by Nick Carter
"They're Chinese!" Hilary breathed.
"They sure as hell are," I said. "Chinese regulars."
"But what are they doing here, Nick?" she asked.
"I don't know but I could make a pretty good guess," I answered. "I'll bet they're on their way to meet Ghotak. He probably called for a brigade of troops as insurance."
"Insurance against what?"
"Against something going wrong at the last minute. Against my presence on the scene. Against unexpected developments. If, for instance, the King decided to balk at honoring the petition at the last minute, he could move in with a coup and have himself installed as ruler."
We crouched on the ledge and watched the troops as they stretched and used the snow to wash. They weren't knocking down their tents which meant they were waiting for someone, no doubt a guide to take them in the rest of the way. Maybe they waited for someone with word from Ghotak as to what their next move should be. I saw an officer step from a tent and dispatch two sentries, one to either end of the pass. The one at our end took up a position almost directly beneath where we crouched.
"They've no doubt come in by way of Tibet," I said. "But I want to check this out for myself. I can get the answers I want from that sentry he sent out here all by himself."
I handed Hilary the Marlin. "You hang onto this and stay here until I get back," I told her. "Understand? No decisions on your own, or I'll break you in half when I catch up to you."
She nodded. "I promise," she said. "I'll stay right here."
I circled carefully back around the other end of the narrow ledge, found a place to drop and let myself fall into a drift of deep snow. I ducked as a small avalanche of snow fell from the ledge onto me, disturbed by my movements. As I watched the snow slide settle, a smile stole over my face. With a little luck, this could be a very rewarding day. I pulled myself from the drift and made my way downward, being careful to move along the rocks wherever possible, trying not to dislodge any of the loose snow. The Chinese soldier had positioned himself between two large rock formations and he stood at ease, figuring his post was more of a formality than anything else. Beyond the two rocks was a narrow crevasse in the glacier, deeper than the eye could see. I poised on the top of the rock and dropped, hitting him right on target. He went down with me on top of him. I crossed a right to his jaw and he went limp. Pulling him behind me, I moved into the towering walls abutting the crevasse. He was coming around and I held his head and shoulder out over the edge of the seemingly bottomless cut in the mountains. My Chinese was good enough, if he didn't speak one of the more obscure dialects. It turned out he understood me very well. After letting him look down into the crevasse, I yanked him over on his back, holding him half over the edge.
"Why do you wait here?" I asked. He saw in my eyes that I wouldn't think twice about dropping him off the edge.
"We wait orders to move," he said.
"Orders from whom?" I asked.
He shrugged. "I am only soldier," he said. "Cannot say."
I pushed him further off the edge and he grabbed for my arm for support. His narrow eyes widened in terror.
"Orders from whom?" I repeated. "You're a specially picked lot, I'd bet, and you all know why you're here."
"Orders from monk," he gasped.
"When do you expect them?"
He started to give me another evasive answer but thought better of it. "Soon," he stammered. "Any time now. Snow delay everthing."
I pulled him back from the edge. I was only going to put him out and let him find his way back to Tibet when he woke up, if he could, but he made the mistake of lunging at me. I sidestepped the lunge, kicked his feet out from under him and chopped him across the neck. He went down, rolled over and, as the loose snow gave way beneath the weight of his body, slipped over the edge and into the cut I climbed back to where I'd left Hilary.
"We have to get back, but not until we take care of this bunch," I told her in a matter-of-fact tone.
"You're balmy," she said. "The two of us against all of them? You can't be serious."
"You do just as I say and well take care of every one of them all at once," I said. I'd taken the soldier's rifle with me and I gave it to Hilary, taking my Marlin back. I gestured to the towering mountainsides on both sides of the pass.
"Those cliffs and ledges are covered with tons of fresh snow that hasn't settled yet," I said. "It can be dislodged by any sudden vibration and a gigantic avalanche triggered."
I saw sudden understanding come into her eyes. "And the vibration could be caused by shots echoing in the pass, bouncing back and forth off the mountainsides," she said.
