NIP Chapter 308 Siberian Permafrost
Chapter 308 Siberian Permafrost
The Siberian winds, like billions of invisible ice blades, howl and swirl shrilly across the vast, desolate, and pale tundra.
It whips up the fine, diamond-dust-like snowflakes from the ground, lashing wildly at anything that dares to be exposed to the world. It freezes all life under an eternal white blanket.
Deep within this permafrost, completely unsuitable for human habitation, a mountain composed entirely of hard, gray-black basalt lies like the cold corpse of an ancient behemoth in the heart of this white hell.
Deep within this mountain lies a massive steel fortress.
Suddenly, a special aircraft, painted with "stealth paint" to block radar scans and almost blending into the gray-black mountain rocks below, tore through the thick, lead-gray clouds like an alien and landed directly above the mountain.
Its engine nozzles adjusted their angle, emitting a deep and suppressed hum, hovering precisely above a highly concealed, snow-covered recess in the cliff face on the side of the mountain.
A powerful vortex of air gushed downwards from the vector nozzle on the abdomen, instantly and violently blowing away and sweeping away the several meters of snow below, revealing the ancient ice layer that was as smooth as a mirror.
And beneath the ice... a massive rock wall, slightly darker in color, almost seamlessly integrated with the surrounding basalt.
The hatch on the belly of the aircraft slid open silently, and a short retractable gangway was lowered.
Wrapped in a heavy, top-of-the-line cold-weather suit, Alexander Pierce quickly emerged from the cabin, surrounded by two fully armed, sharp-eyed Hydra elite guards.
The biting cold wind instantly felt like countless steel needles piercing the three figures.
However, even though Alexander Pierce's winter clothing at this moment uses the most advanced nano-insulation layer.
It is unknown whether this fear of nature is innate in humankind.
Or perhaps it was the keen intuition that Alexander Pierce had honed through so many brushes with death that made him feel that something was amiss.
Despite being bundled up in this thick, cold-weather suit, Alexander Pierce couldn't help but shiver as he disembarked from the plane.
"Welcome back, sir. The unfreezing procedure is complete; we await your orders."
Just then, the voice of the Hydra agent who was holding the fortress inside the steel bunker echoed clearly in Alexander Pierce's ears through the communicator built into his winter suit.
Alexander Pierce nodded without saying a word, but tightened his mask further, revealing a pair of wary and gloomy eyes.
Then, accompanied and escorted by two elite agents, the three of them trudged through the snow that had just been blown away but was quickly gathering again, making their way toward the darker-colored rock face.
Once they were close enough, one of the Hydra agents quickly stepped forward and used his portable thermal de-icing device to rapidly melt the thin ice and remaining snow covering a specific area of the rock face.
After observing it for a while, he pressed down hard on a certain area of the rock face.
Click.
Accompanied by a faint mechanical sound that was quickly drowned out by the howling wind and snow.
The naturally formed rock had sunk inwards, revealing an iris scanner that shimmered with a faint blue light, its edges almost imperceptible in the cracks of the rock.
With everything ready, Alexander Pierce stepped forward. The instant he removed his thick goggles, the biting cold air froze on his eyelashes. He instinctively blinked, trying to avoid the needle-like, sharp wind.
After a moment of silence, having barely adjusted to his surroundings, Alexander Pierce finally focused his eyes on the iris recognition port.
In an instant, a deep blue light swept across the iris of his eyeball. It sifted and compared data from a massive database at an astonishing speed.
"Biometric scanning in progress... Confirmed: Alexander Pierce. Access level: Alpha."
A few seconds later, accompanied by a cold, electronic synthesized voice, and a deep, heavy sound, as if from deep within the mountain, a mixture of rock friction and hydraulic pressure.
The huge rock wall beneath the three of them, which seemed to be tightly integrated with the mountain, suddenly split open from the center with a straight crack!
The gap widened rapidly, revealing a heavy alloy door—its outer layer perfectly camouflaged with rock, its interior composed of several layers of composite armor—slid open silently like the jaws of a behemoth, revealing a brightly lit, square entrance passage just wide enough for two people to walk side by side.
Inside the passage, a strong, warm breeze, mixed with the smell of engine oil, gushed out, instantly dispelling the chill on Pierce's body and blowing away the snow dust stirred up by the airflow at the entrance.
Alexander Pierce stepped inside without hesitation.
After watching Alexander Pierce enter the passage, the two guards returned to the aircraft, quickly started the engines, and flew back into the clouds.
This was done not only to prevent the installation of tracking devices on the aircraft, further concealing the true location of the secret base...
This also explains that the ultimate weapon hidden deep within this secret base is something even their trusted confidants are not qualified to touch or understand!