“Short of a written confession discovered under a rock up on that glacier, miraculously intact after all these years, no.”

“The general won’t be pleased.”

Charles removed the aviator’s cap that looked so well on his head and smoothed down his hair with the same hand. “Ah, hell. Fuck him if he can’t take a joke.”

They laughed together.

Wy, picking her way over a fractured slab of ice, which was now covered with a foot of snow, heard the sound and smiled to herself. Campbellpere et fils seemed to be getting along better. Good.

Something prickled at the base of her neck and she shivered. The temperature was dropping, or so it seemed. Her feet carried her forward, a little too close to the face of the glacier for Liam’s comfort. “Wy, don’t get so close to that damn thing!”

She didn’t hear him, the prickling at the base of her neck driving her on. She waded through snow to another slab of ice and peered into a dark blue hollow.

“Wy!” Liam was coming up behind her. “Wy, come on, get back.”

He stopped beside her. “What are you looking at?” When she didn’t reply, he bent over and looked. “What’s that?”

He reached inside the hollow. It was narrow and very deep, and he had to stretch to find anything. It was a tight fit, too tight. He stood up and pulled his arm out of his parka and reached inside the hollow again. This time his hands closed over it, a book, short and wide, maroon in color and embossed with very faint gold letters. The flash of the letters was what he had seen, winking up at him from inside the hollow.

“ ‘The Standard Pilot Logbook,’ ” he read out loud.

He opened it up carefully, afraid it would fall apart in his hands. The pages were damp but the writing on them was still legible. “Sgt. Obadiah Etheridge, pilot navigator, U.S. Army Air Corps,” he read, followed by a serial number and an address in Birmingham, Alabama.

He turned the page.

Thanksgiving, 1941

Turkey and stuffing in the mess. It was awful. The cook runs a laundry in Memphis Tennessee in civilian life. He says he told them that when he signed up and doesnt know how he got assigned to be a cook. Typical army situation normal all fucked up.

“That’s one of our guys,” Charles said, coming to stand at Liam’s shoulder. He looked at Wy, standing mute before them. Her face looked bleached of color, and her expression was strained.

So was Liam’s. “How the hell did you know it was there?”

December 20, 1941

Im writing this in the air. We took off in the dark but then its dark all the damn time up here. It was so cold the fuel wouldnt ignite at first and for awhile I dint think we were going to make it up. I saw Roepke come out of the old mans office before we took off. March was watching too. Wonder what thats about he said to me. I dont care I just want to do the job and get back.

Captain Ross had to have his lower lip cut away because of frostbite.

I wonder if I could transfer to a base closer to home. If I told the old man about Helen losing the baby maybe hed okay it. Maybe not, because theyre expecting the Japs to invade any minute now and theyre bringing more men in all the time. Everybodys coming north nobodys going south. I have to do my duty. We got us a real war now.

Its okay though, after this trip Ill have some more money to send her and shell be okay for awhile.

I hope shes okay. Helen, I love you. I wish you were here. The northern lights are all over the sky all different colors red and white and green you wouldnt believe how beautiful.

Have to take a bearing now.

Dana Stabenow