Descent

by Roland Smith

  “Take the end of the rope with your other hand. You need to shift your weight to it. I can’t hold you for much longer. Your hand is bleeding and so is mine. I don’t want you to slip because of the blood.”

  He nodded, but it took him a long time to take the rope. He grabbed it a second before I lost my grip on his wrist.

  “That was close,” I said. “Hold the rope with both hands while I figure out a way to anchor you.”

  He did so. I checked his hands to make sure he had a good hold. His arms were shaking. I looked for a place on him I could tie a rope. He wasn’t wearing a climbing harness and the belt around his waist was in bad shape.

  “Is your pack secure?” I asked.

  He nodded.

  I checked it to make certain and tightened the shoulder straps. His blinking two-way radio was in a side pocket. His rifle was slung over his shoulder. I pulled out my knife.

  “What are you doing?” Shek shouted.

  I sliced through the strap and watched as his rifle dropped into the void. “Making sure you don’t shoot me,” I answered.

  He scowled.

  I gave him a grim smile and took his two-way out of the side pocket. “So you can’t call the helicopter back in.”

  “He almost got you,” Shek said.

  “He almost got both of us.”

  “He will come back.”

  “No doubt, but without the radio he won’t know when to come back.”

  “My men have radios.”

  I clipped the two-way to my harness, hammered in another piton, then tied a short piece of rope between it and Shek’s pack.

  “You’re secure,” I said. “You can let go of my rope.”

  Shek shook his head.

  I climbed up a few feet, then took out my knife again and opened the blade.

  “You can’t possibly believe I’m going to give you a way to climb up behind me,” I said. “The piton I put in above me won’t hold both of us for long. I’m cutting you loose. You should be okay until your men get up here to help you down, but it’s not going to be easy for them in the dark.”

  He grabbed the short rope tied to the pack with resignation. “You think saving me will save yourself?”

  I shook my head. “I saved you because it was the right thing to do, but to be honest I’m not that happy about it.”

  I pulled the rope up behind me and started back up.

  “Why Zopa and your father climbing different route?” Shek shouted.

  I was glad he couldn’t see me smile. Our hoax had worked, although it was clear that he was suspicious.

  “My dad is still injured from the beating you gave him in Bāyī. Zopa injured his hands in the forest.”

  “Who is leading them?”

  If he didn’t know it was Yash, I wasn’t going to tell him.

  “Go out and do good things,” I yelled, not that it would make any difference, and left him behind.

  * * *

  I was in a hurry but felt like I had pushed my luck as far as I could. I put in protection the rest of the way up, pulling it when I got past it. It would have been faster to leave it in, but I didn’t want to give Shek and his men an easy way up if they chose to go that way. But I didn’t think they would. It would be hours before the men got to Shek. I figured when they reached him, he would rappel back down to the rockslide, call the helicopter in with a two-way, and come after us by air.

  I reached the top at three o’clock in the morning. Yash was waiting for me and pulled me up over the edge. After I caught my breath, I told him what had happened.

  “You should have let him fall,”  Yash said.

  “Believe me, I wanted to,” I said. “How are Duga and Norbu?”

  “Good. They should reach the top in an hour. Rest. I will check on them.”

  “Do you understand Chinese?” I asked.

  “A little.”

  I unclipped the two-way and handed it to him. “Keep it on. We might be able to figure out what Shek is up to.”

  He put it into his pocket and wandered over to check on Duga and Norbu.

  I dropped my pack and did a few stretches. When I had some of the kinks worked out, I drank half a bottle of water, then ate two monk bars, which taste a lot better when you’re starving. I leaned against my pack and looked up at the clear night with its millions of stars, realizing that this was the first time I’d been under a completely open sky in weeks. Somewhere up there was a satellite with a signal. I wanted to turn on the phone and call everyone I knew and tell them that I was okay, but I remembered Tashi’s 10:08 rule. I just hoped that in six hours I wasn’t back in the forest with dense canopy blocking the signal. I closed my eyes with the intention of taking a little nap, but that was impossible. I got to my feet, put on my pack, and walked toward  Yash’s light.

