“Fucking nightmare,” the other guard said, and wiped a hand up over his forehead.
“Yeah, and it gets worse,” Jim said. “We have people right in the middle of where that stuff came from.”
CHAPTER 21
Jack Hammerson’s eyes flicked to the rearview mirror. Aimee Weir sat in the back of the black SUV with her arm looped around Joshua’s shoulders.
“How’s school, Josh?”
Joshua shrugged. “Dumb, boring.”
Hammerson smothered a smile as Aimee nudged the boy. “It’s not boring.” She looked up. “He just finds the pace a little slow.”
Hammerson nodded. “Well, we’ve got some special classes in at the base ready for him if he’d like to take a look.” He raised his eyebrows. “They’ll be far from boring.”
Aimee’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t think so.”
Hammerson shrugged. “Self-defense, strategic thinking and analysis… and I hear they need smart young people who have puppy dogs.”
“Huh? That’ll be me.” Joshua turned, grinning widely.
“No,” Aimee said.
Joshua scowled. “Mom, I want to do it.”
“We’ll talk about it later.” Aimee turned away.
Hammerson smiled. He’d wanted to get Joshua in for special testing for years. This was his opportunity.
If anything ever happened to Alex Hunter, or the man went rogue, it’d be good for his special military team to have a close relationship with the boy. In the future, his talents may be able to be exploited.
Joshua sat up straighter as they approached the security gates. “Uncle Jack?”
Hammerson grinned at hearing the boy refer to him like that. “Yeah, Josh?”
“Is that one of the Guardians?”
Hammerson looked back to the gates where a tall security guard had a dog sitting beside him. It was an enormous German shepherd that came to his waist, and must have weighed in at 140 pounds if it was an ounce.
“I bet it is,” he responded cheerily.
“Jesus, Jack, will ours get that big?” Aimee’s voice was awed.
Hammerson chuckled. “Only if you overfeed it.” He slowed at the gates and let the window down. He turned in his seat. “So not too many treats, okay, Josh?”
“Not too many.” Josh grinned. “Just some.”
Aimee groaned, but still smiled down at him.
Hammerson handed over his ID and the guard looked at each of them briefly. He stood back and the dog got up on its hind legs and peered in at each of them, inhaling deeply, doing its own security check.
It fixed its eyes on Joshua and stared. After another few seconds, it backed away and dropped back down.
“Creepy,” Aimee said.
“Cool. I felt it in my head,” Joshua quickly added.
For some reason Hammerson thought the dog had been standing up on its hind legs without needing to lean on the car. The guard waved them on, and he looked in the rearview mirror at the boy.
“In your head, huh? And can you feel inside other people’s heads, Josh? Like mine?” His eyes flicked from the road to the boy.
“No.” The boy smiled.
Hammerson felt relieved, but then…
“Unless I try.” His honest smile widened.
Hammerson cleared his mind. “Best if you don’t read other people, Josh. It can be intrusive. But we can talk more on that later.”
“Or not.” Aimee added.
They next headed toward the main building, the huge white edifice that looked like two slices of toast leaning up against each other.
Hammerson branched off on a side road, heading toward a smaller white domed building. “We’re meeting Doctor Albert Harper, the chief physicist at the animal facility.”
Aimee wound down her window. “Jack, these animals, they’re safe, right? You wouldn’t be putting some sort of experimental animal in with my family, would you?”
Hammerson saw concern in her eyes as he glanced into his rear view. The thing was they were experimental. But the Guardians were into the fourth-generational iteration of breeding stock, and Harper had developed a pure strain. He knew Aimee would never buy that answer — she didn’t trust him, and probably never would.
So he lied. “You have my word on it.”
They pulled off the drive to where a short, balding man waited for them with his arms clasped behind his back. He lifted one to wave.
“Here he is, the man himself, Doctor Albert Harper.” Hammerson stepped out and quickly opened the rear door for Aimee and Joshua. The boy nearly flew out, obviously expecting Harper to produce a puppy from under his lab coat.
“Albert.” Hammerson waved.
“Jack.” Harper gave him a small salute followed by a smile.
Hammerson stood aside. “May I present Doctor Aimee Weir, and a young man looking for a puppy dog.”
Aimee strode forward, hand out. Harper shook it firmly. He then shook Joshua’s hand.
“Looking for a puppy, huh? Well, you came to the right place. You’re a lucky boy, Joshua; these dogs are very special.”
“So is he,” Hammerson said, meaning it.
“That’s what I hear,” Harper said.
Hammerson felt Aimee’s eyes on him, as she was probably wondering what he had divulged about Alex Hunter’s son.
“Lead on,” he said to Harper.
Harper led them into the animal facility, and they passed through some administration offices with a few guards monitoring cameras and other equipment. Harper turned to Joshua.
“Have you ever had a dog before?”
Joshua shook his head, his eyes on the pens. “No sir, but I’ve read everything about them and I like them a lot. And I always wanted one.”
Harper nodded. “Well, that’s good enough for me.”
Aimee was tight-lipped. “A small one would have been a good start.”
Harper smiled. “Well. they all start small, right? And these guys don’t yap all the time, and in fact can grow to anticipate what you want. They’re smart.”
Then they entered the main animal pen area, and Aimee winced at the cacophonous sound of howls, yelps, and barks.
She snorted. “They sound pretty noisy to me.”
There came a single loud grunt from the rear of the room and it immediately quietened.
Harper turned to Hammerson. “Fen knows we’re here.”
“Who?” Aimee frowned.
“Big Fen, the sire,” said Harper. “He’s the pack leader, and the first of our new breed of Guardians. He’s perfect, and has an IQ that…”
Hammerson cleared his throat, and Harper shut down. He smiled, adding: “He’s their leader, ah, pack leader.”
Joshua nodded. “I can’t wait to own one.”
Hammerson turned to Joshua. “You don’t own these dogs, Joshua, you adopt them as a family member.”
“That’s right,” Harper said. “But first you’ll need to meet Fenrir, or Big Fen as we call him in here. Okay?”
Joshua eyes were wide. “But what if he says no?”
“Then you’ll just have to convince him to say yes.” He slowed. “Here we are.”
Harper had Hammerson, Aimee and Joshua stop before a large pen. Hammerson saw it was more a room than an animal cage, and seated in the middle of it was the largest damn German shepherd he had ever seen in his life. His mind immediately screamed: wolf, but he kept it behind his teeth.
“Oh, my, god.” Aimee’s mouth hung open.
The dog had a blanket over its shoulders, and its unnatural blue eyes stared into each human’s momentarily, lingering on Hammerson and narrowing for a moment or two, before then fixing on Joshua. There they stayed.