“Let me go, Trip. Stop!”
“You’re such a tease, Laurel. Pretty girls like you are always—”
“Cut it out!”
“Everything okay in here?”
The unexpected sound of a voice caused them both to turn. Glancing up, they saw a stranger standing in the doorway of the cabin. Trip immediately dropped Laurel’s hand.
“I couldn’t tell if you two were playing around or—or something else.”
“Your timing’s perfect,” Laurel assured the man, standing up and smoothing her clothes. Turning back to Trip, she hissed, “If you ever try anything like that again, I’ll do everything I possibly can to get you thrown off this project. You’ll be shipped home so fast you won’t have a chance to pack.”
“Yeah, right,” Trip returned. “As if Dr. Wells could manage without me.”
“I’m sure he’d find a way.”
Trip just laughed. “I’m going out,” he called over his shoulder as he jumped off the couch and headed for the door. “Don’t worry; I’ll stay in the shade.” He strode out of the cabin, vanishing behind the thick layer of mosquito netting. For the second time that day, she let out a deep sigh of relief.
“Are you all right?” The man’s face was tense with concern.
“I’m fine,” Laurel assured him. “But thanks for coming in. Fighting off Casanova was starting to get a little tricky.”
“I’m Ben Seeger.” Wearing a friendly smile, the man held out his hand. “I work for Fish and Game in Anchorage.”
“I’m Laurel Adams.” She shook his hand, meanwhile studying him. He was probably in his late thirties, she guessed, with hazel eyes and dark brown hair that was just beginning to gray at the temples. “I guess I owe you a big fat thank you.”
“Glad I could be of service. Especially where an idiot like that is concerned.”
Laurel shook her head. “The really sad part is that Trip is an excellent scientist. He knows so much. It’s just that his ego is as big as ... as big as the entire state of Alaska.”
The man smiled. “If he’s really serious about science, that kind of attitude is going to get in his way.”
The mosquito netting was swept aside abruptly as Dr. Wells stormed into the cabin. “Where does Trip think he’s going?” He stopped when he caught sight of Ben Seeger. “Ben! What a nice surprise!”
As the two men shook hands, Dr. Wells asked Laurel, “Have you two met? Ben is with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. He used to be the game warden in these parts, but since he’s been promoted he spends more time sitting behind a desk pushing papers than tromping around in the wilds.”
Ben laughed. “That’s what happens when you’re given an official-sounding title like Enforcement Coordinator.”
“Ben’s been a great help to me during the years I’ve been coming up to do research,” Dr. Wells explained.
“I heard you’d come up again, Ethan, this time with a field crew.”
“We got in a couple of days ago. I appreciate your stopping in to say hello.”
“Actually,” said Ben, “I’m here on official business.” In response to Dr. Wells’s look of confusion, he went on, “The Torvolds have reported a couple of bear poachings. I’m here to check them out.”
“Any clues as to who’s behind them?”
Ben shook his head. “I’m not particularly optimistic, either. The guys who engage in this kind of thing are experts—and, frankly, our resources are too limited to give such incidents the full-scale investigation they deserve. I hate to say it, but chances are we’ll never find out who the poachers are.”
“That means you won’t be able to put a stop to it, either,” Laurel commented.
“I’m afraid that people who are determined to beat the system are simply a fact of life,” Ben said sadly. “But enough about Fish and Game’s problems. Tell me about the project you’ve got underway.”
“I’ll let Laurel do that,” said Dr. Wells. “In the meantime, I’m going to track down Trip.” Frowning, he added, “I just don’t understand him—”
“Dr. Wells is taking a biological inventory of Wolf Lake, studying its ecological structure,” Laurel told Ben once they’d been left alone. “We’re going to spend the next few weeks identifying every species of plant and animal that lives in and around it. Specifically, we’re trying to find out why some lakes have rooted plants in them and others are dominated by phytoplankton.”
She went on to describe the project in more detail. Ben Seeger was an attentive listener, stopping her every so often to ask a question.
When she finally finished, he said, “You sound as if you’re pretty serious about all this.”
“Oh, yes!” Laurel made no attempt to hide her enthusiasm. “I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to be up here. It’s always been my dream to come to a place like Alaska. Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve been in love with the natural world.”
