The men carefully transferred the dioxin into two dozen plastic soda bottles they found in the break area and divided them evenly among the team. Their trip allowed them to verify the location and quantity of the chemical; getting that information to command was the priority—especially now that they knew how well it worked.
Jacob followed Duke outside, where he watched the Golden Lab pace excitedly as if he was going for a walk around the block. Jacob noticed that James had shed much of his heavy protective equipment and now wore a well-worn floppy hat. It made Jacob’s own helmet feel even heavier, and he debated putting it back in his pack and trading it for a soft cap. Shifting his attention to the doorway, he watched as the others fell in behind him dressed in all of their armor. He decided to follow their lead and gathered along the backside of the building, waiting for the order to move out.
James knelt by the corner of the tall steel structure and pointed to the far trees. First, the team needed to break out of the city unnoticed then it was a straight shot north to the Army base. Marks had the coordinates of a communications tower there that they hoped they could use to get a message out. James looked up and smirked as Marks folded up the map and tucked it away in a breast pocket. “What’s so funny?” Marks asked.
“I just think it’s cute watching you try to read that map,” he whispered before reaching over to stroke the dog’s ears.
Marks flipped him off then looked back at the rest of the patrol. “Let’s get this done.”
Thirty minutes later, Jacob was walking on a narrow game trail fifty feet into a thick wood line that ran parallel to a winding gravel road. The men moved through parks and what were once finely manicured gardens and golf courses. Traveling south, they crossed a bridge, taking them farther from the city before reentering the woods. Hoping to avoid Deltas, they turned west—away from any structures and opting for the high grasses and woods instead of paved roads and sidewalks.
Jacob watched as Duke worked with the point man. The dog would wander out a few feet ahead, sometimes darting off the trail, then slowly walking back to rejoin them before trotting back to the front. If the dog stopped, James would call them to a halt while Duke sniffed at the grass or looked off at some distant object. When Duke went back to wagging his tail, James would move them back out. This style of movement made them slow and would take them longer to travel, but the slow easy-to-follow pace was also less exhausting.
The dog hadn’t barked; he only growled and bared its teeth in the presence of the Delta back at the warehouse. Not the evidence Marks needed to consider the dog a true military tracker, but still, James had already taken the dog in and made it one of the Team. James was slowly putting his faith in the dog and making him part of his point man tool bag.
Duke again stopped on the trail to sniff and inspect the ground around a worn tree stump. James held up a fist, halting them as the dog stepped into the tree line while keeping its nose to the air. This time, Marks made his way up to the front of the patrol. “James, we need to pick up the pace,” he whispered. “We can’t stop every time your dog needs to mark his territory.”
James shook his head lazily, listening to the lieutenant’s rant. “Sir, Duke is in the zone right now. I’m sorry, L-Tee, but I can’t mess around with that kind of Mojo.”
Marks shook his head. “James, stop fucking around—”
The dog suddenly dropped low, its feet apart in a fighter’s stance, his tail rigid and tucked back. Duke didn’t bark or growl, but Jacob could clearly see its lip curl, revealing white fangs. James put a finger to his lip then held out a flat hand and waved toward the grass, causing the others to fan out and get low in the heavy vegetation.
James dropped to his belly and low crawled forward past Marks and took up a prone position near Duke. Feeling the closeness of James, the dog’s lip dropped, covering the white fangs; however, Duke remained rigid as he looked off into the woods with his nostrils flaring and the hair on his neck and back standing up. James stroked the dog calmly, letting him know he was there, not wanting the dog to bark.
A branch broke and tree limbs scraped against something. It was far off and out of sight, but they could hear it clearly in the silent woods. Something was walking along the shoulder of the gravel road. Whenever it moved ahead of them, it made a lot of noise as it crashed through brush. Duke’s ears remained pinned as he followed the sounds. The dog’s nostrils flared again as he looked up the trail, drool rolling over his lips and exposed teeth, just as a second sound of breaking branches and scuffing of dry leaves echoed over the trail.
“There’s the second one,” Rogers whispered from somewhere behind Jacob.
They lay in the heavy vegetation for fifteen minutes, allowing whatever was in the woods to pass them by. Afraid to move, Jacob remained completely still and silent as he watched ants crawl across his gloved hand. Duke relaxed his posture and stood high again. He panted while his wagging tail slapped against James. The team let out a collective sigh and got back to their feet, slowly grouping up.
