Dragon Raja 5; Chapter 241: For Your Majesty (56)

Dragon Raja 5

“We could barely control it with an AK47. The crew was emotionally unstable. Some thought we should kill the girl, saying that if we killed her we would be spared. Others thought we should abandon ship and walk across the ice back to Franz Josef Land.”

“What about you, Captain? Are you continuing to perform your duties for the salary?”

“I have confidence in Mr Gattuso and believe he will bring back good news.”

The chaplain grabbed the body bag and tossed it overboard without even checking for breath, but there was no need; anyone listening to his own last rites in the snow and ice would have frozen to death.

The black body bag slammed hard onto the white ice, surrounded by 17 other body bags. No plasma flowed out, the deceased’s blood must have frozen solid long ago.

    ***

Caesar, Finger and Jiude Mai climbed to the top of an ice ridge.

“This is it.” Jiude Mai said in a low voice.

Caesar raised the telescope and, relying on the faint light from the sky, made out the frozen research station below.

It was an incredible structure, constructed entirely on a massive ice floe. It was far larger than they’d imagined. They’d assumed the world’s northernmost research station would consist of a few flimsy little buildings, but it turned out to be a permanent structure of reinforced concrete, surrounded by barbed wire. A large satellite antenna stood silently, presumably housing a powerful transmitter.

“It was a fantasy during the Soviet era that the Arctic Ocean should be the backyard of the Northern Fleet, so the northernmost scientific research station was to be established to demonstrate the Soviet Union’s Arctic strategy. The construction method was very special. They chose the strongest permanent ice shelf near the North Pole, and used steel pipes to be driven vertically to form pile foundations, and then built houses on top. At most, there were 12 soldiers stationed here, equipped with the most advanced radar equipment, and military and civilian ships crossing the Arctic were under its surveillance.” said Mai Jude.

“Aren’t they worried about the ice shelves melting?” Finger said.

“That’s why it was abandoned. When it was built, the greenhouse effect wasn’t a hot topic yet, and the Russians thought the permanent ice shelf, which had existed for millions of years, would remain stable for the life of the research station. But who knew that with global warming, cracks would begin to appear in the permanent ice shelf, and the research station could fall into the frozen sea at any time. Even though a huge amount of money was spent, they had to abandon it.”

“Can you see the snake, boss?” asked Finger.

Caesar shook his head. “But we can see a lot of traces that look like wheel tracks. That’s definitely a snake’s nest.”

So far they have not seen any living big snakes, but snakes are different from mammals like polar bears. They do not need to eat frequently or play. After eating, they would enter a semi-dormant state, so it is not surprising if the research station is full of big snakes.

“If those guys are hibernating, is it okay for us to sneak in?” Finger asked again.

“In principle, this is true, but these snakes can survive in the Arctic Circle, so their blood temperature is not too low. They are not purely cold-blooded animals, but rather poikilotherms or even homeotherms,” ​​said Caesar.

“What does it matter?” Finger didn’t understand.

“Ordinary reptiles are cold-blooded. When the temperature drops below a certain level, they lose their ability to move. That’s why there’s the story of the farmer and the snake. You pick up a live snake in winter, but it can’t attack you until its body temperature rises. Poikilotherms are different. They can regulate their body temperature on their own. Dinosaurs may have been poikilotherms. Poikilotherms can be woken up by noise, but we can’t make any noise.”

“Then I can’t do this job. Boss, you know I’m a talkative person. How about this? You guys go in and I’ll keep watch outside…”

Before Finger could finish his words, Jiude Mai kicked him off the ice ridge and he accelerated towards the research station. This guy’s face was full of fear and his eyes were bigger than copper bells, but he covered his mouth tightly and dared not make a sound.

Caesar and Mai Jiude watched helplessly as Finger rolled across the ice like a smooth marble, faster and faster, until he finally slid straight into the research station…

Both of them were stunned.

Even Jude Mai, who kicked him down, did not expect such a result. She thought that he could just turn over and stretch out his claws to increase the resistance and stop on the ice… It was not that Finger did not turn over and stretch out his claws. He was like a fierce dragon out of the cage or a frightened wild boar rolling on the ice. It might be that the surface of the old ice was too smooth.

A gust of wind filled with ice swept through the research station. Caesar held up a telescope and scanned every corner of the building. There was no light or heat, no sign of life. It was simply a tomb.

Even the lively Finger slid into the tomb without making any sound, as if he was swallowed by the research station.

But suddenly, Finger’s hearty laughter was heard from the research station. “Come in! It’s safe. The snakes are all dead!”

Caesar and Mai Jiude exchanged a glance and simultaneously drew their ice axes. With the help of their ice axes, they silently slid down the ice ridge, crawled forward, crossed the fallen wire fence, and entered the research station.

The main building of the research station was even taller than it appears from a distance. It was a two-story, fortress-like structure with a large, open lobby. The facade was a polyester skylight, but it has faded with age, leaving only its aluminum alloy frame. The sculpture of a great figure in front of the lobby, also made of polyester, has also weathered so badly that it looks more like a sun-melted snowman.

Finger was standing upright in front of the statue of the great man, with his chest puffed out and his belly protruding, and he looked even more majestic than the statue.

Looking in the direction his finger was pointing – in fact, Caesar and Jiude Mai saw it immediately without him pointing – a giant snake of a slightly smaller size was nailed to the sculpture by a harpoon, and its body was covered with ice spikes.

It must have been in extreme pain when it died, and its tail was tightly wrapped around the great man, making the sculpture far more darkly artistic than when the sculptor created it.

The ice ridge was located at the back of the research station, so everything seemed normal when Caesar observed through the telescope. However, when they stood in front of the main entrance of the research station, they found that this was actually an icy battlefield.

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