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The assignment that was given to Diana was as vague as it could get. "Escort a high priority P.O.I. from the Alaskan Air Force Base to Black site" as vague as it was it certainly looked like the safest assignment out of the options she had available to her. With a war going on more and more officers were being called to the front lines. As second lieutenant she would have been the first to be thrown into the mix, if not for the influence of a certain high ranking relative.

She didn't know whether to be relived or frustrated over the fact that she was not involved, but instead of dwelling on it she just obeyed her orders and stayed on home turf where she travelled from base to base doing busy work.

Safer assignments started disappearing with the demand of more officers increasing. It would only be a matter of time before she herself would be standing on the front lines.

Diana had put herself so deep in thought that she didn't close her eyes in time before the shampoo invaded. "Ah!" she wiped her eyes vigorously with her knuckles.

She faced up towards the shower head so that it could spray away the shampoo on her face.

She was an Alaskan malamute. A Breed of husky usually with black and white fur but she was pure white. not a spec of black or brown fur on her entire body except for the hair on her head which is jet black, unkempt and short in a crop style. She took pride in her fur, doing a thorough job of keeping it clean and glossy from ear to foot. The amount of shampoo she uses in each wash is enough for an army.

She turned off the hot shower and suddenly felt the nip of the cold once again, The Alaskan winter found its way everywhere. She snatched a long towel off the railing and wrapped it around herself, and then a rapid knock on the door caught her attention "Second Lieutenant, Commander Starr is ready to see you."

"Okay. I will be with him soon."

After a fairly rushed grooming session Diana was in full uniform and on her way to the commander's office, instead of wearing an officer's uniform she was advised to wear basic snow camouflage fatigues with an empty holster even though she wasn't commissioned with a firearm. A jeep picked her up as strolling across base in this cold was not a good idea. Snow lay everywhere except on the roads and airstrips. It was a good six inches deep and the sun had not shown its face all day.

She had arrived at a small building and after checking the time she knocked on the door awaiting an answer.

"Enter."

She went inside and saw Commander Starr at his desk. He was an elder ginger fox with whiskers almost as long as Diana's forearm but she also notices another man in the room sitting before the desk. He wasn't a soldier the black suit was a dead giveaway, a German Shepard breed dog with a weird grin on his face. She entered with standard military formality before the commander "Second Lieutenant Diana Willis. Reporting for Duty, Sir."

He nodded to her in acknowledgement "At ease Second Lieutenant. Take a seat. I would like you to meet Mr Gyre from Central Intelligence." He stood up and shook her hand before she took her seat next to him in front of the commander in a lone arm chair.

"May I interest you in a hot drink lieutenant?" The commander said as he stood up and approached the coffee maker in the corner of the room "No thank you sir. I would just like to get straight to business... if that is alright..."

"A woman of action... I like her..." Mr Gyre said, still brandishing a cocky grin bearing his abnormally white teeth.

After the fox poured himself a tall mug of hot chocolate with whipped cream he took his seat again and spoke "Now lieutenant I know you have a lot of thought as to what your mission entails. How subtle were your assignment details?" She kept her posture straight and her words clear "Escort a high priority P.O.I. from the Alaskan Air Force Base to Black site; that was all that was explained." She caught him shooting at the dog. He didn't take any notice of the glare and proceeded to explain "Well that is actually correct if you replace 'Escort' with 'guard' and 'P.O.I.' with 'P.O.W.' but other than that the details were spot on."

A Prisoner of war?! The assignment was not as safe as she thought, he sensed her dismay "I apologise on behalf of the C.I.A. Lieutenant but bringing a P.O.W. onto our native soil is something that has to be kept in the shadows."

Commander Starr cut in "Look time is running short. The plane is due to arrive in half an hour with the prisoner. Now if you would please let me brief the lieutenant so we can get this done quickly." Mr Gyre's grin seemed to fade slowly, and then he gave a respectful nod to the fox.

"Okay then. Now the prisoner's name is Robert Arthur Stirling. Formerly of the British Special Air Service. Our friends over at M.I.6 say he killed his entire unit on a classified assignment. They don't know why but I am pretty sure it is bullshit. They issued an international arrest warrant and everyone has been looking for him since. He disappeared for two years popping up in certain parts of Asia and Europe but he never stayed in one place long enough to get a real fix on his whereabouts. We only managed to catch him by sheer luck... however the circumstances of his capture are classified."

