Way of the Wolf (21 page)

Tikaani shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other while the film crew got into position.

One man adjusted the camera on his shoulder and focused the lens on Tikaani’s face. The sound man held a microphone on the end of a long boom, just above his head and out of the camera’s sight. And the interviewer, a cheerful American woman in her thirties called Joanne, raised her hand.

‘Ready?’

‘Ready,’ Tikaani said.

Behind him the waters of the inlet sparkled. A pod of killer whales cut through the surface, jets of spray saluting the blue sky above. It was beautiful, but Beck, standing with the crowd of silent
onlookers behind the camera, held his breath. This was the third take of Tikaani’s closing lines. The first time, someone had sneezed. The second time, Tikaani had stumbled and muddled his words. Beck hoped that the whales weren’t going to spoil the shot. He had had no idea there was so much to a simple interview.

‘And again . . . go.’

Tikaani beamed at the camera. ‘I mean,’ he said, ‘you wouldn’t break up a priceless painting because you wanted it for wood, would you?’

The words sounded a little stilted at first. Tikaani wasn’t a natural actor. But then his genuine anger and passion started to shine through, creeping into his voice.

‘So why’ – he half turned, and with a wave of the hand indicated the inlet, and Anakat, and the wilderness beyond it – ‘do the same here?’

He turned to face the camera again. ‘There are alternative fuel sources. There’s renewable energy. But this isn’t renewable and once this is gone, it’s gone for ever.’

‘And cut!’ Joanne said. ‘Brilliant, Tikaani.
We’ll use that. We can make the six o’clock news.’

Tikaani grinned, and sauntered over to Beck and Al. ‘Hi, strangers.’

It had been a week since they’d seen each other face to face. It felt longer. They had talked on the phone – they had even been interviewed together in a conference call – but that was all. Beck hadn’t realized how much he’d missed his friend.

‘That was very good. Very good indeed,’ said Al. He was no stranger to making programmes. Beck could see his uncle’s words of praise meant a lot to Tikaani.

‘Yeah, well, I’ve been getting practice . . .’ he mumbled. ‘Did you just get here? Was that you about ten minutes ago?’

Beck and Al had just flown in by helicopter. It hadn’t been hard to find Tikaani. They had simply followed the line of TV crews.

‘That was us,’ Beck agreed, and Tikaani flashed his old grin.

‘You interrupted me talking to CBS.’

‘Well, gee,’ said Beck. ‘I
am
sorry.’ They turned towards the village, Al limping on his stick.

‘Did they interview you too, in Bethel?’ Tikaani asked.

‘Yeah, I talked to a couple of reporters briefly,’ Beck replied. ‘But you are the real story, buddy.’ He had seen his friend on almost every news bulletin.

‘When does your own film crew get here?’ Tikaani asked Uncle Al.

‘Later this afternoon,’ he replied. ‘We’re finally going to make our documentary – but I’m not sure it’s needed now.’

For a moment Tikaani looked thunderstruck. ‘Not needed? Why not?’ He had actually gone pale.

‘It looks like Anakat already has someone to speak for it.’

Tikaani frowned. ‘Who? I . . .’ His eyes went wide and he flushed. ‘Oh! Me?’

Beck smiled. He’d already had Al point this out to him, at length, on the helicopter ride here.

It had been unfortunate – for the reporters – that Beck and Tikaani hadn’t stayed together. But it hadn’t stopped the news coverage, though.
HERO TEENS BATTLE BLIZZARD TO SAVE UNCLE
! That had been just one of the headlines.

But – maybe because Tikaani had been on his own when the news crews descended on Anakat – something interesting had happened. Tikaani became the one they concentrated on. Every time he talked on TV he said a little more about preserving Anakat. And now the news companies seemed more interested in that than in their journey across the mountains.

‘You’re a young American and a young Anak,’ Al explained to him. ‘You’ve got a foot in both camps. You understand them both and you help them both understand each other. I’ve seen it happening in the last week. You’ve managed to become the Anak youth spokesman for the environment.’

Tikaani flushed deeper. ‘I . . . I really don’t want to be. I just want to . . . you know’ – he waved hand around generally – ‘save Anakat.’

‘Good on you. You’ve got to use that media interest,’ Al said cheerfully. ‘And while it is there, you’re going to do a lot of good. You already have.’

‘Enough to stop Lumos?’ Beck asked.

And Al shrugged. ‘Who knows, Beck? Who knows?’

When they got back to Tikaani’s house, his dad was there with the satellite phone in his hand. ‘Call for you, Professor,’ he said. ‘It’s your producer.’

‘James?’ Al frowned. ‘What does he want? He’s meant to be on the helicopter right now.’ He took the phone. ‘James? What gives?’

A pause.

‘
What?
Says who? . . . Right . . .’

His eyes flitted over the boys and he turned away, as if he wanted privacy and somehow it made a difference when they were standing two metres away from him.

‘Can you confirm . . . ? Right. Yes. Excellent. I’ll see to it. Bye.’

He hung up and stood there for a moment, his face clouded and deep in thought. Then he pulled a notepad out of his pocket, sat down and began to write.

‘Do me a favour, boys,’ he said. He tore the sheet out of the pad, folded it, and gave it to Beck. ‘You can run faster than me. Give this to that lovely young
lady Tikaani was just talking to. It may be in all our interests.’

