A Saving Grace

It was another lonely night in his large home, though the halls had once echoed with the laughter of his family now the halls were silent save for his footfalls on the hardwood floors. This isn't how he had imagined his life would turn out; he had always thought that he would have not lost everything he held so dear at the cost of completing his assignment. He stood from the leather armchair he had been sitting in for so many hours to walk around the large mahogany walled room he called his office. Reaching his desk he picked up a decanter of his favorite drink, a deep brown liquid with a strong oak and rye smell; savoring the smell of it he poured a glass and sat down.

"What has my life come to? I seek solace in liquor and even it doesn't work as well as it used to." He said to the empty room as the sun began to peak over the mountains shining its warming rays through the windows and casting long shadows onto the floor. He began to walk towards a picture of a beautiful brunette woman sitting in a metal frame on a shelf opposite his desk. "I miss you more than I can ever put into words. I still and will always love you sweetie." He kissed the picture before setting it back in its spot on the shelf turning to look at the picture one last time he downed his drink and walked out of the room to go start his day.

This was his idea of hell. He was currently stuck in traffic less than a block from his towering office and all he could do was hope that he would get to his office before the meeting started. After all if this meeting went well he could start working from home almost everyday and only come in to go to meetings with the board and clients.

Finally reaching his underground parking space he pulled in and got out to begin making his way upstairs to run his very large, very powerful business. It had always bothered his wife what exactly Evig Håp International did, on the surface it was a security company specializing in keeping celebrities and politicians safe from the general population. Yet underneath there was a thriving gun for hire segment of the company that ThorSoldat refused to acknowledge existed. There were other segments of the company but none as famous as the security services they provided.

Reaching the elevator to take him to the ground floor of the skyscraper he pushed the button to go upstairs. The elevator dinged marking its arrival; Thor stepped onto it and turned to face the maze of an underground car park. Seeing a young freckled redhead rushing to catch the elevator he held it trying to be nice.

"Thank you." She said as she stepped onto the elevator and looked at the man who held the doo. He was big that much was obvious, the girl guessed he was about six foot six and around two hundred seventy-five pounds of muscle as his shirt was straining to contain his arms and chest within it. After looking him up and down she turned to face the door. Her breathing sounded like she had just run a half marathon.

"Rough morning?" Thor asked trying to be polite; after all, his brother had been trying to get him to start dating again after his wife died in a car wreck several years ago.

"Yeah, I woke up late and was afraid that I would be late on my first day." The redhead replied as the elevator dinged its arrival at the ground floor of the monolithic building.

"I hope you have a good first day." Thor replied with a small smile. I'm Thor Soldat. Most people call me Adolf though." He said introducing himself and giving her a warm smile.

"I'm Anna Weaver." The redhead stated with a touch of embarrassment, after all she had been hoping to make a good impression on her new boss and being late wasn't helping her. "I believe I was hired to be your new assistant."

"That sounds about right; I had to fire my last one for her negligence on a job I assigned her. I hope you will do better than she did."

"I will, I need this job." Anna stated sounding cheerful. "Where will I be working?" She asked hopefully.

"Up on the twenty-third floor with me." Thor answered. "First though I have a meeting and then I'll be up. Your desk is between the elevator and my office door. Go get settled in."

"Yes sir."

And with that they parted ways to go about their days.

It wasn't even lunch yet and already Anna was ready to get out of the office, something about not having anything to do didn't sit well with her. Just as she was starting to ponder making something up about not feeling well and looking bad on her first day Thor walked off the elevator looking upset.

"How did your meeting go?" Anna inquired trying to sound interested.

"It could have been better, I need you to come with me." Thor answered sounding unhappy.

"Where are we going?" Anna asked

"We're going to a satellite office in the Northern Mountains." Thor said rather shortly. She got up and followed the hulking man to the elevator and down to the parking garage where he walked to his tuned Mustang GT and climbed in. Anna climbed into the low slung muscle car which she felt fit the man driving. Glancing around she noticed that the interior was sparse at best with no floor mats and no stereo as well as racing seats and a roll cage where the backseat would have been with racing harnesses attached to it. She realized quickly that this was going to be more uncomfortable than her Mini Cooper.

"How do I fasten the seat belts?" Anna asked holding the ends of the different belts in her hands.

"Watch me and I'll show you." Thor answered as he took the right lap belt and slotted the end into the right side of a camlock buckle doing the same with the two shoulder belts the he pulled down on the straps to tighten them into his shoulders. Anna managed to get the lap belts connected but started having problems with the shoulder belts. Noticing her trouble Thor reached over and did it for her before yanking down on the redhead's shoulder straps. "Tighten them until you feel your back pressed into the seat and then hang on."

"Ok." Anna said though it was drowned out by the sound of the Mustang firing up and then a slight hum. The car was definitely loud. Thor slotted the shifter into first and set off with the revs slowly rising as he accelerated out of the garage. "Loud isn't it?" She half yelled.

"It's better for the performance; I can quiet it down if you like." He responded. Glancing over he saw her give a thumbs up and flipped a switch on the console and it became much quitter the only noise other than the whining of a supercharger was the road noise from the tires. "That better?"

"Yes, thank you." Anna answered. "What is so important that we have to go to the satellite office?"

"You'll be briefed on what we do at the satellite office upon arrival."

The next thirty minutes went by with dead silence between the two. Once he pulled into the parking lot, which, for being a sunny day was shaded due to all of the trees that hung over the lot, Thor pulled into his reserved space at the front and got out with Anna nipping at his heels. They walked into a small home that backed up to the mountain and went to the back bedroom where a door seemed to go straight into the mountain.

"Welcome to Asgaard." He said as he walked into a vast room. "This way." He instructed as he walked towards a door on the back wall. Crossing through the door into the room that lay beyond Anna's eyes went wide at the sight. Lining three of hte walls were computer screens and tvs showing computer code, satelite video feeds, as well as GPS feeds. "Welcome to the black room."

"What's all this for?" Anna asked still in shock of everything.

"Its an assignment I assigned to the company to track a few people of interest to many different countries around the world."

"Who?" Anna asked curiously.

"Harry Potter."