Old Sam had brought the eggs from the females along in a plastic bag, and Auntie Vi pulled out one of the sacs, tore off some of the eggs, and popped them in her mouth. She closed her eyes and chewed, humming her approval. She opened her eyes again and saw Haynes looking appalled. You try? You like!

Haynes stuttered a refusal, trying to be polite about it and failing, and Kate laughed. Auntie Vi laughed, too. It transformed her face, and Kate saw Haynes looking at her, marveling. It was good to be reminded that as cranky as Auntie Vi was determined to appear, said crankiness was a tool used to intimidate, and not or at least not always her prime characteristic.

Kate lit the charcoal in the cement block grill between the house and the garage. She brought out wasabi, soy sauce, and ginger paste, mixed them into a sauce and brushed it on the salmon filet. When the grill was hotter than hot she laid the filet skin side down on a sheet of foil across the coals. The smell of roasting king salmon was immediate and irresistible. They crowded around the grill like seagulls ready to fight over their next meal. Mutt even started barking again.

What matter with that dog, Katya? Auntie Vi said irritably, eyes fixed on the grill. She want her fish raw or what?

Mutt! Kate said.

Mutt looked at her and barked again, looking exasperated.

Then Kate heard it, too, a not-so-distant crashing through the brush beyond the clearing. Kate and Old Sam had heard that same sound just a month before. Bear, Old Sam said. Must have smelled the fish.

Nine

Everybody inside! Kate said. Mutt! Guard!

She ran for the house and the .30-06 in the gun rack next to the door. She was back on the deck before anyone else had hit the stairs. Old Sam, who didn‘t hold with outmoded notions like chivalry, was well in the lead.

Mutt! Kate said. To me!

Mutt ignored her, ears back, half crouching in the center of the clearing, barking ferociously at the increasing noise from the brush, which was loud now and getting louder.

Mutt!

Mutt gave one last warning bark and loped to the stairs, took them in a single leap, and in another leap was at the railing at Kate‘s side. Her mane was standing straight up, her ears were still back, and a low, menacing growl issued steadily from her throat at a volume that by rights should have frightened off every living being within half a mile.

Inexplicably, it did not. Branches crashed and cracked beneath the onslaught of whatever creature was advancing on the homestead. Kate planted her feet, worked the bolt on the .30-06, and raised it to pull the stock into her shoulder. She sighted down the barrel at the tiny bead welded on the end. It steadied on that section of brush from which came the approaching noise.

All of this was happening again all too soon. Behind her she could hear murmuring, and between clenched teeth she said, Get. Inside.