without meeting any of their eyes, then started examining his hands. ‘That’s what I thought, anyway.’
‘I need you to come with me and photograph this, Alvar,’ said Thora as cheerfully as she could without sounding idiotic. ‘It would also be good if you could prepare a short report on what you’ve found out.’ She turned to Matthew. ‘We’re even wondering whether we should make arrangements to transport the vehicles to Iceland to have them looked over by mechanics, or get someone to come here.’
Matthew nodded and made an unsuccessful attempt to suppress a yawn. He had been silent since the end of supper. It looked as though the lack of sleep the last few nights had started to take its toll. The simple food had scarcely increased his stamina: pasta with tinned sauce that had so little flavour that they might as well have used milk. He wasn’t alone in being tired: Dr Finnbogi had found it difficult to swallow his food between yawns, and it looked to Thora as if Fri?rikka had dozed off. Eyjolfur had gone straight to his room to sleep after supper, while the others had gathered in the lounge, with the exception of Bella, who had been assigned the task of washing up. Perhaps this strange herd mentality could be attributed to fatigue; Thora didn’t know about the others, but she always felt sleepy after being out in the open for a long time and breathing in too much oxygen. ‘Can’t we move the return journey forward?’ Fri?rikka appeared more than just tired; her face was grey and she had dark circles under her eyes. ‘It was a mistake to come here.’
‘It won’t be long now,’ muttered the doctor. He looked back towards the window where the potted plant stood, and stared at the pitch-black glass. ‘That is, if the weather stays decent.’
‘I’m sure it will,’ said Thora, with false optimism. She ignored the vague whistling of the wind that carried in from outside. ‘In any case, won’t you be able to finish all your work?’
Fri?rikka nodded miserably. ‘Of course, of course. I’ll be finished with most of it tomorrow, and then I’ll make copies of what I can’t go over and look at it back in Iceland.’ Talking about work seemed to cheer her up a bit. ‘It hasn’t been that much work; they didn’t accomplish much after I left, so going over the data has been relatively easy. They should never have tried to work here beyond the New Year.’ She added, smugly: ‘As I actually pointed out more than once.’
Thora vaguely recalled seeing it mentioned in the documents accompanying the contract that conditions at the work site made it almost impossible to work there during the first four months of the year. It had been left to Berg Technology to decide when the work would be done, but this had been pointed out to ensure the company realized that it could not aim for full-capacity production all year round. ‘Why did they keep working after the New Year?’ she asked. ‘Was it because of the delays?’
‘Yes, I suppose so,’ said Fri?rikka. ‘This came up before I resigned and understandably the idea of carrying on was not very popular. Part of the reason the employees were willing to take on this job was the long winter break. That was the last straw for me; after Oddny Hildur’s disappearance there was no way I was going to take on extra responsibilities for such a crappy employer.’
Alvar stood up dramatically. It was as if he had been insulted by Fri?rikka’s negativity and could not bear any more of this dreariness. ‘I’m going to bed,’ he said.
‘Oh, hell,’ exclaimed the doctor. ‘I was going to offer you a nightcap.’ He slapped the arm of his chair with both hands. ‘Is everyone going to bed?’
Alvar stopped awkwardly in his tracks. It was abundantly clear that he was dying for a drink and would happily have taken back his previous announcement. ‘Well, I guess bed-time could wait a bit,’ he said, sitting down again gently. ‘I’m not in that big a rush.’
Thora tried not to smile at the poor man, mindful of his purchases at the duty free shop. ‘Good idea.’ She smiled at the doctor. ‘I have a bottle of Opal liquorice schnapps if anyone is interested.’ Matthew frowned, but stood up nevertheless to go and get the drink, which Thora knew he could only have found less appealing if it were popcorn-flavoured. The doctor followed him and Thora hoped that while walking down the corridor they would take the opportunity to discuss the bloodstains on Dori’s pillow.
