Then she called out louder to the protesters, “Hey! You should be careful where you’re standing!”
“They are throwing branches at us!” one of the women called out.
He was doing no such thing. He was throwing branches near them. And not over the property line—assuming he remembered correctly where it was.
Cage watched as Chithra navigated past the car and walked a little farther back on the drive. She seemed to be examining the situation—and maybe eyeballing the property line?—before turning around and coming back. He’d worked with her often enough to like her quite a bit. She had a calm, easygoing style.
“They're heavy,” he Cage told her. “Really hard to control—”
He motioned to the protesters to move back before letting another branch fly into a more open space, “—as these good people here can attest to, since they mistakenly managed to keep getting them all back in the road. Which I'm sure is an arrestable offense.”
He let the last several words hang in the air for a moment. It was Chithra, who was now much closer, who said loudly, “Oh, it definitely is an arrestable offense.”
She casually pulled her phone from her back pocket and began taking pictures of all those nearby, who suddenly began hiding their faces behind their signs. As they turned back toward the cars, she continued to snap photos. Then she spoke to Cage and Deveron in an overly loud voice. “I can’t see their faces in the photos… but it doesn't matter. I took much clearer photos as I drove in this morning. This is just to prove that they're still here an hour later.”
“It's public property!” a different protester yelled out, as though that made it all okay.
Chithra seemed to have realized that Jerry had it in his head to lead the little group. She quickly understood that the smarter move was not to go after him, but the followers. So ignoring Jerry, she faced the group on the other side of the road. “It doesn't matter if it's public property, you still need a permit to gather. I'd like to see yours.”
The others began looking at each other frantically, maybe having trusted Jerry to have this organized. But even as they scrambled, Chithra kept pushing.
“It's also illegal to block the roads. And I don't know what you all think we're doing here, but most of what's on your signs is incorrect.” She motioned to the posterboard and paint many of them still held aloft. “We are a large corporation. We've put too much effort into this solar array to let you ruin it over things that aren’t true. So you need to know, I took pictures on the way in this morning. And yes, after your first little stunt, we installed video cameras at the front of the road. So we have pictures of every face that has gathered here unlawfully for the last five days.”
Cage watched as the crowd grew silent. One by one, the signs lowered and the people looked at each other, wondering if she was going to have them arrested. This strategy was far more effective than his flinging branches had been.
Chithra wasn’t done with them yet. “We understand you're upset. You should know, you've all been invited to the table. We'd love to have a talk with you so we can all figure out what we need to do to make this safe for everyone—for our workers and for those of you who live here.”
Again, the protesters looked to each other, their expressions indicating they'd heard of no such thing. Chithra realized this was news to them and she spoke softly this time, only to Cage and Deveron. “Can I hit you guys up for a ride back to the tent? I was going to stay on guard, but I think they're leaving now.”
Without waiting for Cage or Deveron to answer, she called out to the protesters again. “Perhaps your leader here, Jerry Whitman, hasn’t told you, but he's known for five days that we've offered to have an open meeting to answer any questions. Everyone is welcome.”
As she nudged Cage on one side and Deveron on the other, the crowd began to turn on Jerry. That was some brilliant tactical work. She’d walked in, spoken clearly, and made them all mad at the person doing the most damage.
She spoke softly to the two of them again, her tone a little more urgent than Cage expected, given that the crowed was already beginning to disperse. “Get back in the car now.”
Cage quickly surveyed the road. It was clear enough. A few twigs had snapped off the branches, but nothing that was any threat to the car’s undercarriage. Climbing into the back seat, Cage wedged himself with Joule and Deveron, so Chithra could take the front.
Sarah shoved the gearshift into drive, though her jaw was still clenched tightly and she didn’t say anything. She plowed the old sedan over the branches, keeping her speed even and her angry gaze straight ahead. All five of them stayed quiet until they were pulling up to the grassy area where they parked near the main tent.
Cage had expected another day of fieldwork. They’d moved on from smaller mammals and lizards to collecting the last week’s data from the field cams for the larger creatures. He was ready for that kind of work. Instead, everyone was gathering in the tent, the crowd growing larger as several cars pulled in behind theirs.
As Sarah parked and Chithra opened her door, the manager turned to the four of them before she stepped out. “We have bigger problems than the protesters.”
11
Cage laced his fingers together to keep from fidgeting. Instead, he found he
