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“So, what now?” asked Ernie. “We in the shit?”

The team leader shook his head. “No, he understands. I don’t think there’s going to be any blowback on us. I should have kept him in the loop; that’s on me. A good reminder that the chain of command needs to be respected. If the Agency hadn’t been there to bail us out, he could have.”

“Fair point,” said Rick. “But Chief, you sure this isn’t going to come back on you? We’re a team, and we went into this together.”

TJ bent and ruffled Hatchet’s ears. “Guys, we’ve been there for each other through thick and thin. Ain’t nothing going to change my loyalty to you and your families. Now, the Commander has approved a training operation. Going to be a discrete maritime infil followed by a subsurface recovery. I want all three of you to develop individual plans. As a team, we’ll review them and select one. If it’s your plan, you’re the team lead.”

“Sounds good,” said Rick. “Where’s the area of operations?”

TJ smiled. “Our old stomping ground, Vancouver Island.”

“Dad, does it make you sad that you rescued the puppies and now all of them except Hatchet are gone?” asked Junior as he, Mike, and George watched a car drive away from their house. Inside was Dart with her new handler. She was the last of the litter to ship out to her new job, and it was heart-wrenching for everyone involved.

“Yeah, bud. But at least I know they’ve gone to good homes, and they’re going to be well looked after. They’ve all got important jobs to do.”

“Do you think Axe misses having an important job?”

Mike put his arm around his son’s shoulders. “Bud, Axe has the most important job there is. He looks after you, your mom.”

“And the baby,” added Junior.

“Yeah, bud and the baby. He’s got a full-time mission.”

“And every old dog needs a mission,” added George, who had fully recovered from the assault that had put him in the hospital.

“What’s your mission, George?” asked Junior.

The former cop smiled. “Making sure that guys like your dad have the best dogs by their side when they’re down range.”

“That’s a cool mission,” Junior replied as they switched their attention to the newly fenced training yard.

Inside, Saber and Axe were taking turns to chase Hatchet. The pup was almost as big as his mother and had energy to burn.

“Saber doesn’t seem to miss her babies,” said Junior. “I thought she would be sad to see them go.”

“She knows they’re going off to do their duty,” said George.

“Yeah, and she’d definitely had enough of five kids,” said Ali as she joined them. In the two weeks since they’d returned from Canada, her baby bump had started to show. “George, are you looking at getting another litter out of Saber?”

He shook his head. “I might let the dust settle on the kidnap fiasco first. She’s been through a lot, and I think she needs a little downtime.”

“I think you both do,” said Mike. He took a lead from the fence, opened the gate, and stepped inside. “Junior, did you want to help me put Hatchet through some training?”

“Do I ever!” yelled Junior.

Ali and George watched as the father and son put an eager young dog through his paces. Mike had introduced him to walking on a lead, and the black-faced Malinois with a droopy ear like his father’s, had taken to it like a fish to water.

“He’s going to make a damn good working dog,” said George.

“I hope so,” replied Ali. “Because he’s got big paws to fill. That dog has saved every member of Mike’s team at one stage or another. I worry about them being out there without him.”

“Something tells me Hatchet’s a chip off the old block. Not to mention, he’ll have some of Saber’s street cunning.”

“They’re quite the pair,” said Ali.

“Not unlike you and Mike,” said George. “He said that Axe brought the two of you together.”

Ali smiled. “He sure did, and here we are with kid number two on the way.”