The Everest Files (19 page)

‘Survivors of the storm,' Kurt added with no little satisfaction. ‘The voters will
love
it
!'

Brennan was staring at his expedition manager with a glassy kind of look. His expression was inscrutable.

‘What do you reckon Kami?' Kurt fired at him.

Kami studied his hands and wondered if he was hearing right.

Travel to the USA? Go on television? Talk to rooms full of people? It was a mind-blowing idea, specially coming so quickly after the news about the marriage pact.

He knew this was an exceptional offer and he did not doubt for a moment that it was genuine. Kami had met other Sherpas who had been invited to the West by their trekking and climbing clients.

Their lives enriched. Their worlds expanded.

Then he thought of something;

‘I have no passport,' he told them.

‘That's no problem,' Kurt dismissed this with a casual wave of his hand, ‘I have people who can fix that. Book you a flight and get you out to the States.'

Kami felt his heart racing with the possibilities, this was truly a once in a lifetime thing.

Could he push his luck? Ask them if he could bring Shreeya too? For a sudden blinding instant he saw a whole universe of new worlds opening up for them both.

Then he locked eyes with Brennan for that split second. And he saw that look and it crushed all hope dead. It was the look he had come to know all too well; the warning flash that told him not to overstep the mark, to move back behind the walls they had erected … around the lie.

Kami hung his head. Shut his mouth and swallowed the words he had been about to utter.

‘Don't you think it might get a bit … complicated?' Brennan ventured, ‘I mean there's the question of a visas and immigration. It might not be as easy as you think to get him in. Homeland security and all that.'

‘Get out of here!' Sasha gave him a withering look. ‘You can sort that in the blink of an eye.'

‘I thought you'd be delighted with the idea,' Kurt said in a hurt tone. ‘You've always fought for the ethnic vote. People will love the fact that this Sherpa guy became your friend.'

‘It's OK,' Kami got to his feet as he understood what he had to do. ‘I cannot go anyway.'

‘Can't go?' Sasha asked him. ‘Why ever not?'

‘My family need me here,' he told them, ‘there are fields to be ploughed. Potatoes to be harvested. They cannot do without me.'

Kurt and Sasha began to protest but Kami stood and left the table.

He quit the lodge and ran down the alley towards the river. A few moments later he heard footsteps behind him, Sasha's voice calling for him to stop.

‘That was weird,' Sasha said. ‘It was, like, you were all up for it and your eyes were shining and then, then you looked at Alex and that light in your eyes went off. It just died. And I saw it.'

‘That's not it,' Kami told her urgently, ‘I remembered my duties, that's all.'

Sasha put her hand on Kami's shoulder, spun him gently so he was forced to look her in the face, into those cool green eyes.

‘What's
happening
, Kami? What's happening between you and Alex?'

‘Nothing.' Kami tried to break away but she continued to hold his shoulder and he could not escape her gaze.

‘There's this terrible atmosphere building up between the two of you. You can cut it with a knife, Kami. Even Kurt's starting to pick up on it.'

‘Everything is fine.'

Sasha fixed him with her most sceptical look.

‘I don't think so. Please tell me about it, Kami, you can trust me as a friend.'

That's exactly what Brennan told me she would say, Kami thought.

‘It's not so easy,' he mumbled. ‘Please, I have to go back to the others, I have work to do for Tenzing.'

Sasha's expression changed as a new thought suddenly hit her; a new realisation.

‘Something happened up there on the mountain didn't it?'

Kami hurried away, desperate to escape the encounter. Sasha ran after him.

‘Kami, tell me.
Please.
'

Kami shook his head and walked away into the village.

From that point on, during the final two days of the walk out to Lukla, Kami lived with his nerves on a hair trigger of nervous anticipation.

They made it down to Namche, then continued down the precipitous valley side. Then came the suspension bridge crossings and a night at Dughla before the final triumphant haul up to Lukla, where the expedition pulled into the garden of the Khumbu lodge exactly eight weeks and six days after it had left.

