She pressed transmit. "Rudraprayag, this is the Kedarpur school bus. We are in position on the limestone ledge above the gorge. Water level is rising approximately one metre per hour. We have thirty-two children, all accounted for, minor injuries only. We are preparing to move to higher ground on the slope above the road. Please advise on ground team arrival time."
She released transmit and waited. Four seconds. Five. Then: "School bus, this is Rudraprayag Disaster Management, we have you. Ground team is at kilometer ten, proceeding on foot. Estimated arrival at your position approximately sixty to ninety minutes. Weather holding. Do not attempt the gorge-side. The slope on the uphill side — west of the road — is accessible. Move children in groups with the rope. Can you anchor the rope?"
She looked at the bus. At the chassis. At the rope. She thought about anchors. She had never done anything like this in her life. She thought about it anyway, because it was the next thing that needed thinking about.
"Vikram," she said. "How do you anchor a safety rope to a bus?"
He looked at the bus. He was fourteen years old and had grown up with a father who took him into gorges and taught him about limestone and he was looking at the bus with the specific kind of thinking that was not book thinking but physical thinking, the kind that worked with what was in front of you. "The tow hook," he said. "Under the front bumper. It's a rated anchor point. You tie to that and run the rope to the road."
"Can you do that?"
"Yes," he said. "Can you get them ready to move while I do it?"
"Yes," she said.
She went back to the bus. She looked at thirty-two children — frightened, watching her, depending on her — and she thought about sixty to ninety minutes. Sixty to ninety minutes of holding this situation together, moving groups across a flooded road section with a rope, getting everyone to higher ground before the water rose further. Sixty to ninety minutes was a long time. It was also the most specific and achievable timeframe she had been given since this began, and she held onto it with both hands.
"All right," she said. "Here's what we're going to do.
