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nowhere but was still very close. We’re halfway there. Christoph’s body pushed itself forward, mindlessly as a machine.
    Clemens had been listening with shining eyes. I’ve gotta get in there, he said, when Christoph stopped. Will you take me? Christoph said there were no tours to that part of the cave. You could put in a word for us,said Clemens. He said he was prepared to pay. Sabine looked into Christoph’s eyes with a mixture of skepticism and adventure lust. It would be simplest for you, he said, you’re slimly built. It’s not dangerous, he said, the only danger is being afraid. Fear, he repeated, is the only danger.
    Clemens went to the washroom. Christoph saw him exchange words with the waiter before disappearing downstairs. Even before he had returned, the waiter had brought a bottle of wine and three glasses.
    How long have you two been together? Christoph asked.
    Two years, said Sabine. He’s crazy, she said. He does all kinds of things, freeclimbing, canyoning, off-track skiing. Once he smashed into a snow slab because he was in slack country. He’s completely crazy.
    YOU CAN STAY WITH US , Clemens had said, and ordered another bottle of wine, which he’d gone on to drink almost alone. They talked about the equipment, dry runs, and the best time for the expedition. Sabine hardly drank anything, and was as quiet as before. Christoph still disliked Clemens, but he allowed himself to be caught up in the excitement. It was like a game, a contest. It wasall about—suddenly it dawned on him—who was going to get Sabine. They were fighting over this cool, childlike woman, who wasn’t even paying attention. He felt he had blundered into a trap. When Clemens asked him to stay the night, he had no choice. The game had to be played to a finish.
    Christoph felt the alcohol, but he wasn’t drunk. Clemens staggered up the steps of the apartment complex. It took him forever to get the key in the lock. From the very first moment, Christoph felt ill at ease in the apartment, he didn’t know why. His hosts seemed to have no sense of beautiful things. They had the bare necessities, and even so the apartment looked untidy. The furniture didn’t match and was in the wrong places, jumbled together by chance, it seemed, as though it had been unloaded and left standing there.
    Clemens had disappeared without a word. Sabine showed Christoph the guest room. He watched as she made the bed. She went out and came back with a towel. Clemens is asleep already, she said. He didn’t even get undressed.
    Christoph went to the bathroom. When he was finished, he found Sabine in the living room, leafing through a photo album. He sat down beside her, and she handed the album over to him and went to the bathroomherself. Gunung Mulu, Malaysia, he read at the top of the page. The pictures were not very good. You couldn’t light a big cave with a single flash. On some of them you could see Clemens, on others there was a pretty blond woman, with a gamine expression. The last picture showed them standing together in dirty overalls, with tired smiles on their faces. Between them stood a native, about a head smaller, and with an alert expression. At the back of the album was a sheaf of photos that hadn’t yet been stuck down. Christoph began going through the album from the front. Pictures from a different expedition. There was the blond woman again, this time in a diving costume.
    That’s his ex, said Sabine. She stood in front of him in leggings and an orange sleeveless T-shirt. She had narrow hips and a flat boyish chest. She asked him if he wanted a drink. What about a beer? A glass of water, said Christoph.
    She brought it to him and sat back down. He went on leafing through the album, and they saw photos of beaches and old temples, and over and over again the blond gamine. They broke up over that business of the snow slab, Sabine said. It took Clemens a long time to get over her. Do you like her?
    Her hands were folded in her lap.