Zhanna clapped her hands.
‘I’ll pay for it.’
Anisa’s eyes widened.
‘But … you don’t have to. It’s my problem not yours …’
Zhanna put a finger to Anisa’s lips.
‘It’s a gift from me. I mean it.’
Anisa smiled uncertainly. Then a shadow passed across her brow.
‘I’ve never been anywhere on my own before.’
Zhanna stared at her for a few moments. Then her face lit up.
‘I’ll go with you,’ she said, simply. ‘Why not?’
Anisa’s mouth fell open. ‘Seriously?’
‘We can delay the flight back to Singapore by a couple of days,’ Zhanna proposed. ‘Papa will be in the mountains in the east for a week anyway so chances are he won’t even notice. Besides, he rarely pays much attention to where I am and what I’m doing.’
Fixing a flight to Lukla was a simple matter the next morning. The local routes were cheap and quick to book.
Zhanna smiled as the helicopter prepared to take off. She clutched tightly on to Anisa’s hand.
‘We’ll find Dawa,’ Anisa said. ‘I’m sure of it. Even if we have to go to Everest, we’ll find him.’
Everest. Zhanna felt her stomach perform a loop the loop as the aircraft rose shakily into the turbulent sky.
They would soon be in the presence of the mightiest mountain on earth.
– CHAPTER 7 –
It was 4 a.m. when Zhanna’s whispered story came to a close. Swaddled in our cosy little den inside the supply tent, Tashi and I had listened in rapt attention through the deadest, coldest hours of the night.
Dawn would creep up on us in the next hour or so. It was time to think about getting back to Kami and the others.
Tashi and I made sure Zhanna was safe and secure in her hiding place. Then we slunk out on to the frigid glacier, taking a circuitous route back to the tent where Kami and the others would, no doubt, be wondering where we were.
‘Oh no!’ Tashi murmured. The guards were still there, huddled together outside our tent.
We hunkered down in a hollow about thirty metres away, shivering and praying the men would shift. The tiny sliver of moon was just falling behind the bulk of Everest, plunging the glacier into total darkness.
One of the bosses came out to check the guards just before 5 a.m. We were close enough to hear the two half-frozen men pleading for a break. Finally the man agreed they could come and grab a tea to warm up.
‘They’re all asleep in there anyway,’ he said.
The guards left and we sneaked back into the tent, frozen to the marrow, just twenty minutes before dawn.
‘Way to go!’ Alex whispered, clapping us on the back as Dawa took the gun. The others were also awake and had been waiting anxiously for our return.
‘We found Zhanna,’ Tashi told them.
‘Wonderful!’ Kami’s face glowed with pleasure at the news.
We told the story of Zhanna’s hiding place, breaking off abruptly when one of our captors grudgingly brought in hot water. Shreeya made tea and handed each of us a weak cupful.
‘Terrible for her,’ Alex said. ‘Not knowing from one moment to the next if she’ll be discovered.’
‘Awful – so lonely,’ Shreeya agreed. ‘We have to get her to safety somehow.’
Tashi and I distributed the blankets we had brought back and then curled up in the corner of the tent to get a couple of hours’ rest after our sleepless night.
We awoke late morning, and for the rest of the day time crawled by in a curious kind of nervous tension.
Visits to the nearby toilet tent were allowed, an armed guard standing by at all times.
Food was delivered. Canned tuna, crackers and chocolate. We shared it out carefully so that each of us got a fair portion. I couldn’t stomach the tuna but I did manage to force down some crackers. They gave us cold water to drink.
Tashi reached for my hand. I put my arm around her, hugging her tight. It was good to feel her so close.
As another night fell, Kami and Shreeya whispered comforting words to one another. We all felt the extra pressure that Shreeya’s pregnancy brought to the situation. It wasn’t just Shreeya’s life at stake. There was the baby to think about.
That second night was bitterly cold and seemingly endless. Without any head torches we were plunged into darkness as soon as the sun set. We had some sleeping bags but no mats. Lying directly on the ice of the glacier, we were tossing and shivering for hours until we huddled together for warmth. Even then we got little rest.
