Get off your ass, man.
He couldn’t rebuild his life like this.
He glanced at his watch. It was almost midnight in Tengboche.
It seemed to take every ounce of will he possessed just to get up and go in search of his cellphone. He found it, dialed Candace’s number, and drew a breath.
She wasn’t going to like what he had to say.
She answered on the second ring. “Oh, my God. You’re back!”
“I got back to Colorado last night.”
“Finally! Do you have any idea how hard I’ve been trying to hold things together for you? Fifteen months is a long time to go AWOL.” Then she got down to business, seeming not to take a breath as she brought him up to speed. “You lost your sponsorship with Earth Bars, but the big gear companies have been patient. I’ve got interest from a couple New York publishers if you want to write a book about what happened. I think that’s a great idea, by the way. Write a book, do a tour, get back on your feet. There might even be film interest. People are going to want to know what happened up—”
“Candace, stop.” Had she always rattled on like this? “I’mnotwriting a book. I don’t care about the sponsorships. I’m done climbing.”
There. He’d said it.
Silence.
She cleared her throat. “You don’t really mean that.”
He’d known she’d say that. To be fair, this represented a significant loss of income for her. “I’m done. Finished. No more climbing. No more sponsorships. You should drop me from your client list.”
“But you’re the best alpine climber in the world.”
“Iwasthe best alpine climber in the world. That was a long time ago. Now I’m just some fucking guy.”
* * *
Thursday, September 20
Kenzie satin the Ops Room, Gizmo curled up at her feet, Gabby exploring as far as her leash allowed her. Kenzie had been talking with Megs about Harrison when Esri had walked in to see Megs about something else. Now Megs and Kenzie had pulled Esri into their conversation.
“I ran into Harrison two weeks ago at Food Mart,” Kenzie told her. “He didn’t seem like himself. No one has seen him leave his house since. He hasn’t been to Knockers even once—or the climbing gym. Something is wrong.”
Megs nodded. “He barely said a word on the flights home. He just stared out the window or slept. He seemed like himself in Tengboche, but once we got to the airport in Kathmandu, he shut down.”
Esri Tsering, who volunteered for the Team by offering free therapy to Team members, seemed to consider what they’d told her, pausing before she spoke. “I hear that you’re worried, and I get that. But unless he calls me and asks for my help, there’s really nothing I can do. I don’t feel comfortable talking about him behind his back like this. I know you want to help him but—”
Gabby latched onto Esri’s handbag and started to drag it, puppy-growling.
“Leave it!” Kenzie picked the puppy up. “Sorry.”
Esri smiled. “That’s okay. She’s adorable.”
Megs reached over to pet Gabby. “We’re not asking you to violate Conrad’s privacy or break any ethics rules—or we don’t mean to. We’d just like to have some idea what we can do to help.”
“Give him space. Give him time.”
Kenzie gaped at Esri. “But it’s beenfifteenmonths.”
Esri nodded. “Fifteen months might seem like a long time to you and me, but for him, it probably feels like his friends died yesterday. He’s back home for the first time since then, and that means he has to process what happened all over again.”
Kenzie could understand that. As long as he’d stayed in Nepal, he was isolated. Now that he’d come back to Scarlet, he had to face what had happened in the context of the rest of his life. “There has to be something we can do.”
Gabby squirmed, insisting that Kenzie put her down. She climbed onto Gizmo, who patiently endured her playful attention, thumping his tail on the floor.
