Her da got out another black box from his pack and began to attach it to the next spool of wire. “I’m sorry about all this, Kiribati. You’ll be able to rest in a bit, but right now we have to get this fence up.”
“I don’t want a fence,” said Kiri. “How am I supposed to get to the beach if there’s a fence in the way?”
“You won’t,” said her da. “Not anymore. It’s not safe for you to go to the beach anymore.”
Kiri stiffened, struck by her father’s reply. “Not ever? Are you saying I can’t ever go back to the beach?”
Her da brushed his hair from his face with a gloved hand. “I don’t know, Kiribati. Maybe, once I catch the panther, I’ll be able to patch things up with the villagers and then we can take down the fence. But right now this is the only way to save the panther.”
“Save it?” Kiri frowned. “How’s a fence going to save it? You’re just like Charro and the others. You just want to trap it and trade it for whatever you can get.”
“No, Kiribati, that’s not it at all. I’m putting up this fence to protect the panther from them. You know what will happen if they catch it. You saw what they did to the sea turtle.”
Kiri pictured the magnificent sea turtle butchered on the beach. If Charro and the others caught the panther, they would probably kill it and sell it, and she didn’t want that to happen. But what her da was doing didn’t seem all that different to her. “What happens once you catch it?” she asked. “Aren’t going to trade it to the wallers? Isn’t that why they sent you all these supplies?”
“Yes,” admitted her da. “Right now, the wallers are the only ones who can protect the panther. They’ll keep it safe. They might even be able to breed it with similar subspecies. Preserving a species like this is worth more than anything the fugees could trade for it. It’s worth more than the whole village, even, because once a species is lost, it’s gone forever.” He glanced at the sea-grape tunnels that led to the village. “We have to finish this fence.”
Kiri looked back at the long web of razor-sharp wire separating the forest from the beach. The hot, claustrophobic feeling gnawed at her. It didn’t feel right to divide the land like this. And it didn’t feel right to trap the panther, either. It belonged here.
“Kiribati, if we don’t get this fence up before the netters return, it’s not just the panther that will be in danger.”
Something about his voice unsettled Kiri. She searched her father’s face, but he didn’t smile or try to reassure her. Instead, he gave her a hard, steady look that sent chills down her spine.
All her life her da had tried to protect her from the harsh realities of where they lived. He’d shrugged off the risks of snakes, gators, fire ants, and scav attacks, dismissing every dangerous thing like it was just an obstacle in a game they could win if they were only clever enough. And so she’d learned to do the same, jumping gators and fire ant mounds, and nudging snakes aside with a stick. But now her da was doing the opposite, trying to get her to see the danger they were in.
If Charro and the others crossed before the fence could be completed, they wouldn’t just scuffle with her da and spit words at him. Not after he’d shot at Senek. They’d attack and force both her and her da to leave. Or worse.
Instinctively, Kiri reached for the knife at her belt. Touching it gave her courage. She was careful to keep it hidden under her shirt, though. She didn’t want her da to see the knife and ask how she’d gotten it.
“We need to be brave,” said her da. “And we need to hurry. Can you do that for me?”
Kiri swallowed the sick feeling in her throat. She still didn’t want to put up the fence, but what other choice did she have?
“Okay,” she muttered.
“Good. Now stand back so I can activate the sections we’ve put up. That way, no one will stumble into the spider steel and get hurt.” He pulled a palm-sized controller from his pack and entered a code into it.
Nothing about the sections they’d put up looked different to Kiri, but she heard a high, quiet hum. And when she reached toward the closest wire, the tiny hairs on her arm stood on end.
“Careful,” said her da. “The field goes out on both sides.”
He picked up a stick to demonstrate. As the end of the stick neared the spider steel, the buzzing increased and the air crackled. Martin jerked his hand back, dropping the stick. “See?” He clenched his fist and grimaced. “No one will be able to get close enough to touch the wires. Let’s go. We’ve got five more spools to put up.”
