Mountain Fire Page 5

  “Are you sure?”

  “I’m taking the ’copter. I can pick you up on my way to the airport.”

  “I’ll be ready.”

  She packed her small rucksack with bottled water, granola bars, extra socks, and a polar fleece. Then she dressed in heavy cotton pants and short sleeved T-shirt under a light wind breaker. Pulling on thick socks, she thrust her feet into sturdy hiking boots. She was waiting on the sidewalk when Alex drove up. He unlocked the door, and she hopped in.

  He was wearing his uniform, and looked sexily official, especially with the aviator glasses hiding his eyes. “So, where exactly are we going?” she asked.

  “The supervisor of a tree planting crew gave me the coordinates from his GPS. This carcass was found about three miles from the other, as the crow flies.” He changed lanes to pass a lumbering motor-home with Texas plates. They crossed the Yellowhead Bridge over the Fraser River.

  “Could it be the same poacher?”

  “It’s certainly possible.”

  When they arrived at the airport, Alex parked next to a yellow, metal sided building. He unlocked the padlock securing a gate in the chain-link fence, and they carried their bags to the helicopter sitting on the tarmac.

  “You can stow your stuff in here.” He opened a small panel and moved aside to let her slide her pack in. “You can get in the other side while I do my checks.”

  The dash was a maze of instruments, some of which seemed fairly straightforward, others whose function she couldn’t even guess at. A headset hung on a hook by her head. She put it on and adjusted the fit. Alex swung into the pilot’s seat, put on his headset, flicked switches, and twiddled knobs. The rotors started to spin, gradually picking up speed. Vibrations hummed through the hull.

  After receiving permission from the tower, Alex began manipulating the two hand levers. The helicopter broke away from the ground with a small jerk. It was an odd feeling. Instead of the pressure she’d experienced in an airplane, which pushed passengers back into the seat, the sudden vertical lift gave the odd sensation of compressing her spine. She forced herself to sit up straighter.

  The nose dipped toward the ground and they floated forward. Through the plexiglass bottom of the bubble the pavement slipped away underneath her feet. They rose higher in the air, leaving the cluster of buildings behind, and negotiated a range of small hills studded with microwave and cellular towers.

  Alex controlled the craft using both hands and feet, his movements deft and sure. Once firmly on course, he looked over.

  “What do you think?” His voice came directly into her ears through the headphones, the motion of his lips strangely disorienting.

  She shouted back. “It’s fantastic!”

  “We should be there in twenty minutes or so.” He went back to monitoring the various gauges, and June soon became engrossed with the view out the window. She’d only ever flown in large commercial jets before, and couldn’t believe how tremendous the range of sight was without a wing in the way. She spied a moose in an old clear-cut, and watched its long-legged, high-stepping stride with amusement.

  They flew into a wide valley, and she spotted a haphazard collection of canvas coloured rectangles. As they closed in, the shapes sorted themselves out into eight to ten large tents, surrounding an even bigger structure with a green striped roof, reminding her of an old-fashioned circus big-top. A figure walked out from underneath it and waited in the grassy area outside the grouping of tents.

  Her stomach hovered in her abdomen as the altimeter dropped. Alex, operating the hand levers expertly, lowered the craft into the alpine meadow and shut off the engine. The rotors whined down, and stillness settled over them. A faint buzzing filled her ears.

  A tall, thin man wearing a grungy graphic T-shirt, khaki shorts sprouting a multitude of pockets, and a brightly striped toque, waved at them as they stepped out.

  “Hello.” He extended a hand to Alex. “I’m Ryan Persson. You must be the Wildlife guy.”

  “And you must be the Camp Manager.” Alex introduced himself and June.

  Lank, dark blond hair streamed past Ryan’s shoulders and his finger nails were chipped and lined with dirt. But his eyes were bright with intelligence under the vibrant cap, and his teeth gleamed whitely in the light stubble on his chin.

  “I suppose you’d like to get right out there.”

  Alex nodded. “Yes. How far do we need to hike?”

  Ryan cocked a thumb toward the camp. “I’ve got a couple of four-wheelers we can use. Beats walking any day.”

