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For Your Paws Only

Chapter 6 – Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright

Conrad held the snow leopard Ha-Rin in his arms as they lay in her bed. They were both naked, but the air in her room was warm and the sweat of their recent activities was already evaporating from their fur, keeping them comfortably cool.

“What can you tell me about the lithium processing plant?” Conrad asked as he stoked her back tenderly.

“It is a Column Exchange, or COLEX system.” She mumbled into his chest fur. “American technology from the fifties that was stollen from them by China and which we stole in turn from China. It uses tall columns and open vessels of pure mercury which lithium hydroxide is filtered through to separate out the lithium-6 isotope.”

“It’s that simple?”

“Not really, but that is the simple explanation. The important thing is that the process produces huge amounts of toxic waste. A third of the mercury is lost in the process. The exhaust fumes are full of it and it leaks into the ground water. It gets into the workers through leaky HAZMAT gear and into the villages nearby through the fish they catch in the local streams and through the vegetables they raise and the well water they drink. Mercury is a slow killer though, and it takes long periods of exposure, years even, to do real damage. A short period of skin contact is harmless, but the workers fear it none the less, believing that it will seep in through their skin and poison them quickly.”

“We used mercury in chemistry class.” Conrad recalled. “We could float bits of metal on it.”

“Yes. It has a high specific density and a much higher surface tension than water. If you had a bathtub full of it, you could float with just about a centimeter of you back immersed. Your fur would probably not get wet at all.” She hesitated for a moment. “But there are other much more toxic substances that are abundant at the COLEX plant.”

“Such as?”

“Nitric acid mainly. It is used in the process to purify the mercury after each use. Under pressure it is a liquid but when heated for the process it becomes a noxious gas. The fumes are highly corrosive. They can chew through thin metal vessels and ordinary plastics in seconds. They use special conduits made of inert materials like ceramic to move the nitric acid gases around the plant. If you see a pipe marked HNO3 that is leaking a yellowish-red gas stay away from it. A few seconds inhaling that gas is enough to do permanent damage to your lungs and a few minutes of exposure is all that it takes to kill you.”

“Wonderful. Anything else I have to watch out for?”

“Just the tiger, Ho Ran-Gi.”

Conrad rolled her onto her side and propped his head up with one paw to look into her eyes.

“What can you tell me about him?”

“He is ruthless, a fanatic follower of the Leader with a sadistic streak. He comes from Kumgang, a region on the east coast of the DPRK near the Demilitarized zone. There is a legend about the tigers from that region.”

“Tell me.”

Ha-Rin rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling. “It is called The Legend of The Tigers of Kumgang Mountain. There are several versions, but in each a brave and talented hunter goes to kill a large white tiger that is devastating the villages around the mountain, and he is never heard of again. His son wants to rush off immediately and revenge his father’s death but his mother, fearing that she will lose her son too, lies about his father’s prowess as a hunter and tells the boy that he cannot hope to defeat the tiger if he cannot replicate his father’s feats with the bow and a rifle. The boy practices for years, not realizing that the feats he is trying to replicate were made up and exaggerated. Eventually he is able to shoot out the eye of a needle from a mile away, knock the stopper off a jug of water without spilling a drop from two miles and kill an ant from three, and his mother reluctantly allows him to go after the tiger.”

“An innkeeper at the base of the mountain tells the boy that he knew his father, and that the hunter told him that the only way to defeat the tiger was to wait in a particular grove, five miles away from the summit of the mountain. When the sun set he would see a flash of white on the mountainside, and if he shot and hit the tiger at just that moment before the sun set completely he would kill the beast, but if he missed the tiger would cover the five miles in a flash and eat him before he could reload.

“The boy took the innkeeper’s words to heart, hid in the grove and waited until sunset. He saw the flash of white just as the sun was about to disappear and fired. He had no idea if he had hit the tiger or not. He waited for the angry tiger to appear from the dark but after an hour became convinced that he was safe and started to climb up the slope to where he had seen the tiger. When he got to the summit he found the tiger laying there, eyes closed and mouth open, on the bare rock.”

“The tiger was so big that the boy could walk into its open mouth without bending down. He would not have, but he heard the sound of a soft female voice singing somewhere inside the tiger so, taking a torch in his paw, he ventured in to look for her.”

“He did not have to go far before he found a beautiful maiden, the daughter of the local magistrate, who had disappeared the year before. She told him that the tiger had swallowed her and every time she had tried to climb out he closed his mouth and swallowed her again. Then she introduced him to an old man that lived in the tiger’s stomach with her. The boy recognized his father immediately and was shocked to see his father crying.”

