‘I’m just so free now,’ Gréta said. ‘I just say exactly what I mean. For example, I’m going to ask you to let me know if the minister says anything about those medical records she requested. Or if she mentions her father and how he died – or anything else. You’ll let me know? Because I’m your friend, aren’t I?’

‘I have a duty to keep confidences,’ Stella said, and that was quite true. There was some piece of paper she had signed when she took the job. There was something uncomfortable about the way Gréta asked her again and again for gossip from inside the ministry. She always gave the same response: it sounded better than saying she never heard anything because she was just a cleaner. 142

‘You’re such a sweetheart!’ Gréta giggled, and put out a hand to pinch her cheek. Then she handed Stella her phone.

‘Could you call me a cab? The numbers are jumping all over the screen.’

It was no surprise that Gréta couldn’t see straight; Stella felt dizzy just looking into her eyes.

‘Are you going to another party?’ she asked, booking a cab through the taxi app. ‘Or are you going to meet her?’

‘No, she’s busy this weekend. I was going to get a lift up to the slope at Öskjuhlíð, or somewhere that’s dark, so I can watch the Northern Lights,’ Gréta said. ‘I got a message from somewhere in space that they’re fantastic right now. You know, something I have to see. It’s the inner freedom I’m enjoying tonight.’

It was clear that Gréta’s feet were some way off the ground, and Stella felt a surge of disquiet.

‘Look, it’s not smart to be going off somewhere in the dark with some taxi driver in the state you’re in,’ she said, taking Gréta’s arm to try and get her attention, which seemed to flicker around the hallway as she stood with her coat half over her shoulders and a clownish smile on her face.

‘I’ve never been in a better state,’ Gréta whispered. ‘More than likely I’m in the best state I’ve ever been in my whole life. Exactly at this moment right now.’

‘Yeah, sure.’ Stella rummaged through the pile of coats to find her jacket. ‘I’ll come with you on this Northern Lights expedition. There’s no way you’re going off around town in a taxi on your own.’

As she spoke, a horn beeped outside. Stella steered Gréta into the back seat as she complained about the light pollution that obscured her view of the sky.

When they stopped up on Öskjuhlíð, Stella asked the driver to wait in the car park outside the Perlan building. He made sure they paid before getting out of the car, and after retrieving a credit card from Gréta, who was hurrying off in search of Northern 143Lights, Stella set off after her down the steps that led from the car park to the hollow below. Her eyes hadn’t adjusted to the darkness and she slipped in the loose, ice-covered gravel that had been flattened underfoot. Tree branches whipped her face as she made her way forward in the darkness, then she suddenly walked into Gréta, who stood motionless, her eyes on the heavens.