“Her eyes had adjusted,” Matt says.
Mandi shakes her head. “No. It was more than that. It was . . . weird.”
“She’s right,” I say. They’re seeing what I’ve only, within the last few minutes, been suspecting myself. “And it’s more than that. When you came in, Matt, I was asleep, but I knew you were in there. You know how they say that cats can sleep with one eye open. Well, that’s kind of the way it was. I was asleep but a part of my brain was listening to my surroundings. When you came in, and later, Mandi, I could see you both as plain as day, not at first understanding why you couldn’t see me.”
Matt says, “I remember when Sam gave your dad and me the night vision goggles. We asked her what she was going to use. She said she didn’t need anything.”
“Exactly. And my hearing.” I point over my left shoulder. “In a tree about fifty yards that way is a squirrel sitting on a limb gnawing on an acorn. He’s dropping little pieces. I can hear them hit the ground. I can hear the gnawing.” I look at Sharon. “Your heart is beating very fast; I can hear it.”
Sharon stands, turns and takes seven steps. I count them. She stops and turns back. “Oh . . . my . . . God!”
“You didn’t tell me about this,” Mandi says. She’s irritated.
“I wasn’t aware of it until just this minute, so don’t go getting on my ass. You figured it out before I did.”
“Oh my God,” Sharon says again. “You’re a . . .”
“Cat woman,” Matt finishes for her.
“Humph!” Mandi snorts.
“A sabre-toothed cat woman,” Matt adds.
“I’m not growing long teeth.”
“How do you know?”
“I’d feel them.” I bare my teeth. “Do any of them look longer than the others?”
“Reba Price, Cat Woman,” Matt says. “Teeth or no teeth.”
At the end of a long, contemplative silence, I say, “So, what’s your plan?”
Sharon returns her butt to the rock. “Since they no longer have Mandi, there’s nothing stopping us from taking the cats back.”
“They have guns.”
“We create a diversion.”
“And then what? Roma and Vadik are a little heavy to be carried away.”
“The success of my idea kind of depends on the strength of the drug they used. I have something with me that may be able to counteract it. Think of it as a shot of adrenaline.”
“You carry this kind of stuff around with you?”
“I’m a large animal vet. I carry all kinds of things in my pack.”
“You have enough for these big cats?”
“I have stuff that’ll put down or pick up a fifteen hundred pound bull. It’s what I do,” she indicates Matt with her head, “what we do.”
I look at Matt. He nods. I carry my eyes to Mandi. She looks scared. She ought to be. She’s sitting way too close to Matt.
I make my eyes into slits at her and then rotate my head back to Sharon. “The diversion?”
“You with one of the kittens. You let them see you just long enough to get their attention. They’re not going to be able to resist a sabre-toothed kitten. When they go after you, you’ll lead them away. Then I’ll run up and inject the cats.”
“You said it may be able to counteract the sleep drug. What if it doesn’t? What’s the risk?”
“There are two risks. If what I give them is not enough then they’ll just lie there, or they may wake up but be too groggy to get up and run away, or they’ll run away but will be easily tracked and caught up with. If what I give them is too much, then . . . I don’t know. They could become unpredictable for a while, maybe attack one of us despite your control.”
I add my own assessment. “Risk three: Lester could catch me, and the kitten. Maybe shoot the kitten. Maybe shoot me. Another risk is if Lester or Sarge return and catch you. They could simply shoot you, or the cats. The helicopter already could be there with the pilot and maybe other men to help crate them.”
“We’ve not heard the helicopter.”
“What if Nadia doesn’t like the idea of one of her kittens going off on a risky little venture with me?”
“She let me pet and hold one of them.”
“Yeah! How did you do that?”
“She trusted me.”
I don’t like it . . . any of it.
“Whatever we do, we’d better get to it before the helicopter does show?” she says.
