15. A Brother-in-Arms

Blaze woke early the following day, uneasy. He uncurled himself from around Sarah's sleeping form in the queen-size bed in the guest bedroom where he'd carried her limp form after he'd had her, and he picked his way through the dark house, found his shoes, and walked outside.

Mary Varvara Bell's shock troops were surely on their way, amassing their forces and strategizing the attack.

He had nothing to work with. His only option was to retreat.

But a tactical retreat was always better than defeat. He would regroup and live to fight another day. Navy SEALs did not undertake suicide missions. The team secured victory together.

His black trail-running shoes crunched on the gravel in the cool dark, the sun only a sliver of scarlet fire on the eastern horizon.

Though he was walking toward the barn to check on Charlie and HowNow, he stopped at the henhouse to see Remi, who was waving his thick white banner of a tail like the dignified soldier he was.

Behind him, the chickens staggered out of the coop, pecking sleepily at bugs on the ground and flapping their wings to stretch after sleeping all night.

They were giant chickens, standing two feet tall or more, the tops of their heads midway up Blaze's thighs. He would have assumed that a chicken would be a feathered version of the spinning rotisseried meat lumps at Costco, but these chickens were huge animals, looking more like chubby wild turkeys than fluffy volleyballs with feet he'd envisioned.

They swaggered around their pen like predatory dinosaurs, swishing their tailfeathers, moderately content with the beetles in the gravel until they found an opening to pounce on an unsuspecting human.

Yeah, these birds knew they were cousins to eagles and velociraptors.

Remi trundled out of the chicken enclosure and sauntered over, keeping an unconcerned watch on the sky and cornfield as he approached Blaze, who took a seat on a particularly large rock by the coop.

"Hey there, puppers," he said.

Remi leaned against his shoulder and calmly scanned the horizon, a companionable watch.

Blaze dug his fingers into Remi's thick white coat, bred for ten thousand years to herd sheep in the winter of the French Alps, and scratched.

Remi stretched into the scratch, shifting as Blaze found the itchy spots, and his dark eyes half-closed in ecstasy.

"You're a good boy, aren't you?" Blaze murmured, scratching Remi's whole back.

The dog drooled his response.

Small cords in the dog's skin—scars—snaked under Blaze's fingers.

"Such a good boy, standing guard out here all these years. You know what it's like to be on the wall, boy. Don't you?"

Remi's hind paw vibrated, and Blaze leaned into the scratch as Remi's eyes closed entirely.

"You'd be a good, good companion to the veterans I talk to, wouldn't you? You'd be a good puppers for them, let them talk to you about standing guard against foxes and eagles, wouldn't you? Wouldn't you, good boy?"

Remi slowly collapsed to the dirt and rolled over, baring his fluffy tummy for a belly rub.

Blaze obliged. "Such a good puppers, a fellow brother-in-arms. We have to pack up these chickens in an hour or so to take them to Abigail's farm, where you'll be safe. My job is to keep you and the livestock and Sarah safe."

The previous night, when he'd gone to get the ropes from his duffel bag in the guest room, he'd sent texts to the Bully Boys, aborting the operation. Concern for their well-being and good-natured griping about missing the battle had filled his text feed this morning, but they'd all turned around for home.

Blaze still needed to call the suppliers of food and weapons to cancel those orders, but the evac was critical.

Remi's fluffy fur was rough cotton under his hand, and he rubbed the dog's tummy as he stretched at his feet.

"The foxes and eagles are your job, and I wouldn't dream of infringing. Who's my good boy?"

The farmyard brightened as the line of fire on the horizon fattened to a slim arc, and red light streaked the dark sky.

Sunrises felt foreboding. Blaze had started many operations in the early dark and watched the sun swell into a violent and terrible day.