On Top of the World by Victor Appleton

Author:Victor Appleton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin

The return trip down the Khumbu Icefall was uneventful.

I’d warned Bud to stay mum about the mystery footprints, but other Sherpa guides had spotted them too, and news had already spread through the Base Camp by the time we arrived. Sherpas were less outgoing; some even seemed grim. Mountaineers peppered me with questions. I tried to downplay the discovery, but the buzz continued throughout the day.

I felt less fatigued, and Bud was looking much better too. But we decided to follow the usual acclimation method and stay at Base Camp for at least one more full night. The gear I’d requested wouldn’t arrive until the next day anyway, so I fired up the Sub-Orbiter for a quick trip to retrieve A.N.G. from Camp I, then came back to Base Camp.

Sometime in the early afternoon, my PDA beeped with an incoming call. It was Yo.

“Hey, dude,” I said. “How’s the family?”

“Big,” she said.

“Having fun?” I asked.

“It’s a party,” she replied. “How about you?”

“Things are . . . very interesting here,” I said.

“So I’ve heard,” she said. “I’ve got a bug fix for you.”

“For A.N.G.?”

“Yep,” she said. “I’m uploading a patch right now.”

“Sweet!” I exclaimed. “What was the problem?”

“I found an infinite loop in the source code,” she said. “That ‘circle dance’ A.N.G. did is an escape maneuver for certain situations—in particular, when he loses all traction, which I’m guessing is what happened.”

“Good guess,” I said. “He was crossing a very slick ice slab.”

“Anyway, A.N.G. got stuck in the loop because my lame code didn’t give him a way out.” She paused. “Aren’t you going to mock me, Swift?”

“Maybe later,” I said with a grin.

“Well, let me know how it works,” she said. “For now a simple reboot should get him moving again.”

I slapped my forehead. “Of course!” I said. “I should have tried rebooting instead of making Gombu carry a seventy-five pound robot on his back up a flipping glacier.”

“No, actually, you were right,” said Yo. “The way he’s programmed now, A.N.G. probably would have just gotten caught in a loop again. But this patch should fix it for you.”

“Thanks, man,” I said.

“Good luck,” she said. “Hey, I hear you made friends with a hot Sherpa girl.”

“What?” I almost yelled.

Yo chuckled. “Yeah, Bud says she’s smart and cute and he can tell she likes you.”

“She’s not that cute,” I lied.

“Right.”

“Hey, Pasang is my guide,” I said.

“I’ll bet she is,” said Yo.

“Leave me alone,” I said, turning red I’m sure. Yo liked to give me a hard time about all kinds of things, especially other girls.

“Okay, okay,” laughed Yo. “By the way, my computer now says the patch is fully uploaded. Go for it, dog.”

“Okay,” I said.

“Adios.”

“Yeah, adios.”

Sure enough, my PDA gave its “e-mail received” chime, and I found a rather large bug patch attached. Yo had also attached a text file with instructions. It looked like the fix would take a few hours because of built-in diagnostic routines that would run, so I wouldn’t have time to physically test A.N.G. up on the glacier or anywhere else that day.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.