Iceland, since the closest town with an airport was Isafjor?ur. This could lead to more jobs that would both directly and indirectly serve the mine, but these teething troubles had not inspired the locals to put their trust in this big company. It could also be the case that political interests were threatening the young man’s position. However, he wasn’t all bad; Thora was quite pleased with much of what she heard, especially the fact that he had informed the police about the situation and requested that they do what they could to persuade the Greenlandic authorities to intervene. The bank’s interests were not high on the police department’s list of priorities. The idea behind the group’s expedition was to survey the situation and try as hard as possible to minimize the damage if everything had gone completely awry, so that Berg Technology would be released from its contract. The equipment and tools belonging to the contractors needed to be inspected and the status of the research evaluated so that the bank could either get another contractor to take over, or persuade the employees to return to the site. According to the young man this was not out of the question; the group had been gripped by mass hysteria but, more often than not, these things passed when common sense returned. If, on the other hand, there really was something unusual about the situation at the site, information pertaining to it would have to be gathered. This would help the bank to demonstrate that conditions were extraordinary and therefore outside the company’s control: in short, they could invoke force majeure.
This term kindled Thora’s interest in the case. Force majeure meant that the parties to the contract could be freed from their obligations if they were unable to fulfil them due to circumstances beyond their control. This included war, workers’ strikes and earthquakes, or anything else that the parties to the contract could not influence. Thora was well aware that no war was being fought in Greenland, and nor had she heard of any natural disasters or strikes there, either recently or in the past. This was what pricked her curiosity: there was a definite challenge involved in evaluating a situation in search of what could be considered uncontrollable. Crimes could be categorized under force majeure, and considering the video it was possible that might be the case here; however, that was not at all a given, making this an even more exciting legal issue. And there were other factors involved: whoever did not fulfil his obligations had to demonstrate that he had tried everything within his power to minimize the impact of external factors. In this case, determining such a thing could prove to be more challenging than pinpointing the actual phenomenon that had prevented the party from fulfilling its contract. Was this not precisely what she had craved so much – that very morning, in fact? A challenging case that wouldn’t make her yearn to throw her pen at her client’s head in fury?
‘I’ll come,’ she told him, without considering the matter any further. As soon as she said it she felt a definite sense of relief and anticipation. She actually also felt troubled, but pushed that feeling aside.
Matthew stopped for a moment in the elegant lobby of the bank’s headquarters. He hurriedly stepped away when he realized that he was standing in the middle of the entrance and that the large automatic glass plate doors were about to close on him. ‘Really?’ Now it was his turn to have doubts. ‘You realize it’s going to be a difficult trip – it’s a real wilderness of ice and snow there.’
Thora was certainly aware of the snow. It was what was
‘What colour are Greenlanders?’ asked Soley, yawning. She was lying in bed and should have been asleep long ago, but in the light of her impending trip, Thora had decided to ignore her daughter’s normal bedtime. She kissed the girl’s blonde head.
‘They’re just like us, darling. Not green, if that’s what you think.’
‘Mummy,’ said her daughter indignantly, ‘I know that. I meant whether they were yellow like Chinese people or something like that.’
‘Chinese people aren’t yellow any more than the Independents are blue,’ said Thora, smoothing down the pink duvet cover.
‘What?’ asked Soley, who knew as much about politics as any other eight-year-old child.
Thora merely smiled at her. ‘You’ll behave yourself at Daddy’s while I’m gone, won’t you?’
‘Yes, if you bring back a nice present for me,’ replied Soley, smiling. ‘Sweeties, too.’
There must be sweets in Greenland. ‘I’ll buy something,’ answered Thora. ‘Maybe a polar bear cub.’
‘Oh, yes,’ said Soley, excitedly. ‘A real one.’
‘Well, I meant a teddy bear,’ said Thora, patting one of the many soft toys lying on the bed. She prepared to stand up. ‘It’s much too late. Try to sleep now.’
‘A dog?’ implored Soley, taking her mother’s hand, and Thora shook her head out of old habit. Soley piped up at least once a day about getting a pet. More often on weekends. ‘Why not? Gylfi got to have a baby – why can’t I have a puppy or kitten?’
‘Good night,’ said Thora, standing up from the bedside. ‘We’ll wake up at the same time in the morning, you’ll go to school and Mummy will go to the airport. I’ll try to call you when you’ve got to Daddy’s, but I can’t promise that it will work.’ She responded in advance to the question that would inevitably follow: ‘There are phones in Greenland, but I don’t know if they work where I’ll be. They might be broken.’
After switching off the light in the pink room and staring for a few moments at the numerous glittering teddy bear eyes, Thora went out to the garage. She had no rucksack, as Matthew had recommended she bring – a suitcase would have to do. Things became more complicated, however, when it came to what she should pack. No one knew how long she would be there or what the conditions would be like; it was best just to take a bloody big pile of clothes. The doorbell rang, forcing Thora to put aside any further thoughts on packing. Her friend Gugga was standing in front of the house, smiling from ear to ear and waving two bottles of white wine. ‘You’ve got to let me in,’ she said as Thora opened the door, as though Thora were in the habit of slamming the door in visitors’ faces. ‘I just bought a new car and really want to celebrate it with someone.’ Thora could think of a number of ways to celebrate the purchase of a new car without alcohol being involved, but she smiled nonetheless. She was well aware that the car had probably been bought with the highest loan Gugga could get, and that after six months her friend would show up at her door, again with bottles in hand, to drown her sorrows over the sea of debt she was in and her repossessed car. Sometimes one had to live in the here and now and indulge oneself in the spirit of Louis XIV. He would probably have taken advantage of a car loan if such things had existed in his day.
So there was to be no packing until later, when Gugga finally left in a taxi. Around that time Thora was starting to see double, and when she dozed off, exhausted from the effort of trying to shut the overstuffed suitcase, it was impossible for her to recall what she’d thrown into it.
Chapter 3
The coffee at Reykjavik City Airport was quite good, even though it was simply called ‘coffee’ and came not from a gleaming chrome machine that spouted steam like a locomotive as it brewed one cup at a time, but an old coffeepot standing on a hot plate, reflecting the style of the tired old terminal. You’d have to go a long way to find such an old-fashioned brewing method in town, where the fancy machines had taken over everywhere. Thora had even received one of the newfangled contraptions as a Christmas present from her parents. On Christmas Eve she had gulped down immoderate amounts of coffee without realizing that the new coffee was much stronger than the weak liquid she was used to. All that night she lay stiffly with her eyes wide open, barely able to blink, much less sleep. Since then the coffeemaker had been collecting dust. However, now Thora would not have objected to a double espresso from her machine to perk her up; her head was throbbing and her mental abilities were a wreck. An overly large dose of coffee would probably help.
‘You should have brought a rucksack,’ muttered Matthew as he sat down next to her in the waiting area. He was still agitated about the suitcase Thora had turned up with. ‘I told you specifically.’
‘Oh, come on, sweetheart,’ she replied, putting down her coffee cup. ‘It’s on wheels. There are even four of them.’ She had been careful to select the suitcase that would be easiest to pull behind her, and it most resembled a well-trained dog, following almost automatically at her heels. Luckily she had chosen the bag before gulping down all that wine.
‘Thank goodness they all work,’ said Matthew, just as unimpressed as he’d been when he picked her up half an hour ago. Thora hadn’t been able to disguise how sleep-deprived and hungover she was, which was not at all
