by Melissa Good
In the faint lantern glow from the cavern, Kerry could now see it more clearly, it’s compact body, the fluffy fur on its face, and it’s small stubby tail. “Oh wow.”
“Cool,” Dar said, leaning forward to watch the animal as it turned it’s head and looked right into her eyes, it’s own a tawny yellow.
It bared it’s fangs at them with a touch of insolence, then it jumped down and headed off, down the riverside with a twitch of its tail.
Kerry squeezed Dar’s arm, grinning with excitement. “Really glad we got up now!”
“Nice,” Dar rumbled. “Really nice.”
“Now I know why they lock all that stuff up.” Kerry whispered, bumping shoulders with her. “Bet that cat would have eaten anything it found.”
“Bet it would.” Dar half turned as they heard footsteps behind them, to find Don and Marcia coming out of the cave. “Morning.”
“Morning you two,” Marcia greeted. “You missed the kerfuffle last night. That little gal came running out half past midnight and all upset because her fellow didn’t come back.”
“Meh.” Dar snorted. “Glad I slept through it.”
“Me too,” Kerry said. “So, what happened?”
“Well, I don’t know,” Don said. “Some of the crew went off, and we went to bed. Don’t have to tell me twice, I wasn’t getting involved in it. Silly kid.”
“Jerk went off into the cave around nine or ten,” Dar said. “I heard him jumping over that fence.”
Marcia clucked her tongue. “Want some coffee? They left a thermos out and I heard noises from the crew area.” She looked up at the sky, where the stars were starting to get washed out by the glow in the east. She sighed. “Aren’t those pretty?”
Rich came out with Sally trailing behind him. At their heels one of the crew had a tray with cups on it. He stifled a yawn with one wrist. “Late night, Chris?” Don asked him.
“We were hunting in the cave,” the young man said. “Took us five hours to find the guy who jumped the fence. I’m toast.” He offered them cups and then wandered back toward the cave. “Morning.” He offered the tray to a few other wanderers.
Don frowned. “That’s a shame.” He walked over to the raft and examined the ground. “These kids work hard enough without having to work all that much harder.” He peered out over the river. “Got some water coming down today, we do.”
Marcia sat down on one of the storage boxes that had been left near the raft, ropes fastening it to the rigging. “It’s pretty this morning, isn’t it?” she said. “So clear.”
Dar got up and wandered along the riverside. She paused where they’d seen the bobcat and crouched down to look at the ground.
Kerry sipped at the freshly made, artisanal tasting coffee. “Guess what we just saw? A bobcat.”
“No, really?” Marcia said.
“Really. Walked down the edge of the river and right up onto our raft.” Kerry watched Dar reach down and touch the ground, putting her fingers into what she could only assume were the tracks from the cat. “Dar’s so happy. She really wanted to see one.” She looked up as they heard a motor approaching and watched as a powerboat came maneuvering into the small bay the cave was in.
“Ah hah,” Don said. “I figured we’d get a visit from the native patrol.”
The sky was now a coral pink edged with gilt as the sun got ready to appear over the rocks. Janet emerged from the cave, with Doug behind her, at the sound of the motorboat’s roar.
Kerry got up and headed away from the river. She went through the entrance as more of the crew came out, noting the apprehensive looks on their faces.
Meant nothing good. She went quickly to the tent and got her camera, then paused and knelt to stuff their gear into the duffle bags and zip them shut. Then she carried them out of the tent so the crew could strike it if they needed to.
PJ was limping carefully down the slope and paused when she saw Kerry. “Hey, Kerry. What’s going on?”
“Hard to say.” Kerry joined her on the route outside. “There was some issue last night and a boat just showed up with some officials or something.”
PJ frowned. “Oh, that’s not good. Tribal police?”
“Not sure.”
They reached the entrance to the cave, passing the four or five crew who were preparing breakfast. Outside the four people from the boat were standing on the river’s edge, facing Doug and Janet. “Yep,” PJ said. “Was it that dude?”
