- Hard Fall by James Buchanan Read Free Book Online

I thought out loud,
    "Think we got a couple pitches to get down there." Yeah, close to seventy-five, eighty feet, maybe not quite that. Each pitch of rope ran about fifty feet. "We'll need some good anchors ... probably can get by with cams in some places. I doubt anyone's ever set bolts in this face."
    "Aren't you just going to rappel?" That came from Nadia.
    She knelt at the rim above the body site looking for anything 46

    Hard Fall
    by James Buchanan
    out of the ordinary. Good place to start, because Kabe and I would trash the edge when we went over.
    "It's not for the going down." Kabe muttered into his chest as he tightened his harness belt. "It's the coming back up."
    Finished with that task, almost absently he walked to the absolute lip and stared down like it was a step not a plunge.
    He'd picked a spot where we couldn't see the woman, or what was left of her. That sight would come soon enough.
    I guessed right now he just wanted to size up the mountain. Take a good deep breath of it and whether it smelled like chalk, granite or limestone scree. I always did it myself, centered my soul. Rolling back my shoulders, I took a deep breath and walked to meet my challenge. Opened my eyes, my ears and my heart, the way God meant us to see.
    No layering, just accepting what His hand wrought on the rocky face.
    As I came up next to him, Kabe looked over and I got my first smile. Dazzling white, full of teeth and it crinkled up his brown face all around the most striking set of hazel eyes ...
    the kind that are almost an explosion of gold and green. In that stupid communing with the Lord in the wilderness moment, that smile burrowed into my guts and kicked my head harder than a mule. Not much more I could do in the face of it, than swallow and try to breathe.
    The smile dimmed back as though he weren't sure he should hold it, but couldn't fathom a reason not to. "You're stronger, you drag the load," I noticed he avoided the word body , "and take lead." Still, now that he was talking climbing, his voice held all the confidence of a man who knew how to 47

    Hard Fall
    by James Buchanan
    bargain with death at a hundred feet up and hanging by a thread. "That way I can make sure the belay anchors are good." Almost like the thought spooked him some, he added,
    "And watch so you don't get tangled."
    "I don't get it." Nadia's soft drawl startled me enough to step back. I'd been way too focused on Kabe, the new Kabe the thrill of the climb brought out, the bare soul in Kabe. That shook me more than I ever wanted to admit. "Why are you leading if you're going to haul the body?" She seemed genuinely perplexed and I had to remind myself she was a flatlander. "I assume leading means you're going first."
    Kabe had the courtesy not to laugh, although I could see it took a bit of effort. In that same confident tone, he explained.
    "Joe goes first, setting cams and anchors as he climbs. It's going to be hell on his shoulders and back, but the pig, the weight of the load, will be below him. I think those shoulders can manage a downward drag. Especially if we put a Z pulley set up in place." Nadia wasn't the only one who appreciated my efforts.
    "See," I choked on the hope a bit before squashing it down, "I move up, set an anchor. The first are the trickiest
    'cause I got to set a couple." Somehow I managed not to look at him. It'd destroy all the well-varnished barriers I kept up.
    "I put my second anchor in, Kabe comes up to the first one and ties himself to the face on the last cam I set." Instead, I distracted myself with tying a bandana around my head so my skull wouldn't burn.
    "Why?"
    "If Joe falls." Kabe teased in an overly dramatic voice.
    48

    Hard Fall
    by James Buchanan
    Now I glared at him. The dig hit me deep enough in a climber's pride to overcome the lust simmering in the back half of my brain. "I ain't gonna fall." My officer growl seethed with it. Plus, superstition rode hard. Climbers didn't talk about the possibility outside of