North Face

by Matt Dickinson

  I think I just stood there in shock for a bit with my mouth wide open. It felt like I was already in too deep. But … but something inside me could see the true nature of Tashi’s situation. She was totally vulnerable, subject to the whims and moods of the camp commander and his friend Chen – a volatile monster with a capacity for harm.

  He could kill Tashi at any moment and ‘vanish’ the body into a shallow grave somewhere in the loneliest country on the planet.

  ‘OK. Let’s say we get this cell open,’ I said, ‘and we get out of the camp. Where do you think we can go from there?’

  ‘I have no idea,’ Tashi admitted, ‘I’m making this up as I go along.’

  ‘It’s a thousand kilometres to Lhasa. The military can stop any vehicle they like. They’ll catch us easily.’

  ‘Look. Will you just stop thinking and get on with it,’ she said.

  I ran down the corridor and told Zhong about Tashi’s proposal. I was expecting him to throw up his hands in horror and tell me it was crazy, that we shouldn’t risk it in a million years. But I should have known better; what he actually did was break into a big smile and say,

  ‘Great idea! Let’s get her out of here!’

  Zhong led me a short way, checking the door plaques as we went.

  ‘This is a tool room,’ he said. He tried the handle and found it was locked. He inspected the mechanism and winked at me, saying, ‘It’s not very strong.’

  He took another look out into the yard to check no one was about. Then he took three steps away from the storeroom door and simply shoulder charged it as hard as he could. The lock gave way with a splintering sound of wood and a rendering of metal. His shoulder charge had broken the whole hinge and the door was swinging free. We waited to see if the noise had alerted anyone. Nothing stirred.

  ‘No problem!’ he whispered.

  The store room was an Aladdin’s cave. A selection of tools was hanging on one of the walls and Zhong lost no time in selecting what he wanted.

  ‘Bolt cutters!’ he said. ‘These should do the job.’

  I took the tool from him. It weighed a ton. I ran back down the corridor to Tashi’s cell and her face cracked up in a smile as she saw what we’d found.

  ‘Perfect!’ she hissed.

  I lifted the bolt cutters up and positioned them so the sharp blades at the end were snug around the right part of the padlock.

  ‘Quickly!’ Tashi urged. ‘Let’s do it before the next patrol comes round.’

  For a while it felt like nothing was happening, then, little by little, as I squeezed the two prongs of the handles towards each other, I felt the metal shaft of the padlock beginning to give way.

  ‘It’s working,’ Tashi said excitedly. ‘I can see the metal cutting.’

  Then, with a metallic ‘ping’ noise, the padlock snapped in two.

  ‘Yes!’ I put the bolt cutters down and wiggled the broken lock free. Seconds later the door was swinging open. Tashi stepped into the corridor and sprang straight into my arms, hugging me tighter than I’d ever been hugged before.

  ‘Thank you,’ she whispered.

  Zhong walked up the corridor and picked up the bolt cutters.

  ‘Result!’ I said. ‘Now let’s get out of here.’

  ‘Not so fast,’ Zhong replied. ‘We’re not done yet.’

  I got a spasm of nerves.

  ‘How do you mean?’ I whispered, every fibre of my body itching to get out of that camp.

  ‘Since we’ve got these cutters,’ he said. ‘We should free the rest of the prisoners.’

  My heart sank as deep as it could go at that point. It felt like we had already pushed our luck to the very far edges of what we could get away with. But to free more prisoners? Was he really serious?

  I looked at Tashi, desperately wanting her to intervene, persuade Zhong to abandon the idea, to tell him that we had to get out while we still could.

  ‘It’s a great plan,’ she said.

  I should have known better again. Of course Tashi would want to help free her fellow Tibetans.

  ‘They’re in that building over there,’ Zhong pointed to the largest of the hangars.

  ‘Guards!’ Tashi exclaimed. She had seen movement through the window. We ducked down beneath the sill as the murmur of voices reached us. We stayed motionless for several minutes, praying that the men wouldn’t come to check the corridor.

