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“If I understand this situation right, Mrs. V.” Mary stammered, “you looked at your charts, and now you’re telling me that if I, Mary Alice Williams, get on a plane and fly to—where was it? Tallinn, Estonia? That everything will change—my love life, my career, even my life’s trajectory?” A nervous giggle peppered her words. “That’s a lot to ask of a single geographical spot on a single day in one’s life.”
The giggle was replaced by a chest-crushing wave of anxiety and a dawning sense that there was some truth to what she was being told.
Whew. This was not part of her normal reality.
At. All.
If fate was calling, should she pick up and say hi?
Or had she already tumbled down a mountain today, and that was enough spontaneity and adventure for one trip?
Chapter Nine
September Fourth
Tallinn, Estonia
Halo met up with the team in the lobby. They were doing a ruck run to the airport since it was only six miles away. They’d connect with Nutsbe and Max, then take cabs back to the hotel for breakfast. Halo adjusted his straps so they wouldn’t rub blisters into his shoulders. Doing their morning runs with a light pack, say thirty or forty pounds, was one of the ways his special forces team stayed primed and ready to jump and go when a mission went hot. Seemed Iniquus trained like the Commandos.
Halo would admit to himself as the team fell into line—him respectfully at the back of the pack—that he was anxious to get to Max. He didn’t like that he wasn’t the one caring for his dog. However, part of his Iniquus contract stipulated that there would be times that—for training or other reasons—they might be working apart with Max kenneling under vet supervision at Cerberus.
The care Max would receive there was world-class. But that didn’t make this easier on Halo.
Max was a phenomenal dog and the first dog that Halo owned outside of his childhood family life. He’d never had a dog that he got to train himself from the beginning, shaping and supporting, deeply bonding with the K9 so that they were in sync, reading each other’s minds.
When you handle K9s for the special forces, the kennel masters match the K9’s skills with the needs of the unit and the personality of the handler. Halo had gotten along with most of the doggos. With some, they begrudgingly put up with each other. But they were brothers on the battlefield, and those K9 brothers belonged to the military. Halo always knew he’d be saying goodbye when the needs of his Commando team changed. It hurt like hell every bleeding time. It was one of the major downsides to Halo’s chosen profession.
So when he came upon Max at the shelter in Halo’s last days as a special operator for the Australian military, Halo finally had a working dog partner that was his. And the pencil-pushing numbers-crunchers, without an iota of understanding of what reassignments did to both man and beast, would have no say.
Since then, Max and he had bonded tightly. They were two parts of a whole, Halo thought as he jogged through the airport parking lot.
That run had gone fast.
The wait at baggage claim went slow.
Finally, a stream of people moved through the doors, and one of them, standing head and shoulders above the others, was Nutsbe.
As he approached with his pack slung over one shoulder, Halo was glad to see that Nutsbe maintained the proper handler position with Max on a loose lead.
Max looked none the worse for wear. He had slept through the long leg of the flight from D.C. to Amsterdam after the Cerberus vet, Dani, prescribed a sleeping pill for him. But he’d not been medicated for the shorter flight to Tallinn.
The passengers ambled by the first baggage conveyor, where another plane gathered their belongings. One of the women tucked her long auburn hair behind her ear and squatted down to the side of Max. She didn’t call or entice. She didn’t hold out a hand for Max to sniff her. She did nothing that would attract Max’s attention. Just got down and looked.
Max danced to the end of his leash toward her. He flipped his head to catch Halo’s gaze and then back to the woman, whining his desire to go meet her.
That’s when the woman stood and looked Halo’s way, mouthing “sorry.” Offering a contrite smile and a little finger wave, then turning and quickly walking away.
While Max continued to walk along with Nutsbe, his attention was on that woman until she moved through the doors.
Halo was proud that Max hadn’t missed a step, even with the distraction.
With tactical K9s—just like with any other deadly weapon—there were rules, including a safe and proper handoff. So Halo swallowed his impatience, waiting for Nutsbe to put Max in a sit, then hand over the lead and step away.
Halo lowered to one knee, getting low to receive copious Max kisses. Max circled in Halo’s arms, whimpering, whole body quivering, and tail wagging furiously. “I missed you, too. Hey, what was up with that women? Huh? They have treats in their pockets? Did she smell like she had a girl dog that you’d like to meet?”
Max spun around and positioned himself between Halo’s knees to get a good rub while Halo looked up at Nutsbe. “You two do okay on the flight?”
“On the leg to Amsterdam, Max snored and passed gas, so I was buying drinks for everyone around me. It seemed to smooth things over. The snores were kind of cute, the gas not so much.”