smiles I’ve managed over the last two days. “What’s up?”
“Just checking on you,” she says. “I know you got tossed into the campaign all ‘sink or swim.’”
“Yeah, but I’m swimming. At least, so far. It’ll be hard to come back to campus next week and finish the semester.”
“I know, but you’ll be done and back on the trail in just a few months. Did you, uh, talk with Maxim?”
I stiffen and draw a quick breath. “He left a voice mail and said we’d talk when he comes home after Antarctica.”
“He seemed pretty desperate when he came back and you were gone.”
My heart lifts the slightest bit, but I caution myself. “His voice mail was sweet, but not a commitment or anything. I don’t expect to hear from him until he’s back in the States,” I say, not giving away the signs of heartbreak I know Vivienne is looking for. “You don’t have to check on me, Viv. I’m alright.”
“I know. I just love you.”
“I love you, too, Lennix!” a guy screams from the background.
“Oh, my God.” I laugh and lean against the wall. “Is that Wallace?”
“Yes, you know he has the biggest crush on you ever.”
“Is he still a brainiac?”
“Total dweeb patrol.”
“Shut up, Viv!” Vivienne’s older brother, Wallace, says. “And give me the phone.”
There’s a scuffle as they apparently wrestle. Brain must win over brawn because Wallace’s is the next voice I hear.
“My darling,” he purrs. “How I’ve missed thee. Run away with me.”
“Oh, my God, Wall.” I giggle as only he can make me. “I don’t have time to run away with you. Didn’t they tell you? I’m that rare entity, someone who has a job all lined up before I’ve even graduated from college.”
“Not so rare, Lenny,” he says, pride and amusement mixing in his voice. “I just got a job at the CDC.”
“That’s amazing! I’m so happy for you.”
“Yeah. You know what that means, right?”
“Tell me, please.”
“It means I’ll have just enough money to keep you in the lifestyle to which you’ve become accustomed.”
“Oh, you mean cup noodles and thrift stores? So glad that MIT education didn’t go to waste.”
“MIT was two degrees ago,” he says with false haughtiness. “Duke, my darling. Duke.”
“Well excuse me, Mister Microbiologist.”
“I promise it’s not as fun as it sounds.”
“It actually doesn’t sound fun at all.”
“Seriously? How many men could recite the periodic table to you while making love?”
“Not enough.”
The door opens behind me and Mena points over her shoulder. “Team meeting in two minutes.”
I nod and return my attention back to Wallace and Vivienne. “Hey, Wall, tell Viv we’ll talk later. I have to get into this meeting.”
“Okay. Just save me a corner of your heart, okay?”
I laugh, but the heart in question flinches. After only a week with Maxim, I’m not sure there’s anything left.
25
Maxim
“It’s cold as a witch’s tit.”
The observation comes from Peggy Newcombe, the Kansas congresswoman who’s one of the smartest people I’ve ever met in that highly practical way that makes you realize what utter bullshit most people spout. She’s a get-things-done kind of person, and I’m glad she’s with us.
“And apparently this is just the start,” I say. From our base’s rooftop, I take in the tarrying sun, its multi-colored brilliance washing the sky in shades of twilight. “Winter’s here to stay for a while.”
“Yup.” She squints into the radiant horizon. “This may be our last sunset for the next four months. Now the fun really begins.”
The space between sunrise and sunset has shortened more every day during the three months since we’ve arrived. Now there’s barely light at all. We’ll live in darkness for the rest of the winter until around September, and have very few outlets beyond the walls of the base where we’re conducting research. Our winter work focuses on greenhouse gases like CO2 and methane, measuring these particles in the atmosphere. We also study the fossilized particles found in ice cores.
Winter will be setting in, and the long Antarctic night is coming. There will be times when it’s so cold, breathing outside for any amount of time would make the lungs hemorrhage. We’re relatively safe as long as nothing goes wrong. That sounds self-evident, but we’re on our own until summer. No one can get to us, and we can’t get out. We have a doctor in our group, but his medical reach is relatively limited. We are past the PSR—point of safe return.
Grim walks up to join us, wrapped in the extreme cold-weather wear uniform we all sport. He has one