"I will take him from here," Ghotak said to his men. "You will return to the temple and await me. Ghotak will dispose of this evil one after meditation and the voice of Karkotek speaks to him."
I watched the others obediently file back down the way we'd come. Ghotak had plainly kept his own men at a distance and subjected them to some of the same jazz he used on the rest of the people. He reached into his robes and drew forth a snubnosed British Army thirty-eight.
"Walk ahead of me and do not make any false moves," he said. "I do not want to shoot you but I will if I must."
We went on, with Ghotak guiding me by voice commands. The terrain now was flatter and icier and colder. A large opening suddenly loomed up in a snow-covered cliffside and Ghotak pointed me toward it.
"In there," he rasped. I walked on, wondering how I was going to get at Wilhelmina and Hugo. Ghotak put one hand against my back as we neared the opening and shoved. I went sailing on the icy ground and fell into the opening. Torches of animal grease burned along the walls and I saw we were in a huge tunnel-like cut in the cliff. As we moved forward I heard the horrible, spine-chilling scream I'd heard only once before. Ghotak pushed me forward, around a slight bend, and I was facing a huge steel cage. Inside was the yeti, its horrible face peering out, and growling guttural sounds coming from its throat. The creature was jumping up and down excitedly as Ghotak approached, and saliva ran down the sides of its long canine teeth which jutted out from the wide mouth. Once again I was amazed at the bear-like snout of the creature and the human forehead and eyes, the clawed hands and feet. As it saw me it began to scream again in its horrible, high-pitched scream, and its teeth gnashed together as it lunged at the bars. The cage shook but held and Ghotak smiled, a thin, evil smile. "He remembers you," he said. "Unfortunately for you."
"What is it?" I asked, hearing the awe in my own voice. "This is the yeti?"
"It is the yeti, or at least it will do as the yeti," the monk answered. "The legend of the yeti is a thousand years old, and this creature is but some twenty years, but who am I to say he is not a reincarnation of the original yeti?"
"Don't be so modest," I said. "This is what killed the patriarch Leeunghi and the others and almost killed me."
"This creature is a product of forces you in the Western world do not understand," Ghotak said. "Only here in the East do we recognize that there is more that happens which cannot be explained than that which can be explained. As often, the women in the mountain lands, when their sexual appetites can no longer be held back, have used animals. This is so in the lands of the West, also."
He was right, of course. Not so much these days but once, the practice was far more widespread than authorities would admit.
"A Sherpa woman used a pet bear she had on her mountain farm," Ghotak said. "I was but a seminarian then, but I would visit the woman's farm. In the strange ways of nature, a child was conceived and borne by the woman who immediately tried to throw it off a cliff. Even a few hours old it was a creature too horrible to gaze upon. I took the child and brought it here and kept it alive. As I saw it grow, and saw it was more wild than human, I had the cage built and brought here by a team of European engineers. I was quick to see what a valuable asset I had in my reincarnation of the yeti, whom your people call the abominable snowman."
"And this… this thing obeys you?" I asked.
"After a fashion," he answered. "I let him out and he roams the mountains, killing and devouring animals and humans he can catch. But, with his limited intellect and highly developed instinct, he always returns. I always leave more meat for him in the cage. When he takes the meat, the door drops shut and he is imprisoned."
"Suppose he turns on you when you let him out?" I asked. The monk shrugged. "A remote danger. His rudimentary intellect is enough to tell him I am instrumental in his existence. You must remember, he is part human."
"A damned small part," I grunted. The creature hadn't stopped its high-pitched screams but merely lowered them to a snarling, guttural sound. I looked into its eyes and saw the burning orbs of a vicious animal. Ghotak stepped behind me and with a knife he produced from inside his robes, cut my wrist bonds and instantly stepped to the door of the cage, his hand on a chain that would pull up the door.
"You can start to run," he said. "You have a chance to escape the yeti. Sporting of me, is it not?"
"Tremendously sporting of you," I said. "Why?"
"Because I want you found slain in the mountains. I want the Sherpas as they travel through the mountains to find you and the yeti's tracks. It is especially important that you be so found."
"Thanks, sport," I said. He obviously hadn't a thought in the world that I could get away from the creature or slay it instead. I looked at the thing again and I had to agree with his reasoning. He started to raise the door.
"A last thing," he said. "I am very aware that you are armed. You no doubt carry the revolver and the small knife you gave to the girl before you fought the cobra. They will be useless to you. The yeti's skin is as tough as an elephant's hide."
I saw his arm pull down and the door begin to rise. Talking time was over. It was definitely running time, and I started to run, putting every bit of speed I had into it. I started down the trail, slipping and sliding and falling. I could hear the creature emerge, his high-pitched scream now echoing in the wind. He was catching up to me with ridiculous ease. The trail had leveled off to where one side of it was a steep drop over the edge of a cliff. Looking back, I saw that the creature walked upright in a kind of shuffling, bear-like gait. I saw a tall rock, dropped out of sight behind it, and waited.
The creature came shuffling forward, past the rock. I dived, hitting the creature from the side with a perfect tackle. I drove with every ounce of power in my body, slamming into him with the force of at least three good tackles. It did knock his leg out from under him and he went down with a roar, but I missed sending him off the edge of the cliff. He was flat on his back for a moment and I aimed a kick at the one spot where it might most quickly bring him up short. But the creature turned a powerful leg and took my kick on its thigh. It rose to a crouch and saliva dripped from its bared fangs, but it was in a perfect position for a right cross. I couldn't resist the chance and I swung with all my shoulder muscles behind the blow. I felt the blow land and send sharp pains up my arm. The creature merely sprang up and tried to strike me with a tremendous swing of one arm. I ducked and felt the wind of it as the blow just missed my head. He tried another but I was fast enough to backtrack. I saw a rocky series of steps against the cliff and bounded up them, cutting my knees and legs as I slipped and stumbled. The last rock was near enough to the edge of an overhanging ledge so that I could just reach it and pull myself up. I brought my body up over it and lay there for a second, gathering my strength and thoughts. I peered over the side and saw him coming after me. Below was the narrow ledge and below that a series of jagged rocks.
I had climbed up to the overhang with a desperation I could never muster under ordinary circumstances, but the creature was bounding up after me with the effortless, powerful agility of a bear. I knew that to run further would only delay the inevitable. He'd catch up to me, somewhere, and I'd be caught by one of those sweeping arms, ripped apart in minutes by the huge clawed hands. I couldn't outrun him here in these icy, rocky mountains, and no human could outfight him. I yanked Wilhelmina out of the holster and shifted the gun to my left hand. Then I let Hugo drop into my palm. I had but one chance and this was the place for it. It would be dirty and nasty, but it was the only thing that stood between life and the death of AXE Agent N3. I lay down on the ledge, facing the edge of the overhang. I waited, every muscle tight and tensed. Ghotak would be on his way back by now, supremely confident that all was over. He could damn well be right, I knew.