Rat-Catcher (10 page)

'OK, let's go,' shouted Alex.

Li nodded but hesitated, glancing over her shoulder at the glacier. For the first time since they started the climb, she seemed unsure about carrying on. She walked a few metres, then bent down, took off her glove and picked up a handful of snow with her bare hand.

'What is it, Li?' asked Alex, stomping through the snow to join her.

Li gave him a sideways glance but said nothing.

'Tell me,' said Alex.

'This isn't looking too good,' admitted Li. She held out the handful of snow. 'You know how we had rain last night in Quito? Well, up here, it was falling as snow. Now, this layer of fresh snow has had the sun on it all afternoon.' Li let the snow sift through her fingers. 'See the consistency? Like sugar. That's going to make the climbing hard going and . . .'

'And what?' prompted Amber.

'And it makes an avalanche far more likely,' said Li. She looked down at her boots before she said the next bit. 'You see, climbers usually start out on a short route like this at dawn, so they're back down again before noon. Before the sun has had a chance to warm the snow. But - we're crossing this glacier at the most dangerous time of day.'

'And you wait until we're up here before you tell us this?' snarled Hex.

Li's head snapped up and she glared at him. 'Why? Would it have made any difference if I'd told you at the bottom?'

'At least we'd have had a choice in the matter!'

'Paulo is up there!' hissed Li. 'Would you have chosen to wait until tomorrow morning?'

Hex stared at her for a moment, his jaw clenching and unclenching. Then his shoulders relaxed and he shook his head. 'No.'

Li looked at Alex, then at Amber. They both shook their heads. 'OK, then,' said Li. 'Remember what I said, keep the line strung out.'

The night drew in, the wind yowled and the air grew colder as they moved up the glacier slope. Li led the way and they tramped along behind her, strung out in a long line in the powdery snow. The moon rose behind them and their long black shadows walked across the luminous face of the glacier beside them. Amber stumbled along in a daze, her head spinning and her breath coming in frantic gasps. Hex kept stopping and sending worried glances over his shoulder at her, but then the rope around his waist would tug as Li ploughed on up the slope and he would have to start moving again.

Suddenly, Hex felt the rope go slack in front of him. Li had stopped. She was standing, staring at the surface of the glacier ahead. Hex looked back at Alex, who shrugged. Amber did not even raise her head to see what was happening. She just stood there with her head down. Alex hesitated, remembering Li's instructions to stay apart, but Li stayed motionless, staring at the snow. Alex went to Amber and helped her up the slope to Hex, then the three of them moved up to join Li.

Alex pulled his balaclava away from his mouth. 'What's up?' he yelled, turning his back to the wind.

'Snow bowl,' said Li briefly. 'See it?'

Hex stared out at the glacier and shrugged. It all looked the same to him.

'The colour's different. And see how it's slightly curved, like a pillow? It was once a hollow in the surface of the glacier, but it's filled up with layers of packed snow.'

'So what's the problem?' asked Alex.

'Could be unstable,' said Li.

'What about going round it?'

'That would make the climb longer,' said Li. 'If we keep going straight on, we could be at the glacier fork in just over an hour!'

Alex looked at her. 'It's your call,' he said. 'But remember, we can't rescue Paulo if we're dead.'

Li did not return his grin. Her face was serious as she studied the snow. 'We go on,' she decided. 'There's been no sign of danger so far.'

They spread out again and continued on their way, heads down against the wind. Li was well onto the snow bowl and Alex had just walked over the rim, when a deep, regular booming began to sound, as though someone was beating a very large drum. Li and Alex stopped instantly, but Hex tramped on for a few more steps, pulling Amber along behind him, before he realized that the booming noise matched his steps. It was the packed snow beneath his feet that was resonating hollowly, every time his boots struck it.

Hex looked up at Li. She had turned to face them and her normally rosy high cheekbones were as pale as candlewax in the moonlight. Hex felt a bolt of fear slam into him as he stared at Li's terrified face. For a few seconds they stood, frozen. Then, with a muffled
whoomp,
a whole section of the glacier surface over to their left shook and settled as though all the air had been knocked out of it.

