The Day is Dark by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir Read Free Book Online Page A

She smiled as she stood up. It looked as if Bella would not make the plane. Sometimes you got lucky. They walked along with the others towards the gate and Thóra noticed that a woman in her early thirties had joined the group. This must be the geologist Friðrikka. She was tall like Thóra, but otherwise they were quite different. Thóra was blonde, but Friðrikka had curly bright red hair that she was obviously trying to keep under control with an elastic band. She was also a little plump, while Thóra was quite skinny. Matthew stopped when he saw her approaching and as he introduced her to Thóra, Friðrikka extended a calloused hand. The woman seemed rather shy, but her grip was firm nevertheless and her low-key greeting sincere.
    Thóra hadn’t thought about the fact that there was a little duty-free shop at the airport, but she didn’t really want anything. Some of the group went to the tills with cartons of cigarettes, but the only one who seemed to want to take advantage of the inexpensive alcohol was the rescuer Alvar Pálsson. He stood in line at the register with a bottle of rum and another of Campari, still just as red-faced as when Thóra had seen him first. Considering the amount he was buying for such a short trip, he was either a lush or preparing himself for a longer stay in Greenland than planned.
    ‘Are you going to buy something?’ asked Matthew, who appeared rather unimpressed by the little shop.
    ‘No,’ replied Thóra. ‘I don’t think I need anything they sell.’ Headache tablets would have been useful, but there were none to be seen. They started walking out of the shop, but Thóra stopped abruptly in the doorway when she heard a familiar voice coming from the security gate.
    ‘If I can take one lighter on board, then why can’t I take two?’ thundered Bella. ‘What can I do with two lighters that I can’t do with one?’
    Thóra went back into the shop and headed towards the spirits section.
    The flight only took two hours and Thóra used the time to read the contract, in search of anything that might be useful if it came to a breach of agreement. She found nothing other than the clause about force majeure. Everything else was nailed down pretty tightly. Special emphasis had even been put on local conditions and difficulties connected with transportation and climate. The bank clearly wanted to ensure as far as possible that Berg Technology could not request additional payments or postponements due to the area turning out to be more difficult than anticipated at first, or the costs higher. She also noted that any contractual disputes were to be settled in a British court, which meant the bank would no longer have need of her services at the conclusion of this trip. It might take her a few days to process whatever data they gathered, then her part in the matter would be finished. So Thóra’s prediction had turned out to be right: as soon as the case was straightened out, others would take over. Although she was naturally a bit miffed about this, it was comforting to imagine Bragi’s disappointment. Her longing to tell him about it only intensified when she heard Bella jabbering away to herself at the back of the plane.
    The eight passengers on board the charter had plenty of room. Thóra and Matthew sat at the front, so she couldn’t see her fellow travellers, but the sound of snoring suggested that some of them had decided to nap on the way. That was understandable; although it was light outside, there was nothing to see but sky and sea. It wasn’t until they reached the coast of Greenland that the view was worth waking up for. The country looked very unwelcoming. It was covered with snow except in a few places where the mountainsides were too steep for it to settle, and on a slender strip near the coast where the encroaching sea had melted it. Icebergs were floating everywhere off the coast and the overriding impression was that the land was being ground into pieces and driven out