Philip Kerr - Esau

‘Jack? Are you okay?’

He was motionless, looking like a statue high on the wall of some strange cathedral chapel, a saint or an angel, frozen in the act of some weird benediction.

That was it. He was frozen with fear.

‘Jack?’

‘Shut up, shut up, shut up.’

Swift heard the panic in the echoing voice from above, and with no pleasure she knew she must be right.

‘Jack, listen to me. Listen. You’re more than halfway down. Just take your time.’

He did not move. He said nothing. All she could hear was the sound of his breathing, as fast as if he were running a marathon.

She paused, wondering what to say next. If he didn’t make it, she wouldn’t make it either. Things were that simple. Whatever words she said to him now, they would probably be the most important things she would ever say.

‘Jack? I don’t know if this is the right time or place. Maybe if we get out of this, we’ll laugh about it afterwards. But we’ll both know this was still the truth. What I said. What I’m saying. I love you. Jack. In my way I always have. After this is all over I don’t want us ever to be apart again. This is a little like a balcony scene from Shakespeare, except that it’s me who should be up there, and you down here. But I mean what I’m saying. Jack. So you can’t stop now. You just can’t. You have to climb down here so that you can tell me you love me and so that we can go on with the rest of our lives. Do you understand?’

Swift stopped speaking and waited a long moment. Then, slowly, like something that was dead coming to life again — a mummy from a Pharaoh’s tomb — he moved first his arm, then his leg, and resumed his descent.

When he reached the shelf at last, they held each other in silence for as long as Jack perceived that their situation allowed.

‘Thanks,’ he said, releasing her from his strong embrace. ‘I really lost it up there. You were pretty good, the way you talked me down.’

‘I meant every word of it.’

He nodded, picked up the rope, and began to tie it around his waist. ‘I know you did,’ he said. ‘If I’d had any doubt about that, I’d probably still be up there.’ He glanced up at the deepening blue pennant of sky that flagged the entrance to the crevasse. ‘Be easier going up than coming down, I guess.’

‘All the same, I think you’d better take this with you.’ She kissed him hard on the mouth. ‘Just in case you should start to slow down.’

Jack turned to the wall and got ready to climb again.

‘Wait,’ she said. ‘You haven’t told me you loved me yet.’

‘No?’ He grinned back at her. ‘Well, get ready to watch a man in love climb this wall.’

CASTORP. SENIOR SPEAR, SENIOR RUBY, AND SENIOR SCAN COM INTEL SOURCES INDICATE THAT THE CHINESE SOLDIERS AT THE SANCTUARY POSITION YOU DESCRIBED IN YOUR LAST MESSAGE ARE INDEED PEOPLe’s ARMY SOLDIERS. ALTHOUGH THEIR PRESENCE IN NEPAL IS TECHNICALLY ILLEGAL, THEIR PURPOSE WOULD APPEAR TO BE THE CAPTURE AND APPREHENSION OF GENUINE DESERTERS FROM SAME ARMY, AND TO THIS EXTENT SUCH MINOR INCURSIONS ARE QUITE USUAL. THEY ARE TOLERATED BY THE NEPALESE GOVERNMENT, WHO HAVE NO WISH TO UPSET THE CHINESE AUTHORITIES NOR TO ENCOURAGE ILLEGAL EMIGRATION TO THEIR ALREADY POOR COUNTRY. AS A RESULT, THERE IS NO NECESSITY TO TAKE ANY ACTION AS YOUR MISSION IS NOT COMPROMISED BY THEIR PRESENCE. HUSTLER.

When Swift and Jack got back to Camp One, exhausted and ravenously hungry, it was already dusk. Mac and Jameson had prepared them a meal of beef stew and rice pudding with canned fruit. Wrapped up warm in their sleeping bags, Mac and Jameson smoked cigarettes and drank whisky, listening as the pair wolfed down their food and related the events of the day.

‘And you reckon the yetis just jumped nine metres straight over the edge?’

