Chapter 112: The Trap in the Field

We did not go to the circle.

We went to the east field and we stood in the stubble at the wall and we waited for the company to come down the north road.

Ruth came first with her forty wolves from the mountains and they came down the ridge in the dark and they were on foot and they had rifles and axes and they did not make a sound. Then Hannah came with the Kessler wolves and Ada Kessler in a truck with a blanket over her knees and four men on the running boards. Then the Walla Walla wolves came and the Riverside wolves and the Palouse wolves and the field was full of wolves and rifles and nobody said a word.

I stood at the wall with Elias and June and Silas and Dale.

“The company is at the gap,” Silas said. “They have the barrel in the truck and they are waiting for the light.”

“They are waiting for the light because they want to see the circle,” I said. “They do not know where it is.”

“They know it is in the trees on the north end of this field,” Silas said. “They have a map.”

“They have a map that says the circle is in the trees,” I said. “And the trees on the north end of this field are the trees they are going to walk into.” I turned around. “Ruth. How many wolves do you have in the trees?”

“Twenty,” Ruth said. “And twenty more in the west field and ten in the co-op yard.”

“And the company does not know they are there.”

“The company does not know anything is there.”

I put my hand on the wall.

“Then this is the trap,” I said. “The company comes down the north road and it turns into the field and it goes to the trees. And when it gets to the trees there are twenty wolves in the trees and twenty in the west field and ten in the yard. And the company has forty men and a barrel of oil and it is going to be in the middle of two hundred wolves before it knows what happened.”

Dale came up beside me.

“Alpha,” he said. “The company has a captain and the captain is a wolf named Rourke and I know him. He is not a fool. He will send a scout ahead and the scout will see the trees and the scout will come back and tell him.”

“Then we let the scout come and we let the scout go back,” I said. “And we do not touch him.”

Dale looked at me.

“You want him to see the trees.”

“I want him to see the trees and I want him to see the field and I want him to see nothing else.” I turned around. “The west field and the co-op yard. Get them out. Get them back to the square and tell them to stay there until the company is in the trees.”

Ruth looked at me.

“Then we are not going to fight them in the field,” she said.

“We are not going to fight them in the field,” I said. “We are going to let them walk into the trees and then we are going to close the field behind them and we are going to stand at the wall with the whole of the Luna’s line and we are going to tell them what is in the ledger.”

June came up with the ledger under her arm.

“The ledger,” she said.

“The ledger,” I said. “The co-op ledger with the payments in the margin and the names and the dates and the day my brother died.” I took it from her and put it on the wall. “The company is forty men who have been told they are coming to a territory to put down a rogue pack. And when they get into those trees and they turn around and there are two hundred wolves at the wall and a ledger on a stone, they are going to find out what they are actually doing.”

The field was quiet.

And then a wolf came running across the stubble from the co-op road.

It was the Corrigan boy and he was out of breath.

“Alpha,” he said. “The company is on the road. They have turned into the field.”

I stood at the wall.

“How many?”

“Forty. And the barrel is in the truck and the truck is in the middle and the captain is walking in front with a lantern.”

I turned around.

“Get to the trees,” I said. “Ruth, get your twenty into the trees and get them behind the trunks and tell them not to move until I say.”

Ruth went.

“Hannah. Get the Kessler wolves to the wall and tell them to stand behind it and not to show a rifle until I say.”

Hannah went.

“Dale. Get the Palouse wolves to the co-op road and tell them to close the gap behind the company and not to let a single truck out.”

Dale went.

And then I stood at the wall with Elias and June and Silas and the ledger and the whole of the east field in front of me and the company coming across it.

The captain was a big wolf in a canvas coat and he had a lantern in his hand and he was walking in front of the trucks and he was not in a hurry. The trucks came behind him with their headlights on and the barrel was in the second truck and there were two men sitting on it.

They came to the middle of the field and the captain stopped.

“That is far enough,” I said.

The captain looked at me.

“Alpha,” he said. “I am the captain of the northern company and I have an order to clear this field and burn the trees.”

“You have an order from eleven Alphas who have been signing a forger’s paper for forty years,” I said. “And I have a ledger.”

I held up the ledger.

The captain looked at it.

“What is that?”

“It is the co-op ledger of the Palouse Ridge pack,” I said. “And in the margin of it there is a list of payments in the hand of the Beta of this pack and every payment has the initials E. R. beside it and the date. The twelfth of June. The fourteenth. The fifteenth. The twenty-second. The twenty-third.” I put my hand on the page. “The twenty-second of June is the day my brother died. The payment on that day is two hundred dollars and it was paid by the Council to the Beta for the killing of Owen Halloran.”

The field was silent.

“And there is a second page,” I said. “It is in my mother’s hand and it is dated 1968 and it says the land under the mill was taken from the Luna’s line by a forged deed. And there is a third page that is the deed itself and it says the deed is void if the Luna is alive.” I looked at the captain. “And the Luna is alive. She is standing at this wall.”

The captain stood in the field.

And then a man in the second truck stood up on the barrel and said, “Captain. That is the Alpha of the Palouse Ridge pack and she is telling the truth.”

The captain turned around.

“Who said that?”

The man on the barrel took his hat off.

“My name is Walter,” he said. “I am a Council clerk and I have been a Council clerk for twenty-two years and I have been in the archive in Boise and I have read the register.” He looked at me. “Alpha. I have been trying to get out of Boise with this for a week and the only way I could do it was to join the company.”

The field was silent.

“The register is real,” Walter said. “The claims are forged and the Lunas are real and the Council has been doing it for eighty-five years.” He looked at the captain. “And the eleven Alphas of the north know it and they sent us here to burn the circle so that nobody would ever find out.”

The captain stood in the field.

And then one of his men lowered his rifle.

And then another.

And then the whole of the company lowered their rifles and stood in the field and did not move.