Free Dark Solace by Tara Fox Hall Page A

bed?”
    “Let’s not have this same conversation
again,” I interjected. “Just tell me what you want done first.”
    “First, tie your shoe,” he said, smirking. “I
want you not to trip and fall.”
    “Lash!” one of the bears called. “The blade
isn’t coming free.”
    Lash hissed in irritation, then walked away
scowling. “I told you to lever it up.”
    I put my saw down, annoyed, and crouched down
in the soft mud to double knot my steel-toed boot. As I went to
stand, I slipped sideways and caught myself, smearing my work shirt
sleeve in muck.
    I brushed it off the best I could. No big
deal. I’d just get dirtier before the day was over. I was looking
forward to that actually. I hadn’t done real physical work in a
long time. Besides, it was a beautiful summer day: a perfect day
for working.
    There was another roar from the front-end
loader. The operator had made rapid progress. The fallen rock wall
was quickly being fixed, water receding as the huge rocks blocking
one of the drainage ditches were moved one by one.
    The werebear and his pals were still trying
to get the bound sawblade free. But the tree was huge, a good
hundred feet long with roots and branches still attached. Even with
their combined strength, all they could do was roll it over, making
the saw’s handle and engine go up in the air as the blade remained
bound. They tried this several times, with the same result. In
short, it was hilarious. Since no one had asked for my help, or
told me what to do, I remained where I was, watching and smirking.
It was good for men to know humility.
    Another throaty roar sounded, turning my
attention from the tree back to the tractor. The werebear moving
fallen rocks was almost done. The last one was safely in the
loader, the tractor straining under the weight, the tires almost
flattened in the front. The operator dropped the rock with the
others, the front tires springing back up as the load lightened.
Then, to my surprise, the tractor headed back to the ditch.
    Curious, I walked towards it. What was he up
to?
    As the operator parked at the very edge of
the ditch and lowered the loader down into it, my eyes opened wide
with horror. He was going after a boulder sunk deep into the mud of
the bottom of the ditch. Not only would the loader overbalance
picking up the rock, he’d be lucky if it didn’t pin him under it
when it fell in.
    I sprinted towards the tractor, yelling.
“Hey! Stop! Stop!”
    Either he didn’t hear me over the engine or
he didn’t listen. The operator reached down with the loader for the
rock, scooped carefully under it, and went to lift it.
    “Hey! Don’t go for the last rock!” I yelled
desperately.
    The rock came free from the bottom of the
ditch, as the operator slowly raised the dripping loader. He
levered it up just enough to clear the ditch edge.
    “What are you yelling for?” Lash said
irritably from beside me. “He’s got it.”
    “No, he’s going to—”
    The operator went to shift gears to back up.
The rock rolled sideways in the loader and the wheels promptly slid
forward, the front-end of the tractor slipping down into the
ditch.
    “— fall in,” I finished.
    “Christ, could anything go more wrong today?”
Lash hissed loudly. “Jazz already broke one chain, and cut himself
so badly he had to take off the rest of the day.”
    “Why do none of you know what you’re doing?”
I said, trying hard to make my tone nonjudgmental.
    Lash narrowed his flat eyes. “I know what I’m
doing, Sar. As for the bears, they’re doing the best they can.”
    I gave him an incredulous look. “Then their
best isn’t good enough. They need training.”
    “I used to have a crack team for this kind of
shit,” Lash hissed, looking at me meaningfully. “They’re all dead.
You remember Kev and Vince, I’m sure?”
    I narrowed my eyes, wondering why he was
being an asshole. “Dev has enough money to hire talent outside his
guards for—”
    “No,” Lash said coldly. “No