by Guy d'Armen
“Mount Everest?” repeated Ardan, stupefied.
“Yes! The Roof of the World, that no one has yet succeeded in climbing. Where British and French mountaineers have failed, at great loss of life, Captain Mendax and I have succeeded! And this is where you are: inside a citadel built within the top of that very mountain.”
Ardan looked sat the man as if he were mad, but the latter continued:
“I don’t know if the good Captain told you about his rather colorful past? Mine is equally interesting, as you will see. First, I should properly introduce myself: I am Kyzyl Kaya. Like the good Captain here, I am a scientist scorned by society. Once, not so long ago, I was unjustly thrown in jail. Prison is divided between mindless brutes and a few very smart people. There, I was lucky to make the acquaintance of Mendax, who clearly belongs to the latter category. Together, were able to escape.
“Mendax had the brilliant idea of building our Citadel of Science here, on the heights of Mount Everest, which can only be reached by his wonderful flying machine. Few westerners have ever been able to explore Tibet: Leo Saint-Clair, the American James Schuyler Grimm… but even they have not had the resources to climb Mount Everest. Here, we are totally invulnerable!”
“You two are no better than common criminals, that’s what you are!” said Ardan.
“Perhaps, but we have made powerful allies amongst those who secretly rule this part of the world: Dr. Natas, Ming Tsai Tsou, Leonid Zattan... We are free to pursue our great work without the interference of mindless humanity.”
Ardan realized with a sinking heart that the villain spoke the truth. As long as they stayed in their Everest citadel, it would be impossible for anyone to go after Kyzyl Kaya and Captain Mendax for years to come.
Kaya explained how Mendax had enlisted the help of a local tribe of Tibetan troglodytes, who lived in long-hidden mountain caves, to help him assemble the machines that had made the building of the Citadel possible.
“As you can see, Doctor,” concluded Kaya, “you have no choice but to obey Captain Mendax’s orders. You will write a letter to your father and instruct him to pay your ransom.”
“Never!” shouted Ardan.
“I guarantee you’ll change your mind, my young friend, when you discover some of the other, er, curiosities that we have found deep within the recesses of Mount Everest.”
Kyzyl Kaya rang a bell and a Tibetan arrived. It was middle aged man, with his head shaved except for a single braid of black hair. The scientist spoke to him in a local dialect, which the young doctor did not recognize.
The servant made a sign to Ardan, inviting him to follow. Having no choice, the young man did so and, together, they went down a long stone staircase. They eventually reached a square cell with bare stone walls, no windows and no furniture except for a cot that had been placed on a stone bench. The Tibetan left Ardan there, after double locking the dour behind him.
Ardan found himself plunged in total darkness and silence.
I wonder what they plan to do next, thought Ardan. They can’t kill me or seriously harm me or else they’d lose the millions they hope to get from my father.
The day passed without any other encounter and Doc Ardan eventually fell asleep on the cot, thinking of his father and the anguish he must have been experiencing as he searched in vain for his vanished son.
A few hours later, at what must have been near midnight, Ardan was awakened by something his highly-trained senses had just detected. There was a light in his cell! A ruby red narrow beam of light now came out from one wall, seemingly emerging from solid stone, crossed the room, and disappeared in the opposite wall, a few inches above his head.
The brightness of the beam kept increasing until the entire cell was plunged into a reddish hell, burning the young doctor’s eyes. Even using his hand to cover his eyes proved insufficient to block the devilish light. Soon, Ardan felt a violent migraine come over him. It was as if pins were being driven into his eyes, and circle of iron squeezed his temples and forehead.
This torture lasted for an hour, then Mendax’s voice came out of nowhere and asked him if he was now ready to implore his father to pay his ransom.
Despite the pain, Ardan found the strength to refuse.
Mendax laughed. Then Ardan experienced a sudden sense of vertigo. The cell he as in was falling, like a broken elevator cabin into a shaft! It was the same feeling of having one’s heart jump in one’s chest that he had experienced in planes when doing loops.
Brutally, the cell stopped, then shot up again at the same high speed.
This up and down motion continued for ten minutes, until the diabolical torture stopped. By then, Ardan had passed out.
When he came to, he found himself tied to a slab in a brightly lit operating room. Four men dressed in scarlet robes, their faces hidden behind cowls of the same color, surrounded him. Ardan could see their evil eyes glinting behind slits in the fabric. They reminded him of the Holy Inquisition and he whispered its name.
One of them heard him and gloated:
“The tortures of the Inquisition were nothing compared to what we shall inflict upon you unless you cooperate!”
The young doctor then felt the stabbing pain of a shot being administered into his arm and he passed out again.
He woke up in the same cell. This time, it was lit by an invisible source. Above his cot was a huge bell made of bronze.
It starting tolling and the sound reverberated throughout the cell becoming truly overwhelming. After ten minutes, Ardan’s body was wracked by pain such as he had never known. He had read about this form of torture employed in China. It could literally kill a man through the sheet power of the vibrations in the confined space.
Soon, Ardan thought he was truly about to die. His captors had taken great pains to cover the walls of the cell in a material that magnified the sound and, at the same time, prevented their victims from trying to kill themselves by smashing their heads onto the stone.
