Chapter 3 - The Message Sent Before Ghost Arrived
Julia turned the monitor toward me.
The email contained no greeting, signature, or attachment. There was only one sentence.
If Ghost recognizes her, extraction protocol will begin before noon.
The timestamp showed 8:12 a.m.
Ghost and Mason had entered my clinic at 8:47.
Someone had known exactly what would happen thirty-five minutes before they arrived.
Admiral Ross stepped toward the reception desk.
“Close that message.”
Julia didn’t move.
I did.
Not because Ross ordered me to, but because I saw the security officer nearest the door glance at the screen. His expression told me the phrase extraction protocol meant something to him.
“Who sent it?” I asked Julia.
“The address is masked.”
“Print the header information.”
Ross’s voice sharpened. “No.”
Julia looked at me.
“Do it.”
The printer behind the counter began to hum.
Mason remained beside Ghost, but the confidence he had carried into the clinic was gone. He stared at the shaved patch on the dog’s chest.
“I bathe him,” he said quietly. “I check his paws, his ears, his harness points. That incision wasn’t there three days ago.”
“When was he out of your custody?”
“He wasn’t.”
Ross looked at him. “Commander.”
“No, ma’am.” His voice stayed respectful, but something hard entered it. “You told me the transfer exam at Dam Neck was routine. They sedated him. I was ordered to wait outside.”
“When?”
“Monday.”
Three days earlier.
I examined the incision again. The edges were clean, made by someone skilled. A faint chemical smell clung to the fur despite the rain.
“Do you have his medical records?”
Mason nodded toward the folder Ross held.
My eyes moved to her.
She didn’t deny it.
The printer stopped.
Julia reached for the page, but the lights flickered before her fingers touched it.
The clinic went dark.
For one second, there was only gray daylight from the rain-streaked window.
Ghost spun toward the hallway leading to the rear treatment rooms.
A metal tray crashed somewhere beyond the examination area.
Mason reached toward his secured sidearm but did not draw it.
“Who’s back there?” he demanded.
“No one,” Julia said. “We hadn’t opened treatment intake yet.”
Emergency lights came on, dim and red.
The rear door slammed.
One of the security officers ran toward it. The other stayed with Ross.
I saw the printed page disappearing beneath the reception counter.
A hand withdrew into the narrow service passage beside the desk.
“Julia!”
She jumped backward as a man in blue maintenance coveralls rose from behind the counter. I had never seen him before.
He grabbed the paper and ran.
Mason released Ghost’s leash.
“Track.”
Ghost didn’t move.
Mason repeated the command.
The dog looked at me instead.
The intruder vanished through the treatment hallway.
I pointed toward the passage.
“Lantern forward.”
It wasn’t a real command. Ethan and I had never paired those words.
But Ghost understood my urgency.
He launched down the hall.
Mason followed, swearing under his breath. I ran behind them, aware of Ross ordering the officers to stay with her.
The rear exit stood open to the rain. Beyond it, the intruder sprinted across the small employee parking lot toward a dark SUV.
Ghost gained on him.
The man threw the printed page into a storm drain, then raised a compact device and pressed a button.
Ghost stumbled mid-stride.
His front legs buckled.
I reached him as he collapsed on the wet pavement, body rigid, eyes wide with pain.
Beneath his shaved incision, a tiny blue light began pulsing under the skin.
Something was still inside him.
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And someone outside the clinic had just activated it.
📖 Read how I stopped the hidden device from hurting Ghost—and what Mason found inside the abandoned SUV in CHAPTER 4. 👇
