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At 2:14 a.m., the emergency room doors blew open so hard they bounced off the stopper. The night shift barely had time to look up before two soldiers surged inside, pushing a stretcher at a dead run. On it lay a Navy SEAL, unconscious, his uniform torn along the left side, blood soaking through field dressings that had already turned dark and heavy.
But the first thing everyone saw wasn’t the blood.
A military K-9 moved with the stretcher like it was welded to it—shoulder brushing the metal rail, eyes fixed on the man’s chest as if watching for the smallest rise and fall. The dog’s body was rigid, every muscle loaded, the kind of posture that didn’t come from fear but from trained readiness. When a nurse stepped in, the dog flashed teeth. When a doctor reached for the gurney’s brakes, the dog growled low, controlled, and lethal.
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