David Golemon - Primeval

"I see you know your aircraft," Lynn said as she approached the young girl.

"Sure, we see a lot of nice and very expensive things here; you know, rich doctors and such when they hire out for fishing and hunting guides. I also attend college at Washington State, so I do have an idea how the rest of the world lives and plays." The girl saw the confusion her statement caused the stranger. "I was homeschooled by my grandmother and then I started college early. It wasn't as tough as people make out."

Lynn smiled and then looked around her, surprised at the emptiness of the fishing camp.

"I didn't mean to be condescending, you just didn't look like a student… I mean… uh, hell, I don't know what I mean."

The girl removed her hand from the aluminum skin of the Sikorsky and looked at Lynn, examining her.

"You don't look like you're much of a fisherman or hunter."

"Touche," Lynn said with a smile as she saw the girls eyes shift from her to the large group of men placing crates and bags along the shore of the river. When she looked back at Lynn, the girl had a curious look on her face, and then it vanished as quickly as it had appeared.

"So, do your parents operate this settlement?"

"My parents are dead. I live with my grandmother, and yes, this is all hers, everything from a mile up the mountains to the water that flows in the river — bought and paid for many years ago. My family buys fish from the few groups of Tlingit Indians left in this area. We freeze them and sell them down south in Vancouver and Juneau."

"I'm sorry about your parents."

The girl smiled. "Why would you be sorry? I never knew them, my mother died giving birth to me and my father was killed a few years after that. I'm afraid all I have are pictures." Her smile broadened. "Would you like to see them?"

Lynn couldn't resist, she liked the young girl immediately. She knew she could be no more than sixteen years old, but she said she was in college already. That would made her something special in Lynn's mind. Plus, her smile was infectious.

"Yes I would," she said quickly. "I would also like to meet the grandmother of a girl smart enough to attend college at such a young age." Lynn watched for a reaction, as maybe there was some way she could get the message through to these people not to interfere with their new visitors. She didn't trust the word of Sagli not to hurt and kill to get what it was they came for — or to cover up that fact.

"My name is Marla Petrovich."

"I'm Lynn. Nice to meet you, Marla."

As Lynn turned to follow the girl, she could not help but notice the attention Marla paid to the lined-up supplies and equipment. It was if she were examining the reasoning behind some of the more exotic of it. Her eyes lingered the longest on four large tarp-covered pieces. To the girl's credit, she kept quiet as she bounded past Sagli and Deonovich.

Sagli watched Lynn and the girl for a moment, and then said a last word to Deonovich and then he followed Lynn and the girl as they walked toward the small two-story store, his eyes never leaving the two women.

Sagli's large partner watched as the three disappeared into the wooden-framed store. At that moment a breeze sprang up and moved the rotors of the four helicopters. Deonovich turned away from the dust that the wind had kicked up, and as he did, he thought he heard the far-off sound of a tree falling. When he looked up after the sudden wind had died down, he stared as far as he could across the river. It seemed as if something had moved there, but the darkness of the woods and the long shadows the giant trees cast made seeing anything impossible. As he turned away, he suddenly knew what the feeling was that he had when looking across the fast-moving river — he felt he was being watched.

As Lynn went through the old door, she was amazed to see that the store was far more modern than she ever would have suspected from the old wooden structure from the outside. There were new advertisements for Coors, Molson, Moosehead, and Budweiser brands of beers. There were up-to-date displays of all brands of fishing equipment and even had a rental counter for those items. The floor was not made out of wood, but was a bright and shiny linoleum that was beige in color. The shelves were clean and dusted and full of canned goods, and even had a quaint sign hanging from the ceiling that said AIR TIGHTS. The store even had a dairy department that carried fresh milk and eggs.

"Well, this is it, the last stop of humanity before reaching the wilds of the Stikine," Marla said as she gestured for Lynn to follow her around the large counter situated at the right of the aisles.

Lynn felt Sagli step into the store and eye his surroundings with suspicion. He allowed himself to relax when he saw there were no apparent customers inside the large store. Lynn could see that he adjusted something under his open coat, obviously warning her that he was armed.

"I have most of my pictures upstairs, but there are a few which Grandmother keeps here. We call it our ghost wall." Marla smiled as she pointed at an old black-and-white picture of two people. One was a large blond man and the other was a smallish woman who had obvious Indian blood in her, and was beautiful. The large man, at least six foot four or five, had his arm around the small woman who was a good foot and a half shorter than the man. "These are my parents; Grandmother says that my mom was actually pregnant with me when this was taken."

"Your mother was a beautiful woman," Lynn said turning and smiling at the obviously proud girl.

"What did your father do for a living — run this store?" Sagli asked as he stepped up to the counter and removed his pair of work gloves.

"Her father was a guide. No man in the world knew this area better than my Eric; he was raised along the Stikine and never left her waters."

Lynn and Sagli both turned to see an old woman come out of a back room wiping her hands on a dish towel. She eyed the strangers with an arched brow. She was dressed in a large pair of denim pants and wore a bright red-and-black wool shirt. Her hair was pulled back into a bun and she looked spry for a woman in her early eighties.

"Oh, hello," Lynn said as she stepped out from behind the counter.

"You folks lookin' for a guide? We usually get advance notice of fishermen headin' our way by the Mounties down at Jackson's Bluff."

"We flew in from Juneau," Sagli said, eyeing the old woman.

"From Alaska, but you are Russian, right?" the heavyset woman said as she gained the counter, and stepped behind it, looking at her granddaughter.

"Grandmother, this is Lynn. Lynn, this is my grandmother Helena, and — I don't know your name," she said turning to Sagli.

The Russian didn't say anything, he looked at Lynn and then put his gloves back on.

"So, I take it you are traveling up the Stikine?" the grandmother asked.

Lynn was about to answer when Sagli slapped one glove against the other. "We will be doing some exploring and sightseeing."

"Sightseeing? Along the Stikine?" the woman said with a smile and a raised brow.

"You'll have to excuse Grandmother, she gets in these moods," Marla said as she came from around the counter. "But she's only concerned; the Stikine can be a very dangerous place if you don't know what you're doing or exactly where you are going. The river can be calm one minute, and with just a small thunderstorm up north, can become a raging torrent the next."

"We are well equipped for any contingency, young woman," Sagli announced.

"Many a fool has gone into the forest, the mountains, and the Stikine Valley well equipped, and we would find some of that fine equipment floating back down a week or two later," the grandmother said as she unlocked the cash register. "Now, is there anything we can help you with before you go?"