"Bright girl," I said. "Sometimes it only takes the vibration from the soundwaves of one shot to trigger a snowslide. But we're going to make sure. I'm going to climb down and cross over to the other side. When you hear my first shot, you start firing. Aim right across at the opposite mountainside. Get off six shots and then stop. Whatever you do, don't move from here. You'll be protected here under the ledge overhead. When it's over you can start down. I'll meet you at the bottom of this cut."
I started down, waving back at her. I stayed low as I reached the edge of the pass where the sentry had been. Wriggling across the open space on my belly, I reached the other side and began to climb up the slippery, loose snow. Finding a niche approximately at the same level as Hilary was across from me, I looked down at the troops in the pass. I couldn't pick Hilary out in the glare of the fresh snow, but I raised the rifle and fired. I heard her shot answer at once. I kept firing into the air, six shots in all. Below, the Chinese were scurrying about, dashing from their tents, looking up, wondering what the hell was going on. When I stopped Hilary's last shot echoed across the pass and I listened for the sound I was almost certain would come. It began as a soft rumble first and then it gathered volume until, as the tons upon tons of snow began to cascade down the cliffs on both sides of the pass, the rumbling roar was punctuated by the sharp cracks of hardened snow shaken loose by the white torrent. The avalanche roared into the pass, burying the men and the tents in minutes, piling snow upon snow until there was nothing but a gigantic mound of the white death. I waited, silent, awed by the cataclysmic force of what I'd witnessed. A strange silence settled over the pass, a silence of utter and total finality, as if the towering giants of stone were uttering their own pax vobiscum.
I started down slowly and met Hilary at the bottom of the cut. We made the tortuous route back down the mountains with hardly a word between us. The spectacle of nature's awesome power had made words almost like man, a seemingly superfluous, unimportant quantity.
We reached the village and once again I witnessed the Nepalese Western Union at work. The first two men we met took one look at me and ran off down the street. I knew that in one hour everyone would know that the foreigner had returned safely.
"See you around, Nick," Hilary said as she walked on when we neared Khaleen's house. "It's not over yet, is it?"
"No," I said. "Not yet. Not so long as Ghotak is still trying."
"Then be careful, will you?" she said, her eyes suddenly misty.
"Keep in close touch, doll," I said. "You haven't got your story yet."
Khaleen came racing out of the house as I approached and fell into my arms, her small body quivering. I was glad Hilary had walked on.
"My Nick, my Nick," she sobbed. "You were right. You are alive and all that you said was right. The people will know it now."
"Not everything I said," I murmured. "The yeti lives. I saw him."
She recoiled from my arms as though she'd been stabbed. "You saw the yeti?" she said, horror in her voice. "You saw him from a distance, no?"
"I fought with him," I said. "I looked into his eyes."
She seemed to shrivel up and I took her in my arms.
"What is it, Khaleen?" I asked. "What's the matter?"
"It is known that he who looks upon the face of the yeti will die," she said tonelessly.
"Oh, for God's sake," I
exploded. "You people have a proverb for everything concerning the yeti. I looked at the damned thing, and I'm not going to die because of it. That'll be one more damned proverb you can scratch off the books."
She turned and went into the house and I felt sorry for her. Her unbounded joy had been torn apart I turned and strode down the street toward the temple. Ghotak, obviously warned by one of his men that I was approaching, appeared at the steps and came down to face me.
"Aren't you calling a meeting?" I said. "Come on, chum, let's hear those bells. I'm back, see, and very alive."
"I can see that," he said through tight lips. "I shall not call the people together. This only means that another sign from Karkotek must be awaited."
I glanced about and saw that a crowd had quickly gathered about and he was grandstanding it.
"All right," I shrugged. "No meeting and there'll be another sign. The next one will mean your finish, Ghotak, you and the yeti and your whole crew." I turned and started off but I paused and looked back at him. "Oh, by the way," I grinned. "The company you were expecting won't be able to make it. They told me to tell you they're just snowed under."
I saw his jaws clench and his eyes shoot sparks of fury at me. He turned and went back into the temple and I walked off. His impassive exterior was being hard pressed to stay that way as his house of cards was beginning to crumble. I walked back to the house and went into my room. I was tired, damned tired, and it didn't take long for me to fall asleep. I was dimly aware that Khaleen's warm little form did not steal into the room and press itself close against me, and I was vaguely sorry and saddened.