Li froze, watching the snow. She knew that a weaker, older layer of snow had just collapsed under the slab of snow to their left. It was now extremely unstable and could quite easily slide off the glacier like a plate from a tilting table. If that happened, they would be taken down the mountain with the avalanche. She waited for a few seconds, then decided to retrace her steps. As soon as she put her foot down, cracks appeared in the snow, spreading outward from under her boot in a star pattern. Li felt her mouth go dry. Snow only cracked like that when it was under great pressure. The slab they were standing on was about to collapse.

F
IFTEEN

Li took a deep breath and looked up at the others. They were all watching her, waiting to know what to do. She pointed towards the rock outcrop at the right-hand edge of the glacier, then slowly started to move towards it, away from the unstable slabs of snow to their left. With every step she took, the snow slab boomed and a spiderweb of cracks spread away from her boots, but there was no option. They had to move out of the snow bowl and hope that they made it before the slabs detached themselves from the glacier and avalanched down the mountain.

The minutes ticked by as they crawled across the glacier towards the rock outcrop. Finally they reached snow that did not boom like a drum when they stepped on it, but they were still in great danger. Li could not understand why the unstable slabs had not avalanched already. The relatively shallow angle of the slope and the steadily dropping temperature must have kept them in place, but that could not last much longer. They had to climb higher, round the edge of the snow bowl, so that they were above the avalanche when it happened.

Li pulled a snow stake from her rucksack and moved off up the slope, probing the snow as she went. The snow here was less unstable because it had been in the shade of the rock outcrop all day, but she knew they faced another problem. When a glacier came up against rock like this outcrop, deep crevasses could open up along the edge of the glacier, hidden under layers of snow.

They were barely clear of the snow bowl when there was an explosive crack and the slabs behind them finally began to slide, picking up speed as they moved down the slope until they were roaring down the mountain at the speed of an express train, sending huge clouds of powdered snow into the air and taking massive boulders bouncing down the mountain with them. Alex, Li, Hex and Amber watched from the safety of the rock outcrop, each imagining what could have happened.

'Sorry,' said Li, as the rumbling died away down the mountain.

'We survived,' said Alex, 'but is it safe to go on?'

'Oh, yes,' said Li, turning away rather too quickly.

The other three looked at one another, then turned to follow her. They were all panting hard now, but they made good progress, following the rock outcrop. When Li stopped for a breather, Alex raised his head to look up the moonlit slope. He thought he could just see the top end of the rock outcrop in the distance. Paulo and Eliza were just round the other side of that outcrop. Alex felt his heart lift but, at the same time, the metallic taste of fear came into his mouth at the thought of what they were about to do.

Ahead of him, Li started out again. Alex took a step forward - and the ground opened up under his feet. There was a brief, dizzy sensation of falling into darkness, then he was jerked to a halt by the rope around his waist. He swung on the end of the rope, gasping with shock and pain. He tried to straighten up and grab the rope to stop it from biting into him. The rope slid up around his chest and began to constrict his already overworked lungs. Alex hung in the intense coldness of the crevasse, gasping for air. He peered up at the faint glow of moonlight far above his head until a grey mist came down over his eyes and his head lolled back.

Up on the surface of the glacier, Amber screamed as the rope jerked her from her feet. She slid down the slope on her back, heading for the black crevasse that had opened up in the white snow. Behind her, Hex lost his footing too. 'Li!' he bellowed as he slid.

Li jammed her crampons into the snow and leaned back against the rope. Below her, Hex stabbed at the snow with the spikes of his crampons, gradually slowing his downward slide. Li pulled the ice axe from her belt, slipped the strap around her wrist and slammed it into the slope above her. She hung on with both hands. The rope jerked, nearly pulling her arms from their sockets. Hex dug his crampons in deep and took hold of the rope too. His arms strained as he hauled back on the rope and, finally, Amber came to a floundering halt on the lip of the crevasse.

'Amber!' called Li, her voice wobbling with strain. 'Can you move up the slope at all?'

Amber turned onto her back, grabbed the rope and began to dig her crampons into the snow. Above her, Li and Hex did the same and, gradually, they moved up the slope in a series of short, grunting heaves.

'OK! Stop!' yelled Li, when she judged that Amber was out of danger. 'Alex? Can you hear us?'

