Chapter 103 - 104: Dog God

Chapter 103: Chapter 104: Dog God

Chapter 104: Dog God

Dr. Seth Brundle looked from the frail young man in the wheelchair to the wall of surveillance monitors and frowned. Between the dozens of live feeds and the armed men occupying the abandoned cannery, the purpose of this place was gradually becoming clear. Axel Vance kept his weapon lowered but ready as he studied the man who called himself Doug, whose pale skin, thin limbs, and obvious weakness looked far too genuine to be an act.

"Who are you?" Axel asked again, this time wanting far more than a name. Doug rested one skeletal hand against the arm of his wheelchair and struggled to straighten himself before answering, "My name is Doug. I’ve loved dogs since I was a kid, and for most of my life, the ones I raised were closer to family than pets."

A faint smile appeared on Doug’s face, but it vanished almost immediately. "Then I had an accident that badly damaged my spine, and I ended up paralyzed from the waist down." He touched one of his motionless legs with a trace of bitterness before continuing, "Afterward, something strange began happening whenever my dogs were near me."

"At first, I could only feel simple emotions from them—fear, hunger, excitement, affection—but eventually I started sensing actual thoughts." Doug’s voice remained gentle despite the exhaustion behind every word. "After enough time, I discovered I could communicate with them directly through their minds, and eventually the connection stopped being limited to dogs I personally owned."

Seth’s scientific curiosity immediately surfaced as he listened. "Telepathy, then, although it’s nothing like Carrie’s telekinesis. Carrie projects force directly into the physical world, while your ability seems to work through information, emotion, and shared perception."

Doug barely acknowledged the interruption, keeping his attention on Axel. "Once the connection expanded, any dog close enough for me to reach could become another pair of eyes and ears. Suddenly, being trapped in a wheelchair didn’t make my world smaller anymore; it made the entire city feel open to me."

He glanced toward the surveillance screens surrounding them. "At first, I only used it for harmless things—helping people find lost pets, warning someone when there was danger nearby, or getting attention when somebody needed help." For a while, the ability had simply given a disabled young man a way to experience far more of Miami than his body would otherwise allow.

Doug’s expression hardened as the memory changed. "Then, about a month ago, a group of people broke into my home, kidnapped me, and brought me here." Axel’s gaze sharpened immediately as he asked, "What did they force you to do?"

"They gave me all of this equipment and told me to monitor the police," Doug answered, looking toward the glowing wall of screens. "They wanted patrol activity, police stations, the movements of officers they considered important, and any place law enforcement visited often. My dogs could wander through neighborhoods without attracting attention, so those people used me to see what the authorities were doing before anyone got close to them."

Axel finally understood why the cult had repeatedly managed to disappear just before investigations reached something important. Their information network had not depended only on human lookouts or hidden cameras, because hundreds of ordinary-looking dogs had been moving through Miami without anyone questioning their presence. Doug had unknowingly become the perfect surveillance system.

Seth folded his arms, but the question he asked carried less accusation than simple confusion. "If your ability gave you that much reach, why didn’t you refuse to cooperate?" Doug’s entire body stiffened at once, and after closing his eyes, a single tear slipped down his pale cheek.

"They took my dogs too," Doug said quietly. "Jack was a Golden Retriever I had raised for eight years, and they killed him right in front of me to prove they were serious." His breathing grew uneven as he continued, "Then they told me that if I refused another order, they would kill the others one by one until there was nobody left."

The surveillance room fell silent after that. Seth, who could usually find some scientific observation or sarcastic remark for almost anything, opened his mouth and then closed it again without speaking. Axel slowly lowered his weapon completely as the word the dogs had formed back in the abandoned factory suddenly gained a much heavier meaning.

HELP had never been only Doug’s plea. The dogs had been asking Axel to save the man connected to them, but they had also been begging for themselves. Their coordinated silence, the Husky’s desperate expression, and the enormous word formed from hundreds of bodies all made perfect sense now.

Doug opened his eyes again, and the grief inside them had hardened into anger. "Two days ago, they gave me another order and told me to put everything I had into watching one person." Axel already suspected where the story was going, but Doug still looked directly at him before saying, "The target was Axel Vance."

Seth’s head turned sharply toward Axel. Doug continued, "They wanted every dog I could reach watching for you—streets, businesses, police activity, anywhere that might reveal where you were or where you planned to go. They treated you as their highest-priority surveillance target."

A cold realization settled over Axel. From the moment he returned to Miami, the organization might already have known that he was back, and some of the random dogs he had passed without noticing could have been reporting his movements. Chief Woody’s bait operation had been designed to make the cult reveal itself, but now Axel knew the enemy had possessed far more eyes than anyone suspected.

Doug gave him a tired smile. "That order was also the first real opportunity I’d had since they captured me. I figured that anyone important enough to make an organization like this devote everything to watching him probably wasn’t ordinary, so I gambled that you might be strong enough to help us."

