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him, I expected plenty of snark at the worst and a Lion King lecture about the circle of life at best. Damn if the woman didn’t still have a surprise up her short, tanned-arm-baring sleeve.
    “When I saw my first kill like that live and up close, I threw up,” she confided. “It’s all about herd and family out here. I barely knew the pride, and the cubs weren’t born yet. All I could think about was the zebra mare. How fair was it that she had survived four, five, maybe six years, only to be grazing peacefully one minute and attacked and killed the next? Did she have a foal or a sister or a mother who would mourn her? Who would be traumatized by watching her die so violently? She’d be a meal for a couple of days and then she’d be gone, the animals who’d feasted on her would be hungry all over again, and then there’d be no more memory of her.
    “After a while, I started rationalizing it, then became inured to it, until I rarely think about it now because my bond with the lions and their needs has become so great. Or until someone like you comes along and reminds me that every life has meaning and every death is a sad tragedy for herd or family.
    “It is horrible. Because the rules we’re forced to play by are horrible. And the consequences for not playing by the rules more horrible yet. If I could fix it so there was no more death and no more tears, would I? Or could it be we only grow through pain and fear? If you have the answer, let me know. Out here, we just have to accept that what is, is, and choose a side to be most sympathetic to—predator or prey.”
    Good on Reena—there was a live mic capturing all of this. Mary and Jermaine back at the studio would surely be able to edit some sound bytes into the final cut. It was fortunate our location scouts had found Dee, someone both articulate and photogenic, who wasn’t bothered by the cameras and who came across as natural and real. All in all, this episode was shaping up better than I first feared.
    I only wished my relationship with Dee was going as well. Why did some people have to be so complicated?
     

CHAPTER 9

Dee
    It was amazing how a routine of only two days could already feel so expected and comfortable. I woke the next day to another eyeful of Chris working out as I busied myself with breakfast. Somehow I’d fallen into the role of designated cook, even if I wasn’t the only one here capable of building a fire or operating a camp stove. I suspected it would have actually bothered me less if it had felt more like a traditional male-female role thing and not about class. A division of labor, each of us working with the skills we were best at, I would have no problem with. But if I had to guess, they probably brought in outside help to cook and clean back home. Which, more power to both parties in a clear employer-employee relationship. Which we clearly didn’t have here.
    “So, we’re down to fresh ingredients to supplement a couple of meals at most before we break out the ready meals full-time,” I said as everyone was diving into bacon strips and guinea egg omelets. “Who’s up for cooking dinner and tomorrow’s breakfast?”
    Reena’s blank stare was wholly expected. She was a hard woman to figure out, seemingly unfazed by anything that didn’t have to do with cameras and video. For all the emotion she showed filming the lions’ hunt yesterday, she might have been filming sleeping lions at a zoo. Photojournalism and documentaries demanded solid, stable personalities behind the camera, of course. But showing a hint of interest in the subject once the cameras were off not only wouldn’t violate any ethical code of standards, it would help prove the person behind the camera was a warm and thinking human being.
    I suspected Reena had those qualities buried under that perfect, cool and unflustered exterior. I just didn’t know how to encourage them out. Or even if I should try. Maybe she needed that aloofness to deal with things in