‘Just to let you know, the boss will be giving out the bonuses at the party tomorrow night,' Tenzing told the Sherpa team with some relish.

That news caused a ripple of excitement amongst Lopsang and the others but Kami felt nothing. He had already paid the debt he needed to pay and all he wanted to do was to get out of that place and return to his village and Shreeya.

But there was still work to do and he could not shirk his responsibilities to Tenzing.

A determined snowfall began early the next day, feathery flakes settling contentedly on wooden shingle roofs and drifting into the alleyways of Lukla. There were no flights out of the airstrip. The little town felt hushed and closed down.

Every time Sasha came within sight he tried to make himself scarce but the town was a small one and he couldn't hide forever. As it was, she tracked him down in the equipment store and asked to speak; ‘I got an email from my editor this morning,' she told him. ‘Some famous climber contacted him to say he thought the summit picture of Alex was a fake. He said the rock in the background matched a place lower down the ridge.'

Kami said nothing. This was it. The moment he had feared above all.

‘Is that true, Kami? Tell me.'

Kami watched clouds racing around the jagged profiles of nearby peaks. He had the sense that he was going into freefall, that the ground would surely swallow him up for this unforgiveable breach of confidence.

Then something snapped inside. He couldn't hold it any more;

‘We never reached the top,' Kami told her in a rush. ‘You are right. The summit photo was a lie.'

Sasha's face went white as she thought this through.

‘Oh my god.'

‘Yes. I am so sorry for deceiving everyone.'

Sasha took Kami's hand and he held her tight. There was a touching connection between them in that moment, as if she was trying to convey to him that she meant him no harm.

‘Kami. This is really important. Was it your idea to do that? To fake the picture?'

The truth. It had to be truth from now on.

‘No,' he told her softly. ‘It was not my idea.'

And with that he walked away.

The hours were ticking away. The party getting closer and closer.

Part of Kami's problem was that he couldn't second guess what Sasha would do; would she confront Brennan with what he had told her? Or would she just write a scathing article to send back to the States?

He waited for the explosion. But somehow it didn't come. Then he learned that Alex and Kurt had gone to the lodge to fix up the party which would celebrate the end of the expedition and it gave him some breathing space.

The afternoon dragged slowly, cleaning ropes, washing sleeping bags in special cleaning solution, eyes smarting from the fumes. Then the hour came and it was time. Kami tried to make some last minute excuses but he was told – with a firm smile – to shut up by Tenzing and to come along with the rest of them.

Inside the lodge, the dining hall had been converted into a makeshift ballroom. Prayer flags had been strung up like bunting. A trestle table was groaning under the weight of the beer bottles that covered it. Lady Gaga was pumping out of the speakers, the Khumbu region's only DJ doing his stuff.

Someone had managed to find some disco lights, pulsing quasars of green, red and blue that sucked up so much power they threatened to blow the town generator to smithereens. A gang of the expeditioners were already dancing, others making a bee-line for the table filled with sandwiches and samosas.

Kami was looking out for Sasha when he felt a strong slap between his shoulder blades. It was Alex Brennan; ‘Take a beer,' the boss told him, handing him a can.

‘OK.' Kami took a long drink. All he was thinking was ‘Does he know? Has Sasha confronted him?'

‘You seem depressed, Kami.'

‘No, sir. Just ready to be going home.'

‘Nothing else that you want to talk about?'

‘I'm OK, sir. Just wanting to get back to my family.'

Brennan nodded. ‘You won't forget our agreement will you, Kami?'

Kami drank deeply on the beer, not knowing what on earth he could say. So he just nodded.

‘Good. And if there's anything more I can ever do for you or your family … you can always count on me as a friend.'

‘Thank you, sir.'

‘Have a great party, Kami. I'll see you later.'

Brennan moved away and Kami finished off another beer. His head started to pound with the effects of the music and the alcohol. He began to feel nauseous.

‘Come and get some food,' Lopsang called him.

Kami shook his head and instead went to seek out Sasha. He found her sitting in the corner of the ballroom, looking pensive and evidently not in a party mood.

