The Everest Files (17 page)

Kami wanted to take the walkie talkie but Brennan didn't offer him the handset. Instead he asked ‘Have you got the radio link lined up?'

‘You bet we have,' Kurt responded, ‘hold the line.'

Brennan was connected to an interviewer at an American radio station. Kami heard him describe the climb, the weather, the pain, the joy of taking those few final steps onto the top of the world … As the chat droned on, Kami felt his eyes drawn irresistibly up the ridge. To the
real
abode of the gods. How long would the interview last? Could he steal away and place the shrine bell there while Brennan was …

Too late.

‘I feel this is a gift from God,' Alex concluded. ‘We've been blessed to reach this place.'

Kami noticed something unusual. Two narrow filaments of ice were growing out of the lower plastic rim of the boss's goggles.

He was crying. Those thin rivulets of ice were actually frozen tears.

‘One last question, sir. Are you ready for the Primaries? Do you think you can win the nomination?'

Brennan's piercing eyes were invisible behind the mirror glass.

‘Well they say every great journey begins with a single step. Maybe I just took that step here on the summit of Everest.'

‘And a final word?'

‘God bless America. I'm on my way home.'

The interviewer signed off and Kurt came back on to conclude the radio link.

‘You have to come back safe now! Remember you're only halfway there!'

‘We got that. Over and out.'

Brennan clicked off the walkie talkie and stood staring out into the clouds. His head suddenly flopped forward, as if all the tendons in his neck had just been severed. He put his weight onto his axe, half falling before Kami caught him.

‘I'm so tired, Kami,' he muttered. ‘I hardly ... '

He wanted to sit but Kami wouldn't let him. ‘No more rest, sir. Now we have to get back to camp.'

The retreat began, hauling themselves back down the ridge line, picking footfalls with infinite care, praying that the fixed lines would hold as the wind continued to rip across the peak.

Kami had Jamling's warnings in his mind. ‘Coming down more dangerous,' Jamling had said time after time. ‘Seventy per cent of people die coming down.'

Kami kept that in his mind, ultra-aware that he was responsible not just for his own safety but that of his fellow climber as well.

Just above the Hillary Step, Kami turned for one last view of the summit ridge. He had the crazy urge to shout ‘I'm sorry' to the gods. Sorry that he had got so close and had not given them the devotion that they deserved. Sorry that he had failed to place Shreeya's tribute in their safe keeping.

Sorry also that he had failed to get Brennan to the top.

But a dense cloud had claimed the mountain. The ridge was all but lost to view and he could not bring himself to cry out as he wanted, knowing that Brennan would fail to understand.

Besides there was still so much to do.

Kami now had the responsibility of getting Alex Brennan back to safety. The boss's life was in his hands and there was a long, long way to go.

Three days later, Alex Brennan and Kami made it back to Base Camp. The mountain had stamped its mark; they stumbled with zombie steps, faces seared by ultraviolet assault, bloodshot eyes dulled with the impact of extreme physical exhaustion.

Kami couldn't believe how drained his body felt. Not even on the most punishing tree-cutting days with his father had he experienced anything like this bone-crunching fatigue. Every sinew in his body felt like it had been given the work out from hell.

A welcoming party was waiting for them impatiently at the foot of the icefall. Twenty members of the expedition – Westerners and Sherpas alike – were there to clap and cheer them out of the last danger zone.

‘You made it! You made it!' Sasha was bouncing up and down with joy, hugging first Alex, then Kami, as cameras flashed off on all sides.

‘Respect!' Kurt told them both earnestly, ‘I'm in awe of your achievement. And jealous as hell!'

Kami found himself cracking up into tears. The goodwill flooding over them was so genuine, the clamour so packed with emotion that he couldn't prevent it.

‘Take this,' Sasha gave Kami a tissue and he dabbed at his eyes.

The young Sherpa felt an alien sensation overwhelming him; the glorious feeling of being safe. That the dangers were over. That the mountain couldn't touch them any more.

‘I had a bet you were going to make it!' Lopsang told him, his eyes sparkling with pleasure. ‘Tenzing owes me a hundred rupees!'

