She staggered back.
Racine followed the first hit with an open palm strike to her solar plexus while his other hand pulled a slim, double-edged commando knife from behind his back.
His third strike was the knife.
Within minutes Racine was splattered in blood.
He was not satisfied.
CHAPTER 18
Hannah stared up at the top of the rock wall and shook her head. "You've got be kidding. That's straight up. I couldn't get up that if it had stairs."
They were along the north wall of Eldorado Canyon. The wall was practically vertical in most places, with cracks and crevices interspersed among the smooth rock. The crest of the face was over two hundred feet above their heads. It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining and the temperature was an unseasonable 55 degrees. In Boulder, at over a mile in altitude, the sun made all the difference as far as temperature went.
"What did you say it was called again?" Hannah asked.
"The route we're going to follow is called Thin Air," Neeley said.
"Great name." Hannah looked about. "Isn't there an easier way?"
"No." Neeley finished arranging her climbing rack and tried for the tenth time to reassure Hannah. "You can do this. It's mostly your leg muscles that do the climbing, not your arms. Remember, you have to push away from the rock. Your tendency is going to be to cling close to the wall, but that changes your gravity vector and will make you slide off. You have to push away, putting your vector into the rock."
Hannah stared at her as is she was speaking Swahili.
Neeley slapped the rope and her rack. "Besides, we have the rope and I'll be putting protection in the whole way up."
"And from what you said, I'll be taking the protection out," Hannah argued.
Neeley shook her head. "The climb is longer than the rope. You'll be freeing the rope so we can make it to the top." She tapped the assortment of gear on her rack. "My protection is what will hold the rope if one of us falls."
Hannah reached over to Neeley's rack and lifted one of the small metal nuts that were on a loop of thin metal cable. "This is supposed to hold me if I fall?"
"It's rated for ten thousand pounds vertical stress," Neeley said.
“What if we both fall?”
Neeley looked at Hannah. “You think we weigh that much?”
“Very funny smart ass.”
“Only one of us moves at a time. The other is on belay.”
"Why can't I just watch you?" Hannah asked. "I'll take pictures. Or we can just let that guy go up and we can both watch him."
Hannah was pointing at a young man who had just started a route forty feet to the right. He was hard and supple. All his muscles were taut as he went from one hold to the next. His climbing shorts were brightly colored and his hair was long and thick and hanging loose. His only equipment was a chalk bag tied around his waist.
"How come he doesn't have all this gear?" Hannah asked.
"He's doing what's called free climbing." Neeley admired his technique for a moment. He looked like one of the dozens of young climbers who made Boulder their home and lived only to climb. Besides him, it appeared they had this part of the canyon to themselves, prime climbing season being a few months away. He’d arrived shortly after they had, parking a beat-up pick up not far from their truck.
Neeley knew that Hannah was right about the difficulty of this route. She doubted that the man was going to be able to free climb to the top. Only a fool would do that. He was ‘bouldering’, going up thirty or forty feet, then coming back down. To go higher on this route, appropriately labeled "Thin Air" and rated 5.10 in the guide book, required at least two climbers and the safety gear. Neeley had the safety gear, but glancing at Hannah, her helmet precariously perched on her blond hair, Neeley knew she didn't have the two climbers. She granted that Hannah had done very well in the plane yesterday but this was a very different venue.
Neeley cupped her hands to her mouth. “Hey, want to make some money?” she shouted.
The climber turned and looked down, two fingers of one hand curled around a tiny bump on the rock face. “How much?”
“Three hundred.”
Neeley was amazed how quickly he retraced his path down.
The young man stuck out his hand. "I'm Mitch."
Neeley took it, feeling the powerful grip. "I'm Sue." She pointed at Hannah. "That's Sara."
Mitch smiled. "Sue and Sara. How interesting."
Neeley pulled a sling off her rack and handed it to him. He looped it over his shoulder. She then split her rack, giving him some of the pieces he would need.
Mitch looked up. "Thin Air?"
Neeley nodded. "All the way. I need you to bring up the rear and give Sara a hand. She's kind of new at this." Neeley slapped Hannah on the shoulder. "Just do as I told you.”
Neeley turned toward the rock and reached up, her fingers curling around a small ledge. She slid one of her feet up, feeling through the thin toes of the climbing shoes and she was on her way.
After fifteen feet, Neeley hit a small crack in the rock face. She put a nut in, and then hooked a snap link to the nylon loop attached to the nut. She pushed the rope through the gate in the snap link, then put a second snap link through the rope-nylon juncture, making sure the gate on that one was facing the other way. Then she continued up.
On the ground, Hannah's neck was hurting from looking up and watching Neeley climb. As soon as the second piece of protection was in, Neeley halted and looked down. "I've got belay."
Mitch swept an arm toward the rock. "After you."
Hannah didn't see how she could possibly get two feet off the ground. She put one of her hands on the rope and was ready to give it a tug when Mitch gently put his hand over her hers. "Don't do that. You might pull your friend off the wall. The rope is only for protection, not to climb on."
"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard," Hannah muttered. “The rope is here, why not use it?”
"There with your left hand," Mitch pointed.
Hannah reached up over her head. Mitch kneeled and grabbed her right foot. "Put this here," he said, guiding it. He placed her other foot and suddenly Hannah realized she was off the ground and on the wall. Mitch was right beside her, pointing out new holds. Neeley pulled up the rope, making sure there was very little slack until Hannah was there, right next to her.
"Very good," Neeley said. "Now you wait here."
Mitch did something to Hannah's harness, hooking her into the protection itself, and taking her off the rope. He then belayed as Neeley climbed up.
And that's how they went up. Neeley leading, a spider clinging to the rock, putting in protection every ten or fifteen feet. Then belaying Hannah up to her. Mitch was also hooked in to the rope but he didn't seem to need it. Hannah appreciated him being close to her, hovering right next to her skin, his hands moving her feet and hands to the proper places.
Halfway up, there was a long stretch of bare rock. No cracks, no crevasses and almost vertical. Neeley used everything she had ever learned in climbing to get up the twenty feet to a small ledge. By the time she got there, sweat was pouring down her back and her fingers and forearms were sore from the holds she'd used. She put in two pieces of protection: a bolt into a vertical crack just above the ledge right at her feet and a loop of nylon over a rock spur just above her head. She hooked in to both. Then she slid the rope over the figure 8 in the front of her harness.
"On belay."
Hannah couldn't believe Neeley expected her to traverse the stretch above. As far as she could tell, it was a sheer rock wall.
"Left hand, there," Mitch said, pointing.
Hannah looked in the direction his finger indicated. "There's nothing there."