Chapter 10

"James, what are these guys doing?" asked Kris.

"I wish I knew, babe. Everything I've learned about these wolves tells me this is just not right," answered James.

"You can say that again. But the last few days have been strange, even stranger than what I've come to consider normal."

"I know. First that damn dream or nightmare," James watched as his wife shivered, "Then that other pack of wolves joining up with this one. And now these guys look to be ... I don't know, moving."

"On top of that, did you notice how it seems a few are behind us, and the pack isn't far ahead? It's almost like they want us to go with them."

"Love, I think that's exactly what they want."

"We really should call this in. But that's going to freak a lot of the bosses out."

"Kris, if we call this in, every nut out there will be here to get in the way. I just know it. This migration is important, for some reason. Can't you feel it?"

"I know. I can feel it, too. However, what does it mean?" Kris asked as she watched some of the wolves not far ahead of where she and her husband.

"I wish Redhawk was around, then I might know what some of this means."

"You and that silly old man. But I think, this time, you just might be right."

"Look, all we can do for now is go where the wolves go. If they go too far south we'll have to leave them and cross at a proper border. Then we can try to find them again later. However, at that point, we'll have no choice but to call this in. Agreed?"

"Agreed," finished James.

Kert walked into his office, greeting his secretary.

"Hi, Emma, can you do me a favor. I need you to look up the satellite number for the team of wolf watchers we have up in Canada?"

"Sure, Kert, I can do that. By the way, I have two messages for you," replied Emma then handed him the message slips with a smile.

Kert looked at the first, and it was from Larry, letting him know he had the wolf corpses scheduled for the necropsies. The second message made him cringe. It was from his boss. The Boss was demanding a report, as he had received complaints from a Mrs. Harper and from Dr. Racine.

Kert decided to bite the bullet, and called his Boss to get it over with.

"Department of Fish and Game, How may I help you?" said a cheery voice.

"Hi, Tammy. I needed to talk to Mark. I'm returning his call."

"Oh, hi, Kert. Yeah, he's not too happy with you. Dr. Racine gave him an ear full, and that Harper woman ... she called six times. She is a foul mouthed, awful woman."

"I know, and she's worse in person. Eighty percent of the places and people in town have active restraining orders against the family. The sheriff admits the group are known poachers but has had his hands tied. If what we found points to them he's going to arrest the whole bunch."

"I hope he can. However let me connect you to Mark. He's free now."

There was a pause and several clicks.

"Mark Bernfield," answered the man.

"Mark, it's Kert," said Kert.

"Shit, Kert! What the hell do you have going on out there?"

Kert chuckled, "Oh, you know. Pissing off the local poachers, and not doing enough for the ranchers."

"This time, I believe you. Ok, start with why you pissed off the Doc."

"Well, let's see. She showed up and tried to throw her weight around, on private property. She wanted to take the pups away. The owner was not happy at all with that. The sire of the pups was near to attacking her for even thinking of taking his pups.

"You should have crated up the pups, and the parents, and relocated them," said Mark.

"There's no indication that the pack is out-growing their territory. The reported wolf attack was by a rogue pack. The Mason pack seems to be the ones that drove them off."

"That's interesting."

"Some of the rogue pack were killed and we're running tests on them to see if we can ID them. However, from the reports of the ranchers, the Mason pack, normally, doesn't go into that area, but stay North-west of town."

"Ok. Now what about this Mrs. Harper?" Mark said with distain.

"I truly have never met anyone so terrible. We have unconfirmed reports that the Harper family is responsible for ninety percent of the poaching out of that county, and three others.

"I'm working with the sheriff to convince Ms. Mason to press charges against two of the family, as she caught them red-handed trespassing and trapping one of the local wolves.

"She took their weapons, and took them to the sheriff. She did file a report and then left. The brothers, Buddy and Ray, went to the sheriff and demanded their weapons back. After the sheriff made the men sign a receipt for the items, he put one of them in a cell." Kert stopped for effect.

"Oh, and why did he do that?" Mark was confused.

"The idiot was on probation. He violated himself when he took possession of the weapons," just the memory was enough to cause Kert to start laughing.

Mark cracked up, "He wasn't that stupid? Was he?"

"Oh, yes he was. The other brother then tracked down and attacked Ms. Mason and the owner of the local store. Now he's in the jail ward of the hospital. I was told the Harper family was not pleased and went to visit Ms. Mason. Needless to say Ms. Mason turned another load of weapons over to the sheriff. None, as of yet, have gone to claim them."

"That's a hell of a story," Mark said, still chuckling. "If it wasn't for the fact that I've dealt with that family before, I would say it was over the top. But those people are just idiots," Mark said still chuckling but paused, "Ok, how are the pups? If I read the report right, they were taken by C-section because the mother was killed?"