Read Online The Tejano Conflict by Steve Perry - Free Book Online

apparently there were two. We seldom saw her and never laid a cam on him, and it’s a big forest, so he was able to thrive unseen. Rare, a perfect storm, but it happens.
    â€œWe haven’t had one kill any humans for more than twelve years, this was quite a shock.”
    Kay nodded. Humans were much more concerned with their own kind dying than most other intelligent species.
    â€œAnyway, the protocol is to find and dispatch such rogues. For a while, we tried catching and relocating them; we tried drugs; in the end, nothing seemed to settle them down. Zookeepers were at risk, like that. So now, we eliminate them.
    â€œThis is such a rare event,” she continued. “And since the animal has to die, the, uh, powers that be decided that there should be some benefit to the park, so the right to hunt and take such bears is auctioned off to the highest bidder. The winning bid, as I’m sure you know, is generally . . . quite high.”
    The woman looked at Kay, and the unasked questions lay between them:
    How did a Vastalimi come to be here? How are you able to afford this?
    Kay let them lie. Formentara had told her there was a hunting fee, and zhe had paid it, as a gift. Formentara had not mentioned an amount.
    Humans were also overly concerned about money. Kay didn’t worry about that. She had enough for her needs, and her needs were mostly provided by CFI, so past that? What was the point?
    â€œUm. Anyway, this is map sig where we most recently spotted his spoor. We haven’t gotten a visual on our parksat, but the area is heavily wooded, and we don’t use pradar or IR much, too expensive for our budget.”
    Kay nodded.
    â€œIf you find him and kill him, use this locator, and we’ll come and collect the corpse.”
    She held out a thumb-sized lozenge.
    Kay took it.
    â€œWhat, uh, kind of weapon system will you be using? We recommend at least 10mm Hoarse Whisper loads in rifles; ten-gauge smoothbore with plus-P rifled slugs; or .50 GR in handcannon, but that only if you are expert with a sidearm.”
    Kay smiled. She raised one hand and snapped the claws out with an audible
snick!
    â€œI’ll be using these,” she said.
    Kay had gotten fairly good at reading human expressions during her years among them. This one was a mix of shock and amazement.
    â€œYou’re kidding!” the woman said, confirming that.
    â€œNo. The bear is larger and stronger, but I am much faster and with far superior intelligence. I have seen vids of these creatures, read what is known about the way they fight and take prey. I am prepared for what it can do, while it has no experience of my kind. The advantage is mine, by far.”
    â€œOne misstep, and it will swat you dead.”
    â€œI will strive to avoid taking that particular step.”
    The warden shook her head. “You signed the waiver.”
    â€œI did. My responsibility, not yours.”
    â€“ – – – – –
    Jo, on her way to see Rags, ran into Formentara, on hir way to some kind of conference at a major university in a place called Woomera.
    The heat of the days here was muggy, the humidity high, making for a fast sweat that didn’t want to evaporate from skin or clothes.
    Jo said, “Kay has left on her bear hunt.”
    Formentara nodded. “Good.”
    â€œThank you for that.”
    Zhe shrugged. “She needs to hunt. Not much of that going on on Earth anymore, but there is some.”
    â€œYou paid for it.”
    â€œSo? I have money.”
    Jo knew that. Formentara had created several commercially successful augs and had royalties from those; nobody knew for sure how wealthy zhe was, but zhe certainly wasn’t poor even though there was nothing about hir that spoke to having wealth.
    â€œI poked around. I understand that the previous bear-hunting license issued in such a situation cost more than nine hundred thousand ND.”
    Formentara’s smile was