There was truly no escape. Periodically, Mendax’s voice ordered him to submit, but Ardan refused to yield.
Eventually, bleeding from his nose and ears, the young doctor curled up in a fetal position and prepared to die.
He sank into unconsciousness and became still.
CHAPTER V
At the Top of the World
Someone shook Doc Ardan awake. He opened his eyes and saw it was the same middle-aged Tibetan man who had taken him to his cell earlier.
“What do you want?” he asked.
Seeing the total lack of reaction from the man, he wondered if he wasn’t deaf and dumb; he wouldn’t have put it past Kyzyl Kaya and Captain Mendax to surround themselves with men who could not communicate with anyone but their masters.
The Tibetan signaled him to follow. Ardan thought briefly about refusing to comply, but decided he would learn more about his captors if he obeyed, and anything he found out would eventually help him to escape.
Minutes later, he was introduced in Kyzyl Kaya’s office. The Mephistophelean scientist handed him a newspaper, saying:
“Doctor Ardan, good news! Please read this!”
On the front page, he read:
Billionaire Francis Ardan says: I will pay a $10 million reward to whoever helps me find my son, who vanished off the coast of Merbat in the Arabian Peninsula.
Kyzyl Kaya was pretending to play with a jade letter opener while studying young Francis’s face as he read the short article.
“This is excellent news, you will agree,” he finally said. “Of course, there is a bit of a gap between what your father is offering and what our good Captain wants, but there is always room for a compromise between gentlemen, as I always say.”
“You mean, you expect my father to capitulate to Mendax’s demands, you dirty rat!”
Kyzyl Kaya ignored the insult and continued:
“I like to think that your father will have no other choice. Think about it: the top of the Everest is impregnable by any means, other than Mendax’s c
raft. Besides, Tibet is a land mostly forbidden to Westerners. You don’t stand a chance of being rescued—even if your father could divine where you’re being kept prisoner.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning that once your father is told to add another zero to his initial offer, he will comply. Then we’ll arrange for a rendezvous at sea, he in his Isolde, Mendax underwater in his Astaroth. Your ransom will be paid just as the valuables from the Empress of India were delivered to us, and we’ll send you back floating to the surface in a special underwater suit of my own design. With a little luck, you can be back on board your father’s yacht tomorrow night.”
The astounding capabilities of the two villains would have defeated any will weaker than Francis Ardan’s. But instead of surrendering, he shouted:
“I refuse to aid your scheme!”
“If you don’t,” said Kaya snickering, “you will experience more of the new forms of torture we have devised here. Trust me, my young friend, we’ve had a lot of experience in that domain and no one has ever succeeded in defying our will!”
After that final threat, the deadly scientist ordered his prisoner to be taken back to his cell.
As he walked along the stone corridors, following his Tibetan guard, Ardan noticed a number of small glass bottles and vials casually stored in tiny niches carved into the stone. He guessed — correctly — that they were everyday household products conveniently kept throughout the citadel for the benefit of the staff.
Quickly, without being seen by anyone, he pocketed two such bottles, which turned out to contain tincture of iodine and some kind of black dye.
Anything might come in handy later if I ever manage to give the slip to these bandits, he thought.
Back in his cell, the young man sat on his cot and reflected upon his situation:
Now I know that my father has launched a full investigation into my disappearance, but even if somehow someone told him that I’m prisoner on top of Mount Everest, he probably wouldn’t believe him! Mendax and Kaya were certainly inspired by the Devil when they devised their monstrous scheme!
After having taken a scanty lunch served at noon, Ardan heard a voice telling him:
“Doctor Ardan, you will be given an opportunity to admire the natural beauty of Mount Everest for an hour every day. Prepare yourself!”
A minute later, another guard came to collect him. They followed a different route from the one he had taken until then and came out on a small platform surrounded by a stone parapet.
There, the truly astonishing sight he beheld caused him to gasp in disbelief. For a few seconds, he forgot all about his dire predicament, being too busy taking in the wondrous sight of the eternal mountain peaks surrounding the Citadel.
At 29,000 feet above sea level, surrounded by the equally impressive peaks of the Changtse and the Lhotse cutting their jagged silhouettes against the pure-blue sky, Everest was a jewel shining like a rosy diamond, transmuting the bright light of the sun. An eerie silence surrounded the peak
Despite the altitude, Ardan noticed that he didn’t feel either the cold or the effects of the low atmospheric pressure.
Leaning over the parapet, he noticed strange metal rods surrounding and protruding from beneath the platform at regular intervals, and theorized that they were yet another ingenious device invented by his captors to insulate the platform from the hostile environment.
He reflected that hundreds of feet below him was the very spot where the two brave explorers George Mallory and Andrew Irvine had undoubtedly perished only two years earlier. He remembered that a Tibetan sherpa interviewed by the papers had said that no one could ever reach the top of the Holy Mountain, because it was forbidden.