  Soon Alex and June were buckling on borrowed helmets and flipping a coin to see who got to drive the ATV. As June plopped triumphantly into the driver’s position, Alex strapped their packs to the carrying grid and mounted behind. Ryan negotiated circumspectly through the camp on his own machine, then picked up speed on a barely visible dirt track.

  Despite the serious reason for their journey, June enjoyed the adventure. The ATV wasn’t a smooth ride, but it manoeuvred the ruts and rocks with ease. She gave the throttle a burst, and Alex’s hold on her waist tightened. A growl of protest rumbled in his chest, pressed against her back. She laughed wickedly and gunned it again.

  On the mountainside to her left a logging road zigzagged up the steep incline. This area had been recently harvested for timber, and now the tree planting crew was restocking the forest with native conifers. June had spent a couple of summers as a planter, and had nothing but respect for the men and women who did the work, which required great physical stamina as well as attention to detail.

  They came upon one of the planters’ temporary bases. A couple of sturdy four by four pickups and a large passenger van were parked at the bottom of a long slope. Dotted about the incline were perhaps twenty men and women. Each carried a shovel with a long, narrow blade, and slung over their shoulders were large canvas bags, rather like the kind old-time paperboys used to carry. The tips of tiny coniferous seedlings poked out of each sack. As the ATVs slowed to go past the vehicles, June had a chance to watch one woman move fluidly through the motions—place shovel, step on blade to sink it into the earth, bend to insert seedling, straighten, press with boot heel to ensure correct planting. The best planters did hundreds of trees in a day.

  Once past the workers, they picked up speed, and it wasn’t long before Ryan came to a stop near a still, black form. They swung off the ATVs and stood over the desecrated body.

  ****

  Alex sat back on his heels and wiped sweat off his forehead with the back of his wrist.

  “Well,” he said, “it’s like the other.”

  “Can you tell if it’s the same poacher?” June hunkered down beside him. As disturbing as the sight and smell was, it was nowhere near as bad as the other carcass they’d found in the crevasse.

  “There are definite similarities, but there’s no way to say for sure.” Alex gestured at the remains. “Head, paws, gallbladder. I tell you, from their point of view, these guys aren’t wasting a thing. They’re taking everything they’ll get paid for.”

  “The same poacher?” Ryan Persson had been standing out of the way while Alex inspected the body. Now he moved closer. “You mean you’ve found other bears?”

  Alex told him briefly about the previous discovery. “The thing is, for every body we find, there could be many others out there we know nothing about. I went through our files and found a couple more illegal kills in this area last fall. But just because we’ve learned of four in the last few months doesn’t mean it’s the same poacher. This area is full of blacks and grizzlies and will attract more hunters willing to break the rules. Odds are there’d be more to find.”

  He returned to his work, snapping photos and jotting down notes. June let the mountain stillness wash over her. A raven’s call echoed faintly off the far wall of the valley.

  He straightened up from the body, snapping off his latex gloves. “This one’s a female.” Bitterness tinged his voice. “I wonder what...”

  “Quiet,” J
une commanded.

  Both men looked at her in surprise.

  “Listen,” she said.

  “What is it?”

  She shushed Ryan with an abrupt motion of her hand.

  “There,” she said. “Did you hear that?”

  Alex tilted his head. “Over there.”

  They turned toward a small thicket a few metres away. It was a stand of young birch, no more than ten feet tall, at whose feet a number of shrubs huddled. Something hidden in the shadows caused the brush to rustle and sway. June heard again the fretful sound that had first caught her ear.

  “What do we do now?”

  Alex turned to Ryan. “I need a length of rope, about three metres long. And a blanket or piece of tarp, something like that.”

  “I’ll check in the four-wheeler.” Ryan walked to his ATV and lifted the lid of the plastic case strapped on the back. He came back with a long piece of yellow nylon rope and a ratty old plaid blanket.

  June didn’t take her eyes off the subtle movements. Ryan handed the rope to Alex, who wound it in generous loops and hooked it on his elbow. He threw the blanket over his shoulder.