Chapter VII
When I went downstairs in the morning she was waiting for me with hot tea and biscuits.
"I am sorry I was so upset last night," she said simply. "It is wrong of me to expect you to believe as we do. Perhaps you will prove me wrong again. I do hope so."
Her eyes were deep and filled with so many things. Hope, sorrow, fear, but most of all with something else, and I found myself cursing Hilary for her damned female wisdom. I decided to keep things on another level if possible with Khaleen.
"Ghotak is not through yet," I said. "He is planning something and I must get to him first. You say he goes into the mountains to meditate alone twice a week and he's been doing this for years. How come the yeti has never attacked him?"
"Really very few people have seen the yeti," Khaleen said. "More have seen his tracks in the snow. But Ghotak is a holy man, and the spirit of Karkotek protects his person."
"With what he's trying to do how can you call him a holy man?" I asked.
"Evil has come into him," she answered unhesitatingly. "Maybe he will overcome it. Meanwhile, he is still a holy man."
I decided against further pursuit of that interwoven exercise in thought. "When does he make his pilgrimages into the mountains?" I asked. "Do you know?"
"Yes," she replied. "He will make one tomorrow and then later in the week."
It was all I wanted to hear. As Khaleen left with the tea and cups, I went out to close up a few more possible holes. I'd given Hilary the whole truth but I hadn't forgotten her cryptic remarks. I went to the Traveler's Inn, got her room number and went up to the second floor. I heard the ticking of a typewriter and I slipped into a small alcove a few feet down the hall. I stayed there and waited. She typed for about an hour and then I saw her emerge, wearing her white sweater and colorful kilt. She went downstairs and I tried the door. It was locked, but apparently like all Nepalese doors, the lock was little more than a nod toward formality. A little pressure and it snapped open. The room was small, typical of the Nepalese houses, with heavy wood panels and small windows, colorful blankets on the bed.
Hilary's things were scattered about. I brushed through her clothes hung in the single closet and then took out her one bag. I riffled through panties and bras and blouses and sweaters. It was in the corner, under a gray cashmere sweater, that I found it. As soon as I pulled it out her smug remark explained itself. It was a small transmitter, probably transistor powered, and certainly capable of reaching a field office somewhere in India. Neat, I smiled to myself. I went to the typewriter and looked over the paper in it. She was writing out the dispatch prior to sending it. I thought of just taking the set with me but then I had a better idea. It would have a nicer touch to it. I opened the back, took out the batteries and put them in my pocket Then I carefully replaced the set in the corner of the bag, under the gray sweater. I took a last quick look to make sure she had no extra batteries in her bag. There were none and I left, slipping out the door, unable to prevent the smile from curling around my lips. I saw her downstairs in the dining room, having a bowl of soup and writing furiously on a sheet of paper. I slipped past and out the door unseen.
I spent part of the day walking the streets, letting as many people as possible see that I was very much alive. This was a land where rumour reigned, I'd learned, and seeing me in the flesh would scotch any rumors Ghotak might have his boys spreading.
In the afternoon, Khaleen went to the temple to pray for her father's spirit, and I was glad she had gone. I thought of what Hilary had said about hurting her and it was the last thing I wanted to do. Yet, it was inevitable. By keeping her at arm's length I'd be hurting her too, only sooner. It would be a double hurt, now and later. I decided to play it by ear, and when she returned we had wine with dinner and went to bed early. I was under the fur blanket only a few minutes when she came in, naked, and her delicate loveliness was again a thing of overwhelming beauty. She crept in beside me and began her soft, fluttering travels across my body with her lips. I reached down, exercising all the self-discipline I could muster, and raised her head.
"What is it?" she asked. "Why do you stop me? Do I not please you?"
"Oh, God, no, that's not it," I said. "But I don't want to hurt you, Khaleen, yet I may have to. What if I should have to leave you soon?"
"If it is so written, so it must be," she said softly. "Until then, I am yours, and it is for me to please you."
She lowered her head and began to caress my body again with her lips. Sorry, Hilary, I said silently. I tried. Khaleen was setting my body afire and I bent down, found her delicate beauty. We made tender and sensuous love, and the night was wrapped in ecstasy.
I awoke at dawn and dressed quickly. Khaleen fixed hot tea for me and asked where I was going, but I refused to tell her.