The fox leaned over his desk with his chin hovering over his drink, resting his elbows on the table with folded hands "Now lieutenant I understand you feel deceived on this, the man you are escorting is no ordinary prisoner... he is extremely dangerous. He can kill very easily with his bare hands. Which is why I am giving you the opportunity to back out now from this assignment."

Suddenly Mr Gyre spoke up "That is not your call to make commander. You have already shared classified information with a low ranking officer."

The glare from the fox returned only this time they were exchanged mutually "I am no stranger to having the whip cracked at me Mr Gyre. She has been somewhat backhanded with the nature of her assignment. If the worst should happen I don't want anything more on my conscious than there already is. We already have our best special forces unit with this prisoner."

Then Diana suddenly spoke to cut the argument before it snowballed "Then why do I have to guard him? Surely a special forces unit would be enough?" She could not help but get wrapped up with intrigue over this man. There was certainly a lot of fuss over him.

"Because you are a beautiful woman." She raised an eyebrow to the comment Mr Gyre responded with but then the commander reiterated "Our sources say that out of all the casualties this man has left behind. Not a single one was female. He apparently has some sort of morale code against harming women... he certainly has had the opportunity to do so. All the witnesses who have seen him in the past two years were in fact women."

Mr Gyre continued the conversation "You see we have navy seals on guard. But at the end of the day this man was SAS, this man used to train our navy seals. We chose you because you were low enough on the ranks to escape notice and because you are a woman. We just need you there to keep him calm and in a worst case scenario... to pull the trigger."

Diana paused after hearing those last four words "But there are certainly many more women in my position. I have not even seen any combat yet."

"Random selection. You were not the only one to agree to such a vague assignment."

Commander Starr spoke up to the dog "In my view she hasn't agreed to take this assignment yet Mr Gyre."

"We need a woman on board that plane Commander."

"Our Navy Seals have done fine guarding him alone so far."

"Yeah, flying over the pacific! If the prisoner is planning to escape it would be over solid ground! I don't want him flying over home soil without taking every step to make sure it is done safely!"

As the two men argued Diana delved into her own thoughts on the subject. If she was not so curious about the prisoner she would have outright refused to go. She didn't know whether it was a sense of duty or pure naivety but she felt like she should go. It was what she was there for after all even if she had been blindsided to the true nature of her task. "I will go Commander."

They immediately stopped arguing. It took a few moments for the reactions of both of them to settle in, Mr Gyre's cocky grin returned "Now that is what I expect from young soldiers." He was obviously very pleased with her but she could see only concern when she looked at the commander "Are you sure about this?" he said with a twitch of his whiskers. She nodded back to him assuredly "Yes Sir."

A soldier suddenly stormed into the office and all eyes were drawn to him "Hadley! I am in a meeting!" the soldier did a quick salute but it was clear he needed to barge in so informally "Sir. I apologise for the intrusion but weather reports have suddenly changed, there is a storm heading for us sir." He approached the desk between Diana and Mr Gyre and handed Commander Starr a weather report.

Mr Gyre's grin once again faded "A storm?! When will it get here? Will the plane have enough time to refuel and take off?" There was a hint of panic in his voice. The commander paid no attention to the barking dog and focused on the report. After a few moments he looked back to the soldier "Scramble the airstrip team for emergency refuelling. We have a transport plane arriving in fifteen minutes. Dismissed soldier." They exchanged a quick salute and as the private dashed out the he stood up and walked straight over to the coatrack "It will be a close shave but if we are fast enough you won't even see the horizon of the storm. If that plane is still on the ground when it hits not even god himself could get that plane airborne safely."

He threw a coat to Diana and Mr Gyre "The temperature is dropping fast, these aren't your sizes but it is better than hypothermia or frostbite. Try to keep your tails inside them." she stood up and slipped on the coat, the sleeves were long and it covered her halfway down to her knees. As she was lead out of the office she immediately noticed the change in temperature, her fur and the coat combined barely kept her with an ounce of warmth. There was a jeep already waiting and none of them wasted any time getting in.

By the time the Jeep got to the airstrip they could already see the plane in the distance descending. There were soldiers on the airstrip with a fuel truck at the ready. The wheels of the plane were out and the plane landed however it wasted no time in testing the brakes, wheels burned the tarmac and the planed wobbled violently. It took a couple of minutes for it to come to a complete stop.

They pulled up alongside the plane. Commander Starr escorted them out of the vehicle and to the door of the plane "Get on! If I see one crack of lightning I am grounding this plane! Good luck to you both!" with that Diana exchanged salutes with him and hurried up the stairs and onto the plane.

