Chapter 12 - Apollo Bradley - Partners
November 16, 3040 9:36 PM
Our mission has been relatively quiet. When we got past the entrance of the Primm-Austen supply depot, everything looked normal. The equipment was off and the place was empty. There was nothing to raise suspicion. Commander Trevor is looking through the warehouse floors to find anything that might be a clue. Hair, feathers, blood, but his examination is empty.
I use my nose to sniff out a trail, but nothing puts me on notice. It's the usual aroma of rats and dust. I've gained a database of thousands of scents over my short career. I've even got some aromatic biotics, implanted memories of smells, which aid my tracking skills. It's a pretty standard procedure for a canine tracker like myself. I know each and every one of them, so I know what is standard and what might be out of the ordinary.
Still, you can't be too careful.
"Scent amplifier," I say. Out from my helmed weapon slides a scoped device that places itself in front of my nose. Commander Trevor looks at me with a funny expression on his face.
"What does that thing do?" he asks.
"It's a Cerberus Scent Amplifier, newest model, top of the line," I respond. "It basically makes it easier for me to pick up scents that are otherwise impossible for my nose to detect. With this, I could probably tell what has been lurking as far back as a month ago."
"Impressive, but isn't that going to cause like an overload of smells? I can't imagine it's pleasant to be bombarded with the stench of things that are months old."
"There are filters that help control that. I won't smell a fart that some maintenance worker ripped five days ago."
"You dogs and your tech," he says in a joking manner. "I'm surprised there's stuff that dogs can't smell."
"Even with aromatic biotics, there's only so much the body can do on its own."
"True. I never see wolves with something like that, though."
"Eh, they're too proud and feel that technology weakens their hunter's spirit, whatever that means. They tend to act more? stubborn than us dogs. I mean, have you met Fenrir?"
Commander Trevor lets out a light laugh.
"Well I'm glad your candidness is still around after all these years," he says.
I first met Simon a few years back. We were tracking drugs that were being created in Seadog, Florida, a booming dog city on the southern tip of the panhandle. It has wonderful beaches and top notch law enforcement thanks to the resources given by humans.
Even though Seadog is considered a dog city, it owes its development to humans. Humans provided financial funding, and even to this day, human law enforcement helps patrol the streets when dogs need assistance. As a return, they get a small portion of the local tax charged to Seadog residents.
Drugs were a new thing in Seadog. This place was still relatively young and, while prosperous, over time, poverty crept its way in. There was a rumor that an illegal stimulant was being produced in a sleeper operation. The drug was some sort of hyper steroid, allowing the user to enhance their physical abilities greatly for a short amount of time. On the street, though, they were known as "wall smashers" mainly because of the rage a user would feel while under the influence.
Since humans had a strong connection to Seadog, the raid was a joint effort by the Human Council and High Dog Council. They sent a team that included Commander Trevor and me to get these drugs out of Seadog and persecute those making them.
I was fairly young at the time, but our enforcement branch, the Dog Alliance, saw me as an agent with unlimited potential. I was smarter than my peers, faster, and had a better nose. A drug operation like this was ideal for a dog with my skills.
Dogs and humans have a natural bond with each other, even after we were no longer their pets. We never harbored the hatred that so many of our animal brothers had, especially the wolves. And, in turn, humans never really held a grudge for us from the Event. They saw we were held at the mercy of our animal allies. These reasons are why dogs and humans are capable of coexisting in the same land. We have no need for separate territories like the other animals have, we are perfectly fine living in an integrated society with our human friends.
This has always been a subject of controversy, though. Our canine brothers, the wolves, see us as weaklings. We got our own territories like the others, but they've scoffed at our openness to live among people. They think that we are still their pets, second class citizens in a human dominated society. I've never seen it that way, I've always seen humans as compassionate neighbors. There used to be a saying, that dog was man's best friend, but I think it's a two way street.
I remember the first time I met Commander Trevor.
"You must be Apollo," he said to me. "I've heard a lot about you. My intel from the Dog Alliance tells me that you are one of their most valued members. I'm glad to have you on this mission."
He was all business, but had this friendly way about him. On that mission in Seadog, Commander Trevor and I worked as a team, much like we are working now in Primm. We went looking for traces of wall smashers, but on our first few locations, we found nothing. When I sniffed the area, I smelled no clues.
It was frustrating. A lot was hinging on my tracking ability, but every time we went to our targets I couldn't find anything. Up to that point, I hadn't been used to failure and my senses never faltered.
I was young and I started to feel the pressure of the team on my shoulders. Like a rookie, my confidence started to crumble with each empty search. I could sense the disappointment coming from my teammates. But Commander Trevor had faith in me. When the other humans and dogs went grumbling about how I was doing nothing for them, Commander Trevor told them to shut up, that the mission shouldn't fall on one dog or human, that it was a team effort. These admonishments helped lift the burden from my mind.
