Conard County Watch

by Rachel Lee

  “Really. I’m told this area doesn’t get a whole lot of snow, but it can get some big blizzards some years, and some completely random weather. As for temperatures...” He shrugged. “Variable. Most of the time it’s what local folks would call normal for the time of year, but then it goes and shocks everyone.”

  “I think weather everywhere is becoming random,” she answered. “Well, not random so much. Just more extreme.” She paused. “I wish there was some way to tell the team to stay in town if they want. Cells aren’t working out here, but it feels like the temperature is truly plunging. I have questions about whether my sleeping bag is good enough, and I have no idea at all about theirs.”

  “Easy enough,” he said. “I can hop into my truck and drive until I get a signal. I could also check on just how cold it’s going to get. But I’d have to leave you here because of the fire.”

  He didn’t want to leave her alone. The irritation at the base of his skull might come and go, but his reaction to it was sticking like glue. Nor did he want to put out the fire. If he dumped water or sand on it, they’d have trouble getting it started in the morning.

  She chewed her lip a moment. “They can come back if they want, or stay in town if they want. They’re not soldiers under orders. They all know I don’t need them before eight in the morning, so I’ll leave the choice to them.”

  Best way to handle it, he thought. The interns were all adults, after all. If they realized how cold it was getting, they knew their way to the motel. If they came back here, they’d better be prepared to shiver.

  He also took a little comfort in the idea that if someone was watching them, he’d be pretty uneasy tonight as well as cold. He’d spent a lot of nights like that, and the thought made him grin.

  “There can’t be any reason anyone other than another paleontologist would be interested in this site,” she said a few minutes later, sounding thoughtful.

  So she wasn’t able to shake the feeling that something bad might be afoot out there somewhere. If he hadn’t been a soldier for so long, he might have found it easier to dismiss the matter entirely. But when you felt eyes on you...

  He leaned in toward the fire, warming his own hands. “Unless that cleft has revealed a huge vein of gold ore, I don’t see the point. And that has me wondering if I might be losing my mind. Again, it could be a touch of PTSD.”

  He sensed, rather than saw, her look at him. “Scratch that idea, Cope. You keep coming back to it but I’ve been feeling it, too. Denise felt it the first time we came up here. I’m wondering if we shouldn’t just ignore it. Gray Cloud is going to have his nephews check around from time to time, and considering the lengths required to get permission to dig on sacred ground, I’m quite sure they wouldn’t be happy with someone else lurking around out there. But there’s absolutely no reason to lurk!”

  He nodded, holding his palms to the flames and feeling the heat seep into cold skin. “None,” he agreed, without adding, that we know of. Always the qualifier.

  With time, the fire began to die down. Shadows seeped closer to the camp from their dark caverns in the forest. To the east, the finest sliver of moon began to rise, ice in the sky.

  “You know,” Renee said quietly, as if she were afraid of being overheard, “sometimes I so absolutely get why Gray Cloud’s people think this mountain is sacred. Like right now. I could be sitting almost anywhere in the darkness, but I know I’m not. I can feel this mountain. Like a sound just beneath the audible. Oh, I don’t know. I’m just being unusually fanciful.”

  “I don’t think so,” Cope said. “As you say, there’s the belief that the very stones are alive. Why shouldn’t we be able to feel it if we hold still and be quiet long enough?”

  She turned to him. “Are you a mystic?”

  “I don’t think so. It’s just that this isn’t the first mountain I’ve been on that made me feel it might be living force. Mount Shasta was the first.”

  Why the hell was he wandering down this trail with her? To convince her he was as mad as a hatter so she wouldn’t be interested in him? Because he was sure interested in her, and he didn’t know if his walls were secure enough to withstand her.

  “Mount Shasta,” she repeated. “That’s a volcano, right?”

  “On the Pacific rim, the Ring of Fire. In Northern California. Beautiful mountain.”

  “You’ve been to some interesting places,” she remarked a few moments later.

  “And you haven’t?”

  He loved her light, quiet laugh. “A few,” she admitted. “I’m not widely traveled, though. I think my biggest adventure was a cruise I took with a college friend. She found some last-minute tickets for a seven-day Caribbean cruise. Seeing Mayan ruins enticed me the way little else could have.”

  He was watching her face, enjoying the play of firelight and expressions that combined to create an aura of mystery about her. “Why do I think the trip had some problems?”

  “Not exactly problems,” she said. “Me.”

  “You? What could you have possibly done?”

  “Realized that the very, very cheap stateroom we had was in the bow of the ship and well below the waterline. I think that was the strongest encounter I’ve ever had with claustrophobia.”

  “Ouch.” While he didn’t suffer from any phobias himself, as far as he knew, he’d known others who had. They could be overwhelming. “Did that ruin the entire trip for you?”

  She shook her head slightly and laughed again. “Not the entire trip, by no means.” Rising up a little, she curled her legs beneath her before settling again. He wouldn’t have believed that possible in the small camp chair, but she did it, heavy boots and all. “I wasn’t exactly thrilled, but I dealt with it. Most of the time we were above deck anyway. High up. There was this nifty little lounge at the very top, so on the occasion when the weather got bad we had a nice place to hang out. The rest of the time at sea I was all for fun in the sun.”