“Too much risk,” I say. “The kittens are unpredictable. I don’t have the control over them that I do the adults. As a matter of fact, I may have no control over them at all. They’re two hundred pounds of curiosity with a kitten mentality. If they see Roma and Vadik lying out in that field, they’ll probably want to go investigate. I couldn’t even physically hold them. If Nadia sees one of her kittens being threatened then she’ll come into play. I’d be risking all the cats to save two. It’s a bad idea.”
“What if . . .?”
I hold up my hand to silence her, and then stand. “It’s too late anyway.” The sound is distinctive, unmistakable. “The helicopter is coming.”
Sharon stands, and then Matt. “I don’t hear anything,” Matt says. After thirty seconds he says, “Now I hear it.”
“Me too,” his mom says.
I dash toward the trees to the right of the entrance to the mountain cave and quickly climb. It is steep, nearly vertical in some places where I use hands to pull up and around, flinging myself, almost literally, over rocks and between trees. By the time I get to where I can see across the top of the forest, the helicopter is hovering. Hanging below it are two huge crates. It begins a slow decent until I can no longer see the crates. It holds its position for a few minutes. When it rises, the cables dangle empty. It turns away and disappears around the mountain.
I head back down, meeting Matt and Mandi on the way up, huffing and puffing. Matt gives Mandi his hand to bring her up next to him and then leans heavily against a tree. “What did you see?”
“They dropped the crates and left.” I listen to his raspy breathing. “You’re out of shape.”
“I’m in the same shape I was in last summer. What have you been doing? Training for the Olympics?”
“My legs are burning,” Mandi says.
I ignore Matt and brush past Mandi as I head back down. “Serves you right,” I say to her.
“What the hell do you mean, serves me right? What is your problem all of a sudden?”
I slide to a stop twenty feet below her and Matt, and turn to face up at them. “What is with this I have a problem crap?”
“I know you’re pissed about Roma and Vadik, but it feels like you’re putting the entire blame on me. I can see it and feel it when you look at me. It’s close to hate.”
“What? Are you a psychic now?”
“I don’t have to be psychic. Matt sees it too.”
I glare at both of them, the cute little couple.
Mandi says, “I didn’t want to go into their camp, but you had to see the plaque. If you want to put the fault anywhere, put it where it belongs.”
“Yeah! It’s my fault! It’s all been my fault! It’s always been my fault!”
Then I shut my mouth and focus strictly on her mind. “Bitch!”
Her mouth drops open. I turn my back to them and quickly descend to where Sharon stands, waiting. I walk past her and then turn and start pacing. I feel like I’m going to explode out of my skin.
“What did you see?” she asks.
“One helicopter dropped two crates and left.” I execute a sharp about-face and keep pacing. Why did I call Mandi a bitch? Another sharp turn, and then another. Cause she’s a bitch. Back and forth I march, trying to understand what I’m feeling, understand what is going on, not only inside my body, but also inside my head.
It’s not her fault about Roma and Vadik. I know that. I have never blamed her for that, verbally or otherwise. Why am I treating her so bad? She is not a bitch, but . . .
&nbs
p; The two of them appear from the trees together.
She’s a bitch!
All of a sudden Sharon is standing in front of me, blocking my line of sight to Matt and Mandi. She puts her hands on my shoulders. “Reba.”
Her face comes into focus, my bad thoughts dissolve, and all of a sudden everything becomes clear. Shit to hell!
I push her hands off of me, walk around her, and pace down the twenty yards to Mandi. I’m confused by the scared look on her face. Just as I get to her, Matt steps in my way. “What’re you doing?”
“Get out of my way. I want to talk to my friend.”
“Your friend! Do you treat all your friends this way?”
If I had hackles they’d be rising right now. I reduce my eyes to slits, look directly into his and say, without moving my mouth, “Get out of my way!”
His eyebrows go up and his eyes get big. He doesn’t move. He doesn’t even act scared. He ought to. Mandi appears on his right. I turn toward her and he steps in between us again. “You’ve already hurt her enough. Back off!”
If Roma was here he’d be in big trouble. I reach for Nadia. She is unresponsive, not only due to the distance, but also due to the fact that she is engaged with her meal. My mental picture of her gnawing on the elk all of a sudden changes to one of her gnawing on Matt.