There was no answer. Li groaned, trying to decide what to do. 'Hex and Amber? Do you think you can take the strain?'

Hex dug his crampons in deeper and hauled back on the rope. Below him, Amber took her ice pick from her belt and anchored herself to the snow. Li felt her section of rope slacken. Carefully, she got to her feet and hurried down the slope to Hex, untying the rope around her waist as she went.

'I think Alex must've passed out because of the rope around his chest,' she panted as she reached Hex. 'I'm going to go down there and see.'

'Careful,' grunted Hex, his face taut with strain.

Li edged as close to the crevasse as she dared, pulling another rope from her rucksack as she went. She put a loop in one end of the rope, then measured out a ten-metre length and tied it onto the taut rope that linked Alex and Amber. Li threw the new rope over the edge of the crevasse, then started calling to Alex.

Down in the crevasse, Alex swam up out of a cold, grey mist. Someone was shouting to him, but he could not understand the words. He tried to lift his head and the rope tightened around his chest. The pain brought him fully awake again and he heard Li's voice floating down from above him.

'Alex! Put your foot through the loop!'

Alex turned his head and saw the new rope dangling in front of him. He reached out and grabbed it, then slipped his boot into the loop at the bottom. As soon as the new rope took his weight, the rope around his chest slackened and his head began to clear.

'He's done it!' yelled Li, running back up the slope and tying herself back onto the other end of the rope. 'We can pull now. Go!'

They pulled as hard as they could, backing up the slope and digging their crampons in for purchase. Soon, Alex's head appeared. They pulled harder and he slid over the lip of the crevasse onto the snow. Once he was well clear of the crevasse, they helped him to his feet and took him to safety.

'That's it,' growled Alex, as soon as he could talk. 'I'm calling a halt.'

'But we're nearly there!' cried Li.

'Li, you're too tied up with getting to Paulo,' said Alex, rubbing his sore chest. 'Your judgement is way off. If we keep doing as you say, somebody's going to die.'

'He's right, Li,' gasped Amber.

'Let's wait a few hours,' agreed Hex. 'Give the snow time to harden. We can still be there before dawn -- sneak in while they're all sleeping.'

Li looked at the three of them, then nodded a reluctant agreement.

'Is there a way of getting out of this wind?' asked Hex, giving Amber a worried look.

Alex looked around until he spotted a promising drift of deep, hardened snow against the rock face. 'Over there,' he said, pulling a snow shovel from his pack. 'We can dig a snow hole.'

They piled their rucksacks around Amber, giving her some shelter from the wind. Alex dug into the snow bank, keeping the entrance small and low to the ground but hollowing out a larger, low-ceilinged space beyond the entrance, inside the bank. Li and Hex cleared away the snow that Alex pushed out through the entrance hole.

Once the space was big enough for all four of them, Alex set about creating three different shelving levels inside. He had built a snow hole with his dad once, out on the Northumbrian moors, and he knew they worked on the principle that hot air rises, and heavier, cold air sinks. The smallest shelf was the highest, where the fire would be. When Alex had finished it, he took Li's snow stake and pushed it carefully up through the roof of the shelter to create a narrow chimney above the fire. Next, he levelled out a second, much larger platform just below the fire platform, for them all to sit on. The third level was a small trench dug just inside the entrance hole and that was where the cold air would gather, leaving the warmer air circulating on the higher platforms. Finally he picked up the block of snow he had kept back from the trench and slotted it into the entrance hole as a door. Nodding with satisfaction, he put the block to one side and crawled out into the freezing wind. The whole process had taken less than half an hour of hard digging.

They all crawled into the snow hole out of the wind and snuggled down into their sleeping bags, which were protected by waterproof bivvy bags. Alex took the sticks he had collected from the lower slopes of the mountain and laid them on the fire shelf. He pulled his survival kit from his belt pouch and took out a twist of tinder-dry kindling and his flint. Within minutes there was a small fire crackling brightly on the fire shelf and the snow hole began to warm up.

Amber sent a text message to her uncle, then they leaned together, exhausted and panting hard in the thin air, waiting in silence for the dawn.

Hex was right. Even with a few hours of rest, they still made it to the top of the left-hand glacier fork just as the sun was rising. The wind had dropped and the glacier slope below them was quiet as they eased their way around the top of the rock outcrop. They went down on their bellies and commando-crawled down the right-hand fork of the glacier, until they reached a small ridge in the snow.

