“I’m glad it’s comfortable for Spitfire,” she said, “because it’s not for me.” Shel was feeling the long outing in muscles she had never before been aware of. She hoped she hadn’t come across as too snippy, but her soreness and discomfort were increasing.

  “Don’t fight it. Let your upper body move t’ balance his movements and keep your seat and legs relaxed, like this.” Matt made exaggerated motions forward and back with his upper body as Daisy trotted beside Spitfire. His legs hardly moved and did not appear to be gripping the horse’s sides. “You’re doin fine. Takes practice t’ get your back and stomach muscles used t’ it, that’s all.”

  He made it look easy, but his tone was upbeat and encouraging. He had said nothing about her being from the east, nothing about the “weaker sex,” rather he spoke directly to her, corrected or complimented her riding as appropriate. She liked that, felt more relaxed, and was enjoying their ride across the ranchland as well as Matt’s company despite her increasing soreness. During the second half of their ride he told her there would be no lesson the next weekend because of his son’s visit, which led to several minutes of exposition about his son and his past.

  Once they were done and everything was put away, the effects of two hours of riding on her untrained body took their toll.

  Today had been go-go-go except for the one break. As she walked to her car for the drive home she could feel the soreness, stiffness, and pain gathering. By the time she was home, all she could think about was ibuprofen and a bath, maybe a beer to wash down the pills. When she did settle into the hot water, she breathed a sigh of relief. It felt so good, warm all over. Matt was really pleasant today, she thought. Friendly, like he was having a good time too. And talking about the boy, what was his name—Charlie?—he seemed very affectionate, caring. I wonder what the boy is like. I’ll find out at the Memorial Day party, I guess. Maybe I can start to fit in with the people here. That would be nice.

  The feeling of being undercover all the time, always on guard that she might give something away, was starting to wear on Shel. And after all, it wasn’t like she knew anything the others at the ranch didn’t. They all knew something was happening but nobody—not even Steve, the ranch manager—knew what it was. But following Colin’s directives, even just watching and listening, made her feel alone. In a way, she thought, it was no different than if she’d been going home to a husband or partner in the evenings and talking about her day. Except Colin asked a lot of very detailed questions.

  After an hour and more in the bath, she hauled herself out, dried off, and figured a short nap would complete her recovery from the morning’s exercise. Of course, she ended up sleeping for three hours. When she awoke and saw the time, she was upset because she was supposed to meet friends for dinner before the meeting of an environmental group she had joined shortly after her arrival in Great Falls.

  The Western High Plains Alliance was not as grand as its name might suggest. It was a local group focused on maintaining and, as much as possible, improving the quality of unused or wild lands between Great Falls and the foothills of the Rocky Mountains fifty miles west. She had been directed to them by an acquaintance in the Friends of the Natural Order back in Boston when she announced her move. They were committed to their issues but considerably more patient and relaxed about life than the Friends had been. The Alliance was interested in native plants and animals, conserving watersheds and other water resources, and there were a few members who were quite focused on rewilding.

  Rewilding was a conservation concept that had been around for thirty-five or forty years that favored conserving or rebalancing natural ecosystems by introducing a range of plants and animals similar to that which had existed before the arrival of man. It was controversial, but it had seen some success in areas of the upper Plains and into central Canada. The introduction of grazing animals, like bison, elk, or horses, was generally accepted as long as they didn’t compete with the cattle. Predators, however, were considerably more of an issue to ranchers and tourism interests.

  Shel had garnered some notoriety at the Alliance once it became known that she worked at the B.a. Ranch. They had heard all about the Bison antiquus and were intensely curious. Her star faded somewhat when she said she was only the bookkeeper, but she had a resurgence of attention when she told people that she had actually seen them. All she could say to her eager questioners was that the ants were bigger and hairier than plains bison.

