Sam’s voice shook, a byproduct, Olivia guessed, of the adrenaline coursing through her body. Her own heart galloped in her chest like Secretariat closing in on the finish line at the Belmont. She thought she had prepared herself for the isolation and sense of exposure climbers felt when they reached altitudes normally occupied by low-flying airplanes, but her growing sense of helplessness made her realize she hadn’t prepared as well as she thought. This situation was way out of her area of expertise. Panic lurked at the edges of her psyche. The clear head she prided herself on was clouded with apprehension.
The “smoke” she had seen earlier was snow barreling down the mountain. Snow that was now headed straight for them. They had no place to go and nothing to hide behind except a boulder that, if it dislodged, could topple over and crush them or drag them over the edge. If it held, they might have a chance. Emphasis on might. But what about the others? Were Marie-Eve, Peter, and Pasang above the danger zone, or had they been caught up in the maelstrom now roaring toward her?
Sam raced to the other side of the boulder.
“Where are you going?” Tightening her grip on the rock, Olivia craned her neck to follow Sam’s movements.
Sam’s face filled her vision. Her eyes radiated calm, soothing Olivia’s fears.
“Don’t worry. I’m not going far.” She tied one end of the rope around the boulder and affixed it with a sturdy knot. Then she wrapped three loops around Olivia’s waist, took two steps backward, and wrapped three loops around her own body before passing the rest of the rope to Lhakpa, who fed the rope through a bolt bored into the mountain before wrapping it around himself and tossing the rest to Jimmy. Though she and her crew moved in a rush, Sam took time to explain their actions. “Safety in numbers,” she said, bracing against the mountainside. “If we tie on, we can stay together.”
Together. How could one word inspire such hope?
“Hold on,” Sam said. “We’re going to be fine.”
Whether she meant them or not, Sam said the words with such conviction, Olivia couldn’t help but believe her.
The noise filled her ears. The sound of air, water, snow, and debris combining to form a new entity. The sound of a horrible nightmare come to life.
Olivia closed her eyes and braced herself for impact. The snow slammed into the boulder with such force she felt the monolith tilt on its axis.
“Please,” she whispered. “Please hold.”
Thick clouds of snow powder enveloped her, stinging her skin and filling her lungs. The rapid flow knocked her off her feet. The rope tightened around her waist as Sam, Lhakpa, and Jimmy lost their footing as well. She groaned in pain as the pressure on her ribs mounted. How much could they take before they began to crack?
Lhakpa spoke in Nepali. The words came so fast Olivia couldn’t make them out. They sounded like a prayer. When he was done, she offered her own fervent, “Amen.”
The flow drifted for another thousand feet before finally coming to a stop. Then, just like that, it was over.
Olivia lay where she had fallen. Her chest heaved as the air began to clear. Her rapid breathing sounded unnaturally loud in the sudden quiet. Sam, Lhakpa, and Jimmy shook snow off their clothes. They looked like forest creatures just waking up after spending a long winter in hibernation. Olivia lay back and laughed, nearly hysterical with relief.
“Don’t relax just yet,” Sam said. “We have to find the others.”
The laughter died in Olivia’s throat. What if the others hadn’t been as fortunate as they had been? What if they were buried under the snow?
“How do we get back to them?” The well-marked route they had been following was covered by snow. “The path is gone.”
Sam pulled her to her feet. “We don’t need one.”
What was it she had said in the dark?
Climbing was easy for me. It was intuitive. Instinctive. I didn’t have to think. I could just see the path I was supposed to take.
“Follow me.”
Olivia obediently fell in line. “How much time did you say we had to find them before it would be too late?”
“Fifteen minutes.”
Sam’s sober expression betrayed her thoughts. They’d never make it in time.
Chapter Eight
Sam flinched when the radio crackled to life.
“Please. Can anyone hear me? Over.”
Olivia gripped her arm. “That’s Peter’s voice. They’re alive.”
At least one of them is.
“I read you, Peter,” Sam said. “What’s your status?”
“Sam, if you’re out there, please respond. Over.”
“He’s so panicked he’s forgetting to release the microphone when he’s finished talking,” Olivia said.
