Part 63 (2/2)

”Wait!” exclaimed the Tibetan wildly. His voice was drowned by the rumbling agreement of the others, who began putting on their gear.

”Feel like guiding a rookie today, Bets?” asked Magnus Bell.

”I'm mooching along with you guys-part of the way, at least-to cope with the sickees, help haul them back down.

Mountaineering-wise, I'm dumb but willing. In the tough pitches, I expect to be dragged.”

Thongsa was fairly hopping with fury. ”This is madness! When I agreed to lead the second a.s.sault team, I never antic.i.p.ated it would involve a running gun battle! I resign forthwith!”

”Go right ahead,” said Aronn gloomily. He was a horse-faced Tanu with an air of perennial disillusionment, not above using his PK talent to cheat at c.r.a.ps. He had muscles like a bull gigantopithecus. ”You may back out of the leaders.h.i.+p if you choose, Lowlife, but your alpine expertise and piloting ability are irreplaceable. You go with us if I must carry you by the scruff of the neck.”

”This is insupportable,” Thongsa whimpered.

”Isn't it, though?” agreed Betsy. His dainty goateed face thrust close to that of the rebellious pilot-physician. As other hands lifted Thongsa's pack to his shoulders, Betsy latched it on. ”Think of the aircraft, darling. Think of the time-gate that the aircraft will help to build! Think of yourself going through that time-gate. Don't you want to go back to the Milieu?”

Tears stood in Thongsa's eyes. ”I did not think so before.

But now ... yes. Yes!

YES!”.

They crept across the rotten ice of the Gresson Glacier, divided into four-man parties and firmly roped in spite of the fact that the trail was marked with flagged wands. All around them were the sounds of running water and the squeaks and groans of settling ice. At long intervals they heard thunderous crashes as seracs calved from the four great icefalls. The moon had a ring around it and the summit of Monte Rosa wore a spectral caul.

The two Tanu kept in constant telepathic communication with the base camp at the same time that their fa.r.s.ense scanned the expanse of ice for signs of the advancing Foe. But nothing happened. For more than two hours, until the grey light of dawn smudged the sky behind Rosa's right flank, they picked their way across the glacier. Thongsa went first, probing with his long-hafted axe, leading n.a.z.ir, Bengt, and Aronn. Then came Ookpik leading Betsy, Magnus, and Bleyn the Champion. No one fell into a creva.s.se. No one even lost his footing. The torcs helped them to see in the dark. Thongsa's route finding was a model of conservative ice travel: painstaking, safe, and very, very slow.

They saw the storm sweeping toward them as they approached the supply dump at the foot of the Gresson Ice fall. At the same time Bleyn announced: Elizabeth regrets that a combination of meteorological interference thoughtresistant rock formations and Firvulag screening makes it all but impossible for her to pinpoint the location of the northern force of the Foe. The southern force is easily fa.r.s.ensed 8 kilometres south of Bettaforca in the Ayas Valley apparently bivouacked ...

Sleet struck them. The aether rang with epithets as they paused to seal shut the scabbards of their weapons and pull down their hoods. Then they slogged on through the gloaming, with Aronn's farsight helping Thongsa to locate the wands as the storm intensified. Sometimes they were ankle-deep in running water and their socks quickly became soaked. But it was possible for the two Tanu overlords to step up circulation in the extremities of the grey-torc wearers, so their wool-clad feet remained warm, if slightly chafed.

Magnus said: All the same we're sure to get blisters unless we dry out soon.

Bleyn said: I fa.r.s.ee the supply dump tents less than half a league ahead.

Ookpik asked: How much is that in honest metres?

Aronn said: I know not but you puny-leggers will take at least another hour to get there unless you crank it up.

n.a.z.ir said: Subhan'llah I think I'm sinking guys! ... I am!

Thongsa said: Belay Bengt I am fast.

Bengt said: Got him.

n.a.z.ir said: b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l I'm waist deep ...

Thongsa said: Can you lift him Lord Aronn?

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