Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters I have borrowed from M. . I do own Illya and Aggie Madison. This story follows on from "Spy School".
Oscar gave in and followed Carrie to the cabin. Illya unpacked his sleeping bag for him and found some bed clothes. After Oscar changed, he climbed into his sleeping bag. Illya drew the curtains and then closed the door on the already sleeping Oscar.
The cabin had already been stocked up with their food supplies for the duration. Carrie offered to make breakfast while the other two started unloading the sub. After breakfast the three of them brought the rest of the equipment up into the cabin. Rose set up the secure communications equipment and radioed back to base to update them on their arrival. Frank was obviously relieved that they had made it safely.
The three of them then spent the next couple of hours opening cases of equipment and checking what they had. Illya suggested putting labels on the boxes to save time looking for things later. Rose thought this was an excellent idea although Carrie groaned. They were in the middle of doing the labelling when Oscar made an appearance, still looking a little groggy.
"You can sleep a bit longer if you want to Oscar," suggested Rose.
"No, I might as well get some sleep tonight," said Oscar rubbing his eyes. "Have I missed anything ?"
"We are nearly ready to start," said Illya. He couldn't help noticing how the two girls always took care of Oscar. It was making him a little bit jealous. Still, they had been together as a team for a long time so he should expect them to look after one another.
Oscar frowned at one of the box labels. "Little tiny boxes and stuff ?" he said puzzled. "What's that for ?" Illya and Rose looked at one another and then both looked accusingly at Carrie who was trying to look innocent.
"Yeah, well that's what's inside isn't it ?" she said.
"Carrie, you need to check the contents. They've all got little tiny boxes and stuff," complained Rose. Illya was now laughing.
"If I ever need some little tiny boxes, I know where to look," said Illya.
Oscar held out his hand for Carrie's pen. "Would you like me to do some ?" he asked. "I'm starving. Would you mind making us some food Carrie ?" Carrie agreed that this was a fair trade. Cooking was no trouble because they had been left a large range of ready prepared meals. She didn't have to do much more than warm them up. In any case it was better than writing little labels on boxes.
The food was ready by the time the other three had labelled up all the crates and cases. They also had time to put away their own personal stuff in their rooms. While they ate they discussed their tactics for beginning the operation. Carrie was in favour of waiting until it got dark before going out to survey their surroundings using the night vision goggles. Rose pointed out that it was probably never going to get dark because it was summer in the Arctic Circle and the sun would never set. The others hadn't thought of this.
"There's not going to be any sneaking around in the dark then," commented Oscar, while they were all taking this in. "We're going to have to be careful about keeping our cover as naturalists."
"That's OK," pointed out Illya. "These animal people are always wandering around staring at stuff with binoculars. We are going to look just right aren't we." The others cautiously nodded. "Lets clear up and go and have a look round," suggested Illya. "It will give us more ideas, yes ?" They agreed and after ten minutes set off to have a look round.
It soon became obvious that getting around was not a simple matter on these islands. The only place in easy reach by walking from the cabin was the boathouse and the top of the hill behind the hut. On the other side of the hill was a huge cliff dropping straight down to the sea. They did get a good view from there though. They could clearly see another three islands within a fairly short distance over water and a distant view of several others. The nearest island appeared to be the biggest and had a small town opposite them with a small harbour filled with fishing boats.
"We're going to have to go everywhere by boat," said Rose.
"That's OK. There are two small motor boats in the boathouse," said Illya. "We can use those."
"I know," said Carrie. "There's two boats right ? So why don't we split into pairs and go round each of the islands. We can film what we see if there is anything interesting. It will look quite normal to anyone watching and we'll get an idea what might be out there. What do you think ?" The others agreed this would be a good start. Oscar would go with Carrie and Illya with Rose. They went over their maps and split the islands between them. Each pair would sail round three islands each marking up a map with anything interesting and return to base when they'd finished.
They took to their boats and it took nearly two and a half hours to complete their tours of all the islands. When Oscar and Carrie were mooring their boat again in the boathouse, Oscar was starting to yawn. It was still very light even though it was now quite late in the evening. "It's weird how it's not getting dark isn't it ?" asked Carrie.
"Yes. It is really odd," agreed Oscar.
"Must be your perfect place to live Oscar," said Carrie jokingly.
"You mean because it's never dark ?" asked Oscar resigned to the teasing. "Don't forget that it is dark all day in the winter time."
"Oh yeah. I forgot about that," said Carrie.
Illya and Rose had already returned and were going through all the information they had collected. Oscar couldn't help thinking that they seemed very comfortable with each other. He felt a moment's jealousy and then mentally kicked himself. Idiot. He liked Illya so why shouldn't Rose and Carrie. He was a good friend.
The four of them compared notes. There was the one larger town on the opposite island, some tiny settlements on the other islands, some harbours and a couple of caves visible from the sea around the coast from the town. Otherwise, nobody had noticed anything interesting.
"Tomorrow then, someone will need to visit the town and try to find out something about the chemical weapon event," said Rose.
"That is great. I can go shopping," said Illya. "Rose, do you want to come with me ?" he asked. "You can take some samples for chemicals maybe."
"Yes, that's a good idea," agreed Rose.
"Well, why don't me and Oscar go and look at those caves then," suggested Carrie.
The plan for the next day agreed they split for their rooms. Rose gathered some equipment for the next day. She liked to be prepared. Carrie spent a few minutes looking over the maps again. She wasn't really as absent minded as she sometimes gave the impression. She wanted to memorise any possibly useful features before they set off. Illya came back from the bathroom to find Oscar with his nose in a Norwegian language book. Literally. Oscar had obviously been sitting reading the book when he had gone to sleep and fallen face first into the book. Illya couldn't help laughing at his friend. Carefully he removed the book and lifted Oscar back on to his pillow. Oscar mumbled something and curled up in his sleeping bag.
Illya climbed into his own bed and turned off the light. It was odd working with people his own age. He had always worked with adults much more experienced than himself who controlled what he could and couldn't do. These three worked together really well though. He still felt like the outsider, but he was starting to feel at home more now. As his eyes adjusted to the semi-darkness, he could see that there was still light coming through the gaps in the blackout curtains. He could see Oscar's hair glowing in the soft light.
