Rock Climbers Abducted | Fight or Flight | 3
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Beth Rodden trudges up a hill through the grassy brush with the moon lighting her way. There's a well-worn path just next to her, but her captors won't let her walk on it because they're afraid they'll leave footprints. They can't be tracked.

Beth and the three friends, Tommy Caldwell, Jason Singer-Smith, and John Dickey, were taken hostage two days ago by a group of militant rebels in a remote area of Kyrgyzstan. The Americans had come to rock climb the region's famous stone cliffs, not shuffle up a hill at gunpoint. Beth knows their captors are hiding them from the Kyrgyz army.

The group spent yesterday cowering behind a boulder as bullets sprayed around them in a fight between the army and their captors. Then, last night, they forced Beth to hide, cramped in a tiny cave along the shore of a freezing river. Both experiences were horrible in their own ways, things she'll never forget if she makes it home alive. But for now, they're walking again under the cover of night,

Where they're being taken, Beth has no idea. Suddenly, the leader of their captors, Abdul, gestures for them to stop and sit down in the thick brush. She watches Abdul switch on the walkie-talkie that the kidnappers stole from them the day they took them hostage. Abdullah, Abdullah, Abdullah. Abdul repeats his friend's name like it's a chant. No response, just static.

Even in the dark, Beth can see something in Abdul's demeanor shift. Beth wonders what happened to Abdullah and Obed after they left the group. Maybe they ran into the soldiers and had another shootout. Abdul gets up and steps away from the group so that their other captor, Sue, can't hear what he's whispering. When he comes back, he's brisk, separating the four climbers into pairs.

He shoves Beth and John together and then starts pointing for Tommy to go bivouac with Singer and Sue. They won't be walking anymore for now. Beth follows Abdul and John as they tunnel into the thicket on the slope. She pulls apart the sharp branches to climb into a dusty depression. She can hear Tommy and Singer a few dozen feet away, making their own bivouac in the dense bush.

Beth continues to push through the shrub and finally settles herself next to John. The little rut they've found to block the wind was clearly dug by an animal. Will it return while they're sleeping? Beth is actually starting to feel more animal-like herself. Her senses are sharpening in the dark. She can feel Abdul close by, watching her. But she's so tired, she still manages to fall asleep.

Hours later, in the morning light, she's startled awake by a nearby rustling. Beth sits still and focuses on the sound that woke her up. Footsteps, only a few yards away. This sound could mean freedom, or it could mean death. She needs to know who it is. What would happen if she called out, if she screamed for help? Abdul must hear them too.

because he leans over to Beth and carefully places a large leafy branch over her and John. The beam of sunlight that was shining on them is gone. Is there any chance of them being spotted? A tense stillness settles on all three of them. Beth hears the whisper of quiet voices, tense discussions of the Kyrgyz soldiers. Beth wants to leap up and run, but she's frozen in place.

If she runs, she knows Abdul will shoot her. So she simply closes her eyes and holds her breath. After a few moments, the footsteps are gone. Was she imagining all of it? It almost feels like a dream. But when she turns her head, Beth can see on John's face that he heard it all too.

It must have been the soldiers, Beth tells herself. And they must have seen her blonde hair through the break in the bushes. That's why they didn't attack Abdul. They didn't want Beth to get hurt. So now, if they know where she is, that means someone will come back to rescue them. She just has to stay alive until they come back.

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In late July of 2000, four American rock climbers arrived in the Karasu region of Kyrgyzstan, one of the best spots in the world for big wall climbing. But what began as a mountaineer's dream quickly became a nightmare.

After just a couple of weeks in the remote region, the young climbers were kidnapped by a group of rebel militants and held for ransom. Forced by their captors to hide from the Kyrgyz military during the days and walk all night, the climbers do not know if they will survive and make it home. As they enter their fourth day of captivity, the climbers are starting to disagree about how they should escape. Some are convinced that they'll be rescued soon,

But others are beginning to believe they need to take matters into their own hands and fight to save their lives. This is episode three, Fight or Flight. Singer bites off half a power bar and passes the other half to John. They spent a few hours in their cramped hiding spots, but now they've been allowed out and are just sitting in the dirt. Singer's teeth feel slimy.

He hasn't brushed them in days, and all they've had to eat and drink are sticky power bars and silty river water. Singer's lived through plenty of experiences that most people would find excruciating. Once, his fingers almost froze while he was doing a solo climb on Baffin Island near the Arctic Circle. But he chose to put himself in that situation.

