the young twins, Isla and John, miniature copies of their parents in more than just looks. Isla looked uncomfortable in a real dress that confined her breasts while John had added a red ball cap turned backwards to his suit.

The priest gestured for them to hurry, there were two more weddings scheduled today.

Marcel grabbed Geno's elbow and hurried her up the stairs. The priest ran inside to get to the alter and the kids surrounded their mother while Marcel stopped in the entryway.

A minute later the organ began to play the wedding march and Marcel turned to see their first natural-born daughter, Eleanor, emerge from a side room. The twenty-four year-old had the body of a cheetah, but the tail and markings of a fox. She had been born nine months after the affair with Rasielle and her Asset. Geno had confessed to Marcel what she had done when it was obvious that she was pregnant. At first Marcel had been apprehensive, afraid that the experimental treatment would fail and that Geno would descend into depression. But when Eleanor was born she was perfectly healthy, and perfect in his eyes. They loved all their children, adopted or not, but Eleanor would always have a special place in his heart.

"You're crying Daddy." She told him as the bridesmaids and grooms assembled behind them.

"Just the dust in this old church." He assured her.

Inside the church the family and friends of both the bride and the groom, a handsome young lawyer, were assembled. His side of the church were mostly red foxes, like him. Her side included species of all sorts, including a number of her father's work colleagues.

In the front row of the bride's side Geno turned to the couple sitting behind her in the second pew. It was Kain Algorath and Ophelia Cassidy Sommers. The Cloud Leopard had reappeared after a twenty-five year absence and Kain and she had taken up again as if she had never gone. Geno suspected there was something more to that, but Marcel and Vikki refused to tell her anything, quoting "Special Access' rules. One day, she vowed, she would know everything, but for now she had more important issues.

"How are you two doing?" She asked them.

"Okay, I guess." Ophelia answered as Kain cleaned his rimless glasses and looked away. "The adoption agencies aren't very helpful though. They have made it very clear that they need to prioritize younger couples, same species couples that can't procreate naturally. But hey, it's okay."

Her tail told a different story, however, as it lay limp and sad behind her.

"What about the clinic in Gananoque?"

"We can afford it, but Kain doesn't trust the snakes' gene manipulation techniques."

As the bridal march started and everyone else turned to see the bride enter on her father's arm Geno grabbed Ophelia and slipped the leather pouch into her paw. "Half for you and half for him, a few days before you're most fertile." She whispered as Marcel and Eleanor appeared at the back of the church. "Get as much as you can from him that week. Call me if it takes, I've had experience breaking the news to an unknowing spouse."

The pouch disappeared into the folds of Ophelia's dress.

"Thank you."

"Thank me later, for now ..." Geno said as she smiled back at her daughter, "we have a wedding to celebrate."

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)