They needed work. They needed a ranch, an NGO. She paced, humming to herself.
Theoretically, Julianna was working on that. But Julianna was a city creature. She’d probably never been outside the weather domes after she helped set them up.
Lou didn’t want to work for her. She didn’t want to work for Coryn either.
But as far as she could tell, her best hope was to do both of those things. And what if Julianna and Coryn didn’t come through? Then what could they do?
CHAPTER NINE
Lou looked up from the horse corral where she was working Buster on a long-lead. She had succeeded in getting him up to a full trot. The Silversteins had been gone for three days, but she couldn’t stop thinking about the conversation they’d started. Was she sitting right here in the middle of a historical flashpoint when the things she’d spent her whole life dreaming of—working out here restoring wild places—was under threat? If so, did she have the strength to be a hero?
Pal let out a long whinny, and Buster slowed down and broke the circle of his lead, trotting toward her so she had to step aside to avoid being run over by a horse the size of a small mountain. “Hey boy, that’s no good.” But she turned to see what had gathered his attention.
Four horses showed up over the top of the hill, and for a moment she had to do a double-take. Then she realized there were three riders and a horse on a lead, and the man in front could only be Blessing.
A high-pitched whinny stopped her.
Mouse!
She unclipped Buster’s lead, dashed past him, and ducked between the lower two metal rails on the corral. She ran toward her old horse, who was being led in full tack. She waved at Blessing and kept right on going, throwing her arms around the big buckskin’s neck and drawing in a lungful of her sweat.
“Who knew you missed the horse that much?” Blessing asked.
“I did,” she retorted.
“She’s a bribe. We paid extra to free her from a string of pack horses.”
Lou pulled back and stared into Mouse’s eyes. “I can’t believe anyone put you in a pack string.” She kissed her horse on her soft nose. “What are you bribing me for? Whatever it is, you can have it.”
Day rode up behind her. “Seriously, you’ll need one horse each. You get us, too, for a while. And we brought you one other bribe.”
She pushed herself away from Mouse and looked closely at the third rider. A slender man with a big hat and a long mustache. She squealed. “Daryl!”
He tipped his hat to her.
He had trained her, and then he had worked for her, swearing he was never going to manage a whole ranch. There were many things she loved him for, including that he could fix anything and was reliable as the sunrise. “Good to see you!” she called out. “Welcome.”
She tightened Mouse’s cinch, turned her sideways into the hill, and mounted right there, even if the ride was only a few hundred yards. It wasn’t her old saddle, but it would do, and feeling Mouse’s familiar gait under her felt fabulous.
They put the horses away, working as a team. She turned to Daryl. “Will you stay on watch?”
He leaned over and gave her a hug. “Of course I will. It’s so good to see you.”
“It is.”
In the house, Matchiko and Shuska fussed as much as Lou had. Hugs were exchanged and stories babbled and everyone looked at Matchiko’s ankle, even as she was trying to get them to leave her alone so she could cook.
After a fabulous dinner that Lou hardly tasted, Blessing and Day laid a series of maps out on the table and briefed them on Adam’s theories of roving Returners, small towns full of Returners and maybe a secure one in Chelan.
“It makes sense,” Shuska mused.
“We can’t know,” Matchiko said.
Lou touched her shoulder. “We can. We can spy.”
Matchiko looked intrigued. “If it gets me out of this house, I’ll do anything.”
After Blessing picked the maps up and put them away, Day produced a brown paper envelope, tossing it onto the table.
Shuska reached for it, opened it, and took out the paper. She stared at it for a long time, and then handed it to Lou. It read:
Outside-N Foundation
Executive Board: Jake Erlich, Julianna Lake, Coryn Williams, Lou Williams, and Eloise Smith
President of the Board of Directors: Jake Erlich
Vice-President of the Board of Directors: Julianna Lake
Secretary Treasurer of the Board of Directors: Eloise Smith
Members-at-large of the Board of Directors: Coryn Williams, Lou Williams.
Purpose of Foundation:
General rewilding with a special focus on predatory species, including the northern gray wolf, the black bear, the grizzly bear, the mountain lion, the cougar, the bald eagle, the golden eagle. Other animal-based rewilding. May join with other foundations working to rewild plants, including fungi.
She stared at it, tears gathering in the corners of her eyes. Fungi? Coryn knew she loved mushrooms. But rewilding fungi?
She was on the board?
Blessing came over to her. “I have a copy that you need to sign. I’ll carry the signed version back with me after we escort you to your territory.”
A smile spread across her face. “You’re coming with us?”
“We’ve got to stop in Wenatchee. Julianna’s sending some supplies.”
Lou wanted to comment on the strange grin on his face, but before she decided what to say Shuska handed her another piece of paper.
Nonexclusive Operating Permit: Two Years
Territory: Area previously known as Chelan County, including the area around Lake Chelan and the taken territory for seventy-five miles.
Below that, it repeated much of the information that was on the previous piece of paper, explaining how they could help with any mammals, and particularly with predators.
