The Day is Dark Read Online Free PDF

likely to trip Thóra up straight into the jaws of a polar bear than come to her rescue. ‘Matthew will be there, so I’m sure I’ll be safe. I don’t need her,’ said Thóra, grinning. Then she hurriedly added: ‘If in fact I go.’
    ‘Yes, my dear, you should go, and it won’t do you any harm to take Bella along,’ said Bragi, clearly enthralled with his own idea. ‘It would even help me out if she weren’t here for the next few days, since I have to take care of so many cases. It would be a great relief to be free of her.’
    ‘There’s no room for Bella on the plane,’ Thóra lied. ‘Just do what you were thinking the other day, and put up a partition so you don’t have to see or hear her.’ She stood up. ‘I’m going to go and talk to the head of the bank about this,’ she said, to put an end to the conversation about Bella. ‘I’ll make my final decision afterwards.’
    ‘And?’ asked Matthew curiously as he followed her out of the bank. ‘What are you going to do?’
    ‘I’m inclined to take the job. But still . . . oh, I don’t know,’ replied Thóra. The head of the bank had turned out to have several years, if not decades, to go before he could live up to his job title. He was in fact a slender young man who smelled so strongly of aftershave that it had taken all Thóra’s willpower not to pinch her nose shut as they spoke. She suspected the overapplication was deliberate; his palms were sweaty and he appeared nervous. It was easy to read between the lines and guess that his future at the bank hung on the same thread as the insurance. If the bank had to pay the insurance, he would be handed his marching orders. It seemed there was much more to this case than just the insurance money; there were great expectations for the mine in Greenland, even though there hadn’t been much public discussion about it. It was hoped that it would be serviced from Iceland, since the closest town with an airport was Ísafjörður. This could lead to more jobs that would both directly and indirectly serve the mine, but these teething troubles had not inspired the locals to put their trust in this big company. It could also be the case that political interests were threatening the young man’s position. However, he wasn’t all bad; Thóra was quite pleased with much of what she heard, especially the fact that he had informed the police about the situation and requested that they do what they could to persuade the Greenlandic authorities to intervene. The bank’s interests were not high on the police department’s list of priorities. The idea behind the group’s expedition was to survey the situation and try as hard as possible to minimize the damage if everything had gone completely awry, so that Berg Technology would be released from its contract. The equipment and tools belonging to the contractors needed to be inspected and the status of the research evaluated so that the bank could either get another contractor to take over, or persuade the employees to return to the site. According to the young man this was not out of the question; the group had been gripped by mass hysteria but, more often than not, these things passed when common sense returned. If, on the other hand, there really was something unusual about the situation at the site, information pertaining to it would have to be gathered. This would help the bank to demonstrate that conditions were extraordinary and therefore outside the company’s control: in short, they could invoke force majeure.
    This term kindled Thóra’s interest in the case. Force majeure meant that the parties to the contract could be freed from their obligations if they were unable to fulfil them due to circumstances beyond their control. This included war, workers’ strikes and earthquakes, or anything else that the parties to the contract could not influence. Thóra was well aware that no war was being fought in Greenland, and nor had she heard of any natural