ne for a while,” said Sam. “He’ll be back when he’s gotten over it.”
“All right,” said Raul.
Sam turned to the doctors. “Christina and Maria, I think Remi and I may have caused a problem by opening the lava seal on the entrance to the shrine. The man who’s lying on the floor in there was probably preserved by his airless environment, and now we’ve changed it. He’s exposed to the atmosphere. Do you have any advice?”
“The best thing would be to freeze him, which we can’t do,” said Christina.
Maria said, “I think you were right about the conditions up here on the mountain preserving him. The dry, cool days and cold nights above ten thousand feet are ideal. So, for the moment, he’ll probably be fine. It’s taking him down to sea level to a tropical forest that is the risk.”
Sam said, “Maybe we can improvise a container that’s cold and airtight and carry him down.”
“That’s our best hope,” said Maria.
“Where’s the nearest ice?” asked Christina.
“Above us,” said Sam. “There seem to be ice fields up above twelve thousand feet. I could see them yesterday. Maybe I can climb up and reach the lowest one.”
“The body bags,” said Christina.
“Body bags?”
Maria said, “When medical teams go into disaster areas, sometimes there are fatalities that need to be bagged to prevent the spread of disease. So we carry a few bags. We can use three or four at once to keep the body’s temperature even. They’re airtight and strong. If we put him inside one and then pack ice around him and put a bag or two over that, he should stay fresh.”
“I’m going with you,” Remi said, just beside Sam’s ear.
He shook his head. “Risking both of us doesn’t seem like the best idea.”
“Climbing up to an ice field alone is a worse idea.”
“Not necessarily,” he said. “It could save a valuable specimen.”
“You’re a pretty valuable specimen yourself, and two of us can bring twice as much ice,” she said. “Argue with that.”
“Do you get the impression I argue with you just to get my own way?”
“Never,” she lied.
“All right, then,” he said. “We’ll both go.”
She said, “At least we’ll have those nice body bags if anything goes wrong.”
Remi and Sam emptied their packs of almost everything but a body bag each, a hatchet for her, a shovel for him, water, and their fleeces and jackets. Then they set off to climb.
It was still midday when they began, but the climb was steep. They were able to accomplish the necessary progress without climbing gear because the irregular surface of the mountain offered footholds. After a time, they were on a windswept slope above the tree line on bare ground and felt tired and winded.
“I’m glad we spent a few days above ten thousand feet before we tried this,” Remi said.
“Me too. I just hope this works. I’d like to get up there and be well on our way back before dark.”
“If we keep up this pace, we should be able to do it.”
“Sure,” he said. “Anybody could do it if they could keep up this pace.”
They laughed, and found themselves going even faster. Soon they were climbing in silence, too winded to feel comfortable talking. Once in a while, Sam would turn and say, “You all right?” and Remi would reply, “So far.”
In late afternoon, they reached the snow-covered part of the mountain and stopped to look ahead. There was a big caldera at the top and three smaller ones along a ridge. Sam pointed to the white streaks. “See? The snow is only on the crests of ridges radiating out from the caldera.”
“The caldera must be hot,” Remi said.