It was an ordinary October morning, as ordinary as any morning could be in Nome. The weather was already getting colder, but the first snow’s had yet to fall yet, but it was coming soon and when it did the sleds could start running again and the sled dogs could get back to work. However, Ewan didn’t have to worry about that. He could pull a sled if he wanted to, but that wasn’t his job. He was a police dog. Ever since his master had brought him the force Ewan had a chip on his shoulder to prove that there was nothing that he wouldn’t do to uphold the law. At first he was inexperienced and reckless, but with his mentor Orde’s instruction he soon grew into an incredible asset to the K-9 unit. Orde was about four years older than Ewan. He had originally lived in the Middle-East, but his master moved to America to pursue his judicial training. After two years of schooling, Orde’s master found his true calling in justice and moved to Nome as a member of the first real police force of the city. Orde became one of the founding members of the K-9 unit and had risen to rank of Captain. Everybody looked up to Orde and aside from Rex, the chief of the K-9 unit; he was the highest ranking member on the force. It had been Orde’s job to train Ewan, and although he was a tough nut to crack, Orde had made Ewan into an effective police dog.

This morning Ewan was in a particularly good mood because today was the day that Ewan was being promoted to sergeant. He had been working for years on the force and now with his promotion to sergeant it felt like he was finally getting some respect as an officer. Ewan ate his breakfast quickly that morning. His barley noticed it was his favorite meal, kielbasa, but he didn’t care. While his owner was having coffee, Orde walked in to find Ewan waiting for him.

"Well now," yawned Orde, still trying to blink the sleep out of his eyes. "Excited much, are we?"

"I couldn’t sleep at all last night Orde," said Ewan. "I was up all night thinking about this promotion and what it means for me."

"Big dog in the force now eh," said Orde with a smile.

"You have no idea," said Ewan. "Ever since I was a pup I’ve always dreamed of being a police dog and now with this promotion it feels like my dreams or coming to completion."

Orde smiled. "Well now, keep dreaming because we’ve got a big day ahead of us. First we have the morning meeting, featuring your promotion, then dispatch at ten. Then we’re on patrol all day and we might have to cover a night watch depending on whether Jason is willing to cover our shift tonight or not. You know his mate is expecting a litter any day now."

"Yeah," nodded Ewan. "Hey, speaking of mate, I’m going to go ask Mirage if she’d want to go to my award ceremony or not. I’ll catch up to you later at the meeting," he said as he headed out to the back porch.

"Another day another adventure," sighed Orde, mentally preparing himself for the day’s work. As he did so he chanced to gaze out the window where the thermometer was placed. The temperature read 31 degrees. Orde uttered a deep sigh. "Another day another degree. Why do these bloody winters start so early?"

.............................................................................................................................................

Mirage and Ewan had been mates for about a year now. Before she had met Ewan she had lived on the streets her whole right and had little to no friends. Consequently, she was a little rough around the edges, but ever since she had met Ewan she had adopted a whole new outlook on life and had become a much more pleasant dog to be around. However, she did retain some of her old habits and one of those was the fact that she was not a morning person.

Currently, Mirage was quietly sleeping under the porch. She had never liked the idea of being "owned" by anybody, and when she and Ewan became mates she was perfectly happy to sleep under the porch or in the town’s boiler room when it got colder. She was just enjoying a dream of a long luxurious stroll on the beach. The sun was shining and the breeze was softly blowing the salty spray into her face. The air was fresh and cool and as the waves beat slowly against the sand beneath her paws they seemed to hush peace. But then, all of a sudden, the waves began to sound different, like a familiar dog calling out her name.

"Mirage, Mirage wake up," called Ewan from the front end of the porch.

Mirage opened one eye and the groggily asked, "Ugh, what is it Ewan?"

"Today is the big day," beamed Ewan. "The day I get my promotion and it would mean a lot to me if you came."

"Come here," said Mirage gesturing Ewan to come under the porch. Slightly confused but not wanting to be rude, Ewan crawled under the porch next to her. "Now you know I love you and you know that I know this promotion is important to you." She stated, "But if I here another word about your promotion I swear they'll have to give you a Purple Heart."

"Sorry," said Ewan bashfully. "I guess I’ve mentioned it a bit much this week.

"Try every minute of every hour of every day this week," said Mirage. "Tell you what Officer Bigmouth, you go attend your ceremony and I’ll stay here and dream about how handsome you’ll look with your new collar, deal?"

Ewan was not happy about being called "Officer Bigmouth", but Mirage was tired and he decided that it was best that she got her rest. "Deal," said Ewan. "Okay Mirage, I’ll catch you later. We’re still doing lunch at one?"

"Mmmhmm, love you dear," she called out already drifting up into slumber.

.......................................................................................................................................

Ewan walked into the meeting room with his head held high that day. As he walked in all the other dogs greeted him and gave him congratulations on receiving his promotion. Finally, Rex, the chief, stepped up onto an overturned fruit crate they used as a podium and called everyone’s attention. "Thank you," he said when he had everyone’s focus. "Three years ago Ewan joined this police force because he felt that it was his job to do good in this world. And for three years of his life Ewan has shown determination, bravery, and intelligence. I can tell you all that I sleep sound at night knowing that there or dogs like Ewan making our town safe." "Ewan," he called out.

"Will you please come forward?" On command, Ewan came up to the podium. "Remove your collar," said Rex and Ewan did so. Lifting a brand new collar in his paws Rex said, "Ewan, for your exemplary talent in the face of danger in the pursuit of justice and your hard work and years of service to this police force, I herby promote you to the rank of sergeant."

Ewan was practically beaming as the collar was draped around his neck while the rest of the force hooted and hollered in congratulations. "Well done Ewan, dismissed," he said saluting him to which Ewan saluted back and returned to his usual seat next to Orde.

"Alright then," said Rex as the cheers died down. "Now that we’ve had our fun it’s time to get to work. Our first order of business is that someone’s been breaking into Mr. Chang’s dumpster behind his restaurant. He’s made his complaint to the city and I feel that it is important that we try to stop the perpetrator before any more action need be taken. Fillmore," he said to a husky in the middle row. "You’ll be in charge of guarding his dumpster tonight as the culprit is bound to return again tonight. If it is a dog, as I suspect it is, give him a warning. If he continues with these violations, I’m afraid we will have to bring him in. Our second item today, you all know that Mr. Kauk, one of our human officers, is being transferred to Hawaii and is taking one of our oldest officers with him, Ace."

"Lucky devil," whispered Orde to Ewan as he thought of how warm it probably was in Hawaii in January.

