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“Does this mean your tour of duty is over, Mr. Neilson?”
Gunn leaned toward the phone. “There are still some loose ends. I’ll want to talk to Commander Navarro about that.”
“Of course. I’ll wait to hear from you both.”
After the call ended, Maddie pushed up from the table. “I need to rest for a bit.”
Gunn reached for her hand to halt her. “Nate and I are going back out.”
She frowned. “The equipment can wait.”
“From what Nate says, the drill really can’t. And unless we want to sled out that snowmobile, we’ll need to bring it back, too.”
Her gaze went to the window. “Just be sure not to linger out there. We can’t be sure how badly that bear was injured. An injured bear could be even more dangerous.” She didn’t know what she’d do if she lost Gunn, too.
Gunn gave her a nod,not wanting to say anything Maddie might consider a lie later, but wasn’t the sin of omission a form of lying, too?
Still, he didn’t want to worry or upset her. She’d already been through so much. “We’ll be careful. Promise.”
“Take a radio,” she said.
“Yes, Mom.”
Her mouth pursed, and then the tiniest of smiles curved the corners.
He stood and gave her a quick kiss. “See you later.”
After she left the room, he headed to the mudroom where Nate was waiting, his eyebrows rising as Gunn entered. “That was one long phone call.”
“Not really.”
“Then it was one long kiss goodbye.”
Gun chuckled. “Mind your own damn business.”
Nate’s cheeks billowed around a long breath. “So, we gonna do this?”
“Yeah, I think we have to.” Gunn went to the locker, picked out a rifle, checked the magazine, and then chambered a round.
“I didn’t tell Hanna. She wouldn’t understand. Circle of life shit. The bear was looking for a meal, and it was our fault for being out there.”
“I understand that,” Gunn said. “But he might be wounded and deserves to be put out of his misery. If he’s not badly hurt, he knows there are six meals waiting for him in this building. We can’t take a chance he’ll come back. He’s already proven he’s not afraid of us.”
They dressed quickly. Gunn took a radio off the charger and put it in his pocket. The other pocket held his satphone, although the cloud cover was thickening, so it might be wishful thinking that they could make use of it.
Then they rode together, pulling the sled behind them. They drove directly to Nate’s site, loaded the drill, and strapped it down on the sled’s bed. Eric had taken the samples for Nate and then closed the hole with a flat piece of wood earlier. So there was nothing left to do there.
Then, they headed to Em and Perry’s platform. The tripod was crumpled, unrecoverable. Apparently, the bear had crushed it when he’d charged Perry, so they left it. Then, standing at the edge of the site, Gunn pointed out the shallow hollow in the snow where Perry had fallen. Blood was still visible, although crystalized. Soon, fresh snow would hide it completely.
Gunn checked the sky. The clouds were thicker, blocking more of the meager daylight. “What do you think, Nate? Should we head back?”
“That bear was atour house,” he said. “Any one of us could be next if we don’t end him now.”
“Agreed,” Gunn said.
After a couple of tries, Nate got Perry’s snowmobile started. They followed what could only be bear-size pawprints, deep indentations in the snow. The animal had headed toward the edge of the ice, perhaps to the ramp which offered the easiest access on and off the floe.
Nate slowed his machine. “Don’t want to run over another surly bear,” he shouted over his shoulder to Gunn.
