I saw the colour drain from Zhanna’s face.
‘Don’t do it,’ she said. ‘Please, Papa.’
‘I can’t go any higher, Zhanna. I have to end this one way or the other. I won’t have you put in danger any longer.’
Anatoly and Zhanna embraced.
‘But …’ the word caught in Zhanna’s throat.
‘She will catch us whatever we do,’ Anatoly said. ‘This is a confrontation that has to happen, so it might as well happen now.’
They held each other tight for long moments.
‘I will tell her I will stop the mining,’ he added. ‘Let us then see what her next move will be.’
He turned to Kami and me.
‘Thank you for everything you have done,’ he told us.
He embraced us both in turn.
‘OK,’ he said. ‘I’m going.’
– CHAPTER 11 –
Anatoly trekked out along the fixed ropes.
Zhanna stifled a sob. I could see her eyes welling up.
He moved purposefully across the Geneva Spur and began to descend the upper slopes of the Lhotse Face.
Viking had stopped.
‘She is waiting,’ Kami said. ‘She has seen Anatoly coming down.’
As Anatoly continued his descent we saw the weather was changing. Cloud was massing in the cwm, creeping inexorably up the Lhotse Face. After fifteen minutes Viking was swallowed up.
Twenty minutes later we lost visual contact with Anatoly. Zhanna became increasingly anxious, pacing back and forth, wondering if we should follow her father down the ropes.
‘This is such a mistake,’ Zhanna said, her voice strained with tears. ‘He shouldn’t have gone.’
Deep within the rising plume of cloud we heard a chilling sound.
A single gunshot.
The world seemed to hold still. It seemed even the rush of wind was put on pause for a few milliseconds. Then a new sound began on high.
The mountain shook. Séracs were collapsing up on the Lhotse Face.
Zhanna screamed, a raw cry of primal fear.
Millions of tons of ice were on the move, accelerating, hurtling down the face in an awesome tsunami of ice. The shockwave of the pistol shot had triggered an avalanche that was heading for Anatoly and Viking.
Our position was out of the strike line, on the edge of the col.
Kami held Zhanna in his arms.
The rising weather system swallowed the avalanche. The billowing leading edge consumed by the cloud. There was no cry from within. No shout. Just the deep roar of the cascading ice, the tremor of the ground beneath our feet.
Gradually the rumble faded. The world was perfectly quiet, perfectly white.
‘Papa!’ Zhanna gasped. Acting on instinct, she moved towards the lines. Heading down. Towards the scene of the avalanche. Kami grabbed for her shoulder, but she dodged underneath his arm and ran for the first of the fixed ropes.
‘Zhanna!’ Kami yelled.
She moved incredibly fast, her crampon spikes kicking up tiny spurts of ice with each step. Kami followed at a half run, his breath coming fast.
‘Zhanna!’ I cried. ‘You mustn’t go down there, the ropes will be ripped away!’
She ignored my call. I followed them both, watching as she reached the edge of the Geneva Spur, climbed out across the rocky ledges, balancing above crazy drops while striding from one foothold to another.
A few tangles of ropes were still in place up here.
‘Clip on!’ I screamed.
Zhanna clipped her sling on to the line, but, if anything, it only seemed to encourage her to move faster. Her karabiner was singing as it flew down the rope.
We entered the cloud. Visibility fell to just a few metres.
Zhanna was swallowed up in the white haze. It was unthinkable to let her descend alone. We could only follow. Down that lethal face. Losing precious height we had gained. Across the rockfall zone next to the spur.
It wasn’t hard to spot the area the avalanche had swept.
‘The ropes have gone!’ Kami yelled. ‘You must stop!’
The entire snowpack had been scrubbed off the face. In places we were moving across bare bedrock, our crampon spikes scraping and skittering as steel sparked against stone.
The young Russian did not stop. She was now totally unprotected. One slip could send her cartwheeling down the lethal slopes of the Lhotse Face. Directly beneath our position there were ice cliffs and vertical drops of a hundred metres or more.
