Hunched under the rising sun, the barn stood at the edge of the field. Its old hinges creaked with every touch, and its roof drooped. It appeared to be a deserted relic with nothing else.
During patrols, I had come by this location numerous times without ever stopping. It was different today. I heard someone barking. tenacious and uncompromising.
— “What did you notice, Max?” Gazing at the German shepherd in the patrol car, I murmured.
With his ears directed forward and his tail outstretched, he appeared to be listening for an unseen signal. Fear wasn’t the reason. The desire for attention was unyielding.
The bark came again. Max remained motionless when I told him it was empty. He had already begun to claw at the ancient door.
The smell of hay and rust filled the air, and there was silence. Max chose to dismiss the possibility that there were vagrants or animals sheltering there. His body was stiff, and his fur stood on end. I circled the barn from the opposite side and stepped closer.
He had begun excavating beneath the warped planks. digging and digging. I knelt down; the boards appeared new, as though they had just been put in. When I tapped one, an odd sound came from underneath.
Empty. A shiver went through my body. I was totally taken aback by what I saw as I looked between the boards.
I turned on the radio:
— “Block 15, dispatcher…… We really need backup.
He discovered something odd while excavating beneath the boards. I initially assumed it was trash or old crates, but no. Small buildings that resembled miniature greenhouses were arranged in tidy rows.
— “What the…” — I crouching closer, I mumbled.
Max snarled, indicating that this was no ordinary barn. Someone had created a whole mini-garden beneath the floorboards to grow… prohibited flora.
Wires, lamps, and little plant containers. Everything was ready to grow.
My heart skipped a beat. I never imagined that a straightforward dog patrol would result in such a finding. “This is what I wanted to show you,” Max seems to remark.
I turned the radio on once more:
— “Block 15, dispatcher…… Come here, you must.