Ben chuckled. “If there’s one thing we’ve got up here, it’s nature.” His expression suddenly became more serious. “Ever think of coming up permanently?”
“You mean to live?”
Ben nodded.
“I’ve still got three more years of college—”
“You mean you’re this knowledgeable and you’re only a freshman?”
Laurel was suddenly shy. “I’ll be a sophomore in the fall.”
“Tell you what. You give me a call in a couple more years, and if you’re interested, I’ll do what I can to set you up with a job as a field biologist. The Department of Fish and Game is always on the lookout for dedicated scientists like you.”
Laurel could feel her cheeks turning red. “Do you mean it?”
Ben laughed. “Just as long as you don’t mind a little mud, a little snow ... and a few mosquitoes!”
“Mr.
Seeger,” Laurel replied earnestly, “to be perfectly honest, all that sounds like heaven to me!”
Chapter Eight
“Come on, you dumb shoelace—oh, no!”
Frustrated over her inability to pull the fraying lace of her hiking boot through the last tiny hole, Mariah gave one hard tug—and watched with dismay as it tore in two.
“Now
what am I going to wear?” she moaned, even though there was no one else in the tiny cubicle that served as a bedroom for three.
She’d been in Alaska for more than a week and a half, yet still she found even the smallest, most commonplace task a struggle. Even finding the right clothes to wear was a challenge. The fact that she’d brought all the wrong things didn’t help. Her casual outfits from the finest department stores and boutiques may have looked fashionable, but she was quickly discovering they simply weren’t strong enough to stand up to the hardship conditions of the Alaskan wetlands. She’d actually found herself envying Laurel her sturdy hiking boots and soft flannel shirts. At the moment, she would have gladly traded her favorite cashmere sweater for a pair of thick socks.
Not that she’d ever admit it. Mariah would have gone barefoot before she’d ask Laurel for help.
At the moment, doing exactly that looked like a distinct possibility. With a broken shoelace, there was no way she’d be able to wear her hiking boots on today’s foray into the fields that lay beyond the wooded area on Wolf Lake’s eastern shore.
“Come on, Mariah!” she suddenly heard Cassie call impatiently from the doorway of the cabin. “Russ and I are leaving. Dr. Wells said you’ve got to come
now.”
Feeling panic rise inside her, Mariah looked around the room. Her hiking boots, now useless, lay on the floor in front of her. Pushed in one corner were her running shoes, still sopping wet from the day before. The only pair of shoes that was even a remote possibility for the rigorous day ahead was a pair of white canvas tennis shoes. After only a moment’s hesitation, she grabbed them and began pulling them on.
She knew what the others thought of her. And while she tried to tell herself she didn’t care, the truth of the matter was that she hated being an outsider. She could see how close Cassie and Laurel were—even though she was constantly irritated by the way Cassie was always tagging along after Laurel. The only thing that was worse, as far as Mariah was concerned, was the way she kept fawning over Trip. And as far as
he
was concerned, she would have preferred working alongside a bear to working with him. Russ, at least, seemed reasonable. But he tended to keep to himself. That left Mariah little choice but to do the same.
“We’re leaving, Mariah,” Cassie called again. “Goodbye.”
Mariah jumped off the bed and dashed out of the cabin. She immediately saw that Cassie hadn’t been exaggerating. She and Russ were already starting down the path toward the lake, laden with the equipment they’d need for the morning’s foray. Tagging along after them was little Danny Torvold. Just as he had on many other mornings, he was begging to be taken along on the day’s outing, speaking in a high-pitched whine that set Mariah’s nerves on edge.
“Hey, wait up!” she called, starting after them.
“Tennis, anyone?”
She turned and saw Trip and Laurel at the side of the cabin, helping Dr. Wells pack up the cumbersome fishnets called seines. The three of them were going to spend the morning at the lake collecting more fish samples, not far from the field she’d be surveying with Russ and Cassie. At first, she’d been glad she’d be getting a break from her two least-favorite members of the team. Yet as Trip’s jeering voice pummeled her like a spray of stones, she realized she wasn’t going to get off quite that easily.
“Sorry if my fashion statement doesn’t happen to come up to your standards,” she shot back, barely glancing in his direction.
