M
artin fumbled to remove his oxygen mask, so he could speak to his tent
mate. "We need to start moving. Get the stove lighted, and I will get a
pan of snow for melting. Then I need to check on Lars and Apa."
Shep gave a non-committal grunt in reply, but his big smile indicated his
true state of mind. After spending over a month on the mountain, they would
be leaving as the latest masters of Everest.
Martin crawled out into the now still air. The storm that hit just as the
group had reached the summit had raged all evening and throughout the night.
But even as dawn signaled a new day, the weather acquiesced into a new
pattern too. Martin easily found a drift of fresh snow to fill his pan. He
saw the industrious Sherpa, Apa, was already hard at work stowing gear for
the climb down the mountain.
"Martin," began Apa, "Tenzing and Lhakpa will be up from camp five in about
an hour. Camp five is ready for you to have lunch there and then camp four
is ready for sleeping if you think Mr. Shep can get that far. Mr. Lars did
not make it through the night. What you want to do with his body?"
"How did Lars do last night? Did he ever come around?" asked Martin.
"No, he never wake up. I kept him on new oxygen, we have lots extra since
Kate and Donald turned back and Chip, uh, fell. But Lars, he never wake up,
he never swallow the water I tried to give him. About three o'clock he stop
coughing and I think he is gone" replied Apa.
"We will have to leave his body here" replied Martin. "At least the tough
old bastard did reach the summit - they will never be able to take that from
him. I'll get Shep to help me with preserving Lars' memories, and we will
leave his body inside that tent. Let me know when you are done getting
equipment out of that tent."
"It's all done already. I move everything to the other tent" Apa was quick
to reply.
Martin returned to the tent he shared with Shep. "Lars didn't make it.
Even with fresh oxygen, the edema had gone too far" he said as he handed
over the pan of snow. "And thanks, by the way, for all your help getting
Lars back to camp last night. In that storm, it is amazing that we got back
to camp, let alone getting Lars back too! For a client, you are a helluva
strong climber at high altitude. How are your fingers and toes today?"
"The left hand has some pretty bad frostbite. I might lose a finger or two.
But my feet are looking okay" replied the still smiling Shep.
"Well I need your help one more time with Lars. If you are up to it. We
need to save his memories for transfer into his replacement body. I could
get Apa to help with this, but the Sherpas get a little bit superstitious
and uncomfortable handling the dead. All we need to do, is take his head
back with us. We have this thermite necklace that should make a clean
separation, or at least minimize the sawing we might need to do. I had to
do this once before, on K2. It isn't messy at all, once the body is
frozen."
Shep had somewhat less of a smile as he replied, "Martin, of course I will
do whatever I can to help. Lars would have done the same for me. It would
be pretty sad to spend all the time, money and effort to climb this mountain
and then not remember any of it because they had to use a memory backup from
two months ago!"
"Thank you, Shep" replied Martin. "Now I need to call base camp, and see if
they had any luck finding Chip." Martin rummaged through his gear until he
found the mobile phone. "Sheila, is that you?" he asked to the person
answering the call.
"Go ahead Martin, I hear you" answered Sheila, the base camp director.
"Have you had any luck finding Chip's body and saving his memories?" asked
Martin.
"We believe he is spotted at the bottom of the Kangshung face, and have a
group going to see if they can get him. It should not be a problem to get
there, but I have not heard yet what kind of condition the corpse might be
in" answered Sheila.
"Well be sure and document every bit of expense we incur doing this, as we
are under no obligation to that prick! His trip insurance covers body
cloning and memory replacement due to accidents or disasters or
unpreventable acts of God. That prick unhooked from the rope and jumped off
the Kangshung face on purpose. I want to be sure we charge him fully for
every bit of equipment he ruined and for every bit of expense associated
with finding and retrieving his body" instructed Martin. "Climbing Mount
Everest isn't thrill enough for this guy, he wants to fall off it too. It
would not trouble me one bit if he didn't get to remember any of it!"
"Okay Martin, I hear you loud and clear. See you in a couple of days"
answered Sheila.
Martin hung up, and looked again at Shep's hands. "You are going to lose
your pinky finger for sure, Shep. Your trip insurance will cover body
replacement even for that, you know" Martin said.
Shep, again with the big smile, shook his head. "Maybe if it gives me pain.
More likely I will keep things exactly the way they turn out. Lot's of
people can say they have two pinky fingers. But not so many can say, this
is the hand that climbed Mount Everest in a storm."
x x x
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