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Bomb-sniffing dogs featured in CIA spy thriller novel


It was fun researching how bomb-sniffing dogs are trained and their incredible ability to sniff out explosives. Here's an excerpt from the "Penumbra Database" spy thriller:

Unknown to Edhi or the Dolans, a week prior, at 3am, four CI agents wearing jeans and dark hoodies emerged from the surrounding Hemlock forest surrounding the Dolan’s organic farm. A special dog accompanied them. It was an overcast and moonless night. They snuck to the back of the open U-Haul and crawled in.
As one stood outside as a lookout, the three inside swept hand-held devices close to the van floor, walls and ceiling. They did the same to the canoes and camping gear. The dog sniffed items its handler pointed to. One agent held a strange-looking device that detected minute traces of radiation.
In ten minutes, they vacated the truck and disappeared back into the forest, then made their way back to the quaint, Victorian-styled Riverside Inn where ‘Tracker’ was eagerly waiting for them.
In her room, ‘Tracker’ and the agents analyzed the air samples they collected for traces of biothreat residue. Special strips were inserted into the hand-held devices that detected traces of Anthrax, Plague, Ricin, Abrin…even Tularemia. The results came up negative. The radiation detector device computed zero emissions.
The dog handler reported his canine gave no behavioral signs of smelling explosives. It was trained to detect C-4 signatures, buried land mines, IED’s, and explosives used in military-weapon war- heads… including mortars.
When pressed by ‘Tracker,’ the handler assured her that his dog would have picked up a week-old scent if mortars had been in the U-Haul. Even an infinitesimal amount would trigger a nerve in its nose, the trigeminal, and be sent to a part of its brain that processes sensations, including smells. He told her, “If any of these hi-tech mortar shells had been in the van, my dog would have alerted me… she never forgets an explosive signature.”
‘Tracker’s’ sixteen CI agents initially reported the Dolan’s U-Haul as suspicious. The decision was made to target it, for they spotted it passing them often as they bicycled, hiked and bird-watched along the back roads surrounding Cambridge Springs.
A thorough background check of John and Diane Dolan came up clean and their truck was free of biological, radiological and explosive residues. U.S. intelligence decided they were not a homeland-security threat.

 Check out this new breed of bomb-sniffing dogs! 

 Robert Morton writes the "Corey Pearson- CIA Spymaster in the Florida Keys and Caribbean" spy series. 

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