Rex did not here him and continued, "I just wanted to let you know that so that if you see Ace before he leaves, to wish him a Bon Voyage and to have a happy retirement."

"Finally, our last item, whenever one of our human officers leaves the human chief likes to get a replacement in as soon as possible. Unfortunately we also have to find a replacement for Ace as well. The good news however it Mr. Roberts has already found a replacement for Mr. Kauk and coincidently he also has a young dog of his own that could make a fine police dog, with a bit of training of course. Right now he’s with Officer Roland, but if you see him around make him feel welcome. That’s all we have today, dismissed," and with that the dogs dispatched to there duties or to go home after covering the night shift.

For the first time since he got it, Ewan looked down at his new collar. It was an ordinary leather collar, and hanging from the ring was a silver shield with "sergeant" engraved on it. As stupid as it was, he couldn’t help but gaze into the shield and marvel at the power behind the badge he now possessed.

"Enjoying your new toy, eh?" said Orde right there at his side ready to burst his bubble.

"What? Oh, sorry," said Ewan just realizing how stupid he must have looked. "I guess I kind of drifted off."

Orde rolled his eyes. "Do let it get to your head Ewan. You’ve done a marvelous job so far, but we still got work to do. Come on," he said. "We have to ask Rex about the radio,"

"What radi……..Oh, that radio." said Ewan as they remembered their problem. The humans had installed radios in every one of their officer’s homes in order to provide instant access to an officer in case of emergency, but one day Ewan was fiddling with it to see if he could use it himself and accidently knocked it off the coffee table where it was kept. It looked fine, but they hadn’t received a call in days so they were afraid that the thing was busted. Orde and Ewan couldn’t tell their master about it, so they decided to ask Rex if he could give them a call on it to see if it still worked.

"Excuse me, Rex?" said Orde as they walked up their chief, but before he could finish a dog burst into the room through the pet flap with a horrible expression. Ewan noticed right away that it was Roland and he seemed to be at wits end.

"Rex," he demanded irritably. "I can’t handle this. I’m taking my vacation early this year!"

"What?" asked Rex completely aghast, "but you can’t take a vacation now, if you do you won’t be able to train the new cadet!"

"Exactly," said Roland. "Let me tell you something chief. It’s evil. Get rid of it!"

Before he could say anymore, a youthful voice began calling out. "Roland, hey Roland, man where’d you go?"

"Take my advice," said Roland as he stormed out, "get earplugs!" As he was about to leave he groaned to himself rubbing his forehead saying, "Oh man, my head hurts. I need a drink," and walked out the pet door.

Ewan, Orde, and Rex stood there completely dumbstruck. Roland was always one of the most levelheaded and together members of the force. Sure he had a habit of drinking human liquors from time to time, but even so, he had never had an issue on duty until now, which made Ewan worry to himself. What kind of kid is this?

His answer came to him immediately as a gangly Border collie pup walked through the hallway doggy door into the meeting room. He was not tremendously big, but altogether a little taller than other pups his age, which made Ewan wonder if he was having some unusual growth spurts. His fur appeared to be wild and ruffled although it showed resemblances of someone trying to brush it down. No sooner had he walked into the room did he notice Ewan, Orde and Rex standing together and decided to introduce himself.

"Hi," he said, trotting up to them. "I’m Comet, what’s your name?"

"Hello there Comet," said Rex. "I’m Chief Rex, but you can call me Rex, everyone already does anyway, and these are Captain Orde, and our newest sergeant, Ewan. You must be the new recruit that I was talking about earlier."

"Yeah, that’s me," said Come nodding his head. "I was just getting a tour of the station with some guy name Roland, and then, all of a sudden, he just completely freaks out and leaves! I think you need to do a back ground check on him, sir. He seems a little crazy."

"Erm... Roland has come down with something," fibbed Rex, not wanting to tell the pup that he was the reason that Roland left, "and has taken an extended leave of absence. Until then, you’re orientation will be resumed by…….," he said searching around the room for potential candidates for the assignment.

"I’ll do it," piped up Ewan. "I think it could be interesting having a little cadet to look after." Orde tried to interject but Rex had already accepted the invitation.

"Excellent," he said. "From now on he’s under your ward. Now, if you excuse me I have some things to go over," he said as he began to leave the room.

It was just then that Order remembered the original reason that he had wanted to speak to Rex and ran after him through the pet door, leaving Ewan and Comet alone with each other.

"Wow this is going to be great!" shouted Comet, his bright blue eyes sparkling with unrestrained excitment, "I can’t believe I’m doing this! Ewan, what’s it like being an officer? Do you have privileges? Can you beat up other dogs and then they just have to take? Do the ladies like you? What’s a sergeant do?"

"Erm, Comet," said Ewan trying to calm him down, but he did not hear him.

"Why is your collar shaped like that?"

"Comet…."

"Will I get a collar like that?"

"Comet,"

"Can I use my collar to make my friends do what I want? Whoa, that'd be so cool..."

"Comet,"

"Do you have a code name? Will I get one too?"

"COMET!"

...................................................................................................................................

The next fifteen minutes were no different for Ewan as Comet continued to rain down on him with his barrage of innate questions. At first Ewan tried to answer some of them to see if that would settle Comet down, but for every answer he had to offer the pup had three more questions, leading Ewan to eventually just give up. When Comet wasn’t bothering Ewan with his questions he was running around the station accidentally knocking over chairs, getting into file cabinets, smashing coffee mugs, and generally driving the human officers and dogs crazy. Finally, at the urgings of everyone, Ewan and Orde decided to take Comet on their walkabout that day, and all the while Comet was pestering them with his questions.

"What’s that mean Captain Orde?" he asked pointing to Orde’s badge hanging from his own collar.

"It’s my certification tag, Comet. It identifies me as a police dog and captain."

"Why’s your nose all funny looking like that? Are you a purebred? You don’t look like one."

"Why I never!" began Orde. Orde was not a purebred. As a matter of fact he was a mix between a Canaan dog and a Malamute and quite proud of his mixed heritage. But never, in his years of service had anyone commented about his nose looking funny. "Now see here!" he started, but was cut off by Comet again.

"You talk funny too, are you from around here?" Orde was actually not a native to Alaska. He was originally born in the British Mandate of Palestine and was quite proud of his masters’ British and Jewish heritage of which, he had picked up some of the mannerisms, especially in speech.

"Now listen up you," began Orde before being stopped by Ewan.

"Okay Orde," he said trying to calm him down. "What I’m sure Comet meant to say is that you have a very distinguished character, isn’t that right Comet? Comet?" but Comet was already gone.

"If were lucky," grumbled Orde, "far away."

