"I don't know. I realized she was ahead of me about a mile back. As to what she is doing, maybe she got tired of all that down there too, and decided to come up here and live in the mountains?"
"A woman in this wilderness?"
"Some women have delusions that they can return to the primitive and make a go of it."
"And maybe she had some other idea," Cal said.
Zen shrugged.
"Knowing this may be important to us," Cal said.
"Then we had better go ask her," Zen said. He was still shocked at the thought that Nedra might be a spy. Up until now, he had thought he was shockproof.
"You want to ask her?" Cal said.
"Sure."
"Okay, you do the asking. I'll listen. And don't get any funny ideas." His finger curled around the trigger of the gun. "Remember, that if a patrol should come looking for a deserter, they would only be going to shoot him. I would be doing them a favor if I shot him in advance."