“No.”

She told him. As a clincher, she added, “Dan says the feds are interested in selling exploration leases in Iqaluk, too, Billy. We need him.”

Billy frowned but said nothing.

Kate was incredulous. “Don’t tell me you want to let them drill in Iqaluk!”

“It’d mean jobs, Kate.”

“None for us! Nobody here knows how to drill for oil!”

“They could be trained. We could get the feds to make it a condition of the leases.”

A hot reply trembled on the tip of her tongue. From somewhere, she found the strength to repress it. “Then,” she said, with tight control, “you’d better make sure that we’ve got the ear of the top spokesman for the feds in this Park.”

He frowned. “What do you want me to do?”

“Do you want to have to break in a new ranger? Somebody who’s going to go around burning out squatters, even if they’ve been squatting for twenty years? Somebody who doesn’t know a moose from a caribou and won’t look the other way when somebody shoots one to feed his kids after the season is closed? Somebody who’ll let all the fish go up the river because the lobbyist for the sports fishers has a bigger bullhorn and a fatter wallet than the lobbyist for the commercial fisher?” She paused and took a deep breath. “I’ll fight against any kind of development in Iqaluk, Billy, barring the logging leases we’ve already signed, but if you decide you want to go after subsurface mineral development and you get your way, it’s better for all of us to deal with Dan, someone who knows us and knows our ways, than some yahoo with a diploma so new, the ink isn’t dry on it yet. At least Dan listens to what the elders have to say about the history of salmon runs. The seals are coming back to the Sound today because he did.” She paused again. “You know you don’t want to have to break in somebody new.”

“Well,” Billy said, a defensive look on his round moon face. There was only one right answer, and they both knew what it was. “No.”