Carefully, Hex raised his head above the ridge, then signalled the all-clear. The others raised their heads to have a look. The two huts lay directly below them on a rock shelf next to the glacier. The little six-seater Dakota was still poised at the top of the landing strip, with its nose pointing down the glacier. Everything was quiet and still.

Li took the tracker device from her rucksack and pulled out the telescopic aerial. Hex leaned over and turned down the sound before Li switched it on. The green blip appeared on the screen, flashing strongly. Hex peered at the distance and direction statistics coming up in the corner of the screen, then pointed to the furthest away of the two huts. 'He's in that one,' he whispered.

They nodded and retreated a little way up the slope to dump their rucksacks behind a rock and remove their crampons. Amber sent another reassuring text message to her uncle, then turned off the phone and slipped it into her rucksack. Then she quickly gave herself her morning insulin injection.

'Ready?' whispered Alex. 'Let's go get Paulo.'

There were well-worn tracks of packed-down snow all around the huts and they were able to move along them without making a sound. They moved in single file, crouching low to the ground. They reached the first hut and Alex slowly raised his head until he could peer in through the window. There were three camp beds in there, arranged around an oil stove, and three humped shapes on the beds under mounds of blankets.

Alex crouched down again, mimed sleeping and gave a thumbs-up. If things went to plan, they were going to be able to sneak Paulo and Eliza out of the other hut and have them halfway down the left-hand fork of the glacier before the inhabitants of the other hut had even woken up.

They moved on in silent single file through the snow to the second hut. Again, Alex raised his head to look through the window. The sun shone into the room beyond, lighting up a strange collection of large tubs and barrels, with siphon pipes strung between them. They had found the general's cocaine factory. Over in one corner a clump of yellowy, powdery substance had been spread out on a tarpaulin square to dry. There were tables lined up against the back wall. Some were stacked with white blocks wrapped in clingfilm, others held collections of bottles and chemical containers. A large sink stood in another corner, next to a dirty old cooker, which was connected to a Calor Gas bottle. The far corner of the room was screened off with an old blanket, hanging from a length of washing line.

Alex gestured to the other three and they joined him at the window. He pointed to the screened-off corner. 'They must be behind there,' he breathed.

Hex moved up to the door and checked all around it for any sort of alarm system, then he reached out and turned the handle. The door swung open. He frowned suspiciously and turned to Li. 'Why isn't the door locked?'

'They must be tied up,' she whispered, peering into the dark hut. 'Besides, who needs locks on doors way up here?'

Still Hex hesitated. Li pushed past him impatiently and stepped into the hut. The others followed her, closing the door behind them. They moved over to the blanket. Hex and Alex nodded to one another, then reached up, grabbed a corner of the blanket each and yanked it down.

There was nothing but a small table behind the blanket. On top of the table, arranged neatly right in the centre, was Paulo's belt.

'It's a trap!' hissed Amber.

Then the hut door opened behind them. A small cylinder came rolling into the room and the door closed again. Amber, Li and Hex stared stupidly at the cylinder, not understanding what it was, but Alex's eyes widened. He knew what the cylinder was. It was a stun grenade, commonly known as a flash-bang.

'Get down!' he yelled, diving under the table. 'Hands over your ears!'

The others dropped to the floor beside him. An instant later, the stun grenade exploded with a blast of brilliant light and overwhelming sound. The percussion hit them like a solid wall, knocking the wind from their lungs and setting their heads ringing like tuning forks. They flopped onto the floor and their hands fell away from their ears. They stared unseeingly at the ceiling, completely overcome. The pain in their ears was intense and the ringing grew louder and louder, disrupting the delicate balance-mechanism of the inner ear completely. Vertigo gripped them and a huge wave of nausea flowed through their bodies.

They were vaguely aware of being picked up and manhandled out of the hut, but they were so disoriented, they could not even stand. By the time their heads had cleared enough for them to realize what was happening, they were outside, sitting in a line in the snow. Their wrists were handcuffed behind them, and a thin chain had been threaded through each pair of cuffs, then padlocked to the propane gas tank which stood between the huts.