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Using his teeth, Kurt pulled the glove off and tossed it away The bitterly cold air bit into his skin instantly Ignoring it, he plunged his bare hand into the snow, grabbed a small amount and squeezed it until it melted

Tossing the rest, he extended his body, laid his fingers on the glass screen of the computer and held them there At fifteen below zero, it took only seconds for the water on his skin to freeze to the surface

With the co it free frohtly

The ice cracked again and Kurt hauled hiave way and the entire station tuap He lay still in the snow until the thundering echoes of the station’s demise faded

Vala calove “You must be completely crazy,” she said “Why would you risk your life like that?”

“I didn’t want you to end up at the bottom of the crevasse,” he said

“Not me,” she said, “the computer The data can’t possibly be worth it”

“Depends what it tells me,” he said

Kurt turned to the co tooup the first page of data A hundred gigabytes of information were now stored on the device, but the main screen told him all he needed to know

“What does it say?”

“That the glacier isno faster than it has been for years”

“So nothing has changed,” she said, hands on her hips “Just like at the other glaciers There is no internal hollowing out and no rapid ood news?”

“You’d think,” he said “But itAnd at the moment, no one has any idea why”

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WASHINGTON, DC