  Shel was only ten minutes late, but she had messaged ahead to her dinner companions so there was a cocktail waiting at her place when she arrived. There were seven of them—Shel, two couples, and two other men. They had a cheerful dinner talking about their environmental interests and once in a while veering off to talk about themselves or something in the news. When they were walking from the restaurant to the meeting after dinner, Reg, one of the men, asked her out. He seemed nice and the idea of a date appealed to her. It had been a long time. She agreed to a date the following week.

  The Alliance meeting itself was ordinary. People talked about their issues, committees reported, and there were the usual people saying the world would go to hell in a handbasket if they all didn’t redouble their efforts. Shel was drafted into a small group gathering information about access to hiking trails in the section of the Lewis and Clark National Forest in the Little Belt Mountains, the same area she and Matt had seen in the distance during her lesson that morning. She agreed immediately to do some research on the data net and put together a trip to the area for the group in a couple of weeks. They would report back at the next meeting.

  Reg found her after the meeting and asked if she wanted to get a drink before heading home, and she agreed. Between the dinner, the meeting, and the drink afterward, Shel had not dwelt on, in fact had almost forgotten, Colin’s impending visit.

  **

  Sunday morning Shel woke up with a start. The clock said 9:00 a.m. She had overslept, and she was still sore from yesterday on the horse. Damn. I have to write my report, dress up in my Sunday best, and be at Colin’s hotel by eleven. She made some coffee to get started, pulled herself together, and went to the bathroom to check the secure tab for messages. There was one from Colin confirming their meeting. She finally sat down in her bathroom to write her report.

  He was staying at a business-oriented hotel with a restaurant, and they would have brunch there. It was only a couple of miles away, west across the river, and the Sunday traffic was light so she was right on time and found Colin waiting in the lobby. She hadn’t seen Colin for months as most of their communication was by secure messaging. But there he was neatly yet casually dressed, befitting his role today as a tourist, a couple of years older than her, a little heavier, reddish hair and thick eyebrows, radiating nervous energy as she remembered, and—of all things—smiling as he rose from his chair and walked over to greet her. He’s so short! I had forgotten that. With all the blowback I get on my reports I guess I built him up.

  “Cousin Michelle! How nice to see you. How is Auntie Brooke?” How does he know Mom’s name? I never told him that. What else does he know? She smiled back at his greeting, skittishly, unconvincingly, she thought. He was all charm, which she found disconcerting. Their cover was that Colin was a distant cousin travelling on business and taking time on the weekend to spend a few hours with Shel before flying out late Sunday afternoon.

  “Good morning, Colin. I hope you haven’t been waiting long.” They did not kiss or embrace as relatives might, nor did they shake hands.

  “No, no, your timing is perfect. This place has a good Sunday buffet brunch.” He gestured toward the far end of the lobby. They began to walk as he continued, “Let’s get a table, go through the line, and you can tell me all about life here on the High Plains.” He smiled at her again as he finished, and thoughts raced through her mind. Does he know about the Alliance? How could he know that? Maybe it’s just a coincidence. Does it matter? I’m just trying to meet people, make friends, she told herself. Get a grip, we’re on the same side.

  They sat with their meals and carried on the façade of being relations. Shel chattered about her impressions of Great Falls so far—it was flat, people were friendly.

  “Spring seems so late here,” she said. “First it was warm, then last weekend it was so cold it snowed, but this weekend we’re back up to sixty. Except the wind and rain make it feel cold again. We never had snow in May at home, did we?”

  Colin shook his head as he took another bite.

  “Here we have more sunshine, though,” Shel continued. “The air seems clearer. A couple of weeks ago, Matt—that’s the guy who’s giving me riding lessons—he took me out around the ranch, and we stopped for lunch on a ridge where the horizon seemed like it was below us and the view went on forever.”

  Colin looked up. “The big sky?”

  “I guess. I haven’t been to the Rockies, the real mountains, yet, but on a clear day you can see them above the horizon to the west. Everything does seem big here, and open, different from Boston.”

