‘Look. I’m sorry if I’ve stumbled across the one house in Hraunvik that is a no-go area for you, but it is quite important.’
With a dramatic sigh, Siggi undid his seatbelt and climbed out of the jeep. ‘Okay. Come on then,’ he said, zipping his coat and pulling his hat so far down his forehead that his eyes were barely visible.
‘I have a scarf in my bag if you want to disguise yourself a bit more?’ Iris said, earning a side-eye from a sulky-looking Siggi.
She pulled her equipment case from the back seat and headed up the steps to the front door of the house, and knocked. Siggi trailed up the steps behind her and stood with his head down. After a few more seconds, Iris knocked again, but after a minute, had to accept that there was no one home.
‘Oh, that’s annoying.’
Siggi grinned, a look of relief sweeping across his face as he headed down the steps.
‘We’ll try next door,’ Iris said. ‘Any issues waiting behind this door?’
Shooting her another side-eye, Siggi nevertheless followed her up the steps as she knocked on the door. This time, the door was opened by a man in his forties, Iris would guess.
‘Hello. My name is Iris and I work for British Geology Labs. I was wondering whether you would be willing to let me set some equipment up in your garden?’
She turned to Siggi and raised her eyebrows, encouraging him to jump in. Thankfully he did, and there was some back-and-forth conversation between them. Siggi gestured towards Iris and her case a couple of times.
‘He’s asking whether it’s to do with the earthquakes they’ve been having.’
‘Yes, it is. Kind of.’
In the end the man shrugged and said, ‘Where do you want to put it?’ in English, making Iris wonder whether Siggi was right after all, and that she could have managed perfectly well on her own.
‘Over there, if that’s okay.’ She pointed to the corner of the front garden closest to the neighbours, where she really would have liked to set up. ‘Do you know whether your neighbours would mind if I set up in their garden?’
‘They would mind,’ Siggi interjected. ‘He has already told me that.’
The man guffawed.
Iris couldn’t be bothered to get into whatever subtext was going on. ‘Thank you. I’ll get started.’
‘I will wait inside,’ said Siggi, and to Iris’s surprise, turned and went inside the house.
By the time she had set up her modified seismometer, it was almost dark. Satisfied that it was working and the data was being collected, she closed her laptop and climbed the steps, knocking on the door again. Concentrating on the job in hand had taken her mind off how cold it was, but now she realised she’d started shivering.
‘Hey,’ said Siggi, opening the door and closing it behind him. ‘Are you ready to leave?’
‘Yes,’ said Iris. ‘Are you?’
‘It seemed crazy to wait in the car.’
‘Do you know him?’
‘Um, yes, sort of.’
Clearly this was related to the issue Siggi had with the house next door.
‘Let’s go.’
Irritated, but not really sure why, Iris climbed into the jeep.
‘You want to take your coat off?’ Siggi asked.
‘No, thanks.’ She shivered again.
‘Here.’ Siggi turned and grabbed his rucksack from the back seat, pulling out a flask and handing it to her.
