‘I will. Thanks.’

‘This way.’ Karl pointed to a group of three men talking earnestly at the back of the room. ‘You right for a drink?’ Karl turned to check on her and she held up her nearly full glass in answer. He nodded.

When they had wound their way through the throng to the edge of the group, one of the men turned and held out his hand to Zara.

‘Hi, Zara, Mark Cullen. This is Brock Doyle—Doyley—and Ian Wood. Great to meet you. Karl told us about you earlier. We know Will.’

‘Most people seem to,’ she smiled. ‘Nice to meet you all as well.’

‘So, what’s going on out your way, Doyley?’ Karl asked.

‘Could do with a bit of rain.’

‘As we all could,’ Ian agreed.

‘I’m spending so much bloody time in my ute checking waters, I don’t seem to be getting anything else done,’ Mark said. ‘I’m going to shear the dry ewes and get rid of them. Need to lighten the load on the place. Not that feed is scarce yet, but you never know when it’s going to rain. I was watching Landline last Sunday and the outlook for an early break isn’t good.’

‘Yeah, I was thinking about doing the same thing. I locked a few paddocks up, hoping I’d be able to use them in a few weeks’ time, when the other paddocks get thin, but as soon as I did that, all the bloody roos came in and started feeding. It’s better if it goes to my stock, so I’ve put a mob back in there. Roo shooter is doing all he can to help out, but the numbers are just too large. They’re all coming down from the north because there’s no feed up there either,’ Brock commented.

‘Tricky juggling everything to work just perfectly, isn’t it?’ Karl said. ‘I’ve got a market for some dry ewes, so let me know when you want to get rid of them.’

Zara lapped up the conversation. It felt as though it had been ages since she’d been at work and talked farming. In reality, it had only been a few weeks. She had a thought. ‘Listening to you talk about all the time you spend in the ute, Mark—when I was out at Rowberry Glen yesterday, I found out that Will has gone all techy and installed motion cameras and monitoring systems on the troughs. Would that help you save time?’

‘Yeah, it’s a great idea and I’ve been thinking about it too.’ There was a pause as the men exchanged glances and immediately Zara’s story antenna turned on.

‘He seen anything weird going on out there, anything he’s caught on camera?’ Mark asked.

‘Weird as in …’ Zara left the sentence hanging.

‘Drones. Has he got eyes in the sky as well as on the troughs?’

Zara shook her head. ‘Not from what he showed me. So you’ve got problems with drones? What are they doing?’

Someone jostled against her and pushed her forward against Karl, spilling her drink.