“I’ll need a volunteer to wear the bite sleeve,” I said. I figured if we were going to do a demonstration, we’d do the full show, just like I’d done for the kids back in California. Except this time, I’d be the one calling the shots. I only had a protective sleeve with me, not the full suit, but that wouldn’t matter. These were battle-tested marines, right?
“Don’t look at me, bro.” Vasquez shook his head. “I’m a lover, not a fighter.”
“I don’t do dog attacks,” Douglass said.
“Don’t even think it,” the staff sergeant told me when I looked his way.
“I just wanna be your dog …!” Chang screeched out the lyrics to an old punk song as he came down the hill from a workout in his boxer shorts and sneakers, his dog tags shimmering in the afternoon sun and a toothbrush poking from his mouth.
Our heads swiveled toward him and he stopped in his tracks. Even Loki stared him down.
Staff Sergeant Luken nodded at me. “You’ve got your volunteer,” he said.
“Uh …” Chang said, pulling out the toothbrush. “I miss something?”
“You stepped in it now, Chang,” Douglass laughed, as I went off to find the bite sleeve, with Loki at my heels and Chang following close behind.
The colonel arrived an hour late because of bad weather. His chopper was barely on the ground for a minute before it took off again. If it stayed too long on the landing zone, the enemy might get a shot off at it. The helicopters cost millions of dollars, and the military did not want to risk damaging them when they didn’t have to.
Chang and I were waiting down by the mess tent, the only area large enough to do our demonstration. Chang was telling me all about his little Chihuahua back in Los Angeles. He was nervous and, like a lot of guys, he babbled when he got nervous.
“My girlfriend named her Pixie.” He shook his head. “Ex-girlfriend. My ex-girlfriend. But come on? Pixie? That’s no name for a dog, even a little rat-looking dog like mine. But names, you know, they stick to you, so she’s Pixie now and Pixie forever. Like in the Corps. No one ever called me Chang before I joined the Corps. Everyone called me by my first name. It’s Ben, by the way. I was always Ben or maybe Benny. But the second I joined the Corps, I lost my name. I was Recruit, then I was Private, and now I’m just Chang. It’s like they want us to lose our identities.”
“That is what they want,” I told him. “We aren’t supposed to be who we were as civilians. We’re supposed to be more than who we were. We’re marines. We’re part of a brotherhood.”
“You go for all that? Like calling me Ben will keep me from shooting straight?” Chang was plucking at the heavy bite sleeve around his arm, making sure it was secure for the fifth time. He was sitting on a pile of sandbags with his feet up, trying to look relaxed.
“Loyalty,” I said. “That’s the test of a real man. I believe in that. And that’s what the Corps teaches us.”
“Sure, yeah, Semper Fi,” Chang said. “But I didn’t sign up because I wanted to join the boy scouts. I just thought I’d look cool with an M16. I mean, I got your back because you got mine, not because some official code of conduct says so. And now, I’ve got to put on a show because some colonel is showing up. He’s just a man. Out of the uniform he could be anyone, a greeter at Walmart or something.” He worried at a snag on the bite sleeve with his fingers. “And why do they spell colonel like that? Shouldn’t it be spelled like kernel, like a popcorn kernel?”
“Don’t be nervous,” I told him. “Loki won’t hurt you. Not on purpose anyway.”
“Who said I was nervous? I’m just talking, passing time. I’m not nervous. Nervous? What?”
“You’re talking a lot, Chang. Even for you.”
“Well someone has to! You don’t say a word. You talk more to that dog than you do to people. I mean, I get that you like dogs, but man, how’m I supposed to be all Semper Fi when you won’t even say nothing? Like, crack a joke sometime.”
“Knock, knock,” I told him.
He cocked his head at me and wrinkled his eyebrow. “You tellin’ me a joke, Dempsey?”
“Knock, knock,” I said again. Chang shook his head and smiled.
“A’ight. A’ight. I got you. Who’s there?”
“Colonel Levithan.”
“Colonel Levithan who?”
