Cody glanced at Sauri, the Inuit soldier who stood alongside his companion and watched the activity in silence. His face was carved with the same sharp angles as the glaciers that enveloped the bleak landscape that was his home, his eyes as black and dark as the night outside.
‘You agree with that, Sauri?’ Jake asked him.
The Inuit’s only response was to raise one eyebrow a fraction. Bradley laughed out loud and clapped his hand across Sauri’s back.
‘Old Sorry here doesn’t say much,’ he reported, ‘nothing wrong with his English, mind. He’s just not sociable.’
‘Great,’ Charlotte uttered. ‘Six months with a mute Eskimo and a gobby Canadian. You owe us all a drink Jake, come the summer.’
Bradley looked at Charlotte as though he’d been slapped. Cody thought he saw a glimmer of amusement in Sauri’s eyes.
‘Who’s the wench?’ Bradley asked Cody as he jabbed a thumb in Charlotte’s general direction.
‘Who’s the goon?’ Charlotte snapped back before Cody could reply.
‘Great start guys,’ Jake uttered. ‘We’ll have time for happy-clappy introductions later. Right now let’s just get our gear unpacked and get our heads down. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover in the morning.’
‘We?’ Bradley uttered as he turned away. ‘Sauri and I are done here. Don’t wake us up too early, ‘kay?’
Cody watched the two soldiers make their way out of the entrance hall, dragging their kit bags behind them.
‘Please don’t put me next door to either of them,’ Bethany muttered to Jake. ‘Trent gives me the creeps already.’
‘Same here,’ Charlotte agreed.
Jake sighed. ‘Fine, you girls go pick your rooms. We’ll follow you in.’
‘Looks like you’re too late,’ Bobby said as he gestured across the living quarters.
Cody looked up just in time to see Reece Cain vanish down a corridor toward the rooms and turn into the nearest one.
‘He always that friendly?’ Jake asked.
‘I have no idea,’ Charlotte said. ‘He’s barely said a word to me since we met.’ She turned and looked over her shoulder at Cody. ‘Nor have you, for that matter.’
Cody managed a grin and stuck his hand out. ‘Sorry. Cody Ryan.’
Charlotte took it as Cody introduced himself to the others.
‘Cody was late to the party,’ Jake said. ‘Jeff Dawkins was supposed to be up here with us, but he got sick. Cody here jumped in to replace him.’
‘Mighty brave of you,’ Bethany smiled. ‘And what possessed you to come up here?’
Cody looked at her for a long moment before he replied. ‘Once in a lifetime opportunity, I guess.’
‘Well, you sure as hell got yourself that,’ Charlotte uttered as she hauled her gear onto her shoulder and headed for the rooms. ‘See y’all in the morning.’
Cody watched her leave with Bethany close behind. Only Jake remained as Cody hefted his bag onto his shoulder.
‘You going to be okay up here?’ Jake asked.
Cody looked at the old man. ‘Sure, why?’
‘You’re the only team member with a young family,’ Jake said. ‘Kind of odd that you’d sign up for something like this.’
Cody twisted his lips into a grin again. ‘The things we do for science, eh?’
Cody turned away and walked out of the living quarters without looking back.
***
2
Week 1
Dear Maria,
The crew have settled in and we’ve started work on both the atmospheric sampling and the extraction of ice cores. Jake has already proven himself an effective leader and is using our acoustic suite to measure ice density changes since the last team made their measurements in the fall. Workload is relatively high and we’re spending a lot of time out on the ice getting our experiments set up. Jake is keeping all of us busy and so far the lack of sunlight doesn’t seem to be creating any issues for me.
Our guards, Bradley and Sauri, remain aloof and disinterested in our work. In addition, Reece Cain prefers to sleep in the small ice camp that’s been set up five kilometres out from the observatory. This is causing some friction with Bradley, who resents having to send Sauri out each night to accompany Cain due to the threat from polar bears investigating the camp.
Charlotte hit it on the head though: Sauri and Reece both shun contact. They’re probably perfectly happy out there.
