Wickedly Dangerous (Baba Yaga, #1)(13)
“Because you’re willing to stand up for yourself and your child,” Baba clarified. “You’re no damned princess waiting for someone to come and rescue you. Although the shooting thing helped, I won’t lie.”
“That’s great,” Belinda said. “But what can you do that the entire sheriff’s department and the state police couldn’t?”
Baba shrugged. “We’ll just have to see. Something will come to me. It always does.” Her face grew even sterner than usual. “Now, about that price.” She tapped one finger against her full lips as she thought. “I think we’ll go with the traditional three impossible tasks. I find that usually separates the men from the boys. Or girls, in this case.”
Belinda’s eyes widened. “You mean you won’t even try to find Mary Elizabeth until I do three impossible things? That’s . . . that’s . . .”
Baba shrugged again. “You came to me. That’s the way this works. Even the Baba Yaga has to play by certain rules.” She didn’t mention that her favorite hobby was bending those rules until they resembled origami done by a drunken blind man.
Since some of a Baba’s power came from her connection to the Otherworld, there were certain conventions that had to be followed. Of course she’d start looking into the matter right away, but Belinda didn’t need to know that. And as long as the woman accomplished three tasks eventually, the principle would be considered fulfilled.
“Fine, then,” Belinda braced her narrow shoulders. “What is my first task?”
Baba put on her best portentous voice. This was the official bit. “You must discover for me what is causing the disruption of nature’s balance in this region. I can hear the land and water and air cry out in anguish. Tell me what is as the root of their pain, and I will help you.”
Part of her job as the Baba Yaga was to maintain the balance of the natural world, but even with control over the elements, it was an impossible task in this day and age. There were too few Babas and too many humans bent on destroying the planet. But since she was here anyway, she might as well figure out what was disturbing the local equilibrium and set it right. By setting her new client to find the problem, she could kill two birds with one uniform-clad stone.
To her surprise, the woman laughed. “I thought this was supposed to be an impossible task. I can answer that question right now.”
Baba took a slow breath. Well, that was unexpected. It was rare for anything—or anyone—to catch her by surprise. Interesting. Perhaps she wasn’t dealing with two separate issues after all. The mystery deepened.
“Is that so?” she said, expression bland and unimpressed. “Tell me, then.”
“It’s the hydrofracking,” Belinda said, as if everyone knew about it.
“The what? Is that some kind of curse word?”
Belinda’s mouth twisted. “It should be. Hydraulic fracturing is a way of forcing water, mixed with chemicals and sand and other things, sometimes including radioactive trackers, down deep into the earth under extreme pressure. It can contaminate the water table for miles around, it causes water and air pollution, and the waste water it generates is highly poisonous.”
Baba felt her jaw drop open. “Why would anyone do such a thing?” Humans were even more insane than she’d already thought.
“Money,” Belinda replied, her tone so bitter that the herbs on the shelf above her head shriveled inside their jar. “Hydrofracking is used to access natural gas deposits. The gas companies pay a lot of money to lease land so that they can use it for drilling. And a lot of people around here are desperate; the small farmers can’t compete with the big agribusinesses, and plenty of folks in this area never had any money to start with.”
Baba shook her head. “Still, how can they not see that destroying the water and the land will make things worse for them?” Chudo-Yudo growled, and she reached down to pet him in a rare gesture of solidarity.
“Damned if I know,” Belinda said. “But some of it is greed and some of it is ignorance, I guess. And the gas company hands out lies like they were Halloween candy.” She got a slightly wicked glint in her eye and stared at Baba thoughtfully. “There’s a meeting tonight in town. You should come. It’s supposed to be for the anti-fracking folks, but usually the pro-fracking folks come too, including the local head of the gas company, Peter Callahan, who’s the biggest douchebag I ever saw. I’d kinda like to see what happens if you meet him.”
“You really don’t like this man, do you?” Baba raised an eyebrow. It wasn’t as if she had any big plans for the evening. “Is the sheriff going to be there?” Not that she cared.
“I expect so,” Belinda said. “We’ve had some fights nearly break out at the last couple of meetings, so he’ll probably have a few us there in uniform just to keep things civil. Why, did you want to ask him some more questions about the kids?”
Chudo-Yudo made a choking noise, and Baba kicked him with one bare foot. It was like kicking a brick wall. You’d think she’d learn.
“Yes, of course,” Baba said. “Fights, eh? I like fighting.” She cracked her knuckles and Belinda jumped, possibly realizing a little too late that maybe this hadn’t been her best idea. “Suddenly this place is looking like a lot more fun. Fighting. Excellent.”