The Cynic and the Wolf by Julie Steimle (ebook voice reader TXT) 📕

Again, that put doubts into Audry's mind over the safety of the wolf. But then again, she had knocked it out with the tranquilizer when it had been eating rabbit. It probably had not gone anywhere since then.

Putting on her snowshoes, Audry climbed up the snowy mound, dragging the sled after her.

"Hey!" one of the rangers called over to her, seeing her.

"I have a pass," Audry said.

He laughed. "Yeah. We know. I was just… uh. Can I offer you a lift? You know, on the snowmobile? It would make you job go faster."

He was cute. Audry blushed, wishing Harlin had been someone like this ranger. Yet she shook her head. "No. That's ok. I don't want to disturb nature."

Chuckling, he just grinned at her, shaking his head. "Is it really going to make a difference? I mean you trudge up that hill every day carrying all that equipment. Can't you cut yourself a break on the last day?"

Grinning more, Audry shook her head again. "No. I'm a purist. I have to leave the smallest footprint when I go. But thanks for the offer."

Shrugging, he then backed away. "Ok…. I had to ask."

She waved, heading off.

It was sweet of him to make such an offer, really. He meant well. And though Audry was not sure he offered because he liked her or because he, like Mrs. Gruber, was glad that the hunter had been caught in time, she still appreciated it. It was more likely the latter. But Audry liked to imagine that it was the former. Her bad luck with boyfriends had to end sometime. She just had to choose better.

Maybe she ought to look for guys who were more religiously bent. She wasn't atheist or anything, but she didn't hold to one religious view, and religion was a sticky point for so many people. One of the reasons she had liked Harlin was that his world view in that respect was the same as hers, or so he said. But shaking that off, Audry turned her thoughts to the scenery around her. Nature was where she really felt the influence of the Divine.

Audry went up to den first. It had been her last station, not counting the rabbit warren which had been outside her usual route. Creeping up to it with her sled, her hand on her tranquilizer gun, Audry looked for something to toss in to see if the wolf was still there. She didn't see any hunter's tracks, or even shots from a bullet, so it was likely the hunter hadn't even come to this particular den. There were others around, of course. He could have gone to the first one he knew about. There was one nearer to the rabbit warren where she had another camera set up.

Grabbing a pinecone, Audry climbed above the mouth of the den onto the old tree and gently tossed the pinecone into the den opening. She could hear it echo and roll about. But no reaction of any animal. Climbing down, Audry carefully poked her head into the hole.

Empty.

Well, except for the remains of a chewed-up rabbit.

Pulling back, Audry cringed. She could still see its ears. The wolf had eaten mostly the main body, leaving the rest.

Well, at least that was a sign he was alive.

And since all her camera equipment from inside was gone, Audry took a few pictures of the food remains then dragged her toboggan onto the next site.

This den was trod all over and shot up.

And worse, there was a dead fox.

"Oh…." Audry crouched down, not quite reaching for it yet. She took pictures, realizing she had to leave the fox to the natural elements as that was the way of nature. She guessed the hunter had seen the fox go into the den, assuming it was the wolf, or perhaps he was hunting fox all along. Fox fur was, after all, a valued animal pelt on some markets. She searched in for any other signs of animal life, then collected her camera equipment. After that, she trod onto the next station.

When she had reached the actual fox den, Audry noticed that there were no signs of it being shot up. No hunter's prints either—not even covered by last night's snowfall. She collected the camera from within the bush, taking the sim card out. She then continued on, photographing paw prints and droppings as she went. She even got an idyllic picture of a few foxes out on the snow. She could probably sell that one to a magazine. She had already sold a fair number to various web sharing sites online.

By this time she was heading back. She passed the rabbit warren, took more photos of the scene which was now blanketed in fresher snow covering most her tracks as well as those from the wolf and the hunter. A few rabbit heads popped out in curiosity, but Audry was not able to get a picture before they pulled back in again.

She went along the ski lanes, pulled up each camera from the icy earth, and strapped them down to the toboggan, ticking them off her map. There were four more locations left. Then three. Then two. And when Audry pulled up the final one, she drew in a deep breath and stared at the snowy scene before her.

She was done.

Well, at least with the data filming. The next month (at minimum) would be spent analyzing and sorting all the data from this time slot and compiling it with the rest of the data she had gathered over two years. It would be better to do this kind of thing over ten years, but Audry didn't have that kind of time. Maybe when she worked toward her PhD…. It sounded like a good idea.

She strapped down her last camera, made sure all of them were secure, then headed down back towards the lodge.

The echoes of undisturbed skiers lifted over the snowy terrain as she trod over snow downhill. She wasn't that far from her last station. She could see it easily, but she had to walk past all the easily irritated skiers who hated anyone in their path, as the lodge was on the other side of the bunny slopes and there was nothing else to it.

