Watchers

one of the empty chairs. He sat very erect and stared at Jim expectantly.
    “Well,” the vet said, putting down a forkful of curried chicken that he’d lifted halfway to his mouth, “most but not all tattoos can be eradicated. If! know what sort of ink was used and by what method it was embedded under the skin, I might be able to erase it.”
    “That would be terrific,” Nora said. “Then even if they found us and tried to take Einstein back, they couldn’t prove he’s the dog they lost.”
    “There’d still be traces of the tattoo that would show up under close inspection,” Travis said. “Under a magnifying glass.”
    Einstein looked from Travis to Jim Keene as if to say, Yeah, what about that?
    “Most labs just tag research animals,” Jim said. “Of those that tattoo, there’re a couple of different standard inks used. I might be able to remove it and leave no trace except a natural-looking mottling of the flesh. Microscopic examination wouldn’t reveal traces of the ink, not a hint of the numbers. It’s a small tattoo, after all, which makes the job easier. I’m still researching techniques, but in a few weeks we might try it—if Einstein doesn’t mind some discomfort.”
    The retriever left the table and padded into the pantry. They could hear the pumping of the letter-dispensing pedals.
    Nora went to see what message Einstein was composing.
    DON’T WANT TO BE BRANDED. AM NOT A COW.
    His desire to be free of the tattoo went deeper than Nora had thought. He wanted the mark removed in order to escape identification by the people at the lab. But evidently he also hated carrying those three numbers in his ear because they marked him as mere property, a condition that was an affront to his dignity and a violation of his rights as an intelligent creature.
    FREEDOM.
    “Yes,” Nora said respectfully, putting a hand on his head, “I do understand. You are a . . . a person, and a person with”—this was the first time she had thought of this aspect of the situation—”a soul.”
    Was it blasphemous to think Einstein had a soul? No. She did not think blasphemy entered into it. Man had made the dog; however, if there was a God, He obviously approved of Einstein—not least of all because Einstein’s ability to differentiate right from wrong, his ability to love, his courage, and his selflessness made him closer to the image of God than were many human beings who walked the earth.
    “Freedom,” she said. “If you’ve got a soul—and I know you do—then you were born with free will and the right to self-determination. The number in your ear is an insult, and we’ll get rid of it.”
    After dinner, Einstein clearly wanted to monitor—and participate in—the conversation, but he ran out of energy and slept by the fire.
    Over a short brandy and coffee, Jim Keene listened as Travis outlined their defenses against The Outsider. Encouraged to find holes in their preparations, the vet could think of nothing except the vulnerability of their power supply. “If the thing was smart enough to bring down the line that runs in from the main highway, it could plunge you into darkness in the middle of the night and render your alarm useless. And without power those tricky mechanisms in the barn wouldn’t slam the door behind the beast or release the nitrous oxide.”
    Nora and Travis took him downstairs, into the half-basement under the rear of the house, to show him the emergency generator. It was powered by a forty-gallon tank of gasoline buried in the yard, and it would restore electricity to the house and barn and alarm system after only a ten-second delay following the loss of the main supply.
    “As far as I can see,” Jim said, “you’ve thought of everything.”
    “I think we have, too,” Nora said.
    But Travis scowled. “I wonder . .
     
     
    On Wednesday, December 22, they drove into Carmel. Leaving Einstein with Jim Keene, they spent the day buying Christmas gifts, decorations for the house, ornaments for a tree, and the tree itself.
    With the threat of The Outsider moving inexorably closer to them, it seemed almost frivolous to make plans for the holiday. But Travis said, “Life is short. You never know how much time you’ve got left, so you can’t let Christmas slide by without celebrating, no matter what. Besides, my Christmases haven’t been so terrific these last few years. I intend to make up for that.”
    “Aunt Violet didn’t believe in making an event of Christmas.