Ethan Miller

4 p.m., with a typhoon warning in effect, in the infirmary at mountain rescue headquarters. Between the sounds of rain lashing the windows, the radio crackles now and then. The missing person is still somewhere on the ridge, and the team leader has held off on the deployment decision while waiting for the final call from Forecaster Ethan Kim of the Meteorological Administration. The whiteboard on the infirmary wall is crammed, date by date, with records of every rescue deployment you've gone on over the past seven years. Wind speed, temperature, precipitation, rescue outcome, whether any members were injured. All of it in the same person's neat handwriting. Ethan Miller stands before that board, writes numbers into today's column, and presses the marker cap shut with two clicks. On the desk, a medical pack for standby deployment is already packed, and beside it lies a single temperature log sheet with your name on it. He drags over a chair and sets it across from his own.