Free Night of the Black Bastards (An Action-Packed Thriller) by Casey Christie

bit of love and care and they are fine.”
    The vet determined that the dog was only two years old at the time and had not had any of his vaccines, which she then administered and apart from the many scars and bite marks on his face and shoulders he was in good health.
    “This is one of the biggest Boerboels I have seen Mike. What’s his name?” asked Veterinary Surgeon Michelle Fisher.
    Fisher was an eccentric English born Vet who reminded Night of a mad animal scientist. She had curly blonde hair and wore round spectacles that seemed at least two sizes too big for her. She was a petite lady standing no more than five foot two inches tall and Night often  enjoyed watching her have conversations with the dogs he brought in, she would speak for the animals in the conversations as well.
    “They call him Tiger.”
    “Typical. Are you going to keep it or give him a new title?”
    “Well I am thinking of a new name but one hasn’t come to me yet, you know a name that feels right.”
    “He is an extraordinary dog Mike, unusually over-muscled and he has massive canines, look” said the vet while pulling back the dog’s upper lip. “Reminds me of a dinosaur, a tyrannosaurus or something.”
    “Well I was thinking of King, he has a noble quality about him and could pass for a ‘king of dogs’.”
    “You know ‘rex’ in Tyrannosaurus-Rex actually means King in Latin Mike?”
    “Rex huh, hey Rex, Rexy my boy.”
    The giant dog turned to the Sergeant while sitting on the tiled floor where the vet had examined him -- he had been too large to place on the examination table -- and then swiftly looked away, seemingly in disgust.
    “Don’t think he likes it” said the vet.
    “Right...”
    Constable Shaka had been following this exchange with interest and decided to put in his tuppence worth.
    “You know, Mike, back home in my village there was a story about this wild dog that protected the village people from lions. They say it was a huge brown and black dog and nobody knew where it came from or how it came to live in the village. It wasn’t very friendly to the people of the community but protected them and their livestock from wild animals,  lions and hyenas. All it wanted in return was to be fed. Which the village elders turned into a daily ritual, feeding the dog every night before the township people ate. They fed it the best meat from the kill of the day’s hunt. They say it even fought and killed an attacking lion once.”
    “A dog that fought and killed a lion huh? Forgive me if I am little sceptical on that one but one thing is for sure, this dog certainly isn’t getting the best of my meat as much as I may grow to love him. Anyway what’s your point my brother?”
    “Well his name was Wamba. And every time I look at that dog I think of a lion killer, Wamba the lion killer that my grandparents used to tell me about.”
    “Wamba huh. Wamba, look here boy.”
    Tiger turned once more and looked directly at Sergeant Night and let out a deep growl followed by a great bark. And he was no longer Tiger but Wamba the Lion Killer.
    Wamba stayed with Sergeant Night in his state subsidised single man’s flat in the police barracks for just under a year but continued to grow, grow and eat. Sergeant Night trained Wamba alongside some canines that were undergoing drill with dog handler friends of his who were part of the elite South African Police Force’s K-9 element, otherwise known as the Delta Unit. Wamba was one of the most obedient dogs, he delivered the biggest tackle and most powerful bite and completed the fastest obstacle course speeds and for a time it looked like he would qualify as a fully-fledged K-9 Officer at the top of his class. His one failure held him back though and eventually led to him being struck off the course.
    It was his inability to work alongside fellow canines. Twice he had taken down a noisy German Shepherd which counted itself the Alpha Male of the pack and on one occasion had