Kerry regarded the scene. “That’s what I heard.” She shook her head, and turned right, heading back over to where Dar was seated, watching the sunrise.
When she got near her, Dar pointed at a bighorn sheep that was making its way up the side of the cliff across from them.
Kerry quickly got her camera ready and took a shot. “Did that cat leave tracks? I was going to take a picture of it for you.”
Dar circled her arm around Kerry’s leg, and leaned her head against her hip. “Thanks.” She indicated the ground. “I was hoping you’d do that. I put a circle of rocks around it so we could find it again.” Dar leaned forward and looked past Kerry’s kneecap. “They in trouble?”
Kerry took her focus off the sheep and put it on the ground. She untangled herself from Dar’s grip and knelt, as a bit of the sun splashed the rocks and brought out their striated colors. “Oo.”
There were several paw prints but Dar, typically, had found the most perfect one, with the toes and the pad well defined. The sun made the shot even more interesting and she spent a few minutes taking several pictures of it from a few different angles.
Dar watched with an indulgent and pleased smile, glad this bit of their adventure was being captured. She could easily picture a copy of that ending up in a frame on the wall and it made her happy. She whistled softly under her breath, then glanced up and over as voices started to rise.
The four people who had arrived were in weathered jackets and jeans. They were tall and had similar builds. She could see the placating body posture in Janet. Doug had his hands in his pockets and listened in silence.
Almost without thought, she slowly started making her way toward the group. “Be right back, hon.”
Kerry looked up, and a moment later she stood up and followed. When they neared the group the voices became clear.
“Look, you people know the rules.” The tallest of the men said. “We let you use this place on those conditions.”
“We know,” Janet said. “We didn’t know anyone had breached the fence until someone told us one of the passengers was gone and they couldn’t find them.” She glanced aside as Dar approached and turned to her. “Oh, hey, I think breakfast is ready. We’ll be done here in a moment.”
Dar kept walking until she was standing next to Janet. She paused, regarding the four men over Janet’s head. “I heard him go over the fence around ten,” she said. “We were told not to go near the back, he didn’t give a crap.”
The tallest of the men regarded her back with a solemn expression. He had a heavy, rugged face, and lined eyes, with dark, straight hair pulled back in a ponytail and Dar figured he was mostly native. His eyes were dark brown and they met hers in a stolid kind of way.
She stopped speaking and waited.
“About ten, you say?” the man said, after a long pause.
“Right, so we didn’t know he was missing until after midnight,” Janet said, hastily. “Because you didn’t say anything to anyone, did you Ms. Roberts?”
“I didn’t say anything to anyone,” Dar said.
“Why not?” the man asked. “Seems like a good camper would want to tell someone that.”
“Because he’s an idiot.” Dar said. “I was hoping he’d get bitten by something that would require him to be airlifted out of here and leave us the hell alone.” Dar held out a hand. “Sorry, Dar Roberts.”
A corner of the man’s lip twitched, and then he returned the gesture and took her hand in his. “Jonny Redhawk,” he said. “So, this guy’s a troublemaker?” His body
posture relaxed a little and he folded his arms over his chest.
“He’s a pain in our ass,” Dar said. “Got a chip on his shoulder and wants us all to pay for it.”
Janet took a breath, then she paused and released it, remaining silent. Doug put his hands behind his back and rocked back and forth a little. “He has a beef with us.” He admitted. “We were supposed to take him on a private trip, and our team didn’t make the flight out.”
“Ah.” Redhawk grunted.
“Any chance he’s broken enough laws for you to haul his ass off?” Dar asked in a hopeful tone, noting the faint grins on the faces of the other natives. “Seriously, they didn’t know.” She said. “Guys just a punk with a rich dad.”
Redhawk nodded a little. “Seen a few of those. This outfit don’t cater to the blue collar I reckon.” He regarded her with a brief smile. “Let’s go talk to this guy.” He indicated the cavern. “Then we’ll talk to you all.”
