His current handler, Specialist Grant Mallory, stood beside him near the edge of the training yard, giving quiet hand signals as Titan moved through a scent detection exercise with flawless focus.
But the moment that would stop an entire base in silence began far away from that training lane, just outside the main gate where a battered pickup truck rolled slowly into the visitor parking area.
The man who stepped out of that truck looked nothing like the soldiers training across the field.
He was thin, pale, and moved with the careful stiffness of someone who had learned the hard way that sudden movements brought pain. One leg was wrapped in a heavy brace beneath his jeans, and a pair of aluminum crutches helped him lower himself onto the pavement with slow determination.
His name was Aaron Delgado.
Five years earlier he had been Staff Sergeant Aaron Delgado, an explosive ordnance disposal technician who could jog across a desert field wearing eighty pounds of protective gear without losing his breath.
Now every step required concentration.
