Chapter 4

It has been six months since the groundbreaking ceremonies at Snyderville. The tram moorings have proven to be far more challenging than Lattimer had envisioned. He has learned the hard way that rotten rock and glacial ice make for a very wicked brew. They have finally gotten the fourth and last tram tower in place, located on the trailing edge of Changtse on the lower western slope, just beneath the Rongbuk glacier. From here, the tram cables will travel southeast across the glacier, heading toward the gigantic northern face of Mount Everest. Lattimer has built a safety feature into the tram system. If an avalanche or rockslide were to ever break the cables traversing the Rongbuk glacier, the fourth tram tower would lock up the cables, protecting any gondola that had not yet passed by it. The gondola would then be safely lowered to the ground by a vertical cable. This safety feature was nice, but it didn’t cover all the bases. If the gondola was ever directly struck by a rockslide or avalanche, all bets were off.

“Well, there it is boss,” Jose says to Lattimer. “That’s the fourth tram tower.”

“Nothing like a severe fire under your ass to stabilize the substratum, eh Jose?” Lattimer says. Both men laugh heartily out loud.

“I tell you boss,” Jose says, “injecting heated raw alloy composite into the substratum to stabilize it was a sheer stroke of genius, man. You are something else, boss. I really mean that as a compliment. You ARE the man, and Snyder knows it too.”

“Well, you do what you have to do,” Lattimer says winking, “you know what I mean Jose?”

“Oh yeah, I certainly know what you mean.” Both men begin chuckling again.

“So how long do you think it will last, boss?” Jose asks.

“Long enough, Jose, long enough,” says Lattimer.

Eight hours later, halfway around the world in Los Angeles, Jim Johnson is definitely not having a good day. Snyder’s plans are beginning to rise above the radar.

“Martha! I need to see you for a minute,” he barks into the intercom.

“Yes, Mr. Johnson?”

“Martha, what are all these invoices about? I keep getting these things from companies all over the planet regarding unpaid bills relating to the Terra I project. Do you know anything about this?”

“Why, no Mr. Johnson. I don’t. I just open the envelopes and place them into your in-box.”

Johnson scratches his head. “Well, something’s not right about all this. These bills are mammoth! There’s no way the Terra project could be this far into the hole at this point in time.” He focuses more closely on a particular invoice. “Hey Martha! Come here and look at this.” Martha crosses over to his side of the desk. “Why on earth would we order something like this for Terra?”

“Why, I don’t know Mr. Johnson. This looks more like something that would be used at the Everest site.”

“Exactly!” Johnson retorts. “Contact these companies and ask them who placed these requisitions. If we don’t get this under control my creditors will call in my loans and we’ll lose our investors.”

“Yes sir, right away!”

“And Martha.”

“Yes sir?”

“Get me Sam Snyder on the phone.”

“Yes sir.”

As Martha prepares to make the call she suddenly realizes the time difference. “Mr. Johnson?”

“Yes Martha?”

“Won’t it be late at night over there?”

“Damn it Martha, call his cell phone, get his pager, do whatever, just get him on the phone, OK?”

“Ok, Mr. Johnson,” Flustered, she scrambles through her Rolodex, looking for numbers. She first tries his cell phone; the voice mail responds saying he is away on a business trip and is not sure when he’ll be back. She tries his pager, again no response. Martha hangs up the phone, slowly, a puzzled look of concern on her face.

“Well, did you get Snyder on the phone?” Johnson asks.

“No sir,” she says slowly. “His voice mail said he was out of town on a business trip, and he didn’t answer his pager.”

“Business trip, my ass!” Johnson explodes. “He’s responsible for this! I know it! He’s trying to bankrupt me! Force me out of business! That lying S.O.B. and that sleaze bag engineer of his. I should have seen this coming. Man, what is the matter with me? Martha, get Richard Treinwood on the phone for me. We’ll put a stop to this monkey business right now!”

“Yes sir, right away Mr. Johnson.” Martha begins punching in the phone number immediately.

Six months pass by and Lattimer’s crew have been hard at work getting Lower New Everest ready for an initial inspection by Snyder.

“The main excavation shaft is finally completed, Dr. Lattimer,” Jose says.

