The Last Airship (18 page)

Instead,
he looked out at the Dolomite Mountains ahead, and said, “It’s really beautiful
here.”

She
smiled at him, in such a way that he began to wonder just where she was taking
him, and then said, “Just you wait.”

*

An
hour later, Sam watched as Aliana slammed on her brakes and parked at the side
of another mountain pass with a gentle skid.

It
was halfway up a large mountain. A number of cars had parked in the small rocky
outcropping at the side of the road, in the typical Italian fashion with no
discernible method, yet their arrangement was a perfectly harmonized
disorganization. It was as though they had been strewn there, like the toss of
a several pairs of dice. Sam noticed three men who were organizing their
climbing equipment on the hood of their red Fiat.

In
the distance, the mountains seemed to stretch high up into the sky, with just a
hint of white snow cover at their peaks.

“We’re
here,” she said.

Sam
looked at the mountain peaks around them and then turned his eyes back to her.

“That’s
great, where’s here?” he asked.

She
opened the small trunk and took out two large back packs. She handed him the
first one, and took the second one for herself and then said, “The Dolomites,
of course.” With a grin, she carelessly added, “Somewhere…” 

Sam
drew the backpack over his shoulders, tightening its straps until the weight
was comfortably distributed over his hips, chest and shoulders.

It
was quite heavy. 

He
wondered how much heavier his backpack was compared to hers.

“Okay,
I’m ready,” Sam said. “Now where?”

“Follow
me.”

He
watched as Aliana didn’t quite skip down the dangerous path that hugged the
side of the mountain precariously, but neither did she walk carefully either.
Her stride was more of a halfhearted tramp than anything else.

She
wore Merrel Perimeter, Gore-Tex hiking boots.

Watching
as she casually placed her feet along the narrow path without any hesitation,
Sam could tell that she was no novice, and had spent many hours in these
mountains during her lifetime.

Ahead
there was a little wooden arrow bearing the words, “Best Coffee above 5000
Feet.”

They
followed the signs until the path reached a sudden end. There were no more
paths to follow, nor was there any notice posted that the path ended in a 5000-odd,
foot drop.

He
looked at Aliana and asked, “Now where?”

“Now,
we go up.”

Sam
leaned carefully over the edge. 

There
was a sheer drop off that certainly appeared to be in the vicinity of the
suggested 5000 feet, and apparently, it was a similar distance going uphill.

He
noticed that alongside the cliff there was an old, metal ladder which had been
bolted into the side of the mountain. It’s slightly rusty, weathered appearance
made it look as though the years of dilapidation was still trying to remove it
from the rock wall.

“We’re
climbing up that?” Sam asked, incredulously.

“Yes,
why, don’t you like heights?”

Sam
didn’t fear heights, however he wasn’t keen on taking needless risks with his
life either.

“Ladies
first.”

Aliana
opened her backpack and withdrew a climbing harness, a “Y” shaped lanyard with
two carabiners, marked with the letter “K,” indicating the German spelling.

“You
have a climbing kit too,” she told Sam, as she opened the top of his bag, if
you care to use it.

She
fitted her safety equipment, and then made sure that Sam was okay with his. He
had gone through a small mountaineering phase in his younger days, trying to
challenge himself, but he’d never developed any great love of heights. He
possessed a good understanding of his equipment and how to use it, but he
wasn’t going to let her know that.

Besides,
it was nice to watch her take care of him.

He
could see her concern as she checked over him and his climbing gear.

“Now,
we climb,” she said.

“Okay.”

“Don’t
take too long,” she told him, as she reached the first rung of the ladder and
started to make her way up.

Sam
shook his head at her and then, just like all men when they are around a
beautiful woman, he followed her up, despite his reservations.  

The
ladder appeared to be about forty feet long, and just before the top rung, he
was relieved to see that Aliana climbed into a small opening in the side of the
shale mountain.

Inside
it, was a café.

They
placed their orders and she took a seat on the counterweight iron ledge.

Sipping
his perfectly prepared Italian macchiato, he stared in wonderment at the
brilliant vista ahead. He’d flown over these mountains more than a dozen times
over the past two weeks, but had never really taken the time to fully
appreciate its magnificence.

It
was beautiful.

Only
in Europe, could you possibly find a professional barista willing to work
inside a manmade cave located on the inside of a sheer cliff face!

He
took a sip of the strong drink, looked at the face of the angel – or possibly
devil, in front of him, and decided that he was in for a fantastic weekend.

*

Blake
answered his cell.

He
was still driving through the Alps, but like every other place on earth, he
still couldn’t escape from the ubiquitous phone coverage. “Yes?”

“Have
you arrived?” The voice on the line was cold.

“Not
yet, but one of my men has already made contact with them.”

“Them?
Who else is with him?” The voice became even colder and harder.

“He
didn’t say,” Blake replied, as he drove around the corner and started up the
enormous hill, pushing his right foot to the floor of his BMW M5. “Some girl.
She’s probably some European backpacker he picked up since he’s been over
here.”

