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  ‘Alert Five, Boscombe Base, do you copy?’

  Cody grabbed the microphone. ‘Alert Five, go ahead.’

  ‘I called the expedition manager. He’s on the phone now to Yellowknife but as far as I can tell there’s absolutely no word on why they’ve cleared out of Alert. It might be some kind of exercise or something.’

  ‘They deploy infantry to exercises,’ Cody pointed out. ‘They don’t evacuate high security listening posts.’

  ‘Well, there’s not much we can do here except wait and see but don’t panic. If for some reason they’ve pulled out permanently I’ll arrange to have the nearest ice-breaker detour to Cambridge Bay to pick you guys up. It’ll mean abandoning the study though.’

  ‘To hell with the study,’ Cody replied. ‘I’m not having us marooned up here through an Arctic winter.’ Cody saw an image of Maria in his mind and made his decision. ‘If you don’t get an explanation by morning, send the ship anyway. The pack ice is solidifying fast up here — another week or two and nobody will be coming out this way. Call me first thing in the morning, okay?’

  ‘Will do, Boscombe out.’

  Cody relinquished the microphone and stared at the news feed on the monitor.

  ‘What’s that?’

  Cody jumped as though a live current had pulsed through his body. He whirled to see Bethany pointing at the Internet news report.

  ‘Nothing,’ he uttered in reply. ‘I was looking for news that might explain why the base has cleared out.’

  ‘Because of a homicide in Boston?’ she smiled.

  Cody grinned. ‘No. I was just looking at the Boston Globe. There’s nothing in the news about Alert or anything untoward happening in Canada. It doesn’t make much sense for them to clear out without explanation or apparent reason.’

  ‘All the more likely that it’s just an exercise then,’ Bethany pointed out.

  Cody shrugged. He wanted to believe her but something jangled in his nerves, a sense of foreboding that he couldn’t shake off. He glanced at the computer monitor and then berated himself as he leaned over and clicked the web page off. He had enough on his mind without worrying about events several thousand miles away.

  The phone in the communications room rang and Cody felt himself jolt a little at the noise. He hoped that Bethany hadn’t seen his reaction as he leaned over and picked up the phone.

  ‘Alert Five?’

  ‘Doctor Jake McDermott please,’ answered a gruff voice.

  ‘Sure, who’s calling?’

  There was a pause on the line. ‘Boston.’

  Cody shrugged. ‘Wait one.’

  He walked out of the office with Bethany in tow, and hollered out for Jake.

  The old man passed Cody in the corridor. ‘Who is it?’

  ‘Just said Boston.’

  Cody walked back to his quarters, and pulled out his diary.

  Week 2

  As I write, there has been something of a crisis.

  The forces at the Canadian station have pulled out, and within an hour of them going Reece, Bradley and Sauri were back at the observatory, having shared a snowmobile ride. Bradley was shouting at anybody he could see, demanding to know what’s been going on. Even Sauri, who says little, seemed concerned and spent a lot of time looking out of the windows of the compound toward the south.

  It makes no sense. Alert is one of the most sensitive listening posts in the world, a deeply secure base. We were ordered to go nowhere within one hundred metres of its perimeter. Now, it’s been completely abandoned with us still camped a few kilometres away.

  Home base will be in contact in the morning with news. Right now, Charlotte appears unperturbed: she says that her father, the senator, would have informed her of anything important. The fact that the military base is Canadian, not American, has apparently escaped her attention. Bethany remains watchful and avoids Bradley. Jake is assuring everybody that things are just fine. I wish I shared his sentiments but I’m not so confident. It feels as though we’re being kept in the dark both literally and metaphorically.

  The only person who is apparently not concerned by all of this is Reece Cain. In fact, when he saw the departing aircraft he apparently told Sauri that he hoped they didn’t come back soon.

  *

  ‘Jake McDermott.’

  The voice on the other end of the line was neither threatening nor friendly.

