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

by Robert Udulutch

  Tian took the doctor’s outstretched hand and then knocked his lights out with a crisp, lightning fast punch across his lower jaw.

  As Marty’s head dropped to the floor Tian scooped up his pistol and went to help Meg off of the bed. He handed her the gun as he quickly lifted Kelcy away from the flecks of smoldering char on the sheets.

  Smudge leapt to the floor as Tian set Kelcy carefully down on her feet. He spun her around, and he and Smudge both brushed debris off of her.

  Kelcy caught Tian’s hand as he wiped soot from her face. She smiled at him and said, “I’m fine, thanks Tian.”

  As they turned to head for the door Tian stopped. Meg had taken a step back and raised the gun at him.

  Kelcy pushed past Meg, moving the barrel of the gun away with her finger as she pulled Tian along with her by his sleeve. She said, “Meg please aim that somewhere else, he’s with us.”

  Without turning around Tian said, “And you may want to take the safety off before you try to shoot anyone.”

  Smudge looked back and nodded at Meg as she followed Kelcy to the door.

  Meg watched the odd group crossing the smoky treatment room. She put a hand on her hip and looked down at the gun. She had no idea where the safety on a pistol was and handed the gun back to Tian after joining them.

  The blast had taken out the overhead lights and dim emergency lights had snapped on. There was daylight coming through a dozen holes in the rear wall of the treatment room. The concrete had buckled and the reinforcement bars were twisted, but the wall had held together. Even Smudge wouldn’t be able to fit through the openings and there was a fire dancing outside the building. The flames licked into the room through the cracks and were filling the ceiling with smoke.

  Smudge pulled open the door and Tian leaned into the ruined corridor. Some of the hallway’s doors had been blown off their hinges and both ends of the corridor were thick with smoke. Smoldering debris and bits of tile and ceiling panels littered the hallway floor. Beyond the destroyed guard’s station fires glowed in the smoke at the front of the building.

  The double doors at the rear of the hallway were also twisted and broken. There was a large fire somewhere out of sight on the loading dock. The hanging plastic curtain shards reflected the orange flames as they swayed in the heat and rolling smoke. Tian could also see the faint glow of daylight far in the background. Some of the garage doors must have been blown open. He had counted five good sized explosions other than the one that destroyed their treatment room, and they appeared to have detonated at key points around the building.

  Tian laughed. He remembered Katia had said attacking this family was a milk run. He wondered if the crazy Mogevichs now realized they had been trying to milk a bull…a bull with some pretty sharp fucking horns.

  He waved Smudge forward and she darted across the hallway. From the opposite doorway she looked towards the front of the building and saw what Tian couldn’t. There was movement in the smoke and she could hear faint voices over the crackle of the fires.

  Meg’s phone rang in Kelcy’s hand. She hit the talk icon and whispered, “Hello?...Mimi!...Yes, we’re fine. What’s the plan?”

  Kelcy listened and said to the team, “They’ve secured the loading dock, let’s go.”

  As they huddled together Tian said, “Kelcy, could you do me a favor and ask your group back there not to shoot me?”

  As Kelcy spoke quickly into the phone Smudge shot back across the hallway.

  She became Cu Sith in mid-flight and knocked all three of them back into the treatment room just as they were stepping into the hallway.

  Pencil thin red beams cut through the smoke and an instant later the door frame and tile wall around it erupted in a shower of sparks. Automatic weapons fire boomed in overlapping bursts as the bullets tore the hallway apart.

  On the floor of the treatment room Kelcy scrambled through the debris and found the cell phone. The screen had cracked and Mimi was gone.

  Smudge held out a paw and easily pulled Kelcy to her feet. They turned to see Tian helping Meg up from the floor. The nurse and the assassin were staring at the fully pumped up hell hound that a few seconds before had been a normal-sized Smudge.

  Tian hadn’t gotten a good look at Smudge at the clinic. The lobby had been dark and she had been in constant motion, and she had moved amazingly fast. As he saw her standing still in the stark emergency lights he understood now how she was able to throw him through the window. The muscles on the dog’s forelimbs and neck were incredible, and even her ears and snout rippled. He was now confident Smudge could have indeed killed him if she had intended to do so.

