Brody:Any news?

When Judy said Brody was waiting for me, I was relieved, since our connection felt real. But I had expected him to contact me after that day. Nothing. So, I contacted him. I made sure to keep my texts friendly, but still nothing. For a week! Now this? What’s with this guy?

Brody:I’m going up on a plane this week to recon her territory. Do you want to come?

I fumble and then drop my phone. Do I want to join him on an adventure in the sky to solve the mystery of who poisoned my cat? Hell yes, this is my project.

Ana:Yes, when?

Three hours later.

Brody:We’re flying out of Palo Alto airport 10 am tomorrow.

He has a buddy that knows how to fly. Why doesn’t that surprise me? I’d never get the budget to do that on my own.

***

At the Palo Alto Airport, I park and look around. No Brody. I fish out my backpack from my truck and throw in some supplies. Then I sit on the tailgate of my truck and wait. About five minutes later, Brody and a big guy who looks to be around thirty walk out of the airport office. My face feels warm. It’s been two weeks since I’ve seen him and he still looks good. Of course he does. I take a deep breath and tell myself to be cool, friendly. For all I know, I’m in the friend zone with him already. At least he’s helping me out.

“Brody,” I call out.

He gives me the typical nod.

I bound over to them. “What a wonderful idea. Thank you so much for doing this.” Then I extend my hand to the other guy. “Hey, I’m Ana.”

“Ethan,” he responds and shakes my hand.

“This is so cool that Brody got you to help out.”

Ethan’s expression turns perplexed. “Oh, Brody didn’t fill you in?”

Ethan raises an eyebrow. Great, these are two guys who use body language instead of speech. Brody starts walking toward the planes. Ethan and I follow. Brody stops in front of one of the two-engine propeller planes. I’ve been in a number of small planes mostly as a grad student when I had to go to remote locations. I pull out paper maps and my iPad with the Google Earth image showing the overlay of my cat’s last two weeks of tracks to show Ethan.

“We found my cat poisoned here. I think she ingested the poison someplace around here.”

“Your cat was poisoned?” Ethan asks.

Sheesh, Brody didn’t tell this guy anything.

“I’m a scientist who studies large carnivores. Specifically, I’m researching the effect of global warming and human encroachment on mountain lions in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Most mountain lions are killed by getting hit by a car. A few weeks ago, we found F17 one of my female mountain lions poisoned. She’s not dead, she’s getting better. She consumed what we think is rat poison. We want to find out how.”

“I thought this had to do with ClosedDoor.”

“Oh, you work with Brody. I thought maybe you were one of his Army buddies.”

“No, we didn’t serve together in the Army,” Ethan explains as we get into the plane.

Brody, not surprisingly, doesn’t say anything.

Brody rides shotgun as I get in the back. I tug out one pair of my binoculars and reach between the seats. I tap Brody on the shoulder and offer them to him.

“I brought my own, Ana, thanks,” he acknowledges.

Ethan runs through his start-up procedures, while Brody pulls out a pair of Swarovski binoculars.

“Can I see your map?” Brody asks.

I hand the iPod to Brody. He looks it over and waits for Ethan. I scoot to be in between the two front seats. Then the three of us look at the map and discuss how to fly over the area.

“There’s enough air traffic in this area that if something stood out, it would have already been noticed,” Ethan comments.

“We need to look for anything that shouldn’t be there. My cat went out of her way to avoid humans. Let’s focus on areas that don’t have houses or hiking trails.”

“That still leaves a lot of territory,” Ethan says.

“We’ll see how much we can do today. If not, we’ll arrange another time,” Brody instructs.

“Don’t just look for human activity,” I say. “Look for areas with a pocket of dead foliage. If the poison impacted my cat, it could also be taking down trees. There have been pot growers in the area as well and those guys use a lot of nasty stuff. Look for patches that have different shades of green foliage with dead trees that are near water sources.”

Brody nods. I sit back and buckle up. As the plane takes off, I can’t help but smile.This is so cool, Brody’s into finding the problem.

Ethan focuses on flying, while Brody and I scan the trees for anything that looks odd or that has human impact. Mostly, we see the top of the thick canopy. When we see anything at all that looks out of place, we mark it on my topo map.

“It’s time we head back,” Ethan says about an hour into our reconnaissance work.

“Lunch?” I ask Brody when we touch down.

“Can’t. Meetings....”

“Oh,” I reply with disappointment. I’ve definitely been relegated to the friend zone. I wonder what happened. “We’re releasing F17 back onto the mountain at the end of this week,” I tell Brody. “Would you like to meet her?”

“She’s better?”

“She’s stable, but she’ll be happier in her own habitat rather than in a crate.”

“Yes, I’d like to see her.” Brody turns to Ethan. “You’ll take care of signing us out?”

“Yes,” Ethan crisply replies.

“I’ll meet you back at my car once you do.”

“Thanks for your help. It was great meeting you,” I call out to Ethan as Brody walks me to my truck.

Brody places his hand on the small of my back creating a warmth that sears into my soul. It feels quite the opposite of the friend zone.

“I’ve been meaning to call you,” Brody murmurs as he leans in. “Are you free this weekend? I’ll figure out how to clear my schedule and we can go to the locations we marked.”

“Oh.” This wasn’t what I was expecting.

He leans in further and his lips meet mine briefly. “Text me when we can see the lion.”

Wait…is he using me for my cat, or my cat for me?

“The lion is in Davis. It’s a two-hour drive each way.”

“Not if Ethan flies us.”