Chapter Twenty-One

Levi

The structure that the soldiers set up was pretty slick. Under a dome of branches, there were two long boxes at different levels. His was on the ground, and Tess’s was high enough up that he lifted her into place.

They lay silently on the folded blankets, which were meant to cushion their bodies from the hard floor. Tucked into the corner, extra water bottles were within easy reach.

While the ceiling and floor of their crawl spaces were solid wood, the sides were constructed of randomly placed sticks that had been nailed into place. This camouflaged the person inside and removed any sense of claustrophobia. The sticks weren’t solid sides like the plank boards he’d imagined; if need be, one could kick themselves free.

Not quite cage-like, this design gave Levi a fairly clear view of the search team moving toward the tent.

Mojo was working off-lead, nose to the ground, legs splayed wide, chuffing loudly as he moved along. This tested Mojo’s ability to track a subject-specific scent, ignoring all others.

While Levi’s trail was fresh, there was a significant wind rustling the trees around them. When a dog air-scented, they usually searched for a generalized human scent rather than a specific person's scent. Whether that human scent lingered around for detection was weather and time dependent.

Colder was better; it held the scent toward the ground.

Heat, like yesterday, meant the sent would rise faster.

If it rained, things got difficult fast.

Today, neither the temperature nor precipitation should cause Mojo issues.

But there were two confounding elements. First, the wind had really picked up. The scent would spread in a cone shape. The wider the cone, the harder it was to track back to the source. And second, no one was going to signal Mojo that he should be searching for a second subject.

Now that Levi thought about it, when Tess made her gathering motion, it seemed like the movement came from the same place as a K9’s scenting the wind. She would draw something through her sense of touch that other humans couldn’t, just as K9s sniffed the air, finding the essence of something discernable to them, while Levi had no sense of the situation at all.

Right now, Mojo had tracked Levi all the way to the tent and, squatting low, had thrust his nose under the zippered tent door. Without a command, he wiggled his body inside.

Levi was excited to look at the video when the team got back to the vineyard that evening. Reaper and Goose were monitoring both drone footage and footage from Mojo’s collar camera.

From Mojo’s collar cam, the team would know exactly what Mojo was up to in that tent.

Levi was particularly interested in that information because when he squatted outside the tent to leave his scent by the door, Levi saw a Kong, some tennis balls, and a tug toy. All were poised as temptations to distract Mojo from his task.

The first test tracked Levi’s scent from his last known location to the tent.

The second test was coming back out of the tent and back on the trail without further commands.

Levi was holding his breath.

Out Mojo came, nose to the ground, he circled the tent, then came right over to Levi and peered through the twigs.

Levi said nothing.

Mojo’s nose twitched, and he rounded to where Tess lay still and quiet. He lifted on to his hind legs, put his paws on the structure, and looked in. He sent off two sharp barks.

Tess said nothing.

Mojo traced back to Levi, caught his gaze, and barked with a stomp of his foot before turning of his head toward Tess.

Levi said nothing.

Two barks, two stomps, and an extra-long glance toward Tess, Mojo was clearly angry that Levi wasn’t helping her. When he didn’t get what he wanted, Mojo ran back to Kimba, who was now lying on the ground. “Mojo, help.”

Mojo came back to yell at Levi. And at this point, Levi felt it was okay to say, “Help.” So Mojo understood he was also in trouble.

Mojo backed up and swept the area. He ran this way and that, back over to Kimba, licking his face. “Mojo, help.”

Mojo’s body held stiff with concentration. His ears twisted as he searched for the sound that could assist. He sat and sent three sharp “help me!” barks up and listened again.

Now, he was chuffing the air, looking from Kimba to the tent to Levi. He shot off, rounded the structure, and lifted up to check Tess, who stayed silent as requested.

Levi thought this whole process of Mojo’s fact-gathering was fascinating.

Mojo pushed his nose as far into the twigs as he could force it, sniffing Levi, and then went into the tent.

Disappointment washed over Levi when Mojo reemerged with a tug toy in his mouth and brought it over to Levi, dropped it, and then barked.

Levi was at a loss for what to do here. He knew not to tell Mojo, “No, not that.” The only word he was told to command was “help.”

Biting the ball at the end of the tug toy, Mojo lifted it toward Levi, caught his eye then whined. Obviously, this wasn’t about play. Mojo was too intense for that. He brought “help.”

Mojo stood there waiting while Levi tried to imagine what Mojo had in mind. His gaze traveled from the ball up the rope to the loop at the end. “Good job, Mojo. Good help.”

Levi reached through the space and accepted the toy. It wasn’t easy, but Levi was able to get the rope around the door of his enclosure, slide the ball through the loop, and pull his hands clear.

Immediately, Mojo grabbed the ball and tugged at the door. He settled back into his haunches and pulled harder.

The structure shifted.

Mojo dropped the ball and ran over to check on Tess. He ran back to check on Kimba, licking his face and trying to rouse him. Then, he went back to his task of tugging his ball. And sure enough—sure enough!—the door popped open, and Levi was freed.

“Good job, Mojo. Good help.”

Levi crawled free as Mojo ran around to check Tess, barking his very distinctive “Come here!” bark then peeked around to see what was holding Levi up.

Once Levi helped Tess down, Mojo led them back to Kimba so that he, too, could receive help.

Tess eyes were as bright as her smile. “That was absolutely the best. What a gift to take part in that.”

Levi freely admitted that it was an absolutely magnificent sequence.

Mojo deserved all the pets and scritches that followed.

“The construction is supposed to simulate someone caught in a structure collapse?” Tess asked Kimba while Levi wrestled Mojo as a reward.

“Possibly. During past rainy seasons, there have been flash floods that have swept people along as the rainwater fills the dry riverbeds. When that happens, they’re often tangled in the debris that is cleared by the water flow.”

“Drowned?” Tess whispered.

“Often not. Sometimes, they’re just tired from the swim and tangled in something like this.” Kimba spread his arms to show the hide. “And they could use assistance getting freed up.”

“If the pull toy wasn’t one of them?” Levi asked. “What were the helpful objects in the tent?”

“There was a radio, an ax, and a hammer. We thought the best choice would be the ax to get yourself out, second, the radio, so you’d be in there longer and need someone to assist.”

“Any would work.”

“Any would work, but he’d bypass a first aid kit, the water bottle, and the staged distractions.”

“A pile of steak might have done it.”

“A pile of steak would have called in a lot more interest than Mojo. You might have been in trouble. The guy on overwatch only brought three bullets.” Kimba elbowed Levi.

Enrico’s quad pulled up.

Goose and Reaper climbed out of their open vehicle, all smiles.

“Consider my mind blown,” Levi told Reaper as he shook Enrico’s hand. When Enrico moved off to talk to Kimba, Levi said softly. “That’s it, Reaper. Mojo’s my dog.”

Reaper nodded slowly. “I am right there with you. Mojo is extraordinary. Let’s sit on that decision for one more day, though. I want to chat with Enrico about his program tomorrow.”