The Ascent

negotiate on her dislike for him.

She was staring at him, deciding something. 'Daniel wanted me to tell you

something,' she said.

Abe braced himself.

'He wants to summit with you, Abe.'

Abe was dumbfounded. Then it occurred to him that Gus had gotten injured and

couldn't climb anymore. It would be like her to hide an injury. That would explain

Daniel's need for a new partner.

'Are you hurt?' Abe asked.

Gus reacted with scorn. 'Hurt?' she said. 'What the hell do you think?'

Now Abe saw his error. She was whole, but she was indeed hurt. 'No,' he said. 'I

meant injured.'

Gus waved aside his clarification.

'Then what is this?' He knew better than to feel sorry for this woman, and yet Daniel

had betrayed her. Alone and weary, she'd had to carry the news of it down ten miles

and then deliver it to the man chosen to replace her.

'He wants you with him when he hits top,' she said. 'Same day. Same rope.'

Abe was flattered. He hadn't expected anything like this, to reach the summit, to lay

the past to rest once and for all. But could they? Forgiveness was something granted,

not attained. It was not the same as reaching a mere mountaintop. Like that, Abe

made his mind up.

'I'll tell him my answer when I see him,' Abe said.

'Tell me,' Gus demanded. She had a right.

'I already have a partner.'

Now was Gus's turn to be surprised. She stared at him as if he'd stayed too high for

too long as well. 'Kelly?' she said. But her real contempt was for Abe. 'You're not telling

me you'd hang yourself up with her. Daniel's your one sure shot.'

Abe shrugged. 'It's me and Kelly.'

Gus frowned, trying to turn with this latest about-face. Odd, Abe thought. He hadn't

noticed until now that her red hair had turned nearly gold. The great stone crucible

was changing them. To see her from behind, you might almost mistake Gus for Kelly.

'You're making a mistake,' Gus said. But she wasn't really arguing. For all her

muscular gruffness, she had a wonderful transparency, Abe realized. There was no

hiding the ray of hope lighting her face. Nor, a moment later, hiding the suspicion that

darkened it.

'I get it,' she said to herself.

'Gus?'

Her green eyes glittered in the afternoon sunlight. She was angry now, once again

with Abe. 'See here,' she said. 'I don't know what's with you two. But if this is how

Daniel wants to break his damn curse, great. It's worth the summit to have him done

with Diana. So don't play noble with me.'

'Nobility has nothing to do with it.'

'Daniel needs this, Abe. Go bury your ghost. Together. Whatever it takes.'

'Gus, you don't understand. I didn't come for an exorcism. I'm not ditching Kelly.

And I can tell you, Daniel's not ditching you. He was being dramatic, that's all.'

'Fuck off,' she said. 'If you want to patronize Kelly, be my guest. But not me, guy. I

don't need your help. I don't need your permission. Got it?'

Suddenly Abe was tired of trying to soothe this woman. He had no desire to be her

foil, but it was hard to turn his back on her. She was heartbroken. Something Kelly

had said came back to him.

'Love has nothing to do with it, Gus.' He kept it simple. Gus was speechless, just as

he'd hoped. Now they could both pretend ascent was built on colder realities. He

started to walk off.

'By the way.' Her voice caught him.

Abe heard the change in her tone. She had an ailment.

'Yes, Gus.' He took a breath and made himself the healer once again.

'While I'm here, did you bring any of those home pregnancy tests?' The way she said

it, the timing she used, even the fact that she said it at all, was meant to sandbag him.

Of course they hadn't brought such a thing.

Abe groped for a reply. 'You're late?' he finally asked.

'Three, four weeks.' She was right to shrug. Everyone's rhythms were out of sync up

here.

'What about other symptoms?'

'Besides nausea and loss of appetite and exhaustion? Last time I looked, everyone

had those.' Right again.

And yet there was the possibility. Abe pursued it. 'Gus, if it's true, and if you want

this baby...'

She held up a hand. 'One, if it's true, I don't know if I want it. And two, either way, I

don't need a lecture. You've already said your mouthful.'

'But, Gus.' He had a duty to warn her about the solar radiation, the bad food, the

raised blood pressures, and all the myriad dangers of high altitude. He stopped

himself. She'd had weeks to think it all through.

'Does Daniel know?'

'Nope. And it's not yours to say.'

'Of course not.' Another secret to hold. 'But don't you think...'

'Tell him? Tell him what, Abe? There's a chance I might be carrying his child? You

know what he'd do? He'd sack the climb, just on the very chance. And then what if it

weren't true?'

'But what if it is?'

Now she handed it back to him. 'I thought you said love has nothing to do with it.'

'I didn't mean that.'

She quit bantering. 'We'll never be this close again,' she said. 'We can make it.'

But on the eve of launching their final assault – on the very afternoon before they

were going to trek back to ABC and inhabit the mountain all over again – a Land

Cruiser arrived to kill the Ultimate Summit. It came roaring toward them like a small

dinosaur, smoking out plumes of white dust, and at first Abe had trouble integrating

the return of the twentieth century.

For nearly a hundred days now they had lived like the native denizens of this

strange, lost nation called Tibet. They had lapsed into a pack of trolls, mountain beings

who were ugly and twisted and hunchbacked beneath the sun. All their great works of

music and literature had been shucked as incomprehensible. These days, instead of

Proust and Milton, they applied themselves to Conan the Barbarian comic books,

scrupulously reading and rereading key balloons. It could take a full evening to

complete one issue.

The climbers gathered as if the white Land Cruiser were a spaceship landing and

watched three PLA soldiers dismount. The soldiers were marvelously clean, their hair

cut, cheeks shaved, their pea-green uniforms unscathed by the weather or rockfall.

None of them limped. The flesh on their faces was unblemished by the sun. Their

rifles glinted in the light.

The oldest of the three, an officer, was perhaps Abe's age. The other two appeared

to be in their late teens, and they couldn't pry their eyes away from the climbers. Abe

wanted to believe their shock held some measure of homage or at least mutual

respect, but all he saw in their look was a curious disdain.

Li came crisply dressed from his tent as if this visit were no surprise and their

timing was precise. The homesickness was gone from his face. He had spring in his

step. Still he was not prepared for what the officer told him in Mandarin, even less so

for what he next read in a dispatch that was handed to him. He was visibly shaken

and took another minute to read the dispatch again and ask the officer many

questions.

The climbers kept their distance, even after Li spoke to them. 'Mister Jorgens,' he

called.

'Hey, Lee,' J.J. bellowed. 'Those guys bring any mail for us?'

'Not bloody likely,' Carlos muttered.

'Mister Jorgens,' Li somberly repeated.

Jorgens detached himself from the climbers and walked over to Li and the soldiers.