James Smith - Hybrid

“I can assure you; that’s a mistake. Michael Harmon did not have permission to go on any—” She stopped herself as a group of Scouts gathered around. With her hands on her hips, she looked up and took a deep breath.

“We plan these activities well in advance, Miss Little Bear.”

She shot back a squinted stare. “Oh, I’m quite confident you do!” She flipped back her hair with both hands and lowered her head. “I’m sorry. Just a little taken aback at the moment.”

“Please, Miss. We wouldn’t have him on the list if we didn’t have a parent signature.”

“But… he didn’t even have a sleeping bag… or a tent.”

“Not a problem. He didn’t need either. They’ll camp tonight in a patrol cabin on the other side of the pass. There’s a large cleared area for the older Scouts to pitch a tent or sleep under the stars. The Tenderfoots will be bunked in the cabin.”

“Okay, okay. I understand. But let me make myself clear. I need to find Michael Harmon.”

“I wish you’d registered with us, Miss Little Bear,” he said with a firmer voice.

“Registered?”

“As an adult leader.”

“Good. I’ll do that now.”

He drew in his chin. “Not really. You see—”

“Perhaps gender is an issue?”

“Oh, heavens, no!”

“You did say you were short on adults this weekend.”

“Of course, but—”

“And here I am, ready and able to help. Eager to get started, in fact.” For the first time, she smiled.

He quickly explained that wasn’t the way things were done in Scouting. She didn’t apply and wasn’t cleared by the district as an adult leader. There was paperwork… and an interview.

“May I have a word with you alone?” Amy asked.

They moved to the shelter of a tree and she spoke more softly. “I believe there’s a lone wolf roaming the Park. It attacked and killed a hiker yesterday. It’s somewhere between here and the border near Colter.”

The troop leader glared at her as if she had just walked out of an asylum. “Miss Little Bear, we know about the Grizzly incident on the Fawn Pass trail.”

“Who told you it was a Grizzly?”

“Our regional scoutmaster was briefed first thing this morning.”

“Briefed? By who?”

“The Park’s chief ranger.”

“Chief Corey?”

“You know him?”

“He didn’t have you cancel the hike?”

“You don’t need to get upset, Miss Little Bear. He told us to take normal precautions. He’s making flyovers throughout the weekend for our protection.”

“But this is the largest wilderness area in the lower forty-eight!” She lowered her voice. “How the… how do you think they’ll protect you? I can’t believe you didn’t cancel the hike.”

“If it wasn’t safe, why would Yellowstone’s chief ranger give us the go-ahead?”

Seething inside, she tried to look calm. “Do you have a map?”

The troop leader shuffled back into his canvas headquarters while she paced outside it. After a minute, he stuck his head through the tent opening and invited her in to see a trail map spread out on a folding table. They explored it together, beginning with the Bighorn Pass trail out of the campground. The first few miles followed Panther Creek, then it broke through the Bighorn Pass between the Three Rivers and Bannock Peak. From the Bighorn Pass, the trail turned northward to follow the Gallatin River.

Amy traced along with her index finger and paused. A few miles beyond the pass, a spur of the Big Horn connected with the Fawn Pass, the very trail where the attack on the hikers was reported. It linked directly with the trail Michael and the other Scouts were hiking. She leaned with both hands on the table and shook her head back and forth as she stared at the map.

He asked if she were okay. She lifted her head and thought for a moment before speaking. “How long have they been gone on their hike?”

He looked at his watch and pursed his lips. “A couple of hours. But I hope you don’t plan to catch up with them. They’re at least four miles ahead of you by now.”

She lifted the tent flap and looked back at him. “I’ve always liked giving guys a head start.”

“Theweather should blow through today,” Bantz Montgomery said. “Probably best we put off the search till tomorrow.”

“Remember Mother Superior’s orders,” Corey replied.

“But if the weather’s not cooperating, Jack?”

“McFarland said we begin today .”

The problem was Montgomery’s latest observation at Gardiner: high winds and overcast skies with a ceiling of twenty-five hundred feet. Visibility, three and a half miles and dwindling.

In Corey’s office they plotted out a course while Montgomery wondered if McFarland had reached the superintendent for a decision on closing the Fawn Pass trail. A short-wave scanner on a table by the wall crackled with walkie-talkie chatter among rangers spread throughout the Park. There were too many speeders and that wasn’t going to be tolerated during Labor Day weekend. A teenager who had stepped into the edge of a hot spring and scalded his foot was rushed to the emergency clinic at Lake Lodge. They already had two DUI arrests, one for possession. A collision involving three vehicles reported near the Tetons exit. No serious injuries.

Montgomery paid little attention to the scanner. He’d been thinking it through most of the night, how to say what he should’ve said long before now. But he knew that even mentioning Greta McFarland’s name would set him off.

“I’ve got something to level with you, Jack.”

Corey spoke while staying focused on the map. “We’re always straight with each other.”

“When you were at Indian Creek with the Scouts, McFarland called me into her office.”

Corey looked up with a scowl.

“She was pushing on me, Jack.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“She expressed doubts about you being in charge.”

Corey slowly leaned back in his chair. “Me? In charge of what? The Park?”

“No… the hunt for the hybrid.”

“That asshole is trying to go around everybody in the chain. What did you tell her?”

“I said that I wanted no part of going behind your back. If anybody could handle this, it’s you. I told her to relax. We’d take care of it.”

Corey folded his hands behind his head and smiled. “Did you know she’s screwing the superintendent?”

Montgomery didn’t want to go there or anywhere close. “Never heard that one.”

“The beautiful Black Princess fucking her old white married boss. How do you think she got the job in the first place? The bitch has been aiming for me ever since she arrived.”

Montgomery pretended to be searching the map. How easy it was for McFarland to push Corey’s buttons. A hatred so utterly deep it always shuts down his mind. On the other hand, Corey hated his ex as much as McFarland. Truth was, the chief park ranger hated many people while holding a strong dislike for most. Maybe the real problem was that Corey hated himself above everyone else.

Through the static on the shortwave they both heard the same word: llama .

Corey nudged him to go turn up the volume. A ranger was reporting to the dispatcher that he’d stopped to question a driver hauling a horse trailer with a llama inside. Corey grabbed for the phone and called Comm Central, ordering the clerk to have the ranger call him.

In less than thirty seconds the phone rang and Corey snatched the receiver. “What were their names?… The ones with the llama, dammit… Did he have a permit?… What did they say they were doing?… Where?… Not necessary… Thanks.”