  As if reading his mind, Smudge wagged at Tian, and then darted off towards her gurney.

  Tian watched her strong back muscles shifting with each leap. Seeing the modified dog more clearly didn’t make it any easier to understand. He turned to Meg, and saw she was struggling to grasp it as well.

  Meg had heard some of the fantastical claims related to the accelerator formula, both from Barton and the hushed gossip at Orthus headquarters, but had written it off as bullshit. Barton had showed her some of the horribly failed results of the human testing, and she had immediately agreed to help stop what she assumed was just a pair of delusional industrialist thugs. She hadn’t considered the possibility that the compound might actually have worked, and certainly never thought a dog would be the one accelerated. It dawned on her that the doctors and the insane Russians hadn’t figured it out either.

  Kelcy shoved them until they broke their stares and followed Smudge further into the treatment room.

  Smudge grabbed her gurney and started pushing it towards the door. She nodded at the other gurney and waved for them to follow her with it.

  They rolled them through the charred debris and lined the gurneys up near the door. When the first one was sent into the hallway the searching red beams returned followed by an immediate barrage of gunfire. Tian stuck Marty’s pistol out and blindly sent a few rounds down the hallway. The shooting stopped long enough for Smudge to dart out and grab the bottom rail of the heavy gurney. She pulled up hard and Tian watched her deltoids pop out as it tipped and crashed onto the floor. It boomed down in the corridor with the metal top facing the shooters.

  As Smudge jumped back into the room Kelcy and Meg shoved the second gurney into the hallway and another round of red laser-sighted gunfire pinged and sparked around them and the gurneys.

  Tian emptied the clip towards the front hallway and Smudge shot out and tipped over the second gurney. As it fell forward she flexed her massive shoulders again, lifting and pushing the gurney so when it crashed down it fully rested on top of the first. It created a bulletproof barrier five feet high and six feet wide.

  As they gathered behind the barricade bullets pinged off the tops of the gurneys and down the walls above them.

  Tian nodded at Smudge. “Not bad for a soft target,” he said.

  Smudge wagged at him.

  When the barrage died down Smudge and Kelcy heard a familiar yap from the rear of the building. Through the billowing smoke they saw Spot’s outline appear under the loading dock’s tattered plastic curtains.

  Smudge faced her brother, and both dogs started to wag in sync.

  Chapter 64

  Semion smiled. He knew the barricade was a desperate, futile exercise. It also exposed the nurse as a turncoat. There was no way the girl could have taken out the Chinese assassin and lifted the second gurney by herself. The family had also just saved him from having to hunt them down. He turned and shoved the remaining security guard towards the front doors as Katia sent another burst down the smoky hallway. He nodded for Lobb and Berluti to follow the guard as he said, “Go. Flank them. I want the boy…and get the van.”

  On the dock Comina and Blu moved quickly through the plastic curtains behind Spot. They each found cover behind the shattered doors at the end of the hallway and opened fire, shooting just above the barricade.

  As their bullets whizzed ov
erhead and the shooting from the front stopped, Tian moved between Kelcy and Meg. He grabbed their hands, and nodded to Smudge.

  On the loading dock the fires were spreading and had almost reached the three black vans. Hamish waved to Ben, signaling for him to move behind a large section of the twisted metal garage doors to afford him more cover. Their biggest ANFO blast had been a little bigger than was needed, and it shredded two of the big doors. It gave them good access into the building, and had also collapsed one entire side of the dock into a maze of twisted roof support trusses and slanted sections of broken concrete walls. From his vantage point Ben could see far into the burning building. There was a large locker room behind the dock with a ruined storage room beyond it. The smoke was thick but he could make out a shower area with rows of burning wooden lockers. Broken pipes chugged water and sprinklers feebly sprayed at odd angles, but throughout the entire rear of the destroyed building the flames were quickly spreading.

  Ben swept back and forth across the debris with his confiscated assault rifle, moving from covering Hamish’s position to the far wall of the dock.

  He didn’t notice the dark figure slipping through the shadows and the smoke. It was weaving low through the carnage and getting closer to him every time he swept his small rifle away.

