Big Dogs

Lieutenant JW North, of the Long Beach Police Department, stood quietly in front of an elevator to the North Tower of the Ultimo Hotel in Las Vegas. He watched the numbers go down as the elevator descended to him and wondered about the daunting task ahead. Sixty-five floors-this would be a marathon. Was his team up to it? Was he?

North and his K9 partners, German Shepherds trained to detect human scent, were there to help the Las Vegas Metro SWAT team locate a serial killer hiding in the hotel. Now it was time to go up and see if this really worked the way he believed it would.

A year before, he had been shot and seriously wounded while responding to a crime-in-progress call involving a serial rapist who had not only raped but brutally assaulted his victim. As JW recovered, the idea had formed in his mind to build a trailing team and eventually assist the FBI in locating dangerous serial criminals. Getting The Project up and running had involved a lot of demanding work and money, and now they were here to face the final challenge.

If they passed, it meant a second career chasing serial criminals with a special FBI task force. If not, it meant returning home defeated, outsmarted by a warped criminal mind. JW needed this to work; he needed another chance at the man who had shot him.