Page 68 of Duty Preserved

“They said he’s lying on his side. He didn’t react when they came close with the vehicle.”

I was already reaching for my boots. A lion that didn’t react to a vehicle was a lion in serious trouble. We’d been monitoring that gash for weeks, watching it through binoculars from a distance, making the judgment call every wildlife vet lives with: intervene and risk the stress of darting and sedation, or wait and let the animal’s own system handle it.

Big cats healed on their own more often than not. We’d made the right call waiting, but now intervention was almost certainly necessary.

“The wound may have gone septic,” I said, more to myself than to Zayn. “Get Alyson.”

“She’s already getting ready.”

I laced my boots and grabbed my field kit from the hook by the closet. By the time I’d crossed the compound, Alyson was coming out of her cabin with her kit on her shoulder. Zayn walked ahead of us toward the vehicles.

Cole was at the mess tent with a mug of coffee, leaning against one of the support poles. He straightened when he saw us coming.

“What’s happening?”

“Lion emergency,” Alyson said. “The collared pride male. He’s got a wound that’s probably gone septic, and we need to get out there and treat him before we lose him.”

Cole set down the mug. “What do you need?”

“Transport. Zayn’s getting the vehicles.”

Alyson looked at Cole, and something lit up in her expression. “You know what, you should come. This is one of the cooler parts of this job. How many times are you going to get to see a lion up close?”

She glanced at me. A quick check. I nodded.

“Give me five minutes,” Cole said and went for his gear.

Alyson caught my eye after he left. I raised an eyebrow at her.

“What?” she said.

“Showing off for the Marine?”

“I am inviting a colleague to observe a medical procedure. Don’t make it weird.”

I let it go. Who was I to judge?

We loaded into two vehicles. Zayn drove ours with Alyson in the passenger seat and me behind them. Daniel rode in the second vehicle with Cole and Baraka.

The drive was forty-five minutes east, deeper into the reserve. Past the areas we patrolled on foot and into territory that was more brush than open grassland.

Alyson had her kit open on her lap, running through inventory. Gauze, sutures, antiseptic, hemostats. Her hands moved through the supplies diligently.

“I want to take lead on this one,” she said.

“It’s yours.”

She looked over her shoulder at me. “You’re not going to fight me?”

“Why would I fight you? You’re a better large-cat vet than I am, and we both know it.”

“I wanted to hear you say it.” She turned back and sealed the bag. “For the record.”

“I’ll tell you after you show us and Cole today.”

I watched the landscape change through the window. Grassland giving way to thicker cover, the acacia trees growing denser, the brush closing in along the track.

“Hey,” I said. “Are you and Daniel okay?”