After examining them thoroughly Thora had dragged Matthew back over to the office building to show him the old photographs and convince him of how oddly similar they were to the stains on the beds of the unfortunate first settlers. Matthew had had to admit that the similarities were striking, and before they sat down at the supper table they had got the doctor to examine the evidence as well as the photos. Finnbogi couldn’t actually say anything about the stains or why they appeared to have doppelgangers from the past, but he felt that it was probably coincidence. Thora found this rather unlikely and tried to convince him that for unknown reasons someone had tried to imitate the ugly scene in the tents. However, he and Matthew both seemed adamant that this did not prove the original inhabitants had died of anything other than starvation, let alone been murdered – their main reasoning being that no one would have had any incentive to want these people dead. They could hardly have been engaged in disputes with others and they were certainly not in conflict with neighbouring settlements, since there were none around. The men relented a bit when Thora asked whether death by starvation caused bleeding from the head, but they warmed to their theme again when the doctor said that the stains in the photographs were likely to be something other than blood; shadows, or some sort of dirt that could be explained by something other than violence. If they were bloodstains, they would be both larger and more widespread. However, although it was difficult to reach any conclusion about the old photographs, it seemed pretty clear to Thora that the stains on the driller’s pillow could only be blood, although it wasn’t clear how it had got there.
Bella walked into the lounge and they could see from her expression that doing the washing up hadn’t been her idea of a good time. Thora found that understandable: the water was obtained by melting snow, so it took a long time to wash the few dishes and pots that they used. ‘I’m not doing that again,’ she thundered. ‘I don’t care how busy you lot pretend to be.’ She looked contemptuously at Thora, Alvar and Fri?rikka as they sat there relaxing.
‘My dear, sit down and unwind. It’s not as if we haven’t all had to do the dishes at some point.’ Fri?rikka’s expression was no more friendly than Bella’s. Thora felt as if she were at a gathering of people with social disorders. ‘We were just going to sit here and chat a bit. Hopefully about anything other than this work site.’ As she said this, Fri?rikka looked right at Thora.
Thora smiled back in the hope of lightening the mood. If Fri?rikka always acted like this, she had nothing but sympathy for her co-workers in this isolated place. ‘I’m up for that,’ she said. ‘There are countless other topics. You get the ball rolling, and I won’t hold back.’
No one said anything and while Bella took her seat the other three sat silently, staring straight ahead. The only topics that Thora could think of were connected to their project and she suspected that the same went for Alvar and Fri?rikka. She hoped Matthew and the doctor would get back soon with the drinks. That would certainly loosen their tongues, and even Alvar would talk the hind legs off a donkey after tossing back a few shots of Opal. Maybe things would get so lively that she would slip on some of her party clothes, since she had brought such a splendid variety. The floor of the corridor outside the lounge creaked and everyone cheered up.
‘Well,’ said Thora, looking around. ‘Are there any wine glasses here?’
‘No,’ replied Fri?rikka. ‘The camp’s regulations prohibit drinking, so the only glasses are the ones in the kitchen.’
She prepared to stand up to go and get them, but Thora beat her to it. ‘Did you all really follow the rules?’ she asked on her way out.
‘No,’ Fri?rikka said again. ‘It’s impossible to forbid adults to drink unless it interferes with their work. Arnar was strongly opposed to people drinking here, but no one listened to him. It wasn’t that much really, we stayed here for months at a time and never brought anything more than the amount allowed by customs, and maybe a case of beer we bought in Kulusuk if we had time before continuing on our way here. Arnar just made himself scarce the few times that we drank here in the lounge. Now and then, on special occasions, the company served wine with dinner and invited us to drinks in the evening – when we were here over the holidays, for instance.’ She pointed at a printed poster on the wall next to the doorway, announcing a Midwinter Feast that was to have been held on Saturday 16 February. For such a small workforce, a lot of effort had clearly been put into the event: a banquet director had been nominated and the evening’s entertainment included everything from bingo to a karaoke contest. ‘I expect there would have been alcohol at that,’ she declared.
Thora met Matthew and Finnbogi at the door. Matthew was holding a plastic bottle with the colourful Opal label, and the doctor a bottle of cognac. She hoped he wouldn’t mind drinking from a milk glass. The only glasses she could see in the cabinets were the same as the ones they used for their suppers, clumsy cafeteria glasses that stood upside down among the small white coffee cups and a few larger and more colourful mugs. These looked like they belonged to particular employees, and Thora started looking through them automatically. When she
