“There’s no need,” she said, grinning, “You did!”
He laughed, as he opened his backpack and found a six pack of German beer.
“You’ve got to be kidding me! You mean I lugged this all the way up here?! You’re terrible, Aliana.
“Am I? Really?” She looked so innocent, that it made him laugh again.
“No,” he conceded, you’re not,” he told her as he came closer.
He took her small, but strong hands in his, and sheepishly looked into her pale blue eyes, which were the color of a clear sky in summer.
“Then what am I?” she teased.
“You’re the most extraordinary and beautiful woman I’ve ever met.”
He leaned closer to her, and to his delight, she kissed his lips.
There was nothing for it, he was in love. She was the girl he had wanted all his life. Of that he had no doubt. The only thing that he couldn’t work out, was why someone as exceptional as her, would be interested in him too.
Back at his log cabin, where his satellite phone had been carelessly left with the rest of his equipment, glowed as it indicated that a new text message was received.
It read, Son, couldn’t find much on Wolfgang, but I discovered that John Wolfgang has a daughter who often travels with him, her name is, Aliana. Be careful, the most beautiful woman are often the most dangerous.
Chapter Seventeen
The next morning, Sam woke up early. Much before the sun had risen.
Next to him, her carabiner still clipped into a bolt in the rock wall, slept Aliana. About five feet past her was a ledge, beyond which was a drop-off nearly 9,500 feet down to the river below.
His hand reached out instinctively to the wall for support. It was unwarranted, of course, since his own carabiner was still attached to the same bolt as was Aliana’s.
She looked just as beautiful sleeping, as she did when awake, he decided, as the water started to boil. Sam then tossed a packet of dehydrated soup into the bowl, just in time for breakfast.
“Good morning,” Sam murmured, as he softly nudged the nape of her neck with his lips.
Aliana’s eyes opened slowly, and as they displayed recognition, her arms reached around his neck and pulled him towards her and kissed him.
“Good morning, you.”
His lips responded eagerly to her kiss.
When it ended, Sam asked, “What’s the plan for today?”
“Do you remember the four peaks we saw in the distance when we first started our climb, yesterday?”
“Yes, we’ve already climbed two of them. My thighs haven’t let me forget it.”
“Right,” Aliana said, taking the small cup of warm soup into her hand. “So, we climbed the two peaks, progressively getting higher, yesterday. Now, we’re going to climb the next two. That’s, if you’re up to it, of course?” Her tone of voice implied that all four peaks were of equal height, when in fact, they had climbed a total of 3,000 feet yesterday, but today they would be climbing more like 5,000 feet.
She’s got to be kidding me.
“Sure, I’m game. I’ll just follow you.” Sam wasn’t about to let her beat him.
“Good,” She said, taking another sip of soup. It was basic, but provided a certain warmth that helped heal a person at 7,000 feet. “Thanks for breakfast.”
Twenty minutes later, Sam and Aliana commenced climbing the next section of the Via Farrata.
Sam followed Aliana along the first Via Farrata of the day, which involved a number of stemples which followed the natural fault in the mountain in an upward spiral, like a giant circular staircase. It wasn’t a very hard, by comparison to the previous day.
It took an hour before they reached the top, where Sam rested by leaning forward and supporting himself on one arm, like a tripod, for a few minutes, trying to catch his breath.
Clipping her carabiner into the start of the next Via Farrata, Aliana calmly asked, “Are you all right to go again?”
Her voice sounded natural, as though her lungs weren’t at all strained by the climb. Naturally, she was fitter than him, despite his physically arduous lifestyle.
“Of course, lead on,” Sam replied.
He read the sign attached to the wire into which he clipped his carabiner. It read, “Ladder De Grande,” and above it was a steel ladder, bolted in the rock wall, for almost a 1,000 foot vertical climb.
I’m sure this will be fun.
Above him, Sam could see the finely defined muscles of Aliana’s long legs, right up to her butt, as she all but danced her way up the never-ending, pernicious, ladder.
It was just enough motivation to keep him going.
Unfortunately, she was climbing faster than him and, as time went on, she outpaced him by an ever-increasing distance. He found himself struggling to keep up with her, which frustrated him, and caused him to take longer steps and to skip some of the rungs on the ladder.
And then his foot missed one.
Or, so he thought.
In actual fact, Sam had planted his foot squarely on the rung, but it had given way under his weight, causing him to fall.
The carabiner, which he’d attached to the V-rope, slid down along the wire as Sam fell, until it reached a bolt, on which it should have caught and held. The end of the wire, just like the ladder rung before it, also gave way, as though it had never been there to begin with and he continued to fall.
In that split second, Sam was certain he was going to die, as he fell from the wall from which he hung suspended over more than 6,500 feet of nothingness.
And then, his downward slide came to an abrupt halt.
Sam’s V-rope had somehow snagged on an old, dilapidated stemple, ending his downward movement with a harsh jolt. Then, before the rope had a chance to slide off the iron stemple, Sam reached up and grabbed hold of the steel ladder once more.
Quickly, he reached for his second V-rope, and this time he clipped his carabiner into one of the rungs on the ladder.
Above him, he could see that Aliana had only just noticed his absence.
“Holy shit, are you all right?”
“Yeah, I think I’ll be fine,” he said, starting to climb once again.
“Are you sure?” Aliana sounded concerned as she started to climb down toward him.
“I’ll be fine. My pride might be just a little damaged, that’s all,” Sam admitted. Then, noticing that she was on her way back down to meet him, he said, “Just wait there, part of the ladder’s broken. I don’t want you to fall too.”
“I’m coming down to meet you, Sam. It will take more than a dilapidated ladder to make me fall.”
“Be careful,” he warned.
Sam stopped when he reached the point at which the bolt should have stopped his carabiner from sliding through. Upon close examination, it appeared that a steel bolt had once been there, but now it had been cut clean off.
Although he had only a very limited experience in rock climbing, and none of that experience on the Via Farrata, it looked to him as though someone had sawed off the end of the bolt. And it appeared to have been done recently, too … there was no rust evident on the raw cut.
Am I just being paranoia?
Could the fast slide of my carabiner, as I fell have produced enough force to slice clean through the bolt?
Sam examined his carabiner, and it was completely unmarked and unharmed.
It might be nothing, or it might be something.
He then continued to climb until he reached the missing rung of the ladder, the spot at which his fall began.
On both sides of that particular rung, where it had once been welded to the steel sides of the ladder, Sam could see a clear marking of where someone had intentionally hacked away at the connection with a metal saw. At first, he thought he might have been imagining it, but then he noticed something else.