I miss you very much, and I hope that you’re behaving for your mother. Overall, I have no issues here so far and everybody is working well together.
*
‘You idiot!’
The shout rang out across the sheets of shadowy ice as though it had cracked the frigid air. Cody looked up from his work placing a sensor to see Charlotte Dennis storming across the darkened plain, one arm pointed across to where Bobby Leary was standing near an excavation. Although Charlotte was almost entirely encased in her thick Arctic clothing, Cody could tell it was her just by her strident gait against the pale sky on the horizon.
Bobby stood rooted to the spot as Charlotte raged up to him.
‘You drill an ice hole while I’m trying to calibrate acoustic sensors a hundred yards away?!’
Bobby raised his arms. ‘Do I look clairvoyant?’
‘It’s on the goddamned duty roster in the hall,’ Charlotte raged. ‘Calibration diagnostics from two until three! You can read English, right?’
‘Oh me, oh my,’ Bobby snapped, ‘I didn’t realise that Queen Charlotte’s experiments trumped everybody else’s! Maybe you should let us all get set up before you start dictating who’s doing what and when!’
‘You’ve had all week to drill your goddamned holes!’ Charlotte raged. ‘What the hell have you been doing all of this time?’
Cody watched as Jake set his sensor packages down nearby and began walking toward the pair as their voices echoed out across the lonely ice sheets. The horizon was awash with a faint glow of orange that drifted slowly from east to west during what passed for daytime at Alert. The sky above was a deep blue reflected by the ice, but for once there was no wind whatsoever. A pillar of steam from the observatory’s generator rose vertically up into the sky to touch a glittering veil of stars twinkling high above their heads.
Cody checked his watch. 14.32pm.
‘How about I drill a hole in that goddamned head of yours?’ Charlotte snapped and wafted her gloved hand across Bobby’s hood.
‘Take it easy,’ Jake said as he approached the pair and put himself between them. ‘Bobby, how many more sink holes are you planning on?’
‘Just one,’ Bobby replied, ‘right under Princess Pouty here.’
Charlotte’s eyes narrowed but she said nothing as Jake ushered Bobby aside. ‘Let’s just get this done, okay? You got a timetable for finishing?’
Bobby sighed. ‘Another hour I guess. It’s hard finding places where the ice is old enough. With the winter setting in it’s changing all the time.’
‘Fine,’ Jake said, ‘an hour. Get to it.’
Bobby stomped away through the snow as Charlotte snapped at Jake.
‘Couldn’t you have hired somebody who’s not just out of Kindergarten?’
‘Bobby’s doing fine,’ Jake said. ‘We’re not yet ready to begin measuring, Charlotte.’
‘I’m ready,’ she uttered. ‘I can’t help it if everybody else is dragging their heels.’
‘This is a team,’ Jake insisted. ‘A team requires compromise.’
‘I don’t have to compromise. One call and I’m on a plane out of here.’
Cody managed to swallow down the resentment that swilled like hot coals in his belly as he heard Charlotte’s words. Jake replied to her.
‘I know, but the rest of us can’t. Our careers depend on us being here, so if you’re not one of us then you’d better make that call right now, okay?’
Charlotte’s eyes flew wide. ‘Are you trying to tell me what to do?’
‘I’m not trying,
’ Jake replied. ‘You’re either part of our team or you’re part of its history. Decide.’
Jake turned away from her and walked back across the ice toward his sensors. As he did so he drifted toward Cody and inclined his head as he looked at him. Cody fell into place alongside Jake, the old man’s beard laced with ice crystals. Their footfalls crunched in unison as they walked.
‘First crack in the eggshell?’ Jake asked.
‘You’re asking me?’ Cody replied.
‘You’re the oldest on the team except Reece and I,’ Jake explained, ‘and Reece is not exactly a social soul. I need somebody to rely on.’
Cody stared down at the ice for a moment as he walked.
