Friday enjoyed the train trip. It was painfully long, but they had to change trains in so many different countries at such strange hours of the day and night that it was never boring. There was a lot to see out of the window as they travelled from the Mediterranean climate of Italy with olive trees and vineyards, up into the Pyrenees and the spectacular mountains of Switzerland, then on into the forests and farmland of Germany, before eventually crossing a network of bridges through Denmark and up further into Scandinavia.

Friday used the trip to learn some Norwegian. She knew most Norwegians spoke English very well, but she considered it only polite to learn as much of the language as possible when visiting a country. Friday also tried to find ebooks to download on Norwegian military law, but they were all in Norwegian. Plus, they were so complex she doubted even a fluent Norwegian speaker would be able to understand much of them.

When their train finally arrived in Oslo, it was so early in the morning that it was still dark.

‘Where is Binky’s military base?’ asked Friday with a yawn. She was feeling very bleary-eyed. It was exciting to be in Norway, but it was four in the morning and Friday’s body clock wanted her to be in bed.

‘Bardufoss,’ said Melanie.

‘Where’s that?’ asked Friday.

‘One thousand, five hundred kilometres north of here,’ said Melanie.

‘What?’ asked Friday. ‘How are we going to get there?’

‘Taxi,’ said Melanie.

‘But . . .’ Friday was still half asleep and her brain was struggling to compute this information. ‘. . . It would take twenty-four hours to drive that far.’

‘I know,’ said Melanie. ‘That’s why we’re not driving. I’ve arranged a taxi-chopper.’

Friday looked at her blankly.

‘A helicopter,’ said Melanie. ‘There’s a helipad on the roof of the station.’

‘Oh,’ said Friday. She forgot sometimes just how rich Melanie was.

Friday did not care for helicopters. She’d been in them a few times. They were very loud and very shaky. Also, Friday knew too much about physics to enjoy the experience. She was well aware that even aeronautical engineers didn’t really understand why aircraft stayed aloft. She couldn’t enjoy riding in a vehicle that moved at 250 km per hour, 3 kilometres above the ground, and yet no one understood how it worked. She just spent the whole time acutely conscious of how close she was to death.

They had been flying for over two hours before the sun began to rise and Friday could make out the countryside below. The vast expanses of dark forest looked like something out of a storybook where children got lost while leaving a trail of breadcrumbs. There was farmland, with the grass starting to yellow from the autumn frosts. And there were lots of fjords, rivers and lakes with water so deep it looked almost black.

By the time the helicopter landed at Bardufoss, it had been a long journey.

In this day and age of air travel, you can fly from one side of the planet to the other and walk out into the terminal to see the exact same shops, and the same terminal layout and the same car-hire companies outside. This journey had not been like that. Having travelled four thousand kilometres by train, and now helicopter, the distance travelled had felt very real. They had seen the landscape slowly change before them. As the helicopter landed, they were under no illusions – they knew they were arriving somewhere very different.

A taxi (the car kind) took them from the helipad to the army barracks where Binky was being held. The barracks town of Bardufoss was both underwhelming and overwhelming at the same time. The countryside was staggeringly beautiful. Lush green forests lined the roads and, in the distance, there were beautiful snow-capped mountains. But the architecture was not what Friday had expected. It was very functional. Friday supposed it had to be, given the extreme cold weather for most of the year. But the 1970s style of the houses and public buildings was strangely like the state public school she had attended before Highcrest.

Friday didn’t realise that they had arrived at the base at first, because it didn’t look like her idea of a military base. It was more like a summer camp. She wasn’t sure what she had been expecting. Certainly more fencing and security. Aside from the uniformed guard at the entrance, it could have been a high school.

Once they had signed in at the front office, Friday and Melanie were taken across to the guardhouse. They were shown to an interview room and after a short wait, Binky was brought in to talk to them. As soon as he stepped into the drab grey room, Melanie rushed forward to wrap him in a hug. ‘Oh, Binky, you look wonderful!’