“‘Why are you crying, father’”, the boy asked. His father replied that there was more to the tiger than it seemed. The tiger had an impenetrable hide and could not be killed by arrows or bullets or knives. ‘When you use those weapons he lays down and pretends to be dead, luring you into his maw with maidens or trails of gold he has swallowed in the past’, his father told him. ‘He can only be destroyed by fire, and only from the inside, where the flesh is unprotected.’ His father had gathered everything combustible that the tiger had ever swallowed but it was all sodden with stomach juices and he had no flint or steel to strike a spark to it even if it was dry.”

“Fortunately, the boy not only had a torch in paw, but a bag full of kindling for his evening fire. He set the kindling beside the wet wood his father had collected and set it ablaze. Soon it was all dry and caught fire too. The three pilled on everything they thought might burn and in no time the tiger was coughing and retching, trying to expel the fire from its belly.”

The three captives were able to escape while the tiger was choking on the smoke and they immediately set to chopping dry wood to add to the fire. Shoving logs down the weakened tiger’s throat they built the fire up so much that the tiger started to cook from the inside out. After it was dead the boy took a section of the tiger’s hide that had peeled away in the heat. He brought it to the magistrate as proof that he had defeated the dreaded tiger.”

“And they all lived happily ever after.” Conrad added.

“I don’t know about that,” Ha-Rin said frowning. “but he married the magistrate’s daughter and wore the hide to make him invulnerable in battle, so he did alright. That is not the point of the story though. The point,” she said seriously as she turned her head to face him, “is that Ho Ran-Gi is just like that tiger.”

“Flammable?”

“No!” she said, slapping his arm. “Tricky. Look for him where he is least expected.”

“All I see right now is you, Ha-Rin.”

She reached down to stoke his hip. “Your frivolous nature will get you killed, Con-Rad.”

“I’m not dead yet.”

“So I see.” She said, glancing down.

“How do you think I would fare, being eaten by a big white cat?”

Her tail flicked back and forth behind her with interest.

“There is only one way to find out.”

* * * * * * * *

Conrad managed to get a few hours sleep before waking automatically at four am, two hours before shift change and an hour before dawn, when the guards would be at their sleepiest. Ha-Rin was sleeping soundly, and he did not want to wake her. He pulled the sheet up over her before getting dressed and leaving.

She had told him where the fleet of cars belonging to the Nuclear Research Command was parked. Used mainly for courier runs and inspections, some had travel passes mounted in the windows corresponding to the various plants and compounds controlled by the Command. Conrad had no trouble hot-wiring a locally made SUV with a pass for Kangsan in the windscreen.

The journey took several hours, through some very hilly terrain. Fortunately, the SUV was in good condition and the tank was full. It was raining heavily, and whenever Conrad approached a checkpoint he pressed his pass against the widow and yelled arrogantly for the guards to hurry up, as Haddock had advised. The show of implied authority worked, and the travel pass in the window certainly helped. He was lucky that Kangsan was a regular destination for the Nuclear Research Command couriers; even more so lately according to Ha-Rin, and that was more proof that the lithium-6 extraction facility was located there.

Conrad found the village of Kangsan almost deserted. There was an eerie silence about the place. Pools of dirty water had dead things floating in them and acrid grey clouds drifted down form the mountains where the facility was located. The few creatures he did see were dressed in rags and they were all coughing like heavy smokers. He was glad when the village was behind him and the steel gates of the plant were before him.

Conrad used Choi’s pass at the gate. He was waved through immediately.

The compound itself was a different matter. There was only one entrance that Conrad could see and that was through a security checkpoint. Inside the lobby a Eurasian lynx examined his pass and checked a list. Apparently Choi had not yet been reported as a deserter because the feline shrugged and gave the pass back to Conrad.

“We were not expecting you today, Doctor Choi. You should report to the administrator for your assignment.”

“I have forgotten the layout since my last visit.” Conrad said, stressing the Korean words the way Ha-Rin had taught him to produce the accent Choi’s minority species would be expected to have. “Can you orient me, please.”

The lynx pointed out the corridor leading to the administrative offices.

“The administrator’s office is on the top floor, overlooking the extractor. The other way leads to the extractor floor, where you will likely be assigned. Security will have to issue you a new pass if that is the case. Yours is only good for the administrative areas.”

“Thank you.” Conrad said with a curt nod.

Conrad would have liked to head straight to the COLEX extractor, but he needed to gather a few things first. He had travelled light, carrying only a small pistol and a few incendiary detonators for this phase of the operation. They were all secreted under his clothing in case the guards wanted to search his bag. He did not think that he would need much more as according to the Professor back at F.O.X. Headquarters all Conrad needed to do was to get a good fire going. Once it reached the extractor the lithium would do the rest. Conrad just needed to find some combustible material, place it on top of his detonators near the columns the Professor had described and get out of there before the timers ran down.