"You sent the dogs to find me," Axel said. Doug nodded and replied, "Yes. I had no guarantee you would understand what they were trying to tell you, but it was the only chance I had."

Doug had risked his life and the lives of every remaining dog on the possibility that Axel would recognize the message. If the cult had discovered the betrayal before Axel reached the cannery, neither Doug nor the animals would likely have survived. Against those odds, the desperate plan had somehow worked.

Doug leaned forward as far as his weakened body allowed, reaching toward Axel before his strength failed and his hand dropped beside the wheelchair. "Please, make them pay for Jack and for the others they hurt. My ability, every dog I can reach, everything I can see through them—you can use all of it."

Axel studied him for several seconds. Doug was not asking for money, a new home, or a way to disappear; all he wanted was justice against the same organization Axel had been trying to expose for months. Their enemies were already the same, and Doug’s canine network could become one of the most valuable sources of information they had gained so far.

Axel stepped forward and steadied Doug before he slipped farther from the wheelchair. "All right. They’ll answer for what they did." The certainty in his voice seemed to break the last of the tension holding Doug upright, and the young man collapsed back against the chair with visible relief.

Axel then turned toward Seth and gestured at the surveillance equipment. "Stay here with him and figure out what this system was being used for, but make sure nothing gets destroyed or erased before the police arrive." Seth’s eyes immediately brightened as he looked toward the rows of machines and replied, "You don’t have to ask me twice. Evidence first, science second."

Axel gave him a warning look that made Seth raise both hands defensively. "I mean it. I’m not dismantling anything until somebody officially says I can." Satisfied for the moment, Axel left the surveillance room and headed outside to deal with the wounded gunmen and the larger police response.

A few blocks away, he found an old public pay phone near a corner store and used the emergency number Chief Woody had given him for the bait operation. The line connected almost immediately, and when a familiar voice answered, Axel said, "Hobbs, I found something important. Abandoned cannery at 78 Seagull Road—there are wounded armed men inside, all alive, and we need ambulances."

He glanced back toward the distant factory while explaining the rest. "The place is a cult-linked surveillance post, and there’s a major monitoring room on the top floor that needs to be preserved as evidence. The people downstairs look more like hired muscle than actual cult members, so keep them alive, separate them, and have the scene processed properly."

Hobbs’s voice sharpened immediately. "Understood. Units and medical support are moving now." Axel added that the surveillance equipment should be left intact until investigators understood what it contained, then hung up and remained inside the phone booth for a few moments, one hand resting against the glass.

For the first time since returning to Miami, they finally had something concrete instead of scattered bodies, erased records, and missing witnesses. They had a functioning surveillance post, a living victim who understood how it operated, and evidence that could explain how the cult had stayed ahead of police attention for so long. Unfortunately, finding something this important also meant the quiet phase of the conflict was almost certainly over.

Within fifteen minutes, sirens approached from several directions as police cruisers and ambulances entered the industrial district. Officers secured the cannery while paramedics moved inside to treat the surviving gunmen, and Axel remained near the entrance until Hobbs came over from the lead vehicle. Hobbs watched another wounded man being brought outside before looking at Axel with a mixture of disbelief and admiration.

"You really went through this entire place without killing anybody?" Hobbs asked. Axel shrugged and replied, "I needed people who could answer questions." Hobbs let out a low whistle and said, "When this cult mess is over, remind me to drag you onto my squad whether you like it or not."

Axel ignored the recruitment attempt and gestured toward the upper floor. "There’s someone upstairs I’m taking with me. His name is Doug, and he’s an innocent victim they kidnapped and forced into helping run their surveillance network."

Hobbs’s expression became serious immediately. "Witness?" Axel nodded and added, "A very important one, and I don’t want his name circulating through routine paperwork where the wrong person could find it." Hobbs understood the concern and assured him Doug could be handled as a protected witness with his information kept restricted.

That was enough for Axel. He turned toward the cannery entrance just as Seth appeared farther inside with Doug’s wheelchair, but before Axel could go toward them, tires suddenly screeched against the street outside. A black sedan had braked hard near the curb.

The passenger door flew open before the engine had fully settled. A blonde woman rushed out and crossed the distance so quickly that Axel barely had time to recognize her before she wrapped both arms around him. For a second he froze, then a familiar scent and a curtain of golden-blonde hair against his chest gave away her identity.

"Clarice?" Axel asked in surprise. The woman raised her head, revealing Clarice Starling, the young FBI agent who had already worked with him several times before. Anxiety and relief were written openly across her face for a moment before her training took over and she forced herself back into professional control.

Clarice stepped away from him, but the anger in her eyes remained unmistakable. "Do you have any idea how many people are watching you right now? Why didn’t you contact me before coming here?"

Axel opened his mouth, but Clarice did not give him time to answer. "You walked into this place without telling me what you were doing, while an organization powerful enough to monitor police officers is actively tracking you." Her voice dropped as she stared directly into his eyes. "Do you understand how dangerous that was?"

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