Ewan blinked in mild shock."Captain, I’m surprised with you. You’ve always told me to be patient when dealing with everyone."

"I’ve shown a great amount of patience with him," said Orde defensively. "I haven’t had to be this patient since y…, never mind," said Orde catching himself.

"What, what do you mean?" Ewan asked suspiciously.

"Well, it’s just that Comet is not quite so different from a pup that I once new who was just as excited about his new job."

"Really, who was tha……? Augh! Comet, get off that!" he yelled at Comet who was standing on top of a store awning ready to pounce. Ewan should have chosen his words more carefully because Comet jumped off the awning and sailed through the air until he landed right on top of Ewan. Comet was unhurt, Ewan’s back ached a little, and Orde couldn’t breathe because he was laughing too hard.

"Ho, ho, very funny," said Ewan picking himself off the ground. "How would you like it if you were the crash pad?"

"That’s quite alright," Orde Chuckled, wiping a tear from his eye. "I’m quite comfortable, than you very much."

Ewan was about to say something else but the it struck him that he had lost track of time. "Oh no," he said aloud. "I forgot I was meeting Mirage for our lunch today. I gotta go."

"Wait," said Orde, "you can’t go. What about the pup?"

"Hey," Protested Comet with a scowl. "I’m no pup!" He thrust out his skinny chest to prove his point, but the others ignored him. "Hush up Comet," Ewan growled before turning to the Captain, "I don’t know. Take him with you. It’s just for a few hours."

"I can’t take him," argued Orde. "I’m going with Rex to the outskirts to check on the officers there. It’s too dangerous for him." This was very true. Outside of Nome was the old part of town. During the Klondike gold rush that part of town was a major center for gold production and there were many factories, refineries, and warehouses. Now all that was left was a few run down buildings and a number of questionable human establishments. Among other things the outskirts were famous for their stray dogs that roamed the streets in packs and generally terrorized each other and any passers by who happened to be unlucky enough to get caught. Thanks to Nome’s small police force, the violence had been kept in check, but everyday there were little pockets of resurgence and pack wars and so constant patrols were kept in that part of town.

"Too dangerous?" questioned Comet curiously, "Nothing is too dangerous for me!"

"Comet, be quiet," scolded Ewan. He turned to Orde, pleading, "But I can’t take him. He’s bound to do something stupid and ruin my date with Mirage."

"Well we can’t just leave him and he certainly can’t come with me," said Orde.

Ewan uttered a deep sigh of resignation. "Okay, okay. Fine, I’ll take him. There, happy?"

Orde offered a wry smile. "Just try and keep him out of trouble."

"Yeah, right."

..........................................................................................................................................

Ewan and Comet were right outside the alleyway that Mirage had told him to meet. Before going into the alley Ewan decided to give Comet one more reminder. "Alright Comet, pay close attention," he said, carefully enunciating the last words to make sure he had Comet’s absolute focus. "Mirage and I want to have a quiet lunch with quiet conversation. You can listen if you like and you can even have a little of the food as long as you remain still and silent, understand?"

"Okay," nodded Comet enthusiastically. Somehow Ewan had the faint feeling that Comet understood neither of the words, but there was no time for explanation. And so, without further delay, the two entered the alleyway.

Mirage was very surprised to see Ewan bringing along a yearling Border Collie to their meal. "Ewan, who’s the kid?" she asked as she stared at Comet narrowing her eyes slightly as she always did when she met a dog she did not know.

"Sorry Mirage," said Ewan. "I had to bring him with me. He’s the new cadet on the force, Comet. Comet, this is my mate Mirage."

"Wow," Comet blurted, not taking his eyes off Mirage. "You’re hot."

Ewan was absolutely livid with this comment. "COMET!" he shouted. "What on earth is wrong with you?! Is that how you treat someone else’s mate? You should be ashamed of yourself!"

As demeaning as Comet’s little comment might have been, Mirage couldn’t help but smile at the pup. "Well now," she said firmly but not harshly, "aren’t you a little pistol?"

"Pistol?!" said Ewan still fuming at Comet. "Try machine gun! He has absolutely no manners and further more," he raged until Mirage shot him a glance that softly told him to give him a break.

"Ewan," she said. "You’ve got to get back to work soon. All I want is a quiet meal with you. We might as well make the best of the situation." When Mirage was right, she was right. Ewan said nothing more and sat down by the makeshift table that Mirage had prepared. On the table was a large dog bowl of assorted meats that Mirage probably swiped from dumpsters and the police station. Ewan never knew how she did it, but Mirage was always one who could get what she wanted.

"Now that’s much better," she said sitting herself down. Comet came to join the two but refrained at first when he saw the look that Ewan gave him, but Mirage gave Ewan a look of her own and he took his eyes of Comet who sat down beside the two. For a while nobody spoke and nobody ate, except for Comet who was already stuffing his face as year old pups that are growing tend to do. Ewan was about to reprimand him, but Mirage beat him too it and gave Comet a look that was not severe, but had enough authority behind it that told him to take smaller bites. The meal resumed as silent as ever.

At last Ewan decided to break the awkward silence. "So, Mirage," he said. "Have you heard anything new lately?" Ewan knew that Mirage was always aware of everything around town. She would never call herself that, but Mirage was an enormous nose and extremely stealthy about it. She was so good at finding things out, that Ewan often used her as his personnel informant to get the low down on criminal activity.

"Ewan, I got to tell you something," she said leaning into the table while simultaneously giving Comet a look that said 'private business, go away kid.' When Comet saw that Mirage did not want him to hear what she had to say he picked himself up and walked out of the alley. "Okay," she said as soon as he was gone. "I was walking down by the cannery yesterday and I noticed one of the workers acting kind of funny."

"What kind of funny?" asked Ewan. "You mean like 'ha-ha' funny or 'something ain’t right here' funny?"

"The second one," she said. "As he was unloading boxes, there was just something about him. He had a look. I’ve been on the streets before and I know when people are up to something. He had that look about him."

Ewan honestly did not know what to think about what Mirage had just told him. Although Mirage would never lie to him, she did not always have one hundred percent of the facts. One time she warned Ewan that one of the dogs had said that a man was taking a gun to school and Ewan burst into the classroom, creating quite a ruckus and finding no man with a gun. He did however find Freddy Mann, a third grader with a cork gun that he had brought for show and tell. "Okay Mirage," he said deciding to humor her. "I’ll take a look into it."

Mirage sensed that Ewan did not fully believe her. Her ears slicked back slightly. "I’m serious Ewan, I really think something is going on down there."

"I’m not saying I don’t believe you," he said. "It’s just sometimes you don’t always have your facts down one hundred percent."

