The next morning Angelica looked out the window. There was absolutely nothing to see, just more white. The blizzard had hit in the middle of the night. They had supplies for three days, which could be stretched to four if need be. There was no phone reception, and none of the electronics worked under these conditions. They were all huddled around a small fire. She’d been up here in weather similar to this but not for a few years. The temperatures were dropping rapidly. They had fuel and firewood for several days, but it had to be conserved.
She got up and put more water in the pot. Staying hydrated and using soup to warm them would help. With the pot of water heating, she listened for sounds of any of the others getting up. But they were all tucked into their bunks and sleeping bags, happy to wait out the storm. She would be too, but her time up here was meant for research. It was frustrating not being able to go out and to get the information she needed. They’d finished drilling for cores but needed more measurements.
The forecast had initially been great. Only after they got up here had it changed rapidly. They were lucky to have reached the cabin when they did last night, but that didn’t make it any easier for her to see the time passing and her work hindered. She had her laptop out, knowing the battery would only last for so long. But she’d rather keep working and get some of the material and data logged in as needed. She had it on Power Saver and had brought several spare batteries with her. But, if the storm lasted for a week, she couldn’t do anything at that point, having expended all the portable power she had with her. Sitting at the table with a lit candle, the light turned low on her laptop, she worked away until she heard someone call out, “Is that coffee?”
“It is,” she called back in a light voice. “We’re not going anywhere today.”
“I was hoping that whiteout wasn’t a blizzard,” Nate said.
“It so is. If we’re lucky, it’ll pass soon.”
“I don’t think we’ll be that lucky. It looks like it’s settling in for a good one.”
“Then we should be grateful we’re inside, warm. And we have fuel and food for the next few days.” She could hear rummaging behind her as Nate got up and dressed.
He approached the fire, holding out his hands. “I guess we’re on limited rations though, aren’t we?”
She looked up with a smile. “Absolutely.”
He groaned and sat down beside her. “As long as we have coffee.”
“I brought lots. How about you?”
“I brought a pound with me.”
“And I bought three,” Angelica said with a chuckle. “I planned on leaving some up here. We had used up more than our own last time we were here. There’s often instant to be found at the cabins too, but I prefer the real stuff.”
“I remember that, but I forgot about a spare to leave behind. You need a refill?” With the shake of her head, he poured himself a cup. “I guess we’re percolating pots of it now. Aren’t we?”
“Absolutely. No power up here, so it’s back to campfire coffee.”
“Well, it’s better than instant.” He held the cup with his hands and blew the top gently.
“We’ll be fine,” she said. “At least for two or three days.”
“I was hoping to get back out on that ice field this morning,” Nate muttered. He stared out the window and shook his head. “Whiteouts up here completely suck.”
“It’s a death sentence to step out there in this,” she said. “The good thing is, we don’t need to.”
He glanced at her and nodded. “And, if we get all the data logged in, it’s less to do when we get back.”
She nodded. “So set up your laptop for Power Saver mode, and we’ll see how far we get.”
He sat and finished his coffee, then got up, went to his bunk, pulled out his laptop and settled across from her at the table.
She glanced at the other two researchers, but they slept solid. She checked the clock. “It’s nine already.”
“I know. Time has no meaning when you’re caught out here,” he said. “The days just blend into each other.”
She nodded. “And yet, it’s kind of nice. It’s a forced holiday. And maybe something I need to do more often.”
“I don’t think there’s any maybe about it,” he said. “You work too hard.”
“True, but it is what it is. It makes me happy, gives me something to do.”
“You could work on that relationship thing a little more.”
She shook her head. “Yeah, that’s not happening.”
“Not all men are like your ex-fiancé.”
“No,” she said cheerfully. “That’s a good thing. But most of them are either like my ex-fiancé or Carlo.”
“Your father is an interesting case.” He never knew what event had caused her to call her father “Carlo.” And she had never brought it up in all the years they had worked together.
She snorted. “Is that the word you would use?”
He chuckled. “If I didn’t know you better …”
“The thing is, you do know me,” she admitted. “And quite well actually. How long have we worked together?”
“Eight years I think,” he said. “It’s been a pretty exciting eight years too.”
“Well, don’t make it sound like it’s our last day,” she said with a smile. “We have lots more years ahead of us yet.”
He gave her a cheeky grin. “Something about being caught in this kind of weather makes you question that though.”
“No, nothing to question at all. We’ve been here before. We’ll be back again.”