For Kami it was a sheer delight to see the faces of his fellow Sherpas. They jostled round him, slapping him on the back, embracing him extravagantly and asking a thousand questions at once.

‘Any frostbite? Bits fallen off?'

More than anything he wished that Jamling and Nima could have been there. And Shreeya of course.

‘Get the packs off,' Kurt ordered, ‘come and celebrate the proper way.'

The two climbers shrugged off their rucksacks, allowing themselves to be hustled over to the mess tent by the jubilant team.

‘There's a shower waiting for you two guys when you're ready,' Sasha teased them.

‘Are you trying to tell us we stink?' Brennan laughed.

‘Well ... ' A well-aimed toilet roll hit her on the shoulder.

Plates of Sherpa stew were placed in front of the two men. They both fell on the food, spooning it down quickly, ravenous for the calories after days of surviving on muesli bars and hi-energy drinks.

‘Let me see the papers,' Alex demanded. ‘Did we get plenty of coverage?'

‘Did we ever?' Sasha told him with an impish grin, ‘your face is all over them like a rash.'

A laptop was quickly fetched and Alex began to scan the pages of the online editions, his face creasing with pleasure as he saw the sheer amount of coverage.

‘Check this out, Kami,' he said, pulling him to his side so he could see the laptop screen.

Sasha had been super busy, emailing out copy and pictures to all the main press agencies. Brennan had been able to borrow the Japanese team's satellite module at the col, sending the ‘summit' shots instantly back to Base so no time had been lost.

The result was a resounding media victory for Brennan.
The New York Times
had run the summit shot across half of the front page with the banner headline;

TODAY – EVEREST: TOMORROW – THE WHITE HOUSE?

Beneath the picture was a positive thousand-word article outlining Brennan's political views and hopes for reform at the highest level. The report ended:

Alex Brennan's triumphant ascent of Everest reveals a core of steel and a single-minded focus that will serve him well on the forthcoming presidential campaign. If he can connect with the people he could go (once more) all the way to the top.

Virtually all of the newspapers had used Kami's shot of Brennan, the raised ice-axe signifying victory, his weary, ice-burned face split by a summit-sized grin. There was no doubt it was an iconic image, loaded with power and personality.

But it was not what it seemed. And Kami couldn't forget that.

Of course, everyone had believed the photo was taken on the true summit.

But it made him feel like he was an accomplice to a trick, a fraud. It was a feeling that had been growing inside him during the descent; one of ever-more regret that they had not been able to push for that final section of the climb.

The shame of not getting Shreeya's shrine bell to the top.

Kami felt a gentle tug at his sleeve.

‘Come to the shrine,' Tenzing urged him, ‘before you forget.'

Kami made his excuses to the Westerners, slipped his boot inners on and followed Tenzing out onto the glacier. Suddenly he remembered. ‘How about Nima? And Jamling? Have you got any news?'

‘Nothing on either,' Lahkpa replied with regret, ‘Nima seems to have vanished. Jamling is still in the hospital.'

Kami mulled on this slightly depressing news as they walked over to the chorten and performed a small ceremony of thanks.

He mumbled some improvised words to praise the gods for their care, but he felt hollow inside. He should have been rejoicing, but in a very real sense the climb had not been completed. A tiny piece of the story was missing and he felt sure that the gods must know that.

And surely, he thought, it would trouble them as it did him?

They returned to the tent where the team were looking at a laptop, viewing the still pictures from the climb.

‘What about your summit shot Kami?' Sasha asked.

‘Yeah,' Tenzing agreed. ‘I want to see it too.'

‘Ah ... well … mmm … ' Kami's mind floundered for a response but he simply didn't know what to say.

He heard Brennan cough loudly as the mess tent quietened down.

He risked a swift look at Brennan, wanting his help, but all he saw in those bloodshot eyes was a glint of silent warning. He felt a ripple of panic in his belly; neither of them had thought that anyone would raise this question of Kami's summit shot.

‘It's OK … ' Kami muttered, ‘I didn't go there to get a photo … there are more important things.