"What’s that supposed to mean?" said Mirage, her temper beginning to rise.

"Oh nothing," said Ewan. It was just then he realized that he needed to get back to work. "I gotta go," he said kissing Mirage on the forehead (which she absolutely hated) and sprinted out of the alley, calling back as he went, "I love you! I’ll see you later this evening!"

.................................................................................................................................................

Comet was running around in the street everywhere they went. Ewan tried to get him to walk like he did, but like other things with Comet, gave up when he realized the pup was essentially un-teachable. As he ran around Comet pretended he was fighting crooks and gang members and would occasionally start kicking or barking at a random post or wall. He was just rounding the corner of a building when he saw something that made him stand stock still. On his face was written a look of awe and fear.

"Comet, you can’t be running off like this," called Ewan searching for him. "Come on I have to go home." To his surprise Ewan found Comet hugging the side of a building, trying to get a peek around the corner. "Alright Comet, what are you doing now?" he asked him, figuring this could only mean trouble.

Comet immediately shushed Ewan. "Not so loud," he whispered. "Is she still there?" he asked Ewan.

Not knowing who "she" was Ewan took a look around the corner to find a small group of year old females chatting with each other. One of them was a stunning, yellow haired Border collie who Ewan guessed was who Comet was talking about. "You mean her?" he asked raising an eyebrow toward the pup.

"Yeah," he nodded. "Okay here’s my plan."

Ewan did not like the sound of this. "Oh boy," he groaned. "Not another plan," he said, still aching from Comet’s last plan.

"This one is good," Comet assured him, "You walk toward that alley past the girls and then call my name and I’ll pass by while you watch to see if she notices me."

"I’ve got a better plan," said Ewan. "Just talk to her."

"What are you, crazy?!" said Comet. "I can’t do that."

"And why not?" questioned Ewan.

Comet appeared to be searching for an answer that did not make him look bad. "I don’t know," he settled for. "I just can’t."

"You’re afraid to talk to her aren’t you?" asked Ewan remembering a time in his life when he got all wobbly in the legs every time he tried to talk to a female.

"No," said Comet very defensively. "I just want to see if she’s interested in me before I go wasting my time talking to her."

"I’m sure she’d be very interested in you," reasoned Ewan, "like a pathologist with a harmful strain of bacteria under her microscope."

"Please just do this," Comet begged shamelessly, "I promise to do whatever you say if you help me."

Comet had set the bait. Nothing appealed to Ewan more right there than having the power to tell Comet what to do. "Alright, fine," Ewan finally replied, "but as soon as we’re through with this you are going to go straight home and not leave until I come get you tomorrow understand?" Comet nodded and Ewan walked down the street passed the girls (who didn’t pay him any attention whatsoever). He felt stupid for doing this, but he figured it was worth it to get Comet out of his fur for a little while. "Comet," he called out to the other side. "Will you come here for a minute?"

When Comet rounded the corner Ewan saw the funniest thing he had seen in a long time. Comet was not running or even walking. He was strutting, and with each step he thrust out his chest a little trying his best to make himself seem bigger. His fur had been slicked back with his paws and on his face he bore a smile that was so genuinely ridiculous that had any of the girls actually seen him they would have broke down laughing immediately. As Comet walked past them, Ewan watched to see if the female Border collie noticed him... and as he expected, she never even looked towards the poor pup. At last Comet reached Ewan and quickly dove into the alley that Ewan was waiting by.

"Well?" asked Comet anxiously, "Did she see me?"

"No," said Ewan. "And that’s probably for the better. I saw you and in my opinion you looked like an imbecile."

"What?" Comet wilted, dissapointed but apparently convinced that his plan still had legitimacy of working. "You must not have called my name loud enough. Come on let’s do it again!"

Ewan would have protested to that, but to his luck the girls all got up and begin to walk toward the alley he and Comet were in. Actually 'toward' wasn't quite the right word. They were walking past the alley that they were in, but Comet thought they were coming toward him-- so he did the only reasonable thing in his mind left to do. He jumped into a nearby dumpster and hid until they passed by. "Are they gone?" he asked peaking over the edge of the dumpster.

Ewan rolled his eyes at the pup. "Yes. Now get out of there before you get any dirtier than you already are."

"Hello what’s this?" came a voice, entering the alleyway. "Trying to get rid of your assignment already I see," said Orde who had just got back from his work with Rex.

"Captain Orde," said Comet, "can I ask you a question?"

"You’re going to ask it anyway, aren’t you?" asked the captain dryly.

"Captain Orde, what's love?"

"What? You’re asking him what love is?" asked Ewan incredulously.

"What’s that supposed to mean?" demanded Orde.

"Oh nothing, nothing, please continue Captain Love." What Ewan had meant by that is that if Orde knew anything about love it was probably from very distant observation because he seemed to be completely oblivious to all female advances on him, and there were a few.

"Alright," started Orde. "This is love: first your heart falls into your gut and crushes your intestines. Then all the intestinal movement creates excess heat so you pant profusely and all the panting dehydrates your body so the blood rushes out of your head, finally your brain becomes deoxygenated and you can’t think straight... leaving you babbling like an idiot until she leaves."

"That’s love?" asked both Comet and Ewan.

"From the anatomical standpoint, yes."

"Well that happened to me once," Comet mused, "but I thought I was having a stroke. Is love like that for everyone?"

"Yes," answered Orde, with a small smile of amusement. "At least for all the males. Females might suffer different symptoms."

Ewan snorted. "Oh brother..."

..................................................................................................................................................

Later that evening Ewan and Orde were back at the house getting ready for their master to come home. It was still light out and the two were enjoying a quiet moment, one that they hadn’t had around Comet in a long time.

"This pup is insane," said Ewan. "I mean, its just ‘Ewan what's this?’ and ‘Ewan what’s that?’ and when he’s not asking questions he’s breaking things, or getting himself stuck in something, or antagonizing everybody else--"

"Give him some time Ewan," Orde replied wearily, still suffering a mild headache from the trip home. "He may be a bit much, but he’ll shape up."

"I doubt it," said Ewan. "He is the most obnoxious, the most annoying, he's--"

"Here!" shouted Comet jumping out from behind a chair and scaring Ewan and Orde.

"COMET!" shouted Ewan, his fur standing on end. That obnoxious little--! "Don’t ever, ever do something like that again."

"Lad," wheezed Orde still collecting himself from the scare. "What on earth is the matter with you?"

"Sorry," said Comet. "What were you guys talking about?"

