Being Different

Operation Cloud Gate

A/N: An observer's view of the situation as Darius faces the unknown...

Observer's POV

Meanwhile, on board the SS Dakon:

"Are you absolutely positive that the outpost has been discovered? But why haven't we received any reports of enemy activity nearby in the last fifteen months, Bryant?" Darius paced the glazed floor of the meeting room, deep in the recesses of the SS Dakon. The SS Dakon was a formidable sub, designed with German technology, and armed with the latest weaponry. She sat, silently under the radar on the ocean floor.

"Our allies have just confirmed it. I guess their own operatives have been compromised to some degree in the process..." Commander Bryant Christensen stood at a little over 6ft 4inches, a blond, blue-eyed ruggedly handsome Scandinavian who was raised in North Carolina. The Commander perused the open map that was spread out across the silicon-covered table. His hand brushed over the outline of a certain outpost, nestled deep within the Sayan Mountains, just West of Krasnoyarsk, Ergaky, Siberia.

"I don't like the sound of that, Bryant. Are they absolutely sure? Who's been sniffing around the outpost? Any leads?" General Adams cast a wary eye on the screen that had now descended into view, displaying the outpost, covered by a thick blanket of snow.

"One...and you're not going to like what we've found..." Bryant sighed deeply as he checked the documents that had just been forwarded to him from one of the basecamps stationed nearby.

"This is preposterous!!! I thought our agents were monitoring his activities closely. What the hell is going on???" The General exclaimed upon reviewing the documents.

"What? What's happening?" Darius saw the disgust written all over the General's face, came around the desk and picked up the attachment and read it quickly. The name that leapt out at him incensed Darius. Wasting no time, he immediately picked up the phone and dialed back to headquarters when Hawkes casually answered.

"Hello sir, how is it going? Damien is still in school. He has football practice today..." Hawkes replied.

"Upon no circumstances is Damien to know that he is under full surveillance. I need them to be discreet, Hawkes. You know what I mean. I'd rather Damien be calm and go through the next few weeks nice and easy, especially while I'm away. Is that understood?" Darius wrapped the receiver's coil around his hand anxiously.

"Of course, sir. I know just who to send in..." Hawkes acknowledged.

"Good man. Please keep me updated, thank you Hawkes" Darius ended the call as Hawkes quietly replaced the receiver on its' stand.

Darius placed the receiver down, staring at it for a Nano-second as he pondered his next action.

"Your boy is in for a surprise, D....and it's not a good one..." General Adams grimaced.

"I'm not going to ruin it for him, General. He's smitten with the boy but he's playing it cool...We did a security check on the kid and he's clean. He's not his father..." Darius sunk his tall frame into the seat, exhausted and unnerved at the prospect of Damien being in danger...again.

"But D, that boy is the offspring of an evil man. How can you even allow him to...?" The General broke off, seeing the look of frustration and worry splayed over Darius' face.

"That's enough, Marcus!!!" Darius suddenly blew up in the General's face, bringing his fist down upon the table. Papers scattered everywhere, echoing the anger that welled up within Darius' chest at that moment. Here he was, halfway across the world not being able to protect his own son...again...

"Calm down, D. I didn't mean to rattle your cage" General Adams raised his hands up in surrender. He wasn't going to argue with the man who had saved his men from near annihilation during a dangerous mission twenty years ago.

"I've left Hawkes in charge of it. He knows what to do" Darius quietly responded.

"Fair enough. Hawkes is one of your best operatives, no argument there, D" General Adams nodded.

"There must be a mole somewhere in the system. He couldn't have known that the outpost was a cover unless...Give me a list of all the current and past operatives and agents in that outpost, please, Bryant" Darius' eyes grew wide, his brain alight with fire as if sparked by something he recollected from some other time and place.

"What are you getting at, D? You mean, there's an informant?" Marcus Adams' mouth gaped wide open.

"There she is. When was the last time you heard from her after her failed mission in Gdansk?" Darius grabbed a red felt pen and encircled the photograph above the name from the pages of a document marked 'CONFIDENTIAL' within Commander Bryant's hands.

"Katrina...You do know that she's been a wild card. She's gone AWOL for far too long...I'll get onto it" General Adams turned away for a brief moment and dialled his own operatives to do a thorough search on her whereabouts.

"What makes you suspect her, D?" Bryant furrowed his eyebrows as he read the brief on Agent Katrina Kordova.

"Do you remember Operation Gaia? It was a near epic failure on our part. We barely got out of there with our lives, Bryant! There were too many loopholes, Katrina being one of them. I could never trust her again; not enough to include her on another mission..." Darius quietly confided in the two men.

But there was more to the story to which Darius did not let on. He found himself staring at the photograph of the Russian beauty, remembering the gentle grace of her face; the tenderness of her luscious lips; the sensual curvature of her naked body pressed against his; the supple, firm flesh that undulated underneath his touch; her ample breasts heaving and sighing from every thrust of wanton abandon as he pounded into her, losing himself within that tight, hot cavity of her sex; the not-so-subtle moaning that escalated as they satiated in their lust for one another while a snowstorm raged outside in a small wooden cabin in Latvia...

Darius found himself relishing in the act of ravaging her upon his bed once more. Oh, how he missed her...If only...

"Darius, Darius...Snap out of it, man!!! Are you alright?" Marcus Adams shook his arm gently, bringing Darius out of his fervent reverie.

"Sorry General...I'm fine...It's nothing..." But his lips were pressed flat together, as he deliberately avoided the General's gaze for fear of giving himself away.

"D...I've found her..." The General spoke while Bryant looked perplexed.

Darius drew his attention to one of the port-holes as a giant Manta ray swum past, humming softly as the hull reverberated with its' song.

"Good. I'll deal with her. Hand me the coordinates and drop me off topside, Commander" Darius gave the order.

"Affirmative sir" Commander Bryant nodded and gave the order for the SS Dakon to begin its' ascent.