Prologue
Jayden Harris flipped up the collar of her fleece, rubbed her hands together, and ducked inside the cavernous mess tent easily capable of seating a hundred people at a time. Coffee and a spot of lunch sounded like a good plan, then a little more sleep before she had to get everything ready for her group to head out of Everest base camp at midnight on the start of their summit bid.
She checked her watch. 11:35 a.m. Okay, maybe it was a little early for lunch. But she couldn’t help but smile when she noticed the date on the chronograph: April 25, 2015. Three years. Damn, the time had gone so fast.
A gust of wind through the open door tugged at her hair. She quickly gripped the long, dirty-blond curls that whipped about her face and secured them with a band at the nape of her neck.
“Hey,” a familiar voice called.
Jayden turned and smiled when Rebecca stepped in line next to her, but Rebecca didn’t smile back.
“What’s wrong?” Jayden asked.
“Pain in the arse Pete wants to go out and drill his self-rescue skills again.”
“That’s not a bad thing, babe.” She supressed a groan of mutual frustration. So much for her afternoon of relaxation, but on the mountain safety always came first. A nervous climber meant a dangerous one. If an afternoon of skill drills put Pete at ease, it could save more than just his own life down the road.
“Yeah, I know,” she replied with a heavy sigh. “I just wanted to spend the rest of today with you, that’s all.”
Jayden’s smile widened. “I know the feeling, but we can always celebrate our anniversary when we get back.”
This time Rebecca did smile as she stepped onto her tiptoes to close the six-inch height difference between them and kissed Jayden’s cheek. Her eyes twinkled with a seductive mischief when she stepped back and whispered, “I’m going to hold you to that,” before pressing her lips firmly against Jayden’s.
When Rebecca finally pulled back, she took the coffee mug from Jayden’s hand, took a long swig, then handed it back. “Thanks.” She sighed and ran a hand through her shoulder-length brown hair. “You stay here and finish your coffee. I’ll take him out this time.”
Jayden shook her head, loath to shirk her responsibility. She was the team leader and company owner; the safety of the clients was hers to ensure, not Rebecca’s. No matter how capable and experienced she was, the buck stopped with Jayden, and she knew it.
“Thanks, but I should really do it.”
Rebecca frowned. “Look, I don’t want to argue with you, babe.” She spat out the endearment like an insult. “Not today. But it really pisses me off when you do this.”
“Do what?”
“Treat me like I’m just another pretender on the mountain. I do know what I’m doing, you know?”
Jayden held her hands up in supplication. “I know that. I’m not trying to do that to you, I promise. It’s just that—”
“Yeah, I know. There’s only the great Jayden Harris who can teach anything to anyone about survival in the mountains.” She turned to leave the tent, but Jayden caught her arm before she could walk more than two steps away.
“That’s not fair, Becks. I have a responsibility to them.”
“What about your responsibility to me? Don’t I matter? I’m your girlfriend, your partner, I thought. Yet you continue to treat me like one of the other lackeys.”
“That’s not true.”
“Actually, yeah, it really is.”
Jayden shook her head. So much for not wanting to fight today. She didn’t want to do this again. Jayden knew that Pete was a capable climber, who carried the skills he needed well embedded in muscle memory. His insecurities were in his head. And Rebecca was a good, strong climber and a competent teacher. For all her worries about the elements of their unpredictable environment, Jayden was probably micromanaging.
Did Rebecca have a point? Was she treating her like some underling rather than the equal partners she professed they really were? She wouldn’t insist like this if Rebecca were Fen, would she? Were the escalating problems in their relationship all her doing after all?
“Fine. I’ll take a nap this afternoon while you take him out on the ice.”
Rebecca’s frown morphed into a triumphant grin as she slipped her arms around Jayden’s waist, holding her close. “Thanks.”
A shiver crawled up Jayden’s spine, making the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. She grimaced, trying to place the draft, and quickly turned about her, looking for an open tent flap. But there was nothing. She shook her head and ran a hand over the back of her neck.
“Becks?”
“Yeah, babe?”
“Be careful out there.”
Rebecca wrinkled her nose again, her brown eyes dancing in the dim light of the mess tent, and her lips quirked into that cheeky, half-cocky, half-sexy grin that Jayden loved so much. “Always am, Jay. Always am.”
Jayden watched her go, still unable to shake the feeling that something wasn’t right. She felt itchy, restless. The peace she always felt in the mountains, even on the busiest peaks, was missing. She sipped her coffee and took a seat at one of the tables, determined to forget her uneasiness and focus instead on the challenge before them: guiding a group of first-timers to the summit of Everest.
Their route was well planned; ladders were lashed together to provide bridges across deadly crevasses, and ropes were bolted into the rock and ice to give them some protection up the exposed faces they needed to conquer as they went. Provisions were waiting for them at Camps One and Two, along with oxygen to help them all resist the effects of altitude sickness and the devastating result that was pulmonary oedema. Drowning in one’s one bodily fluids while trying to breathe was not a pleasant way to die. But it was certainly one of the most common on the mountain. Yeah, it was risky. That’s what made it exciting. It’s what got the blood pumping. And they were ready for this. She was ready.
Nevertheless, she couldn’t sit still. She downed the rest of her coffee and stepped outside. Row upon row of small yellow dome tents ran down one side of the encampment. Red ones ran in another direction, and a scattering of multicoloured ones dotted the rest of base camp. Each colour represented a different trekking company. The blue tents of her own Adventure Trekkers company were close to the middle of the encampment. A good, safe place in a safe camp. Not much about a tour up Everest could be classified as safe, but base camp was.