Both Ewan and Orde looked at each other nervously. As obnoxious as he was, they didn’t want Comet to know that they couldn’t stand him. So they lied. "Er, crime." Orde smoothly covered, giving Ewan enough tiome to reply.

"Yeah, that’s it, crime," said Ewan "We were talking about how terrible crime is."

"Oh, that makes sense." Comet nodded. "Wait, why were you calling crime ‘he’?" he asked.

"Uh..." thought Ewan for a moment. "You see, when you work in the force as long as us you begin to see crime as a person that you need to fight. That’s why we were calling time ‘he’. Isn’t that right Orde?

"Indeed," nodded Orde.

"Oh, that makes sense," said Comet.

Just then the radio began to pick up static. "Captain Orde? Come in Orde," said a voice over the radio.

Orde was still a little wheezy from Comet's surprise entrance, so Ewan decided to answer for him. "Yeah, Orde can’t come to the radio right now," he said smiling. "He just had a heart attack."

"What!?" said the voice.

"Ha-ha, very funny Ewan," said Orde. "Just tell them thanks for the radio check.

"Thanks for the radio check. It works fine," said Ewan.

"No guys," said the voice. "This is for real. Somebody found a dead body on the beach."

Both Ewan and Orde’s eyes widened up at these words. "Uh, yeah," said Ewan scrambling to put his thoughts together. "We’ll be right there."

"What is it?" asked Comet?

"Comet," said Ewan grimly, "You better come with us. You might as well learn."

.................................................................................................................................

When the three got down to the beach a large crowd of officers and police dogs had already gathered. Murder was rare in Nome and so when it did happen the entire station often showed up to examine the crime scene. It was middle-aged Caucasian man. He was dressed in a set of overalls and a sweatshirt and wore wool gloves on both hands. The body was fresh and although it reeked of ocean water, it appeared to not have had a lot of time to decay.

When Comet got his first eye full of the body, he immediately gagged and almost threw up. Without pause Ewan and Orde began to examine the body looking for any clue as to why this man had died while Comet kept his distance from the corpse.

"How can you two do that?" Comet asked them as he felt another gag beginning to form.

"When you’ve worked this job as long as us Comet, you get used to it," said Ewan.

"That’s the most unfortunate part of this job," added Orde. "You do get used to it."

The men were just finishing forming a secure perimeter around the crime scene when Ewan looked into the man’s front pocket and discovered something important. It was a wad of cash and a lot of cash at that. The stack had to be at least an inch thick and all the bills appeared to be hundreds, making the bundle worth almost $15,000.00. When Ewan found this he immediately began barking for one of the humans to take a look.

"What’ve you got there boy?" asked Officer Jennings as he rushed over to the howling Ewan and saw the money. "Holy smokes!" he said as he took the cash and patted Ewan on the head saying, "Good boy."

"That’s funny," said Orde. "You’d think if the guy had that much money he could afford some decent clothing," he said pointing out the patchwork overalls and the holey gloves.

"Something tells me that money didn’t belong to him," said Ewan. "We’d better keep looking for more clues." The two continued to search the body until Orde reached into the back pocket and found the man’s wallet.

"Well, at least now we no who he is," he said as he opened the wallet and showed Ewan the man’s work id.

"Patrick Normoyale," read Ewan, "employee of Yellow Fin fish cannery." As he looked over the man’s workers card again his eyes widened as he remembered what Mirage had said about the cannery. "Orde," he said slowly, "I think we may have stumbled on something big."

"How do you mean?" asked Orde. "What kind of big?"

"I don’t know," said Ewan. "But I think that it has something to do with this cannery," he said as he looked down at the card again and then began to walk away.

"Where are you going?" asked Orde.

"To get some more information," said Ewan.

.............................................................................................................................................

"Well, well, well," Mirage drawled, looking at her nails. "Look whose come crawling back asking for my help."

"Aw come on Mirage," pleaded Ewan. "I never said I didn’t believe you. It’s just that you didn’t have anything to back up your suspicion, but now we’ve got a dead body lying on the beach and we need some help, so how’s about you give me a paw here?"

"Maybe I don’t want to." She said, examining her paws idly.

Ewan sighed. "Okay. I give up. What is that you want?"

"I’m glad you asked," Mirage smirked. "I want a nice evening together for a change, and you know what that means."

"Please don’t say I have to wear the hat," said Ewan

The smirk widened. "You have to wear the hat."

"I hate hat," complained Ewan.

"Aww, but you look so cute in the hat," she said pinching his cheeks.

"Alright, fine," he said shaking her paw off his face. "I’ll wear the hat. Anything else you’d like, your majesty?"

"I could get used to that," said Mirage. "What is it you want to know?"

"I need you to break into the cannery and get everything you can on file for Patrick Normoyale. The humans can’t move in until they’ve got the proper paperwork, and if this is anything like I suspect it might be too late by then. I can’t get in because that would be breaking and entering, but I’m sure you’d have to trouble."

"Please," said Mirage. "I could turn that place upside down and they’d never know I was there. You want me to bring you back something?"

"No," said Ewan. "You can’t let anyone know you’re there. Leave everything as you found it. Am I clear?"

"Crystal," she said and stole off toward the cannery.

...........................................................................................................................................

The fencing around the tuna cannery did very little to keep Mirage out as she quietly wedged herself under it. The doors were locked all around, but fortunately Mirage caught sight of a stack of crates on the side of the building and worked her way to the top where she made her way through an open window.

Quietly Mirage began to search around for any clue that might help Ewan in his investigation. She slipped into an office and began looking around when she spotted a large file cabinet with drawers labeled, "Employee A-C" and so on and so forth. She pawed through the L-P file, but found no trace of Mr. Normoyale.

"Who’s there?" said a dog in the hallway. It was the Mr. Toussaint’s, the owner of the cannery, dog, Napoleon. He was a feisty Miniature Pinscher who had gained a considerable amount of weight from all the tuna his master gave him. He was very hot tempered and dogs in Nome knew to leave him be when he and his master came into town as he was short tempered and almost always got into fights. He usually slept in his master’s bedroom, which was just above the cannery, but Mirage had inadvertently awoken him as she had opened up the cabinets. He came barging into the office, but it was too late. Mirage was gone and had left no trace of her coming.

............................................................................................................................................

"How’s Comet doing?" asked Ewan as he and Orde waited on the porch for Mirage to return.

"The poor chap’s not feeling so well," Orde replied. "I tried to get him to come close to the body, but all I managed to do was get him to touch it once and then he threw up. I believe the lad has weak stomach."

"It’s his first body," mused Ewan thoughtfully, "He’ll get used to it eventually.

"I guess you’re right," said Orde. "I remember when you saw your first dead body. You wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pole and you still threw up."

