Peak (18 page)

"Then we'll have to wait until tomorrow. Any idea when the climbers from Camp Four will make it down to ABC?"

"No, but we will go up to meet them. Early afternoon, I hope."

"The chopper's small," Josh said. "It will hold only four people aside from the pilot and Captain Shek. You'll have to choose who gets a ride and who goes down on their own two feet."

"Captain Shek is coming up?"

"That's what I hear. He's still looking for that kid."

"Why? The boy left. He is certainly not up here."

"I told Shek that, but apparently he doesn't believe it. He searched the porter camp yesterday. And today he has soldiers checking everyone coming down to Base Camp."

"I guess he can do what he wants," Zopa said, but I could see he was worried.

So was Sun-jo. I wasn't sure how they were going to get him back down to the porter camp. Gulu's yak had eaten its hay, so there was nothing for Sun-jo to hide under. Captain Shek checking climbers was not good news, nor was his search of the porter camp.

"We have a lot of injured climbers up here," Zopa continued. "We could use the room in that helicopter."

"I know," Josh said. "I'll talk to Captain Shek again. Maybe he'll realize that taking up an empty seat might be the death of a climber, and the death would be his fault."

It was true, but the conversation was entirely for Captain Shek's benefit, who was no doubt eavesdropping.

"I hope so," Zopa said, then changed the subject. "Did Miss Angelo and the film crew get down?"

"They just arrived. Holly's packing her gear. There's a truck leaving tomorrow. To tell you the truth, she made it farther up the mountain than I expected. Doc's taking a look at the film crew right now. They barely made it into camp. Almost everybody has the virus down here. Leah's going crazy treating everyone. The chopper brought in more antibiotics. Five more climbing parties pulled up stakes this morning and left the mountain, sick as dogs. I think I'm getting it, too. If it keeps up no one is going to get to the summit from this side."

I hoped that what I'd gotten over was the same virus everyone else was getting now and that I wouldn't get it again. I'd have to be careful when I got back down. I wasn't about to have a virus wreck my chances of getting to the summit.

EARLY THE NEXT MORNING
Zopa sent everyone down to Base Camp except for the climber with snow blindness and the man with frostbitten feet. Sun-jo and Gulu went with them. Sun-jo couldn't very well stay at ABC with Captain Shek coming up. I didn't ask how they were going to get him to the porter camp, but I guessed they would keep him at one of the camps between ABC and Base Camp until Captain Shek gave up.

Zopa asked if I wanted to go, too. I did, but I told him I'd stay and help him with the climbers coming down from Camp Four.

The weather had broken during the night. It was still cold, but the clouds had thinned and the wind had died down some. The climber with mild HAPE had gotten worse during the night and they put him in a bag. This meant they would not be able to bring him down the treacherous ice wall. The chopper would have to rescue him at Camp Four.

Our job was to help Yogi and Yash get the remaining climbers and Sherpas down to ABC as quickly as possible. If some of them needed to be flown to Base Camp they had to be ready to go when the chopper landed at ABC. There would only be one flight.

WE TRAVELED LIGHT
and got to the base of the Col just as Yogi was coming down. He said that Yash was staying with the injured climbers at Camp Four.

"How many?" Zopa asked.

"Three. Two with bad frostbite and the one with HAPE."

He looked up. "Some of those coming down could also use a ride to Base Camp."

There were six climbers all together, exhausted but happy to get off the wall. Zopa offered them hits of oxygen, which most of them gratefully took. No point in acclimatization now. After they got to Base Camp they would be going home.

A half hour outside ABC the chopper flew over us on its way up to Camp Four. Zopa hurried everyone along thinking the pilot would not stay long after he landed at ABC.

It turned out the stay was longer than expected.

The chopper landed ten minutes after we arrived. Zopa picked two of the most debilitated climbers for the ride down and one backup in case Captain Shek had listened to reason and stayed at Base Camp.

He hadn't.

He stepped through the miniblizzard caused by the rotors wearing a full uniform including a pistol. The pilot followed behind him and looked as unhappy as all of us did. Helicopters aren't designed to fly at that altitude. If the weather got worse it wouldn't be able to fly.