‘You haven't told him,' Kami began.

‘Not yet,' Sasha said, ‘but that doesn't mean that nothing's happening.'

‘I should not have said what I said. Please forget about it, I beg you.'

‘Kami. It's too late to stop this now.'

Kami felt tears prick at the back of his eyes.

‘You did good, Kami,' Sasha continued soothingly, ‘if he can lie about what happened up there, then who knows what he might lie about in the future. We can't let him get away with it. There's too much at stake.'

At that moment, Tenzing came up.

‘There's someone here to see you.' The Sirdar told Kami.

Suddenly the crowd parted and Kami saw a figure entering through the doorway. It was Jamling; weakened and looking fragile after his hospital ordeal, but with that mischievous glint firmly back in his eyes. The veteran Sherpa had travelled back from Kathmandu specially to congratulate Kami on his summit success.

Kami stood there, fixed rigidly to the spot, a growing sense of horror welling up inside him as Jamling picked up a walking stick and slowly shuffled across the room towards him. The guests fell silent as they watched, sensing that they were about to witness raw emotion.

It was the shining excitement in Jamling's eyes that finally did it. The tears of joy that were already beginning to well up. The look of unconditional pride that said, ‘You made it.'

But he hadn't made it.

Kami felt he was about to faint. He could feel Brennan's nervous eyes boring into him, watching intently to see how he would handle himself. He caught Sasha's gaze; her look was intense, she knew what was wrong, sensed how close to panic he was.

Kami took a step back. His head was swimming with shame and he could take it no more. He could not allow himself Jamling's embrace.

He caught the flash of confusion – of hurt – in Jamling's eyes as he turned … and ran.

Kami burst out of the lodge and hit the path. Hard sleet drummed hard against his face. The rocky trail was cloaked with snow and he was in it up to his calves as he raced up the track.

Lightning split the night; a rolling crescendo of thunder just a heartbeat behind.

In that strobing beat of light he could see the blue gleam of soaring snowfields, thousands of feet above the village. Then the night reclaimed them as he pulled the shrine bell out of his jacket pocket.

‘Kami!' A faint cry. Someone had followed him out of the lodge. Was it Brennan? Or someone else? Kami couldn't tell.

He hurried through the town, racing by houses which were shuttered down for the night. A horse reared as he ran by, he slipped on ice then regained his feet as he passed out of Lukla and onto the mountain trail.

Onwards. Steeper now. Gasping for breath but never slowing.

He passed a shepherd's hut, the air thick with the smell of wood smoke. Two jet black dogs came snarling out of the shadows. Wet fur bristling. Glowing embers for eyes. They snapped at his ankles. Still he kept running, the shrine bell in his hand, as cries continued somewhere behind him. A woman's voice was amongst them; Sasha? Again, too distant to be sure.

He climbed and climbed. Faster than he thought possible, spurred by some pulse inside him. Far below he could hear the rush of a mighty river, above him the frozen sleet was settling thickly, loading the slopes with millions of tons of unstable snow.

The path went right. Kami went left. Out onto the snowfield. Right beneath the steepest face.

He was only wearing trainers but he didn't care. He slipped and slid and clawed his way up the snow slope, ripping his nails but not registering the pain.

Behind him came lights. Hunting him down.

Breathing in snatches. Lungs on fire. The mountain a vast monolith above him, shrouded in night clouds and dark as hell. Somewhere up there were avalanche slopes, silent, brooding, ready to wreak havoc. Million-ton bullets waiting to be chambered in nature's game of Russian roulette. At the base was the rocky cave that the other Sherpas had told him about. A hard place of worship. A hidden shrine.

He could see the dark cave – and the light flickering inside.

He continued up the slope, got to the shrine. Indra's shrine – the god of thunder and war. The flame was comforting.

A candle of hope in this night of turbulence and electric air. A fitting night for this fiery god.

Thunder rolled above. Brittle snaps of noise which sent balls of lightning spitting far across the valley.