He smoothed back his light red hair before tilting his head a little closer towards Vidar Stang and staring directly into his ghostly pale eyes. He could see so much of the father in the son. A fact that greatly pleased him. A second passed before Pearl’s forehead creased in a calculated display of regret. ‘I never meant to leave you alone like that,’ he said. ‘The other pilots had to leave and I wasn’t able to get anyone back to you. You know me, Vidar, I would never have abandoned you.’ Stang shifted from one foot to the other in the snow, still doubting Pearl’s sincerity. He was dressed in snow-camouflage fatigues with a black balaclava rolled up over his head to serve as a hat, while his hunting rifle was slung lengthways across his colossal back. Towering a full head higher than Pearl, he stared down at him for a moment more, upper lip curled into a disbelieving sneer. ‘But . . . you left me blind . . .’ he managed to accuse the other man. Stang had practised what he was going to say for nearly ten months, but now that Pearl was finally before him, all he could do was stammer half-baked recriminations.