  An engine fired into life, swiftly followed by the roar of a jeep moving away. We heard the clang of the compound gates being swung back and the sound of the vehicle driving off down the valley. Zhong poked his head above the sill.

  ‘All clear,’ he said. ‘Let’s move over there, see if we can get in.’

  Zhong took the lead, hurrying across to a couple of fuel tankers parked to the side of the parade ground. We used them as cover, sneaking silently behind them, out of sight of the watchtower. Once we reached the hangar building we kept tight to the wall, pressing into the darkest shadows as we headed for the doors at the end.

  A strange howl echoed round the valley. The hairs on the back of my neck prickled. A fox was out there in the frozen night, calling for a mate. The camp remained quiet.

  ‘That’s the guardhouse,’ Zhong whispered. ‘I’ll go and take a look.’

  He bent down low, creeping right underneath the frosted window. I became aware of a low rhythmic sound coming from the hut. He waited a minute or so then raised his head slowly above the sill, peering into the hut for a moment then ducking back down and returning to where we waited in the shadows.

  ‘One guard,’ he murmured. ‘Fast asleep.’

  That explained the sound. The man was snoring.

  We sprinted the final ten metres to the detention building, bundling through the door and closing it quietly behind us.

  The layout was very different to the block that Tashi had been held in. There were no individual cells here, just an iron mesh barrier with a vast open space behind it in which rows of bunk beds had been built.

  ‘This is the men’s section,’ Zhong whispered.

  We padded quietly down the corridor, Zhong in the lead.

  ‘Hey!’ he hissed. ‘Wake up!’

  Figures began to stir in the bunks. Blankets were tossed aside, dishevelled-looking Tibetans shuffled barefoot across the concrete floor towards us.

  ‘What’s happening?’

  ‘We’re getting you out of here,’ Zhong told the men. He fixed the bolt cutters to the padlock and squeezed the handles with all his strength. The shaft snapped apart as more of the prisoners emerged from the darkness, rubbing their eyes and trying to work out what was going on. The door sprung open. The men stared at us with suspicion, evidently wondering if this was some sort of trap.

  Zhong addressed them in their own language and the mood changed completely. A sense of urgency overtook the prisoners as they ran back to the bunks to wake up their friends.

  ‘They’re going to make a run for it,’ Zhong explained.

  He was approached by several of the inmates, greeted with embraces, warm words and smiles.

  The prisoners were swarming down the corridor. In a matter of seconds all of them had left their bunks, pulling on their shoes and boots, desperate to take their chance for escape. The noise was incredible. By the time the captives hit the parade ground the whole camp would be awake. A feeling of utter dread began to engulf me. I had the terrible sensation this situation was now primed to end in a bloodbath.

  We sprinted down the corridor. Tumbled into the parade ground. The guard in the box was well and truly awake, blowing on a whistle and shouting blue murder. The prisoners were scattering in all possible directions, each seemingly with their own idea of how to get out of the camp. A running Tibetan pushed the guard roughly to the ground and the whistling stopped.

  ‘This way!’ Zhong told us. He made a
beeline for the other side of the square.

  Back at the main block I could see figures rushing about. Some were dashing towards the security fence, pulling at the barbed wire and quickly bringing it down. Other prisoners were hurrying towards the main gates where two young guards were standing with their mouths open, their guns still slung on their shoulders, obviously unsure what to do. A siren went off. More soldiers began to spill out of the shacks, pulling on their uniforms as they hit the freezing night air.

  ‘If they start shooting it’s going to be a massacre,’ Tashi said fearfully.

  ‘Keep moving,’ Zhong said. He led the way, heading across the camp for the gap in the fence that had let us in.

  A hijacked jeep drove past at high speed, two of the escaped Tibetans in the front. The soldiers fired a handful of bullets but failed to hit the men. They did hit a tyre however and the prisoners jumped out and ran for the perimeter fence as the vehicle limped to a halt. It was chaos.

  Then came flames. An army truck had erupted in a ball of fire.