“I don’t know,” he said. “I was thinking about changing to less field work and more office work, now that Katrina has the twins. I stayed home for a few months on paternity leave, and, I’m not ashamed to admit, it was hard leaving them this time.”
“I understand,” she said. “Anything that takes you away from family, particularly the twins, I imagine is very difficult.”
“Especially when it’s likely to be our only children. Every day I miss spending with them are days I miss forever. That time can’t be recaptured.”
She settled in her chair and studied his face. “It’s that bad?”
He nodded. “It was that bad. I didn’t tell you earlier, but Katrina isn’t likely to have any more children. The doctor highly recommended she doesn’t try.”
“In that case, then you should probably stay home. What are you looking at? Just for a couple years or …” She left her words hanging.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I would hate to think I won’t do any more research trips, but …”
“At least a permanent reprieve until the children are school age?”
“That would certainly be easier on Katrina, yes.”
“We’re only here for a couple more days, so maybe you can put your plans into action then.”
“Maybe. I don’t know.” He shrugged. “It’s something I’ve been thinking about.”
“In that case, you need to do it,” she urged. “The ice has been moving for centuries. Whether you’re home or with us for the next year or two, I don’t think it’ll make a damn bit of difference to the ice.”
He laughed. “I agree on that point. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to be involved.”
“A chair position is coming up. Why don’t you apply for that? Might be enough so your expertise won’t go to waste. We could all benefit from it.”
“I know,” he said. “I was wondering if you’d give me a reference.”
She looked at him in surprise. “Of course I will. I can’t imagine anybody better suited for the position.”
“Don’t know that it comes with pay though.”
“It does actually and hopefully enough. I don’t know though. But I’ll do anything I can to help.”
“Help with what?” A man spoke up from behind them. “What do we need to help with?”
She chuckled. “Trust you to pick up on things that have nothing to do with you.”
Steve’s voice perked up. “Well, I can hardly not hear the conversation now, can I?”
“Nope, sure can’t,” she said. “But Nate and I were talking between ourselves.”
“The problem is, people never talk about me, so I feel unimportant,” Steve joked. “And then Mother Nature goes into overdrive, like this storm today, and reminds us that we’re all completely unimportant to her agenda.” He got out of his bunk and stood in his thick thermal long underwear, staring out the small window. “I didn’t see this one coming.”
“No. We didn’t have much notice,” Angelica said. “But we’ll be fine.”
“How is the food supply?” Steve asked with a mock worried tone. “You know me. The minute I run into any kind of danger, I need to eat three times as much.”
“Maybe this time you won’t get that option,” Nate joked. “The fact of the matter is, depending on how long we’re here, we might end up with less food than we were hoping for.”
“Hard to say,” Angelica said. “We won’t know for sure until this passes. In the meantime, there’s plenty of work to do.”
“Knew you would say that,” Steve grumbled.
“Of course I would.” She chuckled. “It’s still my deal. And you know I’m all about the work.”
“Yeah, you definitely need a new boyfriend so you’re all about something other than the work.”
“Not happening,” she said with a smile.
“Okay, then how about you get a new girlfriend?” Steve suggested with a chuckle. “Maybe that’ll stop you from being so uptight.”
“It’s hardly what’s making me uptight,” she said. “If I am uptight, maybe it’s because you keep throwing me at every other person, male or female, who we come across.”
“Maybe,” Steve said. “But seeing that you keep turning me down …”
“I’m the wrong sex for you, Steve,” she said, as she had stated many times before.
“Maybe you could change my mind,” he said cheerfully. “I’d at least give it a shot.”
Nate burst out laughing. “Wow, that’s really flattering. I can’t see why women aren’t jumping all over you for that comment.”
“Hey, it’s not that bad,” he said. “Just think about it. You’d be a first-timer.”
She groaned. “It’ll be a long three days if all you want to talk about is getting laid.”
Both men just laughed.
With that, she returned to her data charts.
Steve asked a few moments later, “Do you ever wonder if our work is all for naught?”
She looked at him and shrugged. “We’re doing the work that needs to be done. We’re collecting data that’s important. If not for today, it’s for tomorrow and the tomorrows after that. If it’s not your thing”—she smiled—“I’m sure a strip bar somewhere would hire you.”
Hannah’s voice came rolling through the small shack as she laughed out loud. “That’s a good one,” she said. “I’m not sure anybody would pay to see him strip.”
“Hey, that’s not fair,” Steve said in an aggrieved tone. “No need to get personal.”
