Page 4 of Mountain Void

Laughter rippled around the table. Lorenz smiled and raised his glass. Alistair had come back for him. He could take the ribbing.

He hobbled over to where the rest of the runners were. Most of them men, but also a couple of women. All of them friends of sorts, since they kept meeting up time and time again.

“Thank you for coming back for us, Alistair.”

Alistair waved it off. “Hell, I wasn’t about to let you keep all the glory.”

“Sorry I screwed up the podium for you.”

Alistair shrugged, one shoulder lifting higher than the other. “It wasn’t going to happen today. This way, I’ll have a good story to tell when I get back home. Heroics. The moral choice. I’m thinking that’s going to be part of my branding from now on.”

“Your sponsors are going to eat it up!” somebody said.

“How’s Karim?” somebody else asked.

“He called from the hospital. He’s going to be fine. They’re keeping him for a few more hours before releasing him,” Lorenz said.

“I’m glad he’s going to be okay,” Mona said, her expression tight as she rubbed her calves. “We should all have dinner together, after we’ve had a nap. A long one.” She was one of the youngest here. She’d been bitten by the ultramarathon bug early. Lorenz would bet anything she wasn’t hurting half as much as he was. Shit, those last few kilometers had been brutal. Until he’d crossed that finish line, he hadn’t been sure he would make it.

Lorenz glanced at his watch, then winced as the simple motion sent warning flares through his body. Even his elbows hurt.

“Can’t,” he said. “I’m going straight to the airport as soon as I finish this protein shake. I’m due back at work tomorrow.” He tilted the glass. He couldn’t afford to miss his flight. Beau would have his ass.

“You’re joking.” Alistair laughed, a short, disbelieving bark. “Shit, you’re crazier than the craziest of us, and that’s saying something. Will you be in Sweden in the fall?”

“Is that the underground marathon?” Mona asked.

Lorenz suppressed a shiver. He wasn’t a fan of closed spaces. The thought of spending all those hours underground, hemmed in by rock on all sides … not happening. He could run anywhere, so why choose that?

“No way, man. Give me a mountain or a desert any day, but I’m not running in the dark.”

“I’m not sure about that one, either,” Mona said.

“I think you might be on your own, Alistair.”

“Cowards, the lot of you,” Alistair said fondly.

Lorenz stretched a leg out and hissed through his teeth. He already felt like shit, and it was going to get worse before it got better. Outside the hotel window, the morning was already brightening.

“I’ll be off, then.” Lorenz dropped his glass on the table closest to him. He’d never been one for drawn-out goodbyes. “Take care, everyone.”

2

Charlie

“Okay, team,” she said, standing at the front of the rug where twenty-one second graders sat in various stages of wriggling. “Today we’re learning about something very important.”

“Volcanoes?” Louis asked hopefully.

“I think it’s dinosaurs,” another little voice offered.

“Is it math?” groaned Janie, looking offended by the idea. Charlie made a mental note. By June, she hoped Janie would see the fun side of math.

“No,” Charlie said, sweeping a dark blond curl behind her ear and fighting a smile. “We’re going to learn about the thirty-second rule.”

“My mom always talks about that one. It’s when you drop a chicken nugget, but you can still eat—”

“That’s the five-second rule!” Olivier said.