Sarah lunged at Chuck. Randall and Kaifong dove atop her, trapping her in the bottom of their raft.
Chuck raised his head from the gun’s sights. As intended, the shot had passed well above the head of the alpha and ricocheted off the surface of the river and into the trees. The result was what he’d hoped. The wolf turned and swam back to the far shore, where she emerged, dripping, on the muddy riverbank. She yipped at her pack mates lining the bank, and the six wolves trotted up the slope, away from the river’s edge. The rain, sheeting from the sky, blurred the wolves’ departure until they disappeared into the forest.
Onshore, Chuck emptied the gun of its bullets and gave them to Toby, then broke the gun in two and handed the pieces to him as well.
“Thank your dad for me,” Chuck told him.
Sarah confronted Chuck. “You could have killed her. She was just curious.”
“I shot above her, to keep her from crossing to our side of the river.”
Sarah pounced. “Our side? Both sides of the river are the wolves’ side. The whole park is theirs.” She aimed a finger at Chuck’s chest. “Clarence is right. You’re so old-school. First thing you do when you get a little scared is go for a gun.” Her eyes burned into him. “You just had to bring your little girls along with you, didn’t you? And now you’re just like every other creature out here in the wild, willing to do anything to protect your young.”
Chuck rocked back on his heels. Sarah’s words stung—because she was right. He turned away and squinted across the river. Pinpricks of yellow glowed through the rain from the shadowed forest on the opposite slope. The wolves hadn’t retreated far. He climbed the slick riverbank to Janelle. “Hanging in there?” he asked.
Her wet cheeks were crimson in the cool air, her hazel eyes bright with determination. “I know we signed up for this,” she said. “But still.”
The girls huddled beside her in their raincoats, water dripping from their hoods. Chuck took their hands and turned them toward camp. The rain slowed, then stopped, as they made their way through the woods.
Back at the cabin, Lex called for an all-teams meeting as soon as everyone changed into dry clothes.
Disquiet rippled through camp with the return of the group. The members of the Grizzly Initiative huddled around Sarah on one of their platforms as she filled them in. At the other end of tent row, Toby addressed the gathered wolfies. Between the two large teams, Randall and Kaifong visited on their platform with members of the geology and meteorology teams, while Keith squatted in front of his tent, checking Chance’s paw pads for injury.
Chuck took in the view to the north from tent row. The clouds remained low and dark. The wind continued to slice across the valley. Thunder rumbled over the lake, a sea of shadowed gray.
Behind him, Carmelita and Rosie chattered in the tent, comparing the Stander wolves to their grandparents’ Labrador retriever, as Janelle helped them out of their wet clothes. Rather than head for his own small tent, Clarence lingered beside Chuck.
He hung his head as he spoke, his voice low. “You’re not paying me enough for this.”
“The bear did what it was supposed to do. It stopped.”
“It scared the crap out of me is what it did.”
“Me, too.”
“You were half a mile away.” Clarence raised his head and looked into the distance. “It was so big. The smell of its breath, Dios mio, like something rotten. They look so sleek and clean in the pictures. But up close? Its legs were caked with mud. It had a big scar on its nose. A couple of claws were broken off its front paws. And its teeth? Like a T-Rex. When it roared, it was all I could do to keep from running.”
“You sprayed your pepper spray along with everyone else. You did everything right—even if the wind screwed it up.”
“Did you see the wound on the side of the dead wolf? Its ribs were snapped right in two.”
“It definitely looks like the bear killed it. But the question is, why? They were hanging around together. It was like they were friends.”
Clarence closed his eyes. “I’m not sure any grizzly has friends.”
Lex came into sight around the corner of the mess tent. He spotted Chuck and hurried up the slope toward him, waving for him to descend.
“The satellite phone,” Lex said when they met on the hillside. “Our link to the outside world.”
“What about it?”
“It’s gone.”