Kate nodded. All right, Ulanie. I‘ll do you the courtesy of believing you. This time. She leaned forward and dropped her voice. But Vernon Truax looked very happy to see you that day, very happy indeed. If I find that you have been passing privileged information about the activities of this Association to him or anyone else who works for Suulutaq or Global Harvest or the Slana Alliance for the Preservation of Black Cats, I will run you off this board so fast it will make your head swim. Kate sat back, her eyes cold. And then I‘ll go to work on you.

Ulanie‘s face flushed an ugly red. She stood up, shoving her seat back so hard it banged off the wall. I don‘t need you or anybody else telling me how to behave, Kate Shugak. You‘re just like your grandmother, thinking you know what‘s best for everybody. Well, I‘ve got news for you, there are plenty of people who don‘t think so, and maybe we‘ll band together and run you off this board!

I can hardly wait, Kate said.

Ulanie didn‘t have an irony button and was missing a sense of humor anyway. She snatched up her papers and stormed toward the door.

Ulanie, Kate said.

Ulanie wanted to keep going, but something in Kate‘s voice halted her. She turned and her glare should have melted Kate to slag and her chair along with it. Not noticeably melted, Kate said, aware that she was throwing down the gauntlet and equally aware there was no way around it, Lay off the Grosdidiers‘ clinic. Abstinence is the only—

I don‘t care.

Millions of murdered babies—

I. Don‘t. Care. The quiet force of Kate‘s voice stopped Ulanie in mid-spate. Abstinence, birth control, abortion, these are private, personal issues that have nothing to do with the board of directors of the Niniltna Native Association. I won‘t allow you to start a culture war among the Association shareholders, Ulanie. I know your reputation, and even if I didn‘t I‘d have your behavior at this board meeting to instruct me. You‘re a backbiting little rabble-rouser with a talent for sowing division and none at all for governance.

Ulanie looked like her head was going to explode. Kate only wished it were physically possible. The clinic is off limits. You‘re perfectly free to find something else to stir the shit about. Preferably a legitimate issue like education or jobs. But lay off the Grosdidier boys. They‘ve been instrumental in a wholesale rise in good health stats across the Park, across race, age, and gender. The life of every Park rat, shareholder and nonshareholder alike, is better because of what those boys are doing. I won‘t have that fouled by anyone for political advantage. She paused. Or for the sake of plain old meanness.

It‘s a free country! I can say anything I want to anyone I want!

You sure can, Kate said. So can I. I could, for example, ask you about your visits to Vern Truax at the Suulutaq Mine in front of the board.