The Sam Reilly Collection

by Christopher Cartwright

  She then showed him how to clip onto the steel cable.

  “You’ll see that these carabiners are made specifically for use on Via Ferratas. Their design creates a larger-than-average opening, and they have a spring-locking mechanism that can be opened with one hand. They are also strong enough to withstand high fall factors. These carabiners are marked with a “K” in a circle, which stands for Klettersteig, the German term for Via Ferrata.”

  Aliana watched as Sam played with the mechanism.

  Sam’s intelligent mind took in the practical steps in using them, and the physics behind their simple mechanisms.

  She could tell that, for someone like him, it was all easy to understand.

  “So, it uses a spring-loaded sleeve on the carabiner gate?” He asked, pressing it with one hand. “While the gate is closed, the sleeve is held in place over the gate opening by its spring; to unlock and open the gate, the sleeve slides directly down the gate shaft away from the opening?”

  “Yes.”

  “Anything else I need to know?”

  “Probably, but we’ll talk about it when you come across it.”

  Aliana watched as Sam confidently clipped himself in, tentatively looked down at the river, which looked tiny from this height, then looked back at her, as if he were sizing up whether or not she was worth the effort.

  He then gave her a defiant smile.

  The small dimple that appeared on his left cheek when he smiled reminded her how often he looked just like that.

  “So, I’ll see you on the other side?” Sam said as he began to make his way across the traverse.

  *

  Sam carefully made his way across the 220 foot cable bridge.

  It used three cables to form the bridge. One at the bottom to walk along, foot in front of foot, and two at his shoulder height which formed an imaginary triangle.

  It was good, he decided, to allow him to settle in his own way. He had always been afraid of heights, and had taken great pains to attempt mountain climbing as a means of overcoming his fear. Somehow, it didn’t matter what challenge he completed, he would always feel some degree of trepidation, above and beyond his basic survival instincts when it came to heights. It had taught him how to push past his fears and complete the task at hand. It was all about learning how to fake it.

  Although one might never completely allay an irrational fear, a person could instill an ability to control it. Long before he ever joined the Corps, Sam discovered that skill. Life experience and its vicissitudes taught him to use his fear to heighten his awareness and narrow his focus on the task at hand, without permitting the fear to deter him from what he needed to accomplish.

  After thirty-one years of faking it, he’d learned to be very convincing, even to himself.

  He was waiting for Aliana on the far side of the bridge.

  Sam glanced around at the walls of metamorphic rock, of which the Dolomites were predominantly composed. Fossils of ancient marine life could still be seen, embedded in the rock wall, the shells of long-extinct sea life formed the basis of the limestone, which, after many millennia of heat and pressure, had eventually metamorphosed into the shales, slates, gneiss and schists comprising these mountains.

  A horizontal set of iron steps ran along the mountain, as though someone had built a little pathway high up in the mountain, but had neglected to complete it with railings. There were a multitude of ladders, iron chains, and rocky steps, which could be accessed along the way.

  He wondered which of these routes Aliana would take him on today.

  Looking back at the bridge, he noticed that she walked along it as though she was on a simple footpath and nothing more.

  “What direction are we going?” Sam asked, looking at the two paths that followed around the mountain.

  “Now, we start going up.” Aliana pointed ahead at the third set of ladders, and said, “That one, over there.”

  He followed her to the base of those ladders, where an iron sign, bolted into the rock face, read, “Via Capilano Con Grande.”

  “Are you ready for a workout?” she asked.

  “You set the pace and I’ll follow,” he said, with a confidence that he was already starting to doubt. Sam calculated that he must be close to twice her weight. Although his physique was built of solid muscle, he knew she was extremely athletic, and that her slim frame disguised the wiry muscles of a mountain climber.

  They started to climb.

  It was an almost entirely vertical climb for a while, followed later by a more diagonal approach across the mountain face. It took them all day to make their ascent.

  By early afternoon, they finally reached the peak of the first mountain, which was the smallest of the four peaks they planned to traverse as part of this trip.

  Each time Sam thought he was finally getting somewhere, he’d clip his carabiner into a new run, which extended further up the mountain. His thighs burned from the workout. As with rock climbing, his leg muscles bore the majority of the effort, rather than his arms.

  Every time he saw Aliana slow down at a particularly difficult or technical section, he would begin to gain on her, but then she would pass it, and get ahead of him again, as if she was a mythical water nymph, acting like a mirage.

  She was incredibly strong, he noticed, for someone with such a slim frame. Beneath which, he’d come to realize, was an athletic, wiry machine, developed from a childhood spent climbing and exploring these very mountains.

  By late that afternoon, the two of them reached the pinnacle of the smallest of the four mountains. At a height of 7,000 feet, its status as the smallest of the four mountains seemed irrelevant. Of the four, it was the only one that allowed a clear view of the entire Tyrol River, running between the mountains.

  The panorama was stunningly beautiful.

  “I was beginning to worry you would never make it!” Aliana said good naturedly.

  “Yes, well… I was starting to doubt that you had any desire to allow me to make it to the top alive.”