  Norbu and Duga were moving slowly but steadily up the face, maybe fifty feet from the top. I pulled Tashi’s map and the compass out of my pack and tried to guess what our next move should be, which was nearly impossible in the dark and not knowing what lay ahead. An hour and a half later, Norbu reached the top gasping for breath—scratched, bruised, and relieved to be off the wall. Yash yanked Duga up over the edge of the cliff next. He wasn’t in much better shape than Norbu, but he was alive. While they caught their breath, drank water, and wolfed down a couple of monk bars, I told them about Shek and the soldiers. They were stoked to hear that Shek believed they were Josh and Zopa.

  “Will there be more climbing?” Norbu asked.

  “Probably,” I said. “We’re still in the mountains, but I think Tashi or the watchers would have told me if there was another wall like this. Hopefully, the worst is behind us. I know you’re exhausted, but we need to find some trees to hide under before we rest.”

  The terrain was relatively easy compared to what we had encountered the last several weeks. An hour after we started out, my GPS watch acquired a signal and I knew where we were.

  “We’ve reached the Land of Dawn-Lit Mountains,” I announced. “Depending on what’s ahead, we may be across the border later this afternoon or early evening.”

  We had no idea what Shek was up to, because the two-way was out of range. Two hours later we reached a patch of forest with plenty of cover and a wide stream with a good flow of glacial runoff. I stopped to fill my water bottle and had trouble getting back to my feet. I looked at Norbu and Duga. They appeared to be having the same problem. Even Yash was struggling, something I’d never seen before. The Intwinsible had hit the wall of exhaustion.

  “Maybe we should rest here for a while before pushing on,” I suggested.

  No one objected. In fact, no one said a word. They simply curled up where they were and fell asleep. This had me a little worried. What if we didn’t wake up? What if Shek pounced on us while we slept? I set the alarm on my watch for 10:00 a.m. I’d never done it before and wasn’t sure I had done it right.

  “Two and a half hours,” I said, but no one heard me.

  The next thing I knew I felt something crawling on my wrist. I swatted at it with my eyes closed, but it didn’t go away. I’m not sure how long it took me to realize that the crawling sensation was the alarm vibrating. With my eyes closed, I pushed several buttons, but it persisted. I must have set it wrong. Two and a half hours could not have possibly passed. I felt worse than I had before I closed my eyes. I squinted at the dial, trying to figure out how to turn it off. By the time I got the buzz turned off, it was 10:07. I looked up through the trees. The sun had moved. I glanced over at my teammates. They had not moved. I pulled the sat phone out and turned it on, then crawled over to the stream and dunked my head under the icy water, hoping it would revive me. It took my breath away. I heard a chirping sound and thought that the cold water had damaged my eardrums, then realized that it was the sat phone. I crawled back over and answered it.

  “Hello?”

  “Peak? Is that you?”

  The guy on the phone had an odd British accent, but I didn’t recognize the vo
ice.

  “Yeah. This is Peak Marcello. Who’s this?”

  “It is Sun-jo.”

  “Sun-jo!” I nearly dropped the phone. We had written letters back and forth, but this was the first time I’d heard his voice since we were on Everest the year before. My shout of surprise woke my fatigued partners. They stared wildly around as if Shek were upon us.

  “No,” I said. “It’s okay. We’re safe. Sun-jo is on the phone.”

  Duga and Norbu had no idea who I was talking about, but Yash did, and he looked as surprised as I felt. He had known Zopa’s grandson since Sun-jo was born.

  “How did you get this number?” I asked.

  “A monk gave it to me with instructions. I was in the Arunachal Pradesh mountains testing climbing equipment for one of my sponsors. I had heard that Josh had been arrested by the Chinese and that you and my grandfather were with him, but that you had escaped. Are they with you now?”

