Angut

The cookie company had timed it out so that the shipment for Leffer would arrive by boat at Qaanaaq the day after his own flight. Despite the delay, he made it with more than enough time—the boat arrived in the afternoon.

In the morning Leffer took advantage of the continental breakfast offered by the hotel. It was more of a hostel actually, though in recent years they added a suite of private rooms behind the lobby, and that’s where Leffer stayed. There were two other rooms like it, but even though most of the beds in the hostel rooms were occupied no one upgraded to a private room.

Breakfast wasn’t very crowded. Leffer hadn’t been able to sleep and got there early, filling a tray with cereal, orange juice, some fresh fish and several kinds of pastries that all looked fresh out of the plastic packaging. He sat in the corner to eat and to watch, but no one really came in. He had a couple more servings of cereal and a few of the bread discs that they called bagels.

The fresh fish, he found out, was limited. It was the first time the man from the hotel spoke to him in the morning.

-If you’d just wait to see if other guests will like some.

-Well sure, but it doesn’t really look like anyone’s coming.

-Some of the guests get up a little later, the man offered.

-You know, Leffer began, looking out the window toward the interior, but imagining the bay on the other side of them, you’d think you’ve got a lot of fresh fish, you know?

-The fishing hasn’t been so good. Warmer water brings in predators, and they eat all the fish up. They don’t taste as good. The man looked at Leffer. Take some more. Welcome to our hotel.

Leffer introduced himself to the man, figuring it would come up at some point anyway. They’d booked the room, it wasn’t really a secret.

-Yum-yum-yummy in my tum-tum-tummy!, the man, Dedrik, sang in an off-tune, the old jingle of the cookie company.

-Something like that, Leffer laughed.

-The Montroses were very nice people, Dedrik offered. That was the first couple the company had sent.

-Did you know them?

-Yes, well, they showed off their robot. When the midnight sun started to set, you know, it got to them I think, and they didn’t like the idea of sending the robot out into the interior. They sailed to Canada a few weeks after the sun disappeared.

Leffer couldn’t believe how easy it was. He remembered the name of one of the company’s contacts in town.

-Do you know Nanny Nanook?

-He’s a troublemaker.

-Where could I find him?

-In the interior, Dedrik said, and paused. In shreds.

-What’s that?

-Nanny hunted wolves. They hunted him.

Sure, Leffer had considered that the best use of the parcels of land the company acquired would be to open up a hunting preserve. The government had some amount of permits it issued a year, and it would be easy to get what was needed. The warmer weather was bringing the wolves closer to the settlements, so it made sense that way too.

But Nanny was supposed to be a local chemist, a background that might have been helpful for the mineral work.

-Maybe a street chemist, Dedrik chuckled when Leffer brought up a science background.

Now Leffer wanted to see Nanny.

-Where’s he live?

-Between the playground and the museum, not with the rest of the Nanooks down the road on the east side, but further out.

-When’s the last time anyone saw him?

-After those other guys of yours came back from the interior, before disappearing again.

Everybody but the company knew what was going on. Leffer decided to stop wasting time and head to the police station. He wasn’t sure why he thought he should go in the afternoon. It was eight something in the morning here. Five something in his head, and something in the sky that was always the day but not quite. Microdosing daylight. The midnight sun seemed to dance along the edge of the low clouds.

The police station had an unassuming look, a small wooden building with a POLITI sign. Another wooden building further out was the jail. There was a hybrid van parked in front of the station.

Leffer walked up the stairs to the door of the station. There was a screen door and just a door that looked like the door to a house behind it. Instinctively he knocked on the rotting wooden part of the screen door before opening it and knocking on the door itself.

-Are you kidding me?, a voice inside intoned. It’s open!

Leffer stepped in.

-Sorry about that. Good morning, obviously I’m not from here.

-Officer Holland told me about you. With the cookie company, yeah? From Europe?

-Sure. Yes. I actually flew in from New York. Newark airport.

-Well, you flew in from Nuuk.

-Yeah, sure. Listen, I’m up here, I think you know why. It seems everyone knows what happened but when we ask we can’t get an answer.

-No one’s asked us. Who have you asked?

Leffer thought the question over. His bosses had been asking the government, all those representatives who made working between a company and a government possibly, legally or otherwise. Nobody had bothered to call the police department. Why would they?

-When’s the last time you talked to someone from your government?

The officer let out a hearty laugh.

-When’s the last time you talked to someone from your government?, he repeated to Leffer, half-way asking, half-way trying to show Leffer what the question sounded like. You’ve been asking the wrong people, he said after a longer pause.

-Look, he continued, getting up from his desk. I know the sheriff down in Kullorsuaq. They had a couple of parcels sold by the government and some solar power company came in and filled the interior with panels. It worked out for them. We get, we get adventurer angut.