But his cry came an instant too late as Shipton plummeted past him, his ice ax swinging in a rip across Dean's calf as he plummeted backward into space, and down to the rocks and churning river below.
He swung his ice ax into the wall in front of him, dug in the toes of his crampons and began to ascend toward Dean.
Penny said, glaring at the officer as she tapped the handle of a sinister looking ice ax.
Shipton continued to chop, as if deciding this and not a direct blow from the ice ax was a far better way to remove this annoying impediment to his foolproof plan.
The leg wound from Shipton's flailing ice ax had been an eight-stitcher of no permanent consequence but the clump of frozen mountain Dean caught on the head kept him fuzzy and blurred his vision for a day and a half, necessitating the stay.
