22

IRIS WAS AWAKE early. She'd tossed and turned all night, wondering whether she should have tried to call Siggi. In the end, she had to accept that however she might feel about him, at this moment, they weren't together. But she couldn't do nothing.

Hope you're okay. Call me when you get back to Reykjavik. We need to talk x

There.

She showered, had breakfast in the hotel for a change, and then asked Bríet to call a taxi to take her to the IMO.

‘Have you seen the news about Hraunvik?' Bríet asked.

‘Yes, it's awful, isn't it?'

Bríet nodded. ‘One of my best friends lives there. They left yesterday and are staying with family in town here. They are hoping that the town can be saved and that they can go back when the eruption finishes.'

‘I'm sure everyone is hoping that happens,' said Iris tactfully. It was all very well trying to build defences but even with as much data as they had, these things were unpredictable. And no amount of defending was going to work if a fissure erupted through the middle of the town. That was a distinct possibility given what they'd seen so far. They just had to hope that the lava might take a different course before that became a reality.

Iris said goodbye and got into the taxi, having a very similar conversation with the taxi driver once he realised she was working with the IMO. His sister-in-law's family lived in Hraunvik. Iris tried to sound reassuring while, at the same time being wary about saying anything that could be construed as a promise that everything was going to be alright.

Thankfully, Bjarkey was also in the office early. Iris had had visions of having to wait on the doorstep for the first person to arrive, but when something like this was afoot, they worked around the clock.

‘Look at this drone footage,' Bjarkey said, taking Iris over to a big screen in the monitoring room. ‘This is live.'

At first, all Iris saw was the steady stream of vehicles travelling along the main road. But then her eye was drawn to something else as the drone pulled out, showing them a wider area. There was a faint, yet unmistakable, line of red. Stark against the black lava of the landscape.

‘It's started,' she said.

Bjarkey nodded. ‘And at the moment, it is further north than we thought it would be. If this fissure expands and continues to erupt, it may miss the town.'

‘But it's too soon to know for sure,' Iris said, looking at Bjarkey for confirmation. Hoping that perhaps she'd say no, it's a sure thing. But of course, she couldn't know. None of them could.

‘It's too soon to know. But we can hope.'

After another couple of minutes, the drone dropped altitude, and they got a better look at the fissure. The lava was spurting above the ground every so often, but as yet, it wasn't looking especially fierce. The drone followed the fissure along, establishing how far the visible crack continued. It was a fair distance but difficult to get much perspective.

‘We'll have a better idea of what it looks like once these guys are back at base. They'll have tried to get some measurements.'

‘Wow,' said Kári, who had wandered over to watch. ‘That's incredible. But that's not the fissure we were looking at yesterday.'

‘No, this one is to the north-west. It's only been showing up on the monitoring since last night,' said Bjarkey.

‘I'm going to see how the data looks back in town,' Iris said. ‘I wish I could get another seismometer set up. It'd be amazing to get some data from a point closer to the eruption. If it misses the town, we're not going to get that. Which is a good thing on so many levels,' she added.

‘I could see if the guys will go in and relocate one of the other ones?'

‘No. I can't ask them to put themselves at risk,' she said, even though it had crossed her mind to drive to Hraunvik and do just that. ‘It's not that important. What we already have is the important part. The early-warning system. What happens now is easier to monitor.'

Bjarkey sighed. ‘You're right. But don't tell me you haven't thought about going in and relocating it yourself.'

Iris bit her lip and smiled. ‘That would be reckless.'

‘But scientifically valid?'

‘It might help identify whether this new fissure is the one we need to worry about rather than the ones in the town.'

‘I'll go with you,' Kári said, his eyes alight with excitement.

‘Alright then. But let's see if we can persuade Aron to drive for us again,' said Bjarkey. ‘I don't think we should go by ourselves.'

Aron wasn't as keen as the rest of them to venture back to a quickly evolving volcanic eruption, but once Bjarkey had explained the value of the data they could get by moving one seismometer, he relented. Before they went, they planned exactly what route they were going to take and where they would site the equipment. They'd collect the seismometer they'd placed at the north of the town, then travel west to the new fissure.

They gathered what they needed from the office, then went down into the basement, where there was an underground garage and equipment storage. Aron kitted them all out with high-vis trousers, jackets, and emergency kits that had a torch, first aid kit, flares and other useful things, but it brought home to Iris how dangerous it could be to venture out there now. Even though they were in the best position, with the data at their fingertips, these things were always unpredictable. Everything was packed into the same vehicle they'd been out in the day before, and they headed out.

The weather was overcast but dry. They were all quiet on the journey towards Hraunvik. The regularity with which cars were travelling towards Reykjavik was a sign that people were still leaving the area, because usually Iris had seen only a handful of vehicles on this road the other times that she'd been.

They picked up the seismometer without incident from the north of the town. They'd shown their credentials to the civil defence, who were manning the roadblock that they needed to cross, and he was happy to let them through on the condition they spent no more than an hour in the cordoned off area. That was more than enough time for them to site the seismometer, since they'd planned it carefully before they'd left Reykjavik.

Once they began travelling west, they could see evidence of the fissure that they'd viewed on the drone footage. There was a wall of steam rising from the fissure, and the magma was visible in places, even from twenty metres away.

‘Wow, this is incredible,' said Kári, his face pressed to the window as they drove past.

Aron took a road that forked to the left, diverting them away from the fissure.

‘Why are we moving away from it?' Kári asked. ‘Isn't this where we want to site the seismometer?'

