The Last Airship (19 page)

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.

There
were small specks of metal on the rung below – iron filings.

The
sort you’d expect to find after someone deliberately sawed through the steel.

Who
just tried to kill me?

Or
was Aliana their intended victim?

Despite
the warm summer air, the thought sent a cold chill down his spine.

*

Aliana
carefully climbed backwards down the steel ladder.

Below
her, she could see that Sam had stopped, and that he was examining the steel
ladder rung. Something about his facial expression worried her.

Then,
she watched him run his hand along the intact rung immediately below it, and
then bring it up close to his face, studying it carefully.

Sam
looked directly up at her.

It
was the piercing look in his eyes, which removed all doubt.

Shit!
He knows the truth!

Aliana
wasn’t sure what her next course of action should be. Her father had been explicit
when he told her what needed to be done, but had never explained how it was
going to happen. And she certainly hadn’t expected it so soon.

Aliana
had agreed to help her father. She even knew that she would enjoy the task, but
at no point, had she expected to fall for Sam.

Only
just today, Aliana had found herself contemplating how she would find another
way to solve the problem, without killing him. She’d even found herself
grateful that her father hadn’t known where she was going, but the instant
Aliana witnessed Sam’s fall, she knew with certainty that her father had caught
up with her.

Now,
what options were still available to her? 

She
gave serious consideration to continuing up the mountain, and leaving Sam
behind and below her. Aliana even considered how much faster she could climb
than him. Would it even be possible for her to outrun him?

It
was Sam’s next statement that made her realize that she could never do that to
him.

“Aliana!
Wait there.” She could see him, frantically waving his hand at her. “Stop! I
believe you’re in danger. Someone has made an attempt on your life!”

She
looked down at him, but said nothing.

After
everything that’s happened, he’s most concerned about my life?

It
filled her heart with guilt at her betrayal, and then she recalled what her
father had told her, and she stilled her nerves to continue with her initial
resolution – in all wars, good men, must pay the price of future generations.

Stepping
an additional four rungs down the ladder, Aliana stopped her descent, and then
said, “There’s no way anyone could have known that we would be here today, Sam.
That rung must have been damaged by the ice last winter.”

Below
her, Sam shook his head.

“There’s
no way that this damage occurred naturally.”

“Really?
How can you be so certain?”

“Look
here. These are iron filings. The kind you would expect to see after someone
intentionally cut through the rungs with a saw,” Sam said. “But I haven’t a
clue how anyone could have known I was going to be here today.”

They
couldn’t have. I’m the only person who knew you would be here today…

She
was just about to change her direction and make her way back up the ladder.

Still
undecided, she looked up at the ladder above.

There,
a man could be seen, approaching with German efficiency. Aliana recognized him
instantly as the solidly built blonde man from The Summit, the bed and
breakfast where she’d been staying. His name was Carl.

She
recalled thinking that he seemed out of place at the time. He’d told her that
he was a rock climber. In her opinion, he had the more solid physique of a
member of Germany’s Military Elite GSG9 Unit, rather than the lithe muscles of
a mountain climber.

Does
he work for my father, or is he one of the others who were hunting for the
Magdalena?

Aliana
couldn’t readily answer the question, and her life depended on getting it
right.

Of
the two men on the Via Farrata with her, there was only one whom she was
certain she could place her trust. The man, despite never mentioning it, was
after the Magdalena, of that Aliana was certain. But not for the reason that
her father had told her.

Of
that, she was certain.

For
what reason would her father have lied to her? She didn’t have an answer to
that, her only chance now, was to trust her instincts. And they told her that
Sam Reilly might be her only hope of survival.

*

Sam
watched Aliana above him.

Her
face looked torn, as though she had just witnessed a horrific accident, and
knew that a decision needed to be made about what to do now, but remained motionless,
and unable to make it happen.  

She’d
stopped again, and was looking up. He wondered what she could possibly have to
do with the attempt on his life, and then dismissed the idea as impossible,
soon after it crossed his mind. 

In
truth, he knew very little about her, but his years as a leader had taught him
a lot about reading people. Sam was certain that whatever secret intentions Aliana
had for bringing him up this mountain, murder was not one of them.

“We
have to go right now!” Aliana said, as she started to move down the ladder
toward him at a much faster pace than she’d used previously.

“Why,
what’s happened?”

“Look
up there, Sam. It’s the guy from The Summit,” she told him. “I knew when we met
him that there was something about him I didn’t trust.”

Above
them both, the large man from the bed and breakfast was continuing to climb
down. He was still a fair distance away, but Sam could see that in his urgency
to reach them, the man hadn’t bothered to clip his own carabiner into the
running line.

It
all seemed like too much of a coincidence.

The
man had clearly just been starting his day at the bed and breakfast yesterday
morning. Even the most expert of climbers couldn’t possibly have caught up with
them so quickly. Sam was positive that he’d noticed some sort of recognition
dawning in the man’s face when he’d mentioned Aliana’s name.