“Colonel Levithan, battalion commander. Behind you,” I said, as the colonel and Lieutenant Schumacher came up the hill toward us. Chang looked back and fell off the sandbags in his hurry to stand. He pulled himself up, brushed himself off, and saluted the colonel. The silver eagle on Colonel Levithan’s collar shined brightly, the mark of his rank (which is why colonels were sometimes called “full-bird colonels”).
“As you were,” the colonel said, looking instantly down at Loki, just like everyone did when they first saw him. He smiled. Everyone usually did that too. “And who’s this marine?”
“Military Working Dog Loki and Corporal Gus Dempsey,” Lieutenant Schumacher told him. “And this is Private Ben Chang. If you don’t mind, sir, they’re going to give you a little demonstration of what the dog teams can do. I hope it’ll help you in thinking about deploying these teams effectively.”
“Let’s see it,” the colonel nodded. Colonel Levithan was probably only in his forties, but Staff Sergeant Luken had been the oldest guy I’d seen for weeks, and he was only, like, thirty, so seeing Colonel Levithan made me feel like the grown-ups had suddenly shown up to ruin our fun. Playtime was over.
“Sir, we’ll be demonstrating a basic takedown of a fleeing suspect and a simple search for common IED supplies,” I explained. “Loki is a trained IED detector dog, so suspect interdiction is not his primary area of training.”
“Slow down there, Corporal,” the colonel said. “That’s a lot of words you’re firing off. Let’s just see what your team can do, okay?”
“Yes, sir,” I said, kicking myself for doing just what Chang had done. I guess I talked when I got nervous too. I didn’t used to. But Loki made me nervous. I didn’t know if I was going to get playful-goofball Loki or master-IED-detector-dog Loki.
I bent down and showed Loki his toy. He immediately perked his ears up, ready to work. “Seek, seek!” I commanded, and off he went, sniffing around the edges of the sandbags, circling supply boxes. After a few minutes, he paced back to one particular sandbag and then sat in front of it, looking back at me. I walked over, pulled out my knife, and sliced the bag open. I reached into the sand and pulled out the kitchen timer we’d found while on patrol.
“Good boy,” I said, tossing Loki’s toy for him. He ran off and fetched it, parading it around happily in front of the colonel and the lieutenant and the other marines who’d gathered to watch the show.
Now came the good part. I told Chang to climb up onto one of the high HESCO barriers, like he was a bad guy trying to get away. When he was halfway over, about to drop down the other side and out of sight, I pointed at him and shouted my command: “Get him! Go!”
Loki shot like a bullet, dropping his toy and racing across the clearing. He launched himself off the ground and caught Chang on the arm in midair, yanking him right off the barrier and into the dirt. Chang landed with a thud on his side, and Loki landed gracefully beside him, never losing his grip. He started to do his tug-of-war thing with Chang’s arm.
“Get off me, get off! Ahh!” Chang play-acted, even though he was laughing as he said it. Some of the guys watching snapped pictures with their digital cameras.
“You gotta e-mail me some of those pics,” I whispered to Douglass, while Chang squirmed and shouted on the ground.
“You kidding?” said Douglass. “I’m e-mailing these to everyone.”
I nodded and then stepped forward. “Out, out!” I called and ran over to pull Loki off Chang. “Good boy!” I gave him a small treat and let him run off to chew on his toy. Then I turned back to the colonel.
“Very good, son,” the colonel said.
“I can tell you from experience, sir, every pa
trol feels safer with Loki on it,” Lieutenant Schu told the Colonel. “He and Corporal Dempsey are really cutting off the enemy at the knees.”
“I’m sure of it,” the colonel said.
“Thank you, sir,” I nodded as Loki came back to sit beside me at attention.
“Keep up the good work, marines.” The colonel bent down to give Loki a pat on the head.
I couldn’t react in time.
Loki didn’t know Colonel Levithan’s smell and wasn’t about to let some total stranger put hands on him. I’d learned that the hard way when I picked him up from the airport. Loki barked and bared his teeth and lunged at the colonel, catching the edge of his sleeve. He tugged and snarled, the hair on his back standing straight up, pure animal rage.
