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Frohtly over sixty miles north to the latitude that marked the actual Arctic Circle, and from there it was a dozen or so more to Mount Forel Winter solstice, December 22, was only a few days past That day, at the exact location of the Arctic Circle, was the only single day of total darkness each year

North of the circle, depending on how far one went, the blackness was constant The farther north, the longer that condition remained At the exact spot of the Arctic Circle and to the south of it, Deceressed toward spring, the daylight grew longer by ht sun would rise and in the area north of the Circle, the sun would not set for some time

It was a cycle that had repeated itself for countless eons

Outside, a howling wind raked hard pellets of frozen snow against the s in the ter as the interior of a h still indoors, he tugged at the zipper to his parka

Since Kulusuk was just south of the Arctic Circle, there would be a few ht today By contrast, Mount Forel was still in total darkness The next few days and weeks would see the top of the ht Then, as the in to drip down the sides of the mountain like yellow paint poured atop a pyramid

But looking outside one would never guess the sun had been, or was, anywhere near

Right noever, Cabrillo was less concerned with the darkness than he ith transportation Walking off to the side of the terminal, he removed a satellite telephone and hit the speed dial

“WHAT HAVE YOU found out?” he asked when Hanley answered

Because of Overholt’s urgency, Cabrillo had left the Oregon without a clear plan on hoas to travel to Mount Forel Hanley had assured hiround there would be a plan in place

“There are sosled teauide as a ure you wanted a witness, so I ruled that out The helicopters that service Kulusuk have regularly scheduled routes, from Tasiilaq and back, but they don’t hire out and the current weather has therounded”

“Not walking weather,” Cabrillo said, staring outside

“Or skiing,” Hanley added, “though I know you pride yourself on your skiing ability”

“So what is it?”

“I had the coistrations fro, as there are only four hundred or so people in Kulusuk I discounted snowmobiles because you’d be exposed to the snow and cold, plus their tendency to break down That leaves us with snowcats They are slow and burn a lot of fuel, but they have heaters and plenty of rooe of supplies I think that’s our best bet”

“Sounds reasonable,” Cabrillo said “Where’s the rental place located?”