The wheels of the Dogmobile folded back down as I turned off the engine that allowed the car to hover.
“The license number is a match for the one in the Amber Alert,” Woof, the AI, reported from the dashboard.
The gull-wing doors opened and I stepped onto the unpaved but level ground. I took care to not close the door on my purple cape…again. Or to shut my tail in the door. My black boots made a crunching sound as I walked across the gravel. The cool October air made me thankful that I had fur all over my body.
I checked the suspect’s vehicle. No one was there except for a small doll that belonged to the abducted 8-year-old. I sniffed the doll a couple times to get her scent then turned to the path that lead into Evergreen Woods.
The woods were overrun and in disarray. Not many people visit the woods since they can just take a virtual reality tour of any forest in the Internet database, so the place hasn’t been maintained in a long time. It also didn’t help that rumors claimed the anti-technology terrorist group known as the Unplugs had a base here.
It took about 15 steps for me to leave the beaten path.
I spotted some candy wrappers near the entrance. My post-cognitive sense of smell and hearing told me it came from some teenagers. They’d come here to dare each other to see who could go the furthest into the woods. I sighed and used my telekinesis to float the trash into a nearby can.
“Remember when we were younger and we would dare each other to see who could stand the longest with his back to Old Man Williams’ house?” Danny said over the dog whistle comm-link. “You always won. Because you cheated.”
Granted I’ve had my powers my whole life, but it wasn’t until the accident that they reached their full potential. I could bend a spoon and that was about it…but I did use my psychic sense of smell to warn me when Old Man Williams was coming and chicken out, except for one year.
I slipped off my sunglasses and pocketed them. Now I had dog vision. I could see at night, though not as good as a cat. The downside was that everything was blurry and in shades of gray with very little color. Everything kind of blurred together unless the wind or something moved a leaf or some dirt.
The silence was creepy. I was thankful to have Brain and Danny there; even though they were miles away at the Doghouse.
“Help me,” a voice said.
Joe Rover 