Capricorn
Phillip
glanced up, searching through the haze for his guide. It was almost impossible
to see her, even though her entire outfit was a glaring neon orange. He knew she
was there, maybe ten or twelve feet above him, but she might as well have been
a hundred feet away.
He tugged
on the rope, testing their connection as well as signaling to her. It was firm.
Good. That gave him some sense of security. As long as they remained connected,
there was hope of getting out of this alive.
Why, oh,
why did I have to come up here? he asked himself for the umpteenth time.
Because
you wanted to prove something to yourself, a little self-deprecating voice
taunted in reply. Because you wanted to show you’re just as virile and
strong in your fortieth year as you were in your twentieth. And your thirtieth.
And because you’re a glutton for punishment, you idiot.
The
rope jumped in his hands. Two hard, definite jerks.
Peering
upward, he tried to spot her, but the relentless storm blinded him. He thought
he heard her voice shouting down at him. It sounded like she was trying to tell
him…
“A cave!
There’s a cave!”
The rope
moved again, silently urging him to keep climbing. Using his left hand for
control, he dug into the solid sheet of ice with the pick in his right. One
inch…two inches…slow but sure.
A pair of
gloved hands reached under his arms. She pulled, he heaved, and together they
managed to bring him over the lip of the ledge she was resting on. With her
help, he crawled farther inside the depression before dropping onto his side to
rest.
“Are you
okay?” she almost yelled into his ear.
“Yeah.
Thanks. Where the hell did this storm come from?”
“It does
that this time of year. Totally unpredictable.” She pointed behind her. “Let’s
move inside. We can weather the worst of it in there.”
He followed
her on hands and knees, sometimes having to resort to sliding on his belly like
a penguin, before they entered a larger, cave-like structure. Except it was
another ledge that ended about a meter away from the far wall. Daylight barely
filtered inside, but by this time their eyes had adjusted to the dimness.
“Be careful
you don’t roll over,” his guide half-teased.
He watched
her reach inside one of her coat pockets and pull out a small bag. She opened
it, extracting what looked like a piece of jerky. She noticed him eyeing her
and held out the bag.
“Jerky?”
“Thanks.”
He plucked a piece. Lifting his face mask, he popped it into his mouth. It was
dry and tough, but it tasted wonderful once his spittle softened it. They ate
in silence until he asked the obvious question. “How long will we have to
remain here?”
“Maybe
you’d be better off asking how long that storm’s going to last,” she countered.
“That long,
eh?”
She
answered with a snort. “Maybe we’ll get lucky, and this thing will blow over
soon.”
“No pun
intended?” he tossed in.
Another
snort.
“Okay. What
happens if this doesn’t end anytime soon, and we get trapped up here?”
She
shrugged. “It’s been known to happen.” Her dark eyes slanted over at him.
“That’s why you signed the release.”
Phillip
studied her as she shrugged off the backpack and gear she carried, and set it
next to her. Beneath her heavy jacket and layers of insulated wear was a
twenty-something woman with jet black hair and eyes almost the same color.
Initially, he’d been reluctant to have her sign on to be his guide up to the
summit of this mountain, but he’d relented once he’d checked with several of
the other sherpas and discovered she was as capable, if not more capable, than
they were.
That, plus
she was the only one left to hire.
“Jaylianna,
right?”
She smiled.
“You have a very good memory, Mr. Case.”
“Phillip,”
he gently corrected.
She smiled
again. “And how does Mrs. Phillip feel about you traipsing about the world on
your own?”
“I’ve never
been married.” At her astonished look, he continued. “I’ve been so involved in
my work and trying to build my business from the ground up, I never found the
time to fall in love, much less have a family.”
“I read
your resume.” Jaylianna waved a hand at their surroundings. “This doesn’t look
like something that has anything to do with your business.”
“No. It
doesn’t.” He also divested himself of the forty-plus pounds he carried, laid it
beside him, and leaned his back against the rocky wall. “When I was in college,
a group of friends and I decided to hike through Europe one summer. I was
twenty. It was such an exhilarating and life-changing experience, I decided to
do something similar when I hit thirty.”
“And that
was?”
“I traveled
the complete length of the Amazon by boat.”
She nodded
her head. “Impressive. So for your fortieth birthday, you chose to climb to the
summit of the Himalayas?”
“It seemed
safer than to try for Everest,” he halfway jested. “I have to admit, it was
quite a surprise to find someone like you hiring herself out as a guide.”
“Girl’s
gotta eat,” she quipped.
“You’re not
afraid of some client…” He let the rest slide. Somehow he knew she’d understand
what he meant.
A hardness
came over her features. “I’m not as weak as some people believe.”
“I know.”
From what he’d observed over the past few days, he had no doubts she could hold
her own.
“And,
because I know you’re going to ask me sooner or later what’s a girl like me
doing on a slope like this, let’s just say I come from a family of mountain
climbers.”
