Hours earlier, Nolan had been listening to warnings about shifting ice and approaching storms when the radio on his cabin table crackled into silence. He waited for the transmission to return, staring at the little device. Out here, a few words of warning could mean the difference between making it home and disappearing beneath the ice. Eventually, he switched it off and began preparing for the day.
He had fished these waters for years. He knew which stretches of ice were dependable, where the fish gathered and how quickly the weather could turn against him. But experience offered no guarantees in the Arctic. A familiar route could become dangerous overnight, and even a minor mistake could leave him stranded miles from safety.