  “Okay,” he said softly. “I’m going to make a wide circle far around the bush. When I close in behind, I want you both to rush up. We’ll roust him out.”

  They waited, motionless, as Alex strolled casually away. He took up position, unfolded the blanket and held it in front of him, rather like a matador’s cape.

  Ryan watched June. She nodded, and the quiet of the wilderness shattered with their screams and yells. They ran wildly toward the bushes.

  The bear cub’s nerve held until they were practically on top of it. Then it shot out the far side, a black ball of fur, squealing and bawling, staring white-eyed over its shoulder. Alex made a diving tackle, and miraculously managed to wrap the cub in the blanket on the first try. Ryan and June ran up and helped him hold the wriggling, squiggling bundle. Piteous whimpers and squeals rent the air.

  “Now what?” June asked breathlessly. Despite the cub’s small size, it put up a valiant effort to get free, sharp little claws scrabbling at her through the blanket.

  “Hold him.” Alex pulled the rope off his arm. “I’ll get him secured.”

  After more hectic minutes, they had the cub safely tied up inside the blanket. Alex left its head free, but dropped a noose over its muzzle to stop it biting, causing the cub to growl and hiss in frustration. June had added another scrape to her healing collection, Ryan’s toque had come off in the battle, and Alex’s neatly pressed uniform was scuffed and bedraggled. They paused for a breather.

  “What are you going to do with him?” Ryan panted.

  “We’ll have to take him with us.” Alex sucked the knuckles of his hand where needle-like teeth had gashed him. “We don’t really have much choice. He’s far too young to survive on his own. There’s a wildlife refuge west of Prince George. When we get back to town I’ll give Cindy a call and see if she can take him.”

  “Will he travel all right in the helicopter?” June asked.

  “I’ve got a veterinary kit in the storage compartment,” Alex said. “I’ll give him a shot of tranquillizer, enough to keep him calm. We should be okay.” He looked from the furious little bundle on the ground to the four-wheelers they had arrived on. “But first, we have to get him there.”

  In the end, June drove the ATV back to camp, with Alex perched precariously behind her, facing backward, cradling the cub on his lap and letting his long legs trail over the rear of the machine. She could feel the muscles in his back flex and strain as he curbed the cub’s efforts to get free. Once at the tree planters’ camp, Alex dug out a syringe and injected the cub with a minuscule dose. Its whimpers and cries faded away, and even though its eyes remained open, the ferociousness left them, replaced with drowsy bewilderment.

  They made a tiny nest in the space behind the pilot’s seat, and Alex lifted the bear in. He loosened the noose around its nose, but kept it in place, then turned to Ryan.

  “Thanks for your help.” They shook hands. “Remember, if anyone sees anything, notices anything that might be relevant, we need to know.”

  “No problem. Let me know how the little guy makes out.”

  “I will.”

  Ryan backed away from the helicopter as Alex and June hoisted themselves into their seats. They rose into the air in a whirl of dust. Her last glimpse of the camp was Ryan shielding his eyes from the flying scatter and the tents flapping in the breeze.

  ****

  The Nechako Home for Rescued Wildlife kept a low profile with the public, but to those in the know like Alex and his colleagues there was no better place to bring a wild animal. He, June and their small companion travelled about half an hour west of Prince George, then turned onto a narrow, gravel road heading north. After fifteen minutes or so, during which time the cub became more and more restless and vocal, it branched off. Keeping to the right, Alex negotiated the Jeep over a rutted, bone-jarring track. Finally the route widened, and he pulled to a stop.

  It was an idyllic, albeit rustic, example of the rural beauty of Northern British Columbia. Spreading out before them was a tiny lake, perhaps one kilometre long and half a kilometre wide, bordered by willows and pine trees and edged with marshy, reedy areas. A battered yellow canoe floated next to the dock that T’d into the water from a pebbly beach. To the right a dull red cabin with a wrap-around porch, stone chimney, and metal roof faced the lake. Paint was peeling off the window frames and a number of the slats on the deck railing rested sleepily against each other.