“What the hell would you call what you’ve been talking about with poor Angelica if not personal?” Hannah jeered.
Fit as a fiddle, hardy and sturdy, older than Angelica, Hannah normally was healthy as a horse. But she’d been feeling under the weather since yesterday. Angelica studied her teammate’s face as she approached. Hannah wore heavy long johns with a long quilted overshirt. She poured herself a cup of coffee and, when she caught Angelica’s look, said, “I feel much better.”
“That’s definitely good to hear,” Angelica said. “This isn’t the best place to get sick.”
“No,” Hannah said. “Yet, I have a really shitty track record at it. I think it’s something to do with the hiking. As if I need a day or two to recover, and it always manifests as a cold.”
Angelica thought about that and realized the other two times Hannah had come up with them that she’d also been under the weather after the first day. “It is a stress getting up here,” she admitted. “I love it every time, but it is physically taxing.”
“But no more so than many of the other treks we do,” Hannah said. “It’s probably more about the altitude on this one than anything.”
There wasn’t a whole lot Angelica could say to that. She hadn’t found this place hard to adapt to, but she knew lots of others who did. Still, it was nothing like the physical strain on their body that places like Mount Everest took. This hike was pretty easy comparatively.
She dove back into her research until one of her team piped up and said, “There might be a blue sky outside.”
Surprised, she looked up and saw a pocket of blue, but it disappeared quickly. “Well, if it’s starting to clear, we could always do a recon trip outside and see what it looks like.” She bounced to her feet.
“Don’t bother,” Hannah said. “It’s not that nice out. The blue sky is long gone.”
Angelica looked out the window as a flurry started. She groaned and sat back down again. “Well, I was hopeful there for a few minutes.”
“Stay hopeful,” Hannah said. “But nobody is going out there until the weather smartens up. Nobody gets lost out here on my watch.”
It was a bit of a running joke in that Hannah, who’d done dozens more trips than Angelica had herself, had yet to have an accident on any of her trips. Yet, Angelica had. She’d been out with students—and, in some cases, with scientists who knew better—but they’d gotten turned around in the snow, caught in whiteouts or hadn’t come prepared enough. Only two occasions included actual injuries, but they certainly weren’t anything she wanted to repeat.
“With any luck we’ll be out there tomorrow,” she said and entered more data.
*
“An extra day isn’t a problem,” Harrison said, now that the guides had left, leaving their recommendations and not budging, no matter what Anders and his crew said. “Especially considering we still don’t have our routes mapped out. If we can’t get up there, I doubt anybody else is going after her.”
“I know, but it’s frustrating,” Anders said. “I hate waiting.”
Dezi chuckled. “You’re all about action. And you don’t wait worth a damn.”
“I do, if I have to,” he said, “but most of the time I don’t have to. But we’re in full-fledged winter weather here, and that’s always unpredictable.” He sat back with ill grace. Because really he couldn’t do anything. They, at least, weren’t stuck up on the mountain with the weather turning shitty. He asked, “Did you hear back from Levi about the helicopter?”
“He’s approved the cost both ways if needed,” Dezi said. “But apparently helicopter pilots aren’t in favor of going up to that level. Search-and-rescue helicopters will go up but not really to the topmost section where she’s working. It’s a well-known area for high updrafts and severe air-flow currents.”
“Well, it’s only a two-day hike, so we should get up there and down in no time.” Anders glanced at Reyes. “I was hoping to at least get up to the first base camp today. And then wait out the storm. As soon as it clears, we could go out tomorrow to Angelica’s camp.”
Reyes grinned at him. “But the guides say no.”
Anders shoved his hands in his pockets and nodded. “I know. But I’d just as soon go without them.” He glanced at his jeans. “Maybe I’ll head into town and see if they’ve got better winter socks.”
“I’ll come with you,” Harrison said. He closed his laptop. “Do you two want anything in town?”
Reyes and Dezi shook their heads. “We’re good here. We were in town earlier yesterday before we came up.”
Harrison and Anders walked out and hopped into the rental truck. “Anything else you want to do while we’re in town?” Harrison asked with a sidelong look.
“I want to get a feel for what strangers are in the area, see if there’s been any suspicious activity. Just because we’re here now doesn’t mean we’re the first ones to arrive.”
“Good point,” Harrison said. He tapped the steering wheel with his thumb. “Her father just put out the alert yesterday morning.”
“That doesn’t mean that’s when he should have put out the alert. It’s quite possible this has been brewing for a while. You know as well as I do that whoever gets here first gets the upper hand.”