"I'm going to try to bring things to a close," I said. "Trust in me."
She nodded, those deep eyes so trusting and filled with hidden emotions. I headed out and the streets were nearly deserted in the first gray light of the day. Only a few farmers on their way early to market passed me as I headed for the mountains. I had the Marlin with me, Wilhelmina and Hugo inside my parka. I reached the pass into the foot of the mountains and found a high boulder I could hide behind and still see out. The sun had not risen more than an hour when I saw him approaching, walking alone, his saffron robes cloaking the heavy boots and warm clothing he wore beneath. I let him pass and saw the tall climbing pole he carried with him. When he was far enough ahead I picked up his trail, and saw that he had departed from the one the old man had taken and the one I'd followed. He was cutting in through ravines and crevasses unknown to me. From time to time I glimpsed the spot of saffron on ahead and I found myself thinking that he climbed pretty high just to meditate.
A series of rocky steps suddenly ended in a fairly smooth, worn trail, steep but bordered on both sides by uneven boulders capped by the perennial ice and snow. I couldn't see Ghotak but I could hear him. I was moving on, too quickly, too carelessly, when they dropped on me from both sides of the bordering boulders, blue-shirted figures, two, three, four of them, and I glimpsed more as I went down under the avalanche of bodies. I kicked out, felt my foot sink into one, but his heavy clothing protected him. Another had me by the head. I reached up, grabbed him by the hair and yanked. He let go, and I got an elbow loose and shoved it into his mouth. I got another one with a
wild swing and felt his jaw go sideways. I was on one knee now, and fighting back, when someone clouted me with a stout walking pole. It felt as though a redwood had toppled on me. I pitched forward, got a face full of snow which shocked me into consciousness, rolled over, grabbed the nearest arm and twisted. I heard a cry of pain and then the pole came down again, this time crashing against my temple. I pitched forward and everything went blue-black. When I woke up I was bound, my arms stretched behind my back.
Ghotak stood looking down at me as I was roughly lifted to my feet.
"I have severely underestimated you," he said impassively. "But now you have underestimated me. I was certain that sooner or later you would attempt to follow me, and we were waiting."
He turned to his men and spoke to them sharply.
"Bring him along," he said. "And hurry. Time is important. I must be returning to the temple." He started off, leading the way up the increasingly steep trail that finally disappeared in the usual welter of cliffs and vertical ascents. We finally reached a small level spot, and my knees and arms were bruised and hurting from being pushed and pulled up the rocks.
"I will take him from here," Ghotak said to his men. "You will return to the temple and await me. Ghotak will dispose of this evil one after meditation and the voice of Karkotek speaks to him."
I watched the others obediently file back down the way we'd come. Ghotak had plainly kept his own men at a distance and subjected them to some of the same jazz he used on the rest of the people. He reached into his robes and drew forth a snubnosed British Army thirty-eight.
"Walk ahead of me and do not make any false moves," he said. "I do not want to shoot you but I will if I must."
We went on, with Ghotak guiding me by voice commands. The terrain now was flatter and icier and colder. A large opening suddenly loomed up in a snow-covered cliffside and Ghotak pointed me toward it.
"In there," he rasped. I walked on, wondering how I was going to get at Wilhelmina and Hugo. Ghotak put one hand against my back as we neared the opening and shoved. I went sailing on the icy ground and fell into the opening. Torches of animal grease burned along the walls and I saw we were in a huge tunnel-like cut in the cliff. As we moved forward I heard the horrible, spine-chilling scream I'd heard only once before. Ghotak pushed me forward, around a slight bend, and I was facing a huge steel cage. Inside was the yeti, its horrible face peering out, and growling guttural sounds coming from its throat. The creature was jumping up and down excitedly as Ghotak approached, and saliva ran down the sides of its long canine teeth which jutted out from the wide mouth. Once again I was amazed at the bear-like snout of the creature and the human forehead and eyes, the clawed hands and feet. As it saw me it began to scream again in its horrible, high-pitched scream, and its teeth gnashed together as it lunged at the bars. The cage shook but held and Ghotak smiled, a thin, evil smile. "He remembers you," he said. "Unfortunately for you."