Jesus!
I step back, look away, and shake off the picture. Did I just witness the future, Matt’s approaching death?
I shake my head. No! There was no tightness, no pressure, no feeling that I’m about to throw up. What I just saw was of my own evil creation. It is not about to happen, will not happen, cannot happen.
What the hell is my problem?
I look at Matt. “I’m sorry.”
Mandi appears at his side again. I gulp down my anger, recognizing it now for what it is. I’m embarrassed . . . ashamed.
I’m jealous. I’m not sure of what. Is it of Mandi for taking Matt away from me, or of Matt for taking Mandi away from me? Matt never has been mine, and I should be happy for my best friend.
“I’m sorry,” I say to Mandi. They say nothing, just stare back at me; Matt confused and defensive, Mandi confused and angry. I look back and forth between them and say, “I’m sorry to you both,” and then before the tears become visible, turn my back to them and walk away.
Chapter 27
They’re right. I do have a problem; maybe more than one; like an entire bucket full. What is wrong with me?
I go into the cave and sit with Edik again. He is still asleep from Sharon’s drug. How long before he awakes? I run my hand over his forehead and down his broad neck, feel his muscles, his power. My hand is so small compared to him; I’m so small compared to him, yet I have the power to reach into his brain and control him. His muscle is my muscle. They are all my muscle, except for maybe the kittens, and Nadia whose entire purpose in life at this time is raising and protecting them.
What has happened to the others? I need them right now. Did they all perish on the return trip? Did they try to take a rancher’s cow and got shot and killed? That thought almost makes me sick.
“Reba.”
I look up into the glare of Sharon’s flashlight. “Go away!”
She comes closer.
“Please leave me alone. I need to be alone. I need to think.”
“Think about what? Maybe I can help you.”
“You can’t help. No one can help. I’m a total basket case and only I can climb my way out of it.”
“Let me try,” she says, and sits down next to me. She turns off the light and puts her hand on Edik, next to mine. “Isn’t he magnificent?”
“Why do you want to help? Why do you even care? You hate me.”
The surprise on her face surprises me.
“Why do you think I hate you?”
I don’t respond. Instead I watch her face, wondering if she would allow herself to be so visually evident of her thoughts if she wasn’t sitting in the dark. She forgets that I can see her as plain as day. Her mind is churning over my words. The realization of why I think she hates me shows up on her face.
“I don’t hate you. I never have. I didn’t know you; how could I have hated you?”
“I would have hated me.”
“For what?”
“For getting your husband killed.”
“Ah.” She thinks for a minute. “If when he was sheriff and he responded to a situation in which there was a hostage, and as a result he was shot and killed, should I have blamed the hostage or the shooter?”
“That’s not the same.”
“You were just doing what a teenage girl does. I used to be one. I know what it is like.”
Typical statement from a mother.
“I ran off on my adventure when I was sixteen. I lived in Missoula. I met a senior boy from Butte at a high school football game. He was everything, my universe. One Saturday morning I walked onto the interstate and hitched a ride to go see him. How stupid do you think that was?”
“No one is that stupid,” I say.
She laughs. “Well, I was. I was also lucky. The kid was a jerk. I had a shitty weekend and got home Sunday night, after hitchhiking again. My parents were going out of their minds.”
“It’s not the same.”
“Oh, I agree. Far from the same, except for the needing to chase the adventure part. You had that need and you went after it. In a way I admire you because your need transcended mine by a long shot. I did many other stupid things, but none of them had any true meaning. Boy chasing usually. You were chasing the sabre-toothed cat. There was meat to your adventure.”
Meat to my adventure? All I can do is stare at her.
“Still is,” she adds. “On top of that you have some other kind of inner need, a connection, a preordained drive to be here, to be part of them.”
“Don’t tell me you believe in that Indian thing?”
She smiles. “It’s the Blackfoot thing.” She shakes her head. “No, can’t really say I do . . . or did. I didn’t believe any part of Brian’s Grandfather’s legend until after . . .”
