Kate licked the last of the crumbs from her finger and sat back. "Are you sure you want to do this, Mandy?"
Mandy shrugged. "No. But it's a big paycheck. And a chunk of stock."
"We heard about the stock," Jim said in a carefully neutral voice. "Hard to turn down something like that." "You need money?" Kate said.
Mandy shrugged. "This place takes a lot to keep it going. Like I told you in October, my trust fund never covers all of it. Whatever prize money I got for a race always helped." She put her hand over Chick's. "We don't want to live anywhere else. And besides." Mandy spread her hands. "They keep canceling the races, Kate, or delaying them. There's never enough snow anymore, or it all melts too soon and the trail just beats you to death. It was fifty-two degrees when we went through Cripple last year, did I tell you? Jesus. You can't run dogs at those temperatures."
She smiled at Mutt, sitting next to Kate, ears up, eyes inquiring. "And the competition gets stiffer every year. Publicity's about ruined the Iditarod. Outsiders from Montana, Norwegians, for god's sake, even a blind musher. What the hell's that about?" She sat back in her chair. "It's just not as much fun as it used to be."
And you aren't winning the way you used to, Kate thought, but she would have cut out her tongue before she said it out loud. "I told you I got shanghaied to be chair of the NNA board."
"You did," Mandy said, nodding.
" Lot of talk about that mine."
Mandy's smile had faded, too. "I know."
" Lot of people against it."
"Are you against it?" Mandy said.
Everyone looked at Kate again. "Not the point," Kate said. "What I'm saying, Mandy, is a lot of Park rats won't be happy you're the new mouthpiece for Global Harvest."
Mandy set her jaw. It was a good jaw, square and firm. "They'll get used to it."
We'll have to, Kate thought.
"Auntie Joy," Kate said, "please sit here, on my right. Old Sam, on my left, please. Harvey, Demetri, there and there."
Auntie Joy looked startled but took the seat Kate indicated. Old Sam gave Kate one of his patented, narrow-eyed looks, waited long enough to establish that it was his own idea, and sat. Harvey looked mutinous but short of summarily dislodging two venerable elders there was nothing for him to do but sit where he was told to. Demetri took the last seat without comment.
"You'll find copies of an agenda on the table in front of you."
She gave them a few minutes to run their eyes over it, and then rapped the table once with a small gavel made of fossilized ivory, its creamy surface swirling with golds and browns. She'd commissioned Thor Moonin to carve it for her after the holidays. "The meeting will come to order."
It came out a little more authoritarian than she had meant it to and the table sat up with a collective jerk. Auntie Joy turned a shocked eye on Kate. Old Sam relaxed again, with the beginnings of a smile indenting the corners of his mouth. "You all had copies of the last meeting's minutes hand-delivered to your doorstep two weeks ago. I'm going on the assumption you've read them. Are there any additions or corrections you would like to propose to the minutes at this time?"
Harvey opened his mouth, encountered Kate's level gaze, and shut it again.
"If there are no corrections or emendations, the minutes are approved. May we have the treasurer's report?"
Annie Mike gave a brisk rundown of the numbers. Kate moved that they be approved and accepted, Auntie Joy seconded the motion, it passed.
"Membership report," Kate said.
This was new, and Harvey said, "What's this?"
"Point of order," Kate said coolly. "The chair has not recognized Mr. Meganack."
"Oh, come on, what's this bullshit?"
"This bullshit is Robert's Rules of Order," Kate said. "You must be recognized by the chair before you are allowed to speak. And you have to stand up before I can recognize you."
Harvey sat there with his mouth half open.
"On your feet, Harvey," Old Sam said, smirking.
Harvey, red with anger, nevertheless stood up. "Madam Chair."
Kate gave a curt nod. "The chair recognizes Mr. Meganack."
"What's this membership report? We've never done this before."
"It's a tally of shareholders," Kate said, "which the board will update at every meeting. I think it's important we keep track of the number of shareholders we have on a regular basis. It helps remind us to whom we are responsible when we take action at these meetings."
There had been eleven children born over the past year who qualified under the Association's one-thirty-secondth rule, specifically that after adding up their Native heritage on both sides each shareholder had a minimum of one-thirty-secondth of Native blood.
Assimilation and intermarriage over the last three hundred years meant a lot of shareholders just barely squeaked in under that rule, and it also meant that many of the next generation of babies wouldn't qualify at all. In the back of her mind Kate noted that some action should be taken to ensure that the tribe increased rather than decreased in size as the years went by. They might have to go to one-sixty-fourth. "Total shareholders, Ms. Mike?" she said.
"Madam Chair, as of January first, the Niniltna Native Association had two hundred and thirty-seven shareholders," Annie said. "Approximately one hundred of them live in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau, and Outside."
"Thank you, Ms. Mike."
Harvey sat down slowly.
Kate tried not to let her relief show. In truth, she was a little surprised at herself. She hadn't planned to address everyone by their surnames, it had just come out, but the formality felt right. "Any further reports, Ms. Mike?"
"Not at present, Madam Chair," Annie said, her brisk manner rivaling Kate's own. Imitation, in this case, was the sincerest form of approval.
"Thank you, Ms. Mike. Moving on. Old business." She looked up. "I move that we table old business today. There is nothing left over that is pressing and we've got the general shareholders meeting to get to."
"Second," Old Sam said.
"It is moved and seconded that the board carry any old business forward to the next regularly scheduled board meeting. Debate?" There was none. "Those in favor, say aye."
Auntie Joy, Old Sam, and Kate said aye. Harvey was back to looking furious. "The ayes have it, and the motion is adopted. Next item. New business."
Kate sat back in her chair and fixed Harvey with a cold and unflinching eye. "I have three items I wish to bring to the board's attention this morning."
Harvey stiffened, and she knew he was thinking that she was about to bring up his job with GHRI, whatever it might be.
"All three items," Kate said, "will by Association rules be put to the vote before the general shareholders meeting."
"Along with the election of the board members," Harvey said, rallying.
"Out of order, Mr. Meganack, but so noted. First on our agenda is the creation of an advisory committee consisting of qualified volunteers drawn from Association shareholders to advise and consent to every single step Global Harvest Resources takes in developing and producing the Suulutaq Mine. Further, I propose that we approach Global Harvest Resources to fund said committee. At this time, I so move."
"Second," Old Sam said promptly.
"The motion to create an advisory committee for the Suulutaq Mine and to make Global Harvest pay for it is moved and seconded," Kate said. "Debate? The chair recognizes Mr. Meganack."
Harvey had shot to his feet but he'd also had the sense to wait this time until he was recognized. "You want to put our people on Global Harvest's payroll? Won't that make them more rather than less inclined to sign off on anything GH wants to do?"
The irony inherent in his protest seemed not to occur to Harvey. "Not if we choose the committee members carefully," Kate said, and added softly, "and watch them."
He reddened. "Who'd you have in mind for this committee?"
She looked at him. "You, for a start."