The Edge (20 page)

Zopa looked at me. “How is Ethan's ankle?”

I'd forgotten he'd injured it. He hadn't limped since we had gotten to the stream. “Healed, I think.”

“Good. Peak, me, Teri, and Alessia will descend the gorge. JR, Will, Jack, and Ethan will meet us downriver.”

I think I saw relief in the film crew's faces. I wondered what Ethan would think of Zopa's team division.

“How long do we wait at the river?” Jack asked.

“You don't wait for us,” Zopa answered. “You keep moving. The only thing you'll carry is water and some food. Speed will be everything. We can stay in touch with the two-way radios when we are close enough. We will take your climbing equipment with us. Everything else stays here.”

“What if we can't reach you on the radio?” JR asked.

“You keep moving downriver,” Zopa said. “The goal is for someone to survive this.”

IT TOOK US OVER AN HOUR
to sort and divide the gear, which was good because it took our minds off Ethan's progress, or lack thereof. We hadn't heard a word from him since he signed off. Our team split the water between us. Ethan's team (that's how I thought of them) didn't need water because they'd be able to replenish at the stream before they tackled the hill. According to the maps and photos, our team would be heading away from the stream and wouldn't be able to get water until we reached the river at the bottom of the gorge. And to be honest, the water at the bottom of the gorge had me a bit worried because I couldn't swim. I brought this little snag up with Zopa and Mom, suggesting that maybe I should go with the film crew and Ethan should go with them. Of course, in a small cavern, there is no such thing as privacy. Everyone got in on the conversation.

“You cannot swim?” Alessia asked.

Great.

“I can't swim either,” Mom admitted. “We'll go down together,” she added.

“I don't want to climb down that gorge,” Will said. “And no offense, Peak, but I'd rather take my chance with an ex-marine, even if it means crossing the open scree again.”

“No offense taken.”

“Can you swim?” Alessia asked Zopa.

He shook his head. “Not many opportunities for a Sherpa to swim in the Himalayas.”

“As narrow as that gorge is,” Jack said, “I doubt an Olympic swimmer would be able to tread water in those rapids. In fact, if there is a boat, it will be interesting keeping it under control.”

That was a comforting thought.

“Not a problem,” Mom said. “When I was young, I made my climbing money leading white-water rafting trips.”

Yet another thing I didn't know about her.

“You said you couldn't swim,” Jack said.

“And you said no one could tread water in the gorge, and you're right. But that holds true for almost all rapids. We wore life vests. It's probably too much to hope for, but I hope the boat is fully equipped with life vests. Be assured, I will be the first—” She glanced at me. “Make that the second person to strap one on.”

I heard someone whispering in my ear. I'd forgotten that I'd left one of the buds in to listen for Ethan. I waved everyone to be quiet and pressed the talk button.

“I'm here.”

“Me too . . . or almost. The second entrance is on top. There's an old ladder that leads down to the tunnels. Pretty easy to follow because they've been using the entrance. Before I poke my head into your tunnel, I need to know where your guard is, what he's doing, and if he's alone.”

“Hang on. This might take a while.”

“I have all the time in the world.”

I explained the situation to the others, saying that I would go down the short tunnel to check on the guards.

“I'm skinnier than you are,” Will said. “I'll go.”

“Are you sure?” I asked.

“No,” Will answered. “Turn off the lights.”

We turned the lanterns off. For a second, dim light filtered through the entrance, then the cavern went completely black as Will squeezed through the narrow crack. If Will made a sound, if the guard, or guards, looked up at the wrong time, our escape hopes would be all over, and there was a good chance Will would be dead.

There was no sound except for our breathing. My eyes began to water from staring at the black entrance. I looked at my watch. A minute went by, then two, then three . . . Six minutes after he started, the dim light reappeared through the crack.

“Turn the lights on,” Will said.

He was drenched in sweat. I was too.

