Watchers (novel)

Watchers is a 1987 suspense novel by American author Dean Koontz. Along with "Strangers", "Lightning", and "Midnight", "Watchers" is credited with establishing Koontz's status as a best-selling author.
Plot summary.
Travis Cornell, a former Delta Force operative, feels that his life has become pointless, and is exploring a canyon near his home when he encounters two genetically engineered creatures that have escaped from a top-secret government laboratory. One, a Golden Retriever with enhanced intelligence, befriends Travis; the other, a creature known as the Outsider, appears to be trying to kill the dog. After eluding the Outsider, Travis takes the dog home. On discovering the dog's exceptional intelligence, he names him Einstein.
Later, he and Einstein find and rescue Nora Devon in a park, who was being pestered by a dangerous man, Arthur Streck. Together they form a trio.
Travis, Nora, and Einstein are soon on the run not only from the Outsider, but from federal agents, determined to track down the laboratory escapees, and Vince Nasco, a ruthless professional assassin, hired by Soviets to kill several human targets who carried knowledge of how to stop the Outsider, in order to further the destruction of the Outsider. He wants the dog to trade for a great sum of cash, alone, without any knowledge from the Soviets or others.
Adaptations.
A series of low-budget horror films was loosely based on the book.
In the film adaptation Travis is a sixteen-year-old boy, and Nora is his mother. The Outsider is renamed OXCOM, and Vince Nasco is replaced by NSO agents searching for the monster. Travis also has a girlfriend named Tracey.