Force of Nature

Federal agent Aaron Falk receives a phone call from his colleague, Carmen. He is at home and has not been planning to work today, but Carmen informs him that Alice Russell has gone missing while hiking in the Giralang Ranges. Alice was on a corporate retreat, and the hike was part of a team-building exercise. Aaron, who knows Alice, cannot imagine her going on a hike. Although she is fit, she is much more comfortable in sky-high heels and business attire than she would be in hiking gear. Aaron realizes that he received a phone call from Alice in the early hours of the morning. He recalls it just being silence and static, but now he ends the call with Carmen so that he can listen to the voicemail again. This time around, at the very end of the message, he hears the words “hurt her.”

It is not yet dawn when Carmen arrives at Aaron’s flat. Carmen, like Aaron, is 38 years old and has only six months more experience in law enforcement than Aaron does. She recently transferred to the financial investigation unit in Melbourne from Sydney. The two listen to the message again but cannot be sure that the voice belongs to Alice or is even female. The static is too loud, and the person speaking is too faint. Aaron speaks with Senior Sergeant King from the state police and explains that he received a call from Alice. He also tells King that Alice had been working with him and Carmen on a “confidential” basis. Carmen also tried to call the state emergency number but did not get through. Now, Aaron worries that Alice’s work with him and Carmen has put her in danger, so he agrees to head out to the Giralang immediately.

The narrative shifts back to an unspecified moment during the women’s ill-fated hike. Four women stand, scared and battered, near a disused cabin. They agree that they need to make their escape. One of them asks about Alice and questions whether or not they should wait for her. Another replies that Alice “brought this on herself” (12).

Carmen and Aaron head out to the Giralang Ranges. On the way, they review details about the corporate retreat. Bailey Tennant is a boutique accountancy firm, and this hiking adventure was part of a multi-day team-building exercise. The company had contracted with a local outfitter, who then organized the hike. Two groups had gone out: one composed of men and the other of women. The men’s group included Daniel Bailey, the firm’s chief officer. The women’s group included Alice Russell, Jill Bailey, Lauren Shaw, Bethany McKenzie, and Breanna McKenzie. Because of their work with Alice, Carmen and Aaron are already familiar with all of these names. 

As she speaks with Aaron, Carmen also mentions Martin Kovac, a man who spent decades in prison after killing several young women in the Giralangs. He never admitted to the crimes, but he was found guilty nonetheless. He later died during an inmate altercation. The case garnered a great deal of media attention, and an entire generation of people—Aaron included—grew up with a marked sense of fear and foreboding about the Giralangs. Now, Aaron and Carmen stop at a service station to fill up their tank. While inside, Aaron gets a copy of the store’s recent security footage.

The narrative shifts back in time to the moment when the Bailey Tennant group first arrives at Executive Adventures’s headquarters in the Giralangs: a comfortable lodge next to a muddy and uninviting trailhead. Bree deftly avoids a puddle near the trailhead, but Alice is not so lucky and soaks her boot. Bethany tries to light a cigarette but is admonished by their driver. Bree, who is Bethany’s sister, rolls her eyes and helps Jill to adjust her pack. The women set out. Alice is hoping to return early enough to keep a Sunday-night engagement, and Bree can tell that her mind is not on the hike. The distance to their first campsite is only about 10 kilometers, and to Bree, this distance seems manageable, although she knows that the others might not agree.

The narrative returns to the present as Falk and Carmen arrive at the lodge. They notice Daniel Bailey and take note of his mud-caked boots. Neither agent has seen him in person before, and they are struck by his athleticism. Jill Bailey (Daniel’s sister) is also present. Both Carmen and Aaron agree that Jill’s presence alongside her brother could make the investigation “tricky.” The two find Senior Sergeant King, the representative from the state police who has been handling the investigation. He tells them that the women’s group set off on the Mirror Falls trail on Thursday and then went off-track on the second day. They failed to make camp that night, so Executive Adventures already knew that they were lost. By the time the women returned, Breanna had an infected snakebite, and the others were battered and bruised. They claimed to have made their way to an abandoned cabin, at which point Alice decided to set off on her own, hoping to find a path to a road and a ride home. The Sergeant admits that although the two hiking groups were not supposed to meet up, there was contact between them. Aaron and Carmen ask about Daniel, explaining that he has been the target of their investigation and is the reason that they were working with Alice.

The narrative shifts back to the women’s hike. Jill struggles on the hike, but she knows that Bethany, a smoker, is finding the trek even more difficult. As they near the campsite, the women come across a white flag, one of six placed along the route. If they retrieve all of the flags, each woman will receive $240. Alice and Lauren, who have higher-paying jobs than Bethany and Bree, do not want to stop for the flag, but they are outvoted. They arrive at camp after dark. Jill falls, but Bree helps her up and provides her with a flashlight. Lauren hovers near the camp’s perimeter because she hears something in the dark.

