He checks his laser rangefinder. "Sixty yards. Ten more."
We inch forward. My pulse is slamming at the base of my throat, so hard I'm afraid the herd will hear it.
Fifty yards.
"Okay," Nash breathes. "We're good. Do it."
I pull the release transmitter from my pocket. It's a small gray box with a guarded toggle switch. I saved it from the river. I fixed the antenna to make it work.
My thumb hovers over the safety cover. "Recording," I whisper to myself. "Attempting release. Time: 13:42."
I flip the safety. I press the red button.
Nothing happens.
Waldo keeps chewing. The collar stays on.
"Come on," I hiss. I press it again. "Release. Release, damn it."
Still nothing.
"Signal interference?" Nash asks.
"Maybe the rock walls," I say, panic flaring. "Or the battery is weaker than the indicator showed. I need to be closer."
"Aris, if we get closer, he's going to bolt. If he runs up the scree, we lose him."
"I have to try," I say. "I can't come this far and fail because of five yards."
I start to crawl forward again.
"Wait," Nash says sharply. He grabs my ankle.
"What?" I turn to look at him, annoyed.
"Look at the young bull," he says.
I look. The younger male, the sentry, has stopped grazing. He's standing rigid, staring not down the chute we came up, but up, toward the rim of the cliff above us.
"What does he see?" I ask.
"The wind shifted," Nash says, sniffing the air. "It's swirling."
Then the young bull snorts, a loud, explosive sound of warning.
Waldo is on his feet instantly. The lethargy vanishes. He transforms from a resting animal into a coiled spring of muscle.
"They're spooked," I say. "Did they smell us?"
"No," Nash says, and his voice drops to a tone that sends ice water down my spine. "They smell them."
He rolls onto his back, bringing the rifle up.
"Where?" I ask, scrambling to get my own bearings. "The chute is clear."
"Not the chute," Nash says, scanning the cliffs above us. "They didn't come up the trail. They came over the top."
"Over the top?" I look up at the jagged black teeth of the ridge. "Wolves can't climb that."