‘Use your axe!’ Kami’s voice was hoarse with shouting.
Zhanna ignored him. Her ice axe swung freely in her hand. In that position she would never be able to arrest a fall.
‘You’re going too low,’ I bellowed.
There were no ropes to guide us. And the avalanche had changed the terrain. Zhanna was going on instinct, heading for the last place we had seen her father and Viking.
The avalanche had to have swept them down. I could understand her logic.
But there were crevasses hidden beneath our feet. This crazy descent was taking us into deadly and unpredictable terrain.
Kami stopped, bent double, his body unable to keep up with the pace.
‘You think it’s possible they can still be alive?’ I asked.
‘Anything is possible,’ he puffed. ‘Think about me. I survived the same.’
I continued on Zhanna’s trail, pondering on the chances. Could Anatoly and Viking have survived the avalanche? Surely they would be buried?
In which case, the clock was ticking.
I caught Zhanna up. I had no spare breath for conversation. We found a couple of tents, ripped up and shredded.
‘Must have been the site of Camp 3.’ Zhanna’s voice was sharp with fear.
Oxygen bottles were strewn about the slope. A sleeping bag was torn up and gutted, the feather down spewing into the blustering wind like a ripped-apart bird.
Zhanna stared down the slope, peering into the seething mass of cloud. Dark shapes were down there but it was impossible to tell what they were.
‘Papa!’ Zhanna yelled. ‘Call if you hear me!’
No reply.
‘What can we do?’ she asked me. Her voice cracked with emotion. ‘Tell me, please!’
‘There’s only one hope,’ I told her. ‘They could have been swept into a crevasse just below our position. If they went the whole distance down the slope then there’s no chance.’
‘I’m going down,’ Zhanna said between sobs. ‘Let’s follow the avalanche track.’
She turned, front-pointing down the icy slope. I was happy to see she used her ice axe this time, thrusting it in deep and securing herself with every step.
‘OK, I’m coming with you.’ I turned to face the slope.
‘There must be clues,’ Kami said breathlessly. ‘Look for pieces of clothing. Anything.’
About fifty metres beneath the debris we found a flat balcony. It wasn’t very wide but it was protected by a slender crevasse, which had been filled almost to the brim by the falling snow and ice.
I wished the cloud would lift so we could see more.
‘Let’s check it,’ I said.
Zhanna jumped into the crevasse. She found a partly buried object right away, pulling it free with a triumphant gasp.
‘That’s the axe he was using, yes?’ Zhanna said.
I examined the manufacturer’s logo. She was right.
‘Quickly!’ Zhanna cried. I joined her as she started to probe the snow.
I was half hoping, half dreading to feel a human form beneath the ice, the telltale yield of a body.
Nothing. Only rock-hard ice blocks that were now setting like concrete.
Using our axes, we chipped away.
Ten minutes. No result.
The cloud began to clear. I decided to look over the edge of the platform. Another crevasse was hidden below. A crumpled figure lay within it.
‘I see him!’ I yelled.
Anatoly had been swept furth
er by the sliding debris.
‘Papa!’ Zhanna cried.
We climbed down fast. Anatoly was ominously still. He was covered in a thin layer of debris but his head was clear of the ice.
We knelt at his side.
‘He’s breathing!’ Zhanna cried.
Kami took a fleece from his rucksack and placed it under the Russian’s head.
Anatoly uttered a groggy gasp. Zhanna put her head against his shoulder, her arm cradling him.
‘Papa? Where are you hurt? Are you shot?’
Anatoly drifted briefly back to consciousness. He ran his arms down, slowly checking his legs.
‘I think I’m OK … just a bang on the head.’
‘But we heard a shot?’ Zhanna insisted.
We cleared the rest of the ice away.
‘She pulled the gun on me … and we fought,’ Anatoly mumbled weakly. ‘I think the bullet hit her.’
At that point we were distracted by a strange noise. Muffled. About twenty metres away. Over to our right, at the far end of the crevasse.