  At the front of the building Lobb and Berluti ran to the double glass front doors behind Peach Shampoo. The fires in the lobby were already consuming the offices and had started to creep across the reception desk. They shielded their faces from the heat as Peach Shampoo pulled open the first set of doors and moved quickly through the vestibule. As she exited the building and jogged down the covered walkway Lobb and Berluti took up covering positions just inside the outer doors.

  Nikki let the guard trot past her concealed position. When she got halfway down the walk Nikki flashed a hand sign to the dogs. Seamus and Sholto stepped into the security guard’s path from behind the manicured bushes at the end of the sidewalk. They stood shoulder to shoulder, lowered their heads, and let out a pair of sharp barks.

  Peach Shampoo stopped in her tracks. As she slowly raised her weapon towards the dogs Nikki stepped silently onto the walk a few steps behind her and said, “State Police, drop the shit right now.”

  Peach Shampoo flinched, but she didn’t lower the rifle.

  “Don’t,” Nikki said, “Really, just don’t. Let’s both walk away from this one alive, what do you say?”

  Seamus and Sholto locked eyes with the woman. They spread their hind feet, curled up their lips, and growled.

  Peach Shampoo’s fingers wiggled on her gun, but she didn’t lower it.

  “Honey, there’s a really big sniper rifle focused on your sternum right now,” Nikki said, “And that level two bargain vest you’re wearing won’t even slow my very talented shooter’s fifty cal round.”

  From two hundred yards away Mimi and Christa watched Nikki and the dogs from their hidden position near the front gate. As Christa kept her scope trained on the guard’s sternum she said calmly, “Jean, if I fire I want you to spray that front doorway with two second bursts until I tell you to stop. Hold that gun tight it kicks a little, understand?”

  Mimi socked the assault rifle tighter to her shoulder and moved her scope from the dogs to the double glass doors. She said, “Yes dear.”

  Inside the smoke filled front of the building Katia and Semion ducked as a fresh round of gunfire came from the loading dock. He pounded his huge fist on the wall and called across the lobby to Berluti, “Let them get the van, I need you back here.”

  “The guard has been detained, sir,” Berluti said to him, “Looks to be local law enforcement with two canines.”

  “Idioty!” Semion raged, “That’s not the real politsia. Why is she not shooting? Get out there!”

  On the front walk Peach Shampoo said, “A statie shows up in less than a minute with fifty cal sniper support? Nice try, Hun.”

  She spun, but only for about the tenth of a second it took for Christa’s bullet to cross the parking lot and walkway. With a snap and a spray of red it removed Peach Shampoo’s head and most of her shoulders before the air split with the boom of the big rifle’s recoil.

  Katia cowered when she heard the telltale sound of that rifle. She shot her father a look he’d never seen on his daughter’s face before. His little girl was terrified.

  Berluti and Lobb instinctively dove away an instant before the vestibule erupted and the glass blew in. They tumbled through the small fires in the lobby, covering their faces as they rolled until they came to rest near Semion to beat out their burning legs and arms.

  In the back corridor Comina and Blu continued to lay down fire as Spot barked through the smoke to Smudge.

  Smudge signed, and Kelcy crouched with Tian and Meg as she said, “Okay team, ready to try this again?”

  Harley carefully weaved through the fires and smoking wreckage on the loading dock. He kept out of sight, moving and stopping as he closed on the boy. He drew his double barreled dragon pistol, and when the kid rotated away again Harley stepped around the twisted garage door and pressed the big gun to the back of the young man’s head. The boy flinched, and then slowly raised his free hand while he set the assault rifle carefully down on the dock floor. A big man with a grey beard saw them from across the loading dock and carefully lowered his weapon to the ground as well. As the shocked man backed away with his hands raised Harley recognized both of their customized assault rifles. The man had one of the guns Harley had given to Aunt Jia for the Canada job, and the kid had one of his custom QBZ bullpup rifles.

  Harley noticed the scope was mounted far back on the small gun at the kid’s feet. It had been Jixi’s.

