The Cloud Maker (2010) (20 page)
‘You OK?’
Luca’s voice wafted down to her.
She tried to shout back but her mouth was completely dry. As she fought to steady her breathing, her body slowly spun round on the end of the ropes, forcing her to look away from the cliff towards the distant mountains. Using her hips, she swung her weight round again, trying to get her feet flat against the rock. After a few moments of fighting they finally connected.
Shara swallowed a few times, trying to get some moisture into her mouth.
‘Fine,’ she shouted, feeling her lungs bursting from the effort.
A moment later the rope tugged upwards and, inch by inch, Luca slowly hoisted her the couple of metres back towards the ledge. Shara reached forward, gripping on to the rock and taking her weight out of her harness, feeling disorientated by the lack of support.
Edging her way along once more, she rounded a corner of the cliff to see Luca, hanging in the seat of his harness, coiling in the slack rope. As their eyes met, a smile flashed across his face before he reached out one hand. For a moment, Shara’s eyes flitted from the rock to his outstretched fingers, gauging the distance. Then, with a sudden lunge, she grabbed on to his wrist. The movement was clumsy but he was able to switch his grip and hold her tight, drawing her towards him.
Shara clung to his shoulders, a wave of relief washing over her at the contact, at the sudden feeling of being secure. Before she had even looked down, he had clipped her into the same two anchor points as himself and was gently pushing her back into her harness.
‘You OK?’ he said softly. He’d seen the same wide-eyed look many times before.
Shara exhaled, pushing back strands of hair from her clammy face.
‘I had no idea it was going to be like this,’ she said. Then after a pause while she tried to steady her breathing, ‘This probably isn’t what you want to hear, but I really hate heights.’
Luca laughed out loud.
‘Fine time to tell me.’
Despite herself, Shara found herself smiling.
‘I know. I’m sorry.’
‘Don’t worry, you’re doing great,’ he said.
Shara shook her head slowly, her voice barely more than a whisper. ‘I’ve always been dreading this part of the journey.’
‘Part of the journey?’ Luca asked, turning to look at her. ‘What do you mean?’
She shook her head again.
‘I’m just going to be a lot happier when we reach the top, that’s all.’
After a moment, he nodded thoughtfully. ‘Well, it looks like the ledge gets broader up there and the going gets easier. We’re going to have to move fast, though, if we want to stay ahead of the weather.’
He gave another tug on the rope and, moments later, Bill’s face appeared round the edge of the cliff.
For another four hours they continued climbing. Bill and Luca took it in turns to lead, while Shara stayed in between. Bill remained silent for most of the climb, taking the sling full of hardware from Luca as they switched leads and pressing on up the ledge without another word. He climbed fast, pulling impatiently at the rope to Shara’s harness and forcing her to keep pace. But as the ledge became easier, she began to climb with more confidence. The crippling sense of fear she had felt at the beginning was now forgotten, replaced by a strange sense of exhilaration.
Finally, she came out on to the top of the cliff and staggered like a drunk over to where Luca stood, pulling the rope through a belay.
‘That was incredible,’ she said, flopping down on the flat rock.
Luca’s eyes switched from staring at the far mountains and he smiled down at her.
‘That was one hell of a first climb. You should be proud of yourself.’
Shara gave a tired but happy smile. Beyond where Luca stood, she could see the high summits of the mountains encircling them like an immense amphitheatre, their peaks stretching up thousands of metres into the sky. Glaciers streamed down from their summits, converging on the lower slopes. Not far from where they were, she could see the snub nose of the nearest one, rising up like a pitted barricade.
Moments later, Bill appeared above the cliff edge. He walked straight past where Shara was sitting and up to Luca.
‘Great climb, huh?’ Luca said, smiling.
Bill seemed not to have heard him. ‘We need to get moving to the shelter higher up,’ he said. ‘The wind’s picking up fast, like you said.’
Shara got to her feet and walked up to where they were standing. She had been so absorbed in the climb she hadn’t even noticed the changing weather. The ghostly clouds they had seen that morning now streamed across the sky, muting the afternoon light. They had obviously been climbing in the lee of the wind for all this time, but now they were exposed to its full force and she could feel it rip through her heavy jumper. Reaching into her pack, she put on the sheepskin jacket, using her leather belt to pull it tight around her body and buttoning it high up under her chin. The jacket also had a hood lined with soft wool and fringed with long, black fur that she pulled up to protect her face.
‘Let’s get moving,’ Luca said, his eyes switching back to their route up the glacier. ‘We’ve got to get to the far side to be out of the wind. You OK with that, Shara?’
She looked pale and tired, but without another word swung her pack on to her shoulders, ready to leave. Luca smiled again, amazed by how different she seemed from the angry and aloof girl they had first met in the village. Bill had been completely wrong about her, he was sure of it.
‘I’m ready.’
Within seconds she was roped up between the two of them and together they trudged off towards the start of the snowline like convicts in a chain gang.
With each minute that passed, the wind grew steadily in strength. Funnelled by the adjacent peaks, it rampaged down the mountainside, picking up loose snow from the glacier floor and hurtling past them. Squinting against the swirling air, Luca leaned into it, concentrating on the route ahead. They had to reach the shelter of the higher ground.
As he marched forward, tugging at the rope, Shara struggled to keep pace. She panted in the thin air as huge, swirling belts of cloud rolled across the sky, blurring out the horizon. The ground had become a great flowing blanket of driven snow, with the wind streaming across the hardened ice, until all they could do was bend lower still against the maelstrom.
