Then the temperature rose and the dense conifer forest leapt from abstract shade to actuality. All that was left of their journey was some meltwater about their feet. They were standing on a rocky, heavily wooded hillside and the sun was beating down, actual summer sun that Lucas hadn’t realized how much he’d missed. The air was full of birdsong, and if he didn’t recognize the individual sounds, the impression was familiar. The breeze smelled of pine resin.

“Where are we?” he asked. He was on his knees, stripping off layers of now-stifling synthetic fabrics. Rove, a metre away, was doing the same.

“Scotland,” Rove said, “approximately.”

“Scotland?” Lucas demanded. “You mean we’re home? We’re actually…” He stared at the trees, which were definitely conifers but weren’t quite right. The shades of green, the arrangement of branches, the precise shape of the needles looked odd, and the birds sounded…He looked up at the sun, filtering through the criss-crossing network of branches, and it was the same sun. But the squirrel-sized thing up there, crouching on a branch, had a long nose like a trunk. “Not the right Scotland,” he finished, surprised at how his heart had leapt when he’d thought he was actually home.

“Nil desperandum, Lucas,” Rove said jovially, and then, because he was a patronizing sod, “That means ‘do not despair.’ All will be well. We’re still a little way from base, unfortunately, but that was unavoidable if we wanted to get here at all.” Rove smiled up into the sunlight, and for a brief moment it seemed genuine. “It’s been quite the trip, hasn’t it?”

“Not that I’m sorry to be out of the ice, but why the rush to get here, sir?”

Rove laughed lightly. “Oh, that’s just the whole plan, Lucas. Just the fruition of all I’ve set in motion. I’m sure we could have put it on hold for a few hours though, simply to spare you a walk.”

“I don’t mind a—What the fuck is that?”

Something that had been still since their arrival now decided that two humans were definitely beyond the pale and bolted. He had the impression of a long, scaly tail and a hairless brown body—like a rabbit crossed with a pangolin.

“No idea. You can name it if you want.” Rove shrugged easily and pulled his phone out. “Ah, a signal, good. I was worried we wouldn’t have the infrastructure in place yet. Score one more for good forward planning.”

“Whose signal? The ice guys?”

“Oh no, we’re done with that now.” Rove’s annoying smile was back, but beyond that, he seemed suddenly looser and more congenial than Lucas had ever known him.