  To the left a long, low roofed building, resembling a dog kennel, stretched out into the forest. Instead of the usual domesticated canines, however, the inmates of these runs were their wild cousins, including a number of scruffy foxes and a coyote with three legs. Separate from this structure was an enormous enclosure, two stories high and constructed around a number of living shrubs and two tall spruce, with walls and roof of thick chain link. Alex couldn’t see any inhabitants, but he knew it was used to house cougars, lynx and other feral felines. And the occasional bear. Behind these facilities were various corrals, complete with lean-to shelters, water troughs and feeding racks. A doe stood at one of the mangers, calmly chewing hay while her tiny spotted fawn suckled vigorously.

  A short, stocky woman carrying a pitchfork loaded with hay came around the corner of the kennel block. They stepped out to meet her.

  “For Christ sake, if it ain’t Mr. Weaver,” she shouted. “Come to ask another goddamn favour, I suppose. Always needs something for nothing.” She leaned her pitchfork against the wall and strode forward, continuing at the same volume. “Biggest mooch I’ve ever seen. Don’t know why I bother. Costs me money every time he stops in.”

  She peered into the tinted windows of the Jeep. “Whatcha got this time? Wolverine? Porcupine? Bald eagle?” She spun toward Alex and poked him in the chest with a gnarled, grimy finger. “It better be good, or you can take it right away with you.”

  Alex grinned. “Cindy, Cindy, you know you love it when I visit.” He wrapped his arm around her wide shoulders and turned her toward June. “I’d like you to meet June Brandt.”

  “Nice to meet you,” Cindy said gruffly, glaring out from pale eyes hiding behind straggling bangs. Alex had seen her in the city one day and had barely recognized her with combed hair, tidy jeans, and clean parka. He was more used to her as she was today. A ratty old fisherman’s hat was jammed on her head and tousled, Medusa-like locks of light brown hair snaked out from underneath. The red and black checked flannel jacket and blue coveralls she wore were indescribably dirty, with holes in knees and elbows. On her feet were large rubber gumboots caked in mud and filth.

  She elbowed Alex in the ribs. “So, whatcha got? Ain’t got all day, you know.”

  Alex opened the back door of the Jeep and Cindy pushed him aside to see her prize.

  “Oh,” she crooned, the first sound she’d made not at full volume. “Looky, here, lovey. Mama’s g
ot you.” She reached in and scooped up the cub, cradling it in her brawny arms.

  The cub seemed to recognize a sympathetic presence, and stopped its panicked whining. White still showed around the bark brown of its irises, but the stiff ruff on its neck settled down as it relaxed into Cindy’s embrace.

  “Shhh,” she whispered, rubbing her chin between its ears, “you’re gonna be okay now.”

  Alex smirked at June triumphantly, who stood mouth agape. Without another word, Cindy turned and trudged off to the kennel.

  They followed behind, entering the concrete hall in time to see Cindy and her new love disappear through a doorway on the right. They stopped in the entrance. She laid the cub on a straw filled bed on the far side of a chain link fence dividing the space from left to right. With great gentleness and deliberation she unwrapped the blanket and removed the rope from its muzzle, all the while sing-songing in a soothing tone. The cub’s gaze never left her face, and even though it was now free to defend itself, it lay quietly, paws curled.

  Cindy stepped out of the wire enclosure and closed the gate. She headed across the hall and filled a metal pail with fresh water. Striding back, she unlatched a small opening in the fence and slid the pail into the cub’s space, locking it afterward. Only then did her focus return to her human visitors.

  “What are you two still doing here?” she blustered, once again at full volume. June flinched, bumping into Alex. “I don’t need you anymore, and neither does he. Go on, get.”

  Alex hugged her. “You’re a good woman, Cindy.”

  “Go on with you,” she said brusquely and shoved him away. “If I need you I’ll call you.” She turned her back on them to beam adoringly at her new charge.

  Chapter Six

  The vehicle jounced and bounced its way back along the rutted track. Once travelling on the smooth surface of the main highway June turned to Alex. “What the hell was that?”

  He laughed. “I thought you’d enjoy meeting Cindy. It’s not often you discover someone who knows exactly what she wants. All Cindy wants to do is help animals and stay away from humans. She’s very good at both.”