Page 18 of Radar

With less than a year to get a K9 sniffer-trained and field-ready, Xander didn’t have the luxury of starting with a puppy. He needed a working-line dog that had a good start to his training.

Xander had walked into the Kansas facility and sat to observe those delisted dogs having their playtime. Right away, Xander locked eyes with Radar. Radar trotted straight over and sat by Xander’s side with a “Well, there you are, about time you got here” glimmer in his eyes.

They had been best buds ever since.

While Radar had excelled in his training at the service dog center, he was too high-energy for the medical alert service dog gig the team had envisioned for him.

Once Xander found and fell in love with Radar, he hired Reaper to go and make an assessment. Reaper said Radar had the character qualities that made him the right K9 for Xander’s needs, qualities similar to Digger’s.

Plans were made.

Training began.

How much smaller Radar had seemed back then when he was still an adolescent with paws too big for his body.

And here they were, a year later, Radar had filled out into his adult size; taller than average with a well-muscledphysique. The glistening caramel-colored fur framed eyes filled with wisdom. Radar was an old soul. Radar seemed to carry an ethos of service much like the special forces brothers Xander had served with in war.

It was good to have a partner whom Xander didn’t just love but esteemed.

But now that Radar was qualified and proficient, Anna said the machine was on the move, probably west toward Europe.

There was no Kyrgyzstan job to do.

No summer mission scouring the mountains.

The entire reason for finding Radar and having him trained had evolved.

Now, what was Xander going to do about Radar?

It would be impossible to integrate a dog—no matter the K9's masterful training—into Xander’s current day-to-day.

Or even hour-to-hour.

Later that afternoon, Xander needed to meet with Bill York and find out if he needed to follow Orest Kalinsky to Alaska. And Xander would make a plan from there, whether Radar could fit into that picture or if Radar needed to stay here with Reaper.

Xander wanted to know what York had been chasing and what he’d learned in the process. Anna seemed to think York had hit on something important. And, in the bar, Anna could only say so much.

Xander had to push the ramifications of Anna’s update, both global and personal, out of his mind. He’d focus on controlling the three feet around him, which included Reaper and Radar.

Blocked by the vehicles, Radar hadn’t spotted Xander yet. But, as always, the first thing Radar did when he moved from one space to another was to do a thorough visual scan to get his bearings and gauge the vibe, then his nose went up as he did a secondary scan with his sniffer.

Today, the air current blew past Xander straight over to the team.

Radar turned his gaze on Xander.

A grin spread across Xander’s face. “There he is! There’s my good boy!”

As Radar stood politely beside Reaper, his entire body quivered with contained excitement.

Butterflies danced in Xander’s stomach.

It was the same sensation every time he came to collect Radar from his training course to have some bonding time. It was hard to describe, except that it was like leaving a piece of him behind and not feeling whole again until they were together.

As Reaper stopped, Radar sat, but he couldn’t quell the quiver.

“Xander,” Reaper called out with his hand extended.

“You’re being mean,” Xander said, reaching for the shake.

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