Chapter 2 - THE SEVEN TAGS
The military police outside were not military police.
Their uniforms were accurate.
Their shoulder patches were not.
Nguyen noticed the stitching first.
Natsu noticed the scent.
He stood between me and the doors, nose lifted, growl barely audible.
The men outside carried tranquilizer rifles.
Not for us.
For him.
General Hale’s voice came through the radio again.
“Release the dog and no one else gets hurt.”
I said, “You certified Natsu dead.”
“He should have been.”
Ryan stared at me.
“What happened eight years ago?”
I looked at the chain.
Seven names.
Seven people sent into the Hindu Kush after an avalanche buried a communications station.
Officially, the mission became a recovery failure.
In reality, we found a covert detention site beneath the snow.
American personnel were holding missing soldiers and contractors whose identities had become inconvenient.
Daniel found the prisoner ledger.
Hale ordered us to surrender it.
We refused.
The mountain collapsed after an explosion.
I woke three days later in a village clinic with Natsu beside me.
No memory of how we escaped.
Daniel gone.
The others declared dead.
I remained hidden because every official channel led back to Hale.
Now the service chain proved the operation still existed.
Nguyen used the mess hall kitchen to access a maintenance corridor.
The false police began cutting through the exterior locks.
Ryan followed us.
I stopped him.
“You stay here.”
“They’ll kill me.”
“Why?”
His face collapsed.
“Because I accepted the order.”
“What exactly were you told?”
“To humiliate a civilian woman with a retired dog. Make her reveal whether the dog still obeyed tactical commands.”
He had not been told to kick me.
That choice was his.
Orders explained the setup.
Not his cruelty.
Then the stranger we captured gave his name.
Elias Ward.
Former casualty-recovery specialist.
One of the men who had collected our personal effects after the mountain explosion.
He said Natsu dragged Daniel into a drainage tunnel before the second blast.
The dog knew the route.
That was why Hale needed him eliminated.
Then Natsu pulled toward the service corridor.
Not away from danger.
Toward a scent beneath the floor.
Nguyen opened a locked storage room.
Inside sat an old military crate.
The same rescue-unit code stamped on its side.
The crate had been delivered to the mess hall that morning.
Inside were six folded uniforms.
One bloodstained K9 harness.
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And Daniel’s wedding ring.
Read Chapter 3 to discover who had placed Daniel’s ring inside the mess hall.