"Ha, ha very funny," said Ewan sarcastically.

"Well, lookie here," said Mirage strolling up to the two, "the happy couple."

"Good evening Mirage," said Orde.

"It’s nice to see you too Orde. Ewan won’t let you sleep?"

"I’m afraid not," said Orde. "But that’s quite all right. I want to see the end of this, even if it takes all night."

"So what did you find out?" asked Ewan.

"This might be some help to you guys," said Mirage. "Last night Mr. Normoyale was working aboard a vessel that was out to sea."

"That explains why he was washed up on the shore, but that doesn’t help us tremendously."

"That’s not the interesting part," said Mirage. "I found his file in the trash can."

"Trash can?" asked Orde. "It sounds to me like these buggers don’t want us to know what this man was doing that night."

"And get this," said Mirage. "He was onboard a boat with the manager himself."

"Found dead on the beach with a wad of cash on hand, file thrown away at work, if you ask me," said Ewan, "this looks like the work of some pretty fishy business."

"Bother," Orde groaned. "Don’t start with the lame puns, Ewan."

"Whoops, sorry Captain. That one kind of slipped."

"Now that you know this what will you do?" asked Mirage.

"Sorry Mirage," said Ewan apologeticly, "I'm going to have to give you a rain check for tonight. Orde and I got some work to do this evening."

"Better get Comet while were at it," said Orde. "We might as well make it his first stake out."

..............................................................................................................................................

On a hill overlooking the cannery the three dogs sat quietly or at least two did. Comet was ecstatic about being at his first stake out and had seemed to completely forget about the corpse that evening. "Oh boy," said Comet. "This is so exciting. We’re going to get the drop on the bad guys."

"Easy there lad," said Orde who was sitting under a blanket he had brought for the occasion. "Being a police dog isn’t all rough and tumble action. It’s a lot of quiet observation."

"Why’d you bring that thing?" said Comet pointing to Orde’s blanket. "You look like a big sissy under that thing."

"First of all," said Orde, "it’s dark and hides my form from detection, second its standard police equipment on stakeouts, and finally it’s cold and I have thinner fur than either you or Ewan."

"Well I don’t care how cold it is," said Comet. "A real police dog doesn’t need a blanket."

Orde was beyond irritated but decided to keep his tongue and the stakeout resumed for awhile without interruption. That is, until an hour later when Comet piped up whining, "I’m bored."

"Quiet," said Ewan. "Stakeouts require careful observation and silence."

"Obsa-whata?" asked Comet.

"Observation, it’s the art of using your senses."

"Boring," said Comet. "Let’s just break in and bust them."

"Comet, we don’t even know if they’re doing anything and even if they are we can’t just barge in and bite first ask questions later."

"Well," huffed Comet, "I thought police work meant doing something."

"Comet," said Ewan, "you’ll learn that the most important work you can do on the force is careful observation."

Time passed on again without interruption. The hours waned away as the moon moved slowly across the night sky. Suddenly it became darker as a cloud moved in front of the moon. Ewan suddenly felt much colder when he realized that something was lightly falling on him. It was snow, the first of the season.

"Snow?" said Ewan as the white powder fell down upon the three of them.

"Snow!" said Comet excitedly. He had not seen snow since he was a young pup and the memory had since faded. He was very excited to see snow again.

"Snow..." groaned Orde, who had not the slightest interest in the cold that it was bound to bring.

As time passed the snow fell more and more on the small party until the three of them were covered in little piles of snow as a thick blanket lay all around them. Comet had grown bored with it within the first five minutes of the snowfall and now he was freezing.

"Orde," whined Comet. "Any change I could squeeze under that blanket with you."

"I don’t know Comet," said Orde. "I seem to recall a certain pup saying that it was for sissies."

"Please," he begged. "It’s so cold."

"Oh alright," said Orde, but before he could finish Comet had already darted under the blanket and huddled in silent contentment, shivering the cold away.

Again more time passed on and on. Finally, around 1:00 a.m. the trio noticed some movement down at the main gate. There must have been at least three or four burly men and they were pushing wheelbarrows with large crates in them. It was far too early in the morning for the cannery to open for normal operations. Something was going on down there.

Quiet as mice, Ewan, Orde, and Comet crept down to the main gate and darted through, hiding behind a nearby barrel of tuna. As they hid, two of the men came in with a wheelbarrow and picked up a crate and loaded it onto the wheelbarrow.

"I don’t see why we could do this earlier," said one man. "I got a day job too you know."

"Shut up ya moron," snapped his partner, "You know what the boss said. We gotta do this now when no one’s around to see it. We don’t want to be attracting any attention."

"Alright," said the other man. "But I’m going to be calling in sick tomorrow. My back is killing me," he said stretching.

As the two men lifted the crate and wheeled it away, the trio came over to examine the remaining crates. One of them was open and the three of them were shocked to discover an enormous array of rifles, handguns, and knives.

"Doesn’t look like they’re canning just fish here," said Ewan wryly.

"Indeed," said Orde. "It appears we’ve stumbled on some sort of smuggling operation.

"Wow," said Comet ecstatically. "This is just like on the radio shows!"

"Be quiet Comet!" Ewan and Orde both said together.

"The question is, what is to be gained by shipping these items and to whom are they sending them to?" said Orde.

"We’ve got to get Rex out here tomorrow," said Ewan. "If they’re smuggling this stuff out then we should be able to find what they’re getting in return and how they’re doing it."

.............................................................................................................................................

The next day Ewan and Orde were pacing back in forth in the station waiting for Rex to return from his inspection of the place. Rex was the best sniffer on the force, one of the reasons he was the chief. If there were smuggled goods in this building, Rex was the one to find them.

"Don’t worry," he said before he left. "I’ll find the goods faster than I can find a treed coon." But Rex was gone all morning and late into the afternoon. When he finally came back to the station he bore a downtrodden look on his face.

"Well?" asked Ewan. "What happened?"

"Did you find them?" asked Orde.

"I searched that place up and down," said Rex, "but I couldn’t get a whiff of anything out of the ordinary in there. The only thing I smelled were fish and machinery. If there’s contraband in this place, I sure can’t find it."

"What? Not even a hint of anything?" asked Ewan.

"Sometimes I thought I smelt something by the freezer, but I couldn’t find anything anywhere. I don’t know, Ewan. Maybe we’ve just got them wrong."

"No," said Ewan. "I know what I saw. There’s something going on down there, and I won’t rest until I’ve proven it."

"Well, while you’re not resting could you at least find Roland and tell him that we’re going to have to end his early vacation early? Unfortunately for him Jason’s mate has gone into labor and he doesn’t want to leave her side."

