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into Stay every now and then and the weight of the money kept her firmly anchored to the instrument panel.
    In the wee small hours of the night, after he’d made sure no one else was around, the Boss would talk to her quietly. He told her stories of things he’d seen at sea, like whales and giant squid, icebergs so big that they floated in the sea for years and were given names, and pirate fishing ships that operated outside the law. He told her about stars and the aurora australis, red and green waves of light in the sky also called the southern lights. Their ship was named after the lights, which could usually only be seen in the winter months. Stay loved hearing his stories.
    Chills and his friends came onto the Bridge several times, but he seemed to be keeping his distance and Stay felt a bit hurt. Perhaps he’d changed his mind about taking her to Antarctica after all? Perhaps he’d lost interest in her, now that the continent was near and he had more exciting things on his mind.
    She tried to vibe him to come over to her one evening on the Bridge. He was standing far away, talkingto Kaboom and Laser. Stay thought he glanced over at her every now and then, but she couldn’t be sure. She felt rather lonely, staring out at the ice as dusk fell. The ship was abuzz with excitement, with everyone talking about what they’d do when they got to Antarctica and how much they were looking forward to it.
    Stay wished she was going with them. Travelling home again on the ship started to feel like a boring plan.
    The Bridge gradually emptied out as people left to go to bed. Chills and the others left without a backward glance, laughing loudly at some joke as they shut the door behind them. The Boss sat up in the big chair for a couple of hours afterwards, steering the ship carefully through the pack ice and around the huge icebergs. Then he yawned and stretched and called over the second mate.
    ‘Your shift,’ he said. ‘I’m turning in. It’ll be a big day tomorrow getting into the station.’
    ‘Night, Boss,’ the second mate said. ‘Sleep tight.’
    He waited till the Boss had left, then changed the music to something with lots of electric guitar and drums. He hopped up in the chair and tapped his fingers in time on the armrest.
    ‘Hey, Angus, how you doing?’ Kaboom wandered onto the Bridge. It was very dark with the bird curtains closed and Stay could barely see her.
    ‘Good. And you?’ the second mate said.
    ‘Great.’ Kaboom went over to the stereo and turned the music up. She called over it, ‘I’ve got to do some iceberg observations for Jamie and I don’t know how to use the radar. Can you show me?’
    ‘Sure,’ the second mate said. He jumped down from the chair and took her over to the screen. ‘This shows the direction we’re going,’ he said, pointing to the top of the screen. ‘You can change it like this.’
    As he pushed the buttons at the bottom of the screen, Stay heard a sound down near the ground behind her. Hands slid up and grabbed her legs. She couldn’t see who they belonged to in the dark.
    Thanks to the loud music, Angus didn’t hear them. The hands tried to slide Stay backwards, but she was so heavy with money that she hardly moved.
    There was a scuffle on the floor beside Stay. Angus, who was still talking to Kaboom, had his back to her and didn’t notice.
    ‘We’ll have to pick her up,’ someone whispered. Two figures, dressed in black, stood up silently, grabbed Stay’s legs, heaved her off the instrument panel and put her on the ground. They crouched next to her and froze.
    ‘If you click this button, you can change the range on the screen,’ Angus said.
    ‘Sorry, can you show me that again?’ Kaboom asked.
    ‘Now!’ one of the figures whispered. They lifted Stay between them and staggered across the Bridge in the dark. They nearly got tangled in the bird curtain, but managed to push through it. In the light on the other side, Stay saw it was Chills and Beakie