“Excellent, excellent!” Lattimer responds over the cell phone. “I’ll call Snyder and we’ll be up there sometime this afternoon to take a look at it.”

“Ok, boss, see you later.”

Lattimer clicks the phone shut with the look of a man that just found an entrance to a gold mine. “Yees! Yes, yes, yes!” he says, slapping the phone gleefully with his free hand. He quickly calls Snyder. “Snyder? Lattimer here! Have you got some free time this afternoon? Oh, I think it will be worth your time. Jose says the main excavation shaft is complete. Yeah, I know! That puts us well ahead of schedule! You want to see it?... I thought you would. I’ll pick you up at 1:30 and we should be on site in less than an hour. Bye.”

Lattimer and Snyder arrive at the first tram tower via jeep around 2:00 P.M.

“Is this thing still working ok, Jeff?” Snyder mumbles through his mask.

“The sinking problem is no longer an issue, Sam. The alloy composite is nothing short of miraculous in terms of what it can do. The money we’ll make selling it around the world will more than offset any expenditures we’ll occur here; and with Johnson almost out of the picture, we’ll soon have the whole enchilada, Everest, the tower, and Terra!” Snyder and Lattimer grin and do a “high five” hand slap. “Come on, Sam, Jose’s waiting for us.”

They enter an airlock just outside the tram gondola and the operator shuts the door from the outside. He hits a switch, and both men immediately feel the pressure change on their ears as the airlock begins to pressurize. An internal light goes from red to green, indicating the gondola and airlock are at equal pressure and the tram door opens up. “You can take off your mask now, Sam,” Lattimer says. Another light comes on, indicating the airlock has disengaged from the gondola.

“You are now clear for liftoff,” says the operator. With that, Lattimer, displaying a boyish grin, pulls a lever and the gondola lurches forward, rising slowly at first and then more dramatically as it speeds up and begins heading toward the very bowels of Mount Everest herself! Snyder and Lattimer jockey for viewing positions as they hold onto the inner poles for support. The gondola travels quickly along the lower western slope of Changtse. The view is spectacular.

“Man! What a ride!” Snyder exclaims. “This is way better than any amusement park!”

“You can say that again,” Lattimer replies smiling.

“Look over there!” Snyder say excitedly, seeing some yaks. “Are those sheep?”

“Nah”, Lattimer says, “that’s just Yeti laying down on the job.”

“Smart ass,” Snyder chuckles. The tram suddenly jolts and swings a little as it passes the second tram tower and begins to swing back east, following the lower contours of Chantgse. “Whoa,” Snyder says clutching the pole tightly. “I sure didn’t see that one coming!”

“Yeah”, Lattimer says. “Going over those tram tower pulleys can be a little bumpy.”

The Rongbuk glacier can be seen in all its glory, a seemingly solid river of sun washed ice and snow, working its way down the northeastern slope of Mount Everest. Once the fourth tram tower is reached on the trailing edge of Changtse, the complete northern face of Mount Everest can be viewed in its frightening entirety. The words of mere mortals will never do it justice. It is intimidating, massive and seemingly never-ending, blotting out almost the entire sky. A sterile, harsh, unrelenting triangular gray monolith interlaced with streaks and patches of snow and ice. Snyder’s jaw drops. Both men are transfixed by the view. Even Lattimer is silent, completely immobilized by the sight. No matter how many times he comes up here, it will never become routine. For this is Chomolungma, Sagarmatha, mother goddess of all earth! And who are these interlopers, these mere mortals, who dare to invade her holy spaces?

The tram continues south and slightly east, away from the North Col, a mammoth land bridge covered by ice and snow that connects the now seemingly puny Changtse to its mammoth sister mountain. The tram travels directly over the Rongbuk glacier as it approaches a large man-made cavity excavated in the bottom of Mount Everest, about 100 feet above the glacier to “insure” they stay above the snowline in the wintertime. For a brief moment, as the tram disappears within the hole, it appears as though Mount Everest has exacted her final revenge for this unseemly assault on her timeless dignity.

Upon entering the docking area, the tram lurches back slightly as it begins to brake, causing Snyder to lunge forward. He instinctively grabs for the closest support pole.

“Man, that was sudden!” he gasps.

“I know,” says Lattimer, “We haven’t worked out all the kinks yet on the braking mechanism.”