IF he could get out, he reminded himself. Silver had been very clear on that last point. Destroying the COLEX plant and the lithium that had already been delivered or processed took priority over everything … including Conrad’s life.

Once he was out of sight of the security post Conrad felt free to wander around. He could see the extractor through large observation windows, but as the lynx had said, Choi’s pass would not open any of the doors giving access to it.

The extractor itself was just as described in his briefing notes. There were several tall cylinders that would be filled with liquid mercury and a number of smaller open tanks holding reserves of mercury to account for evaporation. The whole thing was surrounded by a steel framework with access ladders here and there for the technicians to observe and adjust the instruments mounted at various points around the extractor. A maze of pipes of all sizes ran in and out of the framework. The larger ones would carry steam to heat the lithium-mercury mix. Others would draw off the lithium-6 isotope or the waste material that was produced in the process. One set, that appeared to be made of ceramic pipe sections, was marked HNO3 in red with little black skulls and crossbones.

The nitric acid lines, Conrad deduced and, as Ha-Rin had warned him, they were leaking in several places. Everything was leaking. Grey sludge was seeping from the waste tanks, silvery streams of mercury were coming from the main columns and dirty pools of water were everywhere. The workers behind the glass, mostly racoon dogs, badgers and hedgehogs, had to step carefully despite the transparent plastic HAZMAT suits they wore.

Exploring the administrative corridors he passed more workers and several security guards. The guards were all from larger, predator species like martens, leopards, lynx and wolves. They looked better fed and cared for than the regular workers. Evidentially it was shift change for the guards. They ignored Conrad as they hurried to their stations.

By walking in the direction that the guards were coming from Conrad found the security offices. They were unlocked. He took a chance and slipped inside. The weapons rack was secured, but the lock was easy to pick. Conrad helped himself to a large calibre automatic pistol, a compact assault rifle and several magazines of ammunition for each. He put them in his bag and slipped out the door again before the off-going shift returned.

The Administrative zone ended in construction site. The corridor was blocked by a large tarp and warning tape, but the workers had left it loose enough for them to come and go easily. Conrad ventured outside and saw what he took to be an expansion project. A space about the same area as the existing plant was being cleared and reinforced with concrete, probably for another COLEX extractor, he assumed, for when the lithium deliveries were ramped up.

The site was empty. Conrad had been briefed about the DPRK’s lack of skilled labour and how workers were shifted from one project to another as priorities changed, sometimes on a daily basis.

While he was outside he used his watch to report the location of the COLEX facility. If he failed in his mission the allies could always send in a cruise missile, he supposed, even if doing so would risk nuclear retaliation. At least, with the lithium accelerating agent destroyed, the nukes would be regular, small, and relatively clean.

He poked around after sending his message. None of the tools laying idle were of any use to him, but the wood from the framework for the foundation and the empty cement sacks could be useful in building his fire. He also found a metal container marked explosives. Prying it open he found three explosive drills. These were small, pointed devices that looked similar to anti-personal mines. They had covered them on the Academy’s explosive course. The devices were used to blast a narrow channel through solid rock as a faster alternative to drilling. They could be wired to his detonators and used to pierce the columns, spilling highly flammable liquified lithium-hydroxide and igniting it at the same time, he realized.

Conrad took all three and put them in one of the pockets of his bag. He put his detonators in a separate pocket.

Now that he had located everything he needed to sabotage the facility he just needed to find a way into the extractor room. Perhaps, he thought, he could climb over the dividing wall between it and the administrative area if he could get into the false ceiling on the top floor. Exiting the extractor room would be much easier, as he had observed that the workers did not need to swipe their passes to get out.

He would need a HAZMAT suit to fit in, however, and he wondered where he might find one.

He climbed the stairs, searching each floor for a changeroom where spare HAZMAT suits might be stored, but found none. Had the technicians all showed up for work already wearing them, he wondered?

Using the stairwell farthest from the security office he came to the top floor. Pushing the fire doors open he was shocked to find that he was directly across the hall from a large, well-appointed office. He was even more shocked to see a large Asian black bear in a nice western suit standing in the doorway staring at him with its paws on its hips.

“Choi!” the bear roared; its face set in a deep frown. “I was told that you were on the way up almost half an hour ago. What has taken you so long?”

“Uhm … bad sea urchins last night, Administrator.” Conrad said as he bowed respectfully. “I had to stop and use the facilities several times on the way up, but I feel much better now.”

