Let Slip the Pups of War: Spot and Smudge - Book Three

by Robert Udulutch

  “First of all I think there’s a family out there who may be in trouble. Do you know them? Are they in a secure place?” Meg said, “A few hours ago I overheard the people here talking about finishing what they started, and they’re a scary bunch.”

  “Yes,” Comina said, “I know about them, and they’re secure.” She looked at Hamish who nodded as he got up.

  He and Ben weaved through the group huddled around Comina’s phone. They moved past the two cops, and Nikki turned to watch them each take an assault rifle off the dining room table.

  The big man and the boy quickly cleared their weapons and checked their magazines like experts. The kid held a small, smooth-sided assault rifle of a type Nikki didn’t recognize. Sprouting from its tactical accessory rails were an undermount grenade launcher, a sleek high-tech scope, and what looked to be a tranquilizer attachment. The man’s rifle was a larger, heavily modified assault rifle with a similar scope and custom suppressor.

  Nikki wondered how the odd family had acquired this kind of military firepower. Even the most disreputable dealers and connected criminals in Boston would have trouble getting their hands on these weapons. She also didn’t think they were domestically manufactured, and the side of the kid’s scope had Chinese writing on it. Andi had said she suspected this family was far tougher and more resourceful than they appeared, and Nikki didn’t doubt it.

  The kid smiled at her as he threw on a bulletproof vest that certainly wasn’t standard issue. When Nikki saw him put a small bundle of what looked to be explosives into his pack she turned to Andi and raised an eyebrow.

  Andi patted her partner on the shoulder and grabbed her gun belt from a hook by the door. Before following the old man to the front windows Andi leaned in close to Nikki and whispered, “Thank God they’re the good guys.”

  Nikki watched her fire-haired girlfriend cross their apartment. She’d fallen in love with Andi’s ability to get all puddly for lost causes while also throwing a massive hurting on deserving losers. When her Irish blood got up either could happen in a flash. She also knew Andi had a soft spot for families, and she was very fond of Dan and the way he had spoken about this one. Neither of them had a great history with their own relatives, and they were looking forward to starting a family of their own. They were ready, and the rings Nikki had on layaway would be paid off before their summer vacation. When Andi turned around and winked at her from the front windows Nikki knew her protests about this strange family had fallen on deaf ears. She also knew she would do whatever Andi wanted her to, again.

  Ben whistled quietly for Spot from the back slider. A moment later both of the dogs trotted up the back stairs and Spot stopped Seamus on the deck. The dogs conversed, and the big police dog turned and took up a position where he could keep an eye on the apartment’s back courtyard and garden.

  Nikki couldn’t help but stare again as the odd black dog walked through the slider and head butted the boy in the crotch before coming into the kitchen. As the dog looked up at her he tipped his head to listen to the phone call. Nikki held his stare for a moment, and then watched her Doberman standing at attention on the back deck. Seamus had never taken orders from anyone other than her.

  At the front of the apartment Hamish stood at the side of one of the apartment’s large bay windows. He was hidden behind the folds of the open drapes, watching a Green Line train as it rattled towards the little stop in the center of the boulevard. He looked down at the front door of the apartment and smiled at an old German shepherd taking a pee on a tree. He nodded to Andi as he took out his cell phone.

  Andi was at the opposite wall, scanning the street through the other front bay window. Both sides of Huntington Avenue were jammed with her neighborhood’s typical mix of overnight parked cars. The late model imports of the gentrifier’s, the hipster’s beat up Minis, and the Subarus and VWs with curved rainbow stickers all looked at home. The sky showed the first hints of lightening and the sidewalks were quiet except for the early shoppers and shift workers hustling for the little train stop. Nothing seemed out of place.

  Meg continued on Comina’s phone, “I’m not sure how much you know, but Agent Barton showed me what my company was up to. He asked me to find a way into our black projects division, specifically our accelerator program team. On our last call he told me to keep an eye out for anything unusual. Well, I think what’s happened tonight certainly qualifies. I got called to this new facility and soon after I arrived a teenage girl and her dog were brought in with…wait one second.” There was a muffled scraping sound and then Meg spoke cheerily to someone in the background.