“That’s a depressing thought.” Harrison took the left turn into town. “I think we’ll stop at the clothing store first and see what they have for supplies. While I’m here, I’m picking up a few more groceries for tonight and for traveling.”
“Just make sure there’s lots of coffee.”
“You can carry an extra pound?”
“Absolutely. And I’ll make sure I drink it all,” Anders said.
Harrison had a good laugh at that. “We’re all coffee lovers. And I’m pretty sure every damn one of us would carry an extra pound to make sure we had it at the end of the day.”
“I know. That’s just one of the few things we’re seriously addicted to.”
They walked into the sporting goods store and realized the front half was regular clothing. The back half was ice-climbing gear. They zeroed in on the rear of the store. As they stood there studying what was available, a man walked over and asked if he could help. He spoke in an interesting Swedish dialect. Harrison looked at him, grinned and said, “How is your English?”
“Very good, sir. Is there anything I can help you find?”
“We’re heading up to the ice cabins. We’re looking for some better socks.”
The man walked over to a far wall and brought out a selection of wool socks. “These are rated the best,” he said, pushing one pack toward them. “They are wool, so they will stay warm, even if they’re soaked.” He pointed to another section. “And, if you’re worrying about your feet, then you have to make sure your hands are equally well protected.” He pulled gloves off the other sideboard. “And most people forget about their face. It’s pretty easy to get frostbite without even realizing it.” He glanced at the two of them, assessing them carefully. “You both have experience in this weather, correct?”
Both men nodded.
With relief the man said, “Good. I really hate to see novices head up the mountain. The storms can come in and suck you up there for a couple days, and it’s never a pretty sight when we have to go out and find missing people.”
“Are you on one of the rescue teams?”
He puffed out his chest. “Yes. My family has been part of the search and rescue here locally for over forty years.”
After that, the men fell into a discussion on the merits of each of the different selections among the socks and gloves. Finally they chose several pairs of socks and gloves each. Happy with the sale on both sides, the two men walked back out to the street.
“It’s sunny down here,” Harrison said. “But then you look up toward the glacier, and it’s just black.”
“I know,” Anders said. He walked alongside his buddy. “We never did ask the clerk if any other strangers were in town.”
Harrison stopped, looked back and frowned. “Maybe we should?”
They walked back into the store, only to find no sign of the man who had helped them. Anders walked to the front counter and asked the female clerk, “The gentleman who was assisting us, where has he gone?”
She smiled and said, “He’s in the back. Probably getting more stock. Just stick your head around and call for him if you’d like.”
She had customers. He could see she didn’t want to leave the store to go find him. Motioning at Harrison, the two walked to the back. But rather than sticking their heads around and calling out, they walked into the back and took a look. Hearing voices off to the right, Anders strode in that direction. And then he froze. He could hear the clerk speaking.
“That’s two more now. I told you something’s going on.”
“Four strangers? Four Americans?”
“Yes, I told you that. Six strangers now, counting the first two foreigners yesterday. I don’t understand what it’s all about, but you can bet it’s not good.”
Anders frowned and held up a hand to stop Harrison. They could hear the two men continuing their discussion.
“But the two earlier yesterday, they were just passing through, they said.”
“They might be passing through, but they have rooms at Holga’s Bed-and-Breakfast.”
“How long do you think they are staying?”
“I don’t know. They came in, asking about base camps on the lower levels, but they look like men used to tough conditions. Actually they look like tough men,” he admitted. “Military. Maybe.”
After a moment of hushed silence, the first man spoke slowly. “American military?”
“I don’t know. But I don’t like it. I don’t like it one bit.”
“It still has nothing to do with us,” the first man said stoutly. “We keep our noses clean. Maybe they’ll kill each other off.”
“Why do you have to say things like that?” the clerk complained. “You know that’s not good for us, for tourism either.”
Anders and Harrison quickly retreated from the back, and, as they passed the clerk at the front counter, they smiled and waved, going out the door and on down the street. “So two other strangers came into town yesterday morning. Did I get that correct?”
Anders nodded. “Apparently, and they’re at Holga’s Bed & Breakfast. Now we need to find out where that’s located and see if we can get more information on who those guys are.”
“And whether they headed up the mountain last night. If they’re still in town, then they’re no farther ahead than we are.”
“It would be nice to know if they have anything to do with this or if they’re just tourists.”
“At the moment I think any new strangers equipped to go ice climbing are not on our side.”