Snyder wipes his brow. “Oh well,” he says in his distinctly Bronx accent, “Rome wasn’t built in a day now was it?”

Shortly afterward, the red light comes on and the intercom comes alive with a crackling voice, “The tram will be docking momentarily. Please stay back from the doors until the green light comes back on again and the doors are completely opened. Thank you, for traveling with us and enjoy your stay at Lower New Everest.”

“Man, I like the sound of that!” says Snyder. The pressurized tram ride has lulled Snyder into a false sense of security. In his haste to exit the tram he has forgotten his oxygen mask. Lattimer, still transfixed by the ride, has neglected to tell him they were about to enter a non-pressurized work area at 20,570 feet, and unlike everyone else up there, Snyder was not acclimatized. Once the airlock shuts, the pressure begins dropping rapidly.

“Oh, my ears are popping!” Snyder says.

“Mine too,” says Lattimer.

Snyder begins to feel a little woozy. “Whoa, what’s going on here?” he says. Suddenly, Lattimer realizes what a stupid mistake he has just made. The cigar-chomping Snyder is a man with a heart condition and no oxygen! Lattimer grabs his arm to support him, realizing it’s too late to go back for the mask.

“Don’t worry Sam, the air’s a little thin up here. We haven’t gotten around to pressurizing things up here yet.”

“I think maybe I better sit down for as while,” Snyder says, sliding down the wall to the floor of the airlock. Alarmed, Lattimer pushes the large red emergency intercom button.

“Have an oxygen mask ready when the airlock opens and make it pronto!” Once the airlock opens, Lattimer motions to the operator to bring a small oxygen tank and mask, which he quickly places over Snyder’s face who is now close to losing consciousness.

“Here, breathe this. It will help clear your head.”

Snyder takes a few breathes from the mask, then, looking groggily at Lattimer, begins talking between breaths. “Maybe we better figure out a way to get some air up here, huh? We don’t want anybody passing out and falling off the mountain or something. Bad for business, you know?” Both men chuckle nervously.

“Hey boss! Glad you could make it!” Jose says to Lattimer. “Hey, Mr. Snyder! You ready for the...” Jose’s voice trails off suddenly when he looks down at Snyder’s limp body... “Hey, Mr. Snyder you all right? You don’t look so good.”

“We’ll, you don’t look so hot yourself, Jose,” Snyder says. Everyone laughs at the comment.

“Hey, I don’t look so good no matter where I’m at!” Jose laughs out loud.

“All right, all right,” Snyder says, getting up slowly with Lattimer’s help. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

Lattimer whistles at a construction worker driving a small, battery-operated vehicle. He waves him over to them.

“You’re Charlie, right?”

“Yes sir,” the man says.

“Listen Charlie, how does this thing work? We need some kind of transportation to get around up here and it looks like this is about as good as it’s gonna get.” Charlie begins to show Lattimer how to operate the vehicle.

“Dr. Lattimer, I’ll drive it for you. I know where we need to go,” Jose offers.

“Ahh, I wanted to be the driver,” Lattimer replies, feigning a pout.

“Suit yourself, boss,” Jose says.

Lattimer pats Jose on the back and grins, “I’m just kidding, Jose. Go ahead, drive us around.”

They enter a large shaft, its rocky roof dotted with dual sets of fluorescent lights like white stripes separating lanes in the middle of a freeway. Jose begins the tour. “We’re in the main shaft right now,” he says. “This baby is 25 feet in diameter and extends 1000 feet into the interior of the mountain, the same length as Snyderville! Hell, we may as well call this Upper Snyderville instead of Lower New Everest!”

Lattimer interjects, “The main difference is it’s built right into the mountain, instead of in a valley. Of course, there will be a 10-foot diameter tube running to within 15 feet of the north face. It will tee into another 10-foot diameter tube that runs parallel to the face, 25 feet in either direction with its outer wall only five feet from the face. Five-foot diameter tubes capped with acrylic portholes will be placed at 90 degrees along the outer edge of the observation tube. The rock and ice immediately in front of each porthole will be removed, allowing an unimpeded view of Changtse, the North Col, and the Rongbuk glacier. When the portholes get covered by ice or snow, sensors will aim a parabolic microwave beam at the obstruction, quickly melting it away.”

