Chapter 2 - The Man Outside the Door
The deadbolt moved.
Nobody inside Pine Ridge Animal Hospital touched it.
Kelly backed away from the reception desk.
"How is someone opening that?"
Maddox grabbed the leash with one hand and reached beneath his hoodie with the other.
Dr. Price saw the movement.
"Do not pull a weapon in my clinic."
"Then get everyone away from the windows."
Rook stood rigidly beside me.
The door opened two inches.
Then stopped against the secondary security latch.
A man's face appeared through the narrow gap.
Mid-fifties.
Gray hair.
Dark coat.
Calm expression.
"Commander Maddox."
Maddox didn't answer.
The stranger smiled.
"You forgot to return government property."
His eyes shifted past Maddox.
Toward Rook.
Then toward me.
His smile disappeared.
"Maya Calder."
Cold traveled down my spine.
"Who are you?"
"Colonel Adrian Mercer."
Maddox stepped between us.
"You need to leave."
Mercer studied him.
"That isn't your decision anymore."
He pushed the door.
The security latch held.
Dr. Price picked up the phone.
"I'm calling the police."
Mercer looked through the glass at her.
"Doctor, I strongly recommend you don't."
She dialed anyway.
No signal.
Kelly checked her phone.
"Mine's dead too."
My phone still showed the anonymous messages, but the service indicator had vanished.
Jammer.
Maddox swore.
Mercer heard him.
"You had one assignment, Brock."
Maddox's shoulders tightened.
"Things changed."
"No. You changed."
Rook growled.
Mercer looked at him.
"Still remembers me, doesn't he?"
That single sentence changed everything.
I moved toward the door.
"You knew my brother."
Maddox blocked me.
"Don't."
Mercer smiled again.
"Your brother knew me very well."
"Where is Daniel?"
Mercer's eyes remained on mine.
"Ask Commander Maddox."
I turned.
Maddox looked away.
The anger hit so quickly I almost couldn't speak.
"You told me you didn't know who I was."
"I was trying to protect you."
"From him?"
"From everyone."
"Where is my brother?"
Maddox looked toward Mercer.
Then Rook.
Then me.
"Not here."
My heart slammed.
"Is he alive?"
"I don't know."
Four words.
Four years of grief shattered.
I grabbed Maddox's hoodie.
"You don't know?"
"Maya—"
"You said he died!"
"I never told you that."
"You knew I was told!"
"Yes."
"Why?"
Mercer tapped the glass.
"Brock, this is becoming embarrassing."
Maddox ignored him.
"Daniel's mission went bad. His team was compromised."
"By whom?"
"I didn't know then."
"And now?"
His eyes moved toward Mercer.
That answered enough.
Mercer's smile vanished.
"Careful."
Maddox laughed bitterly.
"You really think there's anything left to protect?"
"Your career."
"Keep it."
"Your freedom."
Maddox glanced at me.
"Already lost that."
I released his hoodie.
"What did you do?"
He didn't answer immediately.
Then he removed something from his pocket.
A small flash drive.
"I stole this."
Mercer stared through the door.
"That belongs to the United States government."
"No," Maddox said. "It belongs to the men you buried."
Dr. Price whispered, "What is happening?"
Maddox handed the drive to me.
I didn't take it.
"What is it?"
"Mission files. After-action reports. medical logs. kennel transfers."
"Daniel?"
"Maybe."
"Maybe?"
"I couldn't decrypt everything."
Mercer suddenly stepped away from the door.
The SUV's rear doors opened.
Two men emerged.
Maddox's expression hardened.
"We need to move."
"Where?"
"Back exit."
Dr. Price shook her head.
"I'm not running from armed strangers without calling police."
"They've jammed the phones."
"I have a landline in surgery."
"Use it."
Kelly and Dr. Price hurried down the hallway.
I stayed.
Rook stayed.
Maddox looked at me.
"You should go with them."
"No."
"Maya."
"You came here with my brother's dog and forged records. You're going to explain everything."
A crash sounded at the front entrance.
The outer glass cracked.
Rook barked once.
Maddox pulled a compact handgun from beneath his hoodie.
I stared at him.
"Great."
"Stay behind me."
"I don't take orders from you."
"Daniel said the same thing."
My breath caught.
"You talked to him?"
"Years ago."
"When?"
"Before his final deployment."
"What did he say?"
Another impact hit the door.
The latch bent.
Maddox looked toward it.
"He told me if anything happened to him, keep you out of it."
"Apparently you failed."
"Apparently."
The door burst inward.
Maddox raised the weapon.
"Back!"
Mercer entered with empty hands.
The two men remained outside.
"I'm not here to hurt anyone."
"Then leave."
Mercer looked at me.
"Maya, Commander Maddox has given you a very selective version of events."
"He hasn't given me any version."
"Then allow me."
Maddox shook his head.
"Don't listen."