Now he's being forced into an extreme circumstance by a maniac. Singer glares at Abdul as he chews. He imagines taking his captor by the beard and beating his face in with the barrel of the rifle. He imagines the sound it would make snapping his nose. Singer is in a violent person, but these ruthless fantasies are consuming him. He wonders if his hunger is making his brain play tricks on him.

It takes him a moment to realize that Beth has been whispering something to the group. She says that she and John had seen soldiers walk by where they were hiding, and she was convinced the soldiers had seen them. Beth's theory is that the soldiers knew they were in trouble, but didn't attack Abdul in the moment because they didn't want to risk them getting hurt. Singer nods. This is good news, he guesses.

But he was only 40 feet away and he hadn't heard any soldiers walking by. Could Beth have imagined them? Maybe the lack of food is getting to her too, but he doesn't think it really matters whether there were soldiers there or not. In Singer's experience, it's always been up to him to save himself. Waiting passively for other people to save him seems like a bad bet.

Singer watches Abdul as he starts chanting Abdullah's name into the Motorola walkie-talkie again. It's become a ritual of sorts. The light on it is blinking, which Singer knows means the battery is almost dead. Dead like Abdul's friends, Abdullah and Obed, who disappeared last night to bring back food and never came back.

Singer sneers and starts to taunt Abdul in English. You're a moron. Your friends are probably dead, and so are the batteries in that radio. Do you like talking to a dead man? It feels exhilarating to insult Abdul to his face. Singer glances at Sue, who is sitting nearby, chewing his power bar like a cow, completely oblivious to what Singer is saying. It's easy to talk tough when the other person has no idea what he's saying.

But will he be able to be tough when the time comes? Beth might think help is on the way, but Singer knows they're going to need a plan to overtake their captors themselves. Tommy puts one foot in front of the other, forcing himself to keep walking. He's running on empty. It's been hours since he's had a sip of water.

Earlier, he and his friends had gotten so desperate that they'd choked down his contact lens solution. Abdul has been leading them in a zigzag up a steep hillside to higher and higher elevations, further and further away from the river they'd been close to for days. Tommy has no idea when they'll next find any water. The only thing he sees for miles is dirt and boulders.

Abdul crouches down and places his palm flat against the ground. Then he pulls up a plant and smells the roots. He shakes his head and then does it again a little further up the hill. Then again. What on earth could he be doing? Tommy wonders. Then Abdul halts in a low-line depression and calls the group over.

There in the ground is a tiny spring, the size of a soup bowl, covered in dead leaves. Tommy waits his turn, letting Beth and the others drink first. Then he gets on his knees, scooping away the leaves and a beetle that shimmers in the dark water like a coin. He drinks and drinks, but he can never quite sate his thirst. The water is cold and tastes like minerals.

He looks up and finds Abdul scowling at him, gesturing at Tommy to get up and keep walking. Tommy stands and does as he's told. There's a filmy deposit on his contacts, and his vision in the dark is splotchy. But even through his dirty lenses, he can see that Singer is falling behind. He doesn't seem to be doing well. He slips on the loose earth, and Tommy catches him under the elbow. Singer, are you okay?

I'm bogging, Tommy. Tommy knows this is very bad news. Bogging is climber slang for being past the point of physical endurance. And then, almost immediately, Singer collapses on the ground and curls up into a fetal position. Singer had seemed okay just a few hours earlier. He'd seemed like he was in control and had a plan. But Tommy gets it. He's also hungry and exhausted.

walking up the steep hill in the middle of the night, wanting nothing more than to be back home. But Tommy can't let Singer fall apart now. The last thing he wants is for Abdul to see them and sense weakness. Tommy takes Singer's arms and helps him up. "Come on, Singer. We have to keep moving." Tommy gestures to Beth. He knows she has a Three Musketeers bar she's been saving for an emergency.

Tommy breaks off a piece and puts it in Singer's mouth. Singer chews, and the glazed look slowly clears from his eyes. Tommy is flooded with relief, but he knows Singer's collapse is a bad sign for the rest of them. Singer's one of the best climbers in the world. If he's succumbing to exhaustion, then the rest of them might fall apart soon, too. John spoons Beth protectively in their bivouac hideout.

They climbed the hill all evening, stopping to rest only a few times. But as soon as the sun started to rise, Abdul forced them back into a hiding spot. By John's count, it's now their fourth day as hostages. Not that John ever trusted Abdul, but today he's gotten worse, masturbating in the cramped bivouacs beside them.

