I told you, I didn‘t— The woman‘s tearful voice came to an abrupt halt when Phyllis Lestinkof turned her head and met Ulanie Anahonak‘s eyes.

There was a brief silence that felt somehow uncomfortable, although Kate did not know why. Hey, Phyllis, Kate said.

Phyllis looked away from Ulanie, it seemed with something of an effort. Her smile was strained. Hey, Kate. A plump young woman with a round, brown face and hair in a pixie cut that made her look like a post–Frank Sinatra Mia Farrow, if Mia had been Aleut, Phyllis was, for a miracle, sober. She didn‘t look happy, although Kate hoped it wasn‘t because of lack of alcohol.

Phyllis glanced at Matt and flushed. She took a deep, albeit shaky breath and summoned up a smile, looking straight at Kate and only at Kate. Nice to see you, she said, gotta go, Auntie‘s waiting on me.

The door closed softly behind her on its hydraulic hinge.

Kate, Matt said. What‘s up?

He met her eyes with apparent frankness, but she noticed he was showing a little color, too. She refrained from casting a meaningful look at the door that had closed behind Phyllis Lestinkof and said instead, Got somebody lost in the woods up near the Smith place. I want a Grosdidier to go with when we go looking for him, in case he‘s hurt when we find him.

Matt blinked at her, tilted his head back, and raised his voice, already a fine, stentorian baritone. Mark, Luke, Pete! Get the lead out, let‘s clear the waiting room.

Thirty minutes later Eknaty had stitches and a bandage and Katya a red spot on her upper arm and a cherry lollipop. Ulanie had departed on Phyllis‘s heels without treatment or explanation. The four Grosdidier brothers, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Peter, took no notice, they were too busy hoping out loud that they‘d find the driver of the truck alive. Barely alive, preferably, with multiple open wounds. Broken bones would be a bonus, an open fracture best of all, multiple open fractures nirvana. They checked the massive aluminum tool chest bolted in the back of their fire-engineyellow (custom painted) Chevy Silverado, in which was stowed a vast array of medical paraphernalia that for all anyone in the Park knew included a cure for cancer. For sure no Grosdidier had ever dived inside it and come up at a loss for what was needed at the scene. The Niniltna Native Association had paid for most of it. Kate had a sneaking suspicion that the NNA had paid for the Silverado, too, but she‘d never had the heart to go back and look at the records to be sure. All present and accounted for! Mark said.

Lock and load! Luke said.

Let‘s roll! Peter said.

Matt said, Okay, boys, let‘s saddle up. The four of them piled into the two bench seats of the extended cab, Matt as usual at the wheel, and if they could have peeled out they would have. As it was, gravel sprayed the wall of the garage and everything hanging on it received yet another layer of chips and dings. They stayed on Kate‘s bumper all the way up to the Step, where the two-car convoy parked in front of the group of prefabricated buildings that made up Park headquarters. Tucked against a Quilak foothill, the Canadian border at their back and the Park rolling out before them in all its glory, the view was superb out of any window. The Step, a wide, level ridge running north-south, had enough room for a dirt strip big enough for a Cessna 180 to get out with a full load of confiscated bear bladders, moose racks, walrus tusks, and fur pelts illegally harvested from wolves, wolverines, beaver, mink, and marten.