She was turning out to be a pain in his ass.
Felix stood alone in the hallway of the Adak school, feeling equal parts embarrassed and infuriated.
She plays too much, he thought as he pushed through the exterior door and stepped into the cold mist.
Activity to the south caught his attention. People talking. Curiosity—and the need to walk—pulled him that way.
Minutes later, he passed an old cannery, long since boarded up, and stepped onto a long concrete pier lined with massive mooring cleats. The wind out there was relentless, stripping the warmth from a person in minutes.
Despite the conditions, Felix found a group of TORCH members gathered at the far end of the pier. Fishing rods lay haphazardly across the concrete as they crowded around an assortment of fish.
“Catching dinner?” Felix announced as he approached.
They turned, faces lighting up.
“This is the biggest sculpin I’ve ever seen! Look at the stomach contents!” one of the scientists exclaimed, extending gloved hands that held a slimy mass of fish guts, crustaceans, and worms. “Absolutely incredible! There are remains of starry flounder and cod in here.”
Another chimed in. “Jason says the salmon are running, and we’re all heading over to check it out. Want to come?”
“Those are some pretty impressive fish,” Felix said. “Did you all catch them?”
“Yeah. It’s easy once you understand the feeding hierarchy. I just didn’t expect it to be this easy. This area is teeming with biodiversity. It’s a wonder the fishing industry dried up here. No pun intended.”
Felix let out a dry chuckle.
“It sounds like you’re all making good progress. Will you be on tomorrow’s field exercise?”
“Oh, absolutely,” several of them answered at once.
For the first time, Felix really looked at them.
They were young. Most were little more than undergraduates—thin, shaggy-haired, bundled against the cold. They didn’t look like the sort of people you’d trust in the wilderness.
But they carried themselves with quiet confidence. They knew things he didn’t.
“I spoke with Major Sender earlier,” Felix said. “He asked me to help get you all through this expedition, but it seems like you may the ones helping me. I’m Felix.”
They introduced themselves one by one, a mixture of young men and women. Again, Felix noticed that nearly everyone selected for the program was barely into their twenties.
“I won’t keep you,” he said. “I just needed to get outside for a bit. Happy hunting.”
Leaving the group behind, Felix continued east along the old cannery road toward the seawall protecting the harbor. Turning south, he walked to its very tip.
Out there, the wind was so deafening that it became quiet.
It was so bitterly cold it was almost comforting.
He stood alone, surrounded by an endless, inhospitable sea. Waves exploded against the rocky shoals, spraying saltwater high into the air.
Felix sat down and drew a slow, deep breath.
For the first time that day, his mind was silent.
Artavus Quill 