The cracks and creaks of the restless ice seemed even spookier than ever.
‘She wants us weakened,’ Alex surmised. ‘Less of a handful if we’re exhausted.’
‘Clever, except for one thing,’ Shreeya pointed out. ‘Her guards are suffering even more.’
One of them, the guy with blue lips, was showing stronger signs of altitude sickness. He disappeared behind a boulder from time to time and we heard the distinctive sound of retching.
‘He won’t be able to take much more,’ Alex said.
I kept thinking about poor Zhanna, trapped in her hiding place.
Viking came out several times to check her men were keeping a good watch. She swore at them when she saw they were dozing on the job. The men snapped to attention. They were obviously terrified of her.
Kami was shivering even more than the rest of us. His years of paralysis seemed to have left him more vulnerable to the cold.
Just after dawn, Viking strode out again. Her face was fixed with a determined expression as she switched on her megaphone. ‘Zhanna! I know you’re out there. I can feel it.’
She waited. No reply came back.
‘My men are watching the trails to the south,’ she continued. ‘We know you must still be in the camp, hungry, thirsty, cold. You can’t last much longer, you must know that.’
The world went still. The only noise was the cawing of rooks on the rubbish heaps and the thundering of our hearts.
‘We should start to kill the hostages,’ one of Viking’s men muttered.
Shreeya put her head in her hands.
‘I can’t bear it,’ she sobbed.
Shreeya doubled up and retched into the corner of the tent. Tashi gripped me hard on the arm.
‘You’re forgetting our agreement,’ Viking hissed to the man. He spat on the ground and walked away, shoulders hunched.
The megaphone squawked again.
‘Your friends are going to pay a price, Zhanna. I’m going to remove all their blankets and sleeping bags. They will get no food from now on until you give yourself up.’
That morning was terrible.
Viking had been true to her word. Every scrap of warm bedding was snatched away from us and we were given no food or liquid of any sort. We had hidden the gun beneath a rock in the corner of the tent and it was not found. That was one positive.
‘She’s going crazy,’ Tashi said. We were huddled together, like emperor penguins, sharing our body heat.
‘Her men are getting more aggressive,’ I added. ‘The danger is if she loses control of the whole situation.’
‘We will die if this continues,’ Dawa muttered. ‘We have to try and escape.’
‘I agree,’ Alex said. ‘Escape is our only option.’
‘We could rush the guards,’ Dawa proposed. ‘Get enough weapons to shoot our way out. How many of you know how to handle a gun?’
No one replied.
‘You’re the only one who has those skills,’ Alex said. ‘Besides, they must figure we might try a stunt like that. Better we think of something they’re not expecting.’
‘Priority number one has to be getting Shreeya out,’ Tashi said. ‘Every extra day she spends up here could put the baby at risk.’
‘The guards are getting more and more exhausted,’ Dawa said. ‘And we already know how badly acclimatised they are.’
‘We need a distraction,’ Alex said. ‘Someth
ing to draw them away.’
Shreeya was sick again that afternoon. Her condition seemed to be worsening. She sat in miserable silence, clutching her belly.
‘I’m really worried about her,’ Kami confided in one of our whispered conversations. ‘At the very least we have to negotiate with Viking to get the girls out of here.’
‘Negotiate?’ Alex retorted. ‘She’s never going to listen to reason.’
The conversation went on for hours. Crazy ideas were discussed and dismissed. Night began to fall. Day three of the siege was coming to an end and we still had no plan to get out.
Then Alex’s eyes brightened.
‘How about the fuel tent?’ he said. ‘The one with all the butane cylinders? Maybe a couple of us can sneak out and set them alight. Draw the terrorists away so that everyone else can escape?’
Kami nodded.
‘An explosion!’ he exclaimed. ‘Viking and her men will have to try and save the cylinders. They can’t survive for long up here without gas.’
