‘Is everything okay?’
‘Sure. The email we had yesterday about the Reykjanes trip? The woman is a volcanologist. It seems legitimate.’
‘Ah, okay. When does she want to go out there?’
Siggi preempted Jonas offering his services by saying, ‘I told her I’d take her today, if it was okay with you.’
‘If you’re sure. I can come in and cover the office this afternoon. I have some paperwork to do.’
They made arrangements around timings and what vehicle would be best to take, then Siggi emailed Iris with the details.
Half an hour before the time he had told her he would pick her up from her hotel, she arrived. She had a rucksack and a silver ruggedised case that presumably held her equipment.
‘I thought it’d be quicker if I came here,’ she said, making no move to put anything down or take her coat off.
‘I am sorry, I need to wait for Jonas to arrive to take over the office,’ Siggi said, suppressing a smile. Her assumption that she was their only concern this afternoon amused him.
‘Oh. Right.’ She shrugged off her rucksack and took off her coat and hat.
‘While we wait for Jonas, shall we have a look at where you would like to go?’
Iris pulled out her laptop and showed him a detailed map of the area with an overlay of information that he didn’t understand.
‘This is the road west out of Reykjavik, route 41,’ Siggi pointed out.
‘Okay. Then I’d like to take this road south to Hraunvik.’
‘To the town?’
‘Yes.’
‘But the volcano is west of there. Or do you mean the Gunnuhver volcano on the tip of the peninsula?’
‘I need to go to the town. I could explain on the way, if that helps?’
It shouldn’t have surprised Siggi that Iris might be single-minded about this and might not feel the need to justify whereshe wanted to go, but if a volcanologist wasn’t that interested in seeing the volcano, he wondered what else could interest someone predicting eruptions.
‘Okay, that would be great,’ he said, genuinely meaning it.
Iris smiled. ‘Thanks. I really appreciate you taking me today. It’s important to get this set up before I meet the team over here.’ She gestured to her silver case.
‘This is not something they would help you with?’
She shook her head. ‘It’s an unorthodox theory, so I might be in the position of needing the data it’s going to give me to prove my point.’
‘There is nothing I like more than being a rebel.’
Iris laughed. ‘I don’t think anyone has thought I’m a rebel before, but it is something like that.’
Her entire face lit up when she laughed and Siggi beamed at her, intrigued by this clever woman who had just walked into his life yesterday.
Their heads were bent over the laptop again, assessing exactly where in Hraunvik Iris wanted to go, when Jonas came into the office.
‘Jonas, this is Iris Bellingham,’ said Siggi, more formal than he would usually be. For some reason, Iris’s trip made him feel like he needed to be more professional than normal. This was a serious business, far from the tours they usually did for visitors. He felt the gravity of the situation.
‘Pleased to meet you, Iris,’ Jonas said warmly, shaking her hand.
‘Thank you for helping me. If I’m honest, I asked a few other companies as well, but as Siggi was so helpful to me yesterday, I feel in very capable hands with him and that’s important.’