Janet nodded. “Okay, sure.” She hesitated, looking at Dar.
“We’re going to have breakfast,” Dar reassured her. “We’re done here.” She held a hand out to Kerry and they walked past the group, heading for the table they could see the rest of the company clustered around. “Not sure if that was a good thing to do or not.”
“It was a you thing to do.” Kerry smiled, patting her on the back. “Crusader Dar, even when you decide not to be.”
“Mm.”
“Hey, hon, I think they have bacon.”
THEY DID, IN fact, have bacon, and biscuits. Dar considered her morning pretty well a good one as she sat on the pontoon of the raft and waited for the rest of the company to get packed up and moving. She had her bathing suit on under her shorts and was looking forward to them getting underway.
She kicked her sandals against the pontoon and drew in a breath of the cool air, keeping her ears cocked for Kerry’s approach, as her partner had remained behind collecting some fruit to take onboard the raft for their morning’s trip.
She was looking forward to the swimming, and seeing some of the waterfalls they were scheduled to look at, along with the natural slides the pictures had promised and it all seemed to offer a more active participation in their little trip.
Rich came over and sat down on the pontoon next to her. “Hey.”
“Hey,” Dar responded amiably.
“So, you’re a computer person, right?”
“Right.” Dar said. “You’re not going to ask me how to clean your mouse balls are you?”
In the middle of taking a breath, Rich paused and gave her a look. “Uh what?”
“Never mind. Did you have a question?”
“Oh, okay, well yeah, my nephew is just getting out of college and he was wondering if it was a good idea to get into computers.”
Dar regarded him. “What did he go to college for?”
“He was a Tibetan history major.”
“Does he want to make a living?”
Rich grinned sheepishly. “Yeah, it’s a joke, right? Something like that, all you can do is either write books, teach history, or keep going to school.”
Dar pondered a moment. “Does he like computers?”
Rich nodded. “He really does. He’s got like, four of them and he’s always doing stuff with them on the Internet, in these chat things. You know,” he said. “But how do you get started for real with them? How did you start?”
“I started by programming the integrated circuits in nuclear submarines.”
Rich squinted at her. “I thought you said you weren’t in the service?”
“I wasn’t. I was ten,” Dar said almost apologetically. “But seriously if he wants to get into computers he started the right way. Just use the hell out of them. Learn a programming language. Do some small stuff. Get a job in tech support.”
Rich put his hands in his pockets and studied her in silence for a minute. “You were ten?”
“Nine and a half.” Dar’s eyes twinkled a little.
Two of the crew moved past them, carrying gear. Both were shaking their heads.
“Yeeo. Guess it’s time to get going.” Rich got up and climbed up onto the raft, chuckling a little under his breath as he went to his favorite perch on the front of the middle pontoon.
Dar chuckled a little herself, remembering being that precocious brat, earning Hershey bars tweaking sensors for her father’s skipper and him telling her father his kid was some kind of genius.
That had gotten her ice cream to go with the Hershey. It all had seemed a little silly to her, doing these things that were so basic and common sense to her, and magic to everyone else.
But then they’d taken her in for some tests, two days of what she remembered as being a bit boring, and then her parents discussing the results which had numbers and statistics that hadn’t meant anything to her at the time.
Only later on, when she’d gotten to high school and all of those advanced placement classes and the academic attention, did she realize there was something different in her head. Things that came so easily to her didn’t always do the same for her classmates.
Certainly hadn’t helped her cocky antisocial self much. Dar grinned briefly. What an absolute jerk she’d been.
She got up and went to the two seats she and Kerry had claimed, arranging the day bags she’d taken out, positioning Kerry’s so her camera would be handy on the right hand side. Then she took a seat and hooked her feet on the rungs of the steel supports, removing her sunglasses from her bag and sliding them into place over her eyes as she watched the entrance to the cave.