“Hmph.” The bear snorted. “Get in here so I can give you your assignment and new pass card.”

Unable to think of any other course of action at the moment, Conrad followed the bear into the office. If, as it seemed, the bear had never met the real Choi he could possibly bluff his way through the assignment briefing and walk out with a pass that would open the doors to the extractor room. If the bear caught on Conrad could use the small pistol on him. The bear was fat enough to muffle the sound of a shot if he shoved the pistol right up against him.

They had only gotten halfway to the Administrator’s big desk when Conrad heard the door to the office close behind them. He turned to see what or who had closed it but before he could even think of pulling his gun two large orange paws grabbed him by the arms and pined them against his sides. His bag dropped from his shoulder and his flailing legs knocked it behind a large armchair. Try as he might he could not wiggle free.

“Well!” a deep familiar voice said. “Look who we have here.”

Conrad was picked up and turned around in mid air with his arms still squeezed against his sides. He found himself face to face with the tiger from the ship … Ho Ran-Gi.

“I remember you.” The tiger said with a crocked smile. “You are the coyote that got away from the ship. I was wondering what had become of you.”

Ho Ran-Gi walked Conrad across the room and the Administrator patted Conrad down, finding the small pistol. He then took the decorative gold cords from his curtained windows and used them to tie Conrad securely. Only then did the tiger put Conrad in a chair by the desk and step away from him.

“We were just about to go looking for you.” The bear said as he settled in behind his desk. “Ho Ran-Gi was very cramped hiding behind that door for so long. You are very inconsiderate. I placed him there as I found it strange that Choi would be reporting here when I was recently informed that his body was found floating in the Tumen River. Most of it anyway. Apparently he stepped on an unmarked landmine trying to cross to the Russian side.” The bear added as it began to lay out a number of sharp steel implements on his desk.

“You’ll never get me to talk.” Conrad said, eyeing the torture gear.

The bear looked down where Conrad’s gaze was fixed and laughed.

“This is my manicure set.” The Administrator said with a chuckle as he picked up a pointed implement and began scraping dirt from one of his long claws. “But I like the way you think. Maybe Ho Ran-Gi can come up with some techniques using them in the future, but we need not stoop to torture right now. We suspected that some spy agency or another was onto us when you disappeared from the freighter carrying the lithium. Let me guess, you were picked up by a submarine and the lifeboat was scuttled, right? No, you don’t have to answer. That vein in your temple answered for you.”

“In any event, we have already taken steps to secure our supply of lithium-6. We have been working around the clock to separate the isotope and we will be finished this batch today. As soon as we have it all it will be shipped to a manufacturing facility deep under the mountains to be applied to one of our larger warheads. At the same time all of the indispensable staff will be evacuated to a secure location. Meanwhile air defence forces have been concentrated around this facility and placed on high alert. Our smaller ballistic missile subs have also been sent out with our more conventional nuclear missiles to be in position for a retaliatory strike should anyone launch an attack into our sovereign territory.”

“Of course,” he added with a toothy grin, “you clever spies will discover all these measures, mostly because we are not taking any particular precautions to stop you from finding out. The knowledge that we are prepared will serve as a deterrent.”

“You won’t have time.” Conrad bluffed. “They already know where this plant is located and the strike is already on its way.”

“I doubt it.” The bear said as he filed one of his claws to a fine point. “They would want to give you a chance to try to destroy it from the inside first, to provide deniability.”

It seemed to Conrad that the Administrator had all his bases covered. “What are you going to do with me?”

“We’re going to kill you, of course.”

Conrad did not say anything, but his shoulders tensed for the bullet that would surely follow.

“Oh, not here.” The bear said with a disgusted frown. “Do you know how hard it is to smuggle these deep pile carpets in from the west? And blood stains are almost impossible to get out completely. No, I have something much more interesting in mind for you. Something that will serve as a warning to others who might be thinking of defecting or selling out like Choi did. Ho Ran-Gi,” the bear said, looking over Conrad’s shoulder, “Take him to the extractor room. To the mercury sluice.”

“Yes, Gom Do-Ri. Right away.” The tiger replied. He picked Conrad up, tucked him under one arm and strode out of the office.

Conrad was bounced about as the tiger jogged down the stairs and he hoped that the jostling would loosen his bonds enough for him to get an arm free, but before he could wiggle one out they were on the main floor and the tiger placed him on the floor as he donned a gasmask. Then he was picked up again and pushed though the doors to the extractor room.

The tiger ignored the workers that were staring at them through their clear HAZMAT hoods. He carried Conrad to a tube with an open top, somewhat like a waterpark slide, Conrad thought. It ran from one of the main mercury columns though an opening in the wall. One of the nitric acid pipes ran beside it.