“You
should have gone there sooner,” the man remonstrated.

“Yes,
well, we were waiting to see how far he got, weren’t we?” It was a weak excuse,
Blake realized, even as he gave it.

“And,
now you know…” the voice remained cold.

“Yes,
well, we really didn’t have any reason to suspect that he knew any more than
what he told me to begin with.”

“Just
make certain that he never gets there, all right?”

“Of
course, I’ll fix it. I said I would.”

Aliana
watched as Sam looked out upon it all.

The
steel cable ran from off the cafe’s metal decking. The 220 foot cable spanned
the distance from the café, to where it was attached to the wall of Mount
Oztal, across the valley. The Tyrol River could be seen, lazily making its way
along the valley floor.

About
five thousand feet below.

The
wire bridge allowed climbers easy access to the entrance of the Dolomite
National Park. Like a giant game of snakes and ladders, it was the common
starting point to a myriad of different climbs, all of which were part of the
famous Via Ferrata. 

Sam’s
blue eyes were full of wonder and Aliana sensed that there was something else
there too
,
something which she couldn’t quite make out –
was it fear
and uncertainty, or was it something else entirely?

“What
do you think, Sam?” she asked.

“You’re
taking me along the Via Ferrata?”

“Yes,
the Iron Road, but the Germans call it the Klettersteig.” Again, her
mischievous smile captivated him. “The guidebook says it takes two days, but we
have three, just in case you’re slow.”

“It’s
an amazing piece of engineering, “Sam said, as his hand pulled on the steel
cable for reassurance.

“It’s
a monument to the human initiative for adventure, but did you know that the
first Via Ferrata was built in the early nineteenth century as a means of
crossing these giant mountains?” She waited for Sam to acknowledge his
wonderment that someone would have built such a marvel all those years ago, and
then she continued, “At the start of the First World War, Austria secretly
built a Via Ferrata in order to move 40,000 soldiers across the border in
record-breaking time, to seize the initiative. It became the front line of the
war.”

“No,
I didn’t know that,” Sam replied. “I can also gather too, that they didn’t have
the luxury of such safety equipment as this,” he continued, pulling at his
lanyard and harness.

“We’ll
be doing it in veritable luxury, as you say; it will be easy.” She wasn’t sure
if Sam was just trying to reassure himself.

She
then gave him a very basic run down of the process of climbing a Via Ferrata.

“The
essence of a modern Via Ferrata is a steel cable which runs along the route and
is periodically affixed to the rock at three- to five-foot intervals. Using a
Via Ferrata kit, climbers can secure themselves to the cable, limiting their
chance of falling. The cable can also be used as an aid to climbing, and
additional climbing aids, like iron rungs, called stemples, pegs, carved steps,
and even ladders and bridges are often provided. Thus, the Via Ferrata permits
routes which would otherwise be hazardous to be undertaken without the need for
heavy climbing equipment.”

She
watched as Sam nodded his head in understanding.

“I’ve
read about them.”

Aliana
continued, “A Via Ferrata set is comprised of a lanyard and two carabiners. The
lanyard consists of an energy-absorbing system, such as this, and two arms
which connect to the cable with the carabiners, and a means of connecting to
the harness.”

She
then showed him how to clip onto the steel cable.

“You’ll
see that these carabiners are made specifically for use on Via Ferratas. Their design
creates a larger-than-average opening, and they have a spring-locking mechanism
that can be opened with one hand. They are also strong enough to withstand high
fall factors. These carabiners are marked with a “K” in a circle, which stands
for Klettersteig, the German term for Via Ferrata.”

Aliana
watched as Sam played with the mechanism.

Sam’s
intelligent mind took in the practical steps in using them, and the physics
behind their simple mechanisms.

She
could tell that, for someone like him, it was all easy to understand.

“So,
it uses a spring-loaded sleeve on the carabiner gate?” He asked, pressing it
with one hand. “While the gate is closed, the sleeve is held in place over the
gate opening by its spring; to unlock and open the gate, the sleeve slides
directly down the gate shaft away from the opening?”

“Yes.”

“Anything
else I need to know?”

“Probably,
but we’ll talk about it when you come across it.”

Aliana
watched as Sam confidently clipped himself in, tentatively looked down at the
river which looked tiny from this height, then looked back at her, as if he were
sizing up whether or not she was worth the effort.

He
then gave her a defiant smile.

The
small dimple that appeared on his left cheek when he smiled, reminded her how
often he looked just like that.

“So,
I’ll see you on the other side?” Sam said as he began to make his way across
the traverse.

*

Sam
carefully made his way across the 220 foot cable bridge.

It
used three cables to form the bridge. One at the bottom to walk along, foot in
front of foot, and two at his shoulder height which formed an imaginary
triangle.

