Hawk's Holiday.
Chapter 4: Castles.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the GI Joe characters. Colonel Cathy LaCroix is my creation though.
The next morning, Hawk got on the road to Banff. It was a 2-hour plus journey through some of the most beautiful countryside Hawk had ever seen.
Open prairie, soon turned into picturesque mountains, as Hawk came to the entrance to Banff National Park. He drove in and stopped at a rest area before continuing on to the town itself. Not before he took an entire roll of film though.
The town of Banff was a nice, pleasant little town. It had an assortment of restaurants, shops, pubs, and hotels in town. He stopped for gas and directions to make sure he was headed in the right way.
He made his way through the lush forest, until he reached the hotel. Hawk was stunned at the sight of the hotel. Pictures did not do the place justice. It looked more like a castle, instead of a hotel. In fact it was designed, according to the brochure, to look like an 18th Century Scottish Baronial Castle. He stopped and took several more pictures before continuing on to the front door. The doorman immediately summoned a porter for his luggage, and a valet to park his SUV.
Hawk was nearly overwhelmed by the sheer grandeur and opulence of the place. He had been inside the White House enough times, but this place almost put it to shame.
He signed in at the desk and he was quickly and politely shown up to his suite.
Damn, Firewall had outdone herself when she booked this room for me, Hawk thought.
It was larger than the modest apartment he had in Washington D.C. There was a king sized four-poster bed, a desk, a large screen TV, DVD Player, stereo, and a big selection of movies and CD's too chose from. There was a fully stocked wet bar as well.
Hawk tipped the porter well, and started to unpack his luggage. He noticed something a bit odd about something in his luggage. He pulled out an odd shaped metallic object. Hawk frowned and searched his luggage thoroughly until he found several more pieces of metal and hardened plastic. Hawk knew what it was before he found the ammunition clips. Damn Duke for being so fucking overprotective! He wondered how Duke managed to get the gun in his luggage, then he remembered that Snake Eyes offered to put his luggage into the van while Duke talked to Hawk back at the PIT before they took him to the airport.
Hawk pulled out his cell phone and was about to blast Duke for being a jackass and ordering Snake Eyes to put the gun in his luggage, but he stopped himself.
Duke was doing what any good second in command would do to ensure the safety of his commanding officer, and Hawk would do the same if the roles were reversed. Instead he called up Duke to inform him that he made it to the hotel safely, that he was fine, and thanked him for the "present" in his luggage. Hawk hung up before Duke could reply.
He sighed and assembled the pistol, a compact Heckler and Koch P7M13 9mm automatic. A compact 9mm pistol with a unique squeeze cocking mechanism in the pistol grip, which he could easily conceal at the small of his back in a holster, which was provided for this purpose.
Hawk decided to lie down for a bit before going downstairs for dinner.
4 hrs later…
Rested, showered, and dressed, Hawk came down to one of the restaurants for dinner. He figured that since Duke managed to slip a pistol into his luggage, he may have sent a few Joes to act as bodyguards as well. Sure enough he spotted four of them as soon as he entered the room.
They tried to be inconspicuous but Hawk managed to spot them anyway. The first two were posing as a young newlywed couple. The "husband", a young man with curly blonde hair and blue eyes, looked up and saw him, and immediately averted his eyes. His "wife" glared at him for less than a second before resuming their conversation. She was a tall, elegant woman with long brown hair tied in a single braid. These were two new recruits to the team known as Kamakura, an apprentice Ninja, and Sgt. Paige Adams, a sniper, respectively.
I'll have to talk with the kid about proper tradecraft once we get home. Hawk mused.
The other couple didn't acknowledge him as he went by. They appeared to be an older couple, on their second honeymoon perhaps? He was a large, burly man with long brown hair and glasses. She was an attractive blonde woman with short hair and an athlete's build. They were talking away in Russian. They were, respectively, Chuckles, the Joe's undercover expert, and Daina, a sniper from Czechoslovakia, formerly of the Soviet October Guard.
The headwaiter sat Hawk down and handed him a menu and wine list and made a few dinner recommendations. Hawk ordered a locally made ice wine and sat and perused the menu.
"Clay? Clayton Abernathy? Is that you?" a woman's voice asked.
Hawk looked up, startled and found himself looking at the face of an old friend from long ago.
"My God! It is you!" Colonel Catherine LaCroix, Canadian Army Intelligence (retired), exclaimed as she opened her arms to embrace him. Hawk, still a bit stunned, got up and embraced her.
"What brings you here, Clay?" Catherine asked.
"I'm here on holiday. What about you?" Hawk replied.
"Not much. I'm just the head of security for the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel." Catherine said with a grin, enjoying the look of utter astonishment on Hawk's face.