From the ground below them came the smell of pine needles, moist grass, and glacial-melt. The sky was overcast and veils of cloud glided at low altitude through the valley. Gisela Obermann tucked the blanket more tightly around him, then sat down in the adjacent recliner and asked, “What do you actually know about Himmelstal, Daniel?” “It’s a luxury clinic in a beautiful but dangerous setting. The staff seem crazier than the patients. But the native inhabitants of the valley are craziest of all. And there’s practically no communication with the outside world. Every time I try to get away from here, I get yanked back by some invisible rubber band. That’s pretty much all I know.” He buried his chin in the blanket the doctor had wrapped around him. It had a faint smell of her own perfume. It wasn’t really cold, but the thermostat controlling his body temperature seemed rather erratic, and without warning an icy chill could rise up from the injured parts of his leg and upper arm and spread through his body with a shiver.