The four natives emerged, and Janet walked them down to their boat. Amy and Todd came out behind them. Todd looked both sleepy and disgruntled, his head half turned watching the visitors get into their boat. After a moment, he lifted his middle finger in their direction, then shifted his duffel on one shoulder and headed for the raft.
“Nice.” Dar kept her eyes forward as the two mounted the raft and crossed behind her, hearing Todd drop the duffel onto his seat and then detecting the scuff and creek of footsteps approaching her. She kept her hands relaxed on her knees, but was aware of a tension coming into her body, and a faint increase in her breathing.
Todd stopped next to her. “Hey.”
“Hey,” Dar responded.
“You tell those fuckers I jumped the fence?”
“Yep.” Dar turned her head slightly and regarded him through her sunglasses.
“Why?”
“Because I felt like it.” She dropped her head a little, letting the glassed slide forward enough for her to look over the top. They stared at each other for a long moment in silence. “No sense in letting these guys get in trouble for your idiocy.”
He took a step forward and Dar stood up in response, her hands coming to rest at her sides half curled into fists. After what seemed like a long, breathless pause he just moved back and went to the drink cooler, flipping it open and removing a can from it. “Asshole,” he tossed back over his shoulder.
“Pipsqueak,” Dar responded, with a chuckle. She resumed her seat and pushed her sunglasses back up, then realized that Rich had seen it. He stood up in place and walked across the pontoon and came to her side.
“What was that?” Kerry asked, arriving from the other direction at the same time.
“A moron.” Dar inspected the selection of fruit Kerry was carrying and removing a pear from her grasp.
“That guy was going to hit you,” Rich said in a serious tone.
“He thought about it,” Dar said. She took a bite of the pear. “He might have taken a swing at Ker,” she added. “But I’m six foot four and not a little girl pushover.”
Kerry eyed her. “Hey, who’s the registered gun owner in our family?”
“Neither are you a pushover, slugger,” Dar said. “But he doesn’t know that.” She wiggled her toes in contentment. “Bullies pick targets they figure they can roll right over.” She nibbled around the seeds. “But we better check around our tent from now o
n, hon.”
“Ugh.” Kerry stuffed the rest of the fruit into her pack and sat down. “Jerkity Jerk Jerk Jerk.”
Dar got up and put the pear in between her teeth, miming a drink and moving off toward the cooler, as the rest of the party got settled.
“That guy is trouble,” Rich told Kerry. “She should be careful.”
“Yeah.” Kerry grinned wryly. “We both should be careful. But we’re not. Problem is, Dar really doesn’t have a careful gene.”
Rich started laughing.
“Seriously. She’s got no fear in her,” Kerry said. “And, though we really prefer to be mild mannered derfy nerds, we honestly don’t take any crap from people, so hopefully the moron back there will just chill out and start enjoying the ride.”
“Not sure he’s going to,” Rich said. “So watch out.”
Kerry leaned on the arm of the chair. “We will. But honestly?” Her eyes twinkled a little. “We’re more trouble than he is. I know that sounds sketch. But it’s true.”
Rich looked dubiously at her. “Hope you know what you’re doing. Anyway I’ll keep an eye out on him just on general principals. He could be trouble for anyone.” He moved off back to his pontoon, pulling off his over shirt and putting it away before settling down.
Kerry watched him. “Nice guy.” She got her camera out, and inserted it into her waterproof casing. “Looks like a beautiful day.”
KERRY MUNCHED ON an apple, one foot propped up against the aluminum frame, enjoying the sunlight as they coasted along between the walls of the canyon, the raft rocking back and forth a bit.
Ahead she saw a bend, and the crew was starting to prepare the lines as they traveled toward the promised water playground that was supposed to be just past it. Dar had both feet up against the frame, reading a book she was holding in one hand.
The pontoons were empty, their residents back near the supply area, picking up cups of hot apple cider. Kerry was pondering doing the same thing herself as they reached the bend and started around it.
