by Tobias Roote
After a few minutes the Man stood, and he and his dog walked side by side, and just like old times, they patrolled the tracks surrounding the property. For an hour or more, they just fell into old ways and as if no time at all had passed, the old well-remembered routines played out and for a short while time meant nothing to either.
Eventually, the direction of the track meandered back towards the cottage. Here, the Man stopped and knelt down, and gently taking hold of Mercury, with a flourish pulled out a pair of cutters and carefully snipped the tag off his collar.
Putting the little silver bone-shaped name-tag with the name MERCURY engraved on it into the zipped pocket of his dark jacket and with one last fussing stroke of his four-legged friend's head, he gave him one final command.
“Patrol! “
Mercury shot off knowing what he had to do, excited to be back in the role of hunter/protector, giving off a single small whuff in acknowledgement of his instructions. He turned around briefly half way down the track to see if his Master was following. He had gone.
He hesitated, with one small paw poised off the ground, his head cocked to one side; a low crooning whine escaped his throat. He briefly contemplated disobeying the last command and instead following his friend. Then, as if acknowledging what he must do, he turned again heading down the track with his head down, on Patrol.
END OF BOOK ONE
TOBIAS ROOTE
Tobias Roote has been writing on and off all his life, turning his hand to novels only in the last few years. His favourite genre is Science fiction, but the urge to write this book came suddenly and it took off with a life of its own. He now is writing a sequel to this (see below) and also a 12 book series called ‘The Pattern Ship’ the first of which will be published around Christmas 2013.
Keep up with everything he writes and read the short stories he publishes on his website at http://tobiasroote.com
THE WHISPERER
The sequel, available Spring of 2014 takes Brett and Fletcher on an investigation into the world of Russian and British espionage. Caught up in a race to uncover the moles to bring about an end to the manhunt that started with Charlie and Alice, but which now has them in its sights. Can they unravel the subterfuge weaved together over twenty five years and uncover the the depth of conspiracy in time to stop the United Kingdom from being dismantled from within.
When a shadowy figure suddenly appears in the midst of a dangerous operation, who’s side are they on and why here, why now...
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