“This is the mercury sluice.” The tiger told Conrad as he sat him down inside the open tube. “When the mercury gets too dirty to work as a separator it is flushed though this tube and replaced by fresh mercury from the holding tanks up there. The bad mercury is treated with nitric acid to clean it and then pumped back up to the holding tanks, ready for the next use.”

While he explained the working of the system Ho Ran-Gi was using the synthetic curtain cords to tie Conrad’s wrists and ankles to cleats inside the tube. When he was done Conrad was spread out on his back, head down in the slightly inclined sluice. A quick glance confirmed that the level the mercury would attain when it flowed down the pipe was higher than his snout. The Administrator intended to drown him in mercury.

Ho Ran-Gi checked a dial at the base of the column. “You should have about ten minutes before the cleaning cycle starts.” He informed Conrad with a toothy grin through his gas mask. “Try not to breathe to deeply while you wait, the fumes in here will make your lungs burn like the fires of hell were in them. Now you’ll have to excuse me, I need a shower after exposing my fur to this stuff.”

Ho Ran-Gi lumbered off, leaving Conrad prone in the tube. Around him he heard the sound of workers shuffling out of the room, having realized that they must have something urgent to do elsewhere.

Conrad tested his bonds. The tiger knew his knots, unfortunately. There was some play in the ropes holding his arms in place, but not nearly enough to get a paw on the knots, or to allow him to raise his head out of the tube. The best he could do was bang on the sides of the pipe, and that was fruitless; no one would interfere with his execution, not unless they wanted to join him for the next cleaning cycle.

He did bang on the side of the tube, however, if only to vent his frustration at his predicament. When he did so with his right fist he struck the nitric acid pipe, and the ceramic section he struck shifted slightly, allowing a thin stream of toxic smoke to escape.

Great, he thought, now I can die of lung failure at the same time I’m drowning.

He jerked his paw away from the corrosive gas and felt the rope on his paw stretch a bit. He examined the curtain cord more closely. Where it had been exposed to the acid gas it was sticky and looked partially melted.

Of course, he thought, the gas is highly corrosive, that’s why they need to use inert materials for the pipe that carries it. The curtain cords were probably cheap nylon that would not stand up to exposure to the gas for long. The question was, how long?

Conrad banged the pipe again and the flow of yellow-red smoke increased. Gritting his teeth and holding his breath he stuck his arm up as far as he could into the stream of smoke.

The burning sensation came almost immediately, especially where there was blood from his chaffed wrists. Nitric acid reacted to water, he recalled reading, and blood was mostly water. There must be some blood on his bindings though because the cords were smoking in several places. By rotating his wrist he managed to put more blood on the cords, and the smoking increased as the acid did its work.

The floor of the extraction room was soon covered with noxious smoke, some from the pipe and some from the reaction. It obstructed Conrad’s view of the upper floors of the administrative section, but it would obstruct the view of anyone watching him too. He ignored the burning sensation in his wrist and tugged harder at the cord.

It felt like his lungs were going to burst when the cord was finally dissolved enough for him to pull his paw free. Fighting the urge to take a gulp of air he quickly undid his other wrist and bent to undo the bonds at his ankles. Just as he slipped his foot from the last restraint he heard a clang from the base of the column as saw a red light blinking through the smoke. Conrad flung himself out of the tube and onto the floor beside it as the sloshing sound of a wave of mercury approached.

The smoke was hanging a half a meter above the floor. Conrad took a tentative breath and while the air down there did not taste good, it did not make him choke either. He took several deep breaths and began crawling for the framework, where he had spotted a ladder that went all the way to the top of the main column.

Taking one more deep breath Conrad climbed the ladder, keeping behind the cylinder, away from the observation windows. Mercury was still spilling down the tube, but it was slowing down as the column emptied. Hopefully when the tiger sent someone to check on him they would think that the force of the heavy liquid metal had washed him down the pipe and into the cleaning tank, where the nitric acid would dissolve his body, leaving no trace.

When her reached the ceiling Conrad was above the noxious fumes so he took the time to catch his breath. As he suspected, the ceiling of the extraction room was above the false ceiling of the Administrative section and the wall between them ended a meter short of the true ceiling. He scrambled along the framework until he reached the dividing wall and then he switched to the steel beams that ran the length of the administrative section, holding up the walls and the false ceiling.

He would need his time-delay detonators to have any hope of getting away alive, he realized, and the explosive drills too. Hopefully neither the tiger nor the Administrator has seen his bag go behind the armchair while he was struggling to get free.

