Background

Hostage takes place in Dinosaur National Monument, a national park that straddles the Colorado-Utah border. While on a youth group hike, two fifteen-year-olds–a New Yorker named Alyssa and a Colorado boy named Rob–end up kidnapped and force-marched by a desperate criminal who's on the loose in the desert. This criminal (who the teens nickname "Skunk") uses Rob and Alyssa as hostages to help him escape the authorities pursuing him. After many misadventures and close calls, Skunk and the teens end up at Ruple Point, the high promontory of a cliff that drops several thousand feet to the Green River below. There, as a violent thunderstorm lets loose all around, the criminal orders the teens to use some stolen mountain climbing equipment to descend the cliff and escape their pursuers.

The following chapters occur about halfway through Hostage.

Chapter Thirty-Three

Alyssa had never been so scared in her life. Skidding about in the mud, she followed Rob almost out of control. Her feet slipped rather than stepped. More than once she lost her footing, landed on her rump, and slid several feet down the gulley before stopping. The ground was hard, rocky, and wet. She was totally soaked, but she paid no attention to her discomfort; she felt too frightened to care. Would Skunk really try descending the canyon wall to the river? Was that even possible? Or was it just another crazy Skunk idea–one that would get all three of them killed?

"Slow down!" she yelled to Rob a short distance ahead.

In the rainy gloom she couldn't see what lay below. Did the land curve all the way to the river? Could they simply scramble down? Or would they eventually reach a jutting slab of rock like those she'd seen from Ruple Point? Alyssa couldn't tell. The rain blocked her view. Then another flash of lightning lit up the landscape, and Alyssa saw that the gulley ended just a few dozen feet below. Beyond it lay nothing but air and rain.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Rob couldn't believe what he'd done. Of course it was Skunk who'd got them into this mess, but Rob knew that he himself had complicated the situation by implying he was an experienced rock climber. Now what would he do?

He had always felt proud of the trips he'd taken with his dad, trips that sometimes included climbing for fun but more often used climbing techniques simply as another tool for a paleontologist's work. Rob's dad occasionally approached fossil deposits by descending a rope to explore the fragmented slope below. Rob had even assisted him a few times. Under these circumstances, Rob had acquired most of his experience with rock-climbing gear and techniques.

But he didn't know very much. He certainly didn't know enough to feel right about dangling three people's lives from the strand of his knowledge. If he guessed wrong about what to do, Rob probably wouldn't live long enough even to understand what mistake he'd made.

Yet what choice did he have? Rob couldn't see any alternative to trying. Skunk was acting more and more desperate, and Rob couldn't even imagine what Skunk might do if he felt completely cornered. Descending the cliff frightened Rob less than facing Skunk's rage.

And so he fumbled downward. He worked his way among the pinyon and juniper trees growing here and there. He grasped the handholds and stepped on footholds with increasing care. He descended into a rocky trench that grew steeper with each successive step.

Chapter Thirty-Five

They had reached a precipice. Alyssa couldn't tell what it was, exactly, given the poor light and the rain. She couldn't see any more rocks or trees ahead, though, and she heard the same deep rushing sound she'd heard from Ruple Point. Wind shoved at her from below. She felt sick when she realized that a single step would send her tumbling downward hundreds of feet to her death.

"What'll we do?" she asked Rob when she reached him.

"We'll have to rappel," he replied.

Before she could demand an explanation, Skunk caught up with them. He peered over the edge. "What are you waiting for?" he screamed. He pulled off the climber's pack again, yanked the straps loose, and scattered all sorts of metal things into the mud. Alyssa had no idea what she was looking at. Climbing equipment of some sort. . . Skunk said, "Let's go, mountain man."

Rob started uncoiling the rope. His motions looked uncertain, awkward.

"You sure you know what you're doing?" asked Alyssa.

"Yeah, I'm sure," Rob blurted.

"But are you–trained?"

Rob's brow tightened. "My dad trained me."

"You mean you didn't go to a climbing school?"