  Aila took Mimi’s hand as Dan put his arms around both women and held them close.

  Meg returned and said, “Sorry, I don’t have long to talk. They’re both sedated but they’re going to be fine, actually they should be waking up any minute. The dog might already be awake, I don’t know. Sorry, I’m rambling, the whole thing’s a little bizarro and I’m not sure what to do. We need to figure out how to get them out of here. The doctors and Semion are waiting for DNA sequencing results, and I suspect we may only have a few more hours…and they want to rabies test the dog.”

  Nikki was listening to the call and trying to catch up. She didn’t like the sound of any of it. Andi turned away from the front window, read her partner’s look, and gave her a smile. She then gave a thumbs-up and a nod to Aila.

  Another phone started to ring, and Comina held up her vet tech cell phone. She held it out so the family could see the New York number showing on the screen.

  Comina took Meg off speakerphone and handed the phone to Aila.

  The agent took a few steps around the peninsula before answering her vet tech phone.

  “Yes?” Comina said.

  “Hello, you duplicitous bitch, are we ready to put this business to bed?” Katia said.

  In the kitchen Aila cupped the other phone and fought to keep her voice steady. She looked at Dan and Mimi as she said, “Meg, this is her mother, the girl’s name is Kelcy. Thank you so much for calling, and for keeping them safe. The dog with her is Smudge. You can speak to the dog like you would a person. She’s very smart and very strong and she can help you. You need to protect them both. Meg, we need to know exactly where you are.”

  Meg said, “We’re in a facility just south of…”

  Spot leapt onto the kitchen counter. He ran along the peninsula, opened his paw, and grabbed Comina’s wrist. Nikki and Andi stared at Spot with their mouths hanging open. He pulled the phone close to his ear, and without looking back signed to Ben.

  Ben whispered loudly, “Spot hears the Green Line announcer in the background of Katia’s phone call.” He pointed to the front windows as he said, “She’s calling from somewhere near this station!”

  They heard a loud snap, and a thump, and pieces of glass breaking on the floor at the front of the apartment.

  Andi touched a large, ragged red hole in her chest. She looked at Nikki and ripped the curtain off the rod as she collapsed.

  The lights in the apartment went out as she hit the floor.

  Chapter 58

  Smudge opened her eyes all the way as the treatment room door clicked close. She looked at the Chinese assassin lying on the bed across the room, and he was staring right back at her.

  She didn’t take her eyes off him as she spread open her paw and carefully slipped the snapped zip-tie from around her neck. While still watching him she hopped from her gurney to Kelcy’s bed.

  Kelcy was still out, but she wasn’t sleeping as deeply. Some of the color had returned to her face and her eyes were moving behind her lids. She even grunted when Smudge gave her cheek a quick lick.

  The man’s eyes followed her as she jumped down and walked to the door. She pressed her ear against it and listened for a moment as she returned his stare. She could hear the nurse’s hushed voice coming from a room further down the hallway but couldn’t make out what she was saying. A door opened and someone interrupted the nurse, and then the door
closed again.

  Tian watched the black dog move to the side of his bed, sit down, and look up at him. He waved for it to come up onto the bed.

  Smudge tipped her head as Tian beckoned to her. He had strong forearms, even the palm of his hand was muscular. He wasn’t lumpy in the way the Mexican thug Jero had been, but Smudge suspected he was even stronger. His body was curved with muscles but they seemed to flow into one another in a way that hid their mass. She wasn’t sure she wanted to be too close to him but she also didn’t have many options…and the assassin had kept her secret so far.

  She leapt onto the foot of Tian’s bed and walked up to his knees, but she stayed just out of his reach.

  Very slowly Tian slid himself up to a seated position, shoving his pillows back and propping himself against the bed’s padded headboard. He extended his hand, palm up.

  Smudge took another step forward as Tian waited with his hand out. She sat down, and reached out her paw, hovering it just above his hand. Looking him in the eye, Smudge lowered it into his palm.