He’d
suspected as much. She had a strange accent. Hard to place, but pleasant to
listen to. “It’s in the blood.”
She
chuckled. “That’s one way of putting it.”
She pulled
out their satellite phone from a side pocket of her backpack and turned it on.
“Base Hugo. Base Hugo. This is Expedition Argos. Base Hugo. Do you copy? This
is Expedition Argos.”
The phone
crackled. “This is Base Hugo. We copy, Expedition Argos. You’re in one hell of
a shitstorm. Have you found shelter?”
“We’re in
an ice cave at thirty-nine thousand feet,” she informed the man on the other
end. “What’s the forecast?”
“Not
promising. Looks like this thing’s going to last at least through next week.
There might be a small window to send a helicopter in to bring you out this
Saturday, but that’s iffy at best. Hope you’re ready to hunker down and wait it
out.”
“We’ll keep
in touch,” Jaylianna promised. “Our next call will be at…” She checked her
wristband. “Sixteen hundred hours.”
“Copy that.
Talk to you then. Hugo out.”
She turned
off the phone and tucked it inside her inner coat pocket. “Unless you get cold,
we need to save our Sterno packets for when we really need them.”
“All right.
When they say it’s time to go meet the chopper, is there any place in
particular we rendezvous?”
She
motioned downward. “There’s a slope a hundred or so meters beneath us that’s
wide enough to allow a helicopter to lower down a ladder.”
“So I take
it this is as high as I’ll get on this mountain.”
She smiled,
but he didn’t see any humor in it. “You managed to reach thirty-nine thousand
six hundred and eighteen feet. That’s higher than a lot of expeditions managed
to reach before they had to be called off.” She cocked her head to the side.
“Disappointed?”
“Hell, no. The
simple fact that I was able to get this far is enough for me.”
“So getting
to the top wasn’t a big priority.”
“It’s the
adventure I’m after. Being able to tell others what I’ve done. Personal
satisfaction.”
That seemed
to appease her.
“In the
meantime, what do we do until it’s time for you to check in again? Swap
stories?”
“I always
prefer to rest. Catch a few ZZZs.”
He
acquiesced. “That would’ve been my second suggestion.” Digging his hands deeper
into his coat pockets, he watched Jaylianna lie on her side and make herself
comfortable, using the backpack to pillow her head. “Out of curiosity, have you
ever made it to the summit?”
“Yes.”
“Once? More
than once?”
She rolled
her eyes up at him. He quickly waved it off. “Never mind. It’s nice to know I
have an expert at mountain climbing.”
She
murmured something that sounded vaguely like, “If you only knew,” but he
dismissed it.
Taking her
cue, he tried to settle onto his backpack but he was too stressed and anxious
to feel sleepy. Curiously, he watched as she removed one of those little
wind-up lanterns from her gear. She cranked the handle several times until it
emitted a glow, then placed it on the floor between them.
A cracking
noise came from overhead. Phillip sat up in alarm and stared at the ragged
ceiling of ice a few meters overhead. He glanced over at Jaylianna just as a
second loud snap resounded. A look of worry crossed her face as she also rose
into a sitting position.
“That can’t
be good, can it?” he whispered.
“It could
be the ground shift—”
The floor
suddenly collapsed. Jaylianna shrieked as she, the lantern, and her backpack
went plunging down into the dark morass. Phillip scooted as far away from the
hole to keep from also falling, when the ice ledge crumbled beneath him, and he
found himself tumbling backwards.
It was
almost a straight shot down until he hit the pool of freezing cold water. He
struggled, flailing his arms and kicking his legs in an attempt to get his head
above the surface. It was all he could do not to succumb to the icy liquid trying
to suck him under.
He wasn’t
expecting something to grab him. He tried to fight it off, afraid something
diabolical or supernatural had risen from the depths.
“Breathe!”
a voice yelled near his ear.
He hadn’t
known his face was above the water until he heard the word. Obediently, he
gulped in a deep breath.
There was
no light coming from anywhere. It was dark. Apocalyptic dark. A shudder went
through him.
“Stop
struggling!” the same voice ordered.
He froze. Water
splashed up his nose. His arms and legs felt heavy. Even though his clothing
and outerwear was waterproof, it didn’t mean it couldn’t get waterlogged. Especially
when immersed and held underwater.
The arms
tightened around him, and he realized she was keeping his head above the
surface. “Jay?”
“Hold on!”
Something
slapped his legs. She was trying to keep them both afloat.
A hardness
pressed against his back.
“Grab it!”
It was all
he could do to find the wall of ice and try to keep a grip on it. The arms
released him, and he got the impression Jaylianna had gone under.
“Jay? Jay!”