It's been repulsive and weird. And Beth is so sweet that it makes John want to do everything he can to protect her. He wonders how hard it would be to steal Abdul's gun and shoot him. Suddenly, a helicopter appears and hovers by the side of the mountain, almost right at their eye level. The wind from its rotors blows on the branches of their hiding spot.

Is the helicopter tracking them? Maybe the helicopter will land and the soldiers will come out and save them. Beth turns to smile at him knowingly. See, John? They're here. But the copter doesn't land. It circles and flies away. Helicopters have been going by every day, and they've never landed. It was stupid, John thinks, for him to get his hopes up. He sees the disappointment on Beth's face, too.

She was thin before, but now her face is gaunt. He's sure he looks just as frightening. He's already had to tighten his belt three notches. How many more days did they have in them before they collapsed from hunger and exhaustion? To stop thinking this way, John starts to sing a Bob Marley song quietly. He repeats the lyrics over and over again. "'Everything's gonna be all right.'"

Beth joins him, humming the song. John peers out of the branches that cover the bivouac and sees Abdul leaning on a boulder nearby, fiddling with his radio. He stops on what sounds like the news. It's in a language John doesn't understand. But he stops humming when he hears the President of the United States' name on the radio. Beth's eyes go wide. She whispers excitedly, "'It's about us.'"

Somehow, to Beth, hearing Bill Clinton's name means that he's looking for them, and they'll be rescued soon. See, John? The Marines are coming, and they're tracking us from the satellites with infrared sensors. John wishes he could have Beth's faith. He doesn't want to burst her bubble, but she lost him at infrared sensors.

They're lying in a brambly bush high up in the mountains of a foreign land, and it's just a matter of time before they either starve or get shot. The president of the United States is clearly not looking for them. John doesn't think anybody knows that they're even missing, including his girlfriend back home. He sighs, missing her and her warm bed and everything else he's left behind.

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Head over to Symbiotica.com and use code ODDS for 20% off and free shipping on your subscription order. Tommy sits on a rock, soaking up the sun like a lizard. All around them, the Kyrgyz mountains are quiet. The only sound is the wind. Sue's been allowing him and Singer to crawl out of their cramped hiding space to get some fresh air, provided they hide again when helicopters fly by.

Tommy watches Singer pace in between two juniper trees, muttering to himself. Tommy wonders if his friend is going a little crazy. Since he almost collapsed from exhaustion yesterday, Singer seems to be running on a new manic energy. Tommy listens as Singer launches into an obsessive monologue that their captor seems oblivious to.

Tommy doesn't think Singer is wrong. But what are they supposed to do? He looks on as Singer picks up a sharp stick and stabs it into a tree trunk like a sword.

Tommy wonders how much longer Singer is going to be talking like this. It's creeping him out. He flinches when Singer stabs the tree so hard that the stick breaks.

Tommy looks over at Sue uneasily. How can he be this oblivious? Tommy watches as Singer drops the branch in the dirt and squints out at the mountain range. Then he turns abruptly back to look at Tommy and starts to speak again. Tommy, when I woke up today, I realized that something was different inside me and I just figured it out. I've lost any compassion for these men. I'm ready to do whatever it takes to get out of here.

This change in Singer is unsettling. Tommy sees a wildness in his eyes, and he doesn't know who scares him more now, Singer or their captor Sue. If surviving this ordeal means losing his own humanity, he isn't sure he has it in him. He picks up a small stone and turns it over in his hand. Is violence really their only way out? ♪

Beth hikes alongside Tommy in the waning light. Now that the sun has set, they're on the move again, following Abdul through the rocky terrain. She can sense that there's something Tommy wants to discuss. His brow is wrinkled. He's in deep thought. Beth touches his arm lightly to get him to hang back out of earshot of everyone else. What's wrong, Tommy? Beth listens as he lets it all out.

He tells her how disturbing it's been listening to Singer go on and on about the violent ways he'd kill Sue and Abdul. Beth nods. John's been saying similar stuff about wanting to steal Abdul's gun and shoot him. It sounds unhinged. John's from Texas, so maybe he's shot a gun before. But he certainly hasn't shot a person. They're rock climbers, not killers.

She looks up ahead and notes that John and Singer are walking together. She's sure they're plotting, egging each other on. Beth turns to Tommy and whispers, "I want no part of their plan, and you should stay out of it too." Beth wants to be rescued. She doesn't think they'll have to fight their way out. She's pretty sure the soldiers who walked past their hideout saw her blonde hair.