‘I don’t think there’s anything to worry about,’ he replied finally. ‘We need more time to get into a routine. It’s only been a few days.’
‘A few days is all it takes for people to get pissed at each other up here,’ Jake pointed out. ‘They don’t realise it, it just happens.’
‘You think we’re already cracking up?’
‘Sure we are,’ Jake insisted. ‘We just pretend we’re okay but it’s happening already, little by little. There’s no way to adapt to this place, we just get dumped here and have to acclimatise to it while on the job. Permanent darkness, crippling cold, storms that last for days and leave everybody cooped up inside to get on each other’s nerves? You name it, it’s going to happen. Hell of a location.’
Cody nodded as they walked. ‘How come you keep coming back up here then?’
Jake chuckled.
‘I guess I just figure that this is a unique place to be. There are not many places on Earth this remote and pristine with a permanent presence. We’re lucky to be able to witness it, and if the military were not here nobody would see this place.’
Cody looked up at the distant twinkling lights of the Canadian base. ‘What are they doing up here anyway?’
‘It’s a listening station,’ Jake explained. ‘They built it during the Cold War to keep an eye on the Soviet Union and China.’
‘Security seems pretty tight,’ Cody observed, ‘seeing as the Cold War is over.’
‘Probably something to do with equipment, classified stuff I’d imagine. On rare occasions they let civilian companies fly supplies into Alert. The crew of the aircraft are not allowed more than three metres away from their airplanes.’
Cody nodded and then scanned the horizon beyond the base. Although geographically he was looking south, the magnetic North Pole was in fact somewhere out to his right. But the glow of the distant, hidden sun told him that he was looking in about the right direction as they came to a halt on a low ridge of snow.
‘Boston, eh son?’
‘Sorry?’
‘You’re from Boston, like the rest?’ Jake asked.
‘Yeah,’ Cody confirmed and looked back at the sun’s distant glow, ‘Massachusetts Institute of Technology. You?’
‘Cali,’ Jake replied.
‘Jesus, that’s an environment change.’
‘Your file said you’ve got a daughter?’ Jake asked as they stared at the distant glow.
‘Three years old,’ Cody replied, and felt a smile tug at the corner of his lips despite the cold. ‘Maria.’
Jake nodded slowly as they stood together. ‘And you came here?’
‘This was a once in a lifetime opportunity, to get to Alert and do this research.’
‘Ice is getting thinner,’ Jake replied. ‘Ice breakers are getting through easier. There’s no reason to believe that the science is urgent.’
‘Climate change isn’t urgent?’ Cody almost laughed.
‘Your presence isn’t,’ Jake replied.
Cody turned to look at the older man, letting his hood conceal his expression a little. ‘Why are you giving me a hard time about being here?’
Jake smiled. ‘I just like to know who I’m working with is all.’
‘You’re working with a bunch of people who like being stuck a couple of thousand miles away from pretty much everybody else. That should tell you something.’
‘It only tells me the how, not the why,’ Jake countered. ‘I’ve worked in places like this plenty of times before and believe me it can be hard on folk. Sooner or later there’ll be a bust-up of some kind. Just make sure it’s not you, okay?’
Cody looked at Jake for a long moment before replying. ‘Sure.’
Jake gave Cody a thick gloved pat on the back, then turned and trudged away toward the observatory.
Cody let out an irritated breath onto the frozen air and watched the cloud of vapour spiral away from him. The last thing he wanted was to babysit everybody else. Christ, escaping company was half the reason he’d travelled all the way out here. The vast, empty expanses of the Arctic plains seemed to draw away from him as his brain began to calculate just how far away civilisation was. How much he had done. Why he had done it. Whether or not he should have.
‘Yo’, Cody!’
The voice rolled across the ice from far behind him and Cody turned to see Bethany standing in a pool of light on the observatory steps with her thumb and forefinger pressed to the side of her head as she pointed at him. Then she tapped her wrist and gestured to the observatory.
Cody gave her a thumbs-up and started off through the snow.