Kiri took the next spool and continued north, uncoiling wire around the cabbage palms and dead pines of the ghost forest. Some of the ruins were large and hard to navigate. Her da told her to stick to the beach side so as much land as possible could be included on their side. When giving directions, Martin didn’t sound at all like his normal, distracted self. Ever since he’d seen the paw print in the mud, he’d been more driven and decisive. He truly believed he was saving the panther.
It suddenly seemed clear to Kiri how people could be good and still be set against each other. Her da wasn’t bad, and neither were the fugees. They just wanted different things. Her da wanted to catch the panther and send it to the wallers so it could be protected. And Charro and the other fugees wanted to trap the panther and sell it for food, medicine, fishing equipment, and other things that they needed to survive and protect their families. They were both trying to do what they believed was best.
What about me? thought Kiri. She didn’t agree with the fugees or the wallers. What do I want?
She wanted to be able to run freely from the swamp to the beach. And she wanted to be welcome in the village again. She wanted to be whole, and not divided like she was now. Kiri recalled the sense of connection she’d felt when the panther had looked at her—a connection that had brought her mother back to her. She wanted to know her mother and feel that she belonged somewhere.
But all these wants seemed impossible now. Like the panther, she was trapped between two hostile sides while the space she had left to live in became smaller and smaller.
Kiri and her da worked deep into the night, until the fence stretched from the red mangroves to the south, up the edge of the ghost forest for miles, then inland to where the cypress swamp gave way to the mud lake.
“That should do it,” said Martin once the wire was attached to the farthest power box and the last section had been activated. “Let’s go home.”
Kiri was so tired she could barely stand. Her da took her hand and lifted her over some of the mud pits and swamp channels on the way back to the stilt house. She couldn’t wait to finally have some food and a bed to sleep in. But after what they’d done, severing the forest from the beach, she didn’t think of it as her home anymore.
She didn’t feel like she had a home anymore.
It can’t be true.
That’s what Kiri thought when she woke the next morning. The waller tridrone, her da shooting at the fugees, the fence cutting her off from the beach—it all had to be a nightmare.
But when she finally climbed out of bed and saw the mess of boxes and equipment in the main room of the stilt house, her hopes plummeted. An assortment of wires, spark panels, and vid eyes cluttered the kitchen counters and floor. Her da must have been awake for a while, setting up more equipment.
On the kitchen table sat a vid screen connected by a thick cord to a black box with several green and red lights on it.
Kiri turned on the screen. The image that came up was like a checkerboard. There were nine vid images, each showing different parts of the ghost forest or the swamp. Three of the images were labeled Trap 1, Trap 2, and Trap 3. The rest were simply given numbers from 1 to 6. Kiri realized the box connected to the vid screen must have been getting signals from different vid eyes out in the field. As she watched, her da moved across the image labeled Trap 3. He set palm fronds over a large metal cage to hide it from view.
She recognized the area where he was working. It was south, near the mang
rove swamp. The other two traps looked to be farther north—one near where she’d encountered the panther, and the other by the northern ruins.
The thought of there being three panther traps already set up made her stomach quiver. Kiri turned off the vid screen and went to the rain basin for a glass of water. Then she dug through the food cabinet. There wasn’t much to eat other than the bland waller powder her da got when he sold specimens to the city. She scooped out a cup, stirred it into her glass, and tried to gulp it down, but she was too upset to eat. She couldn’t stop her thoughts from churning over what her da had done, and what she’d done by helping him.
Setting her breakfast aside, she grabbed a handful of palm nuts from the cabinet and climbed back to the loft to feed Snowflake. He cracked the nuts open and gingerly nibbled on the insides, not the least bit concerned about what had happened the night before or what might happen now.
“You’re right, Snowflake,” said Kiri. “No good will come from sitting here and worrying. I have to do something.”
