I pressed the hot plastic to her face, and she moaned but still wouldn’t drink.

I took a long sip myself, reminding me of the emptiness in my stomach.

Gently lifting her left leg, I unlatched her boots and gently worked them off. I peeled her wool socks from one blue bare foot and then the other. Her toes were dark purple with frostbite. Warming my own hands with the cup, I sandwiched her foot in my palms, transferring the heat. I repeated this with the other foot, which was in far worse shape. She’d probably lose her two smallest toes.

Then I saw the ECW iPhone case lying on the seat.

It must have fallen out of her jacket pocket when I pulled it off her. Obviously, there was no reception in Vostok, but there was the device’s camera.

I removed the phone from its extreme weather case and pressed PHOTOS.

What in the hell… ?

21

“Well, now that we have seen each other,” said the unicorn,
“if you’ll believe in me, I’ll believe in you.”

—Lewis Carroll

The images were of the southeast face of the mountain, the photos taken from an elevation halfway up the snow-capped peak. Ben was in most of the photos, which were shot from below as he made his way up to the summit, a climbing axe in each hand.

They were working together.

The first dozen shots zoomed in on his ascent. The rest attempted to capture an object he had exposed at the summit.

Find Ben’s camera. He’ll have taken the money shots.

“Dr. Wallace, you have reentered the main river. I need you to take over.”

“Stand by.”

I climbed over the aft console to the middle seat. Searching through Ben’s stash of food, I consumed a container of raisins and a protein drink to raise my blood sugar and stave off the hunger pangs. My bladder signaled it was back on the job. Wincing at having to share Ben’s plastic urinal, I relieved myself.

“All right, Captain, I’m ready.”

I felt the console’s joystick come to life in my right palm, the foot pedals responding beneath my thawing feet. Following the main river, I kept our speed at ten knots, allowing the current to carry us.

We had traversed several miles when Vostok Command relayed new instructions.

“Dr. Wallace, in half a kilometer you’ll come to a tributary off your portside bow. Follow that waterway; it flows into the north basin.”

“Acknowledged.”

The swift current bled north into a deepwater inlet, and I knew the basin had to be close. And then my headphones were accosted by clicks, the bizarre underwater acoustics coming from multiple sonar contacts in the water directly ahead.

I slowed to five knots, my heart pounding in my chest.

Ben moaned something in his delirium as he regained consciousness. “Are we topside yet?”