Jose, smiling, nods his head in approval and begins speaking, “We expect to be finished with all excavations by the end of next year.”

“I thought you said the excavations were completed?” Snyder whispers to Lattimer.

“Only the big shaft, Sam,” he whispers back. “Don’t worry, we are still way ahead of schedule here.”

“Stop the cart, stop the cart,” Snyder barks through the mask. The cart comes to an abrupt halt. Snyder turns to look at Lattimer. “I thought you said the excavations had to be completed before we can build anything in here?”

“Only if we use explosives, Sam,” Lattimer says. “These smaller shafts can be drilled out without explosives.”

“Are you sure about that?” Snyder asks.

“Where do you think came from?” Lattimer says, pointing to one of the small shafts.

“Don’t get smart with me, Jeff. I don’t like surprises, especially this far into the project.”

“Relax, Sam,” Lattimer says. “Everything is completely under control. Just sit back and enjoy the tour, ok?” Lattimer motions to Jose to start up the cart and the tour continues.

Jose takes a detour down one of the smaller, lighted shafts. About 100 yards into the tunnel its diameter drops to about 10 feet. The roof is dotted with a single string of 60-watt incandescent bulbs, reducing the visibility to that of a coal shaft.

“This is going to be a tight squeeze ladies,” Jose says, “so hold onto your hats and please keep your arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times.”

“Why has the shaft suddenly become smaller?” Snyder asks Lattimer. “This is one of the shafts leading to an observation area. This particular section goes to what will be an observation deck on the side of the mountain. It will also serve as an emergency exit.”

“An emergency exit?!” Snyder asks, concerned.

“Well, in case of an accident of some sort. You know, like a fire or something.”

“Or the roof caving in,” Jose chortles.

“Oh that’s real funny, Jose, real funny,” Snyder responds. Suddenly he becomes alarmed, “Can that happen Jeff?”

“No way, Sam. This mountain is rock solid, and these shafts are going to be reinforced with alloy composite. Like I said, Sam, just relax and enjoy the show.”

As Snyder turns away, Lattimer shoots an extremely harsh, beady-eyed glance at Jose, who cringes down in his seat and continues driving straight ahead. The slow steady pace seems like an eternity to Snyder, whose head is weaving aimlessly to and fro, along with the rhythm of the drive. Jose suddenly stops the cart and Snyder snaps to attention.

“OK gentlemen,” Jose says. “This is the end of the line. If I drive any further, it’s hasta la vista, baby.”

“Do you want to see what the view is like from here?” Lattimer asks Snyder.

“What’s out there?”

“Basically just air, what there is of it.” Jose interjects.

“No way,” Snyder says.

“Oh, come on, Sam,” Lattimer pleads. “There is a temporary deck out there. You won’t fall off. You came out all this way, might as well make it worth your while.”

“Are you sure this is , Jeff?” Snyder ask, obviously worried.

“Come on Mr. Snyder,” Jose shouts back as he walks toward the end of the tunnel. “We won’t let you fall off!”

The two men work their way through the small space between the tunnel and the cart and catch up with Jose. The end of the tunnel has been sealed temporarily with aspenite, a pressed wood chip product similar to particleboard but much more weather-resistant. A crude, hinged door has been cut out of the center of the aspenite and secured by a latch containing a pad lock. A harsh cold, eerie sounding wind whistles past the edges of the aspenite, banging it back and forth against the sides of the tunnel. Jose is fumbling around in his pockets looking for a key.

Suddenly, Snyder becomes alarmed again. “Hey, listen fellahs, I’ll take your word for it on the view, ok? Why don’t we get out of here, now?”

Jose already has the key in the lock, stops and turns to look at Lattimer. Lattimer, who is silent for a moment, finally relents.

“Ok, Sam. We don’t want to scare you to death on your very first visit up here. Come on Jose, let’s go home.”

Jose scratches the back of his head and removes the key.

“Ok, gentleman,” Jose says, “Getting home is gonna be a little trickier. We have to back out of here until we get to the bigger section of the tunnel. So please be patient because this is gonna take a while.”

“No problem,” says Snyder under his breath. “Just as long as we out of here.”