  ‘Doctor McDermott, this is Detective Allen Griffiths, Boston Police Department. Are you able to speak confidentially?’

  Jake turned in the small communications room and kicked the door shut with the heel of his boot. ‘Sure, how can I help?’

  ‘Sir, do you have a contingent of scientists from MIT present with you at your base at this time?’

  ‘I do.’

  ‘How well do you know them?’

  ‘We only met a couple of weeks ago,’ Jake replied. ‘What’s this about?’

  ‘Can I confirm that you have not been present yourself in Boston between five and six weeks ago?’

  ‘Like I said, I only met the team two weeks ago,’ Jake confirmed. ‘I flew in from Los Angeles.’

  ‘Had you met any of your team members before this time, sir?’

  ‘No,’ Jake answered. ‘Seriously, what’s this about?’

  ‘I’m afraid I cannot tell you over the phone, sir, until we have obtained the necessary warrants. We cannot take the risk that the suspect may take flight if they learn of our investigation.’

  Jake held the phone close to his ear for a long moment.

  ‘We’re isolated,’ he replied. ‘I doubt anybody will be taking flight. We’re a thousand miles from the nearest settlement.’

  ‘That’s probably why they’re there,’ Griffiths replied. ‘Let me put it another way: we don’t want to cause any awkward situations for you or your team.’

  ‘What, you mean like a hostage situation or something?’

  ‘I’m sure it won’t come to that, Doctor McDermott. We’ll be in touch with instructions as soon as we’ve contacted the Canadian forces at Alert.’

  The line clicked off before Jake could reply. He looked at the phone for a long time before he set it back in its cradle.

  *

  Bethany Rogers was not afraid of the Arctic Circle.

  Despite being stationed several thousand miles from home in one of the most inhospitable places on the planet, she knew that man had survived here for thousands of years: the native Inuit populations had made a living across the Yukon and North West Territories for generations. However, she did allow herself the cautioning thought that few humans made it this far north of the Taiga, the Boreal Forest that marked the northern limits of the tree line. Arctic tundra was an unforgiving environment for even the resourceful few who made its glacial wastes their home.

  About the only thing she missed was her little brother, Ben, who lived with her uncle and aunt in Boston. Bethany’s parents weren’t the best, both addled by methamphetamine habits that had cost them their home years before. Both had spent much of the preceding decades in jail or prison, enduring an endless cycle of abuse and recovery that seemed to have vacuumed the very life from their bodies until she could barely recognise them at all. Bethany hadn’t seen them for several years and had no great yearning to. She was used to going it alone.

  Thus, the departure of the Canadian forces stationed at Alert a few hours before didn’t bother her much. It was almost certainly a temporary measure and she supposed the arrogance of youth prevented her from becoming too worried. After all, an aircraft could be sent to extract them pretty much any time they asked, weather dependent. Medical emergencies, compassionate leave, even criminal prosecutions would all see the persons concerned hurried back to America without as much fuss as Jake and Cody were making.

  Cody intrigued her. Quiet and yet persistently interested in the comings and goings of the rest of the group on Jake’s behalf, he was a curious mixture of youthful enthusiasm and world-weariness. She had no idea what his beef was,
but that something plagued him was as clear to her as the Arctic chill that surrounded them.

  Bethany shrugged to herself as she closed a small flask and used a vacuum pump to extract the air from within it.

  The Air Chemistry Observatory’s chief role, to measure the levels of gas in the Arctic atmosphere, required that containers be checked either hourly or week depending on the nature of the gas being collected. Carbon Dioxide, Methane, CFCs, Carbon Monoxide, Hydrogen, Nitrous Oxide and others were painstakingly measured and recorded to provide a detailed record of both natural and anthropogenic influences on the atmosphere.

  Bethany hauled on her thick coat and zipped it up as she prepared to head outside. She checked her watch: 19.52pm. Right on, for the hourly CO2 flask switch. She wrapped a thickly gloved hand around the flask and headed for the main door, glancing out of a window as she did so.