  Her gaze grew distant and he suspected she was remembering the trip. He waited until she spoke again.

  “Weird experience,” she remarked. “We hit some bad weather before we reached the Florida Keys. The captain announced we’d have to skip our stop at Key West because it was too windy to enter the harbor. Well, we’d noticed the growing wind, which is why we went up to this lounge at the very tippy top of the boat. Anyway, we’re sitting there gabbing when I looked out the panoramic windows at the front. It was unreal, Cope. It looked like the sea had tilted to a forty-five-degree angle. Kid you not. But I didn’t feel a thing.”

  “I’ve seen that,” he acknowledged.

  “Then you probably know the weird feeling it gives you. You know the sea shouldn’t be tipped but the room you’re sitting in doesn’t feel tipped. It wasn’t like we were sliding across the floor or anything.”

  “Probably because it happened so slowly.”

  “Maybe.” She turned to him, smiling. “I was trying to get a fix on just what I was seeing and why, when the captain announced that we were listing to port because of the wind, not to worry, they were moving ballast to level us out but it would take time. Then he said it would be wise for all of us to get to our staterooms as the seas were growing rougher.”

  She shook her head a little. “I think most people already had, because we started heading down and didn’t run into anyone. But what I most noticed was that once we left the lounge, we had to seriously cling to the railings along the corridors to keep our footing. Like everything changed suddenly.” She paused. “Of course, by then we were beginning to feel the waves.”

  “I guess so.” He had absolutely no problem imagining everything she described. “Would you ever take another cruise?”

  She surprised him by laughing aloud and spreading her arms as if to embrace the world. “Definitely. That storm was some of the most fun I had on that cruise. Twenty-two-foot waves, the TV swinging on its gimbal w
ith every rock of the ship, losing the satellite connection every few minutes... Oh, it was cool.”

  She was delightful, he thought. Totally a delight. “You didn’t get seasick?”

  “Only a bit and it went away fast. I had more trouble with seasickness going ashore on the tenders.”

  She fell into thought, and he contented himself with watching her, while his other senses remained alert to the woods around them. When she pulled up her jacket hood, leaving him with an obstructed view, he forced himself to full attention again.

  She was right about sensing the mountain. It was a massive presence, palpable if you paid attention. Maybe he was just sensing its gravity, upthrusting from the familiar pull of the ground beneath them. Warping space and time, given how huge it was. Subtly, not that much, but maybe enough to be felt by those who paid attention.

  He spoke after a bit. “Will Claudia do a complete analysis of the samples she took? I know you’re hoping she can find out why this fossil bed is so magnificent, but what about other things?”

  She turned, her hood slipping backward. “Like ore, you mean?”

  “Thinking about why anyone might be interested in this area if it’s not about the fossils, yeah, I guess that’s what I’m driving at.”

  Renee nodded. “I’m sure she will. Claudia’s thorough. Impeccable. That’s why I was so glad to get her on my team.”

  After a bit, he stood to stretch his legs and walk the perimeter again, peering into the dark shadows beneath the trees, shadows that in some places were giving way to the frigid light of the rising sliver of moon.

  Maybe he was making too much of the sensation of being watched. Maybe he was encouraging Renee to do so as well. While he had not the least doubt that the fossils she was so eager to unearth were worth a lot of money in some places, actually getting them out of the ground would take time. It wasn’t like some kind of diamond heist where someone could slip in and out.

  Nor would there be any real reason to interfere with Renee and her team that he could see. “Renee?”

  “Yes?”

  He halted and faced her across the fire. “Do a lot of people in your field know about this site?”

  “Have I staked a claim, do you mean?”

  “Something like that.”

  “Yeah, I let it be known in enough places what I’m looking at out here. I didn’t exactly hire a town crier, but people know. Why?”

  “Just wondering about claim jumpers.”

  “It wouldn’t be the first time. But we’d have to abandon this site for that to work.”

  “Okay.” Abandon the site? In other words, scare her off? Well, that might provide a motive for someone. “Don’t you guys have some sort of collegial relationship so you can all work together?”

  “Most of the time,” she answered. “There are always exceptions, but we pretty much get along. Say I needed someone’s particular expertise. He or she would lend it willingly for a mention in the papers we’ll be writing. So it’s not something I usually worry about.”

  He reached her side and squatted. “But this time is different?”

  “This site may be different. So many fossils together...it’s a big deal, Cope. Maybe. If I’m right about what’s here.”

  He nodded, raising one knee and resting his forearm on it. “I think getting past Gray Cloud might prove to be difficult for anyone who wants to shove in here.”

  “Probably so. And I feel like I’m blowing up a little thing all out of proportion. Gray Cloud’s nephews will check in from time to time. That’s more security than I’ve had at most sites.”

  “So let it go?” he asked. Although right now his mind was skipping past the things they’d discussed to something a little more chilling. What if not everyone in Gray Cloud’s tribe supported this dig? What if a group felt this was a desecration?