Snowflake cocked his head. He seemed perfectly content to sit inside all day and munch palm nuts. But when she pulled on her hoodie and started down the ladder, he dropped the nut he’d been chewing and hopped toward her. Hold on, he seemed to say. You’re not leaving me behind again.
“You probably don’t want to come with me,” she told him. “Things could get bumpy.”
Snowflake leaned off the edge by the ladder and nudged her hand, insistent.
“I know you’re tough,” she said. “It’s just, everything’s different now. We might not be able to get to the beach anymore, and if we’re caught trying we could get in big trouble.”
Snowflake stood on his hind legs and grabbed her shirt with his tiny paws. Kiri couldn’t help smiling a little. “All right, you goof nut. You win. I’ll take you with me.”
She held open her hood and Snowflake climbed in. He snuffled loudly as he arranged a spot for himself.
Once outside, Kiri set off for the coast. Snowflake held on to her collar, looking over her shoulder like he normally did when they went to the beach. The little rat didn’t seem the least bit worried about the fence, or fugees hating them, or Martin getting upset. His simple optimism spurred Kiri on and gave her hope. The more she walked, the better she felt.
“Things can’t be that bad,” she said. “You can’t fence off the whole coast forever. There has to be a way to fix this. A way to make things go back to normal.”
She kept chattering to Snowflake as she walked, until the beginnings of a plan took shape in her head—a vague outline for how she might get her da and the fugees to listen to her and get along again. It was risky, and her da would be furious if he found out what she planned on doing, but it seemed possible. She didn’t think she could do it all alone, though, so she needed to find a way to cross the fence.
By the time Kiri reached the dead pines near the edge of the ghost forest, she was in a much better mood. From here, it wasn’t very far to the sea-grape tunnels that led to the dunes, and once she reached the dunes, she’d be able to see the ocean waves breaking among the offshore tower ruins, same as always.
Kiri hurried toward the path. A high-pitched hum tickled her ears. Soon her skin prickled and her teeth buzzed, but she pressed on. Suddenly, the muscles in her legs convulsed. With a shout, she fell back.
Looking up, she glimpsed a thread of spider steel glistening in the late-morning light. The electric field around it must have repelled her. Kiri swallowed, determined to find a way across. She walked parallel to the fence for several hundred paces, but every time she approached the wire web her muscles twitched painfully and she had to move back. Even though the fence was barely visible, it felt as high and impenetrable as the walls surrounding a city.
The buzz of the fence started to give her a headache. Snowflake didn’t seem to like it much, either. He turned frantically in her hood and shivered.
“Okay, okay,” she said, when Snowflake started to squeak. “I won’t walk into it again. But I’m not giving up.”
She paced up and down the fence line. Every hundred yards or so, the nearly invisible metal threads went up to a black box nailed to the trunk of a tree. She wouldn’t be able to get close to the boxes, though, without getting shocked.
Kiri noticed that her da had attached spark panels to some of the boxes. The panels hadn’t been there the night before, so there must be a way to shut off the fence and reach them. She spied small black boxes strapped to the branches of a few trees too. They were probably some of the vid eyes sending images to the screen in their kitchen. Her da must have gotten up early to do all this. Or he hadn’t slept.
It was on her third pass that Kiri spied a figure moving through the woods on the far side of the fence.
She crouched behind a cluster of saw palms, afraid of what might happen if a fugee spotted her. The figure stopped several feet from the fence and threw a stick at it, but the stick just bounced off the wire. Spider steel would cut through a whole tree before it snapped.
The figure continued north, parallel to the fence line. That’s when Kiri was able to make out the figure’s skinny arms and floppy hair. Paulo!
She wanted to shout to him, but she stopped herself. What if other fugees were around and they heard? Besides, Paulo might hate her now. She’d feel worse than a gutted fish if he looked at her the way Senek had after her da shot at him.
Paulo was getting farther away and harder to see. Kiri’s pulse skipped. This might be her only chance to talk to him. She picked up a rock and lobbed it over the fence.
The rock thumped to the ground a few feet behind Paulo. He paused and cocked his head.