‘No doubt about it,’ Swift said. ‘There were tracks all over the shelf.’

‘That’s what I call a bloody leap of faith,’ said Mac.

‘The shelf goes straight up and into the mountain. It’s the best kind of trail we could have. I mean, there are no tracks to blow away. We just follow the shelf to the end. What do you say. Jack?’

Jack nodded. ‘But we’ll need one of Boyd’s survival suits. It gets pretty cold inside a crevasse.’

‘Don’t remind me,’ Swift shivered. ‘It was like a tomb in there.’

‘Very nearly was, by the sound of it,’ said Mac. He unzipped his sleeping bag and crawled toward the door of the tent.

‘I’m just going outside,’ he announced with mock solemnity. ‘I may be some time.’

Jack nodded at the bottle of scotch near Jameson. ‘I could use a drink.’

‘Of course.’ Jameson reached to pour him a drink. ‘Swift?’

‘No thanks. Haven’t you had enough?’

‘You don’t understand,’ smiled Jameson. ‘There’s a reason why we’re drinking.’

‘Who needs reasons?’ said Jack.

‘It’s because we’re so close to the rock face.’ Jameson lowered his voice. ‘Mac thinks that we’re right in the way of an avalanche. Sorry, a bloody avalanche. He says that if we’re engulfed, he doesn’t want to know anything about it.’

Jack shrugged and sipped his whisky. ‘Maybe he’s right. And it tastes a lot better than a Seconal.’

‘Well, I certainly won’t need a Seconal to put me to sleep tonight,’ said Swift. ‘Avalanche or not, I could sleep on the point of a sword.’

Removing only her boots and her storm-proof outer shell. Swift crawled into her sleeping bag and zipped up. Mac came back into the tent with the news that it had started to snow.

‘Just what we bloody need,’ he said. ‘More bloody snow. If you ask me, the weather’s closing in a bit. I wouldn’t be at all surprised—’

Jameson’s radio interrupted him, sounding like the tent’s forgotten guest.

‘Hello, Jack. This is Link. Come in, please. Over.’

‘About time they bloody called,’ grumbled Mac.

Jack picked up the radio and pressed the call button.

‘Hello ABC, this is Jack at Machhapuchhare Camp One. You’re loud and clear. Over.’

He waited a moment and then heard Link’s voice again.

‘How’s things?’

‘Fine. Link? Did Hurké make it back all right?’

‘Affirmative. Jutta’s given him something to help him sleep. He seemed badly shaken up. Won’t say much about it though. Says he doesn’t want to scare the rest of the boys.’

‘Good thinking. How’d they take it? The loss of those men this morning?’

‘Not good. But nothing, I don’t think, that can’t be fixed.’

‘Good. Is Jon Boyd there?’

‘Wait a second.’

‘Hi, Jack. This is Jon.’

‘Jon. Those SCE suits you were talking about. I’d like to try one of them out tomorrow. Can you get some of the boys to carry one up first thing tomorrow? Plus the rest of the Camp One gear.’

‘Sure thing.’

‘And plenty of rope too.’

‘Going climbing?’

‘Not exactly. I’m going down a crevasse. And it gets very cold and dark in there.’

‘You going after those Sherpa bodies?’

‘No. I’m going to follow the yeti trail. That’s where they went.’

‘Okay, Jack. Well, you’ll find all the instructions for use of the suit in the box. Just like a kid’s toy. Try and remember one thing though: Your environment lasts twelve hours and no more. After that, no heat, no light, no voice comms, nothin’. You copy?’

‘Yes. I’ve got that.’

‘Hey, I nearly forgot to tell you. The B team found another expedition in the Sanctuary. Bunch of Chinese meteorologists. Only Ang Tsering reckons they might be Chinese army deserters.’

‘That’s interesting.’

‘Cody wants to drop by and say hello again.’

‘Tell him to be careful. How’s the weather station looking? It’s started to snow up here.’