“ME GUARD THAT woman?” Active looked across his desk at Patrick Carnaby, commander of the Alaska State Trooper post in Chukchi. “Let me explain it this way: No. That’s a Trooper job. It’s not a job for borough public safety.”
“Nathan, Nathan.” Carnaby’s face took on an expression of charitable piety. He tapped the green folder he had just dropped on the desk. “This is a marvelous opportunity, guaranteed to put you and your fledgling department on the map right out of the gate.”
Carnaby waved his coffee cup at the move-in clutter around them in what, a few weeks earlier, had been the office of the chief of police for the city of Chukchi.
Now it was the office of Nathan Active, newly appointed chief of public safety for the newly created Chukchi Regional Borough. The borough had absorbed the police functions of the city of Chukchi and acquired jurisdiction over the surrounding eleven villages in the patch of Arctic coastline, tundra, mountains, rivers, and lakes known as the Chukchi region. The borough was bigger than fifteen of the United States, and now one-time Alaska State Trooper Nathan Active was responsible for the public’s safety on every square foot of it.
“Not to mention on the evening news,” Carnaby went on. “And cable news, talk radio, the New York Times, Flitter, and—what do they call those Internet things, globs?”
“The word is blogs. And it’s Facebook or Twitter, not Flitter.”
“That’s it,” Carnaby said with a twinkle in his eye. “Twitface. Anyway, you spend a couple of days bouncing around the countryside with our gorgeous governor in Cowboy’s Cessna and you’ll be an international celebrity. Your face will be on the cover of People Magazine right beside hers.”
“Not so much,” Active said. “The media don’t follow her around like they used to. She only makes national news when she does something ridiculous and the papers here find out and it blows up. Remember when her limo hit the cat and the Juneau paper reported it and PETA got all over her?”
Carnaby chuckled. “Admittedly, her last try at national office was unfortunate. How many countries did she want to invade?”
Active shrugged. “I lost count.”
“So did she, I suspect,” Carnaby said. “The point is, she’s determined to fight her way back into the headlines. Helen Mercer does not know the meaning of the word ‘quit.’”
“Or ‘mercy,’ either, from what I hear,” Active said.
Carnaby nodded. “When she played high-school ball here—well, that’s when they started calling her Helen Wheels. Which takes us back to you, young man. You really want to stand in her way?”
“I just wanna dodge this bullet.”
“Coming home to Chukchi to watch her husband win the Isignaq 400 is part of her master comeback strategy.” Carnaby patted the green folder again. “You help the governor show herself heroically braving the Arctic skies in a tiny Bush plane while playing the loyal spouse and you get yourself not only her undying gratitude but, what, at least ninety seconds on Fox News? “
“Coming home? Ha. How long since she really lived here?”
Carnaby waved a hand in dismissal. “Granted, it’s been some years since she graduated from mayor to the state legislature and then to the governor’s mansion. But there’s no place like home and now she’s back and she wants you to watch her body.”
“All right, let me explain it a different way,” Active said. “No chance, no hope, and no thanks. It’s a suicide mission and we both know it. My plan is to avoid her presence, cross my fingers, and hope she gets out of town safely. I’ve got all I can do right here in Chukchi trying to keep the lid on till the race is over, anyway. Plus, I need to go up to Katonak on the honeybucket murder—”
“Honeybucket murder? Do I know about this one?”
“No reason you should, I guess. Only happened last night and the guy turned himself in already. Apparently he and a buddy got into a fight over the ownership of an Igloo cooler full of homebrew, the honeybucket got kicked over in the fight and then there was another fight over that. And when the first guy woke up and saw his buddy dead, he staggered over to my village safety officer’s house and turned himself in. Actually, he said he was sorry and begged my guy to shoot him, but all he got was arrested. And now I have to bring him down here.”
Carnaby waved it off. “Let Alan go. Or have the safety officer bring him down. Sounds open-and-shut.”
Active shook his head. “Thanks, but, I still gotta pass on this one. I want to check in with my safety officer up there and ask a few questions before I button it up.”
“You may not exactly have a choice. She—” The door banged open and Carnaby jumped out of his chair. “Why, here she is now! Welcome home, Governor, this is Chief Active. Nathan, have you met our governor?”
Active masked his astonishment as she swept into the room, complete with the scarlet Helly-Hansen parka, the rectangle glasses, the weapons-grade cheekbones, and a cloud of the famous perfume, though he couldn’t remember what it was called. And the calf-length high-heel boots—what was the brand? Something weird and a little suggestive, if he remembered.
She crossed the office, hand out. He rose without conscious effort and his hand met hers of its own accord.
“Chief Active.” She shook his hand and held it a moment longer than necessary. “What a pleasure!”
Active stifled simultaneous impulses to ask why, and to punch Carnaby in the face. “The pleasure’s all mine, Governor,” he managed.
“Good to see you again, Governor.” Carnaby put out his hand. Mercer turned her head away. The Trooper captain gave a slight eye roll. “Governor, I was just—”
Mercer shot him a frown and he shut up. Carnaby retreated to the only other chair in the office, which was against the back wall. She took his seat in front of Active’s desk.
“Sit, Nathan, sit, we need to talk. We haven’t met yet, right?”
Active dropped into his own chair behind the desk. “No, ma’am, you were already governor when I got here and—”
“I know, I know, I’m not home nearly as much as I’d like to be. It’s so hard to do that, now, much as I love my Chukchi and I guess…well, our paths just haven’t crossed.”
“Has Captain Carnaby told you how much I need you?”
