Out of the Ice by Ann Turner

head.
    ‘Acted like you were a troublemaker.’
    I let out a strangled laugh. ‘I’ve barely spoken to him.’
    ‘Said you were nosy and ask too many questions.’
    So, he was telling stories about me. I’d had that before. With the professors. ‘That’s a lie. And anyway, no one gives answers.’
    ‘I stuck up for you.’ Kate sat beside me on the bed. ‘I told him I’ve known you for years. He glared at me and shut up, like I’d poked him in the eye.’ Kate grinned, the skin around her pale eyes creasing with laughter. ‘He’ll be telling stories about me now too. And I’m glad. He’s a fully minted cretin.’
    ‘From a very insignificant university. He’d been in the Ivy League and now isn’t, but he gets this post. I can’t work it out.’
    ‘How about the other scientists?’
    ‘Well, if you can get some surnames out of them we can look them up. Connaught’s got them all on a first-name-only basis with me.’
    Kate frowned. ‘That’s unusual.’
    ‘Highly irregular. The whole place is.’ I filled her in on what happened at Fredelighavn. Unlike last night, I could remember that with crystal clarity and gave her a blow-by-blow description.
    Kate pulled back the covers and hopped in beside me. ‘Now I’m creeped out,’ she said. ‘You have to tell Georgia.’
    I checked the time: we’d talked so much it was almost eight o’clock. I hurried to the computer and Skyped Georgia.
    By the time I’d told her everything, for once Georgia’s face wasn’t warm. It was a sea of anger.
    ‘I’d like to come down myself,’ she said. ‘But unfortunately that’s not possible with everything going on here. There’s thirty scientists arriving tomorrow and I need to supervise safety drills and the inevitable rooming crisis and whatever.’ She tapped her desk and stopped, deep in thought.
    ‘My strong feeling is we don’t say anything to Connaught at this point. Put it in writing, Laura, and send it to me. I’ll draft a report, which I’m going to sit on until we know more. It’s very serious that anyone was down there at Fredelighavn, and if Connaught’s responsible, I’m going to advise he lose his job. So we have to do this methodically and by the book. And watch your back. Kate needs to as well.’
    ‘Hi Georgia, I’m right here!’ called Kate, from the bed.
    ‘Oh. Now this is what I mean – by the book . Laura, you should have told me Kate was listening. Think every bureaucratic thought and do it.’
    ‘That sounds like fun,’ mumbled Kate.
    ‘What was that?’ said Georgia sharply.
    ‘We definitely will,’ I said. ‘Sorry. I’ll write everything up tonight.’
    ‘I hope you’re wrong about the drink spiking. If it happens again, I’ll be over in a flash. In a police capacity.’
    ‘But do you have any jurisdiction at a British base?’ I asked.
    ‘I have contacts.’ Georgia was very serious. ‘Have you heard anything from Professor Koch?’
    ‘No, have you?’
    ‘He has to have a second operation. They removed the gallbladder but found gallstones in his bile duct. He’ll be there for another week. I thought he might have contacted you.’
    I grabbed my phone and checked my email. There was a message from Rutger explaining just that. ‘Sorry, Georgia, yes, he has told me.’
    She glared at me. ‘If your drink was spiked I’m not blaming you, but do keep abreast of things from now on, okay?’
    I apologised again.
    ‘Look after each other,’ she said. ‘And get back to me sharp on your return from the whaling station tomorrow.’ She snapped off the connection.
    ‘Wow, I’ve never seen her so angry,’ said Kate.
    ‘Me neither.’ If Georgia was that furious, it made me frightened. I knew she wasn’t really angry with me but with the situation. ‘I’m never drinking again,’ I said.
    ‘Famous last words. Make a bet?’
    I groaned. ‘I guess we’d better get to dinner.’
    ‘How about I bring something back to the room?’
    ‘That would be the best