  “Do you drink beer?”

  “Yes. It would be a great place to have one now, if we had any with us.” He then saw the expression on her face, and said, “There’s no way that you bothered to carry beer along all this way, is there?”

  “No,” she laughed. “Of course not. I would never be so careless with the expenditure of my energy on a climb such as this.”

  “I’ll buy you one when we get back,” Sam offered.

  “There’s no need,” she said, grinning, “You did!”

  He laughed, as he opened his backpack and found a six pack of German beer.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me! You mean I lugged this all the way up here?! You’re terrible, Aliana.”

  “Am I? Really?” She looked so innocent, that it made him laugh again.

  “No,” he conceded, “you’re not,” he told her as he came closer.

  He took her small, but strong hands in his, and sheepishly looked into her pale blue eyes, which were the color of a clear sky in summer.

  “Then what am I?” she teased.

  “You’re the most extraordinary and beautiful woman I’ve ever met.”

  He leaned closer to her, and to his delight, she kissed his lips.

  There was nothing for it, he was in love. She was the girl he had wanted all his life. Of that he had no doubt. The only thing that he couldn’t work out was why someone as exceptional as she, would be interested in him too.

  Back at his log cabin, where his satellite phone had been carelessly left with the rest of his equipment, it glowed as it indicated that a new text message was received.

  It read, Son, couldn’t find much on Wolfgang, but I discovered that John Wolfgang has a daughter who often travels with him, her name is, Aliana. Be careful, the most beautiful women are often the most dangerous.

  Chapter Seventeen

  The next morning, Sam woke up early. Much before the sun had risen.

  Next to him, her carabiner still clipped into
a bolt in the rock wall, slept Aliana. About five feet past her was a ledge, beyond which was a drop-off nearly 9,500 feet down to the river below.

  His hand reached out instinctively to the wall for support. It was unwarranted, of course, since his own carabiner was still attached to the same bolt as was Aliana’s.

  She looked just as beautiful sleeping, as she did when awake, he decided, as the water started to boil. Sam then tossed a packet of dehydrated soup into the bowl, just in time for breakfast.

  “Good morning,” Sam murmured, as he softly nudged the nape of her neck with his lips.

  Aliana’s eyes opened slowly, and as they displayed recognition, she reached around his neck, pulled him towards her and kissed him.

  “Good morning, you.”

  His lips responded eagerly to her kiss.

  When it ended, Sam asked, “What’s the plan for today?”

  “Do you remember the four peaks we saw in the distance when we first started our climb yesterday?”

  “Yes, we’ve already climbed two of them. My thighs haven’t let me forget it.”

  “Right,” Aliana said, taking the small cup of warm soup into her hand. “So, we climbed the two peaks, progressively getting higher, yesterday. Now, we’re going to climb the next two. That’s if you’re up to it, of course?” Her tone of voice implied that all four peaks were of equal height, when in fact, they had climbed a total of 3,000 feet yesterday, but today they would be climbing more like 5,000 feet.

  She’s got to be kidding me.

  “Sure, I’m game. I’ll just follow you.” Sam wasn’t about to let her beat him.

  “Good,” she said, taking another sip of soup. It was basic, but provided a certain warmth that helped heal a person at 7,000 feet. “Thanks for breakfast.”

  Twenty minutes later, Sam and Aliana commenced climbing the next section of the Via Ferrata.

  Sam followed Aliana along the first Via Ferrata of the day, which involved a number of stemples that followed the natural fault in the mountain in an upward spiral, like a giant circular staircase. It wasn’t very hard, by comparison to the previous day.

  It took an hour before they reached the top, where Sam rested by leaning forward and supporting himself on one arm, like a tripod, for a few minutes, trying to catch his breath.

  Clipping her carabiner into the start of the next Via Ferrata, Aliana calmly asked, “Are you all right to go again?”

  Her voice sounded natural, as though her lungs weren’t at all strained by the climb. Naturally, she was fitter than he, despite his physically arduous lifestyle.

  “Of course, lead on,” Sam replied.

  He read the sign attached to the wire into which he clipped his carabiner. It read, “Ladder De Grande,” and above it was a steel ladder, bolted into the rock wall, for almost a 1,000 foot vertical climb.

  I’m sure this will be fun.

  Above him, Sam could see the finely defined muscles of Aliana’s long legs, right up to her butt, as she all but danced her way up the never-ending, pernicious, ladder.

  It was just enough motivation to keep him going.

  Unfortunately, she was climbing faster than he and, as time went on, she outpaced him by an ever-increasing distance. He found himself struggling to keep up with her, which frustrated him, and caused him to take longer steps and to skip some of the rungs on the ladder.

  And then his foot missed one.

  Or, so he thought.

  In actual fact, Sam had planted his foot squarely on the rung, but it had given way under his weight, causing him to fall.

  The carabiner, which he’d attached to the V-rope, slid down along the wire as Sam fell, until it reached a bolt, on which it should have caught and held. The end of the wire, just like the ladder rung before it, also gave way, as though it had never been there to begin with, and he continued to fall.

