Charlene Bloom smiled at him and nodded, but her mind was already moving on to the dreaded meeting. Head down, she set off through the hangarlike building, her footsteps echoing to the high, corrugated-steel roof. Behind her, Wolfgang watched her departure. His look was a combination of rage and sorrow. “That’s right, Charlene,” he grunted under his breath. “You’re the boss, so you go off and take the heat. Fair enough. We both deserve it after what we did to poor old Dolly. But you ought to stop kissing JN’s ass and tell her she’s pushing us too fast. She’d probably put you in charge of paperclips, but serve you right — you should have put your foot down before we lost one.” A hundred yards away along the length of the open floor, Charlene Bloom abruptly turned to stare back at him. He looked startled, raised his hand, and gave an awkward half-wave.

“Reading my thoughts?” He sniffed and turned back to his control console. “Nah. She’s just chicken. She’d rather stay here than tell JN what’s happened in the last half-hour.”

He switched to Jinx’s displays. The big brown bear had to be eased back up to consciousness, a fraction of a degree at a time. They couldn’t afford to lose another one.

He rubbed at his unshaven chin, scratched absentmindedly at his crotch, and pored over the telemetry signals. What was the best way? Nobody had real experience at this, not even JN herself.

“Come on, Jinx. Let’s do this right. We don’t want you in pain when the circulation comes back. Blood sugar first, shall we, then serotonin and potassium balance? That sounds pretty good.”

Wolfgang Gibbs wasn’t really angry at Charlene — he liked her too well. It was worry about Dolly and Jinx that upset him. He had little patience or respect for many of his superiors; but for the Kodiak bears and the other animal charges, he had a good deal of affection and concern.