He ran a length of the rope through a carbiner belt and handed the slack to Alex who stood some distance back from the base.
Alex watched him place a foot in a pockmarked depression and then search for two handholds. Jim found them and then hoisted himself up, his left foot searching for a fresh support. Alex watched him carefully. He would have to travel the same path in a minute or two.
Jim made it to the lip and signaled Alex up.
Alex ran the rope through his own belt and then studied the rock face carefully, recalling the path Jim had just traveled. He stepped into the first support, found the handholds and heaved off. His breathing felt labored. That was to be expected since he was wearing almost thirty pounds of specially designed clothing that would help keep him warm in the harshest weather Momma Nature could hurl his way.
He felt Jim's hand grasp his a minute later. He huffed and pulled himself up to the lip with a final grunt.
'Little tougher than it looks, huh?'
Alex sucked some wind and nodded. It had been.
Jim leaned close to the fissure. Alex could see it was roughly five feet high and maybe three feet wide. Just enough space for a man to get through.
Jim looked back at Alex and smiled. 'Going for it.'
'Keep the rope on in case you step into a crevasse.'
'A crevasse in a mountain?'
'You never know.'
Jim shrugged and ducked through the opening. Blackness seemed to swallow him up and Alex suddenly felt very alone standing on the lip of the mountain. Even the Snowcat below him looked smaller.
Wind kicked up, making him wobble for a moment. He felt his legs tense up, afraid he might fall. But then he bent his knees and leaned back into the mountain.
The wind passed.
At his feet, the rope's slack continued to decrease. Obviously, the fissure didn't end a few feet in. Jim must have found his cave after all.
But there wouldn't be any paintings, would there?
Alex had heard the bizarre theories for years. Fringe scientists and evolutionists who claimed that a race of men had inhabited Antarctica thousands of years ago. They had no evidence. No cave paintings, no skeletons of frozen natives, no nothing.
But that didn't stop them from supposing.
And Alex found himself wondering if maybe there was a chance…
A small one.
'Hey.'
Alex almost jumped out of his skin. As it was Jim had to brace him. Alex turned. 'You scared the hell out of me.'
'Sorry, pal. You gotta come inside and check this out.'
'Check what out?'
'What's in here.'
'No rock?'
'Nope.'
Alex looked at the Snowcat. 'We oughta call it in.'
Jim shook his head. 'Forget it, this is too cool. We can call them later. Hell, once they find out what we've got here, they'll come out anyway.'
'It's that good?'
Jim smiled and ducked back into the darkness.
Alex waited a moment and then followed.
The instant he stepped through the opening, he felt the change. The roar of wind suddenly felt a million miles behind him. The air felt heavier.
It felt warmer.
It wasn't hot, but whereas it was well below zero outside the fissure, inside the cave it was perhaps ten degrees,
Ten degrees!
Ahead of him, he could see the glow of Jim's flashlight bouncing along. Alex stumbled to keep up.
Jim stopped. 'You feel the change?'
'Warmer.'
'Yeah.'
'Some sort of thermal updraft?'
'I don't think so.'
'Then what?'
'Let's keep walking.'
They traveled two hundred yards in to the mountain itself. Only Jim's flashlight kept them from tripping over the jagged rock edges poking out of the floor. Alex wondered what could have carved out the channel in the mountain itself. He ran a gloved hand over the wall. The edges were sharp. Not done by water, he surmised.
But what?
He bumped into Jim.
He stopped.
Jim squatted. 'Look.'
Alex knelt down and removed his goggles. The temperature change felt more pronounced now. It must have been almost 32 degrees this far into the mountain. Balmy by comparison to the world they'd just left behind.
Jim was pointing to an opening barely big enough to get a hand through. Light spilled out of it. Alex put his head down and tried to look.
Green?
He shook his head. Couldn't be. He looked again.
And now he could make out the green.
Blues. Reds.
Color.
From what?
'Flowers.'
Alex backed away from the hole. 'What the hell are you talking about?'
'Those are flowers in there. We're looking down on them.'
'Don't be ridiculous. There can't be flowers in there. We're inside a mountain for god's sakes.'
'Take another look.'
Alex peered back through. As much as his logical mind couldn't accept it, he could clearly make out the edges of leaves and petals some distance below him. But how? How in the frozen landscape was this possible?'
He eased back and looked at Jim. 'We'd better radio base.'
Jim smiled. 'Yeah.'
They started back. Jim leading the way again. 'Did you ever hear stories about Shangri-La?'
'Myths,' said Alex. 'Supposed to be a place over near Bhutan. At the base of the Himalayas there was supposed to be some tropical paradise. No one's ever found it.'
'A team from National Geographic found something a few years back. I don't know what ever happened to the report, though since it got hushed up awful quick.'
'You think we've found our own tropical paradise?'
'You can't argue with the flowers.'
'Not until I confirm what they are.'
'Can you imagine how incredible a find this is? Flora in Antarctica. Incredible! We'll be famous — you and I.'
Alex wasn't sure how famous he wanted to be.
'We'll need more lights.'
