Page 2 of One Last Shot

Oops, bad idea. But she was in it now.

Improvise. Adapt. Overcome. She blew out her breath and stepped over the edge.

Her feet dangled while she kicked for purchase. The rope held her, but she didn’t want to dislodge the snowpack and drop it on Macie.

One in ten people who fell into a crevasse died, buriedunder snow.

She hung from one hand and moved her other ice axe down, found a hold, then lowered herself onto it. Dangled from that while she chipped into the ice on the side of the chute.

Found another hold, then slammed her crampons in and eased her weight onto the two points. She secured her other foot, then held on to the ice axe as she rerouted her other hand.

She was Spider-Man, climbing down a wall of ice and snow.Please don’t let the girl slip.The prayer sort of just slid out, but frankly, she needed more than luck.

Below her some twenty feet, Macie whimpered.

“Hang in there, sweetie. I’m coming for you.” She moved down the wall, steady, sure, and then stopped about a foot from Macie. Here the walls were only four feet apart. She kicked her foot in above Macie, standing spread eagle over her. “Okay, honey, I’m going to put this harness around you, then clip you into me. Don’t move. Let me do all the work, okay?”

Macie nodded. Cute kid. Dark brown hair in braids, blue eyes—reminded Boo of her sister, Austen. She leaned down, then slid the harness around the girl’s waist, clipped it, then snapped the webbed line onto her carabiner.

The knot in her chest eased, just a smidgen. But no way could Axel hold her weight and Macie’s. Okay, maybe he could hold it, but he couldn’t haul them both up.

“How are you doing up there?”

London had probably created a haul system by now. She’d seen the woman at work in training over the past few weeks, and no one understood ropes and climbing and rescue systems like London. Not her real name, but given her accent, it seemed right. Boo had asked a few questions and discovered that London had served on some European rescue team.

“We have the ratchet system set up—ready to haul her up.” This from Axel, who bent over the hole. Clearly he’d anchored in the rope and taken her off belay. “Can you attach yourself to the sides while we pull her up?”

“Yeah.” She took an ice screw and angled it in, then attached webbing to it and that to her harness via another carabiner. Then she unhooked from the line. “I need to get her ski off!”

Macie’s eyes widened. “But?—”

Boo turned to her, her crampons still jammed into each side of the walls. “Macie, we need to haul you out of here. But we can’t do it with your ski on.”

“Will it hurt?”

Boo met her eyes. “Probably. But I’ll be fast. Do you know a song?”

“Um. I . . . maybe . . . ‘Let It Go’?”

“Sing it. Really loud.”

Macie started in. “Let it go, let it go?—”

Boo reached down, grabbed the ski, held it steady, then pressed down on the binding.

Macie got louder. “Can’t hold it back anymore?—!”

“That’s right, Mace.” The ski snapped off and Macie screamed.

“Let it go! Let it go!” Boo said, grabbing Macie’s shoulders. “C’mon, Macie.”

Tears burned down Macie’s cheeks, but she nodded and started singing again.

“Okay, Axe. Haul her up!” She directed Macie up, holding under her arms, then under her backside, as Axel and London hauled her up.

“Almost there, Macie!”

The girl was still singing.

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