Page 34 of The Artist
I kept trying as big fat snowflakes started falling outside.
It took another thirty minutes of our being sick with worry before a drone showed up. It was the four Motlanders. By that time a strong wind combined with snowfall made for low visibility.
“Did the others return yet?” Lachlan asked as they came inside and brushed snow off their jackets. “We didn’t see the other drones outside.”
“They must be on their way.”
Again, I clicked my wristband and this time I found a message from Thor. “They’re on their way back. Thor says all the drones are returning so they’ll be here shortly.”
The French were the next to return in my drone right before Thor’s drone landed and my sister and the others came out.
Despite the wind that was now howling, we could hear voices shouting as they all came running to the door.
A gush of wind and snow made the flames in the fireplace crackle when the door was flung open.
“Hurry inside so we can close the door.” I directed and held on to the door so the wind wouldn’t slam it against the wall again.
They were all shouting at each other making it hard for the Motlanders, Celeste, and me to understand what the problem was. Indiana was the last to come through the door, pushing Simon in front of him.
My gaze flew to the drones, which were hardly visible despite being close to the cabin. “Where’s Belle?” My blood instantly felt as cold as the snow coming down in buckets. Looking outside I searched for her before Thor pulled me in and slammed the door shut.
Grabbing Simon’s shoulders, I shook him. “Where the fuck is Belle?”
His lips were quivering, and his voice kept breaking as if he was about to cry. “We don’t know. We thought that we would build our sculpture close to the wall of the cliff… you know, to get shelter from the wind… but then it started snowing hard and we wanted to go back to the cabin. Belle said that she just wanted to finish up the sculpture and take some more pictures.” Simon’s eyes were darting from side to side and he spoke fast with his accent making it hard to understand.
Isaac took over and babbled, “We waited for her in the drone, but then we heard a loud crack and looked up. The whole wall came down at once like an avalanche.”
I held my breath as we all stared at them. Holly and Doreen stood with their hands to their mouths and Freya and Aubri held on to each other.
“There was so much snow and we were afraid that if we stayed, the drone might get covered by more snow falling,” Simon explained.
“You left Belle?” My voice was a shriek.
Victor’s head fell forward. “We didn’t want to but there’s no way she could have survived the impact of all that snow. She was right under the ledge.”
I heard his words but refused to believe them. Turning to Thor and Indiana, I ordered, “We’re gearing up.”
There was no hesitation or protest from either of them. Both of their faces were set in stone as I grabbed my snow gear and put on my boots. “Let’s go. We’re taking my drone. It will take us back to its last stop.”
“I’m coming with you,” Aubri called behind us but Thor gave her a strict order to stay behind in case something happened to us.
“We’re bringing the laser,” Indiana shouted over the wind that was now howling while snow whipped my face.
The two of us dragged the heavy machine and loaded it into my drone, not caring that we scratched the paint job.
Flying as fast as we could it still took us seventeen minutes to get to the Moose Valley. Those seventeen minutes felt like seventeen years and involved a lot of swearing in the drone.
Indiana, Thor, and I agreed that this was further proof that Motlanders and Europeans should fucking stick to doing meditation and calculus and let us Nmen run the world.
“What kind of idiot places the sculpture under a ledge with snow on top? Did they eventryto dig her out?” Thor muttered and even though none of us said it out loud, we all knew that no one could survive being buried in snow for more than a few minutes.
“We’re here,” I muttered low as the drone finally slowed down and began descending. Looking out, it was impossible to see what was there because of the snow coming down. Luckily, the drone showed us a 3D map of the area telling us where the cliff was.
“There.” I pointed to the right. “They said she was under the ledge.”
We had to land at least seventy-five feet away because of all the snow.
All three of us had our locator maps up, scanning for living beings.