“He's alone,” Will said. “Playing solitaire. Cards on his blanket. Facing the long tunnel. Headlamp on. His rifle is leaned against the wall. Pistol still strapped to his waist . . . I think.” He grabbed a water bottle and drained it.

I passed the information on to Ethan in a whisper.

“Copy that. Wish he was asleep. Guess I'll just have to try the frontal approach.”

“What do you mean?”

“Pop out into the tunnel wearing Afghan garb. Blind him with my headlamp. Hope he thinks I'm his partner. Take him out without making a sound. Simple. This is going to take a while. I'm at the base of the ladder so they can't hear me. Stand by. Be ready to split. Make sure you tie down all the gear so it doesn't rattle in the tunnel. Out.”

The two-way went silent. His rattle suggestion was a good one. My gear was already cinched down. It took fifteen minutes to silence everyone else's gear. When we finished, we simply stood there with our packs on, staring at the crack in the wall, listening. Several more minutes passed.

“Did you hear that?” JR whispered.

I hadn't heard anything. I looked at the others. All of them were shaking their heads.

“A thump,” JR said. “I swear I—”

Someone was coming through the entrance. He was wearing a headlamp, a rifle slung over his shoulder, a pistol tucked into his Afghan pants. Ethan. His easy smile was gone, as if he had never smiled in his life. He had blood on his hands.

“Follow me,” he whispered, harshly. “Not a word, not a cough until we get up top. Turn your headlamps off.”

I was the last to leave the cavern. I looked to my left as I stepped out of the entrance. Our guard was sitting on his blanket. His headlamp was pointed down at a deck of bloody cards.

It's a maze of tunnels, right, left, left, right . . . I'm completely turned around. I'm surprised Ethan remembers the way, but he does. We stop in a narrow tunnel, single file. Ethan sheds his Afghan disguise. One at a time, we climb a rickety wooden ladder, maybe twenty feet up. I'm the last to pop through the rabbit hole. We are in a grove of trees. It's dark and cool. It feels good to be free, but the hard part is still to come . . .

ETHAN CLOSED
a crudely built trapdoor over the hole in the ground.

“Get some rocks and logs,” he said. “I'd like to disable this exit if we can.”

We piled everything we could find on top of the door.

“That ought to hold them,” Ethan said. “At least for a while. What's the plan?”

Mom quickly rolled out a map and explained what we had in mind.

“Makes good sense,” Ethan said, without a word about the team divisions or anything else. “How much time do you think we have?”

Mom looked at her watch. “The second guard has been relieving the first guard around six. It's a little after two now. So we may have four hours.”

“They're going to know we used this trapdoor,” Ethan said. “But it'll take them a while to get up here. We're about fifty feet above the main entrance. They either have to climb up the wall or go around. From what you say about their climbing abilities, I think they'll go around if there aren't other exits. The question is, are they going to split up and send one guy after one group and two guys after the other? Hopefully we'll be so far ahead of them that we'll never find out.” He looked at me. “Do you want the pistol or the rifle?”

I didn't want either of them. I'd never fired a gun in my life.

Mom stepped forward. “Pistol,” she said.

Ethan handed it to her. “Do you know how to use it?”

Mom answered by pulling the slide back, jacking a round into the chamber, and flipping the safety on.

French, she knows how to operate a boat, and she knows how to use a gun.

“Guess we'll keep the radios on the same channel they're on now,” Ethan said.

“How'd you find this entrance?” I asked.

Ethan grinned for the first time since leaving the cave. “It was kind of weird. It took me an hour to get up here. I was sure that if there was a back door, this was the place. An hour later I wasn't so sure. I was about ready to give up and try a different area when I saw something move into this grove of trees and stop. Or I thought I saw something. Anyway, I started walking this way, and I saw that cat you were talking about.”

“The snow leopard?”

“I don't know if it was the same one or not. Can't be too many of them around, though. It was sitting on top of the trapdoor. I'm not kidding. Maybe it smelled food or something coming up from the tunnels.”

