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In eastern Greenland, an endless ice sheet stretches out. The polar night shrouds this white desert, with only the aurora borealis casting its ever-changing, eerie green light against the inky black sky. A small, unmarked stealth transport plane, like a ghost, shuts off its engines and, using advanced stealth coatings and the cover of night, glides and crash-lands amidst howling winds. The landing gear scrapes against the hard ice with a piercing sound, and finally, the plane comes to a stop, deeply embedded in a thick snowdrift.
The cabin door was pushed open forcefully, and a biting wind of minus forty degrees Celsius, carrying icy, knife-like crystals, rushed into the cabin, causing the temperature to plummet. Even wearing state-of-the-art electrically heated cold-weather suits, the piercing cold was still penetrating, making it hard for everyone to breathe, and causing frost to quickly form on their face masks.
"Check equipment, inventory supplies, and complete the transfer within ten minutes. Target: designated concealment point." Keegan's voice came through the communicator in his face mask, calm, clear, and devoid of any unnecessary emotion, instantly pulling the team back to reality from the disorientation of the forced landing.
The team moved swiftly, silently, and efficiently. Hesh and Logan checked the weapons and ammunition, while Elaine nervously confirmed the data hard drives and portable terminals were intact. Led by Logan, they quickly and hastily covered the aircraft wreckage with camouflage cloths that matched the color of the snow. Then, the team formed a single file and trudged into knee-deep snow toward an abandoned Inuit winter hunting hut marked on a map, several kilometers away.
The wind whipped snowflakes against their faces, and visibility was extremely low. Every step sank deep into the soft snow, and pulling themselves out required immense effort. Elaine was the weakest in the group, and despite gritting her teeth and persevering, her breathing became increasingly rapid and heavy, and her steps began to falter.
Keegan maintained a position to the side or rear of the group, his steps steady and powerful, like anchors driven firmly into the snow-covered plains. He would occasionally glance back, his gaze sweeping across the group through his goggles, lingering briefly on Elaine in particular.
When she slipped and nearly fell, his strong arm caught her elbow just in time, helping her regain her balance. "Stay close to me, catch your breath," his voice came through the private channel, deep and brief.
Elaine nodded gratefully, took a deep breath of the cold air, and tried to keep up with his pace.
After several hours of nearly exhausting trekking, the team finally reached their hideout—a low wooden and stone hut half-buried in ice, snow, and rocks, almost blending into its surroundings. The interior was cramped, dark, and covered in dust, but at least it provided a relatively sheltered space.
After a short rest and replenishing their energy, Keegan and Logan took their reconnaissance equipment and went out to conduct preliminary reconnaissance. Hesh established a perimeter from a high point, while Elaine set up makeshift communication and monitoring equipment inside the cabin, attempting to capture any electronic signals.
A few hours later, Keegan and Logan returned, chilled to the bone and with grave expressions. "The situation is more complicated than we thought," Logan said, spreading out a simple hand-drawn topographic map. "The camp is disguised as an abandoned research station, seemingly lifeless. But thermal signals and underground seismic monitoring indicate large-scale, continuous underground activity with high energy readings. Most importantly," he paused, looking at Keegan, "we detected unusual but very stable low-intensity nuclear reaction fluctuations."
Keegan's eyes were sharp as an eagle's, clearly having considered all possibilities. He continued, "The defense system is highly automated, with motion sensors and hidden cameras on the perimeter, very few patrolling sentries, and the entrance is extremely well-hidden. This doesn't seem like a simple military outpost; it's more like a secret industrial or research facility with huge energy demands."
He looked at Elaine and said, “Considering the missile data in Elsa’s necklace, Makarov is likely secretly developing nuclear weapons here, or manufacturing related key components.”
Nuclear weapons. The word froze the air in the cabin. Everyone realized that they were no longer facing simple bioterrorism, but the ultimate threat that could trigger the collapse of the global nuclear balance.
“A facility of this scale and energy consumption cannot be self-sufficient and must require regular external resupply,” Keegan analyzed. “Finding their supply lines is our only chance to infiltrate.”
For the next two days, the team took turns lying in ambush in the extreme cold, relying on high-powered binoculars, remote sensors, and low-light night vision equipment to monitor the only frozen route leading to the camp around the clock. Enduring the bitter cold and loneliness, waiting was their only task.
On the morning of the third day, luck finally smiled upon them. A convoy of three camouflaged heavy snow trucks, crushing through the snow and ice, slowly made its way towards the camp along a route half-hidden by the wind and snow.
"Target spotted. Prepare for action." Keegan's voice crackled in the channel. "Plan: Each person locks onto a vehicle, uses its complex undercarriage structure to scramble onto it, and infiltrates the camp. Hesh in the lead vehicle, Logan in the rear, Elaine and I in the middle. The operation must be quiet and swift. Follow my instructions."
The convoy, which had infiltrated beneath the ice field, slowed down a few hundred meters from the camp outpost for a routine check. Like cheetahs poised to pounce, the team silently slid out of pre-selected snow pits, using the roar of truck engines and the cover of the snowstorm to get close to the undercarriages of the vehicles.