  “I’d like to.”

  He understood that. And more power to her if she managed it. He vowed there and then to keep his mouth shut unless something definite happened. She really didn’t need to borrow his paranoia. He had plenty to share, but he didn’t want to give it to her.

  A short while later she decided to turn in and try out her sleeping bag. He sat up, watching the fire, seeing dancing images in the flames.

  All was not well on this mountain. And the problem might lie with the very people who had invited Renee.

  * * *

  Hundreds of miles away, Caron Broadus sat at his desk in the executive suite of Broadus Oil. From the large triple-paned windows, he had a distant view of the Bakken oil fields, of the natural gas flares burning from the tops, lighting the night with the promise of power. Now the oil companies needed to tap those flares because natural gas was worth more than the crude coming out of the ground.

  Broadus didn’t care. He’d pulled what he wanted out of the hundreds of square miles of drilling and was thinking about moving on. He saw a different kind of “peak oil” on its way, and it was time to diversify.

  Electronics and solar power had garnered his attention. He had engineers and accountants working on the financial prospects of both areas. He could, however, corner an important market in the world of electronics with just one mineral, one rare earth that was truly rare. He’d found it.

  The only problem was that the land was owned by Native Americans and there was now a major fossil find on the land. It struck him as totally wrong that some ancient bones could get in his way. The earth was full of bounty needed for human life and progress. Nothing should stand in the way, and certainly not the bones of something that had died sixty-five million years ago.

  Tribes he could handle. They could always be handled. But museum pieces?

  There were some people who needed to be scared off, and others who needed to be legally pushed off. That’s what he had lawyers for, as well as some muscle. A combination of both should do the trick.

  But for now he still hadn’t firmly made up his mind. Turning a paper clip absently between his fingers, he stared out at the fire-punctuated night, waiting. His ducks were already being lined up whichever way he chose to go.

  But he still needed the results of the tests on the ground involved. Rare earths weren’t rare—about like copper for the most part. But there was one that was rare indeed, and essential to a lot of electronics. Earlier testing had given him hints that it was there, but he needed to know for certain.

  Because he was going to stir up a hornet’s nest no matter how quiet he tried to be about this. One way or another, some folks were going to be furious. Like that Gray Cloud character.

  Guardian of the Mountain? God, these people needed to step into the modern century. Too bad if he was going to have to shove them into it. It was high time.

  And he did have some allies within the tribe, sensible men and women who could see the advantages to having some money to share around and improve their lot. The fossils wouldn’t do that for them. No way. They might just get that sacred mountain trampled by curiosity seekers.

  Unlike him. He usually tried to put things back the way he’d found them. As much as he could, anyway. The tailings ponds? Time would manage them. Time managed most things.

  Which was why he was a patient man. He’d get rid of those paleontologists and clear his path once everything was ready.

  Not that hard, after all. If his luck held, no one would die.

  He preferred clean victories, but he’d take them any way they came.

  Chapter 6

  Ten days later work on the site was in full swing. Each day brought more discoveries, whether from the rubble down below by the creek, or above from the wall and crumbled rock on which they stood.

  When lunchtime came, Renee sat on a rock facing the egg she was still gently easing free, her mind already writing abstracts for the various papers that could come out of these discoveries. Work had consumed her once again, every
thing else forgotten. She figured she wasn’t very good company unless someone wanted to talk shop, but that’s the way she’d always been. She unwrapped her peanut butter sandwich from the waxed paper and took a bite, still amazed by the incredible egg, as amazed as she had been the first time she saw it. A baby dinosaur was emerging bit by bit, arrested at a significant point in its development by whatever catastrophe had buried all these bones. Around it more eggs were emerging, and the very first signs of an adult or juvenile of the presumed species.

  She just wished the report on Claudia’s samples would come soon, with answers to the mystery of what tragic fate had befallen all these animals.

  Denise dropped down beside her with her own lunch. Glancing at her, Renee laughed.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “You’re covered with dust. I guess I must be, too. I only rinsed my hands at the water jug.”

  Denise grinned. “As long as I’m not covered with enough dirt to plant with corn, I’ll be fine.”

  The nights were still chilly, so the day ended with a quick, fully-clothed dip in the icy stream below and a race down the hill to the fire. Somehow Cope always arrived first and quickly got a good blaze going. They shivered together and laughed as they dried out, quite rapidly because the mountain air was nearly bone dry, and waited for the coffee and tea to warm them up again.

  On the weekend, they broke up into two teams, one for Saturday and one for Sunday, and hit the showers at the truck stop just outside Conard City. God, what a luxury that was. All the hot water you could ask for.

  But right now she was covered head to toe in light gray dust. A rinse of her hands and a swipe at her mouth had been her only concession to hygiene.

  “Do you feel ladylike?” she asked Denise.

  That brought a full-throated laugh from the woman. “Really? My family tried. They couldn’t stop me from climbing trees and joining the hockey team.”

  It was Renee’s turn to laugh. “I was a bookworm. They always pushed me to go outside and play. When I couldn’t escape it, I spent my time digging and scraping away at the side of a hill.”