They've probably already put a mission into motion and alerted the U.S. government. It's just a matter of time. A helicopter would land soon, and they would get on it, and that would be that. John and Singer doing something crazy could put all of that in jeopardy. She looks to Tommy and studies his face before speaking again. Tommy, we can't do anything. Let's just wait, okay?

Tommy stays lost in thought for a moment before answering breathlessly, Okay. Beth is relieved that they're on the same page. She can't have Tommy being convinced to risk his life by the other guys. Tommy's the most sensitive person she knows. She's seen him trap flies in their tent and release them so as to not have to hurt them. The violence that John and Singer want, Tommy would never be able to handle it.

Singer unzips the sleeping bag all the way and wraps it around the shoulders of his friends. He feels a weird twinge of guilt for using the sleeping bag. It once belonged to Turat, a Kyrgyz soldier who was taken captive the same day they were kidnapped, then Abdul killed him. But Singer tries to shake off that memory. It's cold outside. They need warmth.

Singer and his fellow climbers have been allowed to stop and rest on a hillside overlooking two rivers down below. The moon is high, glowing from behind the clouds. Singer cozies up with his friends under the sleeping bag and watches Abdul pace back and forth, speaking into the walkie-talkie, calling for his friend. Abdullah, Abdullah, Abdullah. Abdullah left the group days ago to find food and never returned.

Abdul repeats his friend's name desperately, almost like a sort of prayer. There's no way he could possibly believe he's still alive. Singer looks over at John. With no response from Abdullah for days, it means Abdul and Sue are their only captors. It's four on two now. But Singer doesn't allow himself to show any signs that something is out of the ordinary.

Instead, he relays his plan, slow and steady. He keeps his voice incredibly calm and speaks softly in a made-up coded language referring to Abdul as Big Dog and Sue as Little Dog. Now seems like a really good time for Beth and Tommy to go ahead and tackle Little Dog and for me and John to push Big Dog off this cliff. Beth stares back at him blankly. Singer, are you nuts?

Singer looks away. He doesn't want Abdul or Sue to witness the conversation getting heated. Beth keeps talking, even though he's not looking at her. The army is going to rescue us. They saw my hair. They know we're here, and they're going to help us. You want us to do something crazy, but they'll just shoot all of us. Singer plasters a big smile on his face, in case their captors are looking his way.

Beth doesn't know how to be cool in these situations. The thing is, we can't wait forever. What if the soldiers don't come, Beth? How long can we wander around like this before someone gets really hurt? It's time to take matters into our own hands. Singer winces when John elbows him in the side. He's warning him that Abdul is suddenly looking at them. Singer nods and stretches, pretending to be casual.

He clears his throat and spits over the edge of the cliff. If he can't get Beth and Tommy on board, sure, that'll make the task harder. But either way, he needs to do something soon. He'll act alone if he has to. Beth follows Abdul down into a dark gully filled with loose rubble. The moon has set, making it very hard for her to see where she's going.

She almost twists her ankle on a tree root as she stumbles into the night. After an hour or so of moving through the dry channel, the terrain underneath her feet changes and opens up to a steep slope. The ground is now covered in grass slick with dew. She reaches out and holds on to Tommy to regain her balance as they hike down the embankment. When they get to the bottom of the slope, there's a massive boulder that someone has hollowed out for a makeshift house.

No one is inside, but there are walls to protect from the wind and a flat floor covered in straw. As Abdul waits for Sue and the other boys to catch up, Beth and Tommy crawl inside and stretch out on the straw. Not exactly a hotel bed, but after sleeping on rocks and roots for four days now, the straw floor is cozy and the walls keep the wind out.

She feels almost warm. For the first time in days, her constant shiver subsides. But before she can get too comfortable, Abdul hits the shelter wall with the butt of his gun. They've got to keep moving. She takes Tommy's hand and lets him pull her up. They walk on, following Abdul. But Beth drags her feet. It's getting to be too much, and there's no end in sight. And she's starving.

Almost a week with nothing but small bites of a power bar starting to drive her mad. She starts to list all the things she misses as they walk. I miss my mom and dad, my brother, but also the chicken Caesar salad from Dos Coyotes, Baskin Robbins, two scoops of gold medal ribbon and mint chocolate chip. In a cup, not a cone, but I take it in a cone too.

