The Killing of Wolf Number Ten by Thomas McNamee

Author:Thomas McNamee [MCNAMEE, THOMAS]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Easton Studio Press, LLC
Published: 2014-03-03T16:00:00+00:00

April 26

The next morning is rough but flyable. Smith sweeps across the north face of Mount Maurice to the coordinates where Phillips last saw Nine and Ten, two days ago. He picks up Nine’s signal easily, although he cannot see her. Ten’s signal, however, is faint, and vague, it seems to be coming from nowhere specific, which is strange. For a moment then he hears it clearly. The too-fast beeping. Mortality mode.

This can’t be right. The wolf must have slipped his collar. Then somebody found it and took it inside a building, which would explain why the signal is so vague. Lot of buildings along Rock Creek. Smith flies up and down the creek, but the signal fades away. It comes back again, weakly, as he returns to the road below Mount Maurice, the ruined mine, the beat-up houses. He circles and circles, disbelieving, saying to himself, No, over and over, no, no, no, until he is running out of gas. He picks Ten’s signal up once more, and this time it’s clear. Mortality mode.

At park headquarters all hell breaks loose. Washington has to be called. The Carbon County sheriff. Fish, Wildlife and Parks. Fish and Wildlife Service, both the biologists and now the law enforcement arm. The highway patrol, to block the roads.

The Park Service, true to form, orders its public information officers to release no information to the public.

The weather is closing in, and flying again now is impossible. Mike Phillips and Doug Smith, in a Park Service SUV, race toward the scene at harrowing speed. The road is narrow, icy in unexpected spots, treacherous. Smith is saying, “This could be a false alarm, transmitter malfunction, maybe the collar’s just lying on the ground.” Phillips, eyes fixed on the road, says nothing, driving as hard as he can. It takes them almost three hours to reach Red Lodge.

At the Carbon County courthouse they meet Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Joe Fontaine, sheriff Al McGill, a couple of Montana game wardens, and Tim Eicher, a Fish and Wildlife Service law enforcement agent, to form a search team.

Everybody looks to Eicher, who has long experience of potentially dangerous poachers. “We don’t even know if we have a crime here,” he begins. “If we do, it could be one person or half a dozen. First thing we got to do is find that collar.” Eicher looks at his watch.

There are only a few hours of daylight left.

“Supposed to snow tonight,” a deputy says. “That won’t help.”

Doug Smith spreads out a topographic map. “My coordinates are not very good,” he says gloomily. “I never did get much of a signal.”

“We’re just going to have to spread out,” says Eicher, “and give it a try.”

Everyone fears, though no one says, that if they do not find Ten this afternoon they will never find him. All it takes is a good hammer, to smash the collar, and a shovel, to bury the body.

The sheriff, several deputies, the wardens, and Eicher trudge along the transect

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.