The last piece of paper appointed her as the foreman of the operation and gave her permission to hire up to ten people and any robots she could afford. It listed a budget that might just do.
She swallowed and sat still. Mouse. Working with her sister. Taking on the bad guys. Really being in charge. Everyone’s safety up to her. Being on the board of an NGO. The safety of at least two packs of wolves up to her. The safety of an unknown number of grizzlies. The ability to provide for Matchiko and Shuska, hell, the ability to hire them so they could all provide for each other. She walked over by the fire and stared at the crackling flames.
Could she do this? Run everything out here? The unexpected weight of so much responsibility made her knees weak. The change. As she stared at the fire, she realized that there had always been some shadowy and competent boss when she thought about this possibility. Someone who wasn’t her.
If she accepted this, she had to see it out, no matter how hard it became. She wouldn’t be able to leave for a better chance with any of the other foundations, or quit until the two years had passed. That would be selling her sister up the road, and she couldn’t do that. It was a pair of handcuffs, but they came with food and shelter for the people she loved and work for land she loved.
She left the fire and went to Blessing’s side. “I’m ready to sign it.”
He went to his saddlebag and drew out another envelope, a shiny, white-linen paper, and a blue pen. He smiled as he handed them to her, and she had the sense he knew how much it meant to her.
Everyone gathered around. Matchiko held the document at arm’s length and stared at it for a moment, and then nodded.
Lou sat at the table and signed.
Blessing produced four extra copies. “Why so many?” she asked him.
“I’ll take two, you’ll keep two, and we’ll have one extra just in case anyone wants it.”
She frowned. “Feds?”
He merely smiled. “Anyone.”
She shrugged and kept signing.
When she finished, everyone clapped, and Blessing smiled as if he’d just won a race. Luckily, Day h
ad thought to bring a bottle of merlot with him. Lou had a rather large glass.
A few minutes after that, she went out to the paddock to brush Mouse and think.
The horse refused to answer any of her questions about how to succeed at this impossible job, but Mouse smelled of old successes and long rides and comfort, and she whickered softly when Lou scratched behind her ears.
CHAPTER TEN
Aspen looked content, his belly flat on the table and his head up while Jake stroked him behind the ears with one hand. Jake used his other hand to show Coryn how to search an old land records database for Chelan to find property boundaries and to cross-reference that data to records that showed old reports on wells. Information scrolled on two walls, some of the data so old she had to read handwriting.
She scribbled notes. “Then I use the satellite shots?”
“Yes. Look for people, or for green gardens, or, of course, water.” He sat back in his chair and pulled Aspen into his lap. “People know we’re looking, so they try to screen gardens. They’ll put up lean-tos, for example. But growing things need sun, and they can only be a little hidden. You should be able to spot them.”
“How many people live there?”
“The last estimates we have from Listeners in that area is under a thousand. That’s not many. It wouldn’t have been enough to spend resources dislodging.”
She nodded. Her high school education had insisted it was all empty Outside, that the great taking had returned every scrap of land between cities to the wild, but she’d seen that lie when she’d gone out to find Lou. There had been people everywhere. Some good, some mean, all a little desperate in one way or another.
It was a crime to occupy a house without a permit in the rewilded zones, but some crimes were ignored as long as they weren’t crimes against nature. People could shoot each other Outside, but they couldn’t shoot a bear. They could occupy an old building before it was torn down, but they couldn’t build a new structure. Not without drawing ecobots to destroy it.
Chelan was so remote that no one casually rode through on the way to anywhere else. Roads weren’t maintained. Wildland fires weren’t put out. She drummed her anxiety out on the table, tapping her fingers. Lou and the fledgling NGO needed a place to land. She had to find one this morning if she wanted to be sure there was time to file a permit for approved occupancy. “What if I pick the wrong house?”
“You may never know.” Jake stood up. “Some choices aren’t ever clear.”
He was lecturing her. She stared at the screen so he wouldn’t see she was frustrated with him. He was brilliant and driven, but it bugged her when he treated her like a child.
“Pick a good one. That’s enough. If I were you, I wouldn’t pick the best house in Chelan. Lou might have to fight for that, if it’s occupied. Pick a good one,” he repeated. “Look for a water signature. That’s the most important thing. Water. And access to the wilds.”
She stared at the zoomed-out version of the sat shot she’d left loaded on a tablet for reference. Everything in Chelan oriented around the lake, and thus around water. But it was fed from the mountains, and the town nestled in hills where water flowed when it rained and summers were fire-dry. Water to drink, water for food. Things she never needed to even think about in the city.
She couldn’t fail Lou.
As Jake walked past her, he put a hand on her shoulder, as if he understood the stress she felt. She looked down at it, noticing again that the end of his little finger pointed the wrong way and the knuckle above it was huge and swollen. It must hurt to be so old. She smiled up at him. “I’ll find something.”
“Okay. I’ve got a meeting to go to, but I’ll try to come back before you need to file the permit.”
“Thanks.”
“If I don’t get back, you will have to choose.”
