Throughout, McKenzie was confident, informed, and succinct, his passion leavened with humor and his fanaticism tempered with reality. He didn‘t impugn the morals of GHRI‘s executive body, he didn‘t refer to those managers of federal lands as rape, ruin, and run boys. He was gently, implacably, immovably rational. Kate decided it was probably the most dangerous thing about him.

He dropped his arm. So?

Pretty effective, she said.

And?

And what? She shrugged. It‘s not me you have to convince.

Come on, he said. You‘re the head of your Native Association, an association that is the only recognizable form of organized government within a hundred miles of the mine. What you say and do carries a lot of weight. He drew closer and touched her arm, turning her gently toward the map. Look at it, Kate. Twenty million square acres of virtually untouched, unspoiled land.

You come on, she said. Oil in Katalla. Copper in Kanuyaq. Coal in Ahtna. Private and commercial gold mines in virtually uncountable numbers going back over a hundred and fifty years. The Park is no stranger to the mining industry, Kostas. He looked disappointed.

Besides, you‘re a little premature, aren‘t you? GHRI hasn‘t even completed their EIS yet. That and the permitting process is going to take at least two years. All they‘re doing at present is trying to define the limits of the mine, which isn‘t easy because it seems to double in size every time they take another core sample. And let‘s not forget that they have every legal right to do this. They bought their leases from the state in open auction, fair and square.

He listened to her with attention and without condemnation. Probably tucking everything away so he could come up with a way of refuting it the next time he gave his speech.

And, she said, there is the little matter of jobs, in an area that hasn‘t had them in large quantity since 1936, in an economy that is in the toilet.

Say all that‘s true, he said. Doesn‘t necessarily make it right.

She laughed and shook her head. That‘s what I enjoy most about environmental groups, their propensity to reduce everything to abstract ideology. Forty billion ounces of gold at a thousand dollars an ounce isn‘t right or wrong or abstract, it‘s concrete. It‘s tangible, it‘s a commodity which is in demand, which means there‘s a market for it, which means someone is going to pay somebody else to get it out of the ground and get it to where somebody else can buy it. It‘s called capitalism. I‘m sure you must have heard something about it in high school.

When he spoke, his voice was neutral. So you‘re going to come out a hundred percent for the mine? There‘s no moving you to our point of view?

I‘m here, aren‘t I? I‘m always willing to listen. The only thing I really know is I don‘t know enough. She thought of the aunties, and Axenia. But I represent almost three hundred shareholders and all their children and grandchildren to come. She thought of George Perry‘s air taxi, and of Johnny and Val. I have to think about their future.