Mr. Peace glanced absentmindedly at the flashing app on his phone.
A message: RESTORE: Y or N flashed repeatedly.
He'd always heard that strange apps could spread viruses, so he pressed N, and the message went away.
Meanwhile, Bryan wandered around the circle of the corral, his hide still smarting fiercely from the branding, and his mind trying to focus on a plan. Each time his thoughts tried to coalesce around an idea, competing ones got in the way. He snorted irritably when he caught scent of Zeke and Cal, and the burnt ozone of the now cooling electric branding device. If he had known that Mr. Peace had just shut down an emergency attempt by the Chronivac to restore an erstwhile user, he might have been even more irritated.
He had started chewing his cud again, letting the dull thoughts stuff his head like cotton, when another truck pulled up to the corral. An older man stepped out of the truck, waved to the rancher. "Thanks for coming out, doc," Mr. Peace said.
"No problem, Mr. Peace," the man said, walking over to the corral fence. "Is this our patient?"
Patient!? Bryan listened to the conversation.
Zeke strode over to stand next to the doctor, who removed a shafted dart from his vet's bag. "He's a big one, but I think this should do it," the doctor said, handing the tranquilizer dart to Zeke.
In turn, Zeke quickly loaded the dart into one of the tranquilizer guns he had gotten out of storage in anticipation of the vet's visit.
"Wait a minute," Bryan tried to say, producing a loud bellow that was punctuated by the thin hiss as the dart sped through the air and buried itself in his hide.
"What the..." Bryan wandered as the anaesthetic agent carried by the dart took almost instant effect. He fell onto his side, but kept his eyes opened as the doctor and Zeke walked toward him.
As his eyes closed, he caught a glimpse of a circle of gleaming metal, followed by blackness.