Though Not Dead by Dana Stabenow Read Free Book Online Page B

more puzzled at this unaccustomed deference. Dan O’Brian was notoriously loud and up-front by nature, it was one of the reasons he got on so well with the Park rats.
    It seemed to her he chose his words with care, as if he were tiptoeing over a minefield expecting one of them to explode whether he stepped on it or not. “You might like to consider the possibility of deeding Canyon Hot Springs over to the Park Service.”
    Her eyes widened. It might even be fair to say they nearly popped out of her head.
    “We have the ability to look after it,” Dan said. “Maybe even develop it as a remote, hike-in-only campsite.”
    Kate’s laugh was deep and spontaneous, and then she realized he was serious and the smile vanished from her face. She squared her shoulders and pushed out her jaw. “Old Sam left it to me,” she said. “Why would I give it to you? The Parks Service has made a career out of sequestering millions of acres of public land that is public only insofar as people can afford to get to it. At least if I keep hold of the springs I can say they’re open for everyone to use.”
    His mouth pulled up at one corner. “Yeah, and how much do you think the shareholders of the Niniltna Native Association are going to like that idea?”
    “What the hell are you talking about?”
    “I heard Auntie Joy wants to start charging people for berry picking on Native lands in the Park.”
    “Canyon Hot Springs belongs to me, not the NNA.”
    Dan looked down at the file in his hand and didn’t say anything.
    She remembered that Canyon Hot Springs was colored in in green on the map in his office. “Dan? Would you have even told me about the homestead Old Sam filed on Canyon Hot Springs if he hadn’t mentioned it in his will?”
    Dan didn’t answer.
    She looked around the room, at the file cabinets lining the walls. “How many so-called abandoned claims have you got in these files, Dan? Have you even tried to find the claimants’ heirs? Or do you just ignore them in hopes people will forget about them?”
    Again, he didn’t answer.
    She grabbed his arm. “Dan? Does title revert to the government if the land remains unoccupied?”
    He pulled free of her grasp. “I’ll make you those copies,” he said, and vanished down the hall.
    *   *   *
    Kate left the Step in a state of considerable disquiet.
    It wasn’t like she had to have title to Canyon Hot Springs. It wasn’t like she spent a lot of time there. It was an overnight trip in winter, and in summer the thick brush made it nearly impassable to anyone without a machete and the determination of Genghis Khan. The unmapped rocky outcrops and sudden spurs of the Quilaks provided their own effective camouflage, too. Kate had gotten lost two or three times on the way there last year.
    The hot springs sat in a narrow canyon where the majority of the real estate was essentially vertical. There was no airstrip and there never would be because there was no conceivable place to put one. She doubted there was enough room to land Dan’s new helicopter there. Probably couldn’t squeeze in a parachute, for that matter. The brush was too thick to bring in a four-wheeler in summer. No, certain access was only by snow machine or by piton, pickaxe, and rappelling rope.
    Two thirds of the Park was taken up by an undulating topography that gradually descended westward from the foothills of the Quilaks, punctuated by glaciers, glacial moraines, rivers, creeks and streams, a butte here and there, and a few freestanding mountains. The other third was given over to the Quilaks themselves in the east and the Chugach Mountains on the southwest coast. The Quilaks and the Chugachs were separated by the Kanuyaq River, which wound sinuously through the Park from above Ahtna to Prince William Sound. The Trans-Alaska Pipeline marked the Park’s western boundary, as did the Glenn Highway, which along with the Kanuyaq River provided relatively easy access to the adjacent land.
    The eastern