Chapter 13 - THE CONTAINER YARD
The port looked like a metal city.
Containers stacked four stories high.
Rain.
Floodlights.
Engines rumbling in the distance.
Federal agents met us at the gate.
Martin Voss’s company had booked a refrigerated container on a cargo ship leaving before dawn.
Manifest listed agricultural equipment.
Nobody believed that anymore.
Titan should not have been there.
I knew it.
Harris knew it.
Titan knew it too.
He sat beside me in the command vehicle, watching every movement outside.
“You’ve done enough.”
He looked at me.
“You’re staying here.”
His ears lifted.
“That’s an order.”
He sneezed.
I took that as disrespect.
Teams moved in.
Then everything went wrong.
A truck engine roared.
“Vehicle moving!”
Martin’s semi burst between two rows of containers.
Agents scattered.
The truck slammed through a temporary barrier.
Harris shouted into his radio.
“Block the south gate!”
Martin turned sharply.
The trailer struck a container stack.
Metal screamed.
One cargo container shifted.
Then fell.
It smashed onto the pavement.
The doors burst open.
Wooden crates spilled everywhere.
One shattered.
Agents froze.
A snake crawled across the wet concrete.
Then another.
Then three more.
“Back up!”
The yard became chaos.
I looked at Titan.
He was already standing.
“No.”
He whined.
“No.”
Another radio call.
“Officer down near Row C!”
Then:
“Possible bite!”
I opened the command vehicle.
Titan jumped out.
So much for promises.
“Stay close.”
We moved between containers.
Titan alerted twice before I saw snakes.
Each time we rerouted officers.
He wasn’t hunting them.
He was warning us.
At Row C, we found an agent on the ground.
Not bitten.
Broken ankle.
Good news, relatively speaking.
Then Titan turned.
His head lifted.
Nose working.
Different behavior.
Human scent.
I knew it instantly.
“Pike?”
No.
Titan had never tracked Martin.
But Titan had smelled Cole.
Hospital.
School.
Maybe family scent meant nothing.
But equipment did.
The same snake crates.
Same gloves.
Same chemicals.
Titan pulled toward the docks.
We followed.
A figure moved between two containers.
“Police!”
Martin ran.
Harris chased from the opposite side.
Martin reached the water.
Dead end.
He turned with a pistol.
“Stay back!”
Titan growled.
Martin looked at him.
“That damn dog.”
“Drop the weapon.”
“You have no idea what you’re interfering with.”
“I know you put venomous snakes near children for money.”
“It wasn’t supposed to hurt anybody!”
“Lucy Harper almost died.”
Martin laughed nervously.
“People die every day.”
Titan’s growl deepened.
Martin aimed.
Not at me.
At Titan.
My heart stopped.
May you like
“NO!”
The gun fired.
