Page 27 of The Mission

Even when he was over the finishing line, he wasn’t sure if he’d won but Arlo was poling over to him, and there was no sign of Mark. When Conrad looked back up the slope, he saw Mark being helped to his feet at the netting. Mark shook off the helping hand and skied down.

“Told you,” Arlo said. “You were clearly going to win so he deliberately fell over.”

Mark turned hard when he reached their side and showered them both with a wave of snow.

“Arsehole,” Arlo muttered.

“Caught a ridge of some sort,” Mark said. “The groomers must have missed it. I had no idea you were such a good skier.”

Conrad waited for the next comment which he’d already predicted.

“If I’d not fallen, I’d have given you a run for your money.”

“Want to race again?” Conrad asked.

“No time.” Mark skied off to the chairlift.

“Coward,” Arlo muttered. “That’s Benedikt and Julian coming down now. Oh look, is that Little Arsehole snowploughing the course behind them?”

“Yes. Good for him.” Maybe Ernesto had only been skiing a couple of times. Conrad ought to feel sorry for him, stuck with Mark. He even thought about warning him but decided to stay quiet.

“I told you to wait for me,” Mark shouted from the chairlift, but Ernesto couldn’t hear him, or maybe was ignoring him. Was he that brave? Conrad hoped he’d started to see through Mark. He wouldn’t wish the guy on anyone.

“Race me down, then let’s have lunch,” Arlo said.

“Sounds good.”

They went up on the chairlift and Arlo beamed at him. “Think there’s a prize?”

“BecauseIwon, unlikely. If anyone else had won, then I suspect there would have been one.”

“He really is an arsehole.”

When they’d skied to the finish line and Conrad had beaten Arlo, he felt awash in adrenaline. Arlo skied to his side and Conrad gave him a hug.

“Have they approached you about the World Championships?” Arlo asked.

“Yes,” Conrad said with a straight face and for a moment, Arlo was taken in.

“Bastard,” he muttered.

6

They had lunch with Arlo’s brothers, apart from Rurik who’d gone to a different restaurant to eat with the clients. The brothers were all impressed he’d beaten their elder brother. It was hard not to bask in the compliments.

“Do you think I did beat him?” Conrad whispered to Arlo.

“Of course you did.” Arlo sounded aghast.

“Definitely.” Julian nodded.

“They all have bat-like hearing.” Arlo shrugged.

“No way would Rurikletanyone win anything,” Benedikt said. “When we were kids, he wouldn’t even let us win at Snap. Said it was character-building. It made us all hate him.” But he chuckled and so did his brothers.

“It did mean that when we won, we knew we deserved it,” Dieter said.

“I take it board games in the Lehner household are tense affairs,” Conrad said.

---