Sam kept trying to respond to Peter’s calls even though her efforts appeared to be in vain. “Peter, I read you. What’s your status? I repeat. What’s your status? Over.”
Peter cursed in German. “I think the radio’s broken, but I’m going to keep talking because I don’t know what else to do. Pasang, Marie-Eve, and I were separated when the avalanche swept through. Pasang and I dug ourselves out, but we can’t find Marie-Eve. We’ve both been looking for twenty minutes now. I had to stop for a while to catch my breath. Pasang seems to be okay despite a nasty gash on his head. He’s probing the snow now. Wait. I think he may have found something. He’s holding up a glove. Pasang, what is it? Did you find—”
The transmission abruptly ended.
“Shit.” Sam shoved the radio into Olivia’s hands. “Keep trying to reach out to him. Try to find out what’s going on.”
She fished the transceiver out of her pocket as she quickened her pace. If Marie-Eve’s beacon was working properly, she should be able to home in on the signal from up to eighty meters away. She switched the unit to receive mode and stared at the digital display, which was supposed to provide visual indication of the direction and distance to a buried victim. Camp Three was about a hundred meters away, close enough for her to see the flags marking the campsite, but not close enough for the transceiver to get a signal.
“I’m not getting anything. What about you?”
Olivia shook her head. She keyed the microphone again. “Peter, come in.”
“There they are,” Jimmy said.
Sam looked in the direction he was pointing. She spotted Pasang and Peter frantically pawing at the snow.
Even if a snow pack consisted of loose powder as this one had, avalanche debris refroze as soon as the snow stopped moving. The debris was too dense to be manipulated by hand.
“Shovels. They need shovels.”
Jimmy and Lhakpa grabbed shovels and ran up the mountain. Sam followed closely behind, her eyes on the transceiver’s display. The beacon beeped. A fuzzy image appeared on the screen.
“I’ve got a signal.” Jimmy and Lhakpa sprinted faster, their boots crunching on the tightly compressed snow. “Tell them they’re in the wrong spot. She’s five meters to the left of their location.”
Olivia raised the radio transmitter to her mouth and relayed the information.
Pasang and Peter stopped digging and crawled to the new location. Pasang poked a collapsible aluminum probe into the snow. The probe sank deep into the snow again and again. Sam was tempted to take the probe from him and do the search herself, but she didn’t want to embarrass Pasang in front of the others. Confidence, once lost, was difficult to regain.
Her patience was rewarded several long minutes later when she heard the thud of the probe making contact with something soft.
Pasang’s face lit up. “Here,” he said in Nepali. “She’s right here.”
Jimmy rested a hand on his shoulder. “How deep?”
Pasang swiped at the blood running down his face. Droplets spilled on the snow like discarded Valentine’s Day candies. “One meter. Maybe two.”
Jimmy and Lhakpa marked off a six-foot by three-foot rectangle and began to dig.
As Pasang and Peter struggled to catch t
heir breath, Olivia pulled out her medical bag and examined them both. Peter had a nosebleed brought on by altitude and exertion. Blood poured out of both nostrils and pooled in his scraggly beard. Olivia packed cotton in his nose to staunch the flow and handed him a bottle of Gatorade to replenish his electrolytes. He gripped the bottle in one hand, Marie-Eve’s glove in the other. His eyes were wide with shock.
Olivia put on a fresh pair of latex gloves before she turned to Pasang. Holding his dark hair away from his forehead, she squirted saline on the cut on his scalp. The wound bled profusely as all head lacerations were wont to do, but from Sam’s vantage point, it didn’t appear to be very deep. Olivia covered the cut with a wad of gauze and a pair of butterfly bandages.
Sam loved watching Olivia work. She discharged her duties with clinical precision balanced by tender concern. No movements were wasted, but her touch was gentle, judging from Peter’s and Pasang’s reactions to her ministrations.
“Thank you, Dr. Bradshaw,” Pasang said.
Both he and Peter looked like they wanted to resume digging, but they wisely stayed put. If they pushed themselves any further, Sam feared they might collapse.