As soon as that heavy door slammed shut her eyes wandered around the interior. It was a big hollow space with dozens of seats along each side however her eyes were suddenly fixated on the large object in the middle... wait, not an object but... she noticed it was in fact the prisoner bound in chains, a large and muscular polar bear. His hands were bond tight around the wrists with heavy metal cuffs, chained to the floor behind him. His feet were also cuffed tight to the floor by the ankle. There were about seven soldiers in the room sitting with their fingers on the triggers on their assault rifles watching the man like a hawk. Mr Gyre then quietly spoke with the Special Forces Sergeant while she took a few steps closer to him with caution. Suddenly one of the seated soldiers spoke to her "Don't worry, He isn't going anywhere... he is also muzzled... so don't expect a lot of chit chat..."

The position he was kneeling in did not look the slightest bit comfortable or humane, he was wearing a dirty white t-shirt and worn out snow camouflage pants with mud crusted black combat boots. His head hung low with the metal muzzle tightly bound to his jaw... she could not see his face so she decided to get a bit closer. She stood right in front of him, inching herself closer. She then crouched to try and get a better look at his face but before she got too low he raised his head gently to see who stood in the corner of his eye. His deep blue eyes met hers and she suddenly felt sympathetic, he was in a terrible state. "Why chain him up like this? Surely THIS is not necessary."

After a brief moment of silence the Sergeant that spoke with Mr Gyre responded, he had a rough southern U.S. accent "We tried restraining him with steel. He tore them off like they were made of paper. Six of my men are at death's door simply from trying to take down this maniac without killing him. He is by far the strongest man I have ever seen in my life. He didn't even draw his sidearm. We then used titanium to chain him up and placed him in the most submissive position we could. I have gotta admit, it has been hard fighting off the temptation to tear this bear a new asshole. Pardon my French." As she listened she did not break eye contact with him, she was trying to get an idea of what was going through his head. After a minute she felt a hand on her shoulder and she looked up to the Sergeant "Listen miss if you don't wanna be tossed around the place like a rag doll I suggest you strap yourself in because we have mere moments before take-off."

She did as she was asked and found a seat and let him strap her in. "Thank you Sergeant. What is your name?"

"Grant. Edgar Grant." She noticed he had fresh scars on his face and he also seemed to wince a little when bending over, it seems the fight he had with the prisoner took all his effort. As she got comfortable she noticed that all the soldiers on the plane were grey wolves, including Edgar. She was in the presence of the fabled Grey Echo unit. Every officer in the military has heard of them in some way, shape or form. Their deeds and accomplishments on the battlefield were near legendary. If they were called to solely capture a single person... they weren't over exaggerating on how dangerous this man is.

As Sergeant Grant started the strap himself in, the plane suddenly leaped straight to take off speed. She could only imagine how badly those chains cut into the prisoner as the heavy transport plane left the ground. It was a few minutes before it was safe enough to get unbuckled and stand, Edgar helped her get unstrapped from her seat. After she was loose he then pulled a handgun from his holster and offered it to her "Take this. Do not take the safety off while we are in the air. I am just giving this to you because everyone on this flight is required to carry one." She nodded in acknowledgement and took the gun without question or hesitation and holstered it.

She kept seated while the other soldiers resumed their posts watching the prisoner. It wasn't long before Mr Gyre stood up and decided to take a good look at the prisoner himself. The bear did not even glance at him. "You are a long way from home Rabid Rob... at least I assume so..." he seemed to be grinning extra wide as if it was at all possible. He called him by a nickname he was either labelled with or he adopted... one thing was for sure, he seemed to have earned it. "Catching you has not been an easy feat. In fact it has been insanely hard. I should thank you really... catching you has jumped my career forward a decade." There was no sign of response. It was like he shut himself out from the world.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. You know what they say about poking a bear." Sergeant Grant warned as he stood at his side.

"Remove his muzzle." There was a long pause as shock gripped the Sergeant quickly followed by protest

"What!? Are you serious!?"

"Deadly. This man is an intelligence gold mine. People are lining up just to get five minutes of time with him. This will be a long flight and I aim to take advantage of the time I have with him. So remove his muzzle and if he tries to take a bite out of anything you have my express permission to shoot him... in the head." Those last three words were emphasised very clearly, just so everyone in the room got the same message.

Diana was unsettled by the sudden turn of events. She thought the flight was going to be quiet and uneventful... safe. All he was doing was removing the muzzle but it was enough to turn the blood of everyone in the room a degree colder. She watches as Edgar takes a small key from his pocket and unlocks the muzzle at the back of the head. The muzzle fell to the ground with a heavy clang and Edgar takes a step back aiming his assault rifle at the back of his head. The prisoner took a long deep breath of relief, who knows how long he has been wearing that thing.