It
was good, he decided, to allow him to settle in his own way. He had always been
afraid of heights, and had taken great pains to attempt mountain climbing as a
means of overcoming his fear. Somehow, it didn’t matter what challenge he
completed, he would always feel some degree of trepidation, above and beyond
his basic survival instincts when it came to heights. All it had taught him,
was how to push past his fears and complete the task at hand. It was all about
learning how to fake it.

Although
one might never completely allay an irrational fear, you could instill an
ability to control it. Long before he ever joined the Corps, Sam discovered
that skill. Life experience and its vicissitudes taught him to use his fear to
heighten his awareness and narrow his focus on the task at hand, without
permitting his fear to deter him from what he needed to accomplish.

After
thirty one years of faking it, he’d learned to be very convincing, even to
himself, at times.

He
was waiting for Aliana on the far side of the bridge.

Sam
glanced around at the walls of metamorphic rock, of which the Dolomites were
predominantly composed. Fossils of ancient marine life could still be seen,
embedded in the rock wall, the shells of long-extinct sea life formed the basis
of the limestone, which, after many millennia of heat and pressure, had
eventually metamorphosed into the shales, slates gneiss and schists comprising
these mountains.

A
horizontal set of iron steps ran along the mountain, as though someone had
built a little pathway, high up in the mountain, but had neglected to complete
it with railings. There were a multitude of ladders, iron chains, and rocky
steps, which could be accessed along the way.

He
wondered, which of these
routes Aliana would take him on today.

Looking
back at the bridge, he noticed that she walked along it as though she was on a
simple footpath and nothing more.

“What
direction are we going?” Sam asked, looking at the two paths which followed
around the mountain.

“Now,
we start going up.” Aliana pointed ahead at the third set of ladders, and said,
“That one, over there.”

He
followed her to the base of those ladders, where an iron sign, bolted into the
rock face, read, “Via Capilano Con Grande.

“Are
you ready for a workout?” she asked.

“You
set the pace and I’ll follow,” he said, with a confidence that he was already
starting to doubt. Sam calculated that he must be close to twice her weight.
Although his physique was built of solid muscle, he knew that she was extremely
athletic, and that her slim frame disguised the wiry muscles of a mountain
climber.

They
started to climb.

It
was an almost entirely vertical climb for a while, followed later by a more
diagonal approach across the mountain face.  It took them all day to make their
ascent.

By early
afternoon, they finally reached the peak of the first mountain, which was the
smallest of the four peaks they planned to traverse as part of this trip.

Each
time Sam thought he was finally getting somewhere, he’d clip his carabiner into
a new run, which extended further up the mountain. His thighs burned from the
workout. As with rock climbing, his leg muscles bore the majority of the effort,
rather than his arms.

Every
time he saw Aliana slow down at a particularly difficult or technical section,
he would begin to gain on her, but then she would pass it, and get ahead of him
again, as if she was a mythical water nymph, acting like a mirage.

She
was incredibly strong, he noticed, for someone with such a slim frame. Beneath
which, he’d come to realize was an athletic, wiry machine, developed from a
childhood spent climbing and exploring these very mountains. 

By
late that afternoon, the two of them reached the pinnacle of the smallest of
the four mountains.  At a height of 7,000 feet, its status as the smallest of
the four mountains seemed irrelevant. Of the four, it was the only one which
allowed a clear view of the entire Tyrol River, running between the mountains.

The
panorama was stunningly beautiful.

“I
was beginning to worry you would never make it!” Aliana said good naturedly.

“Yes,
well… I was starting to doubt that you had any desire to allow me to make it to
the top alive.”

“Do
you drink beer?”

“Yes.
It would be a great place to have one now, if we had any with us.” He then saw
the expression on her face, and said, “There’s no way that you bothered to
carry beer along all this way, is there?”

“No,”
she laughed. “Of course not. I would never be so careless with the expenditure
of my energy on a climb such as this.”

“I’ll
buy you one when we get back,” Sam offered.

“There’s
no need,” she said, grinning, “You did!”

He
laughed, as he opened his backpack and found a six pack of German beer.

“You’ve
got to be kidding me! You mean I lugged this all the way up here?! You’re
terrible, Aliana.

“Am
I? Really?” She looked so innocent, that it made him laugh again.

“No,”
he conceded, you’re not,” he told her as he came closer.

He
took her small, but strong hands in his, and sheepishly looked into her pale
blue eyes, which were the color of a clear sky in summer.

“Then
what am I?” she teased.

“You’re
the most extraordinary and beautiful woman I’ve ever met.”

He leaned
closer to her, and to his delight, she kissed his lips.

There
was nothing for it, he was in love. She was the girl he had wanted all his life.
Of that he had no doubt. The only thing that he couldn’t work out, was why
someone as exceptional as her, would be interested in him too.

Back
at his log cabin, where his satellite phone had been carelessly left with the
rest of his equipment, glowed as it indicated that a new text message was
received.

It read,
Son, couldn’t find much on Wolfgang, but I discovered that John Wolfgang has
a daughter who often travels with him, her name is, Aliana. Be careful, the
most beautiful woman are often the most dangerous.