  ‘They want to destroy this place,’ Zhong said. ‘Make sure no more Tibetans can ever be locked up here again.’

  The fire was spreading fast. A second truck also started to blaze. Soldiers rushed for fire extinguishers, began to spray the vehicles, trying to calm the flames.

  ‘Stop!’ a voice screamed through a megaphone.

  I saw Chen and the camp commander emerge from a hut.

  Then came a sound like a firework. Two flares suddenly arched high into the night sky. They soared towards the heavens for a few seconds then began to parachute back to earth, burning with a ferociously bright phosphorous light. The entire camp was illuminated. We had lost the advantage of darkness. A soldier spotted us taking cover by a truck. He began to chatter into his walkie-talkie.

  ‘The fence!’ Zhong hissed. ‘Go!’

  He pushed us out from behind the truck and we sprinted as fast as we could across the parade ground. There was no point in trying to hide now, we just ran blindly for the escape route, my back tingling with the thoroughly unpleasant sensation that a bullet might shatter my spine at any second.

  We pounded towards the break in the fence. A round whistled over our heads. Boots were thudding into the ground behind us. I turned to flash a look back. Five or six soldiers were on our trail.

  Zhong’s sense of direction had been faultless. We hit the fence exactly at the right spot. Tashi squirmed through and I followed her as fast as I could, ripping my jacket on some razor wire in my desperation to get out. Zhong was the last one through.

  We ran blindly up the far slope, legs pounding into the dirt, lungs burning in the thin air. A hundred metres of sprinted height-gain took us all to the point of exhaustion and we halted in a huddle, staring back at the perimeter fence.

  ‘They stopped,’ Tashi said.

  ‘Trying to block the others from leaving,’ Zhong said.

  We continued to the top of the rise. The camp was about two hundred metres below us, many of the buildings ablaze. The troops were still running round like headless chickens, trying to extinguish the flames.

  We saw an overhang cut into the nearby cliff. Zhong pulled us into the protection of the small cave and we had an urgent whispered conference to try to decide what to do next.

  ‘We have to get to a town,’ I proposed. ‘As fast as possible. Try and talk to some Western journalists, tell the truth about what’s happened.’

  Zhong sucked in his breath.

  ‘There are no Western journalists in Tibet,’ he said glumly. ‘They’ve all been banned by the government.’

  ‘How about we get hold of a vehicle?’ I asked. ‘Drive to the border and escape?’

  ‘That won’t work,’ he said. ‘There’s only two towns within a hundred kilometres of here and they’re both crawling with spies. As soon as we set foot in those places, we’ll be arrested.’

  An explosion split the air down in the camp. Yells rang out.

  ‘There’s only one way out of this,’ Tashi said. ‘We have to make a dash for the border. Cross illegally into Nepal.’

  I pulled out my map, switched on my head torch.

  ‘There’s a secret crossing point here,’ Zhong said, stabbing at the river that formed the border. ‘I’ve been down there on patrol and seen Tibetans using it.’

  I felt my breath quicken. Nepal meant safety. Could we really do it? Get into the country illegally? And what would happen if we were caught sneaking across?

  ‘Are there guards down there?’ I asked.

  ‘No. No border fence or anything. The authorities rely on the river as a natural barrier. It’s white water. Dangerous currents.’

  ‘How far is it?’ Tashi asked.

  Zhong thought for a while, then replied. ‘Twenty kilometres, I guess.’

  ‘When you say that river is dangerous … ’ I asked. ‘What are we talking on a scale of one to ten?’

  ‘Ten, if you try to swim it,’ Zhong said. ‘But I saw a secret smugglers’ place last time I was on patrol. A spot where a couple of old boats are stored.’

  We all fell silent. No one said anything. It was clear our options had come down to this single desperate plan: an illegal crossing into Nepal. Across a raging river.

  ‘They’re coming!’ Tashi suddenly said.

  I spun around, saw two of the soldiers pushing through the gap. Then a larger figure came through behind, joining them as they ran up the slope towards us.

