Page 34 of Cold and Bitter Snow

Siena quarter turned the throttle, reminding herself to reopen the choke gently, and followed Conor up the slope. He took it easy on her at first, signaling whenever he approached a change in the terrain. She gave him a thumbs up every time he looked back and he slowly increased his speed.

It was two p.m. by the time they reached the top of the ridge. She saw her camera, secure under the awning of a small hut. It looked deserted.

“What’s that?” she asked.

“Used to be a coffee shop, I understand, but I’ve never seen it open in all the time I’ve been here,” he said. “Not many people come this way except hard-core off-piste skiers.”

Siena stepped off her snowmobile to take a look at the camera. She leaned against the hut and took off her gloves to fiddle with the tablet. Maybe she could restart the camera. In a matter of seconds her hands started to freeze.

“Brrr… it’s cold out here,” she complained.

Conor moved closer to her, shielding her from the wind with his body.

After a few minutes she hissed in frustration. “It’s not working.” She thought of something else. “Could you give me a boost, do you think? I’ll try to restart it manually.”

It was clear they weren’t going to be getting any information from it, but at least they’d leave it working again.

“Sure, I can do that,” Conor said. He locked his fingers together and stooped down slightly. She lifted her right foot onto his hands and he straightened his legs, easily lifting her weight.

“Are you okay?” she asked. She could reach the camera now but didn’t want to start fiddling with it until she was sure he was okay.

“I’m okay, trust me. I’ve done this with people who weighed twice as much as you. I won’t let you fall.”

“Oh. Okay.” Siena took hold of the camera cover and pulled it off gently. She wished she’d thought of wearing her thin glove liners so her hands wouldn’t be so exposed. She could hardly feel them at this point.

Everything looked fine, except … there it was. One of the wires was loose. She checked the edges of the wire—it wasn’t frayed or chewed. Rather, it looked like it’d been cut cleanly. This wasn’t something she could fix. She took a picture and replaced the cover carefully.

“Okay, I’m ready,” she said.

Conor lowered himself to a crouch so she could get back on the ground.

“Take a look at this,” she said, showing him the picture. “Somebody cut this wire and then replaced the camera cover.”

“This isn’t an accident.”

“Not the way it’s been sliced.” Siena shivered, and now it wasn’t from the cold. She looked around the white expanse around them. They were alone except for the howling wind. Conor seemed to read her mind.

“I don’t like this. Let’s get out of here.”

“Hold on, I’m going to email this picture to Montgomery. Something’s going on here and this time he’ll have to listen to us.”

#

Siena

Conor hadn’t said a word since they’d left the ridge. Siena concentrated on following the back light of his snowmobile down to the main area of the resort, glad that at least it’d stopped snowing.

He braked so suddenly she almost crashed into him but she managed to press the Kill Switch on the dashboard and stop her vehicle alongside his.

He was staring at the Midi chairlift.

“What’s going—” Her words were cut off as she felt it as well, a low, deep sound, like fireworks going off underground.

But who would set fireworks—

The sound got louder and louder. Suddenly the protective padding around one of the chairlift pylons burst into flames. At the same time the chairlift creaked and stood still, chairs balancing violently in the wind. People started screaming. While most of the chairs were empty, some carried people—people who were currently trapped up there.

“The structure’s not going to hold,” Conor said calmly. He’d already gotten off his snowmobile. “Call the ski patrol, Sienna. We need them here now”