Dawa nodded. ‘I like the plan,’ he said. ‘It’s the best idea we’ve had. Plus I’ve got the gun here in case we get any opposition to the escape part of things …’
I saw Tashi reach out for Shreeya’s hand.
‘Girls? Do you agree with the plan?’ Alex asked.
Tashi and Shreeya thought for a few seconds.
‘I agree,’ Shreeya said slowly. ‘But we have to take Zhanna with us, OK?’
‘Definitely,’ Tashi agreed. ‘No escape plan unless Zhanna comes with us.’
We talked about the logistics of rescuing Zhanna, and then a thought came to me.
‘Hang on a minute,’ I said to Alex. ‘How are you going to set that tent on fire? I mean without blowing yourself up at the same time?’
‘Put one of the butane cylinders next to a naked flame,’ he replied, ‘and open the valve.’
‘Would that give you time to get away?’
‘I guess … then we’ll follow you guys down the glacier.’
‘And the naked flame?’ Kami questioned.
‘A candle,’ Dawa suggested. ‘Anyone got one?’
An urgent search of the tent began. We found a stub of a candle and a cigarette lighter in the storage trunk in the corner.
‘You can’t do this alone,’ Kami said to Alex. ‘And Dawa has to be here because he’s the only one who can handle a gun. So either Ryan or I must go with you.’
There was a long silence. My eyes flickered to Tashi. Leaving her to try and escape without me went against every instinct.
‘Maybe we should draw straws,’ Kami said.
We all agreed. It was the only fair way.
Alex tore two strips off a piece of scrap paper, turning his back on us to place them in his closed fist. Kami and I took turns, my heart sinking as I pulled the shortest one.
Tashi looked away. I could see she was gutted.
We continued talking long into the night. The guards were on their last legs now, hardly able to stand.
‘Viking’s resting in her tent while her men are freezing half to death,’ Alex observed. ‘They’re starting to complain about her.’
One of the guards became sick. He vomited a few times and even came into the tent to ask us for medicine.
‘This is perfect for us,’ Alex said. ‘They’re falling like flies. We’ll go for it tonight.’
At 10 p.m. I tried to rest. Sleep remained tantalisingly out of reach. Alex’s plan was reckless and brilliant all at once.
It could so easily end in disaster. But the counter strategy – remaining as hostages – was equally lethal. Viking’s men were becoming unpredictable and ever-more desperate.
We had to take the initiative and get out of this mess as fast as we could.
I fell into a kind of half sleep. At 2 a.m. we heard the distant sound of a helicopter engine.
‘Rescue?’ Alex whispered. The guards hardly stirred. The engine noise soon faded away and I dozed again.
At 3 a.m. Alex shook me awake.
‘All the guards are asleep,’ he whispered. ‘Let’s go and set the world on fire.’
We woke the others, telling them to stand by and make a break for it as soon as the fire kicked off.
Dawa retrieved the gun from its hiding place.
‘Good luck,’ Tashi whispered. I held her tight. Kami and Shreeya embraced me.
I gently eased up the canvas and Alex and I made fast progress away from the tent. Then we heard an unwelcome sound.
Footsteps.
‘Stay still!’ Alex breathed.
A guard was on the move. Heading in our direction. As the footsteps crunched towards us, we pressed ourselves tight to the ice, trying to merge with the dark shadows of the rocks. My heart went into overdrive.
The guard stopped. Took a pee. Then he returned to the front of the tent.
We waited a few minutes then went on, trying not to break through the ice on the frozen puddles.
‘So far so good,’ Alex whispered.
After a few hundred metres of progress we entered a natural bottleneck in the glacier. A place where the terrain became so dissected with faults and collapsed holes that we were forced on to a path.
We sped up, hoping to get past as quickly as possible. The main terrorist tent was fifty metres to our right.
A bitter argument seemed to be raging inside. A woman’s voice was dominant.
‘Viking,’ Alex murmured. ‘Does she ever sleep?’