“Loki! Out!” I yelled as the colonel stumbled backward. I tugged Loki back by his leather collar and held him. He was up on his back legs, still barking and growling at the highest ranking officer I’d ever met. “Out!” I yelled again. “I’m so sorry, sir,” I told the colonel. “He’s a very friendly dog, but sometimes strangers make him nervous.”
“Understood, Corporal,” the colonel said. He was still backing away, rubbing his wrist where Loki’s teeth had grazed him.
“That attitude makes Loki a very effective guard dog,” the lieutenant explained, his eyes wide with panic, just like mine.
“Don’t worry about it, Lieutenant Schumacher. It’s my own fault for petting him without asking. He’s a working dog, not some household pet. I guess I just miss my own dogs and forgot myself.”
“Yes, sir,” Lieutenant Schu and I said in unison. He shot me a look that told me to keep my mouth shut. I was happy to obey.
“I’m sure Loki’s not the first young marine who’s wanted to take a bite out of me.” Colonel Levithan laughed. Lieutenant Schu laughed with him. I was just glad he understood. I figured that Loki couldn’t be court-martialed for attacking a senior officer, but I sure could.
“As you were, gentlemen.” The lieutenant guided the colonel away, taking him on a tour of the base, talking about lines of fire and supply requests.
When they were out of hearing, Chang came up to me. “Dude,” he said. “That was awesome. Loki is totally O.G.”
I didn’t answer him. I imagined the report in my file. I still couldn’t control my dog.
Chang locked eyes with me, looking eager and earnest. “Can I, like, go again?”
“No way!” Vasquez was right beside him in a flash. “I changed my mind. I’m next. Let me wear the bite sleeve.”
“Nah, bro, you didn’t want to do it. You missed your shot,” Chang said. “Anyone gonna bite you, it’s Dempsey.”
“My bark’s worse than my bite,” I said, and everyone stared at me in stunned silence.
“Well, look at that,” Chang said. “Dempsey’s got a sense of humor.”
“Don’t go thinking you won our bet,” Douglass told him. “He didn’t laugh.”
“Oh, he will,” Chang said. “Dempsey’s got my back. We’re like brothers! He wouldn’t let me down.”
“Just because he’s your bro, don’t make your jokes funny, Chang,” Douglass replied. “You ain’t that lucky.”
We stood around trading insults and playing with Loki until the sun went down. Then I fed Loki and brushed his teeth and took him back to the small barracks to sleep. He looked at me like he did every night, asking to come up on the bed. I shook my head and pointed, and he sighed — he had a very loud, very clear sigh — and curled up on the floor by the side of the bed.
“Good job today, boy.” I reached down to scratch his ears. “Very good boy.”
In the middle of the night, the high-pitched screech of the monkeys woke me up.
Except they weren’t monkeys this time.
“Incoming!” someone outside shouted, and a second later, a mortar screamed into the base, smashing into a sandbag with a roar and a deafening blast. Two more followed quickly after, parting gifts for the colonel, who’d flown out a few hours earlier. Our own machine guns roared to life, shooting their hot dragons’ breath into the distant mountains.
“Screeeech!” Another shell whistled in and, when it hit just outside, shook dirt and dust loose from our ceiling.
“Tell the bad guys we’re trying to sleep!” Chang groaned, pulling on his Kevlar helmet without even sitting up.
I reached over to check on Loki, to make sure he was okay with all the loud noises. My fingers hit nothing but cold floor.
I sat up and looked for him all around the bed.
He wasn’t there.
“Loki!” I called. “Loki! Not now, buddy. Don’t do this to me now …”
“What’s going on?” Chang asked.
“It’s Loki,” I said. “He’s gone AWOL.”
“What?” Chang suddenly looked very awake.
“He’s run off. I have to go find him.”
“In the middle of a mortar attack?”
I didn’t answer, just jammed my feet into my boots and ran outside with nothing else but my T-shirt, helmet, and boxers on. It was freezing, but I didn’t care. Deadly mortars and grenades were falling onto the base, but I didn’t care about that either.
“I’m coming with!” Chang grabbed his rifle and ran out after me, watching my back, just like on patrol. “You’re crazy, bro!” he shouted over the rattle of machine-gun fire.
