Ice Diaries by Lexi Revellian Page A

my tracks until the blizzard, but there’s no reason
for them to bother you. If they pick up my trail they’ll follow
me out of London.”
    “I bloody hope so.” I had
an idea to defuse the situation. “Why don’t you count out
the gold and leave seventh eighths with me? If Mike turns up I can
give it to him, and then he probably won’t chase you.”
    He laughed, as if I’d made a
pathetically transparent attempt to trick him that he wasn’t
going to fall for. “I don’t think so.”
    “Honestly, Morgan, you are a
fool. Not everyone is as venal as you and your mates. I’m not
after your beastly gold. You can’t eat gold, or warm your hands
at it, or ride south on it. I think the whole scheme you and Mike had
is stupid. For all you know, it’ll be worthless where you’re
going, like it’s worthless here. You lot had snowmobiles, you
could have got out of this country and spent the last year in the
warm, somewhere where there’s a future. I think you’re
all crazy. Still, it’s up to you.” I swung my leg over
the Ski-doo and stood. “I’ll be going. Things to do.”
    Morgan got to his feet and came close,
pale blue eyes meeting mine. “You were thinking of stealing the
ACE, weren’t you, when I turned up? I could see it in your
face. You’re not as different from me as you’d like to
think.”
    He’d read my mind. How did he do
that?
    “It’s been nice knowing
you, Tori. Shame we couldn’t have got to know each other
better. I’ll miss you telling me off.” He put a hand on
my arm, bent forward and kissed my cheek, his beard softly scratchy
on my skin. My body did the electric shock thing again. He smiled.
“I’ll miss you.”

    I walked back to Bézier in
Morgan’s footprints. To my surprise, I felt sorry he was going.
I would miss him, too. Nothing to do with my meaningless physical
frisson – but I suppose our group is so small, any addition
makes a welcome change, and he was certainly different. Though from
the point of view of not wanting to tangle with vengeful psychos it
was all for the best.

    Ice Diaries ~ Lexi Revellian

CHAPTER 9

Expect the unexpected

    Back at the flat, I tidied up and swept
the snow off the balcony. Slightly grumpily, I put away Morgan’s
duvets and beer bottles. Then I went up five flights of stairs to the
top of Bézier, traversed dark corridors, and climbed to the
roof garden. The curved walls are filled with snow blown level by the
wind, and I didn’t go too near the edge. The view offers a
panorama of London, an edited version where only the tallest
buildings exist. I got out my binoculars and trained them on the
broken window of the Gherkin, which was ridiculous, nothing to see,
because he wouldn’t be leaving for hours.
    I’m foolish about partings and
find them unduly poignant; they are like a mini form of death which
is the final and irrevocable parting. I’d never see Morgan
again, and this must be why I was up on a snowy roof hoping to get a
last glimpse of him. I wondered how he would cross the Channel, and
how long it would take him to reach the point where the snow stopped,
and what it would be like when he got there. I imagined warm sun on
bare skin, a balmy breeze, a seashore, greenery … I pulled
myself together. For once, I decided, I’d take a day off; mess
around, achieve nothing. I’d go and see Claire.
    Claire was pleased to have an excuse to
stop the half-hearted tidying she’d been engaged on while Toby
was asleep, and have a cup of coffee with me. She put water to boil.
Gemma was doing a jigsaw at the table with great concentration,
watched by a row of toy ponies. She looked up as I took off my jacket
and said,
    “Tori, why have you got a knife
stuck with tape to your belt?”
    “In case I have to suddenly peel
a lot of potatoes unexpectedly.”
    “There aren’t any potatoes
except in tins, and they’re already peeled.”
    “Course I realize that now ,
but I’d already made the sheath and didn’t want to waste
it. Good,