Ardan smiled bitterly. If only the poor man could have seen the two evil geniuses who had succeeded where so many brave men had failed. He didn’t doubt that some of these very failures had, in fact, been caused by Kaya and Mendax, who only sought to add to Mount Everest’s fearsome reputation for inaccessibility. Any future expedition was similarly doomed to be destroyed by the two villains if it ever showed signs of reaching the summit.
While Ardan was lost in his thoughts, his guard was relaxing, smoking a long pipe with an air of perfect contentment, secure in his belief that his prisoner could not escape from such an impossible place.
The young man took advantage of his guard’s relaxation to closely study the platform and its surroundings. Beneath it and near the southern edge, he noticed a series of steps leading down the mountain, twenty yards apart, carved into the rock.
When he looked up again, he saw that he was no longer alone (with the guard) on the platform. A woman stood on the opposite corner, also being watched by another guard. Her eyes met Ardan’s and she smiled forlornly.
She looked as if she was Tibetan, but her natural elegance and rich clothes marked her as belonging to the aristocracy, probably from the neighboring province of Sikkim.
Her lustrous black hair was delicately parted in the middle; Ardan could see two jade combs in her tight bun above the nape of her neck. She wore a conical hat decorated with small turquoises and adorned with fine engravings. Her robe was pure cashmere with rich embroideries. She conveyed an aura of grace and distinction.
Ardan guessed that she, too, must be a prisoner waiting for her ransom to be paid. He wanted to talk to her and ask her questions—assuming they could communicate in a language they both spoke—but was prevented by the other guard who stopped him when he tried to approach the young woman.
She then made a quick sign of the hand, as if she were asking the young man to be patient. Then she made a show to indicate that she was becoming fascinated by the view. Her guard, thus lulled into a false sense of security, relaxed his vigilance.
Only ten meters at most separated the two prisoners. Ardan thought that if he tried to speak to the woman, even if the guards were deaf, they might spot his lips moving. So instead, he waited for the woman to make the first move.
By moving slightly to the side, he saw that she was writing a message, using a tiny pencil that she’d pulled out of her bun, and a small piece of rice paper, probably from one of the napkins from their lunches.
Excellent! thought Ardan. She’ll probably hide the note in a place where I can get it later. I’m lucky she was resourceful enough to hide that pencil. They confiscated all of my belongings.
After she was finished, the young woman carefully rolled the piece of paper into a ball; then, with a pointed glance, she signaled to Ardan she was hiding it in a small niche inside the parapet.
Then she returned to her pretend reverie, while moving alongside the parapet, thus enabling Ardan to move closer to the niche, while remaining always at a safe distance from her.
The two guards continued smoking their pipes, producing huge puffs of blue smoke, suspecting nothing.
Ardan feared they would order him to leave the platform before he had time to get to the ball of paper; to reach the niche faster, he pretend to lose his footing once, clutching at the parapet to regain his balance, this gaining a precious yard.
After five minutes, he sighed with relief. The ball of paper was now safely in his hand! He was now surprisingly eager to return to his cell to read its message.
CHAPTER VI
Milarepa
Back in his cell, Doc Ardan carefully unfolded the ball of paper and read:
My name is Milarepa and I am the daughter of Prince Manjitar, Governor of the Province of Gyantse. I have been a prisoner for six months, but they treat me with respect. I was able to find out who you are. I think my cell is next to yours, so I’ll attempt to contact you again tonight. Courage!
This note increased Ardan’s determination to fight the villains with every means at his disposal. It wasn’t only his life that was at stake, but that of an innocent young woman!
I guess those two pirates aren’t afraid to tangle with the local authorities, he mused. Milarepa may be a hostage to guarantee their discretion. But every organization has
an Achilles’ heel. It’s up to me to find it!
But this was easier said than done. So far, Ardan hadn’t found a way to strike back at the villains. He thought that, maybe, Milarepa, having been here longer, might come up with some ideas he could use to break them free.
Suddenly, he was pulled out of his thoughts by the sound of two light knocks coming from the opposite wall.
At first, the young doctor wondered if he had misheard, but then he head two more knocks. Immediately, he ran to the wall sand, kneeling on the ground, he knocked twice on the section of the wall where the sounds had originated.
Two more knocks answered him right away.
Using Morse code, he was able to communicate with the person on the other side of the wall, who was, unsurprisingly, Milarepa.
After a few minutes of “conversation” spent exchanging their names and identities, Ardan found out that the young Tibetan woman had managed to use a spoon to hollow out a portion of the wall hidden behind her cot. She was planning to continue working throughout the night until she made a hole large enough for them to see each other.
But, unfortunately, the work was hard and her efforts proved insufficient that night. Ardan fell asleep a short time before dawn, unable to estimate how long it would take for Milarepa to succeeded in getting through the wall.
Later that day, right after lunch, the young doctor was again taken to the platform for his hour-long exercise. There, he saw Milarepa again, who made a discreet sign of acknowledgement, leaving him to believe that she might complete her work that night.
The young Tibetan woman was dressed in an exquisite yellow silk robe embroidered with gold threads. She also wore bejeweled gold earrings and her hair was made up into a taller bun held together with gold combs. She looked a marvelous sight, another indication that she was being well treated and that no one suspected her of planning an escape with him.