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How was he supposed to think of that?

“Tell them to say it’s too dangerous to approach. They’ll be buried alive. That gets people’s attention. I’ve used it before.”

It certainly got his. Tolifson was morbidly claustrophobic.

He relayed the information and the OCFS dispatcher said he would get the announcement out, and they disconnected.

“The county responders, state? What’s the status? They should be here by now.” DRB was nodding to the three tents, set up to house about a dozen emergency personnel.

Tolifson explained that he’d spoken to the county earlier. All available men and women were stacking sandbags around Fort Pleasant, the county seat, which sat at the juncture of the Never Summer and the Little Silver Rivers, around fifteen miles south. As long as the levee hadn’t come down all the way, he’d been told, Hinowah would have to wait.

DRB’s glare signaled she did not like this news, and he thought: It wasn’tmydecision…

The wind then upended a stake and Debi leapt into the task of securing it once more.

“Call them.”

“Call them?”

“The head of the county. Who is that?”

“The head?” Tolifson repeated again.

“Of the county,” DRB snapped back.

“The whole county?”

She sighed in response.

Tolifson continued, “Prescott Moore. But he’s probably pretty busy…”

Her look was withering.

“I want to see him.”

“See him?” the mayor asked.

“Virtual’s fine. Zoom, FaceTime, Teams.”

“Well.”

“I can do that,” Debi said. “Did it just the other day with Sheriff Barrett.”

Tolifson waved toward her. At leasthewouldn’t be on record as distracting a very busy county supervisor at a time like this.

In five minutes, Debi had propped her phone up and he and DRB were on Zoom.

“Han.” The slightly paunchy, pale man, around fifty years of age, pushed his glasses up his broad nose. His tone was that of an overworked senior government official. “What’s up?”

DRB interrupted, identifying herself by name.

A pause from the other end of the call. “Well, hello, miss. Uhm. Have to say it’s pretty busy here.”

Tolifson said, “Don’t doubt it, Pres, but we were—”

DRB fired off, “We need responders here now, in Hinowah. A dozen at least.”

“And whoareyou exactly, miss?”