Winter Study

“What?” A

“Mom knitted my socks for my feet. They fit better than any other socks.”

“Wow,” was all A

“All to hell.”

A

A tap at the door was followed by the pilot’s grizzled face. “More coffee?”

“Food?” A

“Coming up.” The door snicked shut.

Another tap quickly followed. “Robin?”

Bob.

“Go away.”

Jonah brought them each a bowl of beef-and-pasta casserole and more coffee. The food fortified A

As the fire was banked and others went to bed, the bunkhouse stilled and cooled. At ten, the lights went out; Jonah had shut down the generator for the night. Had A

To keep them both from falling asleep, A

By eleven-thirty, the candle was burned to a stub, and Robin was waxing fairly coherent. A

Before she crawled into her own sleeping bag, she turned the lock on the bedroom door. Without the heat from the stove, the room would be cold, but at least she would know no one was watching them as they slept.

24

A

To stop the racketing thoughts, she focused into the night, hoping its deep quiet would creep into her soul. The bunkhouse groaned and popped in a satisfied ma

Now that Katherine slept in a black plastic shroud on the floor in the carpenter’s shop, the room across the hall was empty. A

Jonah or Adam might take the room. Adam, probably. When he was in the bunkhouse and not on the couch, he shared a room with Bob. A

Bob, as the axman from Homeland Security, wasn’t in much of a position to make friends. A

A shivering ululation cut into her thoughts, reminding her that she had been seeking to quiet their flames, not fan them. A wolf’s howl embraced rare magic; sound transforming into pure emotion, the kind that exists beneath the level of language. Train whistles had it. They touched a chord in the human breast that echoed a longing for things unknown. For A

Train whistles and wolves howling seemed to be universal in their ability to pass through the paltry defenses of civilization to the more fundamental primitive heart of people. A

Giving up on the idea of sleep, she slid from her sleeping bag and into Levi’s and a sweatshirt. It occurred to her as she completed this abbreviated toilette that, should an unfortunate incident befall her, she would be found without underwear, clean or otherwise. She’d be careful not to get hit by a truck.

Lighting her way with a battery-powered headlamp secured around her brow with an elastic strap – the preferred headgear of the Winter Study team from ten p.m. till sunup – A

The biotech was deeply asleep, but her breathing was even and twelve breaths per minute so A

The blood should have been drawn hours before, but A

In the faint glow from the fire, A

Her sense of safety with other carnivores was based on nothing factual. It was a powerful and totally illogical feeling that they knew she loved them and would leave her untouched. Aware it was irrational, and probably born from watching too many animated Disney films as a kid, A