A short, cheerful-looking man got up from an easy chair as we entered, a book in one hand. He nodded in greeting to Nadia and Yuichi as the three of us gathered before a roaring log-fire.

His smile faltered, his eyes widening when he saw me. ‘You’re . . .’

‘This is Jerry Beche,’ said Nadia, ‘our new Pathfinder.’ She said this with what struck me as exaggerated emphasis, although she did not explain what a Pathfinder actually was. ‘Jerry,’ she continued, looking back at me, ‘this is Tony Nuyakpuk. He helps run things around here.’

‘Hi,’ I said, nodding. Tony mirrored my gesture, still staring at me in a way that made me uncomfortable.

‘I wasn’t expecting anyone,’ said Tony. His eyes narrowed. ‘Is this on the record?’

‘Sure,’ said Nadia. ‘We’re just taking Jerry here on a whistle-stop tour.’ She said this in a matter-of-fact way, but from the way she held his gaze, and the uneasy look on Tony’s face, it was clear there was some subtext of which I was not aware.

‘Nuyakpuk,’ I said, wanting to break the awkward atmosphere. ‘That’s an Inuit name, right?’

‘Sure is,’ said Tony. ‘Anything I can do for you people while I’m here?’

‘It’s just a stop-over, but we need cold-weather gear,’ said Yuichi. ‘We’re going for a little drive, and in the meantime we need you to realign the stage for a trip to AR-21.’ He hooked a thumb towards the far end of the cabin. ‘Cold-weather gear still in the same place?’

Tony nodded, and Yuichi led me over to a door at the opposite end of the building. I glanced back at Tony, who muttered something under his breath to Nadia. It sounded like Holy Mother of God.

Behind the door was a walk-in cupboard, and I was handed a pair of heavy padded trousers, a hooded parka and thick gloves. Before long, suitably dressed for the Arctic temperatures, I was back in the truck, watching as the building dwindled behind us in the gloom. Nadia had taken the wheel, carefully guiding the truck between two of the bollards.

‘Start talking,’ I said, feeling cold for reasons that had nothing to do with the ambient temperature. ‘How the hell did we get here, and what the hell is this place, anyway?’

‘What do you know about parallel universes?’ asked Yuichi.

I searched his face to see if he was joking, but he looked deadly serious. ‘Outside of a couple of science documentaries on the Discovery Channel, about as much as anyone else,’ I replied. ‘Is that what you’re saying? We’re in a parallel universe?’

‘Look outside,’ he said, nodding out through the windscreen. ‘Does this look like any place you’ve ever been?’

I stared at him beside me. ‘I don’t know,’ I replied, with only a slight tremble in my voice. ‘I think you’re asking me to believe a lot.’