Dragon Raja 5; Chapter 168: Leviathan’s Song (5)

Dragon Raja 5

“There’s none on Earth, but there should be on Pluto,” the doctor said. “It’s as cold as hell.”

“They’re here for Leviathan,” Rebalco said after a moment’s silence.

The doctor nodded, picked up the vodka bottle, took a swig, and handed the bottle to Rebalco.

Rebalco also took a swig. “The offer is $450,000 for each of you, $7.5 million for me. They know all our details.”

“That’s very generous! $450,000! That’s enough for me to buy a nice apartment in Moscow. My daughter has always wanted an apartment with floor-to-ceiling windows,” the doctor said. “But will we live to get that money?”

“I don’t know, but if I can make it back alive, I’ll split my $7.5 million with all of you,” Rebalco said.

The doctor hesitated for a long time. “Stop it, Captain! You can make endless money, but you only have one life. No one has ever seen Leviathan, and no one even knows what it is. Is it really a white sperm whale? It could be a demon!” The doctor’s tone became excited. “Look at the corpse in front of you. He didn’t know what was going to happen to him until the last second before he died! That thing is not something humans can deal with!”

“Stop it? Are you kidding!” Rybalko suddenly lost his usual composure and became excited. “We’ve been to the temple. The treasures there could buy the whole world! But we came back empty-handed! Who can accept this? What’s life worth? Isn’t the hail of bullets just as commonplace as eating and sleeping for people like us? We left home so far and boarded this ship. Isn’t it for money? There’s no end to money. How are you going to make money back in Moscow? The Security Department will immediately target you. We might even be thrown into prison! Have you earned enough for your daughter’s child support? Without child support for your ex-wife, you won’t even be able to see your daughter!”

He realized that he was losing control of himself, so he took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and smoked one fiercely.

As his emotions calmed down a bit, the captivating light in his eyes faded, and his gaze became a little confused. “Chu’s body is still on that island. I want to bring him back and hand him over to his family.”

“We all know Chu is your good friend. If Chu hadn’t stayed behind to stop those giant snakes, we would all be dead.” The doctor sighed, “But Captain, do you really believe that island exists? It could be an illusion. There’s no land there on the nautical chart.”

“I believe it, and I think as long as we find Leviathan we can find the island again.” Rebalco said firmly.

The doctor was stunned. “That island is related to Leviathan?”

Rebalco pointed to his ears and said, “When I saw the aurora, I heard the whales singing.”

The doctor’s eyes widened in surprise. “I didn’t hear anything, and none of the other brothers mentioned it either.”

“Infrasound,” Rebalco whispered. “Leviathan’s song is a kind of infrasound, which is inaudible to ordinary people. But I was born with a hearing impairment, so I had surgery to get a cochlear implant. This device allows me to hear sounds that ordinary people can’t hear. It’s like the sound made by whales, but much deeper.”

“You never told your brothers.”

“I’m not sure. The sound comes and goes, like an illusion. But those wealthy guests suddenly bought this ship to go whaling, and the two things matched. They must know more, but they didn’t tell me.” Rebalco said, “This is fate! Fate tells us to find Leviathan, and Leviathan will take us back to the island!”

At this moment, hurried footsteps were suddenly heard outside. Rebalko and the doctor reacted at the same time. Rebalko had a sharp tactical dagger in his hand, and the doctor took out an AK47 from somewhere.

A man stumbled into the medical bay. He was a crew member under Rebalco, a trustworthy man.

“Captain!” gasped the crewman. “There may be survivors!”

    ***

The snowmobile came at high speed, with a cloud of snow dust behind it. Rebalko jumped off the motorcycle before it stopped.

This is a large island in the Franz Josef Land archipelago, located northeast of the archipelago. It’s called Alexandria Land. The YAMAL was anchored next to the ice shell where the expedition team perished, more than a dozen kilometers away.

It is incredible to find survivors at such a distance, and it is hard to imagine that the survivors could survive in the ice and snow for half a month.

Franz Josef Land has no permanent residents, but it does have a research station for collecting meteorological data. In previous years, Inuit accustomed to living in high-altitude areas were hired by the Russian Academy of Sciences to rotate through the station. However, this summer in the Arctic Circle was unusually cold, and to ensure the safety of the rotating personnel, the research station was evacuated for a month. They had shut down the diesel heating engine before leaving, leaving no heat source on this desolate archipelago. Even if the survivors had brought their own food, they would not have survived such a long period. Furthermore, hungry polar bears and foxes roamed nearby. These animals can smell prey from kilometers away; even the slightest whiff of their scent means death.

Schneider had already arrived with Caesar and Abbas, but they must have just arrived. They were standing solemnly beside a well. This artificial structure was not marked on the map.

This place is far away from the research station. Even the people stationed at the research station may not visit this desolate island, so they will not know about this ancient well.