Excavating an avalanche victim took time. So much time that many victims suffocated before they could be reached. As Jimmy and Lhakpa dug through the snow, Sam focused on the transceiver in her hands. She stared at the display, desperate to see signs of life.
“Come on, kid. Give me something besides a hard time.”
By her calculations, Marie-Eve had been buried under the snow for nearly thirty minutes—twice as long as the average survivor. Despite the overwhelming odds, Sam held out hope. Marie-Eve was a hockey player. She trained and competed in frigid temperatures all the time. If anyone could make it through this, she could.
Sam shouted encouragement to Jimmy and Lhakpa, who seemed to be slowing down. Perspiration dripped from their faces. Soaked their clothes. “Keep going. You’re almost there.”
Jimmy tossed his shovel aside and reached for a metal scoop. That meant he was getting close.
“We’ve got her.”
Lhakpa freed Marie-Eve’s legs just before Jimmy uncovered her upper body. Marie-Eve was curled into the fetal position, her hands cupped around her mouth. Her eyes were closed, her skin blue. Her features, normally so vibrant and alive, were deathly still. She wasn’t breathing.
“Doc?”
Sam turned to Olivia, who immediately lowered herself into the hole. Olivia pressed two fingers against the side of Marie-Eve’s neck and held them there. “I’ve got a pulse. It’s weak and thready, but it’s there. Does anyone have a mirror?”
“How about this?” Sam held up her compass. “Will this work?”
“It’s worth a shot.” Olivia flipped open the nickel-plated lid and held the compass face under Marie-Eve’s nose. A few seconds later, condensation formed on the glass.
“Yes.” Sam clenched her fists as Peter whooped in celebration.
Olivia ran her hands over Marie-Eve’s body, checking for broken bones. “Okay,” she said at last, “let’s get her out of here.”
Jimmy and Lhakpa lifted Marie-Eve’s limp body out of the hole.
“We’ve got to get her warm and dry,” Sam said. “Which one’s her tent?”
“This one,” Peter said, leading the way.
Held in place by snow anchors and ice axes, the tents had managed to remain intact during the avalanche’s onslaught. Jimmy and Lhakpa carried Marie-Eve inside the one Peter indicated.
“Why isn’t she waking up?” he asked after they lay her down.
Olivia lifted Marie-Eve’s eyelids with her thumbs. Marie-Eve’s pupils were as small as pinpoints. “She’s in shock. Her brain is shutting her body down until it’s had enough time to recover.”
“How long will that take?”
“That’s up to her. The sooner we get her temperature up, the less time it should take.”
Olivia pulled off Marie-Eve’s boots and socks. Sam caught her eye. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
Olivia nodded once. “Body heat.”
Peter wrung his hands. He reminded Sam of an anxious expectant father. “I’ll be outside. You’ll let me know if her condition changes?”
“Of course.”
He ducked out of the tent and closed the flap behind him.
While Olivia peeled off Marie-Eve’s wet clothes, Sam unrolled two sleeping bags and zipped them together. She spread the newly formed double bag on the floor of the tent. After she helped Olivia slip Marie-Eve’s naked body inside, she began to remove her own clothes. “Fore or aft?”
“Aft. I need to be able to take her vital signs—and yours, if need be. Our temps are going to dip while we try to raise hers.”
You don’t have to worry about me, Doc. Thanks to you, I’m generating enough heat right now to warm a small country.
Sam had to force herself not to watch Olivia undress.
What would happen if I did? One quick peek could fuel my fantasies for years to come. She closed her eyes until she regained her resolve. No. This isn’t the time or the place.
Olivia evidently wasn’t harboring such qualms. Sam could feel Olivia’s eyes on her. As she pulled off her thermal underwear, she turned an unnecessary pirouette to give Olivia a better view of the phoenix tattooed on her back. The legendary creature stretched from her hips to her shoulders. She had been drawn to the sketch pinned to the artist’s wall. The red and orange bird didn’t seem born of fire but made from it.
“Beautiful,” Olivia whispered. She stammered when Sam turned to face her. Did her fingers itch to trace the intricate design on her skin? Did her tongue long to douse the flames? “The tattoo, I mean. Did you get it done here?”