  Tian closed his fingers around the dog’s paw, and shook it. He smiled, and the dog split its paw open and grabbed his hand, returning the shake. Tian looked at the odd paw, and noticed the dog had a firm handshake. He also noticed she was a girl dog.

  Smudge let Tian’s hand go.

  Tian said quietly, “My name is Tian. Tian Tzeng.”

  Smudge nodded.

  Tian stared at her for a moment and then said, “You’re accelerated?”

  Smudge nodded.

  Tian looked at the sleeping girl and asked, “Her too?”

  Smudge shook her head. She opened her paw and signed, Do you sign?

  Tian stared at her twisting paw, and its deftly moving fingers. He recognized it as some kind of communication attempt and shook his head.

  Smudge walked up the bed a few more steps until she was close to Tian. He watched her closely as she carefully leaned over the side of the bed. She opened one of the headboard’s side cabinets and swung out the keyboard Marty had used to enter the dosage instructions. The keyboard was on an arm and Smudge swung it up and over the side of the bed so it was next to them. She opened her small pads and used the track ball to open a text window in the middle of the screen.

  She leaned over the keyboard and typed, I AM SMUDGE.

  Tian smiled and nodded as he said, “Nice to meet you, Smudge. Well, it would have been, you know, under different circumstances.”

  Smudge returned his nod and typed, I’M SO VERY SORRY ABOUT YOUR FAMILY. She turned and looked at him with her big brown eyes.

  Tian saw something change in the set of Smudge’s brows and the slope of her muzzle. He wasn’t exactly sure how he was able to read it, but it was as genuine an expression of regret and sadness as he’d ever seen.

  Tian stared at her for a moment and then said, “You were just protecting your family. I get it, believe me.”

  Smudge nodded, and put her paw on Tian’s shoulder. She turned back to the keyboard and typed again, AND IM SORRY ABOUT THROWING YOU THROUGH A WINDOW.

  Tian laughed and said, “It’s okay, I’m sorry I almost killed you.”

  Smudge’s face brightened. She cocked an eyebrow at him and typed, YOU WISH.

  Tian smiled, and said, “What’s the deal with your color shifting? I must admit that was, interesting.”

  Smudge typed, MY BROTHER AND I HAVE GIFTS. BUT ITS ALSO A CURSE. LOOK AT HER. KELCY.

  Tian considered that, and looked at the teen zip-tied to the bed across the room. He said, “She’s a tough kid. I’m ashamed to be part of what’s happening to your family.”

  Smudge typed, I HAVE TO GET HER OUT OF HERE, DO YOU KNOW HOW?

  Before Tian could answer her Smudge stood up quickly and her ears rotated towards the door. She scrambled back over him and held down the backspace key to remove all of her text before she dove from Tian’s bed, accidentally stomping on his crotch in the process.

  Smudge bolted across the room and leapt back onto her gurney in two big bounds. She slipped the zip-tie around her neck just as the door opened.

  Tian held his privates as Nurse Meg paused in the doorway and spoke loudly back into the hall, “I’m not sure she’ll be awake yet.”

  Semion shoved past her and strode into the treatment room with Marty and Johann close behind. He scanned the room as he went to the Tian’s bedside.

  “There’s our hero,” Semion said, spreading his arms wide, “It is good to see you are up, young man. Would you like anything? Some food? You want to call home maybe? You look to be in some pain. Nurse, check him out.”

  “No,” Tian said, still wincing, “Thank you. I just need some rest.”

  Meg came around to the other side of his bed and moved the keyboard out of the way. She looked at the screen and saw the new, empty text box with the blinking cursor. She smiled at Tian, and poured some more water into his cup.

  Semion dropped his huge hand on Tian’s shoulder and said, “Good enough. Save your strength. The team’s taking care of that family as we speak. You’ll get the chance to have a talk with them soon.”

  He gave Tian’s shoulder a hearty shake before walking to the young woman’s bedside. He tugged on her restraints and looked at the bank of monitors. “Why is she not awake?” Semion said to the headboard.

  “They pumped her pretty full of tranquilizers,” Marty said, “There’s no sure way to tell how long she’ll be out.”

