That was an impressive move,” Bond said, completely out of breath. He coughed, then collapsed into a sitting position.
“Are you all right?”
He coughed again. “Yeah, I’ve already got climber’s cough. You know how it is. I’m surprised I’m getting it so soon.” He took slow deeP breaths for a few minutes.
Do you have a headache?” Chandra asked.
“No, thank God. It’s not that bad. Come on, let’s go.”
“Are you sure?”
“Let’s go, dammit!” Bond was annoyed with himself. He wanted to be as resilient as his partner, but there was no competing with a native Nepalese, especially a Gurkha.
They skirted around the cliff and found another place to ascend. They came up on the other side of the camp and wandered in, keeping an eye on the cliff where the sniper had been. There was no sign of any movement there now
Roland Marquis was deep in conversation with Carl Glass when he saw them coming and waved. “We were about to give up!” he called. “We have to make it to Kambachan before sunset.”
“Christ,” Bond said. “How far is that?”
Marquis shrugged. “Four and a half hours. Why? You’re up to it, aren’t you, Bond?”
Bond coughed and nodded.
“Sounds as if a night in a bivouac didn’t do you much good,” Marquis said. “Bad luck.” Bond noted that there was a certain degree of pleasure in the man’s voice. “What did you find out about our Chinese friends?”
“They won’t be bothering us anytime soon. Is there anyone from the team missing?” Bond asked.
“You mean right now?”
“Yes.”
“Uhm, three or four people are in the village. They’re supposed to be back”—he looked at his watch—”any minute now. The plan was to leave at twelve-thirty. It’s twelve-fifteen.”
“Who’s gone?”
“Why?”
“Never mind, Roland, just tell me!” Bond snapped.
Marquis’s eyes narrowed. “Careful, Bond. Don’t forget who’s leader here.”
Bond grabbed the man’s parka and pulled him forward. Chandra interceded, saying, “Hey, hey, stop it. Move back, commander.”
Bond let go and stepped back. “Roland, you’re the leader, but you also have orders from SIS to assist me. Now, who went into the village?”
Marquis relaxed a little, then said, “Dr. Kendall, Paul Baack, Otto Schrenk, and the American kid.”
Schrenk, Bond thought. The sniper was Schrenk.
At that moment Baack and Hope were seen coming down the path toward the campsite. Baack was wearing a bright, distinctive yellow and green parka that he hadn’t worn earlier. Bond sat down on a collapsible stool and coughed some more. Hope approached him and said, “Hey, you already got the cough.”
“Thank you, doctor,” Bond said. “I appreciate the diagnosis. Where have you two been?”
Hope looked at Marquis and Baack. “You feeling all right, James?”
Chandra said, “We’ve had a rough night and day, that’s all.”
Baack said, “I was bartering with one of those yak herders for a gourd.” He held it up. “It’s supposed to taste like pumpkin. The good doctor appeared just in time. The old man must have had a thing for Caucasian women, for he went down in price when he saw she was with me.”
Hope held up a necklace. “And I traded five packs of chewing gum for this. Not bad, eh? It’s probably worthless, but it’s pretty.”
“Hey!” a voice called. They all turned to see Otto Schrenk running slowly toward them. He, too, was out of breath and had to stop every few steps. Finally, he got to the site and collapsed onto a tarp. He began to hack and it was several seconds before he got his wind back. Finally, he said, “The kid . . . he’s dead . . . he’s been shot.”
“What?” Marquis and Hope said simultaneously.
“Where?” Bond asked.
Schrenk pointed to the cliff where the sniper had been. “Just below that cliff there. Come, I’ll show you.”
As they walked toward the site, Bond wondered where Schrenk might have hidden his gun. It had to have been a rifle. Where in his §ear could he have stashed it? Did he abandon it on the cliff?
“The kid,” whose name was David Black, was sprawled on the path where snow had given way to mud. Blood was seeping onto the ground where he lay.
Hope Kendall got on her knees to examine him. “Help me turn him,” she said.
“Shouldn’t we leave the body alone?” Baack asked.
“What, do you think the police are going to come and seal off the area?” Marquis said.
“Actually, there is a Nepalese police post in Ghunsa. They will be coming to check our permits before long,” Baack replied.
Bond helped her turn Black over. The bullet had entered the center of his chest.
“This was done at point-blank range,” Bond observed. Hope nodded in concurrence.
His eyes met Chandra’s. They both knew what had happened. David Black had most likely stumbled upon or had heard the sniper fire. He was eliminated because he had seen the sniper.
The trek to Kambachan was called off and the team settled to spend the night at Ghunsa. Marquis was sullen and frustrated with the turn of events. Bond and Chandra took care of removing the body from the site and also spent some time on the cliff looking for evidence. Chandra found a 7.62mm shell and showed it to Bond.
“This is from a semi-automatic. A sniper rifle. A Dragunov, maybe?” Bond surmised.
“I fired an LI A1 rifle once. It used ammunition like this.” The LI A1 was the British version of the Belgian FN FAL, one of the most widely used modern self-loading rifles. It was gas operated and held a twenty-round magazine.
“Chandra, I think you might be right.”
“It has to be one of our team. No one living in Ghunsa would have this rifle,” Chandra said. “Should we search Schrenk’s belongings?”
“We might have to. Come on, let’s make our report.”
The team was bewildered and shocked that David Black had been murdered. When Bond announced that the killer was possibly one of their own, several of them protested.
“Are you out of your mind?” a climber named Delpy asked. “Why would any of us want to do such a thing?” “Is there something about this expedition you’re not telling us?” asked Doug McKee, the sole remaining American on the team.
“Calm down, Marquis said. “We’re on a salvage mission, and that’s all there is to it.”
“Who would want to shoot at us, then?” Philippe Leaud asked.
“The Russians,” Paul Baack answered. They all looked at him. “I just got word that their team will reach Base Camp tomorrow. Maybe they think there’s something up there at that plane.”
Everyone looked at Marquis. “Is there?” Hope asked.
“Just bodies,” he said. “British and American ones.”
Bond considered the possibility that the Russians might be involved. Could their team be Union members? They had been known to deal with the Russian Mafia. What if that entire expedition was made up of Union criminals?
“Are we in some kind of danger?” Tom Barlow asked. “I mean, danger from human beings, not danger from the elements.”
“Of course not,” Marquis said, attempting to reassure them. “I think what happened to Mr. Black was some kind of freak accident.”
“How can being shot at point-blank range be a freak accident?” Baack asked. “I have a bad feeling about this.”
“Me, too,” another said.
“And me,” one more ventured.
“Fine!” Marquis shouted. “Then you can all turn back. Look, you were hired to perform a mission and you’re being paid bloody good money for it! Now, tomorrow morning, I’m going on to Kambachan, and then I’m going to push to Lhonak so that I will be at Base Camp the day after tomorrow. I’ll be happy to lead whoever wants to join me!”