Нора Робертс - The Search

She called the unit to the map and the log she’d already begun. Once she’d assigned sectors, she ordered everyone to load on their packs.

“I have items worn recently by the subject. Take a bag, give your dogs the scent. Remember to use the subject’s name. Refresh the scent whenever you think your dog may be confused, or if he or she becomes distracted or disinterested. Remember the boundaries of your sector. Use your compass, check in by radio. Trust your dogs. Good luck.”

She felt their excitement, and the nerves, as well as a sense of competition. Eventually, if they made it as a unit, the competition would shift into cooperation and trust.

“When you get back, all dogs who didn’t find our victim need a short find, to keep up morale. Remember, it’s not just your dogs being tested. You’re honing your skills, too.”

She watched them spread out, separate, and nodded in approval at the way each gave his or her dog the scent, the command.

Her own dogs whined as the others scented the air, began to roam.

“We’ll play later,” she promised them. “These guys need to do it on their own.”

She sat, noted the time, wrote it in the assignment log.

They were a good group, she thought, and should make a solid unit. She’d started with eight, but over the past ten weeks three had dropped out. Not a bad percentage, she mused, and what was left was tight, was dedicated. If they pushed through the next five weeks, they’d be a good asset to the program.

She picked up her radio, checked the frequency, then contacted Sylvia. “They’re off and running. Over.”

“Well, I hope they don’t find me too soon. I’m enjoying my book. Over.”

“Don’t forget. Sprained ankle, dehydration, mild shock. Over.”

“Got it. But until then, I’m going to eat my apple and read. See you when they haul me back. Over and out.”

To keep her own dogs occupied, and give them some consolation for not being able to play the find game with the others, Fiona ran them through their paces on the agility training equipment.

It may have looked comical to an outsider—cheerful Labs climbing up and down the ladder of a child’s sliding board, or taking that slide on command. But the skill taught and reinforced a search dog’s ability to cope with difficult footing. The fact that they enjoyed it, as well as balancing on the teeter-totter, negotiating along narrow planks, maneuvering through the open drums she’d formed into tunnels, added a bonus.

The demands of the search exercise required her to order sit-and-stays while she took radio calls from the unit, answered questions, logged in positions.

At the end of an hour, the dogs settled down with chew treats, and Fiona at her laptop. When her radio crackled, she continued to keyboard one-handed.

“Base, this is Tracie. I have Sylvia. She’s conscious and lucid. Her right ankle may be sprained and is causing her some discomfort. She appears to be somewhat dehydrated and shaky, but otherwise uninjured. Over.”

“That’s good, Tracie. What’s your location, and do you require assistance transporting Sylvia to base? Over.”

Exercise or not, Fiona logged in the location, the time, the status. She may have smiled when she heard Sylvia playing up her victim role in the background, but she created a professional and complete log.

While they’d debrief as if the search had been real, Fiona felt such moments deserved commemoration. She set trays of brownies on her picnic table, added fruit platters for the more healthy-minded, pitchers of iced tea.

She had dog biscuits and a toy for the dogs—and for Lolo, Tracie’s clever German shepherd, a gold star for her tag collar.

As she carried glasses outside, Simon’s truck drove over her bridge.

It annoyed her to feel annoyed. She was basically a happy person, Fiona thought. A friendly one. She liked Simon well enough, and his dog quite a bit. But irritation pricked nonetheless.

Maybe part of it was because he just looked good—sort of rough and arty at the same time in battered jeans and expensive sunglasses—and somehow approachable (a misconception, in her opinion) with his adorable puppy.

He let the puppy race unleashed to greet her, then bounce like an over-wound spring to the other dogs, back to her before he tore off in circles around the yard in a bid to get her dogs to play.

“Having a picnic?” Simon asked.

“Of sorts.” She mimicked his oh-so-casual tone. “I have an advanced class on their way in from a practice search. Their first with a person. So we’ll have a little celebration.”

“With brownies.”

“I like brownies.”

“Who doesn’t?”

Jaws demonstrated his opinion by trying to climb onto the picnic bench to steal a sample. Fiona simply put his front paws back on the ground. “Off !”

“Yeah, good luck with that. He’s a freaking acrobat. Yesterday he managed to climb up on a stool and eat my sandwich—he likes pickles, apparently—in the five-point-two seconds my back was turned.”

“Consistency.” Fiona repeated the “Off!” command the second and third times Jaws attempted the snatch. “And distraction.”

She walked back a few steps, called him. He ran to her as if they’d just been reunited after a war. He sat when she ordered him to, then preened under her praise and pets. “Positive reinforcement.”

She dug a treat out of her pocket. “Good dog. He’s coming along.”

“Two days ago, he ate my flash drive. Just swallowed it whole like a vitamin pill.”

“Uh-oh.”

“Yeah, so I rush him to the vet—and she takes a look and decides it’s small enough he doesn’t need it surgically removed. I’m supposed to...” Jaw set, he scowled off into the distance. “I don’t want to talk about that part, so we’ll just say I eventually got it back.”

“This, too, shall pass.”

“Yeah, yeah.” He picked up a brownie. “It still works. I haven’t decided if that’s amazing or disgusting.” He took a bite. “Good brownie.”

“Thanks. They’re the only things I can bake with regular success.” And since these had been a product of her two a.m. jitters, she’d had two for breakfast.

“What are you doing here, Simon?”

Some of her irritation must have come through as he gave her a long, silent look before answering. “I’m socializing my idiot dog. And you still owe me part of a lesson. Two for one. Three for one adding in the brownies.”

“Your dog’s handler could use some socialization.”

He polished off the brownie, poured himself a glass of iced tea. “I’m probably past the training age.”

“Despite the maxim, you actually can teach an old dog new tricks.”

“Maybe.” After downing the tea, he glanced around. “Shit. Where the hell is he?”

“He went in the tunnel.”

“The what?”

She gestured to the line of drums. “Let’s see what he does,” she suggested, and began to stroll to the far end.

They were here, she thought, with the human helping himself to her celebratory snacks. She might as well work in the lesson.

“If he just comes back out where he went in, let it go for now. But if he goes on through, give him praise, and a treat.” She handed Simon one.

“For going through a bunch of fifty-five-gallon drums?”

“Yes.” Her tone took on a scolding edge. “It takes curiosity, courage and some agility to not only go in, but go through and come out again.”

“And if he doesn’t come out at all?”

“I guess you leave him there and go home and watch ESPN.”

He studied the drums. “Some people would complain it’s sexist to assume I watch ESPN. Maybe I’m a fan of Lifetime.”

She gave up. “If he doesn’t come out on his own, you call, coax, try to lure. Failing that, you go in after him.”