He walked slowly out of the room, bent and a little shaky. As he opened the door, a companion-bot stepped in and held out an arm, and Jake leaned on it. After it closed, she stared at the door for a moment. He seemed far more fragile than when she first met him.
Even with Aspen warm in her lap, the room felt empty. Jake could make her smile so easily. He spent time helping her almost every day, and she sensed he valued this time as much as she did.
She spent the next hour flipping through screens, trying to narrow her choices down. One house was too small. Another had no roof. A third went in the maybe pile. A fourth only had one entrance and exit, and they’d talked about the need to be able to defend and to flee. Yet another table contained a hand-scrawled list of parameters. Water, right at the top. Barns and outbuildings. Multiple entrances. Access to the wild.
Another task where it would have been easier to have Paula.
She was pretty sure someone, maybe Adam, was running the same analysis with the help of machines and that they’d check her answer that way. She loved working on the foundation and learning the tools, but every day felt like a long, protracted test. Did she run fast enough? Did she learn fast enough? Did she answer questions right?
She sighed and stood up, stretching. This was so important and she just wasn’t sure she was good enough at it. How did you pick the most useful river rock out of a whole pond full of the damned things?
All the richest people in the city were tech people. How did they stand staring at data all day?
She flipped over to a real-time satellite shot of Chelan, and then stood and studied the three properties she liked the most. There was no way to tell which would be better.
Aspen whined at the door, breaking her attention free.
As she took Aspen out, she reviewed the three houses she liked the best. All of them had problems. All three appeared livable. She couldn’t tell if they were occupied or not, not with the data she had. The shots hadn’t shown people, but they did all seem—not abandoned?
Time wasn’t slowing down for her. So when she got back, she chose and filled out the permit paperwork, ready to pull the trigger. She watched the door and the clock, willing Jake to come back.
With just a few minutes left to spare to get a filing that day, Jake sent her a brief message. I can’t get back. Remember, there’s no perfect choice.
Her stomach flipped at the responsibility, at the utter lack of backup or confirmation for her choice. But she pushed the button, called Aspen to her, and closed up for the day.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Lou sat at the kitchen table. Early morning light poured in on her through the shattered window in the house the six of them had “borrowed.” The horses shuffled outside, penned in a backyard rather than a barn.
It had only taken two days to ride here, to Wenatchee, from their hideaway. Two more days had passed since then, waiting for something Julianna had promised to Blessing. And he, in his turn, was being all secretive about it, promising her she’d be thrilled.
Julianna was her new boss, her benefactor, her funder. But what did she know about what to send here for Lou to use?
Lou went to the window and stood in the cool morning air, which smelled of autumn. She wanted to get to Chelan and find the wolf packs. They would already be out teaching pups to hunt, and every day made it a little less likely they’d find the animals before spring.
Waiting almost hurt.
She could still smell yesterday’s rain, and the air felt damp enough to glue dust to the ground.
The town took its name from a river. Right now Day and Daryl were off getting water from the Wenatchee. Most would go to the horses, but they would purify some for themselves. Wenatchee was still decent to live in, after a fashion. The ecobots had started destroying it, but they’d stopped after Leavenworth burned to foundations and chimneys. Wenatchee was never made into an approved town, but it was allowed to exist as a half-broken ghost. Some houses had been repaired, and a few people hauled water for gardens in plastic-lined wheelbarrows or old orange buckets. Hollyhocks lined the fence of the house next to them. That was part of why she’d chosen this street. The tall p
each and pink flowers made the damaged street cheerful.
Behind Lou, Shuska and Matchiko banged around in the small kitchen, bossing Daryl around from time to time. The air had started to warm, and she felt a restless need to move. Not only did they need to get to Chelan, but they needed to get away from here.
The responsibility for all of these people and animals weighed her down. On top of that, she was responsible for a rather large and specific scrap of wilderness she hadn’t even seen yet. And a limited budget. Maybe there was more money where that came from. Maybe not. She hardly knew Julianna.
So much obligation made her mind run through scenario after scenario, possibility after possibility. What if they never even got to Chelan?
She drew in a deep breath of the fresh, damp air, and fretted.
Blessing’s voice, loud with jubilation: “Lou!”
She blinked. She couldn’t see them, not yet, but they’d be coming from the river. She grabbed her stunner from the pile of weapons by the door and headed out into the empty, crumbling street.
One of the many feral cats almost tripped her, but as soon as she had a good view, she spotted them. They weren’t carrying any water. They were walking upright and grinning, coming fast. Right behind them, two of the most common ecobots—the same kind she had ridden into captivity in Portland Metro—carried the water. The jugs looked like small bubbles balanced on the big robots’ flat backs.
A flock of drones followed the robots.
The procession looked quite military, here on this side street with the hollyhocks. Utterly wrong.
Anger pounded at her temples. They wouldn’t be safe here. Not with these. Could they get them into Chelan? Did they have time to manage them?
Shuska and Matchiko spilled out of the house and joined her on the road. “Oh no,” Shuska said.
Matchiko’s lips thinned and her jaw tightened to steel. She took a deep breath. “I’m going to finish breakfast. Better that than shoot Blessing.”
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