Mercer ignored him.
"Your brother disappeared during Operation Black Harbor. His team had been tracking weapons moving through a private contractor network. Daniel became convinced someone inside Naval Special Warfare was protecting the network."
"Who?"
"He never proved it."
"Liar," Maddox said.
Mercer glanced at him.
"You weren't there."
"I saw the report."
"You saw what Daniel wanted you to see."
My head turned.
"What does that mean?"
Mercer took one step closer.
"Your brother wasn't merely investigating Black Harbor."
Maddox raised the gun.
"Enough."
"He was part of it."
"No."
Mercer's eyes stayed on mine.
"Daniel Calder was suspected of selling operational intelligence."
I laughed because the alternative was screaming.
"You're lying."
"I wish I were."
Rook growled.
Mercer looked down.
"Even the dog was recovered from a smuggling compound."
Maddox snapped, "That's not what happened."
"You weren't there."
"Neither were you."
Mercer's expression tightened.
Interesting.
"Who recovered Rook?" I asked.
Neither answered.
"Who?"
Maddox finally said, "I did."
My eyes went to him.
"When?"
"Eighteen months ago."
"Where?"
"Romania."
The room seemed to tilt.
"You found my brother's dog in Romania three years after Daniel supposedly died?"
"Yes."
"And you told nobody?"
"I reported the recovery."
"Under what name?"
Silence.
"Titan," I whispered.
Maddox nodded.
"Why?"
"Because somebody tried to kill him before I got him home."
Mercer scoffed.
"An unsupported theory."
Maddox pointed at Rook's scars.
"Those aren't training injuries."
I knelt beside the dog.
His harness covered part of his rib cage.
I had seen scar tissue earlier, but now I carefully moved the strap.
There was a circular scar beneath it.
Not a bite.
Not shrapnel.
A surgical incision.
Dr. Price returned.
"Landline is dead."
She noticed what I was examining.
"Maya?"
"Can you scan him?"
"For a microchip?"
"Everything."
Maddox stiffened.
Mercer said, "That won't be necessary."
That told me it absolutely was.
Dr. Price understood too.
"Exam Room Two."
Maddox grabbed Rook's leash.
Mercer stepped forward.
"Commander."
Maddox aimed his weapon.
"Try me."
For several seconds nobody moved.
Then Mercer smiled.
"Go ahead."
We backed down the hallway.
Dr. Price locked the exam-room door.
Rook jumped onto the table when I gave the German command.
Dr. Price scanned his shoulders.
Beep.
A microchip registered.
She read the number.
It didn't match Titan's paperwork.
I already knew it wouldn't.
She entered the number into the database.
The computer loaded.
K9-417.
ROOK.
Handler:
CALDER, DANIEL J.
My knees weakened.
Dr. Price kept reading.
"Status..."
She stopped.
"What?"
She turned the monitor.
Rook's official status had been updated eighteen months earlier.
RECOVERED ALIVE.
Handler status appeared beneath it.
UNKNOWN.
Then another field.
AUTHORIZED CONTACT.
One name.
MAYA CALDER.
Maddox stared at the screen.
"I never saw that."
"Someone entered my name."
"Daniel," I whispered.
A tiny attachment icon appeared beside the record.
Dr. Price clicked it.
Encrypted audio file.
Password required.
Maddox tried several military codes.
Nothing.
I looked at Rook.
Then typed the word Daniel used whenever he came home.
ROOKHOME.
The file opened.
Static filled the speakers.
Then a voice.
Older.
Exhausted.
But unmistakable.
My brother.
"Maya, if you're hearing this, Rook found you."
I covered my mouth.
Maddox went still.
Daniel continued.
"Don't trust the official report. Don't trust the man who brings him to you unless Rook gives you the sign."
Maddox whispered, "What sign?"
Daniel's recording crackled.
"Ask Rook where home is."
I looked at the dog.
My voice shook.
"Rook."
His ears rose.
"Wo ist Zuhause?"
Where is home?
Rook jumped down.
He walked directly toward Maddox.
My heart sank.
Then he moved past him.
Toward the examination-room cabinets.
He scratched at the bottom drawer.
Dr. Price opened it.
Nothing.
Rook scratched the wall behind it.
Maddox pulled the cabinet aside.
A vent appeared.
Inside sat a sealed plastic pouch.
Impossible.
Someone had hidden it inside Pine Ridge.
I reached in.
The pouch contained a photograph.
Daniel.
Rook.
And another man.
Brock Maddox.
All three were standing together.
On the back, Daniel had written a date.
Three months after his reported death.
Underneath were six words.
BROCK SAVED ME. MERCER FOUND OUT.
The exam-room handle suddenly moved.
Mercer's voice came through the door.
"Maya, you should ask Brock what happened the night your brother disappeared the second time."
Maddox went white.
May you like
Then Mercer added:
"Ask him who pulled the trigger."