They walk and walk endlessly, her voice trailing off. Then finally, they reach the base of a limestone cliff. Beth watches as Abdul takes off his own cap and puts it on Singer's head, tucking Singer's shaggy blonde hair into it. Seeing Abdul nervously cover Singer's hair makes her certain that the Kyrgyz soldiers spotted her in the hideout. It must mean that Abdul is scared.

He knows it's just a matter of time before the soldiers will be back. But this time, they won't be leaving without the Americans. John huddles next to Beth, watching Abdul pray, as he does every morning. He's forced them to hide under the base of the limestone cliff among the boulders and brush. When Abdul finishes, John notices a small, well-thumbed book in his vest pocket—

John points to Abdul's pocket and says, Quran. He's hoping to ingratiate himself. The more Abdul will trust them, the better off they'll be. Abdul smiles and takes the book out of his pocket and holds it gingerly. He leafs through the tissue thin pages and reads a few lines to him. John doesn't understand the language, but he grew up as the son of a Church of Christ deacon, so he knows what preaching sounds like.

John watches as Abdul scratches the shape of a cross in the dust between them. He points from the cross to the Quran, as though trying to say that they're related. Then, abruptly, he erases the cross with his hand and points at the Quran emphatically with his finger. John nods, not knowing quite what to say.

After a few moments of awkward silence, Abdul makes his way out into the scrub, and Beth turns to John and addresses him in a whisper. "John, do you believe in God?" John looks out of the limestone cave, eyeing Abdul and the automatic weapon hanging from his shoulder. He then shakes his head no. He hasn't believed in God since he was a kid, performing on the preaching circuit in Texas.

Religion had given him a sense of security then, but now he sees it as a false hope. If there was a God, how did they end up in this situation? John still believes that there is some sort of goodness in everyone though, but he still believes that they will have to do something drastic to get themselves out of here. He looks over to Beth, who is squeezing her eyes shut.

From where he sits, it looks like she, too, has started praying. He's startled when she speaks up. How can we possibly kill anyone? Don't you want to go home, Beth? John does. And it seems like he's the only one willing to do what it takes to get there.

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Tommy almost gasps when they round the bend. He can't believe what he's seeing.

They've been walking for hours since the sun went down. And now, they're back by the trail that follows the Karovshin River. Abdul is leading them upstream. And even though they're walking in the dark, Tommy's never seen a detailed map of the region. Tommy's pretty sure they're heading back to where they came from. He hears Singer start cursing behind him. It's clear Tommy isn't the only one who's noticed where they're headed.

Singer catches up to Tommy and whispers, they're taking us back to where we started, where the shootout was. It's going to be crawling with soldiers. Do you think they're lost, Singer? John, who is limping along beside Tommy, points to Abdul and Sue. Their captors are fanning out, guns raised.

Tommy listens to John as he barks at Singer. They know exactly where they're going. They're trying to smuggle us across the border to either Uzbekistan or Tajikistan. The soldiers must be surrounding us. That's why they're going in circles. Tommy watches as Abdul crouches behind a rock, then runs for cover behind a tree. He and Sue are probably 50 feet ahead of them, distracted by scouting the path.

This is the moment, Tommy thinks. A good time to make a run for it. But then he looks over at John. He's limping badly. He's been complaining about his swollen knees since having to curl up in cramped bivouacs. The steep descent down the mountains hasn't helped matters. It's too dangerous to make a break for it, Tommy thinks. They'd be easy targets. But then Tommy gets another idea.

If the Kyrgyz soldiers are in the area, he'd want them to see the climbers clearly. Days ago, he turned his metallic blue coat inside out so that the black lining faced outwards to camouflage himself better in the night. He didn't want to get shot during the shootout. But now he decides it'll be best to turn it right side out. The light blue reflective material shines in the moonlight.

Tommy's sure the Kyrgyz soldiers will be able to spot them now and come to their rescue. Pleased with himself, he pulls on Singer's sleeve, gesturing to the new way he's wearing his jacket. But Singer isn't pleased like he'd hoped. He points and hisses back at Tommy. What the hell are you doing? You're going to get us killed. Tommy quickly turns his coat back inside out before Abdul notices. Singer's probably right.

They don't want to risk making Abdul angry. But would he even know Tommy's intentions? It's so confusing to know what the right course of action is. And Tommy can't help but wonder if Singer is plotting something bigger. Or is Singer just all talk and no action? Maybe Tommy has been relying too much on Singer to get them out of here. It might be time for him to make a move on his own. ♪

Singer takes a seat in the dust and leans up against a tree. The river roars just 50 feet away, spraying them with mist. He watches as Abdul points upriver, then says, Soldat, the Russian word for soldier. Then he does the sign of a slit throat and spooning food into his mouth.