We continued, reaching our destination after twenty minutes of hard slog. The butane tent was easy to spot. It was one of the few white tents at Base Camp. Certainly the only one with a massive Hazchem symbol emblazoned on its side.
We sneaked right up.
There was no guard in sight.
‘We’re on!’ Alex whispered, gripping my arm.
We moved stealthily across the ice, then pressed ourselves into the darkness at the back of the tent, listening for the sound of voices or snores coming from within.
Nothing.
We entered the tent. The butane cylinders were stacked in a neat pile.
‘We’re in business.’ I could see the gleam of excitement in Alex’s eyes.
Working as quietly as we could, we rearranged things, placing one of the gas cylinders in the middle of the others, effectively building a tower around it.
‘OK? Everything ready?’
I flicked the cigarette lighter into life. The candle flared up.
Alex twisted the top of the gas cylinder. The stench of butane quickly began to fill the tent. We kept low as we left, using the natural cover of the undulating dips and hollows of the glacier.
We found some rocks to hide behind. A minute passed. Then another.
‘Something’s wrong,’ I whispered to Alex. ‘It’s taking forever.’
‘Maybe the candle went out?’ he replied.
And then the explosion split the night air. A fireball tens of metres across flared into the sky.
‘Yes!’ Alex hissed.
Screams rang out. The terrorists ran out of their command tent. Viking was one of the first.
The gas store went up in a blast of sparks and flames. Then came a much bigger detonation as one of the cylinders exploded.
We saw Viking, her distinctive silhouette backlit by the fire, running to and fro, trying to gather some of her men together.
‘Rescue some of the bottles,’ she screamed. Two of her men tried to get into the tent but were beaten back by the heat.
It was mayhem. Exactly what we wanted.
Perfect circumstances for the others to escape.
More of Viking’s men began to emerge from the darkness. We recognised two of the guards who had been watching our tent.
Now it was time for us to sneak away, work our way back through the night, following our friends and hopefully catching them up before daybreak.
‘Let’s go!’ Alex said.
We hurried south, down the glacier. Behind us, more of the terrorists were
flocking to the burning gas store. Then, ahead of us, came a shot. And another.
Had something gone wrong with the escape? Were those shots from Dawa? Or from one of the terrorists?
I tried to calm my mind but it was hard not to imagine the worst. My heart raced out of control.
Tashi. Was she OK? I would never forgive myself for not being with her if something had gone wrong.
Fifteen minutes later we saw two shadowy figures coming fast towards us.
Alex hissed a warning. I ducked down. Then I realised it was Dawa and Kami, both struggling for breath.
‘What’s happened?’ I asked, my gut churning with a dread sensation. ‘Where are the girls?’
‘The whole thing got messed up,’ Kami gasped. ‘One of the guards stayed behind when the explosion kicked off. He spotted us and pulled a gun.’
‘I sorted him out,’ Dawa added. ‘But then others came. It was total chaos and we got separated from the girls.’
‘Oh no!’
‘There are still some guards following us,’ Kami whispered, glancing over his shoulder into the darkness of the glacier.
‘Do you think the girls got away?’ I demanded.
‘We think so, yes,’ Kami replied hesitantly. ‘But it was mayhem down there so we can’t be sure.’
We heard the clatter of boots in the distance, a sharp command in a foreign tongue.
‘We have to keep moving,’ Alex said.
A torch beam swept in our direction.
‘There they are!’ called a voice.
We turned, hurrying in the only direction we could: north towards the end of the valley. Away from the girls. Ahead of us was the deadly maze of the Icefall.
Could we hide in there? I wondered. Would Kami remember it from his last expedition and find us a safe refuge? Or would we be trapped? Picked off by Viking’s gunmen.
Our situation was quickly spiralling out of control.
We puffed and panted across the rocky surface of the glacier.
‘One more thing,’ Kami said breathlessly. ‘We couldn’t find Zhanna. She wasn’t in the tent.’
‘Then where on earth is she?’ Alex replied.
‘I have no idea. She must have decided to make a break down the glacier.’
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