Page 19 of My Mountain Man Boss
“Can you come in? We’ve got a lost hiker, and we’re sending everyone out. With this storm coming, we need to get them to safety quickly.”
I push all thoughts of Landon out of my head as I grab my coat and head out to help.
9
LANDON
My shift finishes at ten. One of the perks of being in management is I no longer do the long hours of the younger men.
There’s a missed call from Suzie at Search and Rescue. A hiker has gone missing, and I head straight from the station to the Search and Rescue headquarters.
My windshield wipers are doing double time knocking back the rain that’s set in. It’s a shitty night for anyone to be out in the woods, and they’re desperate to get the missing hiker to safety. It sounds like they’re inexperienced and probably don’t have the gear to cope with this weather. If they’re wet and cold, hypothermia can set in.
I take the stairs two at a time and shake the rain off my coat as I enter the headquarters.
A skinny young man I don’t recognize sits in the corner nursing a steaming mug. He looks shell-shocked and anxious.
“Who’s the kid?” I ask Suzie.
“A tourist who came into town two nights ago. He was with his buddy on the Saddle Peak trail.” She mentions one of the intermediate level hikes that’s popular with tourists. “They split up at the place where that trail intersects with the Sunburst Trailand decided to race down the mountain to see who would get there first. His friend hasn’t made it back.”
I shake my head at the stupidity of youth. Thick clouds have been gathering all afternoon with patches of rain. Any experienced hiker would know it’s not the type of weather you fuck around in. The ground would already have been slippery, and these clowns were racing. Anything could have happened.
“Has there been any contact?”
Suzie shakes her head. “His phone is going straight to voicemail, and we can’t track it.”
There are dead spots on the mountain, and it’s not surprising we can’t contact him.
“Did he have a map?”
Suzie shakes her head. “Nope. Nothing but a water bottle and a sandwich.”
Young men like these rely on their phones too much. If you’re following a trail in good weather in daylight, you might not need a map. But if you take the wrong path or are trying to find your way in the dark, things can get bad pretty quick.
“We’re working on the assumption that he took the wrong path.” She moves to the map spread out on the table, and her finger traces the route of the trail they were on. “He might have taken one of these trails where it forks down to Wildman’s Gully.”
“Or?”
She meets my eyes, and her voice lowers. “Or he’s had an accident.”
The accident could mean a small slip that’s resulted in an injury that’s slowed him down. Or it could mean he’s at the bottom of a ravine.
I glance at the kid in the corner who’s old enough to know better. But there’s no point getting into a lesson on sensible hiking, He looks like he feels shit enough as it is.
“Where do you need me?”
Suzie turns all business, pointing out where teams have been sent to look. She’s called in all the volunteers and has them working in a wide arc covering all possible scenarios.
It’s dangerous for the rescue team to be out in the dark on a night like this. Paths turn to slippery mud, and rivers can turn to torrents within minutes.
A thought hits me like a thunderbolt. “Is Amy out there?”
Suzie nods. “She went up to Wildman’s Gully in case he came that way.”
It’s one of the steepest trails on the mountain, winding sharply up a ravine past the climbing walls and with rocky crags on one side and steep drops on the other.
“Who’s with her?”