Conrad navigated the space between the false ceiling and the true ceiling, using the steel beams that held the structure up, until he was sure that he was above the Administrator’s office. He pried up one of the sound-suppressing tiles peeked down. He was a couple of meters behind the Administrator, who was still seated at his desk doing his claws. A length of curtain cord that had not been used to bind him was laying on the floor directly behind the bear.

Being very careful not to make a noise, Conrad slid the tile to one side and dropped silently to the thick carpet. He snuck up behind the bear, stooped to pick up the curtain cord and wound the ends around each of his paws. When the remaining cord was just longer than the circumference of big bear’s neck he pounced.

Conrad crossed his wrists and the loop formed in the cord slipped nicely over the Administrator’s head and around his neck. Conrad pulled the ends as hard as he could, blessing the upper body workouts that Rusty had forced him to perform before leaving for the mission. The bear didn’t stand a chance as it flailed about trying to get free, although he did try to stab Conrad with a claw file over its shoulder. Conrad avoided it easily and doubled the pressure on the bear’s neck. In a few minutes it was all over.

When he was sure that the bear was dead Conrad let go of the makeshift garotte and went to the Administrator’s private bathroom to wash the acid residue from his wrist. Seeing a spare white shirt hanging by the shower Conrad tore it into strips and used them to bandage the damaged fur and flesh. There was a HAZMAT suit hanging there also, a very high quality one. The Administrator’s personal suit, Conrad guessed.

Donning the suit, which was a little large, even with the adjustable tabs tightened all the way, Conrad retrieved his bag from behind the chair. Then he went back to the bear’s body and searched it until he found the Administrator’s pass, one that presumably had universal access. He clipped it on the suit backwards, with the picture facing in, as many of the workers he had seen wore them inside the extractor room to protect the chip with the security code from the corrosive air. Then he took the stairs down to the main floor.

Glancing through the observation window Conrad saw a dozen workers bustling about around the extractor trying to fix the broken acid pipe and clean the mess Conrad had left behind. Using the Administrator’s pass card he entered the extractor room and pretended to be helping with cleaning up. All the while though he was placing the explosive drills in out of the way places and attaching the detonators to them. He hoped that ten minutes would be enough for him to get clear of the compound before the shit hit the fan.

One the last charge was in place he made his way to the door closest to the main exit. There he paused and used his watch to send the signal that would start the countdown. As soon as he confirmed that the timer was running he turned and pushed though the exit door … right into a security team led by none other than the tiger, Ho Ran-Gi.

Recognizing Conrad through the transparent HAZMAT suit Ho Ran-Gi yelled to the guards, “The infiltrator! Stop him!”

Conrad rolled to the side as a flood of bullets struck the door he had just come through.

“Don’t shoot toward the extractor, idiots!” Ho Ran-Gi roared. “Shoot at the coyote!”

There was a moment of confusion as most of the local security guards had no idea what a coyote was.

“The … the canine … in the HAZMAT suit! Kill him!”

By now Conrad had ditched the suit and retrieved the weapons from his bag. Shoving spare magazines in his belt he took the large pistol and assault rifle he had liberated one in each paw and fired back at the inexperienced guards.

His first order of business, he realized, was to keep Ho Ran-Gi, the only one with enough brains to figure out what was going on, away from the extractor long enough for the explosives to do their work. To do that, however, he had to keep the tiger and his security guards pinned down between him and the exit. That meant that he would be within the radius of the fireball when the lithium went up. There must be a better way, he told himself.

Inching back towards the construction area he sensed someone behind him. He turned and fired instinctively, as he had been taught, and saw two guards that had been trying to outflank him go down. There must be another way around for them to have been able to get behind him, he reasoned, and he scuttled back to where their bodies lay to strip them of ammunition before looking for it.

Keeping a steady rate of fire down the corridor he held the main force at bay while he tried various doors looking for another way out. He found it when four more guards sent to cut him off burst out of an unmarked door. It was the kind that locked automatically from the other side. He took all four out with the last of his assault gun ammunition and dove for the door before it could swing closed. Then, emptying the large pistol he had liberated down the corridor, he pulled it shut and ran down the narrow hallway he found himself in.

Slapping the last of his spare magazines into the pistol Conrad tried to envision what would happen next. If his ploy was successful the tiger would either be close behind him or waiting for him at the end of this corridor. If behind him they would likely both die in a shoot out. If laying in ambush ahead of him Conrad would either die in a hail of bullets or within the fireball while grappling with Ho Ran-Gi. Either way it would be too late for the tiger to find all the explosives and disarm them before they went off. The mission would be a success, he would be dead, and his very short career would end with a perfect record.