  “Shouldn’t be long,” Johann said, “and we won’t have the results of her DNA test for a few more hours anyway.”

  Semion spun and loomed over him as he said, “I don’t want to wait for the test results, dear doctor. I have questions that need answers. Questions your shoddy science and your unreliable guesswork haven’t been able to answer.”

  Johann took a step back and lowered his eyes. He pretended to look at the monitors on the footboard.

  Semion turned and leaned over the girl. He grabbed the side rail of her bed, and brought his face down close to hers. He stared at her for a moment before hauling one of his big hands back and slapping her hard across the face.

  Meg gasped and Marty started to reach for Semion’s arm but thought better of it.

  Semion watched the girl carefully, and then shoved away from her bed. He took a quick look at the restrained black dog and then stormed across the room towards the door. Pausing in front of the nurse he said, “I want her awake. Give her whatever is needed to make that work. I need her up and talking, coherently, and soon. Let me know the second that happens.”

  He pulled the heavy door aside like it was paper and stomped out of the treatment room.

  Chapter 59

  Nikki shot through the dark apartment and had Andi’s head in her lap in an instant. She tried to hold in the blood pumping from her fiancee’s chest but it immediately soaked her hands and continued to spread out over the rug.

  Hamish knew there had actually been two shots that had hit at the same time. He had felt the other wiz past his cheek. The window near him had cracked as well, and had he not been hidden behind the curtain he could have been lying on the floor next to the poor red head instead of poking his finger through a hole in his jacket collar.

  Hamish saw Comina had hung up her phone and was shooting across the apartment towards them with her pistol in her other hand. Aila was still holding Comina’s other phone, but it was at her side and she was staring at Andi along with a stunned Dan and Mimi.

  Hamish yelled across the apartment at her, “Aila, did you get it?”

  Aila didn’t respond. She was staring at the small pool of light from the street where Nikki held the dying Andi.

  “Mom!” Ben shouted at her from behind the peninsula, “Did Meg tell you where they are?”

  Aila nodded without looking up.

  Hamish nodded at Ben as he spoke into his cell phone, “Christa, you’re clear to engage.”

  On the roof of Andi’s apartment Christa said, “Roger that,” into her phone without loo
king up from the scope of her rifle, and to her spotter she said, “I got nothing, did you see it?”

  “Red awning ten degrees left of the train stop,” Blu said, “Second floor, third window from the right.”

  Christa swung Harry Chogin’s massive fifty caliber sniper rifle a few degrees to the left and tipped the vented muzzle down an inch. “Got it,” she said, “White miniblinds, window’s open about four inches…confirm I’m seeing a suppressed barrel.”

  “Roger that, take him,” Blu said.

  Christa let out a breath and recited her mental shooting mantra as her practiced finger squeezed the trigger.

  Four hundredth of a second later expanding gas from the cartridge generated sixty-thousand pounds of pressure inside the massive gun’s firing chamber. The advanced recoil suppression limited the punch to her shoulder as the fully jacketed slug crossed Huntington Avenue in just under two hundred milliseconds. The slug rotated four times, cleared the window opening, and struck the British shooter next to Katia.

  Katia was in the middle of yelling at team two for cutting power to the target’s apartment when the asset standing next to her exploded. The bullet hit his sternum with sixteen kilojoules of energy. The expanding hydro shock doubled as the bullet slammed through his spine, and opened his ribcage like an over filled balloon.

  Katia heard the boom of the shot just as a shower of blood and bits of the man’s chest sprayed her.

  Berluti had been standing on the man’s opposite side, and she and her rifle were equally covered in gore.

  The leader of team two crackled over their radio, “We did not cut the power, ma’am. We’re on station at the rear of the courtyard’s garden, in position to breach. We heard a very high powered rifle shot, not one of ours I suspect, are we still go?”

  Katia stared at Harley for a second before they both dove below the window sills at the front of the apartment. She thumbed her mic and said, “Wait one, T-two.” She looked across the small apartment to the terrified couple zip-tied to the legs of their kitchen table. She noticed a big hole had been blown in the dishwasher between them.