“No. I got it in Alaska after I summited Mt. McKinley. The tat took almost as long as the climb.”
“My congratulations to the artist. Wonderful work. Then again, he had a wonderful canvas to work with.”
Olivia licked her lips. Sam’s clit grew rigid. Her nipples, already puckered from the cold, felt like they could cut glass.
Her body wasn’t something she worked to maintain. It was something she maintained through work. She wasn’t immune to the effect she had on others, but it had been years since someone had a similar effect on her. Was Olivia Bradshaw the one who had changed that—or was the change coming from within? Either way, she didn’t have time to find out.
Grateful Marie-Eve would act as a barrier between her and Olivia, Sam slipped inside the sleeping bag. They had positioned Marie-Eve on her side. Sam pressed her back against Marie-Eve’s front. Olivia pressed her front to her back.
Sam began to shiver. “Her skin feels like ice.” When Olivia began to move, Sam turned to see what she was doing. “What’s that?” she asked as Olivia rubbed something that looked like a miniature electric razor over Marie-Eve’s forehead.
“A temporal artery thermometer. It’s non-invasive, which reassures nervous patients, and uses infrared technology to take a thousand readings per second in order to provide the most accurate results.”
“What else do you have in your bag of tricks?”
Olivia winked. “You’d be surprised.” The thermometer beeped softly. The bright red LED display provided a stark contrast to the dark expression on Olivia’s face. “Her core temp’s only ninety-three degrees.”
“Then I guess we’re going to be here a while.” Sam snuggled closer. She stuck her tongue between her teeth to keep them from chattering. “Care to guess the first thing she’s going to say when she wakes up?”
Olivia smoothed Marie-Eve’s damp curls. “Something humorous, I’m sure. Or what passes for humor in that twisted mind of hers.”
Sam laughed, remembering some of the endless stream of witticisms that had fallen from Marie-Eve’s lips over the past few weeks. She had found the jokes annoying at the time, but she would give anything to hear Marie-Eve tell another one. “She is going to wake up, isn’t she?”
“Yes, she is. An
d when she does, I get to tell her this was your idea.”
Sam didn’t have to turn around to picture the smile on Olivia’s face. “My idea? You threw out the words ‘body heat’ before I did.”
“Yet you still managed to get undressed first.”
“I didn’t know we were running a race.”
“If we were, I would have come in a distant second. I had no idea you were such an exhibitionist. With a body like yours, though, I can’t blame you for wanting to show it off.”
Sam felt a blush rapidly work its way from the tips of her toes to the top of her head. The body Olivia had just complimented was on fire.
Marie-Eve stirred but didn’t open her eyes. “I love when women fight over me,” she said.
Startled, Sam sucked in her breath. “Is she coming around?”
Olivia took another temperature reading. This time the display read ninety-four. “Not yet, but we’re headed in the right direction.”
Olivia draped her arm across Marie-Eve’s waist. Her hand rested on Sam’s hip. Sam covered the hand with her own.
“Yes, I think we are.”
Chapter Nine
Marie-Eve sighed as Olivia subjected her to yet another examination. “Doc, I’m fine.”
“Why don’t you let me be the judge of that?”
Marie-Eve had regained consciousness the morning after Jimmy and Lhakpa dug her out of the snow. She had tried to get up and move around as soon as she came to, but Olivia had insisted she remain on bed rest for forty-eight hours while she checked her for physical and/or neurological impairment. The only visible sign of damage was a slight case of frostbite on her right hand, which had been left unprotected after the force of the avalanche ripped off the glove Pasang had found several feet from her body. The gangrene Olivia dreaded had not set in, however. Marie-Eve’s fingertips, which had been bright red for the better part of three days, now bore a healthy pink pallor.
The summit party had been at Camp Three for nearly four days, giving the two other expedition teams on the mountain ample time to catch and pass them. Olivia had watched the groups from Ecuador and Japan sweep past with a hint of ambivalence. Though she wanted hers to be the first of the three teams to reach the summit, she wasn’t willing to put her team members’ lives in danger in order to satisfy her competitive urges.
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