«Your dog is confused. He needs a handler command or he’ll default to protect mode.» She crouched beside Caleb, fingers checking his pulse, pupils, responsiveness. «Give him the stand-down signal.»
Caleb’s hand moved almost unconsciously, forming the gesture he had practiced thousands of times. Shadow immediately dropped into a sitting position, tongue lolling, the anxiety draining from his posture.
«Good.» Ivory rose. «Medical team will be here in 90 seconds. You’re going to be fine.»
She was gone before he could ask her name, before he could ask how a cleaning lady knew anything about concussion assessment or canine command protocols. He couldn’t process the fact that her hands, during those brief moments of examination, had moved with the efficiency of someone who’d treated combat injuries in the field.
Caleb replayed the moment in his memory as the medics loaded him onto a stretcher—the way she’d spoken, the certainty in her eyes, the complete absence of panic when any civilian should have been fleeing from explosions, not running toward them. He didn’t share his suspicions with anyone, not yet. But when they released him from medical observation with a clean bill of health, the first thing he did was find Derek Vance.
«We need to talk,» Caleb said. «About the janitor.»
Evening fell over the facility like a weighted blanket, the kind of darkness that seemed to absorb sound. Most of the handlers had gone home or retreated to the barracks. The dogs had been fed and settled. Only the security patrols moved through the compound, their footsteps echoing off concrete and steel.
Ivory was cleaning the main training building when Mason Briggs found her.
«Hey!» He blocked the doorway, arms crossed, that smirk from the first morning back in full force. «Heard you played hero today. Running into explosions, playing doctor with Reeves.»
She continued mopping. «I was nearby. Anyone would have helped.»
«See, that’s the thing.» Mason stepped closer. «Not just anyone would have known what to do. Not just anyone would have moved like you did.»
The mop stopped its rhythmic motion. Ivory looked up, and for the first time, Mason saw something in her eyes that made his confidence waver. Something old and tired and entirely without patience.
«What do you want, Petty Officer?»
«I want to know who you really are.»
«I’m the cleaning lady. You made that very clear yesterday when you locked me in with Titan.»
Mason’s jaw tightened. «That was just… hazing, I know.»
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