  In that split second, Sam was certain he was going to die, as he fell from the wall from which he hung suspended over more than 6,500 feet of nothingness.

  And then, his downward slide came to an abrupt halt.

  Sam’s V-rope had somehow snagged on an old, dilapidated stemple, ending his downward movement with a harsh jolt. Then, before the rope had a chance to slide off the iron stemple, Sam reached up and grabbed hold of the steel ladder once more.

  Quickly, he reached for his second V-rope, and this time he clipped his carabiner into one of the rungs on the ladder.

  Above him, he could see that Aliana had only just noticed his absence.

  “Holy shit, are you all right?”

  “Yeah, I think I’ll be fine,” he said, starting to climb once again.

  “Are you sure?” Aliana sounded concerned as she started to climb down toward him.

  “I’ll be fine. My pride might be just a little damaged, that’s all,” Sam admitted. Then, noticing that she was on her way back down to meet him, he said, “Just wait there. Part of the ladder’s broken. I don’t want you to fall, too.”

  “I’m coming down to meet you, Sam. It will take more than a dilapidated ladder to make me fall.”

  “Be careful,” he warned.

  Sam stopped when he reached the point at which the bolt should have stopped his carabiner from sliding through. Upon close examination, it appeared that a steel bolt had once been there, but now it had been cut clean off.

  Although he had only a very limited experience in rock climbing, and none of that experience on the Via Ferrata, it looked to him as though someone had sawed off the end of the bolt. And it appeared to have been done recently, too … there was no rust evident on the raw cut.

  Am I just being paranoid?

  Could the fast slide of my carabiner as I fell have produced enough force to slice clean through the bolt?

  Sam examined his carabiner, and it was completely unmarked and unharmed.

  It might be nothing, or it might be something.

  He then continued to climb until he reached the missing rung of the ladder, the spot at which his fall began.

  On both sides of that particular rung, where it had once been welded to the steel sides of the ladder, Sam could see a clear marking of where someone had intentionally hacked away at the connection with a metal saw. At first, he thought he might have been imagining it, but then he noticed something else.

  There were small specks of metal on the rung below – iron filings.

  The sort you’d expect to find after someone deliberately sawed through the steel.

  Who just tried to kill me?

  Or was Aliana their intended victim?

  Despite the warm summer air, the thought sent a cold chill down his spine.

  *

  Aliana carefully climbed backwards down the steel ladder.

  Below her, she could see that Sam had stopped, and that he was examining the steel ladder rung. Something about his facial expression worried her.

  Then, she watched him run his hand along the intact rung immediately below it, and then bring it up close to his face, studying it carefully.

  Sam looked directly up at her.

  It was the piercing look in his eyes, which removed all doubt.

  Shit! He knows the truth!

  Aliana wasn’t sure what her next course of action should be. Her father had been explicit when he told her what needed to be done, but had never explained how it was going to happen. And she certainly hadn’t expected it so soon.

  Aliana had agreed to help her father. She even knew that she would enjoy the task, but at no point had she expected to fall for Sam.

  Only just today, Aliana had found herself contemplating how she would find another way to solve the problem, without killing him. She’d even found herself grateful that her father hadn’t known where she was going, but the instant Aliana witnessed Sam’s fall, she knew with certainty that her father had caught up with her.

  Now, what options were still available to her?

  She gave serious consideration to continuing up the mountain, and leaving Sam behind and
below her. Aliana even considered how much faster she could climb than he. Would it even be possible for her to outrun him?

  It was Sam’s next statement that made her realize that she could never do that to him.

  “Aliana! Wait there.” She could see him, frantically waving his hand at her. “Stop! I believe you’re in danger. Someone just tried to kill you!”

  She looked down at him, but said nothing.

  After everything that’s happened, he’s most concerned about my life?

  It filled her heart with guilt at her betrayal, and then she recalled what her father had told her, and she stilled her nerves to continue with her initial resolution – in all wars, good men must pay the price of future generations.

  Stepping an additional four rungs down the ladder, Aliana stopped her descent, and then said, “There’s no way anyone could have known we would be here today, Sam. That rung must have been damaged by the ice last winter.”

  Below her, Sam shook his head.

  “There’s no way that this damage occurred naturally.”

  “Really? How can you be so certain?”

  “Look here. These are iron filings. The kind you would expect to see after someone intentionally cut through the rungs with a saw,” Sam said. “But I haven’t a clue how anyone could have known we were going to be here today.”

  They couldn’t have. I’m the only person who knew you would be here today…

  She was just about to change her direction and make her way back up the ladder.

  Still undecided, she looked up at the ladder above.

  There, a man could be seen, approaching with German efficiency. Aliana recognized him instantly as the solidly built blonde man from The Summit, the bed and breakfast where she’d been staying. His name was Carl.

  She recalled thinking he seemed out of place at the time. He’d told her he was a rock climber. In her opinion, he had the more solid physique of a member of Germany’s Military Elite GSG9 Unit, rather than the lithe muscles of a mountain climber.