"Hey!" shouted Skunk. "You two can argue once we're out of here. Right now I can't spare the time." He motioned impatiently with both hands. "Here's what we'll do. Rob goes first. That way we'll know right off if his technique isn't so hot. Either he succeeds or he doesn't. If he doesn't, he'll fall and die, and we'll know he flunked the test. No A for effort, right? But if he succeeds, we'll know that, too. Then Alyssa and I follow, and we're on our way."

Rob had begun to shake.

"Come on!" Skunk yelled. "What are we waiting for?"

"There's this technique called rappelling!" Rob shouted, his voice cracking. "It's a way of controlling your descent down a rope!" He started uncoiling the rope and heaping it in a pile at his feet. "There are several methods! One uses carabiners–"

"Cara who?" asked Skunk.

"Carabiners!" Rob stooped, picking up one of the metal devices that had fallen from the climbing pack. "They look sort of like huge paper clips, only with a gate that can open and close!" He pressed the gate, which made a crisp clicking sound. "You fit these together on the rope to form a braking device, then you–"

Skunk shook his head. "Too complicated!"

"There's another method–the dulfersitz! It's quicker to set up, but it requires more skill! I'm concerned–"

"We don't have time to chat! Just get us out of here!"

Lightning flashed again, followed at once by the ripping noise of thunder.

Rob set to work almost frantically, stammering explanations as he went. "You have to anchor the rope!" he called out. His voice was already hoarse. "In a place like this, we'll use a big rock or a well-rooted tree!" Rob slung a loop of odd-looking flat rope–thick as a leather belt, only bright yellow and shiny–around the base of a juniper. The two ends of the loop met easily. He clipped a carabiner to connect them. "That's the anchor! Now I'll pass the rope through the carabiner, and we'll descend the doubled rope! Once we're down, we'll pull the rope through and use it again."

"What about these things?" cried Alyssa, nudging the carabiner and the flat rope. "How do we retrieve them?"

"We don't! We'll sacrifice them! We have other things we'll use later!"

Rob demonstrated the dulfersitz technique. First he straddled the rope. Holding the anchored length of the doubled rope in his left hand, he slung a loop around his shoulder, down his back, and under his right thigh. Rob held the unanchored length of rope in his right hand. "You control your descent with this hand!" he shouted, motioning with his right. "The tighter you pull it forward, the more the rope's friction slows you down! The more you pull it backwards, the quicker you fall!"

The quicker you fall . . Alyssa imagined herself hurtling toward the rocks and the river. "What about my feet?" she asked.

"They'll be on the cliff," Rob said. The rainfall eased somewhat, letting him speak without hollering. "You sort of walk backwards down the wall. Or you can bound."

"Bound?"

"You'll be standing on the cliff, see, with your body parallel to the ground. You can bound outward from the wall, ease up on the rope, drop a ways, then tighten the rope to slow your descent."

Alyssa shuddered. "I don't like this," she said. "Can't you just lower me on the rope?"

Rob said, "That would be much more dangerous. Believe me, you're better off rappelling."

Three great lightning bolts struck in quick succession; the rain came down harder.

She knew that Rob was trying to calm her, but his reassurances made Alyssa feel more and more concerned. What if she couldn't learn the technique fast enough? What if Rob himself couldn't manage it under pressure? The rope was wet. Alyssa's hands already felt numb and achy from the cold. The rain streamed down on her, and she couldn't remember ever feeling so miserable. It wouldn't be difficult for her to lose control, slip, and fall.

Skunk glanced about, then raised one hand palm up toward the sky. The rain came down even harder. Skunk said, "Okay, enough coaching. The rest will be on-the-job training."

Alyssa said, "But is this really safe–"

"Who cares! Just get going!"

Alyssa could see Rob falter. He glanced at her, then at Skunk. Was he simply afraid? Or was he reluctant to leave the two of them alone? Skunk had made his wishes clear: Rob would descend first. After stalling a few more moments, Rob stuffed the mountaineering gear back into the stolen pack, then put it on. He checked the anchor and the rope. "Toss both ends off the edge!" he shouted.

Skunk gathered the loose coil, reared back, and threw the rope. The tangles of rope writhed as they dropped, disappearing almost without a sound.

Rob tilted backwards. The anchor held. Glancing one last time at Alyssa, he started down.