“One of Snoop’s USPs has always been its light touch,” Miranda says, coming in from the lobby with a cup of coffee in her hand. She takes a sip and makes a face. I think it is the taste of the coffee that she is reacting to. Though it could be the prospect of the update. “People like the fact that you can be as anonymous as you want, it’s part of what keeps celebrities coming back. I’m not sure how many people clocked the change in permissions and really realized what it meant, because nothing changed at the user end. But this update is going to make it very obvious. Users will see exactly how much Snoop knows about their movements. I told Topher and Elliot at the time that there was a big PR risk with all of this, but they’re both so focused on the cool techy side of it—”

She stops and glances again at Elliot. He is still head down, tapping away with his earphones on.

“Anyway, never mind. This probably isn’t the time or place to have this discussion. It’s too… soon.” She sits beside me and Rik and takes another sip of coffee, then puts the cup aside. “How are you?” she says to me. I can hardly prevent myself from rolling my eyes. It seems like everyone is asking that question, when what they really want to know is, What are you thinking.

I am saved from answering by Elliot, who stands unexpectedly, clicking his laptop closed, and pulling off his headphones. He looks… tense. Which is unusual. He doesn’t show emotion easily.

“Okay, Elliot?” Miranda says brightly. I can tell she is wondering how much Elliot heard of our conversation.

“Erin’s put out coffee in the lobby if you want it,” she adds, but he ignores the remark.

“Do you know where Toph is? I need to speak to him.”

“He’s still in his room, I think,” Rik says. He is frowning. I can imagine him running over our conversation in his head, trying to work out if he said anything incriminating and what Elliot might be about to pass back to Topher. “But wait,” he adds, as Elliot heads purposefully towards the stairs. “I wouldn’t go up there, I think he’s got… company—”

But it is too late. Either Elliot didn’t hear, or he doesn’t care. He doesn’t reply to Rik’s warning. The last we hear of him is his heavy footsteps, thumping up the spiral staircase towards the bedrooms.

ERIN

Snoop ID: LITTLEMY

Listening to: Offline

Snoopers: 5

Snoopscribers: 10

“Oh, hey, Erin.”

I’m putting out another thermos of coffee when Ani trails into the dining room, smiling. She looks like she’s not slept a lot. I hope you know what you’re doing, I want to tell her, but I don’t.

“Morning, Ani. Can I get you coffee? The espresso machine isn’t working, but Danny’s managed to rig up a kettle on the woodburner so we’ve got hot French press.

“Ooh, yes please,” Ani says. “Could you take a cup up to Topher?”

“Sure.”

“Oh, I mean, unless… how’s your ankle?” she adds, flustered at having slipped so easily back into guest-and-server mode. “I can take it up if you’re not—”

She stops. Everyone has been thrown off-kilter by the strangeness of our setup here. Are we fellow survivors, or still holidaymakers and staff? I don’t know myself, but I do know that it’s going to be easier for everyone if we stick to the normal protocols. Someone needs to be in charge, and to be perfectly honest, I’d prefer it if that someone were me, not Topher.

“It’s loads better, thanks,” I lie. “I can manage the stairs, no problem.”

“But you shouldn’t have to,” Ani says, making up her mind. “I’ll take it up.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, totally. I’ll take one for Elliot too. He must be freezing up there.”

She pours out three cupfuls and carries them carefully up the spiral staircase to the bedrooms.

* * *

By 10:00 a.m. everyone is awake, and Danny and I make the decision to summon all the guests into the lobby for a meeting. There’s no real news, and the weather is still too unpredictable for a helicopter to land on our narrow slice of mountainside, but local radio reports have been saying that search and rescue for casualties is ongoing, and that EDF are working on restoring power to outlying hamlets. We are not the only people trapped without electricity, by the sound of it. In fact we’re considerably better off than some. But it feels like a good idea to reassure everyone that progress is being made, and to stress that we have enough food and water to see us through until they either restore the funicular, or get a helicopter up to airlift us out.

We also have to discuss the elephant in the room—Eva’s death. Although the rumor has gone around the group and everyone seems to have learned of Elliot’s conclusions, neither Danny nor I have formally acknowledged the issue. I’ve been putting it off, unable to face the reality of what has happened, but the time has come that we really have to make an announcement, make it clear that we’re trying our best to contact the authorities and alert them to what’s happened, but at the same time put to rest any false hopes, dispel any fantasies that she’s going to come limping over the horizon at any moment.

Danny beats the gong in the lobby, sending its deafening crescendo ringing around the rafters, and when at last everyone is gathered I tap a spoon against a coffee cup and wait for silence.

“Hi, um, hi everyone. Sorry for dragging you out of your rooms like this, but Danny and I just wanted to give you an update on our situation. Danny spent the morning trekking out to our two closest chalets, which unfortunately—or perhaps fortunately, for the inhabitants—seem to be unoccupied. One is very badly damaged, but it doesn’t look like anyone was there at the time of the avalanche. The other one was out of the path of the fall so it’s fine, but again, there’s no one home. We were hoping to find someone with a two-way radio or a satellite phone, but it’s not looking good so far. There’s one more chalet up at this level, but it’s about three miles away, so Danny’s going to wait until the weather clears before he heads out to check on that one.”

“And have you managed to make contact with search and rescue?” Rik says.

“Yes and no,” I say. “As you know, Inigo made contact yesterday and told them about our situation, but we haven’t been able to get through since, and without access to a satellite phone, I don’t think that’s going to happen until the power is restored. The power cut seems to have wiped out the remaining mobile phone reception. But the key thing is that they do know we’re here. We know from what Inigo said that we’re on their list, we just have to be patient while they work through the more critical rescues.”

“Do they know about Eva though?” The question comes from Tiger, her voice even more husky than usual, as if she is holding back a strong emotion, and a silence falls over the room as I try to answer it.

“Inigo told them that’s she’s missing yes. But they don’t know the latest. However—”

I stop and swallow. I knew this would be hard, but this is ridiculously hard. I see Liz’s eyes, luminous with distress, reflecting back at me from the other side of the room, Topher’s anguished face; Ani shading her eyes with a hand to hide the sudden tears that Tiger’s question has provoked. I take a breath, steady myself on the arm of a chair, trying to take the weight off my ankle, give myself space to find the right words. What I want to try to tell them is that even if we can get Elliot’s information to the search and rescue team, it’s not going to help. Eva’s already dead, and now she’s probably under thousands of tonnes of snow as well. There is no chance of anyone rescuing her alive; in fact, there’s not even any certainty that they will be able to recover her body. Some of the high passes never melt, even in summer. If Eva is buried at the bottom of one of the steep ravines, well, that’s it. There aren’t enough resources and money in the world to make that recovery.