They loosened the tourniquet and there was some blood, but not as much as Abe
had feared. 'Let's keep going,' he said. 'Pump it tight again.'
Next he sliced the hamstrings, parting the meat from its white tendons. 'Thirty
minutes,' Carlos sang out. Abe exhaled. He was going too slowly.
'You're doing fine, Doc,' Stump told him. Frost coated the inner wall of the tent, but
sweat was gleaming on Stump's face.
Abe took a deep breath and bent to the task again and again. He cut through vessels
and nerves, only stopping long enough to cauterize the ends with heated knife blades.
The smell overpowered several people. Abe didn't know who they were, only that
they left. He could feel the cold air rush in each time someone went out or came in. He
could hear the night wind suck and slap at the tent canvas.
A blast of cold air blew in. 'Gus?'
Abe lifted his head. It was Daniel, eyes enormous in the kerosene light. A moment
later J.J. wrestled in through the door, bested again. 'I tried to stop him,' he said.
'For God's sake, get him out,' Jorgens said.
'Gus?' Daniel cried.
Her leg was cinched to the roof like an elk carcass. Most of the tissue had been
debribed. The bone was white and bare. The sight unhinged J.J. He just stood there.
'Get him out, damn it,' Jorgens yelled again.
'Daniel,' came a woman's voice. It was Kelly, blind in the corner.
Daniel was weeping.
'Daniel,' she said. 'Come with me now. Take my hand.' She was reaching from the
shadows. 'Lead me out.'
It worked. Daniel took her hand and they left.
Abe returned to the leg. Three hours passed. When he cut the final ligament, Gus's
thigh slapped onto the table. The lower leg dangled overhead while Abe raced to
finish. At midnight they laid her back in the chamber and pumped it full of air. For
another hour afterward, five of them sat around like tornado victims, speechless.
'Poor Gus,' someone finally pronounced. It was Jorgens. 'She's climbed her last
mountain.'
On the next afternoon, beneath another boiling white sun, they heard the sound of an
engine gunning through the snow. 'The trucks,' someone shouted, and everyone
poured into the blinding light to see their rescuers. The old herder's two yaks stood
nearby, grazing on the last of some dried grass scattered on top of the snow.
In the far distance a vehicle was cutting straight toward them from the north. All
they could make out was the glare of its windshield between two brilliant roostertails
of slush, a ship of pure light.
'Home! We're going home!' It could have been anyone's voice. It was everyone's
sentiment.
They gathered to watch the vehicle approach. Even Li emerged from his tent to join
in their excited babble. This was the first Abe had seen him since their retreat from
the face.
'Wait a minute,' J.J. said, shading his eyes with a piece of cardboard. 'That's no
truck. It's a Land Cruiser.'
'Makes sense,' Stump reasoned. 'You send in your icebreaker first. It's got
four-wheel drive and good mobility. The rest will come behind.'
'Come to papa,' Robby shouted at the Land Cruiser.
'Mr. Burns,' Jorgens said to Abe. 'Would you please ready your patient for transport.
Gus goes first.' For a moment, anyway, some of the timber returned to his bearing.
'I'll see to it that Mr. Li agrees.'
Li was glassing the distance with a pair of binoculars, too busy to answer.
Jorgens went right on laying the groundwork. 'With the Gamow bag on the back
floor, that will leave room for two. Burns goes, obviously. And it's either Kelly with her
eyes or Corder or...'
Abe was standing close enough to hear when Thomas muttered, 'What the hell.' Abe
glanced at him, but the man was staring off into the north intently.
Slowly, as if disbelieving his own eyes, Li lowered the binoculars. His smile had
faded.
'Pete,' Stump said. Sober looks were suddenly epidemic. Abe wondered what was
wrong.
'I'm going out with Gus,' Daniel was insisting. 'We'll make room for Kelly. But I go
with Gus.' There were no two ways about it.
'I don't think so,' Stump said.
'It's okay,' Jorgens said to Stump. 'Corder should go with her.'
'No,' Stump said.
Jorgens stopped.
'We're not going anywhere.'
Engine whining, the Land Cruiser closed on them. It hit a wet drift with an explosion
of diamonds and the vehicle slung left, then right. The spray of slush reached for
them, sparkling in the sun. The yaks spooked and bounded into the snow, but were
too famished to run very far.
The Land Cruiser breasted another drift. Thirty feet from the front of the mess
tent, it braked.
'Tell those guys to keep the engine running,' Daniel said. 'Let's load Gus on.'
No one moved. Daniel plucked at Abe's sweater. 'Come on, Abe. Let's move. We can
make Shekar by dark.'
The engine cut off. Abe's heart sank.
'Tell that driver to fire it up. We're taking Gus out of here.'
Daniel walked between them as between statuary. The climbers were motionless
and silent.
He was the only one among them who had not seen this same Land Cruiser before.
He did not recognize the three soldiers who now emerged.
'What are you guys waiting for? Stump, give me a hand.'
The soldier's pea-green uniforms were filthy. They looked ravenous and tired. The
two younger soldiers seemed very happy to be here again. The officer did not.
Taking the initiative, Li approached them. He highstepped through the snow. Li and
the officer stood by the Land Cruiser and conferred for several minutes, casting
nervous glances at the climbers. Jorgens started to join them, but Li held up his open
palm to stay in place. After some more words, Li came over to the climbers.
'Not good,' he said with mechanical bravado. 'Pang La is closed. Earthquake, snow,
not good.'
'The hell,' snarled Daniel. 'If they got in, we can get out.'
Daniel's ignorance confused Li and he goggled at the climber.
Stump stepped forward. 'They didn't get in, Daniel,' he said.
'The hell,' Daniel said again and he started to wave at the Land Cruiser. Then it sank
in. His hand dropped back to his side.
'Where have these men been for the last week?' Jorgens asked.
'Rongbuk Monastery,' Li said.
It was simple to see. The soldiers had set off with their prisoner. Then the
earthquake had trapped them on this side of the pass. They had started back toward
Base Camp, only to be caught by deep snows. Without food or sleeping bags, probably
without fire even, they had taken refuge in the ruined monastery for the last seven
days. Now they had completed their fateful circle.
'These men require food,' Li said. 'They require shelter. They require medical
attention. They require...'
Daniel cut him off. 'Where's the kid at?' he demanded.
'What you say?' Li was outraged, though Abe perceived more bluff than anger. The
man had to be just as disappointed as they were at being trapped, but with one
significant difference: He was now trapped with them, and they were the enemy.
'What did they do with the boy?'
'I forbid...'
Daniel's black eyes dismissed the L.O. and without another word he bulled past him
toward the Land Cruiser.
'You,' Li shouted. 'You stay away.'
Daniel didn't highstep through the snow, he simply slugged his shins through it and
tore a path. The officer saw Daniel coming and he ordered the two younger soldiers to