“After last summer.”
“Sort of. It was Matt who convinced me . . . not of believing in the legend but of believing that the cats really did exist in these mountains. I couldn’t talk him out of what he knew he saw, how you dragged him out on a stretcher behind a sabre-toothed cat. It took a while for him to convince me that he hadn’t been hallucinating. It happened when I saw them for myself.”
“You saw them? You came here?”
She nods her head. “I fought Matt about it. He said I had to see for myself, and I didn’t think he was ready to go out of the house, let alone go traipsing around in the mountains looking for sabre-toothed cats. Finally I relented and we loaded up two snowmobiles and got as close as we could. You know, by the way, that there is a way to get closer to here than by way of Sam’s old place, don’t you?”
“No.”
“It’s a long way around by vehicle, coming along the Hungry Horse Reservoir, coming in from the west. Even after the early snows we were able to get to within three miles. Today, we’re parked a mile and a half from here, near where you guys hid the four wheeler, Matt tells me.”
“Oh.”
“We came the rest of the way on the snowmobiles. Didn’t get all the way here, though. Got blocked by a creek. We didn’t have snowshoes or skis with us so we just turned off the machines and sat. Matt told me that your mother fell into the creek right there. You and your dad jumped in and saved her.”
“Yeah. She almost died.” That was the second time in as many days that she almost died. She died anyway twenty-four hours later. It was meant to be.
“We stayed there for about an hour. I had just told Matt to give it up, and had put my goggles on and my hand on the key when I looked across the creek, directly into the eyes of the biggest cat I have ever seen, with sabre teeth, I swear, as long as my forearm. One second there was nothing, and then the next, there he was, not ten yard
s away. All I remember was chills running up and down my back and Matt saying that there has to be another one, that they hunt in pairs.
“Oh, shit! was all I could think. They’re hunting? What the hell are we doing here? Feeding them? Matt said that if they remembered him, they’d probably leave us alone. I wasn’t too sure about the probably part.
“Anyway, they did. The second one showed up behind us, circled around above us and then joined the first across the creek. My goggles had fogged up and then frozen so I pulled them off to clear them. When I looked up, they were gone. I don’t necessarily believe in the legend, but after that I certainly had no problem with the cats. Matt thought that he recognized one of them, the one who dragged him out.”
“That was Roma.”
“Roma?”
“Roma is the cat that I hooked the stretcher up to. It was Roma who helped save Matt’s life, the same Roma who lies out there now waiting to be airlifted out to a zoo somewhere.”
Her head slowly swivels toward the entrance. I open my mind and let her thoughts in. She has no barrier, no shield to protect herself. She is an easy read. She has a strong loyalty. She truly doesn’t hate me. As a matter of fact she has a certain level of appreciation for my saving Matt’s life, and now she is able to direct some of that toward the actual sabre-toothed cat that assisted in it. It is her loyalty that has her here right now. She is here solely because I called Matt for help. As a matter fact, she talked Matt into coming, not the other way around. Saving Edik’s life for me is her payback. Now she wants to extend that payback to Roma. Her mind is working.
She turns back around, finds my hand and says, “Come on. Let’s get with the others and do some brainstorming. There has to be a way of saving them.”
Sharon calls Matt and Mandi over and then sits on my rock before I can get to it. Considering that she is totally on my side now, I decide to be gracious and not kick her off of it. Instead, I retrieve my pack and sit in the dirt with it. My stomach is demanding food in a big way. I reach to Nadia and see one of the kittens still gorging himself on the kill. Half of me is disgusted by the vision. Half of me wants to dig in for my share. I shake off both visions, open a trail bar and eat it as fast as I can. I open another and then, while eating that, dig down for the pack of jerky. I can’t get it open fast enough. The dried meat is tough. I rip off one piece with my teeth, and then another. I chew for a bit and then rip off another, finally stuffing the rest into my mouth. I grab two more jerky sticks and then look up. All three of them are staring at me.
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