She ended the call and resisted the urge to throw her phone against the wall. Why did he have to micromanage her? His boss’s boss had agreed that Iris could work in the field, testing her theory until she had enough data to prove that it worked in real-life situations. Hawaii hadn’t been the hotbed of activity they’d hoped for, but Iceland was still looking very hopeful. And whatever Jay thought, there was no way she was heading back to the UK before the seismic activity at Hraunvik came to a head.
Before she left, she checked her seismometer readings. It was still sending the data, and there was slightly more regular activity still, but nothing more to get excited about. Yet.
Iris gathered her things, unplugged her phone at the very last moment, and headed out to the Iceland Adventures office. There were six people waiting outside already, all bundled up against the cold. One man had a camera and tripod and a large bag of what Iris assumed was more camera equipment.
‘Hi,’ she said, feeling shy, but wanting to make an effort.
Everyone murmured hello back and smiled.
Another couple came and joined the group. ‘Is this the right place for the Northern Lights trip?’
‘Yes,’ Iris said. And right then, a minibus pulled up next to them and Siggi jumped out.
‘Welcome, everybody! Let’s go aurora hunting!’
13
SIGGI LOOKED THRILLED to see Iris waiting outside with the rest of the tour party when he pulled up in the minibus. Even though it had only been an hour since they’d been together, she felt a buzz of anticipation at seeing him again. He had ten people on the tour, as well as her.
He greeted everyone, then checked them off his list. The last couple arrived just as everyone else had got onto the bus. Iris hung back until everyone else was settled.
‘Maybe sit in the back on the way?’ he suggested. ‘I need to do a lot of talking to start with and you might be a distraction.’
Iris had no problem with that. She respected the fact that he was working, not here to be with her this time, and it might be more fun to be part of the crowd. ‘Okay,’ she said, smiling and climbing into the minibus where there was one pair of seats spare.
Siggi slid the door closed and went around the other side to get into the driver’s seat.
‘Okay, aurora hunters!’ he said through the microphone that he’d tucked around his ear. ‘Let’s go!’
Iris leant into the aisle and looked to the front of the bus. She could see a screen on the dashboard which showed what she thought was a weather radar.
‘We are heading to the south-east of Reykjavik tonight. The skies are clear but there is some cloud to the west, so we will try to get ahead of that. For anyone who has not been on a NorthernLights hunt before, we are looking for three things. The first thing, we need it to be dark.’
There was a rumble of laughter at Siggi stating the obvious.
‘Yes, it’s sounds funny, but there are many weeks in the summer when it is hard to find a dark enough sky. Number two, we need to see stars. That is the best sign for us that the skies are clear, and number three is that we need a strong aurora forecast.’
He explained what made a good forecast and said that tonight the KP index, which is used to measure the strength of the lights, and how far south of the North Pole they might be seen, was a solid four. ‘The usual forecast is a two to three, and we would have a chance even at that level, so a four is very good news.’
Everyone cheered, and Iris laughed, loving the camaraderie that was building up on the bus.
‘You’re on vacation alone?’ an American man, probably in his sixties, asked her.
‘Ronald,’ his wife said. ‘I’m sorry, honey. It was unusual in our day, that’s all.’
‘Oh, it’s fine,’ Iris said, smiling at poor Ronald. ‘I’m here for work. I was lucky enough to get a spot on the trip tonight, but I’m not really on holiday.’
‘What do you do?’
‘I monitor volcanic activity.’
‘Well, you’re in the right place, I guess,’ Ronald said.
‘Is something going to happen?’ Ronald’s wife looked panic-stricken.
Iris didn’t want to alarm the woman, but surely, being on holiday in Iceland, it was hard to ignore the fact that there was volcanic activity on some level, almost everywhere.
‘How do you think they get the Blue Lagoon hot, Barb?’ Ronald said.