  Bethany froze.

  With the lights on in the station she had not initially noticed anything wrong. But as she stood and looked out of the window she realised that despite the eternal night she could see everything. The ice plains, the distant ridge of mountains, the snowmobiles parked nearby. Everything was illuminated in a weird green glow that shimmered across the heavens.

  A pulse of alarm raced through her as she hurried to the main door and flung it open. Bitterly cold air caressed her face as she stepped out into a world that was entirely different from the one she had left just twenty minutes before.

  All around her, the sky was on fire.

  *

  Cody lay on his bed, his hands behind his head as he stared blankly at the ceiling and thought of his little daughter, Maria. She would be in bed by now, probably sleeping soundly after another busy day of creating havoc.

  He had never really understood how somebody so small could create such utter devastation in such a short amount of time. If it was loose, discarded, forgotten or forbidden, she would find it and either hide or destroy it. Cody had lost three cell phones in as many months due to tiny hands and very large tantrums.

  He turned his head. On the floor nearby lay the heavy steel storage box he had brought with him.

  He should never have left. He knew it now. Hell, he had known it then but just hadn’t been able to admit it to himself. Running away never solved anything. All lies led to the truth. He should have stood up and been counted, the better to…

  ‘Cody!’

  Cody’s train of thought derailed and he cursed inwardly. He wasn’t unaware of the irony of his mission to escape the rigours of his life, only to become equally irritated by the intrusion of others into what he had believed might be a peaceful isolation.

  ‘Cody, get out here!’

  He slid off his bed as Charlotte Dennis burst into his room, her hair flying in a wild halo as she struggled to get into her coat.

  ‘Jesus, Charlie, take it easy,’ he said. ‘Where’s the fire?’

  Charlotte jabbed a thumb over her shoulder. ‘Everywhere. Come on!’

  Cody sensed panic in her voice and in an instant he was hauling his own coat on as he followed her out to the main doors. As he walked through the darkened galley he felt a sudden supernatural twinge as he saw the world outside glowing green and orange, the galley illuminated in the weird light.

  He felt his panic subside as he walked. ‘It’s just the Aurora Borealis,’ he replied, ‘the Northern Lights. There’s nothing to worry about.’

  ‘Yes there is,’ Charlotte insisted as she threw open the main doors.

  Bright green light shimmered through the doorways as though the sun was rising across the horizon. Cody’s breath caught in his throat and he slowed as he moved out into the open air, instinctively pushing the doors shut behind him as he stared in disbelief at the sky.

  ‘Jesus.’

  Cody knew the Aurora Borealis well enough, having seen it on several occasions in the past. The result of solar material colliding with the Earth’s atmosphere and stripping electrons from particles high above the planet’s surface, the energy released by the process followed the shimmering veil of the Earth’s magnetic field as light, glowing in beautiful colours that represented the different gases being ionised miles above their heads. But he had never seen one even vaguely as powerful as this.

  On a clear night in the high Arctic the sky was filled with a billion blazing stars that peppered the dusty band of the Milky Way like jewels encrusted into a silken banner. Cody had first realised that the stars were different colours when he had travelled to the Arctic six years previously to a research station down in Labrador. In cities, streetlights and pollution blinded the human eye to the faint reds, blue-whites and yellows of the great nuclear Leviathans blazing in the heavens.

  But now across the entire sky was a gigantic arc of green light, a shimmering veil that glowed brightly enough both to bathe the entire Arctic in light and to obscure the glittering panorama of stars beyond it. It was like looking out across the ice fields using night-vision goggles, but brighter.

  ‘Is it usually like this?’ Bethany asked Jake, who had joined them.

  Jake shook his head. ‘It’s never like this.’

  Cody could see the slowly rippling banners of light glowing far down on the horizon, probably right out over Quebec and Canada, maybe even further down across the United States.

  ‘Remote station to Alert Five, you copy?’

