He had read her rebuttal, and he remembered something about a tribal member being vocal in his dissent, but an officer much higher in the chain of command than Xavier—who occupied a tiny realm that sat between enlisted and officers—had said the Navy would negotiate a deal with him. The permit had gone through, and inholding landowners had been paid. That was all he knew, and frankly, all he’d cared about. “I was told he was paid,” Xavier said.

“You were told wrong, because if George had received—and accepted—payment from the Navy, he would have told me. Not to mention his family would have gleefully moved him out of the cabin to winter with them on the reservation on the coast. But as far as I know, George isn’t on the reservation.”

“As far as you know.”

“Yes.” She pulled out her cell phone and showed him the screen. “I’ve left him—and his family members—several frantic messages in the last hour and a half. No one has called back.”

Xavier frowned. “Does George get cell coverage out here?”

She nodded. “Not so much in his cabin, but the meadow is within range of the antennas. There’s also a landline in the woodshop. He has voicemail on that line.”

In about ten minutes, all signals—radio, cellular, and satellite—would be jammed. George would be as hampered as the SEAL team. Worse, no civilians were allowed in the lodge complex for the duration of the training, so he couldn’t access his woodshop at all.

“Does he have electricity in his cabin?” If not, the next several days would be very uncomfortable for the man, if he were truly here. Unless he planned to do a very long hike up and out of the lake basin, he wouldn’t be able to reach the road without crossing the lodge complex or lake, effectively trapping him in the rainforest until the training was over.

“He lives mostly off the grid, but he has a generator to keep his phone and other electronics in power, and before winter set in, we hauled enough fuel to see him through the worst of it. Plus, he’s got power in the woodshop, which is right next to the blacksmith shop. He can always charge his phone there in a pinch.”

“But not this week. He’s alone out here?”

She nodded. “No one tells George how to live his life. His family tries, but they’d rather he respond to their calls than cut them off completely, so they’ve stopped fighting what he wants.”

“Cameras first, George second,” he said. But damn, checking on the elder would eat precious minutes.