An arm punched clear of the compacted snow.
‘Viking!’ Zhanna cried.
We left Kami with Anatoly and kicked our way across the face.
Viking was partly buried. Struggling to break free. Only one arm and the side of her head were visible. Blood was seeping from a ragged hole in her arm. A bullet wound.
Her breathing was rapid and desperate.
Zhanna looked at me, uncertain. She stepped away to return to her father, but I moved to block her.
‘We can’t leave her,’ I said. ‘No matter who she is and what she’s done.’
Raw humanity meant we must do our best to save her.
‘Zhanna?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Will you help me?’
For several seconds she remained still, staring into the clouds. Then she spoke.
‘You’re right,’ she said, quietly. ‘We have to save her, if we can.’
We turned to Viking.
Zhanna swept ice away from the terror leader’s face.
‘We’re going to try and get you out,’ I said.
Zhanna began to dig.
I joined her, ramming the axe deep into the debris, trying to get a fix on how hard the ice was.
‘My legs,’ Viking gasped. ‘Pain …’
Zhanna flashed me a look. If Viking had a serious injury it would be nearly impossible to get her down.
A hissing noise reached us. Spindrift coming down the face. We ducked instinctively, spicules of ice chilling us to the bone.
A blast of wind rocked us.
We returned to the task of digging Viking out. Ten more minutes. The top part of her body was free. The bullet wound had stopped bleeding as the blood coagulated, but it was clear she was in serious trouble.
Viking began to cry. It was strange to see such a hard character breaking up before our eyes. I felt a pang of compassion. A series of great spasms wracked her body as she sobbed deep and hard.
The bitter wind was still blowing. The tears were freezing on her cheeks.
‘It’s hopeless,’ Viking said. ‘I’m beyond help.’
We kept working, excavating Viking blow by blow from the clutches of the ice. She kept crying, great gasps that racked her body.
The ice was harder around her legs. She was still firmly entombed. We kept digging, throwing the chunks of ice down the face.
‘We have to try and pull her out,’ I said.
We grabbed her underneath her arms and pulled. Viking screamed, agony in her eyes.
‘One more go,’ Zhanna said. We worked in unison, pulled and lifted again, extracted Viking from the grip of the ice, dragging her on to the flat terrain of the small balcony. She howled with pain as we dragged her. Straight away we could see terrible damage to the lower part of her body.
‘Broken …’ Viking whispered. ‘My legs are broken, yes?’
I nodded. Zhanna turned her head away.
Viking’s eyes became clouded. A terrible expression of utter resignation swept across her face.
‘Then there’s nothing that can help me,’ she said.
‘I’m sorry,’ Zhanna said. She made to walk away but Viking stretched out her hand and grasped her by the wrist. The Russian girl looked to me, uncertain.
‘You tried to save me,’ Viking whispered, ‘even after all I’ve done.’
She licked her lips. ‘Have you got water?’ she asked.
‘I’ll give you some juice,’ Zhanna said.
She poured the liquid from her flask and held the cup to Viking’s mouth. She sipped it, coughing a little as the fluid caught in her throat.
The three of us were silent for long moments. Zhanna and I looked over to Anatoly and Kami, relieved when Kami gave us the thumbs up.
‘He’s coming round,’ Kami called. Zhanna turned, ready to walk back to her father.
Viking reached out once more, holding her back.
‘There’s something I need to tell you, Zhanna,’ she whispered. ‘A secret.’
Zhanna frowned. ‘Really?’ she said.
She crouched by Viking, listening intently.
Viking’s Story
‘Many years ago I worked with your father,’ Viking said. ‘I travelled to Moscow to join his publicity team. For a while we worked side by side, then things changed and we became a couple.’
Zhanna’s eyes widened.
‘He never told you that, did he?’ Viking said. She coughed, struggling for breath.
The Russian girl shook her head.
