Page 48 of Mountain Impact

The team had spent most of the morning sharing the meteorological warning with everybody they met, attempting to drive people away from the mountains. Drake scratched his head as he thought of some of the more bizarre things people had said to him while he was trying to turn them away from the Goûter route.

“These trainers are really comfortable. I could climb Everest in them.”

No. You couldn’t.

“Don’t worry about us, she loves walking.”

It doesn’t matter how much she loves it, she’s four years old. Take her home. Come back in ten years.

“It’s just a few clouds. We’ll be back home by the time the storm breaks―if it breaks at all.”

In a couple hours, visibility could be zero, the wind violent enough to rip you from the path.

It never failed to amaze Drake, how people thought they could just show up one day―no experience, no equipment, sometimes not even the right shoes―and attempt to climb Mont Blanc.

“I hate storms,” Gael complained, rubbing his hands to keep them warm.

“That’s because you can’t climb in the rain,” Hiro said. “Bailey doesn’t like storms much either.” He rubbed his dog’s dark head of hair affectionately. Though Bailey was a Dutch Shepherd, and it would take weather a lot colder than this to make her uncomfortable, Hiro always carried a coat for her in his backpack. Just in case.

“That’s because she’s clever,” Drake said. “Wish we could say the same about all the people we met this morning.”

“At least some of them seemed to listen,” Hiro said. “Each one of those is someone who won’t get in trouble tonight.”

Drake nodded. If they’d managed to stop just one person from going up the mountain in this weather, then the morning’s activities could be considered a success.

“Any news from Damien, Kat and Jens?” Hiro asked.

Drake nodded, adjusting the zipper of his uniform jacket. It was starting to get cold.

“They just got back to headquarters. We should go back as well. There isn’t much more we can do here.”

Drake had the feeling it was going to be a long afternoon and night. Maybe he could spend a few minutes with Isolde before they had to head out again.

#

Isolde

Isolde rarely worked from home. Her job was all about meeting people, and that couldn’t be done from her home office.

However, once a month she liked to schedule a “no patients Friday”. She’d clear her schedule, stay home, and use that day to catch up on pending reports, review each one of her open cases, read up on sectoral trends she might be missing out on, and generally make sure she would be at her most productive over the following month.

She raised her eyes from her files and looked at the dark storm clouds looming. From the safety of her cozy home office, the sky was beautiful to look at, but she knew it would be a completely different story for anyone caught outside once the storm broke. She wriggled her feet inside the fluffy slippers she was wearing.

I couldn’t have chosen a better day to work from home.

Even as she thought that, she couldn’t help but think of Drake. Not that he minded a bit of bad weather―she’d spent enough time with him over the last weeks to know he went out running every day, regardless of the conditions outside. But still, she couldn’t help but worry about him and the rest of the PGHM out there. The storm would make their job that much harder.

Her phone rang, and for a moment she wondered if it might be Drake.

“Allô?”

“It’s Amélie.”

A high-pitched whistling sound made Isolde move the cell phone further away from her ear.

“Amélie? I can’t hear you very well, you’re cutting out. Where are you?”

Amélie was silent so long, Isolde thought the connection must have broken. When she finally spoke, the young woman’s voice was barely more than a whisper.