Binky had always been tall and athletic, but now he was positively giant. He had finally stopped growing at six foot four, but he was even more muscular than when Friday had seen him last. He had the lean look of someone who did a lot of exercise.

‘You look good too, Mel,’ said Binky. ‘Although even if you looked terrible, you’d look good to me, because I’m just that pleased to see you.’

‘Come and sit down and tell us all about it,’ said Melanie. ‘I’m sure Friday will be able to sort it out for you.’

‘I don’t know, Mel,’ said Binky. ‘It’s not like at school with the headmaster. These army officers are devilishly serious fellows. They won’t stand for malarkey at all.’

‘But Binky,’ said Friday, ‘you’re not a malarkey type of guy.’

‘I know,’ said Binky. ‘That’s what I thought too. But I did get hit in the head, so I was a bit addled. I may have acted out of character. Who knows?’

‘Head injuries don’t cause personality transformations,’ said Friday. ‘Take me through what happened, and I’ll see if I can sort it out.’

‘Well, for the last two months I’ve been stationed on the island of Svalbard,’ said Binky.

‘Really?’ said Friday.

‘An island, that sounds nice,’ said Melanie.

‘Svalbard is in the Arctic Circle,’ said Friday.

‘That sounds not so nice,’ said Melanie.

‘It’s another fifteen hundred kilometres north of the mainland of Norway,’ said Friday. ‘It’s really cold. If you think of all those movies that come out at Christmas time about Santa and his workshop, it’s that kind of climate.’

‘Yes,’ said Binky. ‘It does get a bit nippy. But the army give us really top-notch coats, and if you still get cold, eventually you lose the ability to feel, and then it’s not too bad.’

‘There are only two things on Svalbard – coal mines and the Global Seed Vault,’ said Friday. ‘So, unless there is a secret installation there, I’m guessing your job was to guard the Seed Vault?’

‘Yes, that’s right,’ said Binky.

‘Why would anyone need to guard seeds?’ asked Melanie.

‘Because they’re really important,’ said Friday. ‘Any nation in the world can lodge a deposit of seeds there as a secure backup. It’s in case war or disease destroys their agricultural infrastructure.’

‘Okay,’ said Melanie. ‘But I’m still imagining the seed rack at a garden centre, and I’ve never seen one of those under armed guard.’

‘I know these days everyone likes to think about buying smartphones and smart watches and ridiculously overpriced sneakers,’ said Friday. ‘But we can literally live without all those things. We can’t live without food. Being able to grow food is super important. If food supply collapses, the whole of civilisation collapses.’

‘Yes!’ said Binky. ‘The Norwegians are very proud to have the Global Seed Vault. It’s on Svalbard because they had an old coal mine and they realised it was the coldest tectonically stable hole in the world.’

‘So how did you end up face down in the snow?’ asked Friday.

‘They say I left my post,’ said Binky.

‘Did you?’ asked Friday.

‘Well, yes,’ said Binky. ‘There were two of us on duty and we’re meant to stay inside the guard post. To be honest, it’s so cold outside that staying inside is really the nicest thing to do. But periodically, one of us has to go out and walk the perimeter of the facility to check everything is okay.’

‘And that’s what you did?’ asked Friday.

‘No,’ said Binky. ‘That’s what Jonas did.’

‘Jonas was the other person on guard duty?’ asked Friday.

‘Yes,’ said Binky. ‘No one likes Jonas. That’s why he’s on Svalbard. Everyone in Norway has to do two years of national service in the army, so there are a lot of fellows who really don’t want to be there. Jonas is one of them. Everybody got fed up with him. They sent him to Svalbard to finish out his term where he couldn’t cause trouble.’

‘Why did they send you to Svalbard?’ asked Melanie. ‘Did people find you hard to work with?’