The space beneath the chassis was narrow and cold, filled with thick pipes, drive shafts, and suspension structures. Keegan protected Elaine, helping her find the most secure grip point. After making sure her hands and feet were firmly secured, he found a position on her outside, using his strong body to form a barrier between her and the outside, almost encircling her in his arms, both of them clinging to the cold metal structure.
The truck restarted, bumping and jolting past the checkpoint and blending into the camp's internal roads. Under the cover of the roar of the engine and the vibrations of the vehicle, they successfully infiltrated the secret fortress beneath the ice field.
After infiltrating, the team skillfully avoided the sparse patrols and dense network of cameras, thanks to the terrain map they had scouted earlier and their exceptional stealth skills. They eventually found the heavily guarded control room on the second basement level.
Logan and Hesh silently knocked out the two guards at the entrance, and the team quickly infiltrated.
"Logan, Hesh, guard the door. Elaine, you only have ten minutes," Keegan whispered from inside the door.
Elaine immediately rushed to the control panel and connected her portable terminal to the system. Her fingers flew across the virtual keyboard, her eyes focused intently. Soon, she breached the first layer of firewall and began downloading critical data. The initial information she obtained sent chills down her spine:
A fragment of an encrypted communication record, quickly deciphered by her, clearly revealed a secret transaction between a senior NATO staff officer and high-ranking officials at "Purgatory" regarding the "security of transporting special high-density materials," the timing of which highly coincided with the missile data leak. An anonymous account in the Cayman Islands also injected huge sums of money into several shell companies with complex shareholdings with "Purgatory," vaguely labeled as "polar resource development and exploration." Most of the heavy equipment and logistical support contracts for this camp pointed to a multinational heavy industry company closely associated with "Purgatory." This evidence was enough to cause a huge international uproar!
However, when Elaine tried to press her advantage and delve into the core database to find specific parameters, blueprints, and connections to the "Night Watch" project in nuclear weapons development, her actions nearly triggered a warning threshold of an extremely hidden AI intrusion detection program deep within the system! She broke out in a cold sweat when she discovered this, and despite trying many methods, she still couldn't bypass it.
"No!" Elaine's forehead instantly broke out in a cold sweat, her voice trembling with lingering fear. "The core database is protected by advanced AI. I almost triggered a high-level alert! Forcibly cracking it would take far longer than the security time limit!"
"Evacuate immediately! Take the backup route!" Keegan ordered without hesitation, his decisiveness on full display. The squad swiftly retreated along the pre-planned backup route, utilizing the complex structure of the logistics area's passageways and shift changes to silently escape the buildings. They then risked their lives again by boarding the chassis of another empty supply convoy about to leave the camp, managing to slip out of the camp unscathed and disappear into the vast snowstorm.
Several hours later, in a natural hideout formed by a deep ice crevasse dozens of kilometers away from the camp, the team finally stopped to catch their breath. Exhausted, they had just replenished their energy when their encrypted satellite communicator received an urgent message from Ghost at "Eagle's Nest": the situation at home had deteriorated rapidly; Price had been officially suspended from duty and was undergoing internal investigation; General Thorne was conducting a comprehensive purge of Price's forces; Ghost himself was under close surveillance; and external support had been virtually cut off.
The news hit her like another bucket of ice water. Elaine clutched the hard drive containing crucial data, but unable to access the core files, her face a mask of frustration and self-reproach: "I'm sorry… if my skills had been better, if I had acted faster, perhaps I could have obtained the evidence Price needed…"
“No, you did very well.” Keegan interrupted her, his voice coming through his mask, deep yet exceptionally clear and certain, carrying an undeniable power. “You’ve obtained crucial evidence exposing corruption at the highest levels of NATO. This has exceeded expectations.”
He turned around, his gaze falling on her face, which was etched with self-reproach. Even through his goggles, the certainty and trust in his eyes were unmistakable. "Most importantly, because of your caution and decisiveness, we were able to evacuate before triggering the alarm, allowing us all to leave that place alive. Evidence can be found again, but a life is irreplaceable. I believe that in that situation, no one could have done better than you." His words were warm yet firm, instantly soothing the chill and self-doubt in Elaine's heart.
She looked up at him, her eyes widening slightly behind her goggles, a gentle warmth welling up inside her. How could everyone perceive him as cold and distant?! His coldness stemmed from a keen understanding of the situation, while his sense of distance was a rational safeguarding of boundaries. He wasn't an unapproachable iceberg at all, but a companion who translated understanding into action and reliability into his very being. This realization warmed her heart slightly.
However, as soon as this thought flashed through her mind, another image uncontrollably rushed into her mind—diving in, under the cold, bumpy chassis of the truck, his strong arms wrapped around her shoulders, his broad chest pressed against her back, the reassuring body temperature and steady heartbeat that she could clearly feel even through her gloves and heavy winter clothing... and the absolute sense of protection... Thinking of this, a sudden warmth rose to Elaine's cheeks, and she looked down thankfully: thank goodness for the mask.
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