“Or maybe it was something else,” I said, although I wasn't sure what that something else might be.

“Maybe,” Ethan said. “I'm just glad it did. I wouldn't have come into this grove. I thought it was too far from the entrance for a back door.” He looked at his watch. “We better get footing it. With some luck, we'll see you downriver.”

We shook hands and hugged. Ethan's team headed southwest. Our team headed northeast.

ZOPA INSISTED
that Mom and Alessia take the lead, saying that he wanted to talk to me. They set a pretty fast pace through the forest, which I tried to match, but Zopa held me back. It turned out he didn't want to talk, he wanted me to help him obscure “the tiny boot prints” Mom and Alessia were leaving in the soft ground. We shuffled more than walked. Mom and Alessia pulled farther and farther ahead. I didn't care if Zopa wanted to talk or not. I had things to say.

“You knew we were going to show up at the cave,” I said.

Zopa shook his head. “I knew you would try to reach the cave. I did not know about Ethan or his unique skills. That was good fortune.”

“Not for the guy he killed.”

“Karma. The man who died is the one who murdered Choma, Aki, and Phillip. But all of them carry responsibility.”

“You should have told Ethan that,” I said. “I think he was upset about killing him.”

“If you kill someone, or something, you should feel regret.”

“Ethan didn't have a choice.”

“Of course he had a choice. He made the choice that most benefited his needs and ours. Émile and the others made the choices that most benefited their wants.”

“Are you saying they're justified in what they did?”

“You were not listening,” Zopa scolded. “I said needs and wants. They are not the same thing. They
want
money. Their desire for this justifies anything and everything. We
need
to survive. Our desire for this justifies almost anything and everything.”

“Almost?” I asked.

“The difference between wants and needs is very slight. It is slippery. It is often difficult to tell the difference between the two.”

“I'll have to think about that when I'm not fleeing for my life.”

Zopa laughed. “Yes, that is probably best.”

“What about the
shen
?”

“Now, that is a true mystery and something I will have to think about when I'm back at the monastery and not fleeing for my life.”

“Probably just a coincidence,” I said.

“Ha! Probably just a living talisman. There are no coincidences. Everything that happens has purpose, which is another thing you can think about when you are not fleeing for your life. Ethan joining us with his unique skill set was not a coincidence. He thought he was here to climb a mountain, but he was sent for a very different reason. Everyone and everything has a part to play in this, but none of us will know the full extent of what that part is.”

We nearly bumped into Mom and Alessia, who had stopped to wait for us.

“What are you two talking about?” Mom asked. “We're feeling a little left out.”

“Talismans, want versus need, fleeing for our lives, destiny—just the regular stuff,” I said.

Alessia smiled, although I wasn't sure she'd understood everything I had just said. We stepped out of the trees onto a plateau of barren rock lit by the waning moon. I looked at my watch. The GPS was down again. We'd been walking for two hours.

“At least it's not scree,” Mom said. “Have you seen Pierre's footprints?”

Zopa shook his head. “He might have come a different way. Finding where he descended should be easy once we reach the gorge.”

Which was about fifteen miles away, if we'd calculated our position correctly.

“I'm just glad we're traveling at night,” Mom said. “Walking across this plateau during the day would be like walking on molten lava, but I guess it's better than—” She stopped in midsentence and fixed her headlamp on Zopa. “How many men do you think are coming this way?”

“I think two of them. Émile and Géant. But only if there's a second boat or if they pick up Alessia's footprints, which I think we've managed to cover up pretty well.” He looked off across the plateau. “They won't be able to track us on this hard rock, but they don't have to. If they know we came this way, they know we are after their boat. That is the fastest way downriver. They have no more desire to cross the scree than we do. The boat is their best hope of catching us or getting away if they fail. I think they will send the remaining guard after Ethan's team. Émile and Géant will try to get to the boat and cut them off.”