“Yet this place is famous for its mountain-climbing and ice-climbing,” Anders said, reminding him. “We can’t look at everybody as our enemy.”
“No, but I sure won’t make the mistake of assuming they’re our friends either.”
They carried on down to the grocery store. It was just a small market with canned goods in the back. They perused the offerings, picked up several pounds of coffee, some bread, dried biscuits and fresh fruit. Anders hoped they wouldn’t have to be on the trail too long. It should have been an easy two days in, another two days out—or, with the helicopter, a morning at the most. But it looked to be a much longer job now between Mother Nature and the strangers in town. Still, it wasn’t like he had anything better to do, and he had always loved the outdoors.
At the register, they found out the woman spoke English. They asked for the location of the bed-and-breakfast. She stepped out in the street with them and pointed up the hill behind them. They understood it was the building with the large red roof.
“Two men are staying there. Have you seen them?” they asked her.
She nodded vigorously and then said the two men had come in and bought a few groceries. “They were planning on trekking up the mountain to do some climbing.”
Anders filed away that information. It could be completely innocent.
“Did they look like experienced climbers?” Harrison asked with a grin. “Because, you know, there are good climbers, and then there are …”
She laughed. “Yes, we make lots of rescues here,” she said. “These looked like experienced climbers, men who could handle themselves.” She pointed at the two of them. “Men like you. You should climb together. You make new friends.”
Waving goodbye, Harrison and Anders walked down the street. They didn’t say anything until they were several stores down.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Anders asked.
“Oh, yeah,” Harrison said. “How long a hike is it to the first cabin? I thought it wasn’t too bad. Like six hours maybe.”
“We could make it in five,” Anders argued. “I don’t think we’ll have a whole lot of time to spare.”
Harrison was silent for a moment. “The guides won’t like it.”
Anders groaned. “Honestly I wasn’t planning on using them. We could go up there this afternoon and be in the first cabin overnight.”
“Given the state of affairs, I’m wondering if you aren’t right. We need to see if the men are still here though. If they’ve already gone up ahead of us, that’s bad news.”
They hopped into their vehicle, drove up the winding road to the bed-and-breakfast. Harrison sat in the vehicle while Anders walked in to talk to the owner. She said she was filled up. She had several men doing ice climbs who had left this morning but had paid for several nights.
Anders smiled and nodded. Back in the vehicle, he said, “They left this morning.”
Harrison whistled, pulled out his phone and called Levi to quickly update him. “You want to see about a ride as high up as we can go in a helicopter today? We might have already run into trouble.”
With Levi promising to get somebody into action, Harrison and Anders raced back to the cabin and got the other two men on board. They’d been ready to leave first thing in the morning until they saw the weather. With the helicopter taking them partway up, they were ready to go now. New socks, new gloves and the rest of the gear packed up, Harrison prepped a lunch for everyone while they waited on a time frame for the helicopter. Once the call came through, they were given fifteen minutes to get to the nearby landing pad.
Onboard the helicopter, Anders said, “Somebody needs to pick up the rental truck to return it to the cabin if we’re not returning by air.”
“Levi will take care of it,” Harrison said. “I believe the helicopter pilot will bring it back to town himself.”
Anders nodded. They were already flying, heading toward the face of the cliff. He could see the entire village below and the mountains all around them. The trip to the cabin was another ten minutes. As they came in closer, he could see other cabins all around the hillside. He leaned over to Harrison. “Do we know which one?”
Harrison nodded to the pilot. “And he knows too. We might have to jump out since we’re in pretty rough winds to land, but he’ll get us down as close as he can.”
“That’s fine,” Anders said.
And, sure enough, they came close to where one cabin was, but the pilot couldn’t find a place to land. With the gear thrown out, the men jumped. It was only about ten feet down. They landed in the soft snow, and the helicopter soon pulled away, leaving the men three feet deep in the white powder.
Pulling their gear together, they trudged up to the empty cabin and stepped inside. Anders took a look around the mountain and said, “So did we beat them?”
Several cabins had smoke coiling and curling up from the chimneys. “Depending on when they left, we should have. They wouldn’t normally have made it here until about four o’clock in the afternoon. The question is, how far can we get on foot from here?”
They stopped, took a look at their maps, reoriented themselves, then proceeded to the second cabin. Tomorrow they could get up to the ones where the research team was.
Quickly gearing up, packs on their backs, the men headed out, Harrison in the lead.
They were out of time. Anders could only hope he reached Angel before anyone else did.