Chapter 1 - THE DOG WHO BROKE HIS FIRST COMMAND
The first scream came from the little girl.
The second came from her mother.
The third came from me.
“**TITAN! OFF! NOW!**”
My ninety-pound Belgian Malinois had a seven-year-old child pinned beneath him in the middle of a crowded Seattle park.
And for the first time in five years, he refused to obey me.
I saw a man grab a broken tree branch.
Another shouted, “Get that dog off her!”
Someone farther back yelled, “Somebody call 911!”
I was already running.
My boots tore through wet grass as the radio clipped to my vest slammed against my ribs.
Twenty yards.
Fifteen.
Ten.
The little girl was screaming so hard her face had gone red.
Titan stood over her chest with both front paws pressed near her shoulders, his body rigid.
I had never seen him like that.
Not during narcotics searches.
Not during tracking operations.
Not even the night an armed robbery suspect fired two rounds at us in an alley.
“Titan!”
Nothing.
My heart dropped.
Five years of flawless service.
Hundreds of deployments.
Perfect obedience records.
And now my partner appeared to be attacking a child in broad daylight.
My career flashed through my mind.
Suspension.
Investigation.
Lawsuits.
Titan being declared dangerous.
Maybe euthanized.
But none of that mattered as much as the little girl beneath him.
I pulled my collapsible baton while running.
I hated myself for even thinking about using it.
But child first.
Always.
“Back up!” I shouted at the crowd. “I’m his handler!”
The girl’s mother reached the scene almost as fast as I did.
“My daughter! Oh my God, Emily!”
She tried to throw herself toward Titan.
I blocked her with my shoulder.
“Ma’am, please!”
“Get him off her!”
“I will!”
I dropped onto one knee beside Titan and grabbed the tactical collar around his neck.
My other hand tightened around the baton.
“Titan. Release.”
He didn’t move.
That was when I looked into his face.
And everything changed.
He wasn’t watching Emily.
He wasn’t growling at her.
His eyes weren’t on the angry men behind me either.
Titan was staring at something six inches from the child’s head.
His ears were flattened.
His lips peeled away from his teeth.
A low growl vibrated deep inside his chest.
Then I heard it.
Not shouting.
Not crying.
Something beneath all of it.
A dry mechanical sound.
Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch.
My blood went cold.
I slowly turned my head toward the pile of dead leaves beside Emily’s blonde hair.
The leaves moved.
A thick patterned body slid through them.
Then a triangular head rose from the ground.
“Everybody freeze!”
The words ripped out of me.
The crowd fell strangely quiet.
Emily’s mother whispered, “What is that?”
I saw the raised coils.
The dark markings.
The tail trembling beneath the leaves.
Titan lowered himself another inch over the girl.
Protecting her.
Not attacking her.
The snake lifted its head higher.
Emily whimpered beneath him.
“Mommy…”
I tightened my grip on Titan’s collar.
Nobody moved.
May you like
Then the rattlesnake struck.
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