The Romanov Ransom

79

There was no doubt when they made the next pass.

“Look at that!” Dietrich said. He pulled out his phone and took several pictures, while Remi did the same with a camera and telephoto lens. The plane was wedged in a crevice between two peaks, the glacier holding it, having melted just enough to partially expose the nose, fuselage, and left wing. Because the shadow of the mountain helped camouflage the gray Avro Lancastrian, blending it into the rocky landscape, if they’d flown over it in any other direction, they probably would have missed seeing it altogether.

“Time to head home,” Julio said.

Dietrich looked around, almost in a panic, as the helicopter started moving away. “Where are we going? We need to get down there.”

“Tomorrow,” Julio replied. “Unless you want to spend the next week hiking back.”

Sam eyed the fuel gauge, glad to know their pilot was keeping a close watch. “Now that we know what we’re dealing with, we can come back better prepared.”

Julio nodded toward the mountain peak on the right of the plane as they took off. “I don’t like the looks of that.”

Neither did Sam. He glanced down at the plane again. Sunlight glistened on the rivulet of water running down one side of it. The warming trend that helped to expose the missing plane was a doubled-edged sword, he thought, looking back up at the mountainside. Packed with snow and with a melting glacier at the base, it was an avalanche in the making. They’d definitely want to avoid disturbing the right shoulder of the mountain. “Let’s hope the weather is better. We’ll have to find somewhere to land tomorrow below the plane. I think it’ll be safer to climb up.”

As far as Dietrich was concerned, tomorrow couldn’t come fast enough.

Back at base camp, Sam, Remi, and Dietrich hiked from the helipad up the hill, almost half a mile through the scattered tents, until they reached their campsite. The scent of beef simmering in spices greeted them as they entered the tent. Nando, busy stirring the stew, looked up. “You’re back. How was the trip?”

“We found it,” Dietrich said. “We just couldn’t get to it today.”

“But we have pictures,” Remi said, taking the memory card from the camera and transferring the photos to her laptop.

Nando gave the stew a quick stir, then walked over to see the photos. “That’s amazing. No wonder no one’s found it before. It looks a lot like the rock from the mountainside.”

“We got lucky,” Sam said, taking a seat next to Remi. “A few feet over, one way or the other, we might’ve missed it.” He pulled out his own computer to look up the weather report. The storm coming in had been upgraded, which meant more snow and stronger winds. But the front had stalled, and it wasn’t supposed to move in for a couple of days. That would leave them with more than enough time for exploring the plane.

They studied every aspect of the area, and though it was hard to tell from the images alone, there appeared to be an open spot, about a quarter mile down from the plane, where the helicopter could safely land. “Let’s hope this is as level as it looks,” he said.

In the morning, they hiked down to the helipad, where Julio was waiting. As usual, Sam asked after his wife.

“She’s feeling — what’s the word in English? — the ants.”

“The ants?” Remi said as they lifted off.

“Yes. Not when you feel them crawling on you but you feel like them. Moving.”

“Antsy.”

“That’s it. She is very antsy. Wanting to move around.”

“Not that I’m the expert,” Remi said, “but I’ve heard that if she suddenly starts wanting to clean and rearrange everything, it’s getting close.”

“I’ll make sure to check in on her after I get back to refuel. And have my brother be on standby to get you,” he said, aiming the helicopter to the northwest as light snow flurries hit the windscreen, quickly melting. The snow stopped by the time they arrived at the crash site, though the sun was hidden behind the clouds. Thankfully, the area Sam thought might be level enough to land was nearly perfect, and, before they knew it, they were waving good-bye to Julio as he lifted off.

“I hope that baby of theirs holds out for another day,” Remi said.

Sam’s attention was on the snowpack, above and on the right shoulder of the pass, just over the plane. “I hope that snow holds out for another day.”