Maybe he was right. To run out into a mortar attack in my underwear, I must have been crazy. But I had to find Loki.
He was my partner.
I ran at a full sprint, calling Loki’s name. Every few feet, marines were leaning on sandbags, their M16s smoking. They’d pop up over the bags and fire off a few rounds toward the mountains before ducking down again.
“Hold the small-arms fire!” Lieutenant Schumacher was hoarse from shouting. He’d clearly been sound asleep and was standing in his armor vest and helmet with sweatpants and sneakers. “There’s no point in opening up with the M16s. You can’t hit anything with them from here. Where’s the 240?”
“Here!” Douglass came shuffling over, his massive machine gun cradled in his arms like a baby. Norris, a gangly kid from Colorado, was right behind him with belts of ammo.
“I want you to hit just above the tree line,” Lieutenant Schumacher told him. “You hear me? It’s the middle of the night and we’re taking fire. Anyone moving on that hill is considered hostile, understood? Any movement you see is a target.”
“Roger that.” Douglass smiled. He set the gun down and started firing on full automatic. Hot brass casings ejected, steaming, from the weapon. Douglass had to shake them out of his boots as he fired. The spent ammo covered the ground like peanut shells after a circus. It jingled and crunched under my feet as I ran.
“Loki!” I called again.
The air screeched.
“Incoming!” someone shouted.
Chang tackled me against one of the heavy HESCOs and pressed me against it as the mortar round whistled in.
The mortar landed about fifteen feet above us on the hill, exploding in a shower of dirt and rock.
I was on my feet again before the dust had settled.
“Come on,” Chang yelled at me. “Wait until this is over!”
“Get under cover,” I yelled back at Chang. “Loki’s my job. I’ll find him myself!”
I couldn’t believe Loki would pick now to go AWOL, when things had been going so well. Maybe he was upset about the incident with the colonel. Maybe he was scared of the battle noise. Maybe, like on the first day I had him at training, he was just being difficult.
I ran around the outpost, ducking under fighting positions, dodging guys running back and forth with more ammo.
I didn’t know where to look for Loki. He was a black dog, it was the middle of the night, and the noise and smoke of battle made the outpost’s maze of HESCOs, sandbags, and razor wire even more confusing than usual.
I stopped running. Chang caught up to me as I caught my breath.
“Go ba
ck,” I panted at him. “I got this.”
Chang didn’t answer me. I looked up at him, his eyes puffy with sleep, half dressed for combat and half for sleeping, but fully ready to assist, ready to follow me through hell to help me find my dog. And I had to admit, I needed help.
“I don’t know where to look,” I told him.
“We should check supply,” Chang said. “I think I got an idea.”
I nodded, and we were off again, scrambling down by the landing zone to the supply bunker.
We could see its door was open, but to get to it, we’d have to run across an open space. For a few seconds we’d be totally exposed to enemy fire from the mountain. It was dark, so maybe they wouldn’t see us, but it was still a risk. If by chance a mortar hit nearby, there were no sandbags to stop hot metal shrapnel from tearing us apart.
“You can wait here,” I told Chang. “He’s my dog. My responsibility.”
“He’s a marine in my squad,” said Chang. “He’s our responsibility. And you asked for my help, so now you’re getting it. Semper Fi means always, remember? Even for a dog. Semper Fido! Now what are you waiting for, Marine?”
He bolted into the open, sprinting for the other side. I ran after him, stumbling to keep up. About halfway across, the dirt kicked up around our feet with bullet impacts. The AK-47 — the enemy’s machine gun of choice — wasn’t very accurate, even at close range. They didn’t have a chance at hitting us on purpose. But an accidental bullet in the chest was still a bullet in the chest.
I put my head down and charged like I was back on the high school football field, trying to break through an offensive line to sack the quarterback. I slammed right through the entrance to the supply bunker, knocking Chang to the floor with a grunt.
“You should play football,” he groaned, pulling himself up and putting a hand out to me.
“I did,” I said, grabbing his wrist and pulling myself off the floor. I scanned the area where we kept Loki’s food and medical supplies.
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