‘I was young and out for fun. He was already one of the wealthiest men in Russia. I loved the private jets and the VIP rooms at the clubs. Our photos were in the gossip magazines almost every week. We travelled together whenever Anatoly had business. Tokyo, London, Los Angeles; we were masters of the universe and it seemed like anything was possible.’
Viking paused to sip some more drink. Her eyes never left Zhanna.
‘He gave me a top job in the company, running public relations. That’s when the rot began to set in. I began to see the dark side of Anatoly’s mining operations, the damage they caused to the environment. It was my job to lie about it. He got angry when I questioned the ethics behind what he was doing. For Anatoly, everything was about profit. Nothing other than profit.’
I saw Zhanna’s cheeks redden.
‘We argued. It got quite vicious. I was emotional and …’
Viking paused as a wave of pain engulfed her. Her hands clutched at Zhanna, the knuckles white with tension.
‘… and I was pregnant with Anatoly’s child.’
Zhanna gasped. Her eyes flickered to mine.
‘I gave birth to a beautiful baby daughter. I wanted to keep her but Anatoly had other ideas. He wanted to have her for himself and for me to walk away.’
I saw a great tremor of emotion pass through Zhanna.
‘He always said that money could buy anything,’ Viking said. ‘And he really meant it. I turned down a million. I turned down five. But when he offered me ten million dollars to turn my back on my own child, I finally agreed.’
Zhanna put her hand to her mouth, her eyes wide with horror.
‘I signed a contract agreeing to cut all links with my own daughter. I signed away my right to be your mother so Anatoly could get me out of his life.’
Viking paused as a coughing fit hit her.
‘I let you down, Zhanna. And I want you to know how sorry I am.’
Zhanna’s eyes welled up.
‘I did it for a reason,’ Viking whispered. ‘I did it because it gave me the money I needed to set up an eco-movement of my own. To right the world’s wrongs. I vowed I would destroy Anatoly’s company one way or another.’
‘He was cunning,’ Viking continued. ‘He had powerful friends in the media, in political circles. He could mount damage limitation against everything I publicised; kill the stories before they did him reputational harm.’
‘When he sta
rted mining the ocean floor I knew the game had changed for the worse, but even I couldn’t have predicted just how bad it would be. He has changed the climate of Asia – that’s undeniable.’
Zhanna gave Viking some more juice from her flask. I helped her to sit up so she could drink it.
‘Leave me,’ Viking said. ‘I know what I have to do.’
She moved her good hand to the pocket of her wind suit.
There was no need for conversation. All three of us understood that there was no hope for Viking. With both legs broken, only a helicopter rescue could save her, or an army of Sherpas to attempt a stretcher rescue.
Neither was available. And in any case, she was way too high for a helicopter to attempt a medevac.
‘Let me stay with her a few more moments,’ Zhanna said.
Her face looked different, somehow she no longer seemed like a young girl.
I kicked back across the ice to join Kami. Anatoly was gradually recovering from his concussion. The two of us helped him to sit up.
He looked over to Zhanna and Viking, talking intently at the other end of the crevasse, his eyes registering firstly confusion, then alarm.
‘What is Zhanna doing?’ he mumbled. ‘What are they saying?’
‘Viking has told her everything,’ I said.
Anatoly drew his breath in sharply.
‘No …’ he whispered. ‘Not that.’
Minutes later Zhanna climbed up to our position. She walked to her father and crouched down next to him.
Her cry competed against the rumble of the strengthening wind.
‘Is it true …?’ Zhanna began.
Anatoly put his hand around her shoulders.
‘We will talk later,’ he said softly.
A shot split the air.
We spun around and saw Viking’s body, slumped back.
Her outstretched arm still gripped the pistol.
‘I hate this place!’ Zhanna cried. ‘I hate Everest. I hate this place!’
– CHAPTER 12 –
Kami pulled out a flask of drink.
We cradled cups of hot chocolate in our hands, comforted by its sweetness. Zhanna was calmer now but deep shock was still smouldering in her eyes. The revelation from Viking had been so unexpected. Her death so sudden.
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