But the tiger did not appear behind him, nor was he waiting in ambush as Conrad burst through a side door into the security checkpoint at the building’s main entrance.

The lynx he had seen earlier was still behind the desk, and she had been joined by two martens with assault rifles. Conrad took out all three with as many shots, pausing only to grab a fresh assault rifle and more ammo from the twitching corpses.

He had left the SUV parked a hundred meters away, just outside the fence that separated the extractor building from the rest of the compound. The exterior guards, on high alert, began shooting at him as soon as he started running for the car. Rolling, weaving, ducking and firing back on the run, he managed to hit several of them and make the rest go to ground. The way the car was parked would shield him from further fire once he reached it. It looked like he was going to make it, but a jubilant roar stopped Conrad in his tracks.

He slowly turned back toward the extractor building. Ho Ran-Gi was standing in the main entrance, his fist raised triumphantly over his head.

“HA, Spy! I have found your explosive.” Ho Ran-Gi laughed as he waved his paw over his head. By the light of the reception area Conrad saw an explosive drill and the detonator that was once connected to it sticking out between the tiger’s thick furry digits.

Then a thought forced its way through the wall of anger and failure that had formed in Conrad’s brain.

‘Explosive’, the tiger had said, not ‘explosives’.

Conrad dropped to the ground just as twin explosions came from the interior of the building, followed by a rushing sound as oxygen was sucked in through the doors to fuel the fireball that appeared behind Ho Ran-Gi. It reached the tiger before he could even look around to see what the noise was, and its force propelled him halfway to Conrad even as it set its fur ablaze.

Ho Ran-Gi, fur and clothes on fire, hit the ground running, but not for long. He almost reached Conrad when the heat from his burning skin ignited the explosive charge he was still holding in a death grip and blew off his forearm. Screaming, the tiger dropped to the ground and flailed about, vigorously at first but gradually slowing as the fire consumed him.

The guards witnessing the death were stunned motionless, as was Conrad, but he recovered first and made it to the SUV without more shots being fired. Behind him the COLEX plant was burning brightly, as was the corpse of Ho Ran-Gi.

“Tiger, tiger, burning bright,” Conrad mumbled as an old English poem he had learned in school leapt to mind, “in the darkness of the night.” He turned the key, slammed the car into gear and sped off. The compound gates were still open and with his lights off they did not see him coming in time to close them.

Conrad knew that the word would get out soon enough and all the checkpoints between here and Yongbyon would be closed, but he had to try to get to Ha-Rin before they connected her to the missing Choi. Fortunately, she had told him about an inn near her hometown, east of Kangsan along a road used only by local farmers, and smugglers. She had agreed to go and wait for him there if she could get out of Yongbyon before the alarm was raised.

Conrad activated the GPS in his watch and let it guide him off the main route and towards the rendezvous.

* * * * * * * *

Three days later, former Australian forces Captain Haddock received a message on a satellite communication set that the Russians fortunately did not yet know about.

“Well, well, well.” He chuckled to himself. “Seems that a certain coyote and his plus one need an escort out of the Hermit Kingdom. Didn’t know the youngster had it in him.”

I should do this for free, he told himself as he gathered his gear, but he wouldn’t; the amount F.O.X. was offering was enough for him to settle down on a ranch in the outback with enough left over so no one need ever bother him again.

* * * * * * * *

It took several days from the time Haddock found them hiding in a sea cave to get out of North Korea and Russia and back to Ottawa. The trip was not without incident and there were several casualties, fortunately all on the other side.

Once back at F.O.X. Conrad and Ha-Rin were separated. He was sent for a full medical and psychiatric examination, just in case the Koreans had turned him, while she presumably went straight to the interrogation wing.

After being cleared by the Academy’s resident psychologist, Doctor Gordon, Conrad was allowed to go to his room to clean up and get some rest. His head had barely touched his pillow before a knock came on his dormitory door. Conrad opened the door to find the Director’s secretary, the poodle Miss CC, standing there. She was wearing another filly see-through blouse and another tight miniskirt and heels that violated the local fire codes.

“Zee Director wants to see you immediately.” She said, then she spun on one impossibly tall, thin heel and began to sashay down the dorm corridor towards the tunnel that connected it with F.O.X. Headquarters.

“You couldn’t have phoned?” Conrad asked, slightly out of breath as he rushed to catch up. He did not overtake her though. He was content to stay a couple of paces behind where he could watch the pompom on her half-tail swing back and forth over her gyrating backside.

“I could ‘ave,” she said, tossing him a toothy grin over her shoulder, “but then you would ‘ave nothing to entertain you on the walk to hees office.”