Captain Shek didn't appear to be in any hurry at all. He casually walked over to the mess tent and looked inside, then smelled the pot of stew simmering on the gas stove like he was some kind of gourmet.

"I will see everybody papers," he said.

He had to be kidding. It was one thing to check everyone coming off the mountain, but to do it at 21,161 feet with injured climbers waiting to be evacuated was outrageous. Several of the climbers let out a howl of protest despite the thin air and their condition.

"Why would we have our bloody papers up here?"

"This is an emergency! We need to get the injured to Base Camp!"

"Are you crazy?"

Captain Shek seemed a little shocked at the response, and changed his tact. "We search camp before we leave," he said, causing another vocal outburst, which he ignored.

He and the pilot went through all the tents (although the pilot was clearly not happy about the duty).

When they finished Captain Shek said, "We looking for boy."

Everyone looked at me.

"Not that boy. Nepal boy. Same age."

"He went back home over a week ago," Zopa said.

Captain Shek shook his head. "I don't think." He pointed at the chopper. "You come with me."

"We have injured climbers," Zopa said mildly. "I'll check in with you when I get to Base Camp tomorrow."

"No," Shek said. "You come with me now. I arrest you."

One of the German climbers took a step toward the captain. He was the team leader who had talked to us from Camp Six. His name was Dietrich. His face was bright red and it wasn't from the cold. He began shouting in German, which I didn't understand.

I don't think Captain Shek understood, either, but he put his hand on his pistol.

Zopa stepped in front of Dietrich and said something to him in German, then turned to the pilot and asked something in Chinese.

The pilot thought about it for a moment, then answered.

"He thinks he can take four climbers," Zopa said.

There were two additional climbers who could have used a ride, but Dietrich relaxed a little and gave a terse nod.

"What about you?" I asked Zopa.

Zopa shrugged. "It's just a misunderstanding."

He and I knew it was more than that. The question was, how much did Captain Shek know?

"I'll radio Josh and tell him what's going on."

"Be careful going down," Zopa said. "You'll have to leave early and go slow. Ask Josh to send some Sherpas up to meet you in case I'm detained longer than I expect."

Ten minutes later they took off. I radioed Josh and told him about Zopa's arrest.

"Shek's a maniac!" he shouted. "The Sherpas and porters down here are going to go nuts when they find out."

I wondered if Captain Shek's men would pass this on to him. I suspected they would. I also suspected that's exactly why Josh said it.

FAMILY HISTORY

THE NEXT DAY
I expected to see Sun-jo at one of the intermediate camps, but he wasn't hiding out in either one. This meant they had figured out a way to get him down to the porter camp, or else Captain Shek had gotten his hands on him. Whatever his fate, I didn't have a lot of time to worry about it because our trip down to Base Camp was a nightmare.

Once again the weather had warmed up, turning some of the glacial rivers into raging torrents. If we'd had boats and paddles instead of crampons and ice axes we could have been down to Base Camp in minutes.

By the time we reached the first intermediate camp about half our party was ready to give up and spend another night high on the mountain.

"We should push on," Dietrich urged them. "We need to get the frostbite taken care of. We can be at Base Camp in three hours."

Unfortunately, no one else seemed to share his opinion (including the other Germans on his team, who I think blamed him for their summit failure). They sat on rocks staring at him dully as if he had lost his mind. But Dietrich was right. We were headed downhill. Even with their injuries it wouldn't take long to get to Base Camp. I knew they were tired and hurting (so was I), but spending another night at a crummy camp this close to Base was stupid. The Sherpas appeared to be behind Dietrich 100 percent. None of them had even sat down to rest.

"I think Dietrich is right," I said.

One of the Germans laughed. "Ah, now we have a child telling us what to do." Some of the others laughed with him.

Ouch. I should have kept my mouth shut. I wasn't really in a position to tell them what to do, even if I was right.

"What's the matter with all of you?" someone behind us shouted.

I turned around and was shocked to see Josh. And he wasn't alone.