“Hey, this isn’t the tennis courts of Beverly Hills,” he retorted. “In case you haven’t noticed.”
“Hey, you two,” Dr. Wells interjected. But he left it at that. Mariah figured he’d probably come to accept their sparring as something he was simply going to have to put up with.
I hate it here! Mariah thought as she hurried down the path toward Cassie and Russ, who were waving good-bye to a disappointed Danny. She shut her eyes hard, not wanting the tears that were beginning to well up to fall. How am I ever going to make it through another four and a half weeks?
She decided to ignore the others, instead concentrating on the work. Not that she was looking forward to spending this beautiful morning slogging around in a flooded field of muck, marshes, and swampy grasses. Why everyone else up here seemed to relish endless days in the most primitive conditions, she couldn’t begin to understand. But today, just like every other day since she’d gotten here, she’d simply have to grit her teeth and, somehow, try to muddle through.
Please,
please
don’t let this be as difficult as those long days in the canoes, Cassie thought as she followed Russ through the woods and into a clearing.
Almost instantly her spirits lifted. This, at least, was a pleasant change from the dense growth of trees that had surrounded her for the ten days she’d been up here, ten days that felt like an eternity. An expansive field stretched out ahead of her, a flat plain with nothing growing on it but stubby grass and some scattered wild-flowers. Their mission for today was to survey the area, trudging through and gathering samples of plants and insects while taking notes on the varieties of birds they spotted.
She knew no more about this type of terrain than she did about the lake. Still, she was content to follow Russ around, doing her best to keep out of Marian’s way.
“Okay,” he said. “Let’s start over there.”
“Why there?” Mariah asked.
“Because it’s the farthest point in the area we’ll be covering today. We’ll work our way back.”
“Okay,” Cassie said with a shrug. Throwing her butterfly net over her shoulder, she took a step in the direction Russ had indicated.
Instantly she felt her foot going down, down, down...,
“Quicksand!” she cried.
“It’s not quicksand,” Russ said calmly. “It’s muskeg.”
“Musk
what?”
“Muskeg. It’s nothing worse than wet, spongy ground.”
Cassie took another step, this one more tentative. Her boot sank into the soft ground a good eight or ten inches. A pool of water immediately surrounded her foot. “It’s sucking me under!” she insisted.
“Don’t worry; you won’t go through. It’s just a layer of decaying vegetation over a marsh. But it’s strong enough to hold you up.”
“Great,” Mariah muttered. “There go my tennis shoes.”
“Why didn’t you wear rubber boots?” Russ asked.
Mariah was tempted to explain. Instead, she simply shrugged. “Come on. Let’s get going.” She headed in the same direction Cassie had started out in, her feet making a sloshing sound with every step she took. Russ and Cassie gripped their gear more tightly, then followed.
“Wait a minute.” Suddenly Russ stopped. “We’d better not go this way after all.”
“What now?” demanded Mariah.
“Look up there.”
Cassie’s eyes traveled upward in the direction he was pointing.
“I don’t see anything.” She was squinting into the sun.
“See what’s up in that tree?”
“You mean those birds?” asked Mariah.
“Exactly. They’re terns.”
“Now I see them!” Cassie exclaimed. The birds were too far away for her to get a good look, but even from her vantage point she could see their distinctive black-and-white coloring. “They’re beautiful!”
“Very nice,” Mariah said impatiently. “Now let’s hurry up and get this over with.” She hiked her backpack higher up on her shoulders and started off.
“I wouldn’t recommend going this way,” Russ cautioned.
“But it’s the shortest route!”
“We’d be better off heading around that way, along that little pond over there.”
“You’ve got to be kidding!” Mariah made no attempt to hide her exasperation. “We must have walked two miles so far. Do you really expect me to tack on another extra mile because of some stupid
birds!”
“Terns are extremely territorial,” Russ explained. “Look in that tree, over there. See that nest?”
“Don’t tell me,” Mariah muttered. “That’s the launching pad for their missiles.”
Ignoring her icy comment, he continued, “The adult terns will do anything to protect their nestlings.”
“I’m with Russ,” Cassie agreed. “It’s true that this other route is a little bit out of our way. But if he thinks it’s for the best—”