Page 16 (1/2)

Ty cli decisions about which handhold or foothold he wouldthe wall like a spiderto one spot, the ued his muscles would be and the more difficult it would be to continue upward

Ty didn"t dally He was heading steadily toward thethere

"Great," Zane hest route" As the rope grew taut in Zane"s hands, he carefully let loose soot, thein bed this hly trained Marine, and a little rock wall like this was aht really didn"t help Zane feel any better, though Again he thought of Ty swinging around like a circus clown, and he pulled at his harness uncoood cliile ascent

Ty slowed to a stop, briefly fussing with the line that had gotten tangled "Tension!" he called down

Zane pulled carefully on the line to tighten it up "Yeah, he loves this kind of stuff," he replied absently, not taking his eyes off his partner

As soon as the slack was taken up, Ty started up and over again

He was definitelybecause it offered a more difficult climb The outward incline ht as he went, and it was her Even from twenty-five to thirty feet below, Zane could see theas he neared the tip of the outcrop It then occurred to Zane that he hadn"t even thought about Ty"s fingers The surgery on Ty"s hand hadn"t been all that long ago, and Zane hadn"t asked if Ty had regained the strength and flexibility he was used to

As if in answer to his question, Ty gave a short shout of frustration frorip one of the outermost notches with that hand He pulled it back and shook it, looking down at the He leanedinon the holds Zane thought he

"Fingers!" Ty called down, shaking the the

"I did! They didn"t like it!" Ty called down

Zane could see hi for a different hold, probably one that wouldn"t tax those weak fingers quite so much Ty looked down at his harness suddenly, and at the same time Zane felt the rope lose tension in his hand Zane pulled down on the rope to take up the slack, figuring Ty was preoccupied enough with his fingers not to call out

Ty looked down at them in consternation "Tension!" he shouted down, even as the rope grew slack once again in Zane"s hands If Ty"s end was slack, Zane"s should have been getting tauter, not the other way around

"What"s with the rope?" Zane asked Manny as he kept pulling on it without finding any resistance He saw Ty glance down at hi in alar that Zane couldn"t hear or see Ty"s free hand scrabbled at his harness, alhly uncharacteristic of him

"Rock!" Ty called out, his voice just as panicked as his actions

The warning that an object was falling confused Zane just asknot that bound the rope to his harness The rope in Zane"s hand suddenly thu noise as dozens of feet of the heavy blue nylon rope fell frohts of the rock wall

"Hold on!" Zane yelled as he realized the anchor rope had just snapped There was nothing he could do but watch, shocked and sick and scared as Ty fought to find purchase on the wall more than thirty feet above hi to free hi in line for their turn at the wall began to screa The shorter end of the broken rope, the one still attached to Ty, fell past him just as he whipped the knot loose and threw it away fro rope was enough to pull at hied his body away fros and one ar free from the wall The rope landed with an anticlimactic thud several yards away froled fro as if buffeted by the ocean breeze

"Thron another rope," Zane de at so?" Frustrated beyond belief, Zane h that heHis heart was in his throat and blood was rushing in his ears It was one thing to be in trouble and stay cal there motionless for an eternity He didn"t kick his feet in a panic or even try to reach for an extra handhold with his free hand

The only things keeping hi to the doom he"d joked about not ten ers

He looked down at Zane as everyone on the platform scraly calasps fro crowd

Zane shaded his eyes as he looked up at his partner and sed hard before answering "Will you quit showing off!" he yelled, trying to play off the fear buzzing in the air around the frantic hi wall accident probably wouldn"t look good on him or the cruise line Neither would the blood smear

Ty twisted and reached out slowly for the wall He was hanging fro, possibly the worst place for hiet his feet under hi would be hard with only one hand On the plus side, if he"d been anywhere else on the wall, he probably would have fallen when the rope did

Ty gripped another hold, and Zane saw the muscles in his shoulders and back bunch as he tried to pull hiain, Zane heard a very un-British curse drift down

Zane cla to Manny "Is there anyone up top to drop a secure line?"

"They"re working on it, sir," Manny said shakily, holding up the tay