"There we go. Now is there anything else I can do to make your ride any more comfortable. Besides removing any more restraints..." It was hard to tell if he was joking, with that huge grin it was like every word out of his mouth was a joke. After a moment the prisoner uttered his first word with slight exhaustion "water..." Mr Gyre nodded and then looked to Diana "Would you mind hydrating our guest." Before she could respond Edgar walked over and handed her his flask. She stood up and walked over to the prisoner and with some hesitation she got to her knees and unscrewed the lid. She could see the other soldiers aiming their guns carefully at him. The tension in the air was thick enough to see at that point. She tried to show some confidence in her actions to hide the fear, her hands were steady and her expression was calm however she didn't know whether the bear could pick up her anxiety with scent.

She guided the flask to his snout and tilted it up. As water poured down his throat, for the first time under the overhead light of the cargo plane she saw his face. He had a scar on his right temple and a black circular patch of fur on the right of his nose. What was more surprising was that he was incredibly rugged and handsome. She tried not to dwell too much on that fact and took the flask away from his lips when there wasn't a drop left. After a brief moment she heard a sincere "Thank you..." his English accent alone was enough to turn her cheeks slightly red. She looked up to him with a few twitches of her long white tail escaping notice.

Before she could respond turbulence caused the plane to lurch. The soldiers kept their balance however Diana was not so lucky. She fell forward against the prisoner with her face pressed up against the bear's chest. She quickly pushed back from him. "You okay?" the question came from the bear, she looked at him with slight surprise but replied with a quick nod only just noticing that Mr Gyre had fallen to the ground. The pilot's voice crackled through the intercom "Sorry folks. Storm seems to be catching up with us a bit but we are fast enough to keep ahead of it. Be ready for some worse bumps ahead of us."

Mr Gyre got to his feet but it took him a few seconds longer to keep his balance as the plane continued to shake. "Right. Now back to business... thank you Diana... you may return to your seat." As she did he took off his coat to quickly fix his tie, he decided to get serious with the prisoner "Now you know the phrase... you scratch my back and I scratch yours... I think an answer to a simple question isn't much to ask. You were spotted in Syria not too long ago, would you mind telling me what you were doing there?"

There was silence, The Prisoner... Robert... looked up at him with distain but none the less he answered his question "I was aiding the rebels. I gave arms, ammunition, food, water, generators and medicine to them."

"I am sure all of that stuff didn't fall out of your ass so where did you find it?" There was no reply, just silence.

"Should I say the magic word?"

"The water was enough to warrant one answer. If you give me a nice juicy salmon steak then I will answer another." One of the seated soldiers chuckled but it was unclear who did it.

"That was very funny Stirling but I am afraid this isn't first class. You fail to grasp the fact you are in front of the one person on earth who knows you better than anyone else. I know if I broke every international law there was concerning torture and treatment of prisoners you would not break... It is what you were trained for. I haven't got the time to play this game so I am just going to cut to the chase..." He leaned forward close enough to give the quietest whisper to Robert. Diana raised an eyebrow wondering what he was whispering to him, but she could see the eyes of the prisoner widen with shock. The words the dog imparted hit him harder than any blow he could have given.

After he leaned back pure anger started to bubble inside Robert "Now answer all my questions with nothing but truth and you can rest easy. I will even ask you a few questions I already know the answer to just to make sure you aren't feeding me bullshit. Fail to answer one correctly and... you know what happens... neither I nor any of the men on this plane have the weight of a conscience." Diana was very close to the edge of her seat watching Robert staring daggers at his captor. She had questions starting to bottle up inside her. What did he whisper to him? Was he serious about torture? What was he saying about a conscious? What have I gotten myself into?

BOOM!

Just at that moment, the plane buckled so hard it knocked everyone off their balance and threw Diana from her seat. She wasn't sure what she heard at that moment, it was like a grenade went off outside the plane. She was on her knees only just managing to stop herself from planting her face into the floor. The plane shook far more violently than before. As everyone was trying to get a sense of what was going on the pilot's voice cracked through the intercom with sheer panic "Engine Failure! We Have engine Failure on the left side of the plane!" Diana's heart jumped to her throat.

BOOM!

Another explosion outside the plane. She was thrown in the air again with it and this time she couldn't stop herself from landing hard into the floor. It was more than enough to wind her.

"Shit! That's another! Bail out people we are going down!" Mortal dread swept over her like ice cold water.

What the fuck is going on?!