‘No, not at all,’ said Binky. ‘I’ve been getting on well with everyone and having a lovely time in the army. I like all the outdoors stuff. I don’t often understand what’s going on, or why we’re doing things, but I’m just a corporal, so I don’t need to. I just do as I’m told. They like it when you do as you’re told.’

‘So how did you end up in Svalbard?’ asked Friday.

‘Well, you know Ingrid’s father?’ said Binky.

‘The King of Norway? Yes, we know him,’ said Friday.

‘Well, he is really beloved here,’ said Binky. ‘Everyone likes to make him happy. And no one has ever actually said anything to me . . . but I have noticed how, every time I go to Oslo to visit Ingrid, a couple of days later, I get posted somewhere more . . . I don’t know the word for it . . .’

‘Horrible?’ guessed Friday.

‘I wouldn’t like to say that,’ said Binky. ‘I’m tremendously grateful to serve Norway and be given an opportunity to earn the king’s respect. But I have been sent to a series of extremely challenging posts. My last mission was to the border of Russia, where my orders were to build a latrine.’

‘Toilets are important,’ said Melanie.

‘Certainly,’ said Binky. ‘But they already had a latrine. It was very nice. I’m not sure why they needed another one. And before that, I was stationed at the Arctic Warfare Learning Academy.’

‘That sounds interesting,’ said Friday.

‘Yes, soldiers from all around the world go to train there,’ said Binky. ‘They learn how to operate in extreme cold. It was my job to act as the operation objective.’

‘What did that involve?’ asked Friday.

‘They would drop me in the middle of the wilderness and I had to evade capture,’ said Binky.

‘Were you good at that?’ asked Friday.

‘Yes, but it wasn’t the type of thing you want to be good at,’ said Binky. ‘If I got captured, they’d take me back to the barracks, where it was warm and there were hot meals. If I didn’t get captured, I had to survive out in the wilderness for days. It was a bit like fox hunting . . . if I was the fox, and the hunters had all the latest military equipment.’

THUMP, THUMP, THUMP!

They were interrupted by someone banging at the door.

‘Førti minutter til hørselen din, Pelly,’ called a guard.

‘Crikey, he says we’ve only got forty minutes,’ said Binky. ‘Can you figure it out in that time?’

‘Take me through exactly what happened,’ said Friday.

‘Jonas went out to inspect the perimeter,’ began Binky. ‘It was snowing really hard.’

‘So the visibility was poor?’ asked Friday.

‘Yes. I think if I hadn’t been there, he wouldn’t have bothered,’ said Binky. ‘You never see anything on a perimeter inspection. I mean, the Vault is a really deep hole in the ground. There’s no way anyone can get in anywhere except the main tunnel.’

‘What about people approaching the tunnel,’ said Friday. ‘Don’t you have to watch for them?’

‘We do, but it’s not very hard,’ said Binky. ‘The only way anyone can get to the entrance is by driving up the hill, or riding a snowmobile up. Either way, you can see and hear them coming for miles.’

‘So it’s impossible to be taken by surprise,’ said Friday.

‘Absolutely,’ said Binky. ‘We actually know someone is coming before they even get to the island, because all the incoming ships and airplanes are tracked by satellite and radar. It’s impossible to sneak up on the Seed Vault. We were expecting a shipment from Spain but that wasn’t until the afternoon. But someone has to sit and watch the front door. It’s protocol.’

‘And you always follow protocol?’ asked Friday.

‘Oh yes,’ said Binky. ‘You have to, in the military, or you get yelled at, and in Norwegian! Which is even more confusing than being yelled at in English.’

‘I can imagine,’ said Friday.

‘So Jonas went out on patrol,’ said Binky.

‘How long does a normal patrol take?’ asked Friday.

‘Well, if all you do is walk around the perimeter,’ said Binky, ‘that takes seven minutes. But sometimes Jonas takes longer.’

‘How much longer?’ asked Friday.