Conrad let his eyes enjoy the view while he went over any possible questions the Director might throw at him about the mission. As far as he could tell he had done well, but maybe he had overstepped his mandate by bringing Ha-Rin out with him.

No sense worrying about things he could not change now, he told himself. Whatever the Director has to say, I’ll find out in a few minutes.

Miss CC led Conrad directly to the door of the Director’s office. Along the way they passed Bill “the Professor” Hanlan, who gave Conrad an encouraging smile and the Senior Agent, Marcel. Conrad could read mothing in the little black fox’s blank stare.

Miss CC did not follow Conrad into the Director’s office. Once inside, Conrad saw that Silver was sitting behind the big antique desk while his mate, Chief of Staff Vikki Beausoleil, occupied a comfortable armchair on the opposite side. There was an empty chair beside her, and Conrad stopped and stood politely by it, ready to take any criticism standing.

“Sit down, Jotkowski.” Silver said.

Conrad sat, and said, “Thank you, sir.”

The Director’s face was just as unreadable as Marcel’s but when Conrad glanced at the Chief of staff she rewarded him with a warm smile, and he knew that everything was going to be okay. He turned to face the Director again and waited patiently.

“Good work, Jotkowski.” Silver said, and his lips curled ever so slightly into what might have been interpreted as a smile. “You achieved every objective we set for you. The source of the North Korean lithium has been cut off, their clandestine refinery in Indonesia has been shut down and their rogue Typhoon submarine is about to develop a major reactor problem that they won’t be able to fix, thanks to a certain Aussie Army Captain of recent acquaintance.”

“More importantly,” Silver continued, “their entire supply of lithium-6 has been destroyed, along with the means to produce it. Their Nuclear Research Command generals have told the Leader that the COLEX plant was destroyed in an industrial accident, the result of the late Administrator cutting corners out of a false sense of urgency. We estimate that about half of the senior staff have been executed in the fit of rage the Leader displayed after hearing the bad news, but it would have been all of them if they had admitted that a spy had infiltrated the system ... using the security pass of a defector … and taking one of the Leader’s favourite ‘hostesses’ away.”

“Uhm, about Ha-Rin.” Conrad injected. “Will she be, ah … staying? Here at F.O.X., I mean.”

Silver’s smile edged up one degree. “I’m sorry Conrad, we already have one snow leopard on the roster, and she is more than enough for us to manage. Ha-Rin will be allowed to stay in Canada though; the Canadian Nuclear Commission is interested in what she knows about the North Korean nuclear program.”

Silver’s expression went neutral again, and he added, “Anyway, I’m glad that you survived.”

“Was there any doubt I would?”

“The Professor put the odds of you getting out intact as one in five, but I had a feeling that you would make it. I made a tidy sum betting against him and the Senior Agent.”

Vikki smiled and shook her head and addressed Conrad like she was sharing a secret. “The Director loves a gamble, especially when he wins.”

Silver sat back in his tall, padded chair and med a tent of his digits. “Fortes fortuna iuvat” He said.

“Fortune Favours the bold.” Conrad translated.

Silver turned his snout toward Vikki. “See, this is why we recruit agents with language skills.”

Vikki rolled her eyes and spoke in a false whisper out of the side of her muzzle to Conrad. “Don’t listen to him, he never graduated Highschool.”

“I did so!”

“On a technicality!”

The Director straightened up. “We’re ignoring the hero of the hour. Jotkowski, you displayed superior skills, good judgement and initiative and completed your mission with distinction. As such, there is no need for you to finish basic agent training. You are hereby promoted to the status of agent, albeit a junior one. The promotion will be backdated to the day we pulled you out of class.”

Silver stood, leaned over the desk and extended a paw. “Congratulations.”

Conrad stood and shook paws with the Director. “Thank you, sir. I appreciate it.”

When the pawshake broke they both sat down. Conrad sat on the edge of his chair and leaned forward. According to the lectures on agency procedures and practices, as a junior agent he would most likely be assigned to a team headed by one of the senior agents, the ones with codenames like Silver, White, Emerald and Ebony.

“Who will I be reporting to, Sir?”

“Actually,” Silver said as he took a file folder marked ‘Special Access’ from his desk and placed it on the green felt blotter between them, “we are starting an initiative where promising junior agents will work unsupervised, reporting directly to the Senior Agent and the Chief of Staff.”

The big silver fox slid the folder towards Conrad.

“What do you say, Junior Agent Jotkowski. Are you ready for your next mission?”

Conrad Jotkowski is © Coyotek

The rest of the gang of idiots is © Dikran O.

Excerpt from The Tyger, by William Blake