  “No.” I answered. “But they’re safe. I’m with Yash and two monks. It’s a long story. We’re being chased by Captain Shek and some of his soldiers.”

  “Captain Shek from Mount Everest?”

  “That’s part of the long story. Bottom line: we need to get over the border before he captures us.”

  “Do you have GPS?”

  “At the moment.”

  “Tell me where you are exactly.”

  I gave him our coordinates.

  “One moment.” I heard paper rustling in the background. He came back on a couple of minutes later. “I have you pinpointed. Do you have a map?”

  “A crude one. Hand drawn.”

  “No matter. My map is a very good topographical map provided by the Indian army. We are twenty kilometers away from each other. I will meet you halfway.”

  He gave me the coordinates of the rendezvous site. “I will guide you to the border. It is disputed territory between China and India, but I know many Indian soldiers and the best place to cross without trouble. It is very good to hear your voice, Peak. I will see you soon.” He ended the call.

  I brought everyone up to speed, and we headed out.

  High Noon

  At noon we heard the helicopter. It was still some distance off, but it sounded like it was coming our way. The trees had thinned out and there were large open spaces between the scant cover. I stopped everyone at the edge of a clearing and told Duga to change his clothes. His orange robe would be spotted from the air from miles away.

  “But I am supposed to be Zopa,” Duga protested.

  “We need to be invisible now,” I explained. “Zopa would take off his robe under these circumstances.” I pulled an olive-colored T-shirt out of my pack and handed it to him.

  Duga got the shirt on and his robe zipped into his bag seconds before the helicopter appeared behind us.

  “Down!” I shouted.

  The helicopter passed over the top of us as we hugged the ground.

  “Close,”  Yash said, prematurely.

  When the helicopter got over the next stand of trees it swung around and headed back to the clearing. It hovered three feet above the ground in front of us. I thought we were toast. But it didn’t land. The door slid open and one of Shek’s men stepped onto the skid, then jumped to the ground. He crouched down as the helicopter whirled back into the air and headed south. The soldier waited for the debris to subside before standing up. He was no more than fifty yards from where we were hiding, looking directly toward us. He adjusted the straps on his pack, unslung his rifle, then walked across the clearing away from us. We stayed where we were for ten minutes before daring to get up.

  * * *

  Two hours later we were concealed at the edge of yet another clearing as Norbu listened to the chatter on Shek’s two-way.

  “It is impossible to say exactly where they are,” Norbu said. “But it is clear they are up ahead and separated from each other. The pilot has landed and is waiting in his helicopter. He has landed because the helicopter is low on fuel. He will fly in and pick us up after Sergeant Shek has captured us.”

  I called Sun-jo and warned him about the soldiers. “I wish I knew where they were,” I told him. “But all I know is that they are in the area.”

  Sun-jo didn’t seem bothered by the information. “You are on track,” he said. “A mere five kilometers from our rendezvous. A man just called and asked for your and my locations.”

  “Who was it?” I asked.

  “He said he had been contacted on behalf of my grandfather, but he did not mention his name.”

  “Are you sure it wasn’t Shek?” I asked, a little stunned by my paranoia. How would Shek get Sun-jo’s SAT number?

  Sun-jo laughed. “No. This man spoke perfect English. Clearly not his first language, but refined nevertheless.”

  “And he said he talked to Zopa?”

  “Indirectly. He did not talk to Zopa. A monk passed a message on to him from my grandfather. The monk gave the man my phone number, which very few people have. Of course, my grandfather has my number.”

  “Of course. So why did he want our locations?”

  “He was in a hurry and did not explain. I presumed it was to help you in some way.”

  “Unless he has automatic weapons, I wouldn’t bother,” I said. “You might want to call him back and tell him that we have armed soldiers on our tails. I don’t want anyone getting shot trying to rescue us, and that includes you. You need to back off. We can find the border on our own. We have to move slowly because we don’t know where the soldiers are. It’s going to take us a long time to reach you.”