Singer exchanges a look with the others. What is Abdul trying to say? That he's going to kill the soldiers and steal their food? Or is he saying that Sue, his soldier, will kill them if they try to escape while he goes out to get food? It's so hard to communicate without a shared language. And the violence of the situation doesn't ease the tension. But Singer is too tired to understand the sign language anymore.

What does it matter anyway? The threat of death is around every corner. He doesn't need hand signals to understand that. The sound of the rushing river and his complete physical exhaustion catches up with him. And soon, he's drifting off to sleep.

But then he's shaken awake by Abdul. He's telling them they have to go. How long was Singer asleep? Around him, his fellow climbers start to stir. They get up to their feet, all of them groggy. How much more of this constant traveling can they endure? Then Singer notices something different. They're missing someone. Sue isn't with them.

He looks around. No sign of Sue anywhere. But where did he go? Will he be coming back? The group shuffles after Abdul into the night, but Singer can't stop wondering what happened to Sue. Now it's four on one.

But then, about a quarter mile upstream, they see Sue, standing with two sacks of food. Another potential moment to escape has passed. They all slowly approach Sue, and Abdul roughly takes the bags from his hand and begins passing them around. It's been days since Singer has eaten anything but a few bites of a power bar. He's drooling at the very thought of food.

When he reaches in the first bag, he takes out a fistful of little white balls the size of walnuts. They must be made of yogurt. He shoves several in his mouth at once, trying to ignore the moldy smell. When he bites through the outer shells, they ooze a bitter sour cream. It coats his tongue and makes him gag. The other bag of food is even worse. Rancid yak butter.

Singer looks at Sue, who is also trying to force the food down. And it dawns on Singer that the captors are weakening too. His chance to attack them is coming, but will he have enough strength himself to win out in a struggle? Beth takes a step behind Tommy as Abdul approaches them. He watches as he points at himself and then toward a steep mountain in the distance.

Based on all of the landmarks they've been able to identify from the bank of the river, it seems like Abdul is going back to their base camp alone. That means he's going to leave them all with Sue. He shakes hands with the men, like he's their friend and they've just been on an adventure. He doesn't shake Beth's hand, though. She knows it's because she's a woman. But before he leaves the group, he strips Singer of his coat. Beth feels like she's in a dream.

She's light and empty as a ghost. She's eaten nothing today but a few rancid yogurt balls and drank a handful of brown water from an algae-filled pool. They've crossed the Karasu River again, and she has no idea what's going to happen next, where they're being taken. But as Abdul makes his way out into the darkness, Singer subtly gets her attention. He seems excited as he whispers to her,

Now's our chance. She listens in horror as he and John immediately start making plans to kill Sue. But when they look expectantly at Tommy, Beth has to step in. She'd rather suffer and stay alive than take any chances, she tells them. She can see the fear and hesitation on Tommy's face, and she feels protective. Why can't Singer leave him alone?

Singer, if you and John are going to do this, that's on you. Leave us out of it. Go on ahead then. That way you won't get hit by Little Dog when we throw him down the mountain. We won't have long until Big Dog comes back. Beth can sense a note of bitterness in Singer's voice, and it unnerves her. Is this really what's going to happen? She looks over to Tommy, expecting him to back her up, to tell Singer he can't risk their lives.

But Tommy doesn't say anything. He just looks at John and Singer solemnly and nods his head slightly. Then he looks to Beth, stares her deep in the eyes. It's like he's asking her for permission to kill someone. But Beth knows Tommy isn't hard like John and Singer. If he participates in their violent plan, he won't be able to handle it. But three against one is certainly better odds.

But what if the plan backfires? If any of them get hurt, Tommy would never forgive himself. But the more he looks at her, the more Beth knows he's already made up his mind. This is episode three of our four-part series, Rock Climbers Abducted.

A quick note about our scenes. In most cases, we can't know exactly what was said, but everything is based on historical research. If you'd like to learn more about this event, we highly recommend the book Over the Edge by Greg Child. I'm your host, Cassie DePeckel. Katia Apikina wrote this episode. Our editors are Matt Wise and Maura Waltz. Our

Our consultant is Greg Child. Our associate producer is Brian White. Our audio engineer is Sergio Enriquez. Sound design is by Joe Richardson. Our senior producer is Andy Herman. Our executive producers are Stephanie Jens and Marshall Louis. For Wondery. Wondery.

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