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climbers accomplished what seemed to be a humanly impossible journey. First they walked and then they
climbed against the white vastness of the isolated mountain range. Taking it upon himself to watch out for
Polly, Sky Captain had to save her life only three or four times: dodging avalanches, rescuing her from
collapsing ice bridges, catching her gloved hand as she slipped off a precipice. He decided he would
have been embarrassed if she'd showered him with too much gratitude.
As the snow piled up like frozen quicksand, the air grew more and more rare in the cliffs high above
the base camp. Like solid workhorses, the three Sherpas did not slow despite the treacherous terrain,
but Sky Captain and Polly found their feet dragging as they slogged along. A flurry of wind and sleet
blanketed the party. He could barely see Kaji's white-crusted back and shoulders directly in front of him.
Halfway up the mountainside, the weathered Sherpa led the procession around a narrow ledge
overlooking a deep ravine. Polly clung against the rough icy sides and glanced apprehensively into the
abyss below. The yawning fissure seemed to split the Himalayas from India to Tibet. One misstep and
she had no idea in which country her battered and frozen body would come to rest.
As if the very thought made the path more dangerous, brittle rock gave way under her foot, and Polly
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slipped. She windmilled her arms as a gust of wind pushed her over the edge, but Sky Captain's
quickness saved her. He grabbed her by the arm and pulled her to safety. "That's five times today," he
quipped.
"Four. Don't exaggerate."
Behind them, watching Polly's near fall, the two suspicious Sherpas moved up behind Sky Captain,
seeing their chance. The hook-nosed one gave a silent but meaningful nod to his companion as he began
to draw a curved dagger from within the warm folds of his sheepskin covering. The heavy-browed
Sherpa, though, made a gesture that stayed his hand. In Nepalese, he quickly said, "Be patient." Both
men knew there would be plenty of opportunities along the dangerous path to Shangri-La.
When the members of the party finally pulled themselves to the top of a narrow, exposed ridge, the
mountain wind jabbed at them like swords. Polly and Sky Captain had to hold on to each other just to
keep their balance.
The snow cleared, and scudding storm clouds moved about below, giving the travelers a bright view
of icy peaks that stood high and remote in the distance. The two Sherpas pushed ahead, not wanting to
rest next to their three companions. With a frown, Polly watched them go.
Sky Captain sidled up next to Kaji, who gazed into the sprawling Himalayan wilderness, undaunted
by the frigid temperature. Extending a mittened hand, the Sherpa pointed toward the craggy peaks. "This
is where civilization stops, Captain Joe. Ahead of us is only a blank on the map." He tightened his hat and
his mittens. "We must be very careful from here."
Polly looked at Kaji, shivering. "I thought we needed to be careful back there, too."
"For all the good it did," Sky Captain said.
From the distant outcropping where they had stopped, the two other Sherpas began to shout
excitedly. Kaji cocked his ears, listening to the Nepalese words, and then motioned for Sky Captain to
follow him. "Come! Hurry!"
Summoning her last shreds of energy, Polly hurried after their guide as he climbed effortlessly up the
final few feet of the mountain peak. The higher vantage let them see beyond the intervening ridge.
The last thing she expected to see was the impossibly huge shape of a transmitting tower rising from
the deep mountain valley. The steel structure protruded above the tallest of the nearby crags, but its
lower half was buried in snow.
Sky Captain stared, knowing the only person who could have built such a facility. "Totenkopf."
Polly came up next to him, panting. "From here at the top of the world, he could send commands to
his robots anywhere!"
"He probably did. This is where Dex traced the signal."
When the wind died briefly, they could hear a low, electrical hum emanating from the gargantuan
tower. A dim light blinked intermittently at its peak, though Sky Captain knew no aircraft would attempt
to fly over the dangerous Kanchenjunga Range. He pushed ahead with renewed enthusiasm, scrambling
down the steep and rocky path. "Come on. We're close now."
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"Maybe they'll have hot coffee down there," Polly muttered to herself as she started after him.
"Tea, perhaps, but I do not think so," Kaji said.
When they reached the base of the massive tower, they stood knee-deep in snow. Sky Captain
stopped in astonishment as the extent of the madman's Himalayan base became apparent. The high
transmitting tower was merely the tip of Totenkopf's operations.
The transmitting structure was utterly dwarfed by the staggering vastness of an expansive subterranean
excavation spreading out ahead of them. Immense blocky power stations stood like geometrical sentinels
on either side of a gaping shaft entrance large enough for several of Sky Captain's Warhawks to fly
inside. Transformers, ringed conical boosters, and thrumming storage banks created a technological
storage dump around the barren rock. Spearlike icicles dripped from the exposed metal.
Sky Captain withdrew a pair of binoculars from his backpack and scanned the area, squinting against
the bright snow. He could make out a shimmering maze of ice tunnels bored deep into a glacial mass and
reinforced with steel beams. Other shafts in the mountain rock led to dark side chambers. Abandoned
ore cars sat waiting on rails.
"What is it?" Polly looked on in awe, anxious to use the binoculars for herself. "Let me see."
But Sky Captain would not relinquish them. "It looks like a mining outpost." From the weathered
appearance of the generators caked with ice and snow, the frozen ore cars, the drifts piling up on the
fringes of the main shaft, he guessed that the mine had long since been uninhabited. Brute-force
machinery had been left uncovered and unmaintained, ravaged by the effects of time.
Squinting, Kaji put his hands on his broad hips and stared at the distant forbidding sight. "Something
bad happened here."
With his binoculars, Sky Captain followed the steel shape of a rail bridge that led into the mouth of the
fantastic mine. Even with the mountain breezes, an eerie stillness cloaked the base. "It looks abandoned."
He turned to Kaji. "Tell your men we're heading down there. I want to get a closer look."
Kaji nodded nervously. "Yes, Captain Joe. But this is... not a good place."
"It certainly isn't how I pictured Shangri-La," Polly said.
The older Sherpa turned to her. "No, not Shangri-La. Not here."
When they reached the huge generators that flanked the entrance to the gaping mine shaft, the five
companions moved slowly inside the massive cave. The chilling moan of arctic winds echoed off the
gorge walls behind them.
"At least inside here, we're sheltered," Sky Captain said.
"It's still not my idea of cozy," Polly said.
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