  Reece Cain’s voice was distorted on Jake’s radio, the transmission crackling. Jake unclipped it from his belt.

  ‘Go, remote.’

  ‘You guys seeing all of this? It’s amazing!’

  Cody had never heard Reece say so many words in one go.

  ‘Kind of hard to miss,’ Jake replied.

  ‘No shit.’

  Charlotte stepped further out onto the ice, her head tilted back in wonder at the tremendous aurora, and spoke in a concerned tone.

  ‘We’ve got shut everything down,’ she said as she began backing away from the blazing skies.

  ‘What?’ Cody asked.

  ‘Shut everything down,’ Charlotte said, turning for the station door. ‘Shut the power down, right now!’

  ‘What the hell are you talking about?’ Jake uttered. ‘We’ll freeze!’

  Charlotte ignored him as she dashed inside the station.

  Moments later Cody flinched as a bright flash and a loud bang like a gunshot shocked him. He whirled to see one of the observatory’s lights scatter sparks as its bulb blew. Another bulb blew out further along the station, plunging the northern section into darkness.

  ‘What the hell is happening?’ Bethany shouted.

  Cody dashed inside and saw Charlotte running through the building, shutting off lights and computers as she went.

  ‘Help me or we’ll lose everything!’ she yelled.

  Cody and the team spent the next few minutes shutting everything down inside the observatory. Jake shut off the main power under Charlotte’s command and the observatory fell silent. With the generators out, the building became bitterly cold within minutes and a deep blackness filled the interior.

  ‘Are you sure about this?’ Cody asked in the darkness.

  ‘I just hope I’m wrong,’ Charlotte replied.

  The team gathered inside the living quarters and Cody was about to ask her what was happening when, slowly, as though alive, the lights in the room began to glow again.

  ‘I thought you shut the power off,’ Bradley uttered to Jake.

  ‘I did.’

  Charlotte stared up at the ceiling as the lights grew in brightness until they hummed with the current surging through them. Then, one by one, they silently blinked out as their fuses and bulbs blew in quick succession and the building was plunged into absolute blackness once more.

  ‘What was that?’ Bethany asked her.

  ‘We won’t know until tomorrow,’ Charlotte whispered in response. ‘Best thing that we can do now is get our heads under our duvets and keep warm.’

  The team dispersed silently to their rooms, Cody cli
mbing into his sleeping bag and laying down to look out of the window at the brilliant aurora shimmering across the heavens outside and illuminating the distant mountains to the south.

  He hoped that Maria could see the same spectacular display from where she was, thousands of miles away.

  ***

  6

  Cody was running.

  Running hard, trying to flee.

  He could feel them behind him, knew that they would catch him. Everything had become a lie. Everything was coming down on him and he knew that he would never, ever escape it. He cried out at the top of his lungs that it wasn’t his fault and that it wasn’t meant to happen as the whole world plunged down onto him and crushed him beneath an unbearable burden of shame, guilt and regret.

  Cody’s eyes flicked open, and for a moment he believed that he was blind such was the absolute blackness. His mind began reconnecting itself as his dream faded away, memories replacing the phantoms of sleep. He glanced at the faint outline of his window but behind the curtains he could see that the green glow was gone, darkness having resumed sometime during the night. Cody hauled his duvet off and clambered out of bed.

  The cold hit him first as he saw his breath condense on thick clouds. The floor was like ice beneath his feet. He looked down in surprise and then threw his clothes on as quickly as he could. If the generators were still down they were in deep trouble.

  He made his way into the living quarters.

  Empty.

  He turned and leaned out into the corridor down to the main doors. Empty and black but for a faint, flickering light.

  Cody turned and walked to the communications room, briefly remembering that Boston were supposed to call him back this morning. As he turned into the room he was surprised to find Jake, Charlotte, Bethany and Bobby all crammed around the radios and the computer with Sauri and Bradley, Jake in the seat.