‘Sometimes two or three hours,’ said Binky. ‘And he comes back in a really good mood, smelling of beer.’

‘I see,’ said Friday.

‘So I was sitting in the guard box, watching, when a movement caught my eye,’ said Binky. ‘There was obviously a lot of movement because of the snow storm. But most of that movement was straight down. That was the direction the snow was falling. This was different. This looked like something moving purposefully along the ground, along the top of the hill at the back of the Seed Vault. And it was heading in the direction that Jonas had just taken.’

‘A person?’ asked Friday.

‘I wouldn’t have worried too much about a person,’ said Binky. ‘Jonas did have a machine gun with him. And when you’re carrying a machine gun, people become extremely polite.’

‘I’m sure they do,’ said Friday.

‘It was hard to see into the distance through the snow,’ said Binky. ‘But the thing I saw looked like a polar bear.’

‘Do you often see them?’ asked Friday.

‘Not really,’ said Binky. ‘They tend to stay away from town. But there are a lot on the island, and the Seed Vault is at the edge of the township. There’s nothing on the other side of the hill except snow and tundra, so there are lots of bears out there.’

‘That’s nice,’ said Melanie.

‘Oh no,’ said Binky. ‘I know polar bears look cute in photographs. And children have soft toy polar bears. But in real life they are terrifying. They are absolutely huge and they will grab you by the back of your neck and shake you till your spine snaps. Jonas might be annoying, but I didn’t want that to happen to him.’

‘So you left your post?’ said Friday.

‘Not at first, because, you know – protocol. I tried to contact Jonas by radio,’ said Binky, ‘but he wasn’t responding. I don’t know why. The snowstorm was heavy. But the Norwegian equipment is very good and designed to cope with that. Anyway, he didn’t respond. I was worried that the polar bear had got to him already.’

‘So then you left your post,’ said Friday.

‘Yes,’ said Binky. ‘I felt I had to. Had to save Jonas.’

‘What happened next?’ asked Friday.

‘I walked up the hill as fast as I could with the thick snow,’ said Binky. ‘But when I got to the top, I couldn’t see anything. The far side is just a big snow-covered plain. If Jonas had fallen over, the snow would have covered him quickly. He could have been anywhere.’

‘What did you do?’ asked Friday.

‘I tried to remember my training,’ said Binky. ‘But there hadn’t been any protocols on how to respond when your guard partner is eaten by a polar bear. So, I was standing there, thinking hard, when all of a sudden – there was a terrible deafening roar of a bear behind me! As I spun round, a huge while paw smashed me across the face.’

Binky pointed to the lump on his forehead to show where he’d been hit. ‘That’s the last thing I remember. Apparently, Dr Finsberg – he’s the science fellow who runs the facility – found me face down in the snow.’

‘And he reported you?’ asked Melanie.

‘He had to,’ said Binky. ‘I needed medical attention for the bump on the head. I was very confused. I kept talking about lost tortoises.’

‘Did Jonas back you up?’ asked Friday. ‘Did he see the polar bear?’

‘Oh, Jonas wouldn’t back me up,’ said Binky. ‘Even if he’d seen a herd of polar bears.’

‘An aurora,’ said Friday. ‘The collective noun for polar bears is an aurora.’

‘Well, they don’t aurora much,’ said Binky. ‘Polar bears don’t get on with each other very well. A bit like me and Jonas. Anyway, he can’t stand me. He was positively gleeful to get me out of there.’

THUMP, THUMP, THUMP!

The guard banged on the door again.

‘Tid til å gå, Pelly,’ called the guard.

‘Oh gosh,’ said Binky. ‘It’s time. What am I going to do?’

‘You’re going to walk free from here,’ said Friday. ‘Well . . . you’ll walk free of this base, and then you’ll probably have to go back to your post. Because I can prove what happened.’

‘That I really was attacked by a polar bear?’ asked Binky.

‘No,’ said Friday. ‘I can prove what really happened.’