Luca trudged forward without checking his stride. All around them, the noise of the wind grew and grew, until it became a shrieking sound that made the sides of their Gore-Tex hoods clatter at deafening volume.
Hours passed and the strength of the wind only increased. It was relentless, the streaming snow eddying round their faces and condensing on their raw cheeks. Snow forced its way past their hats and neck gaiters, trickling down their bodies like sand and making them shiver from cold.
They had been going for three hours when suddenly the rope at Luca’s waist snapped tight. He waited for a moment, bracing himself against the wind, then stepped forward once again. It remained fixed. Behind him, he could see the blurry outline of Shara. She was bent forward, her hands on her knees.
As he trudged back along the rope towards her, Bill appeared out of the gloom. For a moment they stood in silence as the snow quickly covered the coils of rope at their feet. Shara was still bent double, struggling to breathe in the rushing air. Frost layered her face and her heavy jacket hood was caked in snow. She was shaking violently from the cold, her arms hugging her body to stay warm.
Luca pulled her upright, staring into her eyes. They were glassy, her eyelashes frosted at the end.
‘Hold on,’ he shouted to her. ‘We’re stopping here.’
Bill swung off his rucksack, pulling out the tent and poles. With heads bent low, they knelt on the hard snow, staking down the main body of the tent while the fabric flapped and twisted in the wind. Bill had his right glove off, the end clamped between his teeth, as he used his bare fingers to work the poles through the fabric sleeves.
‘OK,’ he shouted, holding one of the ends tight. As Luca put tension on the pole, the end slipped past the attachment at the corner of the tent, digging down into the snow beneath. With the snow half-blinding him, Bill hadn’t seen what had happened and Luca pushed harder, digging the pole down deeper into the snow.
Suddenly it flexed then gave a brittle snap.
Luca looked up to see the main support for the tent buckling to one side.
‘Shit!’ he shouted, banging his fist against the snow.
He flung his end to one side and crawled across the billowing fabric to where Bill crouched on the opposite side. For a moment they knelt in silence, heads only inches apart, as they tried to work out what to do.
‘Rock-face?’ Bill shouted.
‘Too dangerous.’
Luca then squinted across to where Shara stood.
‘We don’t have much time. You stay with her. I saw some overhangs in the rock west of here. Before the weather closed in.’
‘OK,’ Bill shouted back. Balling up the tent fabric with both hands, he trudged round to Shara who was still standing, arms clamped around her body. Wrapping the fabric around her to shield her from the worst of the wind, he pushed her down on his rucksack. Then he put one arm around her shoulders and with his spare hand tried to brush some of the caked snow away from her face.
Reaching into his jacket pocket, Luca pulled out his GPS and waited for the satellites to triangulate. Finally he got a clean signal and took a waypoint of their position. Without looking back, he shouldered his pack and marched off.
Seconds later he was swallowed up in the blizzard.
Chapter 27
The strip light flickered, its pallid glow picking up the curls of smoke from Captain Zhu’s dying cigarette.
The green walls were pockmarked with patches of raw cement and there were no windows, only a decrepit metal fan bolted to the far corner of the room, one of its three blades missing. A plastic table, which had evidently been left out in the rain for many years, stood unsteadily in the centre, exuding a dank smell of mould.
Of the two chairs that stood to either side of it, one supported the considerable bulk of René Falkus. Squeezed in between the plastic armrests, his body filled every part of the chair, forcing him to sit unnaturally upright, thick thighs locked together as if the need for modesty far outweighed that of comfort.
Across the table, Zhu had one leg folded over the other as he delicately stubbed out what remained of a cigarette. They had been locked in the same position for almost an hour, Zhu asking questions while René tried to answer with as little detail as possible, the pounding in his temples only exacerbated by the remnants of his hangover.
Leaning back in his chair, Zhu allowed his eyes to settle on one of the stains on René’s shirt.
‘I understand that you feel some loyalty to your friends, but is it worth risking everything you own to protect them from something that is simply inevitable? You must know by now that we will find them.’
‘I’ve already told you,’ René said tiredly. ‘They’re just on the standard route.’
‘Tell me where they are.’
René shrugged and looked down at the table.
‘I don’t know where they are.’
‘You will lose everything you have worked for,’ Zhu continued, his voice suddenly softening, as if he personally would regret such an outcome. ‘Your restaurant, your bar, everything. All we need to know is where they went.’
‘One phone call to the Foreign Office and we’ll soon see what you can do to my restaurant,’ René countered. ‘I have rights and you know it.’
Zhu’s expression looked thoughtful for a moment. ‘Of course, your rights . . . The problem is, I don’t think there are too many lawyers inside Drapchi Prison.’
A muscle flickered in René’s cheek. He had heard the stories. The miles of underground cells. The darkness.
There was a pause as he steeled himself, choosing his next words very carefully. He had been in Lhasa for a long time, and had learned how to deal with the Chinese. But somehow this newcomer was different. There was something about him that turned the stomach. Something that made René think that the worst thing he could do was to show any fear. Clenching his jaw, he looked straight into the captain’s eyes.
‘Either charge me with something or get me the hell out of here. Enough of this bullshit.’
Zhu didn’t respond. Instead he leaned forward, picking up the silver lighter lying on the table. Using his thumb, he sparked it then snapped the lid shut again. He did this several times before leaning back in his chair again, leaving the flame burning.
‘You still have no idea what I could do to you, do you?’ he said. ‘I can take your livelihood, just like that.’
As he said the word, he snapped the lighter shut. René dragged up a smile, the effort clearly costing him.
‘Yeah? Then what else have I got to lose?’ he said, squaring his shoulders across the table.
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