Holding onto
the wall with one hand, he swept his other arm outward, hoping to find her and
bring her back to the surface. He was shocked when a tiny light appeared a
short distance away. In its glow he saw the woman appear and shake the water
from her eyes. Her parka was missing, leaving her dark hair hanging like a
black curtain over her shoulders.
She turned to him. “You okay?”
He coughed and spit. “Yeah. You?”
“I think we fell into a crevasse.”
“Can we get out of it?”
“Yeah. Maybe.” She had a funny
expression on her face. He saw her look upward and raise the lantern to examine
the sides of the crevasse, and for a brief instant he thought he saw…
She lifted the lantern higher, and
what he believed he’d imagined became clearer.
Clearer and undeniable.
“I can climb up to the opening,”
she told him. Slowly, she swung around to face him. Between them, a fish-like
tail splashed the surface, blue-green scales reflecting in the pale lantern
light. “As soon as I reach the cave entrance, I’ll put out an SOS to base camp.
Let them know what happened. But you can’t stay submerged in this water long.”
“How are you going to reach them?
You put the phone in your parka,” he reminded her.
She pointed to an area above them.
Pointed…with her hoof-shaped hand.
“There’s another phone in my pack.
It got caught on something. Once I get up there, I’ll drop the rope down to you
and you can haul yourself up out of the water after I make the call. Then I’ll
help you up the rest of the way.”
He nodded and readjusted his grip
on the wall.
After revving the lantern to a
higher brightness, she set it on a small bit of ice jutting next to her. She
gave him another unreadable look, prompting him to wish her luck. With a nod,
she raised both…arms…
No. Legs. Animal legs. Goat
legs. Legs that end in hooves.
…placed them on the wall, and
heaved herself up out of the water.
Phillip swallowed hard, his heart
pumping frantically in his chest as he stared at the long, sinuous tail,
glistening with scales, down to the semi-transparent fins. She maneuvered
herself from one tiny outcropping to another, using that tale for balance as
she found purchase with her front legs.
It was slow going, but she
eventually reached the dangling backpack. Withdrawing the second satellite
phone from an inner pocket, she hung the strap around her neck, then pulled out
a length of coiled rope. “Phillip?” she called down to him.
“Still here!”
“Rope coming down! I attached an
ice pick to the end, so heads up!”
She played it out until he heard it
hit the water. Despite the dim light, he was able to grab it on the first try. “Got
it!”
“Tie it around your waist. After I
make the call, I’ll help pull you up. Think you can make the climb?”
“Fifty bucks say I can!”
She laughed, and for the first time
he felt hope they’d be able to get through this.
As he secured the rope around his
waist, he heard her call in the SOS. When it was over, she yelled down,
“They’re on their way! You secured?”
“I’m ready!”
She pulled, and he did his best,
using the pick to carve toeholds in the wall as she kept the rope taut to keep
him from falling. Water sluiced from his clothing, but he didn’t dare take the
time or use the energy to remove any of it.
Eventually, he reached the remains
of the ledge, now more of a wide lip at the cave opening. Settling where there
was no chance of him falling back in, he took a couple of minutes to catch his
breath. At the same time, he made no bones about looking closely at her. At her
new form. Her shape. The mixture of human, animal, and fish, clearly visible
even in the dank light.
“I’m a Caprica,” she softly
admitted.
“A Caprica? Like Capricorn? The
zodiac sign?”
“Yes.”
“I thought that was—”
“Fiction? Mythology?” She gave a
single laugh. “Don’t you know all mythology has origins from somewhere?”
He saw a shudder go through her.
Unzipping his coat, he peeled it open, then unbuttoned the flannel shirt
beneath it until he got to the thermal underwear before he reached for her. She
didn’t object, but scooted next to him and allowed him to draw her against him.
Pull her into his lap until their bodies touched, and he could close his shirt
and coat around them both so their combined body heat kept them warm.
“Your secret is safe with me,” he
murmured into her wet hair.
She continued to shiver. It made
her chuckle vibrate. “Who’d believe you anyway?”
Phillip stared out the cave opening
at the curtain of snow blowing at a forty-five-degree angle. Here he was,
holding a woman who wasn’t a real woman, but more of a combination of three
species, and he didn’t feel the least bit uncomfortable. In fact, it
felt…natural.
Her shivering lessened, becoming
momentary attacks rather than persistent.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
“Oh, hell, no! Thank you! I
wouldn’t’ve been able to make it out on my own.” He snorted. “You’re built for
this terrain. Climbing sheer walls. Swimming through that freezing cold water.
Can you also withstand blizzards?”
“If I can burrow underneath the
drifts, I can usually hold my own until it stops. But I prefer a tent, a
blanket, and a hot cup of tea.”
“How about I treat you to that hot
cup of tea when we get back to base camp?” he offered. If he didn’t know any
better, he’d swear she relaxed against him.
“I’d like that very much, Phillip,”
she admitted, and laid her head on his shoulder.
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