savior; for some, he became a scapegoat. Markov’s wife, along with a
number of other villagers, was holding Trush personally responsible for
Sobolonye’s misery. “She was pouring mud on me as if the tiger was my
personal property, saying it was all my fault that it got away and that all
this happened,” said Trush, recalling their first meeting. “She claimed
that Markov hadn’t shot at the tiger—that the tiger had just attacked him.
She was shouting so much that I wasn’t able to explain the situation to
her properly. I thought she was having a mental breakdown as a result of
her husband’s death, and she was blaming us for it.”
Trush wasn’t far off the mark, but that wasn’t the end of it. As if on
cue, a newspaper article appeared with the nasty headline “Tiger Eats
While ‘Tigers’ Drink,” and it wouldn’t be the last. Word was getting
around. The situation was no longer simply a safety issue: Inspection
Tiger’s credibility was at stake, and so was Trush’s reputation. This tiger
was going to die, even if killing it was Trush’s final act.
Within twenty-four hours of the discovery of Pochepnya’s body, two
Kungs and a pickup truck filled with armed men had converged on
Sobolonye. Multiple checkpoints were established on roads leading
toward the village, warning travelers away. The show of force was
unprecedented for a tiger attack, and a passerby could have been forgiven
for thinking that a terrorist cell had just been discovered in Sobolonye.
Not only was this response a clear indication of how serious the
authorities were about preventing any further loss of life, it was also a
measure of their respect for their adversary. Nobody was underestimating
this animal’s capability now, nor misconstruing its intention. This was a
creature who disappeared and reappeared at will, apparently for the
purpose of attacking experienced hunters face-to-face and eating them. In
spite of its injuries, it was able to travel day and night through arctic cold.
If this had occurred at any other point in human-tiger history, such a
creature would have been described as having supernatural powers—an