Ninety Degrees Out

“Is that gunfire?” Chay’s head jerked up from his computer where he was working on a program for the telescope.

“I don’t know,” Arimina was curled up beside the fireplace with Jazz at her feet. “I only know it in games. Maybe Uncle Hakan shot a moose?”

He noticed his dog’s ears twitching as he turned his head trying to locate the noise. Inside his heart sunk. The shots had come from the wrong direction. Poachers were never a good thing. Was Alicia safe? And what about her brother?

His cell phone buzzed on the table, and he took a quick look at the text messages.

Poachers. I think they hit Ursa.

I will take Ari to Hakan and Kanti. Bringing help.

Need the tranq gun in my Jeep. Parked where Ursa crosses the road.

Got it. Stay safe.

Be careful.

A big red heart punctuated the last message from Alicia.

“Shit!” Chay hissed under his breath.

“What’s wrong?” Arimina slid out of the big easy chair, and Jazz followed her into the kitchen where he’d been working.

“Your Mom wants me to come help her and your Uncle Jett. It isn’t good, she thinks some poachers might have hurt Ursa.”

“Mommy’s hurt too?” Ari’s chin trembled. She was still having trouble processing her mother’s head injury.

“No, she’s safe with her brother. They’re close to Ursa’s den. Remember they were setting up cameras so we can watch the bears.”

“Okay.” She leaned into him where he was sitting putting his mental checklist together.

“I’m going to take you down to the ranch and get some of the other men to come with me to help her. Big Erik and Armaruq will come with me. We’re going to help Ursa and the cubs. Okay?”

“I’ll get my sandals. Let’s go.” Ari ran across to the back door to collect her shoes.

Chay unlocked his gun safe and stacked ammo into his backpack. He grabbed his water bottle, filled it, and pulled a bag of jerky out of the fridge just in case. He was lacing up his hiking boots and pulled a can of bug repellant off the shelf as Ari came back with Jazz in tow.

“Let’s go, kiddo,” Chay said as he slung his scarred old shotgun over his shoulder. Who knew what he was walking into?

He opened the door into the garage and armed his alarm system. Who the hell would be shooting at a bear on his property?

“It’s quiet out there now, but I’m not going to take any chances. You keep your head down okay Ari?”

The little girl ducked down and pulled Jazz until he dropped onto the floor between the back and front seats of the truck.

“Are they bad guys?”

“We don’t know. Ursa can been pretty mean when she has cubs.” He slid around the turn out of his driveway and headed down the hill to Hakan’s ranch.

“But she’s just being a good mommy bear.”

“I know.” Chay punched the throttle, out running the dust cloud pluming up behind him. He hoped that was all it was.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

“Okay, we made it to the den,” Alicia whispered.

“I’ll set the last camera here.” Jett kept his voice quiet, matching his sister.

“Shit, Ursa left the cubs here. Look.” Alicia pointed across the mossy clearing between the fallen log they were behind and the dark hole in the hillside in front of them.

“Yeah, there’s the little white one you told me about. I hope Ursa’s only winged and not dead.”

“Me too, I hope she makes it back. Her instinct would be to come to her den. Chay is bringing my tranq gun. I’ll see what I can do to help her. I’ve learned a lot from the vets on our teams when I was doing the desert studies.”

“You should do another degree and become a vet. It would be pretty handy,” Jett said.

“Considering it, but how? Not going to happen now the way things have gone.”

“Sssh… listen.” Jett put his fingers to his lips.

“I hear her, she’s alive!”

“Text Chay and give him the update.”

“Done, come on girl, come home, I’ll help you,” Alicia urged.

“I just hope whoever shot her doesn’t turn up too.”

Alicia squashed the shudder running through her. Hurry up Chay. We need your help.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

“Holy fuck, Rico, there’s one fucking big bear in the woods here. Don’t think I killed it either,” Toby reported.

“Stupid shit head, it’s going to come looking for us. And if there’s anyone out there, they know we’re here now.” Rico’s right hook lashed out, knocking Toby’s head sideways before the camo clad man went down with a thud.

“What did you want us to do, asshole?” Toby’s brother Grange asked. “It was charging at us. Let him kill us?”

“Goddamn bear can’t climb a tree. It’s a Kodiak, too heavy to climb up after you.” Rico cocked his fist as he took a step toward Grange.

“Hit me and I’ll shoot you. Keep your frigging temper on simmer.” Grange pulled his AK to his hip pointing it the leader of their gang.

Rico whirled away from his scout. The man was right. Temper wasn’t going to keep them out of sight when the law turned up. The fire in the center of their camp was smoking and the rest of the gang was in the water swimming, taking turns at the girls. Pacing back and forth for a couple of minutes he took several deep breaths before he faced Grange again.

“Did you find a house?”

“That’s the good news. There’s one not very far from here. It’s covered in tarps, must have damage from the earthquake. Means nothing to us though. We can turn on the power and water and move right in. Big house too. Leave the tents here for most of the guys, they can walk back and forth. Take the bikes and put them in the garage, there’s room for all of them in there. It’s a big two car unit.”

Rico put two fingers to his mouth as Toby groaned, rolling over to his knees. A sharp whistle stopped the splashing in the creek as the rest of his gang walked out of the water to dry themselves and dress.

“Listen up, we’ve found an empty house.” Rico’s smile was feral. “We’ll stay there until we can kill off the damn bear. We’ll move on when we’ve run out of supplies, but it’ll work for headquarters for now. We can run back into Anchorage and get what we need. Then it’s road trip time. Fairbanks is next. Then down the coast. We can take whatever we need.”