Havøysund was cold, and I mean bloody cold; even for Norway, it was on the bitter side. There were around three hundred and fifty inhabitants, mostly fishermen; you could even hire a boat for about six hundred krone a day, including crew. Most residents in Havōysund were married, with only a few singles, which meant that when I went to the pub, I wasn’t constantly approached by men seeking a good time. Yes, there was a pub, Det nordlige vertshuset, or Northern Inn. The only one in the village, it was next to the small supermarket, and it was pretty much the centre of village activity. All news started there and ended there. It was warm and almost always open.

A new oil field had been found in the Barents Sea, and the oil was the oldest that had ever been discovered, believed to be from after the time of the Permian–Triassic extinction event, possibly the Carboniferous Era. Very, very old. Since this is the nearest port, a laboratory was established in the village to test oil samples, and the company sent me here to conduct that testing. The laboratory was well equipped with basic equipment, some medicines, antibiotics, and all the standard lab gear and chemicals. I was suitably educated and medically trained and had been offered the post of running the lab. The company had also hired a local fishing boat to go to the field and collect the samples. It was interesting that virtually everyone here seemed to speak English. This was good because I didn’t know any Norwegian.

So far pipelines had not been laid to bring the oil to a terminal, although that was only a matter of time. The company had simply set up and equipped a laboratory for me to use and rented a house for me to live in. What they didn’t tell me about was the polar bears. This area was polar bear territory, and by that, I mean it really was theirs; they were the apex predator. No one here went anywhere without a gun—actually, two guns, a rifle, and a handgun. Also, no one walked anywhere, always by pickup truck or four-wheeler SUV. You always reverse parked so that if you had to make a run to the vehicle, the door opened away from you, and you could get in quickly and shut the door.

They said that when you encounter a bear, if it’s brown, you can try and fight; if it’s white, you say goodnight. The trick was not to encounter a bear. Before you opened a door, house or car, you looked very carefully. Winter was better; you could see their tracks in the snow sometimes, but the nights could be twenty-four hours long. We don’t tend to get polar bears in Yorkshire, so I was a bit unfamiliar with them, apart from seeing them once at a zoo. You don’t get complacent; you get careful.

Eric, who skippered a supply boat and managed the pub, told me that he had a new sample for me to test and apologised, as the container was a bit messy; some of the oil had spilt when they filled it up, and no one had bothered to wipe or clean it. I had no intention of touching raw crude, and so I asked him to hold on a while whilst I got some gloves. With medical-quality gloves on and a sterile container in hand, I took the sample and secured it inside the container, along with the gloves, which I would dispose of later. I drove to the lab and put the container in the ‘dirty area’ and opened it up, lights on, kettle on. I put the gloves in the contaminated disposal bin, thoroughly cleaned the sample in the cleaning sink, and the cleaning liquids were in a closed loop for later disposal.

Satisfied that the sample bottle was sterile, I went to the clean zone and opened it under the extraction hood. I dipped a pipette in and took a 0.5 ml sample and put it on a microscope slide. Analysis of the oil earlier had it as a light crude, low in sulphur, and therefore highly desirable for the low-emission fuels so demanded these days. Through the microscope I could see all the usual suspects, but also something I did not expect. I observed cellonites, which are small microscopic single-celled animals, and they were moving, indicating that they were alive. I was right to take precautions; it is unfortunate that the team at the drill site did not take similar measures.

I destroyed the slide after I had taken several images and saved them to the hard drive, which uploaded to the cloud hourly. Cleaned down the lab, put the sample container in the hazard safe, turned everything off and left, locking up as I went. I headed back to the bar; I would grab a few drinks before I headed back to my rental. As I was driving to the bar, I couldn’t help but notice several large polar bears wandering around town; I would have to be extra careful tonight.

I couldn’t find a spot right outside the bar entrance; I was two or three slots down. I sat in the car and checked all around before making a run for the bar. I left the car unlocked for a speedier getaway if required and hurried to the bar.

“Bears are active,” I said to Eric, “beer, please.”

“Yes, folk have been reporting it all day. Sample okay?”

I don’t comment on my work, so I was careful in my response. “It took some cleaning. Make sure that you tell them that I won’t take any more sloppy work like that, and the company won’t pay for the boat to carry any more samples like that. Anyone who touched that needs to be self-aware for any symptoms of unexpected illness.”

“Gosh, gee, it was only a bit of oil.”

“No, Eric, it wasn’t. The container was contaminated with crude that has unknown properties, any one of which could be a lethal contaminant.”

“Pah, they’ve been dealing with that stuff for years.”

“Eric, I am not joking; if I get another sample like that, then the company will cease to deal with you, and likely this town too. You can’t fuck around with this stuff. It is millions of years old; God knows what’s in it, and we would have no natural defences against it. Stop being so fucking cavalier.”

He put his hands up as if in surrender. I drank my beer; amusingly, the bottle had a picture of a polar bear on the glass. I wasn’t amused; the bloody things half scare me to death. I had another bottle.

Anders, the police guy, came in for a beer and sat next to me. “Mica,” he said.

“Anders,” I replied, “how are things?”

“Fucking bears everywhere; people don’t secure their garbage bins, and the bears get into them. There are loads more bears at the moment, and luckily, no one has been attacked.

“Yet,” I answered, “they scare me.”

“Good, they should scare everyone; then they might be a bit more careful. Idiots.”

Anders was the police force in Havøysund; it was a pretty easy job. As far as I knew, there had never been a robbery or violent crime in Havøysund; the rules simply stated that every settlement with over two hundred inhabitants had to have a police station and an officer. Anders was that man; he was young, and the position could have been his first posting. His main concern seemed to be an increase in the number of polar bears; I doubt he would know what to do if a real crime occurred. But he was okay with that; he streamed all the world’s police TV shows in his office whilst nothing was happening, he would be prepared. ‘Training’ he called it.