Yellowstone Standoff Read Free Page A

season.”
    Lex pointed at a young man and woman in the front row. The two wore black fleece jackets emblazoned with logo patches of various outdoor and high-tech gear manufacturers, including the bright red logo of a company called AeroDrone. The woman, petite with long, ebony hair, straightened in her chair. Even so, her head barely reached the shoulder of the man seated beside her. He was tall, broad-shouldered, and clean-shaven, his head enveloped in a fluffy cloud of red curls.
    â€œThe fact of the matter is, if it weren’t for the work of our Drone Team, we’d have conducted no backcountry research at all last summer.” Lex inclined his head toward the two. “Thank you, Kaifong, Randall.”
    The woman looked at the floor while the puffy-haired man lifted a hand and turned to face the others with a broad smile.
    Lex addressed the room: “One of several new faces with us tonight I’d like to introduce is Keith Wilhelmsen.”
    A young man in jeans and a plaid shirt twisted in his second-row seat to acknowledge those around him. His thick, black beard was untrimmed, his wavy, shoulder-length hair corralled into a ponytail by a braided leather cord.
    â€œKeith is a Ph.D. candidate out of Cornell. He constitutes the human half of the park’s latest research addition, our Canine Team. He and the second member of his team—his tracking dog, Chance—will work out of Turret camp this summer. Likeall of you in your specialties, Keith is a top dog in his field—pun intended.” Lex’s joke drew a handful of chuckles. “He’ll be conducting leading-edge work in a new field of inquiry: the use of service canines to track other mammals. I know it’s unusual to use a domesticated animal in the course of backcountry field work in the park. It’s unprecedented, in fact. But the potential to expand upon our abilities to track and survey predators in the backcountry makes this new option one we have deemed worth exploring this summer. Keith and Chance will provide us with a new and, dare I say, revolutionary tool as we continue to pursue the grizzly involved in the attack on the Wolf Initiative’s Territory Team.”
    A number of scientists seated ahead and to the right of Chuck—clearly the wolfies—shifted in their seats.
    â€œPlease understand,” Lex said in response to the show of unease, “we have no indication the bear we’ve come to call Notch is anywhere in the vicinity of Turret Cabin. Keith will spend the coming weeks testing and refining Chance’s ability to track other grizzlies whose territories include the Thorofare region. The goal is for Keith and Chance to be prepared to help in the pursuit of Notch when the bear is spotted—something we are convinced will eventually happen.”
    A woman two rows ahead of Chuck raised her hand. Her hair was shaved close on both sides of her skull. Half a dozen hoop earrings dangled from piercings in each of her ears. A blond mohawk rose from the top of her head and swooped down the back of her neck to the collar of a vibrant pink down vest over a skin-tight top. The nylon top hugged her wide shoulders and muscled arms. She spoke before Lex acknowledged her. “All this talk about Notch, and the humiliation you put the Grizzly Initiative through last year. I, for one, am getting pretty tired of it.”
    The researchers seated around the woman nodded their approval. After a second’s hesitation, Justin followed suit.
    Lex crossed his arms, his face immobile, giving the woman the floor.
    She shifted in her seat. “I know you’re trying to do what’s best. But I lost an entire year on my whitebark pine nut ingestion study because of your decision to pull everyone out of the field last summer, and the twelve-month gap in my data set has forced me to recast my entire dissertation. At this point, I’m not even sure my thesis committee will accept the changes