Someone from the ski patrol saluted her, smiling.

Audry waved back, amused.

She went farther and a ranger nodded to her, grinning wide.

Audry laughed.

A number of heads turned. Some rumors had apparently spread. And more Rangers saluted her. By the time Audry had rounded behind the lodge, she had been greeted by five rangers with appreciative hand signals, and someone from the ski patrol offered to help her carry in her equipment. The salutes she didn't care for, but that last offer Audry took up.

"This way you don't have to go back and forth and up and down with all this stuff by yourself," he said.

Audry was liking this. Gentlemen helping out. Maybe that was what she should be looking for in a man, a gentleman.

As she kicked off the snow from her snowshoes and coat, Audry unstrapped the bungee cords and unloaded the toboggan. The man from the ski patrol carried them inside. Audry set the toboggan back into its place once it was empty and joined him inside.

"Which one is your room?" the ski patrolman asked while she removed her snowshoes.

For a moment, Audry thought he was hitting on her. He had said the same thing Harlin had said to her when he first started to get more physical with her. Perhaps letting Harlin in had also been a lapse in judgement. So she said, "How about you just follow me and you hand me stuff into the room while I put it away?"

He chuckled, nodding. "Alright."

They went up together once she took off her boots.

He really was a gentleman. Bent on helping and nothing more, he went up and down the stairs while Audry found the cases each camera belonged in and took them apart to set them inside. She had a lot of cleaning to do, so he mostly stacked things in the doorway until it was all inside. 

"Is there anything else you need?" he asked.

Audry shook her head. "No. That's all. Thank you."

"My pleasure," he said with a nod. And he walked away.

Harlin would have been all over her. She realized it now. He had done something similar once before, 'helping' her, only to turn it into some kind of romantic moment where they ended up making out on the bed, and he tried to take it further.

Audry shuddered. She actually had been extremely lucky she had been able to live away from him for so long because it really did put things in perspective. She could now see Harlin for what he was. A predator.

Going back to cleaning her equipment, Audry took everything apart and removed all the batteries. She had to make sure everything was dry, most specifically to make sure no condensation gathered on the tech. That was the problem with bringing in technology from the cold. Moisture. She wrapped a lot of it in towels.

While the tech was returning to room temperature, Audry went through her other equipment. She hadn't had a chance to clean out her rescue kit from last night.

She took it to the desk, opening the case. The forceps were bloody. They needed to be washed then sterilized. And the bullet was still in the box with the scraps of iodine-and-blood-smeared bandage. She threw away the fabric scraps, but Audry held up the bullet which was surprisingly in good shape considering it had just gone through a rifle shaft and into a wolf's leg. She took up the hydrogen peroxide and poured it into one of the paper cups at the sink, dropping in the bullet. As it fizzed, eating away the blood on the bullet, the metal grew blackish, which was odd. What kind of bullet was this anyway?

Admittedly, she wasn't a chemist. But she was sure bullets were made out of lead. She was about to pick up the cup, but it was warm. She pulled her hand back.

She really wasn't a chemist. Maybe mixing hydrogen peroxide with metal was a bad idea. Carefully, Audry grabbed another cup and filled it with water. She dumped the bullet into that cup and waited, watching it.

As the fizzle of the blood and peroxide mix thinned out, Audry fished out the tarnished bullet. Rubbing at the black, Audry noticed an etching in one side. Peering at it, she rubbed it. In the darkest crevices was a word.

Deacon.

Audry's face felt hot.

Of all the hypocrites.

She stared at the bullet, reading that name over and over again. Though she understood the Deacons were manufacturers, she never really knew what they manufactured. But here it was—their trademark—Deacon—written on the side of a bullet.

They dealt in arms. That blasted family dealt in weaponry.

No wonder they were so rich.

Audry rose. It was too much. That rich creep—making money off of weapons and pretending to care about animal rights. No wonder he could never be a vegan. He had no heart.

Audry stormed out of her room, seeking the upper staff entrance to the lodge. If he was sick in bed, she was going to rip him out and give him a piece of her mind.

She pounded on his suite door.

No answer. Not even a sound of movement from inside.

She was about to shout at him through the door, but before Audry opened her mouth, it occurred to her that probably he was not in the room anymore as she had been gone a long time getting her things, and he almost certainly had come down to the kitchen after she had left. So she tromped down the stairs back to the kitchen to find him.

He wasn’t there.

Just the regular folk.

Looking around at the staff who were preparing for lunch, Audry's eyes took in the rest of the room. Mrs. Gruber wasn't in either. She was most likely out organizing something with the housekeeping staff.

"Have you seen