The Puppy War by Allen Zadoff

Author:Allen Zadoff [Zadoff, Allen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published: 2024-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

I RACE THROUGH THE HALLWAY.

I run without knowing where I’m going, moving through the maze of a building I’ve never been in before. People pop their heads out of offices and look at me going by, but nobody moves to stop me. I get to the end of the hall and crash through another door.

I’m running blind, trying to get away from the scent of the puppies and what the smell might mean. The alarm cuts out and the hall goes silent, the only sounds my paws slapping on the tile and my breath roaring in my ears.

I burst into a fancy lobby area, large plate glass windows looking out to a visitor’s parking lot beyond. I see the giant letters of the Puppio sign high up on the glass. We came into this building through a side door, but now that I’m up front, I see that Dr. Pao was telling the truth. This is a legitimate company, open to the public, designed to show off the Puppio brand.

It’s not at all like the secret Maelstrom base hidden underground in the mountains near Malibu where I fought General Rupani last year.

“I’ve only seen photos of you,” a man says.

I spin around to find a young guy in a tight blue suit and expensive glasses looking at me from behind a reception desk.

“You’re Wild, right?” he asks. “You’re famous around here. You’re the one who started it all.”

He’s talking directly to me, which means he knows I can understand him.

The puppies know me, the employees know me—

I turn away, looking out the large windows to the parking lot.

“I know it’s a lot to take in all at once,” Dr. Pao says. “The door is unlocked if you want to get some air.”

She comes into the reception area with Chance by her side. She stays back, giving me plenty of space.

“Are you okay, Wild?” Chance asks, worried.

Pull it together, girl. You’re scaring Chance.

I try to slow my breathing, but I can’t.

A large video monitor on the wall shows a Puppio promotional video. The now-familiar Puppio cuties play together, bounding through an impossibly green field.

“Where did the two puppies inside come from?” I ask.

Dr. Pao turns to the desk. “Why don’t you take a break, Peter?”

“But I’m working on a PowerPoint deck for our new business presentation.”

“Now,” Dr. Pao says sternly.

Peter leaves. I hear Dr. Pao breathing softly behind me, not moving closer but not going away. I stand at the door, looking out at the moon visible through the clouds.

“It was before your last mission,” Dr. Pao says. “Maelstrom extracted your eggs and froze them in the lab.”

“They stole her DNA?” Chance says.

“She was a Maelstrom soldier. They made her, so they felt it was in their right to take something from her.”

“So those dogs in there—” I say.

“They’re your puppies.”

I sit back hard, my head spinning. When I ran away from my final mission for Maelstrom, I was zapped and left for dead. I lost my memory and my identity, and it’s taken me a long time to get some of those memories back.

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