In developing this story about wild horses supposedly running amok in Salt Lake City, Jules Rivera has Mark working for Diana Daggers, head of Instigator Magazine. Her point of view has already been established and Mark’s job is to get conformation and create lots of reaction. Her point of view presumes a greedy, uncaring land developer suborning Bureau of Land Management agents to remove free-range mustangs running across land he has purchased. There are additional rumors that the mustangs may be ill-treated in captivity and sold for slaughter to companies that sell horse meat for human consumption.

For the sake of the plot this week, Rivera ensured that Mark did not know the name of the person he was to interview until they met for the first time. That person turned out to be Tad Crass, the former comedian-turned-author of a notorious AI-based camping survival guide that was a significant plot device in the earlier “Rusty and the alien invasion” story (If you missed that adventure, you can search for it using the above-quoted title). This put Mark on the defensive, a poor way to start an interview!

Anyway, meeting Crass greatly affected Mark, who was torn between questioning him about his dangerous camping guide and asking about his position on the wild horses. In a near-repeat of his engaging interview with a US senator involved in the Ohio train derailment story, Mark’s aggressive, accusatory questioning once again led to a quickly-terminated interview. Crass, getting angry and defensive, called in security to (illegally) confiscate Mark’s recorder and throw him out.

“Bighorn sheep are known for their  horns.” Who knew!? Mark forgot to mention that low numbers of Bighorn Sheep are also due to overhunting and animal predation. The National Wildlife Federation reports that males can weigh more than 350 lbs. and carry horns that weigh up to 30 lbs.  Females normally top out at 130 lbs. No wonder that, when males smash into each other at 40 mph, the sound of their impact can carry for a mile.