Devon frowned as she stared at the text message. It was long, and Hugh was right, it was completely bewildering. It had to be in another language, but she couldn't identify which one.

She had a memory of Marrok's words soothing Ned. She hadn't been able to decide what language he'd been speaking either. "Print it out for me before you blow it away, will you?"

"Okay, but I don't know why you'd want it. As I said, it's screwy." He lifted the Lab down from the table. "We'll have to make him a new one if you decide to keep him."

She nodded absently. "Yes, we'll do that." She looked down at Ned. "Well, are you ready to go out to the reception desk to meet and greet?"

Ned trotted toward the door.

"Smart," Hugh said. "If you don't want him, I might be persuaded to take him."

It seemed Ned was very much in demand. "You like him?"

"What's not to like? He's smart, and I have an idea he's a man's dog. Might to might."

"That's a chauvinist thing to say. Women aren't mighty?"

"Am I in trouble?"

"Maybe."

"Come on, Devon," Hugh coaxed. "Give him to me. You don't want a rickety old dog like that."

"Old? You're crazy."

Hugh chuckled. "Yep. But it's not me, it's that microchip." He headed for the door. "Completely nuts. The only part of the chip I could read was the line for the birth date at the beginning-5/13/82."

Her eyes widened. "What?"

"I know. Told you so." He left the examining room.

Devon shook her head. Hugh was right. The tech that had made up that chip must have been stoned. The life of a big dog like Ned was only in the teens. The chip would have put him close to thirty years old.

"Come on, Grandpa," she told Ned. "Your audience awaits. I saw a cute husky pup out there you can impress."

THERE WASN'T ANYONE in the woods.

Fraser breathed a sigh of relief. He wasn't great in the forest like Marrok, but he would surely have been able to catch a sound, a glimpse, if someone had been here. He'd done his duty and now he could go back to the farm house, where he felt more comfortable. Bridget was wrong, and he shouldn't have let her spook him.