From Down Here Chapter 28
A man Lucy calls Considine wants to talk to her and the woman called Harper, so she takes Kojo back to Tim. Kojo is curled up on the floor when he hears someone coming. He yips at a familiar scent as John Nolan knocks on the door of Tim's office. "Come!" Tim calls.
Nolan opens the door. "Grey said to tell you it's time."
"Where did he set up?" Tim asks.
"Roll call room," Nolan says. He scratches Kojo behind the ears and does the thing with his paw that Kojo thinks means something is good. "See you there."
Nolan leaves, and Tim gets up from his chair and attaches Kojo's leash. He leads Kojo to a room that has lots of tables and chairs. The big man with no hair is standing at a high table like the people doing all the talking in the room where Kojo had his chicken. He waves his paw at Tim. "Bring him up front."
Tim leads Kojo to a table close to the big man. He sits in a chair there and tells Kojo to sit on the floor next to him. Kojo sits so he can see people coming in. A lot of them are dressed like Nolan, and like Tim and Lucy dressed sometimes. Lucy comes in along with a few others Kojo remembers seeing before.
The big man makes a noise that people sometimes make when they want someone to look at them. The other people in the room stop talking. The big man starts. "We're here to honor someone who saved a lot of lives. He already received his award from Chief Coleman, but I thought you should all know how essential a member of the Mid-Wilshire family was to locating the mystery bombs and saving God only knows how many lives. Sergeant Bradford, could you bring your friend up here now?"
Tim urges Kojo to where the big man is standing. "This is Kojo. He was never trained as a member of a K-9 unit, yet it was his nose that identified what could have been an unidentifiable explosive. Kojo is an example that anyone, anytime, with a heart, can be a hero. Kojo," The big man brings his hand to the side of his head, "we salute you."
Everyone in the room makes happy faces and bangs their paws together. Kojo doesn't know what to do, so he gives a happy bark.
"All right," the big man says. "Dismissed. Get your butts out of here."
As Tim leads Kojo out of the big room, Lucy comes over to walk beside him and Kojo. "That was really nice," she says.
"It was," Tim says, "but Pine wants me to get with Metro to go over a new scenario. Can you take Kojo home?"
"Sure," Lucy says. "Do you know when you'll be getting in?"
"In a couple of hours – unless Metro gets called out."
Lucy sighs. "Right."
When Kojo jumps up into a seat next to the one Lucy sits in when she drives her car, Lucy puts something on him. "It's a safety harness," she says. "It's like a seatbelt." She points to a thing she puts around herself when she drives. "It's like the one I wear. It will keep you from getting hurt if I have to stop the car too fast." Kojo doesn't understand all of that, but he knows what hurt means. He doesn't want to be hurt, so he doesn't mind that Lucy puts the thing she called a harness on him.
"I wish it was that easy to protect Tim when he's with Metro," Lucy says, looking sad.
Kojo doesn't know what Metro does, but he doesn't want Tim to be hurt again. He doesn't want Lucy or any of his pack to get hurt either. All he can do is what they tell him will keep them from getting hurt. He doesn't understand why some people can't do what it takes to protect their packs. People can be very hard to understand.
As Lucy drives her car along a street near Mid-Wilshire, Kojo smells a scent that scares him. He knows it's blood, but not from a squirrel or any of the other little furry things outside. It's blood from a person. It means that one of them is hurt. He starts barking to tell Lucy.
"Kojo," she says, everything's fine. We're going home, and Tim will be there later."
Kojo knows that everything isn't fine. He can't move much in the harness Lucy put on him, but he turns his head, leans his body towards the door, and keeps barking."
Lucy looks over at him. "Something really is wrong, isn't it?" Kojo barks louder. "Was it something we passed? Can you show me where it is?" Kojo yips and starts barking again. Lucy drives the car near the curb and stops it. She gets Kojo out of his harness and puts the leash on him. "Show me where."
Following the blood scent, Kojo runs on the sidewalk ahead of Lucy as far as the leash will let him. As the scent gets stronger, it leads him toward some bushes. He runs around them to see what's on the other side. It's a person about the size of Lucy, but Kojo thinks he's younger like Tamara was when he first met her.
The person puts his paws in front of his face. "Don't hurt me. Don't let the dog hurt me."
Lucy holds Kojo's leash tight. "Kojo's not going to hurt you, and neither am I. He brought me here to help you. Lucy pulls out her phone. She says something about an ambulance. Kojo's heard the word before when someone was hurt. Ambulances take people to places called hospitals, where they can get better like Tim did. Kojo wants to lick the hurt person to make him feel better, but he can still smell his fear. He won't even let Lucy touch him. Kojo sits down next to Lucy to wait for help to come.
"The boy was hidden behind some bushes," Lucy says when Tim is finally home. "He was just lying there bleeding and too scared to tell me what happened. The paramedics said he'd lost a lot of blood. If Kojo hadn't smelled him and brought me to him, he could have died."
Tim scratches Kojo behind the ears, "Just can't help being a hero, can you, boy?"
"Celina thinks Kojo might be a reincarnation of a spirit that's trying to earn redemption," Lucy says. "But I think he just loves to help."
"Which makes him a lot like you," Tim says. "So what do you know about the boy, anything?"
"Nothing. He didn't have any ID or a phone on him. Whoever beat him up probably took everything he had. And he isn't saying anything. But first thing tomorrow I'll run a check on missing persons. Maybe someone's looking for him."
Or maybe he's just another abused kid who ended up on the street like your friend Tamara was before you took her in. Is this kid going to be another mission for you, Lucy?"
"I don't know," Lucy says. "But he's going to need help from someone." Lucy looks down at Kojo. "And we do like to help."
Kojo yips his agreement.