Beck took the paper, bursting to know what was in it. Al pierced him with a look.

‘Go!’

And the boys ran off with the message.

The film crew was packing up where they had left them. Joanne had been filming herself asking the same questions she had just asked Tikaani, so that when the interview was broadcast they could mix the questions and answers together.

‘Hi, guys.’ She greeted them with a smile. They had broken the Inuit rule and run. ‘Where’s the fire?’

They smiled and Beck handed her the paper.

‘From my uncle,’ he said.

She looked sidelong at him. ‘Alan Granger? Well, well. Maybe he’s asking me on a date.’ She unfolded the paper casually, swept it with a glance, and went rigid. Then she read it again more carefully. ‘Do . . . you guys know what this is?’

They shook their heads and a mischievous smile spread over her face.

‘Right.’ She turned away, calling for one of her crew. ‘Dave! Satellite phone, right now . . . And you guys? Wait there. Your uncle basically wants me to run a question through some of my contacts and I may have an answer for him . . .’

Whatever she had to say over the phone, she said it so they couldn’t hear, though there was much glancing over to where they were waiting. Beck was beginning to feel just a
little
irritated . . .

But after five minutes she seemed to get the answer she wanted. ‘And that’s definite?’ she asked the phone. ‘One hundred per cent, bona fide, guaranteed? . . . I owe you. I owe you big time . . . Right. Get me a two-minute slot on tonight’s show . . . ’ Kay – bye.’ She hung up and turned to the crew. ‘Camera! Mike!’ she called. ‘Over here, right now! Now, guys, if you could just stand over there, where Tikaani was before . . .’

‘You’re going to interview us?’ Tikaani asked without enthusiasm.

‘You bet! You’ll see . . .’

And so, a bit confused, they stood side by side with Joanne, their backs to the inlet and facing the camera. The cameraman gave his cue and Joanne spoke into her microphone.

‘I’m here in Anakat right now with Tikaani and Beck, whose adventures we’ve heard all about over the past few days. I’m about to tell them the news you just heard.’

She turned to the boys with a delighted smile.

‘So what is your reaction to the breaking news that Lumos Petroleum has abandoned its plans to build a plant here in Anakat?’

Later, they met up in Tikaani’s house with the crew who had come to film Al’s documentary. The producer had brought a copy of the leaked press release which was the source of the rumour that Lumos Petroleum had changed its plans for Anakat. They sat at the table in the main room and Beck read through it.

‘“A spokesman confirmed that the corporation had previously drawn up a number of contingencies, one of which involved building the contested refinery
and relocating the Anak people, the inhabitants of the disputed area. ‘We see no need for this course of action now,’ he said. ‘Geological surveys suggest that the surrounding area of Anakat may not be entirely suitable’—”’ Beck broke off. Joy and anger struggled together inside him. Joy that thanks to Tikaani – and the groundwork laid by Uncle Al and everyone else – the campaign had borne fruit. Anger that there always had to be an excuse.

‘That’s not true! They
totally
intended to start drilling here!’ Beck exclaimed.

‘Of course they did.’ Al gently pried the paper out of his hands and quickly scanned it. Beck could almost see the warm glow of pleasure that enveloped him. ‘But what were they going to say? “The corporation admitted that everyone was making such a big deal about the two teen heroes that it would be really bad publicity to go ahead”? They pay their PR people a lot to save face.’

‘Maybe,’ Beck agreed. But it left a bad taste. They
had
meant to build a refinery. They
had
lost the battle. Why couldn’t they admit it?

‘Beck, we won,’ Al said quietly. ‘Rather, we won
this one. There’ll be plenty more battles. And who knows, maybe they’ll make a movie about you two. For the moment it is, as I believe your generation likes to say, sorted.’

‘Yes,’ Beck said sardonically. He wished Al wouldn’t try and use modern slang – it just didn’t work. ‘It is, like, well sorted, innit?’

Al closed his eyes and sat back in his chair. ‘I need to rest for a while, boys. Go have fun . . .’

They strolled down Anakat’s main street towards the hall where Tikaani had spoken to the whole village and where a party was now taking place.

‘We did it,’ he stated simply.

‘Yup,’ Beck agreed.

And that was all they needed to say. There was enough celebration going on.

‘A movie, eh?’ Tikaani said reflectively as they walked.

Beck grunted. ‘Hmm. They’d have to put a girl in too, of course. There’d need to be a romance element.’

‘Really?’ Tikaani looked thoughtful, one
eyebrow raised. ‘Obviously, I’d be the one who gets her.’

Beck looked sideways at him. ‘In. Your. Dreams.’

Tikaani grinned.

They continued to walk companionably towards the party. Word about Lumos Petroleum had definitely spread. Laughter and music was drifting towards them from the hall.

Then something moved in the corner of Beck’s vision, just beyond the trees at the edge of the village. A shadow that loped across the ground.

Tikaani put a hand on Beck’s arm, staring into the woods. ‘Hey, did you see . . . ?’

Beck looked at where the shadow had been, then smiled and turned away. ‘The wolves are still watching you, Tikaani.’

‘Yeah.’ Tikaani looked thoughtfully into the trees. ‘I wonder what they have in mind?’ He paused for a moment longer, then turned back to the road. ‘Well, I’m in the right place for them to find me. I’m home.’

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