On our fifth search, I once again fell short and things had reached a boiling point. One of the other dogs wanted to take the lead in tracking and said the only reason I got to be the head tracker was because I was sucking up to the Dog Alliance. He didn't see any of the so-called potential I possessed.
That's when Simon took me aside. "Don't listen to him. He's trying to talk you down. He knows you're young and that a promotion is in line for the lead tracker. He's trying to snipe for that promotion and he's not above belittling team members. Remember, I'm the commander on this mission and I'll decide who does what. And until I see any other reason, you're still going to lead the hunt."
That was the jolt I needed. I did one more search of the place and I smelled something funny. It smelled like human blood, yet scrubbed away with so many chemicals that even the greatest sniffer could barely smell it. But I did. I alerted Simon and he told me to hold on to that scent. I kept sniffing, and sniffing, until I smelled traces of what we were looking for - wall smashers.
The scent trail had been discovered and with my new-found confidence, I did some of the best tracking of my life. Two days later, we found the source, the drugs were destroyed, and wall smashers would never be distributed again in Seadog. My work lead to a promotion that helped me get placement on some elite teams. I owe all this to Commander Trevor.
Since then, Commander Trevor and I talk to each other on a regular basis. We hadn't worked together again until today; nevertheless, we're always willing to get a drink whenever we're in each other's town. I've made my residence in Seadog and Simon is always fond of the beaches there. He's one of the few animals, man or dog, that I can call a good friend.
I am done searching the area and found nothing suspicious. Even with the scent amplifier everything seems to be the way it should.
"Looks like I have zilch," I say to Commander Trevor.
"Me either," he says to me. "My scanner picks up nothing. I've been looking all over the place and there's not a single hair or scale that would help me."
"Should we report to the others?"
"I guess so."
/> I'm about to activate my headset to let our team members know our status when, suddenly, I hear a buzzing noise. It's an incoming message from one of our squad mates in the other depots.
"Identify yourself," I say.
"This is Fenrir Snow with a status report. We got one of them."
"This is Commander Trevor," he chimes in. "You got the target? Are you still at your location, the Primm-Phillips depot?"
"Affirmative," Fenrir responds.
"Is the halfkind dead? How many hostiles did you encounter?"
"Only one. And yes, we have a fatality."
"Which halfkind is it?"
"The eagle one, Lombardi Lawton."
"Borton, Erawan, do you read me?"
"Borton here," he says, "Read you loud and clear."
"How is your investigation going?"
"We have nothing to report. Seems quiet here."
"Abort your location and head to the Primm-Phillips supply depot. We'll rendezvous with you there. Do you confirm?"
"Confirmed."
We turn off our headsets and look at each other.
"Looks like they sent a scout," I say.
"Yeah, that's pretty smart of them not to put all their eggs in one basket," he says. "Let's head over there to investigate, pronto."
"Got it."
We quickly get in our vehicle and make our way to the Primm-Phillips supply depot. It looks like a warzone when we arrive. There are demolished boxes, food, and supplies scattered about everywhere. The dust has just cleared, even though the battle had finished ten minutes ago.
"Didn't really go for stealth did you?" I say to Fenrir.
"Stealth is hard when your target throws a homemade grenade at you," he snaps back.
"Where is the halfkind?" Commander Trevor asks.
"Over there in that corner. I've covered him with a blanket. You're more than welcome to investigate."
"You haven't searched his body?"
"I figured I should wait for you. You are the Commander," he says with a hint of sarcasm. The wolf in our team is acting like an asshole. What a surprise.
Commander Trevor and I walk over to the body while the others trade information in the center of the warehouse. He lifts the blanket from the ground and it is a mess.
"Unbelievable," I say to myself.
Blown apart limbs, charred feathers, and a gaping, bloody hole in his temple are some of the few things that I notice. Fenrir and Colbo really did a number on this poor guy. If I hadn't seen a hologram of him earlier, I would have barely recognized what I am looking at.
As I get past the cuts and dismembered body parts, I'm able to get a better view of his feathers. He has the beak of a bird protruding from the center of his face, although it is now painted with dried blood. His eyes are small and black. His head is rather large in proportion to his body, but his general anatomy is human. He has the feet of a bird, talons and all, but he is bipedal. His arms are a mixture of limb and wings. He's wearing clothes, pants and a shirt with a jacket, and most of it has been ripped to shreds at this point.
He also has a pack wrapped around his arms.
"Any of you guys look inside the back pack?" I yell at the others.
"Like I said," Fenrir says, "we were waiting for you."
I open it and stick my head in. It's rather spacious and partly burnt, but for the most part empty. The only things I smell are scrap metal and some electronic devices. However, just as my head is about to exit, I smell the faint trace of something familiar. I grab it with my teeth and spit it on the floor.
It's a partly charred data cube, and it looks like it's still in working condition. I nudge the button on it and a holographic image floats in the air. Something looks familiar.
"What did you find?" Commander Trevor says to me when I make my discovery.
I turn to him and say, "I think I know where they're going."