"Bad weather coming in tonight," Zopa added. "You cannot stay here."

Josh was grinning, but I could tell he wasn't feeling well. His eyes were bloodshot and he looked pale and haggard. He patted Dietrich on the back. "Sorry about the trouble up on the mountain."

Dietrich looked like he was about ready to cry. I wasn't sure if it was from grief over the dead climbers or relief that Josh and Zopa had shown up to give him a hand.

Josh walked over to the sitting climbers. "If we leave right now we should be able to get down before dark. We have a team of doctors waiting to treat you. Hot food. Get up. Let's go."

No one was laughing at Joshua Wood. I remembered what my mother said about there being no one better than Josh when you are at the end of your rope. He was obviously sick, but here he was encouraging climbers who weren't even members of his own expedition.

Slowly, one by one, they started getting to their feet. Zopa took the lead with Dietrich. Josh and I followed behind.

"How was Camp Four?" he asked tiredly. "Any problems?"

"It was hard, but not as bad as I thought it would be. My ribs hurt from trying to get enough air."

"No worries. Everybody goes through it. Zopa says you're ready for the summit."

It was one thing for Zopa to give me some words of encouragement after a hard climb. It was another thing for him to tell Josh that I was ready to summit. I didn't know what to say. At that point the summit seemed like too big of a subject to tackle, and maybe even bad luck to talk about. I think Josh knew how I felt, maybe better than I did, because he didn't say any more about it. The squirt of paranoia from a few days before seemed to have evaporated.

"What happened with Zopa and Captain Shek?" I asked.

"A minirevolution. As soon as the porters and Sherpas heard about Zopa's arrest they all gathered around Shek's headquarters to hold a silent vigil. They were there when the chopper landed. Shek tried to disperse them, but they wouldn't budge. He hauled Zopa into the building, hoping to outwait them, but that didn't work. They'd still be there if he hadn't cut Zopa loose. He had no choice but to let him go."

"And Sun-jo?"

"That's the best part. Shek pulled all the soldiers back to headquarters, which made it easy to sneak Sun-jo back into the porter camp. If he hadn't detained Zopa, I'm not sure how we would have gotten Sun-jo off the mountain. He might have had to stay at one of the intermediate camps until he tried for the summit."

"Why is Captain Shek so worried about him?"

"I think he knows more about what we're trying to do than he's saying."

"How'd he find out?"

Josh shrugged. "It's hard to keep a secret up here, even if everybody keeps their mouths shut. Speaking of which..." He slowed down. "Your mom called."

The grin was gone. His easygoing mood had completely changed.

"Why'd you write her?" he asked.

"Because she wrote to me," I said a little more belligerently than I intended. (I guess my mood had changed, too.) Josh looked confused.

I knew that one day I'd have this conversation with him, but I didn't think it would be at 20,000 feet with him sick and me so tired I could barely lift my feet. But I guess there is no ideal time or place for something like this.

"I thought we had an agreement," he said. "I thought we were going to let me handle your mother."

"There was no agreement," I said, and I didn't think anyone could "handle" my mother.

We glared at each other.

"The least you could have done," he said, "was to tell me that you wrote her so I wasn't blindsided."

"The least you could have done is to write me back!"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"I sent you letters."

"You mean when you were a kid?"

"Yeah."

"So?"

"You got the letters?" I shouted.

He stopped and pulled his goggles around his neck. "Yeah, I got your letters. What does that have to do with telling your mother about Everest?"

"Everything," I said.

He didn't get it and he didn't seem to care. "Well, she's royally pissed off," he said. "It was all I could do to stop her from flying over here and yanking you off the mountain. At least I think I stopped her. She wants you to call her as soon as you get to Base Camp."

"Fine," I said.

"She insisted that I take you to the top myself, which screws up everything. I'm either going to have to go with you and Sun-jo, or you'll have to join my team. Which means there will be a long delay in your summit attempt because it looks like we'll be the last team to go. I'm in no shape to climb and neither is anyone else on the team."

"Lucky you have a backup in Sun-jo," I said. "Either way you'll get the youngest climber in the world to the summit."