Was her uneasiness about the state of their relationship what had her on edge? She frowned. I’ll go and apologise to her again. Maybe we can make a plan to take some time off, go somewhere romantic, and see if we can sort everything out. She checked her watch again to see if she had time to catch Rebecca before she set off with Pete. It was already 11:50 a.m. Probably too late, but she checked their tent anyway. It was empty. Damn.
The red, yellow, and blue triangles of the bunting around camp fluttered on the breeze as she decided how to use the restless energy. She was within two minutes of the medical tent, and picking up their first aid kits and medical supplies would save a job later.
“Hey, Jay,” Jost Clabben said as she walked in.
“Hey, Doc. How’s it going?”
“Quiet day today.” He shrugged. “Lots of people have already headed out to the higher camps.”
“I saw that. What was it—110 at Camp One tonight and 70 at Camp Two?”
“Yah. Crazy. This mountain gets busier and busier every year. I came out here for a quiet life, you know?” He laughed and clapped her on the shoulder.
“I hear ya, Doc. I’m not so much of a people person myself.”
“You climbers, you never are. That’s why you’re crazy enough to go chasing all those summits.”
She chuckled. “Truer words.”
“So what can I do for you today?”
“First aid kits and basic med supplies, please. We’re heading out tonight.”
“Ah, of course. I’ll just—what the hell…?”
The ground beneath her feet shook. No, it was more than that. It felt more like it was rocking, pitching from side to side like a boat rolling on a wave. First one, then a second, the pitch and fall growing as one moment slipped to another.
“Earthquake!” she shouted. The doctor’s eyes opened wide, and they both ran for the tent flap. But the grey sky above them shook, then Jayden realised it wasn’t the sky that was shaking. The ground beneath her quaked so violently, she struggled to keep her feet beneath her; she grabbed on to the doctor’s shoulder for stability. He, too, stumbled against the tremors and jostled against her. Just a little. Just enough to see it. She tapped him on the shoulder and pointed as words failed her.
A curtain of white tumbled down the mountainside. The worst nightmare of anyone on the mountains.
“Avalanche!” she yelled into the sonorous rumble that split the air.
Ice and snow and rock careened towards them with a speed and ferocity she could never have imagined. Base camp was days away from the summit, days of gruelling walking, climbing, and suffering, surely too far away for the angry torrent of ice to reach them, right? But what about those already on the way to Camps One and Two? And Rebecca?
“Oh God, Rebecca.” She didn’t know if she shouted the words or whispered them. She couldn’t hear it over the growing rumble splitting the sky like it had erupted from the bellows of the earth and shot straight up to the heavens. “She shouldn’t be out there. It should’ve been me. Oh God, please.”
The doctor tugged on her hand, his mouth open, his lips forming words she couldn’t hear.
She shook her head. “I should never have given in to her.” She tore her eyes away from Jost and glanced up at the sky. She’d never believed in God or heaven. It didn’t matter. She’d gladly sell her soul to trade places with Rebecca right now. “Please let her be okay.” But even as she pleaded, she knew the odds were against her. Really, it would take a miracle. The wall of ice charging at them was going to claim lives on the mountain today.
They stared in silent horror as the roar of hell grew louder, and it became terrifyingly clear that base camp was never going to be far enough away. Not by a long way. A tsunami of snow and rock rained down towards them. Rocks heavy enough to crush bones became missiles, hurtling towards them at the speed of a bullet.
They needed some sort of shelter against the oncoming avalanche. Canvas offered little protection…but it was the best they had. Without it, they’d be relying on luck alone in a billion-to-one shot at survival.
If they weren’t buried alive and frozen to death.
So Jayden did the only thing she could think of: she pushed Jost in front of her, shoving him back into the medical tent behind them and down under one of the gurneys as far from the door as they could go. The ice was right on their heels.
She tried desperately not to think about Rebecca, out there, too far away to find even the limited protection a tent could offer. “I should never have let her go,” she whispered.
The tent rocked under the force of the avalanche smashing against the fabric, tearing it apart under the pressure. The wall closest to the to the door gave way under the torrent; poles flattened, gurneys crushed, and the two nurses and a doctor sheltering under them were buried alive. Jayden raced forward, only to be held back by Jost.
“Wait!” he screamed into the thunderous noise that surrounded them.
Then, in an instant, the sound was gone.
An eerie silence filled the half-crushed tent as the last of the debris settled. Slowly, Jayden wiggled her fingers, flexed her toes and ankles, and pushed herself into a sitting position. Her eyes took in everything, but her brain couldn’t comprehend what she was seeing. She couldn’t grasp that there were nurses and doctors—people she knew—buried under the snow and ice in front of her.
A whimper brought it all rushing in.
She shoved Jost’s hand from her shoulder and rushed towards the mound of debris. Careful not to climb on it, lest she stand on a person and crush them further, she started at the side, clawing through it with her bare hands, determined to release those she’d seen buried in there. They might have a chance at surviving if she could get them out of that frozen tomb.
She pushed at rocks that were too heavy for her to lift and nodded her thanks when Jost joined her in the effort. She scraped at snow and sharp shards of ice. Finally, she reached a hand, outstretched and gloved, with the strap of an ice axe wrapped around the wrist. She didn’t recall seeing anyone dressed for the outdoors inside when the tent had collapsed, and the only explanation her mind could grasp was that someone out on the paths had been swept back in along with the rest of the debris.
She worked swiftly, freeing the form until she could drag it out of the hole and turn it over. Then she screamed.
“No!”
Rebecca’s head hung at a sickening angle, her throat severed in a jagged cut more than halfway through. Blood dripped from the ice axe hanging from her wrist. The brown eyes that had laughed at her concern less than half an hour ago were open and stared up at her, unseeing. They’d never see anything again.