Kiri threw another rock, only this time she made it land closer to the fence. Then she threw another and another, each time landing them closer to where she was hiding. Paulo took the hint and walked toward the saw palms.
He stopped abruptly, probably sensing the buzz of the fence. “Who’s there?” he asked, staring at a thick curtain of kudzu vines.
Kiri threw another stone, but Paulo kept looking at the wrong area.
“Not there! Here!” she finally said, rustling some nearby saw palm leaves.
“Kiri?” Paulo stepped closer to where she was—or at least as close as he could get without being shocked by the fence. Then he glanced back at the sea-grape tunnels. There must have been others in the area. “Keep your voice down,” he said, crouching low. He didn’t sound angry or upset. Nervous, but not upset.
“I’m glad you’re here,” said Kiri.
Paulo shrugged. “I didn’t believe it at first. I had to come see it for myself.” He frowned at the fence. “This is bad, Kiri.”
“I know.”
“My da said your da tried to kill Senek,” continued Paulo. “He’s raging mad. Everyone in the village is.”
“He didn’t try to kill Senek,” said Kiri. “He was just warning him to stay back.” But she knew, even as she said it, that it made little difference. Her da had clearly threatened Senek. He’d threatened all the fugees by pointing the rifle at them, and by putting up the fence.
“Two fugees from the village walked into the fence this morning,” said Paulo. “Tae walked into it, too. They all got shocked. Tae says his arm’s still buzzing.”
“They should have paid attention to the warning signs.”
“They don’t read,” said Paulo. “Neither do I. You know that.”
“The signs have pictures on them,” replied Kiri, wondering why she was being so defensive. This wasn’t how she thought talking to Paulo would go. Already, they were arguing. It was one thing to be stuck on different sides of a fence, and quite another to fight about it. “Anyhow, I don’t want the fence to be here any more than you do,” she said.
“Then why’d you help your da build it?”
“I didn’t have a choice. Fugees were coming after us.”
“Wallers always build fences,” said Paulo. He sounded like his father.
“I’m not a
waller. I’ll never be a waller.”
“The fence says otherwise.”
Kiri bristled. “I hate it just as much as you do. Watch. I’ll prove it.”
“How?”
“You’ll see.” Kiri took a stick and carved the end into a flat wedge, like the tip of the screwdriver her da had used the night before when he’d set up the boxes. There must be an off switch. The only place she thought it could be was inside the hole at the top right corner.
Once she had the tip of the stick shaped right, Kiri reached toward the nearest box nailed to a tree. The buzzing intensified, making her teeth chatter and her hair stand on end. Snowflake squeaked and turned in her hood.
“All right, Snowflake, you baby.” She reached into her hood and set the rat on the ground. Immediately, he scurried away from the fence. Then he sat back on his haunches and scratched his ears while watching Kiri out of the corner of one eye, as if he thought she was crazy.
“Nothing worth doing is ever easy,” said Kiri. It was one of her da’s favorite sayings—something he said before wading into muck or climbing a thorn tree to collect a specimen.
She pushed her tangled hair back and edged closer to the fence to try again with the stick.
Snowflake squeaked at her. “I’ll be okay,” she said, speaking to calm herself as much as him. She gritted her teeth and tried to poke the end of the stick into the hole in the black box. The buzzing shot up her arm and her muscles twitched uncontrollably. After a few seconds she had to drop the stick and jump back.
“You need gloves,” said Paulo.
Kiri looked around. She didn’t have gloves, but maybe something else would work.
Her sandals! The bottoms were thick tire rubber, and according to her da, rubber was a great spark stopper.
She slid her sandals off and tried to hold the stick with them. It was awkward and painful, but she finally managed to push the stick into the slot and turn it. With a faint click the buzzing stopped.
“Jumping jellies,” said Paulo. “It’s off.”
“Just this section. The others are powered by different boxes,” replied Kiri.
The Last Panther Page 6