  Chen.

  We hurried away from the cave.

  Chapter 13

  We moved swiftly down the far side of the hill, heading for a plain which looked vast and forbidding in the moonlight. Zhong led the way with confidence and I was grateful for that. With no compass between us it was essential that someone knew the direction to go in.

  For an hour we kept up a crazy pace, half trekking, half jogging across the terrain. I was hoping that the commander and his soldiers would give up, but they just kept on coming.

  ‘They’re getting closer,’ Zhong said. His eyesight seemed to be better than ours. All I could see was vague dots moving at a great distance. Tashi and I looked at each other. Then we saw a green flash, followed by a strange glow.

  ‘Night vision goggles!’ Zhong said grimly. ‘It means they can see us plain as day.’

  ‘Let’s pick up more speed!’ Tashi urged.

  We pushed as hard as we could, hard enough that I could feel the muscles in my legs beginning to tighten and protest. Tashi was the strongest of us, striding powerfully onwards, never showing signs of tiring.

  Midnight came and went. Our pursuers maintained their relentless march. A vicious thirst began to overwhelm me, but all of the streams were frozen. I kept a careful eye on the luminous dial of my watch, ticking off the hours to try and keep a fix on our progress.

  Three hours later I was trying to work out how much distance we had covered. I knew it was possible to walk at five or six kilometres an hour. On the flat. I figured we were slower. We were having to navigate round lots of obstacles. There were multiple hills to get over. Small iced-up streams that had to be crossed. Larger peaks that had to be circled. The terrain was rocky and unpredictable. Every step required concentration.

  The sound of rushing water punched through the silence of the night. We came to a river as wide as a city road. The flow was enough to keep the river from freezing. We kneeled, scooping the precious water up with our hands. It was cold enough to burn our throats but we kept on drinking, aware that this might be our last opportunity for many hours.

  After removing our boots, we picked our way gingerly across the river. The stones felt sharp underfoot, digging painfully into our soles as we waded through the freezing water. I clutched my boots for grim life. The current would sweep things away in an instant if they were dropped.

  We used handfuls of wiry grass
to dry off our feet. Then it was back on the march, our river-frozen toes gradually thawing out as blood began to flow.

  At 3 a.m. the sky was as crisp and clear as any I had ever seen. The moon had vanished, but the starlight itself was bright enough to illuminate the ground. The Milky Way stretched in a shimmering arc right across the night sky.

  ‘We’ve got a star shadow,’ Tashi observed with wonder. ‘I didn’t even know that was possible.’

  She was right. Our shadows were projected on to the frozen tundra, delicate and faint. I felt a sense of privilege to be witnessing such an incredible thing. If it hadn’t been for the fact we had a psychotic maniac and his henchmen on our trail, I would almost have been enjoying the whole thing.

  The sense of isolation was complete. For many hours we had seen no sign of life. No shepherd tents. No glow of lights to announce a small mining operation or hamlet. The silence had been all-embracing, with only the rhythmic pattern of our breath, the crunch of our boots breaking the spell.

  Only once did we see wildlife. The slinking figure of what I thought was a dog, silhouetted on a high ridgeline.

  ‘Wolf,’ Zhong said.

  The creature hurried away as soon as it saw us.

  By 5 a.m. I was hitting the wall, punching through one pain barrier after another as my legs began to give up. The climb on Everest had already taken me to the limit and now I was asking my body for more.

  Zhong was also weaving from side to side, no longer capable of walking in a straight line. Only Tashi kept her pace fixed and I knew she was utterly focussed on one thing: joining her family in Nepal.

  Finally dawn broke. A creamy, hazy light creeping across the plateau. The sky was filled with clouds. We started climbing, ascending a steep hill, my calves cramping up as we got higher.

  We hit the crest.

  ‘There!’ Zhong exclaimed. ‘You can see Nepal.’

  Far away to the south we could see a neat village perched on a mountainside. Smoke was rising from the houses. Brightly dressed workers were already leaving for their day’s labour in the terraced fields.