  Harley massaged the dragons carved into the handle of his pistol as he stared at the back of the kid’s head. He paused, enjoying the feeling of his flexing finger and the heavy trigger slipping back and forth in its guard. He was frozen by the temptation to just blow both halves of the little fucker’s brains all over the dock. He pictured the brat’s eyes being replaced by gaping red holes. If he angled his dragons just right he could give the big Scottish asshole across the dock a double heart bypass as well. And after that, it was just a few steps down the hall to give that hot little teen Hogan bitch the dragon pistol fucking she had coming.

  The bark of a dog broke his stare and his mind flashed an image of his disappointed grandfather and Semion shaking their heads before nodding for Katia and Dalao’s gaunt bodyguard to string him up by his balls.

  Harley shoved the kid hard with the fangs at the end of his pistol. They crossed the dock, and while he kept an eye on the old man he moved the kid up the ramp and onto the raised platform. They came up behind the two big female shooters. The women were still spitting alternating bursts of fire and Harley saw the family’s crazy black dog standing next to them.

  The dog spun and stared as Harley shoved the kid forward.

  It barked, and the women stopped firing.

  As they turned Harley said, “Unless you want to wear this brat’s brains ditch the hardware and step away…and take that little black fucker with you.”

  The two women set their weapons down and hugged the wall as they moved carefully back into the loading dock with their hands raised. The dog continued to stare at Harley but it stepped away as he backed down the smoking hallway with the boy in front of him. He thumbed his mic and said, “I got the kid, we’re coming forward so don’t fucking shoot me.”

  Behind the gurney barricade Smudge’s ears rotated towards the back hallway when the shooting stopped. She quickly shoved the group back into the treatment room.

  Smudge started to sign and Kelcy knelt and grabbed her paw as she said, “Too fast girl, slow down.”

  Smudge started again, and after several painfully long moments Kelcy finally nodded. She picked up the empty Glock pistol, clicked the slider closed and held it to Tian’s head. She spun the muscular Chinese man around and marched him into the corridor.

  As Smudge nodded fo
r Meg to hide with him behind the cracked open door he thought, Mimi’s going to skin my furry black ass for this little maneuver.

  Chapter 65

  As Harley shoved the boy quickly down the smoky corridor the outline of a big man started to appear. When they got closer he saw it was a shape he recognized. Tian was standing in front of a stack of flipped over gurneys, and there was a girl standing behind him. She had a gun pointed at the back of his cousin’s head.

  “Tian,” Harley said as he pulled Ben closer to him, “Why does that Hogan girl have a gun pointed at you?” He pressed the dragon’s fangs against Ben’s temple as he added, “I’m so very disappointed.”

  Kelcy was partially hidden behind the curve of Tian’s muscular shoulder. She leaned out to say, “In about ten seconds you’re going to hear sirens. I would bet neither one of us wants to be here when the cops arrive. Trade?”

  Harley waited, and smiled. He knew Tian was about to disarm the girl. He’d seen his cousin snap the wrist of men three times her size, dismantle the gun, and stab them in the eye with the left over parts before they could cry for their mothers.

  Tian stared at Harley. He had made his decision the moment he saw Kelcy lying on the hospital bed, but his cousin hadn’t been in the room at the time. It was Harley facing him. The same Harley who had taken a beating for Tian when they were both suspected of stealing in primary school. The Harley who had convinced the prettiest girl in secondary school to go to the dance with the shy, awkward Tian. The Harley who had driven through a hail of bullets and crashed through the front of a restaurant to save Tian from torture and certain death. This was the same Harley who had been the only one to talk to Tian for months after he got his lightning bolt tattoo.

  “I’m sorry,” Tian said.

  His hands moved fast, almost faster than even Smudge could follow. Spot had once explained to Smudge that an animal’s body mass and metabolic rate dictated how they perceive the speed of objects, and people. To most dogs, humans generally moved in a kind of slow motion. The coyotes, and even the gray wolf Glasgow had observed how humans seemed sluggish. The accelerated pups could interpret motion even faster, so to Spot and Smudge humans often seemed to crawl. Tian was an exception. His movements were so quick and fluid he looked more like another predatory animal to Smudge than a human.