King asks why Aaron and Carmen are investigating Daniel Bailey. They explain that Daniel and Jill’s father, Leo, is suspected of having set up a complex money-laundering operation at their company. Alice, who is also involved in the scheme, has been providing Aaron and Carmen with information about the company’s illicit activities. They were about to turn in a report to their supervisors at the financial investigation unit when Alice went missing. King still believes that Alice is somewhere out in the bush, but he thanks them for the information. He also wonders if Martin Kovac’s son, who is still alive, might be behind the disappearance. Aaron and Carmen are stunned by this piece of information and trade wary looks.

Lauren is irritated when she realizes that the noises she hears on the bus are coming from the men’s group. The men’s camp is only one kilometer away, and they have brought wine. They offer to help the women set up their tents and get their fire started, but in the end, Lauren and Alice do the bulk of the work. The two attended a wilderness school together as teenagers, and although it has been years, they still know their way around a campsite. Meanwhile, Alice is worried about her daughter, Margot, and although she has brought her phone, there is no signal. Jill admonishes Alice for bringing a cell phone, and Alice apologizes.

Aaron and Carmen ask King for more details about Kovac’s son, Samuel. They learn that he and Kovac were close and that Samuel was involved in petty crimes of various sorts up until his disappearance a few years ago. There is reason to believe that he was using an abandoned cabin in the area, and this may have been the very cabin that the women found. Samuel is presumed dead, but his body has not been found, and King doesn’t really believe that he died. They meet Ian Chase, the man who runs Executive Adventures. He tells them that accidents are rare and that he hopes to find Alice soon. In the distance, they see the figure of a woman. They are sure that it is not Alice, but they don’t know who else it might be.

The next morning, most of the women are hungover. The men brought wine, but unbeknownst to Beth, Alice had also hidden several bottles of wine in her bag. Beth is sober and had gotten upset with Alice, but Alice laughed her off. Now, the two quarrel again when Beth uses the wrong tree to go to the bathroom. (She ends up at a tree that is close to Alice’s tent.) Jill comes to Beth’s defense, and the argument fizzles out. Beth overhears Alice asking Jill for permission to leave early. She tells Jill that she doesn’t feel well, but Jill points out how much wine Alice had the previous evening and suggests that she continue on. Alice agrees. Beth visualizes grinding Alice’s face into the dirt, then feels better.

Aaron and Carmen return to the lodge and speak with Daniel, who is willing to share what he knows but sometimes seems evasive. Daniel claims to have arrived late because he was busy attending to a “family matter,” but he declines to specify what this matter entailed. Carmen and Aaron head to their rooms in the lodge. Aaron has brought his father’s old hiking bag. He lost his father to cancer and inherited the bag when his father died. It contains an array of old maps that this father has notated with landmarks and trail conditions. Aaron pulls out the map of the Giralang Ranges and examines it.

Jill’s backpack feels heavier than it did the previous day, but she is a team player, so she does not complain. She notes with disapproval how tired Alice seems. She is sure that Alice is feigning illness and is just hungover. Lauren approaches Jill, apologizing for a recent work issue, and Jill tells her that she must do better in the future. Jill does not say so aloud, but she knows that Alice has been covering for Lauren recently. Lauren, who always looks too thin and unusually tired, has struggled at work lately and was almost fired just a few weeks ago.

Aaron wakes with a start from an unplanned nap. Carmen enters his room and notices the maps, and he explains that they belonged to his father, with whom he was not very close. (Aaron lost his mother when he was an infant, and he and his father never really got along.) They then talk about Alice, noting how strange it was that she went missing just days before she was set to give them a folder of company contracts that would have provided solid evidence of money laundering at Bailey Tennant. After Carmen leaves, Aaron looks out the window to see a solitary woman outside. It is nighttime and too cold for a walk, so he wonders who it is and what they are doing.

Bree is hungover and feels atrocious. Alice continues her rude behavior, and Bree reflects that the one time she met Alice’s daughter, Margot, Margot was also entitled and unpleasant. Still, Alice is Bree’s boss, so Bree does her best to remain polite. Bree notices her sister Bethany smoking and resents her presence—both on the retreat and at her place of employment. Bree had not recommended her sister for the position, but apparently, her stellar work performance had convinced Jill to hire Bethany. Bree judges Bethany for her addiction and her brush with the law. She forgave Bethany only recently because her mother insisted that she do so. Now, Bree is navigating the route for the hike, but all of the other women pepper her with questions. No one is having a good time, and everyone hopes that Bree is not getting them lost.