Whisper to the Blood by Dana Stabenow Page A

favor say—"
    "All in favor of tabling unfinished business," Auntie Joy said.
"Okay, all in favor of tabling unfinished business say aye."
    "Aye,"
Harvey
said.
    "Aye," Demetri said.
    Old Sam gave
Harvey
an appraising glance. "What's this about,
Harvey
?"
    Harvey
glared. "Out of order!"
    Auntie Joy patted the air with pacific hands. "I say aye, too, Old Sam.
No fighting, now."
    "Oh, all right," Old Sam said, giving in, but he fixed
Harvey
with a cold and
untrusting eye.
    Auntie Joy said encouragingly, "Okay, Katya, motion carried."
    "The motion is carried," Kate said obediently.
    "No, you say what motion is."
    "Oh. Okay. The motion to table unfinished business is carried. By
majority vote!"
    She couldn't help the note of triumph, and
Harvey
's laugh was immediate and unkind, and
Kate's hackles rose. She looked down at the agenda. "All right, then I
guess we go to new business. Anybody have any new business to discuss?"
    "I do,"
Harvey
said, promptly and predictably. "With the board's permission, I'd like to
introduce Global Harvest Resources Inc.'s personal representative to the
Niniltna Native Association, and to the Park." Before anyone could say
anything, he got up and went to the door. "Talia?" He ushered a woman
into the room.
    "Katya!" Auntie Joy said urgently. "Point of order,
Katya!"
    "Point of what?" Kate said.
    "Question!" Old Sam said.
    "What was the question?" Kate said.
    "Everyone, meet Talia Macleod,"
Harvey
said. "Talia, this is the
Niniltna Native Association board of directors. Starting on your left, Sam
Dementieff, Joy Shugak, Demetri Totemoff, myself, and our recently named
interim chair, Kate Shugak. In the corner, that's Annie Mike, our secretary and
treasurer."
    The name was instantly recognizable to them all, as was the dazzling smile
she sent round the room, which had graced the front page of every newspaper in
Alaska
, as well as the cover of
Alaska
magazine,
Outside
magazine, and
Sports Illustrated,
twice. True, one of those had been a
group shot of the whole Olympic team, but still.
    Talia Macleod was an Alaskan athlete of international renown, a member of
the American biathlon team, finishing six times in the top ten nationally,
taking first once, and going to the world championship five times and the
Olympics twice. Her hair was a white blond mane, her eyes cerulean blue and
widely spaced, and she had a lithe figure that looked equally well in ski pants
and bathing suits, this latter attested to by the most recent
Sports
Illustrated
swimsuit issue, her second appearance in that periodical.
    And then, there was that smile. Full-lipped, white-toothed, dimpled even at
rest, it had been described as incandescent by one besotted journalist, and it
lit up the newspapers, the magazine covers, and any room she walked into.
    Including the Niniltna Native Association board room. She didn't suffer from
shyness, either. "How nice to meet you," she said, walking around the
table to shake hands. Either
Harvey
had rehearsed her or she was very good with names, because she addressed them
all faultlessly and without hesitation.
    "I hear they call you Old Sam," she said with an up-from-under
flutter of eyelashes. "I can't think why."
    "Mrs. Shugak," she said, holding one of Auntie Joy's hands in both
of hers. "It's an honor to meet one of Ekaterina Shugak's closest friends,
and one of the founding members of the Niniltna Native Association. I'm looking
forward to working with you."
    "Demetri," she said, pulling Demetri to his feet and giving him a
warm hug. "Great to see you again."
    "You, too." Demetri hugged her back and sat down again, avoiding
everyone's eyes.
    "Demetri took me and a bunch of friends of mine from Outside hunting up
in the Quilak foothills a couple of years back." She smiled down at him.
"My, that was a good time."
    Demetri Totemoff, fifty-five, had been born in
Anchorage
to Park rats who had moved away. He
had moved to the Park after two tours in
Vietnam
. Married with three
children, he was a