"Alright I’ll tell him. Got any idea where I can find him?"

"Try Eagle Tavern," sighed Rex.

Eagle Tavern was a very old bar on the north side of town. It was particularly old, perhaps the oldest in the town, although many bars claimed to own that title. Although it was old it was relatively clean and well managed, except for the fact that the owner allowed mushers and other townsfolk bring in their dogs, provided that they did not make too much of a ruckus. Roland’s master did not go to 'The Eagle' very frequently, but Roland did and he was something of a mascot for the bartender, often drawing in small crowds to see him and his antics, which the owners rewarded with drinks.

It was still very early in the afternoon. The evening regulars had not yet come in, but Roland was there, already well on his way to inebriation. He was just outside on the porch. Struggling to keep his balance and talking to, much to Ewan’s surprise, Mirage.

Mirage never drank, but she loved alcohol, mainly because it made men and dogs do stupid things and Mirage loved it when people were idiots. Right then, Roland was just asking Mirage out on a date.

"I wove u miz," he said, his voice jumbled with drunkenness. "Wuld u goo owt wiff me?"

"Sorry," said Mirage, her mind concocting nasty games to play on his mind. "I’m already spoken for, but you know, that lovely gal over there is dying to meet you," she said pointing to one of the supporting beams to the porch.

"Oo iz she?" he said slicking back the hair on this head with his paw, an action that nearly caused him to fall over.

Ewan arrived just in time to discover Roland romantically pawing at the beam and licking it, giving him splinters on his tongue. Mirage meanwhile was laughing up a storm. "I suppose this is all your doing?" he asked Mirage.

Mirage nodded laughing. "Sorry Ewan. I couldn’t help it. It was just to easy."

"For goodness sakes Roland," he chastised. "Quit licking that pole." Roland ceased making out with the building long enough for him to realize that Ewan was there.

"Hay Surgent" he gurgled. "Wut iz the dealio?" he asked Ewan, barley able to keep balance.

"I was going to tell you that we need you to come into the station tomorrow," He sighed, "but I guess that isn’t a possibility."

"No, I’ll be there sur. Promise," he nearly spewed out before stumbling to the floor, making Mirage laugh hysterically.

"Are we enjoying ourselves today?" asked Ewan grimly.

"Aww come on Ewan," said Mirage. "You’ve gotta admit that was pretty funny."

"I guess I’m not in the mood for jokes," said Ewan moodily. "I just can’t help but think about the case. I know that they’re hiding something in that cannery, but we can’t find it no matter what! It’s like it’s covered up somehow."

"Can’t get some ding off your mind aye surgent?" gurgled out Roland from the floor. "Well when I got some ping on my mind that I can’t shake off I like a nice cold dwink."

"I’m hardly interested in that Roland. I need to clear my head."

"Aww come on surgent. I’ll get you the drink of the day, on the rocks."

"On the rocks?"

"Yeah, you knod, wit ice."

"Ice," thought Ewan, "Roland that’s it!"

"It is?" asked Mirage.

"Wut is?" asked Roland, not sure what anyone was saying.

"I’m sorry Mirage, I’ll be out again tonight. Thanks a lot Roland," said Ewan as he began to run off to find Orde and Comet. "I’ll thank you again tomorrow when you can understand me."

Ewan sped around a corner of a building, racing towards his home to get Orde. He knew that he had them now.

As he rounded the corner he discovered Comet looking around the other side of the building at the same group of females they had seen yesterday, in particular, the Border collie he noticed yesterday. "You like her don’t you?" asked Ewan.

Comet only nodded; too focused on her to even try to explain himself.

"Why don’t you just go over and talk to her?" asked Ewan. "At least then you’ll be able to get to know her better."

Comet seemed to be battling with his desire to get to know her with his utmost fear of talking to her in his mind, but at last something clicked in his head and he stood ready.

"You know what Ewan?" he said confidently. "I’m going to do it," he said as he strolled over them, but as he was going toward them he tripped on his own feet, which seemed to be struggling to avoid going near the girls and began to spiral out of control in a horrendous somersault of embarrassment, eventually flipping over backwards, slipping on the ice, and landing face first with his bottom sticking out in a snow drift.

As he pulled his head out of the snow he looked with horror as all of the girls stood there laughing hysterically. As tears nearly formed in his eyes, he ran off before any of them could say another word and rejoined Ewan.

Ewan didn’t know what to say to the pup, who now stood there on the verge of crying. "I’m sorry Comet," he said." Comet only sniffled. "Comet, I’m not supposed to tell you this, but I think I have those smugglers dead to rights and if you do exactly as I say, I guess you can come along and watch."

The effect was instantaneous. "You mean it? Honestly? Truly?"

Ewan knew he would probably regret this, but he said yes anyway.

...........................................................................................................................................

It was nightfall already, and Ewan stood outside the cannery explaining how he’d come to his conclusion to Orde and Comet.

"Of course," said Orde. "It’s all so simple, yet so brilliant."

"Yeah," said Comet. "I could have thought of that! You know it takes an uncommon mind to think up these things."

Orde coughed lightly. "Well, yours is definitely uncommon..."

"Thank you Captain Orde," said Comet brightly, unaware that Orde had just made fun of him.

"Alright, here’s my plan," said Ewan. "Captain, you and I sneak in and get a hold of Toussaint’s dog, Napoleon. We get him to spill the beans and then we fetch Mr. Williams and the rest of the force and we bring em down here."

"What can I do?" asked Comet very eagerly.

"You stay out here and stand guard in case anyone tries to come in and help them. Understand?"

"Yes sir," said Comet, very proud of his new mission.

With Comet now occupied Ewan motioned for Orde to follow him, and the two crept silently into the building.

Napoleon was just enjoying a nice big slap of tuna in his dog bowl when he heard something off to his left. Immediately he stood alert, his eyes gazing all around for what had made the noise.

"Who’s there?" he asked into the shadows, his gaze still darting back and forth.

"Hello Napoleon," said Ewan pleasently as he walked into the light. "Lovely evening isn’t it?"

"Officer Ewan?" growled Napoleon. "Get out! Your force already searched this place yesterday. This is trespassing now!"

"Well, well," said Orde also coming out from the shadows. "Awfully feisty tonight aren’t we?"

"You two get out of here," thundered Napoleon, who didn’t really thunder so much as squeal with his small stature. "We’ve done nothing wrong here."

"Oh I believe you have," said Ewan. "You see, when one of your workers ends up dead like that, it’s pretty obvious you are doing something wrong here."

"I don’t know what you’re talking about," Napoleon blustered, becoming more uneasy.