  “I believe I will continue on. I have not had this much fun since you and I were on Everest.”

  “As I recall, neither of us had much fun on Everest.”

  “That may be true, but you will have to admit that it was a great adventure.”

  “I’ll give you that, but this is a little different.”

  “I will see you soon, Peak.”

  Sun-jo ended the call.

  I told the others that Sun-jo was five kilometers ahead, then filled them in on the rest of the call. When I finished, I caught Duga and Norbu glancing at each other in an odd way, as if they wanted to say something but were afraid to.

  “What’s going on?”

  “We think it would be best for you and Yash to continue on your own,” Norbu said.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “This is where we leave you,” Duga said.

  I looked at Duga. “I thought you wanted to go to Itanagar to see where Chanda lived and meet some of your relatives.”

  “I do, but this is not the time. Perhaps another day. We think it will be safer for you and  Yash to proceed on your own. It is easier for two people to hide than it is for four.”

  “For all we know the other soldiers are behind us. If you go back, you might run into them.”

  “Perhaps,” Norbu said. “But we believe we will be fine.”

  “If we get caught, Shek is going to ask about where Zopa and Josh are.”

  “You can tell them that they took another path,” Duga said. “Which is true.”

  “What about the wall?”  Yash asked.

  “We will rappel down it,” Norbu answered. “It will be easier than climbing up.”

  “Yeah,” I agreed. “If you know how to rappel.”

  “We know how to rappel,” Duga said.

  I wasn’t sure about that.

  “If it appears too difficult,” Norbu said, “we will find another way home. Our journey with you ends here.”

  “That sounds final,” I said.

  “When the monastery calls, we have no choice but to return,” Norbu said. “And we believe that you and Yash will be fine as well, or else we would not go.”

  Duga took off the strand of beads wrapped around his wrist and held it out to me. “This is for you.”

  “I can’t take that. Your mom gave it to you.”

  “Chanda asked me to pass it to you to remember Pemako by.”


  “I’m not about to forget Pemako,” I said, but I accepted the gift and wrapped it around my wrist. It felt strangely comforting.

  Duga and Norbu put their hands together and gave us a small bow. We returned the bow and they started walking north.

  “What do you think?” I asked Yash.

  “I think they will make it back to the monastery,” he said.

  I thought they would too, but I wasn’t at all certain that we would make it to our rendezvous. We continued south.

  Leaving

  If the soldier in front of us hadn’t stopped to smoke a cigarette and answer his two-way, we might have run right into him. We hit the ground and froze. Yash turned the radio volume down and held it to his ear. I hadn’t heard from Sun-jo in more than three hours. The last time we spoke we decided not to use the phones again unless it was an emergency. Radio silence until we were face-to-face, which wouldn’t be too long now. Our rendezvous site was less than half a mile ahead of where the soldier was smoking and chatting on the two-way. He ended the transmission, clipped the radio back to his belt, flipped his cigarette into the woods, and continued south.

  “It was Shek on the radio,” Yash whispered. “He was checking on his men. He is frustrated because none of them had spotted us yet. From what I could gather, all of them are south of us.”

  “Good,” I said. “I hope he’s far south of us. At least Norbu and Duga are safe.”

  “Until they try to get down that wall.”

  “If they’re smart, they’ll wait until tomorrow morning or avoid it all together by finding another way to the crater.”

  I was tempted to wait until dark before taking another step south, but then we’d have to use our headlamps to see where we were going. We gave the soldier a twenty-minute lead before moving forward.

  We reached the rendezvous, or what I thought was the rendezvous, a little after six o’clock: Sun-jo wasn’t there waiting for us. I took out Tashi’s map and was rechecking the coordinates when we heard the helicopter. We were crouched among a pile of boulders in the center of an open area, hidden from anyone on the ground, but clearly visible from the air. The nearest trees were two hundred yards in front of us.