‘We already know what's happening here,' Iris explained. ‘We want to see if we can predict what direction the fissure is going to take. If it converges with the fissure that we're monitoring in the town, it might draw magma away from that area.'

‘So we're going to monitor further south of here?'

‘Exactly.'

Aron pulled off the main road and drove across the rugged terrain until he was as close as he could get them to where they'd planned. They all piled out of the vehicle and dressed in their high-vis outfits before they set off for the exact spot they wanted to monitor, carrying the equipment between them. As they walked, they could feel the odd tremor beneath their feet. They'd probably been too small to feel while they were driving, but they would be across this entire area now.

‘Here,' said Bjarkey, who was holding a portable GPS device that showed the location they'd pinned back at the office.

Surveying the area, they could see the steam rising from the fissure they'd driven past and they could see the town in the distance, to the east.

Iris set up the seismometer, recalibrating it to make sure the data it was going to provide was as accurate as possible. She opened her laptop to check that it was collecting data and reporting it.

‘It's already showing activity,' she said.

‘How will it tell you what's going to happen?' Kári asked, looking over her shoulder.

‘If we overlay the data with what the IMO is already monitoring, and look at the other two seismometers that are collecting data, this will show us whether the activity is increasing over here compared to what we are monitoring in town. By the time we get back to the office, we'll have a solid couple of hours of data to work through and we might even be able to predict where the main fissure is going to present.'

‘Isn't what we saw the main fissure?' Kári asked.

Iris shook her head. ‘That's nothing compared to what we're going to see.'

‘I think if you took the job here, you'd have a ready-made assistant,' Bjarkey said to Iris on the way back to the vehicle, once Aron and Kári were ahead of them and out of earshot.

Iris laughed. ‘I love how interested he is.'

‘We need to capitalise on that. Let him get involved in this monitoring project now he's seen it in the field.'

Iris thought how different that approach was from the way her own career had progressed. How her initial enthusiasm had been tempered by believing there being no prospect of seeing anything out in the field. It wasn't until she'd developed her seismometer through her love for volcanology and her tenacity, wanting recognition for the work she'd been doing, that she had finally overridden Jay's attempts to stifle her. The progress she'd made over the past two years had led to this, and it felt amazing to see all of that come to fruition.

‘He can help me look at the data when we get back,' said Iris.

‘Have you thought any more about Emil's offer?'

‘I'm seriously tempted,' Iris admitted. ‘You know that guy who took me to Hraunvik the first time I went, and to Fagradalsfjall?'

Bjarkey nodded.

‘The thing is, I've been seeing him. And we're getting on really well. Obviously I'm not basing my decision on that at all, it's too soon, but when I told him about the job he freaked out and now, I don't know whether it'd be a bad idea to stay.'

‘Wow, Iris.' Bjarkey grinned at her. ‘This is the kind of drama I love, you know that. How have you kept this from me?'

‘Because since things got more serious between us, and then he freaked out, I've only seen you yesterday. And I didn't think it would be that professional to bring it up with Aron and Kári when we'd only just met.'

Bjarkey laughed. ‘Good point! But don't lose focus because of him,' she said in a more serious tone. ‘I know how much this work means to you. Iceland is your best option to hone this new technique. We have eruptions all the time. And if you need to travel to somewhere else, they will support that. There is a lot of investment in this type of thing because it is so important to the country.'

‘I know. It's an amazing opportunity. And I would love to continue working with you.'

‘You have to think of this without thinking about what this man wants. It is about what you want.'

‘I know, and this is what I want. It's been incredible working with you and the team. This is incredible,' she said, stopping and stretching her arms wide. ‘We're standing on what might be the most volcanic area on the planet at this very moment. Why would I ever want to leave?

‘Is that a decision made?' Bjarkey asked.

Perhaps making the decision before she had any chance of knowing what Siggi thought was the best thing. She needed to make it for herself without reference to what he thought or wanted. She had worked for years for an opportunity like this and it was stupid to throw it away over someone she had known for two weeks.

‘Yes, I think it is.'

‘That is fantastic!' Bjarkey hugged her, awkwardly, because the stiff padded jackets they were wearing made it difficult to bend their arms. ‘I will talk to Emil this afternoon and we will make a formal offer for you to consider.'

It already felt to Iris as if she'd made the right decision. She had no regrets about leaving British Geology Labs behind. They'd given her a great start, but she'd realised now that to progress in the way she wanted, she needed to leave. Having worked there for so long was holding her back. She was always going to be the girl who kissed Jay at the Christmas party, as much in her own mind as anyone else. And the only way to evolve from that into the accomplished scientist she hoped she was on the way to becoming, was to leave all of that behind.

‘Brilliant, thank you Bjarkey. It wouldn't have happened if it weren't for you.'

‘Nonsense,' said Bjarkey, linking her arm through Iris's. ‘I am just happy that it is working out for both of us. And who knows, when you tell your man that you are staying, it might make him feel differently.'

On the drive back to Reykjavik, Iris's phone pinged with a message from Siggi saying that he would be back later and wanted to see her. She was so happy to hear that. She'd missed him and wanted to clear the air between them, no matter what the outcome was. They'd had an amazing couple of weeks together and she'd never forget that. Even though she'd fallen in love with him, she would accept that if he couldn't give her anything more, that's how it had to be. She couldn't expect him to fall into a relationship with her just because she was planning to stay in Iceland. But what she hoped, more than anything, was that he would tell her that if she stayed, he wanted to be together. That she was still his love.