"Kim Wilkins - Giants of the Frost" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wilkins Kim)

I had a quick wash, threw on a skivvy and a pinafore, and applied some mascara and some lipstick. I
had a phobia about my very pale hair, skin and eyes making me look washed-out. Silly, really, as Gunnar
was by far the most eligible man on the island and he had already seen me in my pajamas after a bad
night. My mother's fault: I'd have been far lower maintenance if her most-uttered phrase hadn't been,
"Dress up nice in case there are boys there."

We stopped for breakfast in the galley, which was at the front of the rec hall, across a narrow walkway
from the admin building. Toast and tea for me; disgusting pickled fish thingies for Gunnar. I almost
couldn't eat watching him wolf them down. Maryanne, the cook-cum-cleaner, was flirting shamelessly
with Magnus in an outrageous Manchester accent as they smoked together in the rec hall. We said hello,
then Gunnar led me to the front of the admin building.

"Isn't Magnus married?" I said to Gunnar. "I saw a ring on his finger."

"Separated. He's on the prowl."

"Maryanne?"

"AnyoneтАФbut Maryanne is easy prey. I don't think he's really interested. I think he just likes to see the
naked adoration in her eyes."

"How come your English is so good?"

"My father is English, and I lived with his family in Cambridge for two years." He indicated a large stone
set into the ground. "Did you know that 'Kirkja' is Old Norse for church?"

"No."

"This is the foundation stone for an early-eleventh-century church that once stood on this site. It was
discovered when the plans were being drawn up for the station. Historians excavated the area while the
main building was being constructed behind it. There was a television program about it."

I indicated the three-meter-wide satellite dish mounted on the roof. "Tell me about the communications
system."

Gunnar was just as happy to talk about technology as he was to talk about history. He took me around
the whole station, showing me the water tank and desalination machine, which sat at the back of the
station next to the water, and the generator shed and hydrogen chamber on the northern fence. An
instrument enclosure, full of pluviographs and anonometers and celometers and a score of other gadgets,
lay between the admin building and the cabins.

We entered the admin building via the back door, through a lino-floored storeroom and into a
remarkably neat office. Magnus was at his desk, as was Carsten (Danish), the registered nurse who
doubled as administration manager. Up a flight of spiraling metal stairs was the control room, where we
found Frida, who was a maintenance engineer, and Alex (American) and Josef (Icelandic), who were
both meteorologists. The other meteorologist, Gordon (English), had been on the night shift and was
wisely in bed. The room was lined on all sides by desks, littered with stained coffee cups and
half-finished paperwork, computers and other electronic devices. Both Alex and Josef were glued to a
computer screen, complaining about a permanent echo on the radar. Gunnar took me out onto the
observation deck. Rainy mist swallowed the forest and the other side of the island.