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“No, you are right. This is relatively new. You see the color of the lake, the greenish gray?”
“Yes,” said Remi.
“You see that after glacial retreat. This section of the valley is less than two years old, I would estimate.”
“Climate change?”
“Most definitely. The glacier we passed earlier—the Pung Gyen—lost forty feet last year alone.”
Pressed up against her window, Remi suddenly lowered her binoculars. “Sam, look at this!”
He slid over to her side and peered out the window. Directly below them was what looked like a wooden hut half buried in a waist-high ice shelf.
“What in the world is that?” Sam asked. “Hosni?”
“I have no idea.”
“How close to the coordinates are we?”
“Not quite a kilometer.”
Remi said, “Sam, that’s a gondola.”
“Pardon?”
“A wicker gondola—for a hot-air balloon.”
“Are you sure?”
“Hosni, set us down!”
31
NORTHERN NEPAL
Hosni crabbed the Bell sideways over the plateau until he found a spot he decided was solid enough to bear the helicopter’s weight, then touched down. Once the rotors had spooled down, Sam and Remi climbed out and donned their jackets, caps, and gloves.
Hosni called, “Step carefully! There will be many crevasses in an area like this.”
They waved their understanding and started across the plateau toward the object.
“Here, wait . . .” Hosni called. They walked back. He climbed out of the cockpit and stooped beside the tail storage compartment. He removed what looked like a foldable tent pole and handed it to Sam. “Avalanche probe. Works as well with crevasses. Best to be safe.”
“Thanks.” Sam gave the probe a flick, and it snaked outward, the inner bungee cord snapping the sections into place. “Nifty.”
They set off again, this time with Sam probing as they walked.
The ice sheet that partially covered the plateau was rippled like waves frozen in place, leftover, they assumed, by the glacier’s slow grinding retreat up the valley.
The object in question lay near the far edge of the plateau, sitting kitty-corner to the rest of the plateau.
After five minutes of careful walking, they stood before it.
“I’m glad I didn’t bet you,” Sam said. “That’s a gondola, all right.”
“Upside down. That explains why it looked like a hut. They don’t make them like this anymore. What in the world is it doing here?”
“No idea.”