***
3
‘She’s beautiful.’
Bethany walked past Cody as she left the observatory’s communications room, smiling broadly.
The heat in the interior of the building felt almost tropical as Cody pulled off one of his three sweaters and walked into the room. He glanced up at the clock on the wall, which read just after three in the afternoon as he sat down in front of a monitor and looked straight into his daughter’s big, brown eyes.
Maria Ryan was the cutest bundle of perfection that Cody had ever laid eyes on, and now the sight of her after just a couple of weeks away caused sharp needles of pain to pierce the corners of his eyes as his throat twisted upon itself.
‘Hi honey,’ he managed to rasp as he reached out and touched Maria’s face on the screen.
‘Daddy!’
She was sitting in her mother’s lap, writhing and giggling as she saw her father’s face. A satellite relay-connection to a base called Eureka, several hundred nautical miles to the south, allowed researchers stationed at Alert to make video-calls to their families once a week, provided adverse weather didn’t scramble the transmissions. Now, with clear skies outside he could hear Maria’s laughter and excitement as she scrutinised his image on the screen in their Boston home. They spoke for a few moments until he heard his wife’s voice.
‘C’mon Maria, wave goodbye to daddy now.’
Maria shook one hand at the screen in a gesture that could as easily have been a threat as a wave but for the broad smile between her bright red cheeks. ‘Bye daddy!’
‘Bye honey,’ Cody waved back, his own features aching with the smile plastered across his face.
His wife, Danielle, lifted Maria out of shot and then reached out to the camera, tilting it back slightly so that he could see her face.
‘Hi,’ Cody said as the ache faded away.
‘Hi.’
There was no passion in the response, as if she were reading from a script. Cody waited for more words to come forth but Danielle stared at the monitor as though she were looking at a painting.
‘How’s Maria been?’ he asked.
‘She’s good,’ Danielle replied, ‘been to her Gran’s this morning. She says hello.’
The sound of Maria running up and down and singing to herself out of shot stretched another smile across Cody’s features. On the monitor he saw Danielle’s expression soften as she glanced at their daughter.
‘She asks after you every day.’
Cody nodded and ducked his head as fresh waves of pain stabbed at his eyes. He dragged a hand across his face and took a breath that shuddered through his chest. Words spilled from within him as though escaping of their own ac
cord.
‘I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have come out here.’
Danielle glanced down into her lap but said nothing. Her long brown hair fell over her face and she swiped it aside.
‘You’ll miss her birthday.’
Cody felt a surge of anger seethe through his belly but somehow he managed to beat it back down.
‘I know I’ll miss her birthday. If I could change things, I would.’
Danielle glared out of the monitor at him and bit her lip but said nothing. Cody took another deep breath of cold air.
‘Pack ice is building up and the winter storms are starting here. Communication might get difficult. Can you do me a favour?’
Danielle stared at the screen. No movement or words.
‘Can you video Maria, maybe just a few minutes a week, and e-mail it to me? I know I can’t be there but I don’t want to miss too much.’
Danielle nodded once. ‘Maybe you should have thought of that?’
Cody felt his fists ball in his lap and felt his jaw aching again, this time for all the wrong reasons.
‘The military flights are rare and civilian aircraft even more so. Chances of me hitching a ride out of here early are zero. Besides, it wouldn’t do us much good, would it?’
Danielle gave a dismissive flick of her eyebrows as she looked away from the camera. Cody’s anger finally spilled over.
‘You think that I chose this? You think that what happened was somehow my fault? You think I want to be stuck up here freezing my ass off?’
‘I don’t know what I think.’
‘Then how can you judge me?’
‘I’m not goddamned judging anybody!’
Danielle’s voice was a harsh whisper as she tried to prevent their daughter from hearing the anger in their exchange. Cody reined himself in.
‘Five months,’ he said finally. ‘Five months and this will all be over, okay?’
Danielle looked at him for a long moment.
‘This will be with us forever, no matter what we do or where we go. We’ll never escape it, Cody.’
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