Brennan leaned across the table and slid the laptop back towards him.

‘I hold my hands up on that one,' he said, ‘with the excitement of the radio call and all that I must have forgotten.'

‘You forgot it? You didn't get a summit shot of Kami?' Sasha said, outraged. ‘He risked his life to get you there and you couldn't spare a hundredth of a second to point the camera in his direction?'

‘We didn't have a lot of time … ' Kami said, painfully aware of how unconvincing his voice sounded.

‘OK,' Sasha continued, ‘but it still sucks ... '

Tenzing dragged the laptop out of Brennan's grasp and clicked back to Brennan's summit shot.

‘Anyway you did a bad job of this one,' he said accusingly to Kami. ‘No summit pole. No summit flags.'

Some of the other Sherpas clustered in to see, murmuring with agreement as they too noticed the missing details of the shot.

‘That's true,' Lopsang said to Kami, ‘You should have got him next to the summit pole.'

‘Give the guy a break will you?' Brennan snapped, ‘he's hardly used a camera before.'

He flipped down the lid of the laptop and stuffed it in its carrying bag. A sticky, uncomfortable few moments followed as the irritable exchange hung in the air.

‘Anyway!' Kurt broke the spell. ‘We got the coverage we need and there's plenty more interviews to come.'

‘To Kami!' Brennan accepted a glass of whisky and raised it for a toast, ‘he was a real hero up there.'

The room erupted in a cheer for Kami as he felt his head start to spin.

‘Drink! Drink!' Someone pressed a celebratory mug of beer into Kami's hand but he felt so wiped out he knew he couldn't face it.

Lopsang and Tenzing helped him to one of the tents and he abandoned himself to the deepest sleep of his life.

After seventeen hours dead to the world, Kami was up and about. It was not long after dawn and his head was pulsing with a savage headache. He had to gulp down litres of water to quench his thirst.

Kami didn't get any sympathy. In fact, to his amazement, the first thing he was told by Tenzing when he entered the mess tent for some tea was that he was expected to join four of the other Sherpas on a trip up to Camp Three.

Back on the mountain. Back up high.

‘We need to dismantle the camps. Bring down the tents and all the gear,' Tenzing told him.

‘But ... ' Kami was gutted to get the instruction. He craved rest as he had never craved it before and it all seemed totally unfair. Wasn't there some special time out for those who had been to the summit?

He bit his tongue. But Tenzing couldn't help notice the flash of anger that crossed his face.

Something else rankled Kami as he ate some porridge for breakfast; Alex Brennan certainly wouldn't be going back up again through the dangerous icefall to retrieve the kit. Instead he would be taking it easy down here at Base, luxuriating in the yurt and doing more of the endless radio and TV interviews which had been scheduled.

Where was the justice in that?

Kami wanted to launch some bitter words at Tenzing. He had done so much. Given everything. And still he had to give more.

‘I know it's tough,' Tenzing told him with some sympathy, ‘That's the way it has to be.'

And so began a further forty-eight hour Sherpa raid on Everest, the clear-up operation that Kami had never anticipated. Not only was he physically at his weakest, but his mind was churning with resentment at having to do this final task.

They stayed a night at Camp One, then headed up for Three. The trail up through the Cwm was a real slog; deep monsoon snow sapping their strength. But finally they reached Camp Three and stripped it down. Every last tent peg, sleeping bag and snow stake was packed away, and they descended with monster loads to Camp Two where they slept through the night before finally returning to Base.

Kami took a cold-water shower, ate a huge meal of corned beef and potatoes then went to his tent. He wasn't in the mood to see anyone but not long after, looking strangely ill-at-ease, Brennan came to see him.

‘Just to show you I'm as good as my word,' Brennan told him.

He slipped a blue airmail envelope out of his pocket and handed it to Kami.

‘Thank you.'

Kami placed the envelope in his lap, hardly daring to touch it, like it was a religious offering, or a wounded bird.

‘Don't you want to open it?' the American asked.

Kami opened up the envelope with trembling hands. Inside was a thick wad of dollar bills.

‘Count it,' Brennan ordered.