  “Tell me about the ranch,” Colin asked casually. “I looked it up on the data net when I heard you got the job, but that’s not the same as being there. What’s it like, generally? What are the people like?” Shel took a sip of her coffee, knowing the meeting had begun.

  “I live here in Great Falls, you know, so it’s about half an hour’s drive to the ranch boundary and then another ten minutes to the headquarters area. That’s where I work, in the admin building. The ranch manager, Steve Wilson, is my boss, and I deal with him, or at least just talk a bit every day when he’s in the office. The assistant ranch manager’s wife, Bridget, does some of the office work too. She’s not officially an employee, but I think a lot of these ranch-management jobs are more like a team commitment than a one-person job.” She went on to describe the collection of buildings that made up that part of the ranch.

  Next she began to describe the ant farm, and Colin leaned forward and listened more intently than before. “It’s eight miles south of the headquarters, and the road between them is just a rutted track. I understand there’s a good road that comes out on the east side that connects to a county road that goes maybe ten miles to Highway 89. I haven’t seen that. I see bills and paperwork that tell me there’s some work going on, and Matt says the fence project has begun and is going full steam right now, dawn to dusk seven days.” She continued on, but none of what she said could be news to Colin since her reports had covered most of it. Maybe he just wants my direct perspective, she thought. Since they were in a public place where they might be overheard, she refrained from telling him anything that was not common knowledge among all the ranch employees.

  As they finished their meal, Colin suggested they go sight-seeing. “I’d like to see these great falls that everyone says are so spectacular.” He had checked out of the hotel already and picked up his suitcase as they passed the front desk. A brief conversation as they walked out of the hotel settled them on Black Eagle Dam and Falls, which had a riverfront trail. The mountain snowmelt had begun and the river was high so Shel expected the falls would be running strong. In Shel’s car Colin continued to be pleasant, the conversation easy and general. They took the scenic route on River Drive rather than going through the city and parked in a turnout above the dam. Because of the day’s wind and light rain, it was almost deserted even though it was a Sunday. They headed down a walkway and some stairs to the River’s Edge Trail.

  Once down to the trail, they were sheltered from the wind. Colin was at her the instant their feet touched the trail, his cheery and sociable demeanor was gone. “Do you have any specifics on the ant farm project yet?” His tone was harsh and demanding. Shel was taken aback but not entirely surprised, she expected this sooner or later.

  “No. There’s talk but nothing other than rumors. After your spider blew up security on Tuesday, I’ve been careful about asking too many questions. I feel like I’m being watched.” Colin nodded, but his expression was still aggressive. Shel added, “I bought the new tab, the one you wanted me to, and I had to let AstroGene security examine it. All they said was that it was clean, nothing about putting any of their stuff into it.”

  “Don’t use it for anything until my guy has a look at it,” said Colin. “He’ll be contacting you tomorrow. Is there anything new this week?”

  She sighed. “The only new thing is that I heard the fence project has a ninety-day deadline—has to finish mid-August,” Shel replied in a cautious tone. “I saw some correspondence from PAS. The guys who study the ants work for them. They’re shipping equipment to the ranch in June.”

  “I need all that information. Why didn’t you tell me? It may be critical!”

  “It was just this week. I’m telling you now.” She tried to push back. “It’s veterinary equipment, coming from the east, somewhere in Kentucky I think.”

  “They’ve got a horse farm there. God, I wonder if it’s horses this time. This rewilding thing that Jimmy Bell talks about is a diversion, it has to be.”

  “I hear he’s obsessed with ice age fauna,” Shel replied, “so horses would make total sense. They evolved here and by rights should be part of the natural landscape. If you’re trying to reestablish that, horses would be a no brainer.”

