Cold Flood (Kea Wright Mysteries Book 1) by RJ Corgan

Author:RJ Corgan [Corgan, RJ]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-01-09T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

Day Four

The next morning, the main tent was swollen with the ranks of volunteers as they loaded up on breakfast. Kea stood at the rear, watching Lexie pack an Iceland-style field lunch: slices of cucumbers, tomatoes, and pepperoni on buttered bread. Bonnie and the two cousins were eating breakfast, giggling conspiratorially. Julie sat with her head bent over her laptop, no doubt preparing for the day’s work. Across the heads of the volunteers, Kea saw Gary lingering at the open-door flap, staring out at the mountains, a mug of coffee in hand. Jon, eating breakfast, caught her eye and his face lit up with a big goofy grin.

Oh dear. She realized she, and the beer, may have led him on. Going to have to have a chat at some point…

Beside Kea, Amirah was tidying up some of the dishes, embracing her role as the unofficial team mother. The woman was wearing yet another fantastic silk scarf, as if, Kea thought, Amirah had a different scarf for each meal of the day. This one was steeped in dark maroon and glittering with flecks of gold. Was this a breakfast scarf?

Jon pushed aside a small carton. “Room temperature milk disturbs me more than a little.”

“It’s fine.” Bonnie pointed at the label. “It’s been irradiated.”

Erik shook his head. “That’s the opposite of fine. I’m not drinking nuked milk. And this yogurt...” He held up a small packet. “They drink it warm. Nasty.”

“Everyone,” Marcus bellowed, “your attention please!” He stood at the head of the long table, fully dressed for fieldwork, a clipboard in hand.

“First though,” Kea interjected. “We’d like to say thank you to all of you for offering to stay and help, especially given the circumstances.”

“Yes, absolutely.” Marcus positively beamed with excitement.

Kea wished Marcus would dial down his enthusiasm a notch. It seemed wildly inappropriate. Even worse, she wished she didn’t feel it too.

“Last night, we examined the drone footage, taken by our most excellent Zoë Forbes here.” Marcus waved to Zoë, who fixed her gaze on her bowl of cereal, visibly uncomfortable with the attention.

“From the images, it looks like there was a minor flooding event over the winter, near the western-most river, the Blautakvísl,” Kea explained. “It exposed a section of a cliff over a kilometer long which will provide us with a great exposure to map. However, this area is in danger of being washed away by the river, or by another flood.”

Marcus highlighted the area on a map clipped to a whiteboard at the head of the table. “The flood has exposed hidden layers of sediment, providing us with a rare opportunity that could help us unravel the secrets of previous flood events.”

“Basically,” Tony added, “we’re scrambling to action stations, and we need your help. The area is simply too big for us to map on our own with the time we have left.”

“That’s right,” said Marcus. “We need to map this section as soon as possible.”

“No glacier?” Nadia’s disapproving pout implied Marcus should consider his response very carefully.

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