Sofia squinted through the windshield and imagined a herd of mammoths lumbering across the ice. On the remote islands of the Latpev, the enormous creatures had survived until surprisingly recent times. Long after druids built Stonehenge, and all the major pyramids had been completed in Egypt, mammoths were still roaming Wrangel Island far to the north.

“What I wouldn’t do for a hot shower,” Vasily said.

Sofia nodded. “And a real bed.”

They’d been gaining altitude at an almost imperceptible rate since leaving the river. The effort of it kept the engines straining and the sound and vibration added to her fatigue.

“What’s he doing now?” Vasily said, looking in the rearview mirror.

Sofia turned back. Petrov, the commander of the military escort, was flashing them from the vehicle behind.

Vasily stopped and Sofia opened her door. Apart from the idling engines, she doubted there was a sound other than the wind for a thousand miles. That kind of isolation was a force all its own. It pressed against her.

When she was a child, her parents took her on a cruise of the Black Sea. At night, when they were out of sight of land, she terrified herself by imagining jumping off the ship and being left alone in the water. Who knew what lurked in those depths?

The tundra gave her the same feeling.

Alone in her tent at night, she had nightmares of the convoy leaving without her. No matter how cold it got, she had to look outside and make sure the rest of the tents were still there.

“Doctor Ivanovna,” Petrov called through the comms.

“What is it?”

“We’re at the geotag. This is my marker.”

She jumped down from the vehicle and her boots sank six inches into slush. This was the moment she’d been waiting for. She reached into the vehicle and pulled out her backpack. Inside was an envelope bearing the seal of the president.

She carried it to Petrov.

“What’s this?”

“What does it look like?”

His eyes widened when he saw the seal. He opened it and read the orders. Sofia knew what they said. The scientists were to go on alone.

“We’ll set up camp here,” Petrov said, “and wait for you.”

“Very good,” Sofia said.

He climbed back into his vehicle and returned with a polymer gun case. He put it on the hood of his vehicle and opened the latch.

Inside were six government-issue side-arms.

“What do we need these for?” Sofia said.

“Protection.”

“Protection from what?”

Petrov shrugged. “Monsters?” he said.

Sofia rolled her eyes and grabbed the case. She signaled the four other scientists to follow her and they trudged together to the lead vehicle.

“This is it,” she told them. “This is what we trained for.”