  “Only a couple of flaws there, Shel. First, we have lots of horses that can do the job already. Turn a few wild mustangs loose or just some over-the-hill domestics. Why spend a bunch of money on extincts if you have animals that can do the job already?” He gave her what felt like a schoolteacher’s look of disappointment. “Second, and more importantly, there’s no money in it. AstroGene doesn’t waste money on boondoggles. We think it’s going to be genetically engineered cattle. That would definitely be a moneymaker, and since the ant farm is set up for bison it would be an easy place to do the work.”

  “Why the new fence and thousand acre enclosure?” Shel asked.

  “They could keep a genetically altered herd separate from the other animals. There’s a lot of bison on the ranch, and they might interbreed with the cattle and mess things up–they do that, y’know. If you’re going to make a specific animal you have to keep it isolated so the engineered characteristics run true.” Shel felt lectured at. They paused in their walk to look up at the dam and the falls from which they were now downstream. It was quite a view, the dam a flat-topped wall spanning the entire river with water spilling over it onto the hard rock of the original falls then running down hard and loud.

  “There’s the problem right there, Shel,” Colin said. “All this genetic meddling is like that dam.” He pointed to it. “Engineers think they can control the river and turn it to their advantage. And, it’s true that dam has been there for over a century, but one day it will fail, and then they’ll have a disaster. Nature is stronger. The lake and all the water behind it will cascade down the river destroying the other dams, flooding the land by the river, killing thousands of people, and causing vast property damage. These genetic augmentations that AstroGene fools around with are more complex—and dangerous—than they understand.” Shel nodded in agreement. That was the party line at the Friends of the Natural Order, and she was totally committed to it. That’s why I’m here, she thought, you don’t have to tell me. Jeez.

  “If they make a mistake with their new line they could screw up the entire cattle industry and cause widespread financial failure in agriculture.” He went on, his voice getting louder, “It’s important for the economy, for the whole country, to stop AstroGene from causing a disaster!” Shel was alarmed at how emotional he was getting.

  “Less beef production wouldn’t exactly be a disaster for the environment,” Shel said after Colin’s outburst. “I mean, look at all the water and grain it takes to make a pound of beef. All those resources could be applied to something more useful.”

  He looked at her in astonishment. “That’s not the point, Shel. We’re trying to stop rogue science, not change the country’s diet! Somebody else can work on that.” He shook his head, dismissing her concern. “The genetics are our issue,” Colin continued. “We’ve done some research, and neither AstroGene nor PAS has any permits or licenses from the FDA or the Department of Agriculture to do any cattle or other projects on a scale that would require the ant farm or the ranch. That means whatever project they are planning is illegal too!” They resumed their walk along the trail.

  “I didn’t know that,” Shel replied. “I thought they only needed approval to sell the animals. I heard there was so much trouble with the ants being sick that the ranch or whoever never even applied for permits. And I heard this week that they aren’t breeding them anymore either.”

  Colin looked at her in mild surprise before continuing, “I’m not a lawyer, but I think they need a permit before they breed any animal intended for food, even the first one. The regs are complicated, but you have to notice the feds in advance of any production of genetically modified animals. It’s in the 2024 law regulating genome modification.” Shel nodded, but she was surprised because the research she had done on this question had come to a different conclusion.

  “I need you to redouble your efforts because it sounds like their project is at a turning point. Once it gets to the ranch it will be harder to stop. You need to talk to as many people as you can to get as much information as you can. And you need to tell me everything you see that doesn’t make sense as part of day-to-day ranch operations—like that paperwork on the equipment.” He paused. “And this guy Matt, he’s the construction guy?” She nodded, and Colin went on, “I need you to do everything you can think of to find out what he’s seeing at the ant farm.”

  “What do you want me to do, sleep with him?”

  “If that’s what it takes! Shel, we have to know what’s going on before it’s too late, and he’s right there at the ant farm watching the work.”

  “I don’t know if he’s watching everything. Mainly all I hear about is the fence. Maybe there are others who know more. Arlen—he does all the electrical work on the ranch.”