"I think you do. I know that your master is smuggling weapons. I don’t know to whom, and I don’t know why, but I do know how. Orde?" With that Orde jumped up on a conveyer belt and knocked over a block of ice which shattered on the floor.

"No!" shouted Napoleon, but it was to late. On the floor lay a large pile of money, just freed from the ice.

"Pretty clever actually," said Ewan pawing the money. "The ice masks the smell, makes it impossible for the sniffers to detect. I’m actually impressed Napoleon."

"You mutts!" growled the pinscher.

"Now we don’t have all night for this Napoleon. You’re going to tell everything you know or we can make you tell it there hard way."

"And trust us," said Orde. "You do not want the hard way."

"Fine," growled Napoleon. "I’ll talk. It all started almost a year ago. Some soviets contacted my human about weapon sales. The soviets need weapons to continue their regime, but their own machinery is insufficient and they value the superior craftsmanship of American weaponry."

"You know that there’s an embargo against firearms being shipped to the soviets Napoleon," said Ewan. "Your master’s committing a federal offense."

"Maybe so, but the Soviets pay triple for the weapons, and it looks like we’re going to be doing this racket for a long time," said Napoleon.

"How do you figure?" said Ewan.

Napoleon smiled viciously. "All I need to do is make sure you to don’t tell anyone." Napoleon then barked loudly and out of nowhere four Doberman pinchers came to his aid, all four growling viciously.

"Four against two?" said Orde, "I say, that's hardly fair."

"Right," said Ewan, "maybe they should call for re-enforcements." With that the dogs tore after Ewan and Orde. Two of the dogs flew towards Ewan who stuck out his forelegs and clothes lined the two of them, knocking them out instantly.

Meanwhile, the other two were circling Orde maliciously. "Shame on you," said Orde, his mind concocting a plan, "to even think of fighting an old dog like me."

"Tell you what mutt," mocked one of them. "Since you’re such a relic I’ll let you take the first swing." "Go ahead," he said sticking out his thin chin," Give me your best shot." He shouldn’t have said that because Orde did give him his best shot-- a mean uppercut which left the dog unconscious. The other dog decided not to risk fighting both of them on his own and turned and fled with his tail between his legs.

"That was easy enough," said Orde.

"Now to get Mr. Williams," said Ewan. But as the two were about to leave, a large fishing net was dropped on them, thrown from a stack of boxes by Napoleon.

"Very good you two," he said, "but I’m afraid you won’t be telling anyone about this." As he came closer to them Ewan happened to look up and see Comet above them on a higher conveyer belt.

"The only thing that you two will be doing is getting ready for your halo fitting after my human comes in and blows your brains out," he said.

Suddenly, an enormous ice block fell from above, pushed over by Comet, knocking Napoleon completely unconscious.

"Oh yeah!" said Comet gloating over his victory. "If you ask me pal, you need to chill out!"

Comet came over to free Ewan and Orde, Ewan looking less than amused. "What?" asked Comet.

"Chill out?" Orde repeated.

"What?" said Comet, "I thought it was good."

"We definitely need to work on your puns, cadet."

................................................................................................................................................

Mr. Williams was sound asleep. That is, until he was awoken by the tremendous barking of three energetic canines. "Alright you two," he said as he stumbled out of bed to see what was the matter. When he came into the living room he was stunned to see Ewan and Orde with a pile of money on the rug.

"How on earth did you two get this?" he stammered staring at the pile. As if to answer his question the two began running in and out of the pet door, beckoning him to follow them to the cannery. "Alright, alright" he said. "Just let me get my boots."

Officer Williams followed the two all the way to the cannery and straight into the open warehouse where he discovered Mr. Toussaint’s unconscious dogs and even more money broken out of the ice.

"What is going on down here?" said a voice coming down the stairs. It was Mr. Toussaint. The barking had woken him up. When he saw the money on the floor, he knew that it was over.

"If you can spare a moment Mr. Toussaint," said Officer Williams, "I’d like to have a word with you."

They had him.

The case was solved. The police force searched the entire cannery and discovered hundreds of weapons and the rest of the money, an amount that exceeded nearly fifty million dollars. Mr. Toussaint confessed to the murder, saying that he and a crew were out on a ship coming back from an exchange, when Normoyale was caught stealing from the ships stash. Mr. Toussaint ordered him to be killed when he tried to escape, but when he was stabbed he fell overboard where he washed up on the beach.

Mr. Toussaint ratted out the rest of the perpetrators and the force rounded them up as they came into work. All in all, they numbered fifty seven.

They all were convicted on federal charges of illegal arms dealing, and Mr. Toussaint himself got twenty to life for the murder of Patrick Normoyale. Meanwhile, Napoleon was convicted by Nome’s canine inhabitants on charges of attacking a K-9 officer and willfully assisting a human in committing an illegal activity.

The next day Ewan, Orde and Comet walked into the station to the sounds of thunderous applause as the rest of the force congratulated them on a job well done. As the cheers subsided, Rex got up onto his crate to make the announcements.

"Today," Rex said. "We salute Ewan and Orde for their superior detective work on this case. We’re lucky to have you two on the force."

Again there were more cheers.

"In addition, we’d also like to thank Comet for his bravery and quick thinking and are pleased to admit him as junior member of our police force. Comet welcome to the team."

As the applause resumed again Comet was beside himself with pride.

"Now usually," said Rex, "when we get a new cadet we need to perform aptitude tests on our senior officers to see who is best qualified to train the cadet, but on this occasion we are pleased to announce that both Ewan and Orde have volunteered to train Comet themselves. Would the three of you please step forward?"

The three of them came forward and stood below Rex looking up at him.

"Comet," said Rex, "do you avow to take your training seriously and above all else promise to uphold law and justice in this town."

"I do," said Comet beaming.

"And you, Ewan and Orde, promise to take Comet as your responsibility and train him in the ways of criminal justice till we see fit to admit him as an officer."

"I do," they both said.

"In that case," said Rex, "I hereby present to you cadet Comet."

As Ewan sat quietly in the warmth of the fireplace he couldn’t help but think about all that had happened to him. He knew that his promotion would come with new respect, but now he found himself with a great responsibility of watching over Comet. But he was ready for the task, besides if Orde trained him, certainly the both of them could train Comet.

"Well, well, well," said Mirage. "Is our hero resting up for a big day tomorrow?"

"You were right Mirage," said Ewan.

"I love it when you say that," cooed Mirage.

Ewan smiled and begin moving closer and closer to each her. "I know what else you like."

"Me!" shouted Comet as he jumped out from behind the sofa.

"COMET!"