“He was just starting to exp—”
“Yes, I want you for my bodyguard while I fly the Isignaq 400 and cheer my husband on for the next couple days.”
Active gave Carnaby a fast look. The trooper threw up his hands in the international symbol for bureaucratic surrender.
“But, Governor, I think you’ll be perfectly safe in Chukchi and the villages. And, anyway, don’t the troopers usually—”
He froze at Mercer’s look. Too late, he noticed Carnaby’s grimace and warning head shake from behind the governor.
“I will not have a trooper anywhere near me.” Mercer swung on Carnaby. His expression dissolved into bland impassivity. She turned back to Active. “The last one was guarding my body, all right. Especially my butt when I climbed the stairs to my office. I sent him back to Juneau this morning.”
Behind her, Carnaby circled his ear with a fingertip.
“Of course my department will be happy to help in any way possible, Governor.” Active snapped his fingers. “In fact, one of our officers, Alan Long, was born in a fish camp up the Isignaq and I’m sure he’d be only too happy—”
“No.”
“I’m sorry?”
“I don’t want Alan Long. I want you.”
“Me?”
“Posilutely.” She nodded and gave him the smile made famous on her campaign posters and book covers. “So we’re all set!”
He shot another quick glance at Carnaby, who winked.
“May I ask how you chose me for this honor? I had no idea you were even aware—”
“Oh, I’m very aware of you, Nathan. I still have my sources here. You can take the girl out of the village, but you can’t take the village out of the girl, am I right?”
“So they say.”
“To be exact, I was very impressed by your interview with Roger Kennelly on Kay-Chuck the other night.”
“You pick up Chukchi public radio in Juneau? I didn’t know—”
“They stream it on the Internet, duh! Modern times, Nathan.”
“Of course, what was I thinking?” He slapped his forehead, as she seemed to expect.
She shot him another grin. “I liked what I heard about your ideas for the new department you’re creating here. I liked it very much. So much so that I’ve suggested to our commissioner of public safety that you might make a good director of state troopers in Anchorage the next time the job opens up. Which I anticipate will be soon.”
Active rubbed his eyes. “Director of the Alaska State Troopers.” He gave Carnaby a vengeful look. “Meaning I’d be Captain Carnaby’s supervisor?”
Carnaby shuddered behind Mercer’s back.
“Come to think of it, you would!” She shot Carnaby another blood-freezing glare, then turned back to Active with an expectant air.
“It’s a great honor, Governor, but—”
“Suka.”
“I’m sorry?”
“Please. Call me Suka. That was my nickname when I played basketball here. It comes from the Eskimo word for ‘fast’ and it’s what my friends use.” She leaned across the desk and touched his forearm. “I hope you’ll be my friend now?”
“Of course, Gov—er, Suka. But there’s so much I need to do here.” He waved at the litter of file boxes and office equipment on his floor. “I just took over. We’re still getting moved in.”
Mercer glanced at the clutter and sighed. “The director’s job can wait, I suppose. But when you’re ready, you just let me know.”
“Of course, Governor. Of course.”
“And, meantime, you’ll be my bodyguard for the race?” She widened her eyes and waited. “You have a reputation as a guy who won’t back off, no matter what. That’s exactly what I want if things go sideways out there, right?” She waited some more. “Look, Nathan, I, that is, the state, of course, we do fund over half your department’s budget, right? And this seems like such a small thing to ask. You know, as one friend to another.”
Active faked a delighted grin. “Of course, Suka. Absolutely. Your wish is my command.”
She nodded with a gratified look. “Now, where was I? Oh, yes, your interview on Kay-Chuck. That network of women’s centers you and Grace Palmer want to set up around the region? I am totally in support of women’s rights, other than contraception for girls, of course, and abortion. But if you need an additional appropriation, just let me—well, here.” She scribbled something on a business card and handed it to him. “That’s my personal cell number. You call me absolutely any time you need absolutely anything.” She touched his arm again. “Anything at all, any time at all. You’ve got a friend in Juneau, Nathan. A true friend? Okay?”
Active nodded.
Mercer rose and swung on Carnaby, who let his game face slip a little under the pressure. “You have the information my staff emailed up?”
Carnaby pointed at the green folder on the desk. “I printed it all out.”
“And you’ll brief Chief Active on my schedule and make sure he has all the state resources he needs?”
Carnaby nodded again and started out of his chair.
“No! Don’t get up!”
Carnaby sank back down.
Mercer turned back to Active. “Nathan, great to finally meetcha, I can’t wait to fly the race with you and watch Brad win his third Isignaq 400! My staff arrives on the noon jet tomorrow. We’ll meet them and get organized, and then we’ll be off up the river with the legendary Cowboy Decker. Brad should hit Isignaq tomorrow afternoon to give his dogs their last mandatory rest stop, and cross the finish line here in Chukchi the day after, so we should be out for just the one night and two days. All good, Chief Active?” She snapped him a mock salute.
To his shock, he found himself picturing her in a tight sailor suit, the blouse open except for a knot at her bellybutton. Christ, what was this mojo she had? “All good, Suka,” he said.
She wheeled and swept out of the office in another cloud of perfume. Active and Carnaby listened as her footsteps clacked down the hall. After a few seconds, Carnaby rose and peered after her.
“She gone?”
“Gone.” Carnaby dropped into the chair before Active’s desk and let out an exhausted breath.
Active waved the business card at him. “And I have her personal cell number.”
“Not my circus, not my monkeys,” Carnaby said. “Not any more.”