She noticed two things; he said “Native Americans” with no sign of self-consciousness or irony, and he had avoided the taboo word “quotas.” Interesting. She thought she detected a little more relaxation in his voice as well. She relaxed a little further, and let her instincts talk to her for a moment. Her feeling after a few seconds was that since he had decided to come straight with her, he was being quite open and honest.

“I take it there seems to be a problem at the site, then?” she asked. It seemed an obvious question, and she wondered how big the problem was. And why the insurance company was now involved. Had there been some property damaged?

He sighed. “I take it that you haven’t seen the news tonight.”

She felt her eyebrows rising. “No, actually, I haven’t.”

“Ah.” He paused a moment. “Then let me lead you up to this carefully, so that you get everything in order. According to Rod Calligan—and mind you, he only came to us with these allegations after the incident today—he’s been threatened and harassed by Native Americans. Phone calls, threatening letters, nuisance sabotage at the site, that sort of thing. No real property damage, or threats that came to anything. He did not report any of this to the police. He says he didn’t want to alarm his family or trigger anything worse by starting a police investigation. He had a number of Native Americans quit; he hinted that the threats might have been coming from them.”

“Oh?” she replied noncommittally. “Interesting.” He was taking his own sweet time to get to the “incident,” but she had the feeling that everything he was telling her now was important. She had learned enough from Grandfather’s teaching-stories not to rush him past information she might need.

“We thought the same.” His tone was full of irony, and she sensed that he found these stories just a little too pat. “Still, that doesn’t change what happened today. If there really were threats, it went beyond them to action.”

“And this is what was on the news?” she asked.

“And will probably make CNN,” he confirmed. “It’s ugly, Miss Talldeer, and I’ve got some small experience in sabotage. There’s no way to soften this—someone blew up a bulldozer, and killed four people, including the foreman. There are a half dozen more workers in the hospital or who were treated and released.” He paused for a moment to let that sink in.

It came as a shock, still. That was the kind of thing you expected to hear about in Greece, or the Mideast, or even New York. Not in your own backyard. “My god—” she said, finally. “What happened?”