winter in greenland

Chapter 37

Two days ago, on the ground.

The snowstorm has not completely subsided, but the wind speed has dropped a little, and the helicopter staggered to a stop on the flat ground behind a hill.

"The airflow in front is not stable. It may be dangerous to go further. The plane is parked here. After crossing this hill, it will be the last time to contact the captain's area by radio." The pilot turned back from the cockpit and explained to everyone behind.

Heath nodded to indicate that he understood, and jumped out of the hatch first.

Murphy and Ian followed behind him, along with three other members of the team.

"The professional search and rescue team from the Greenland Coast Guard is on their way. After the search and rescue area is confirmed, they will be responsible for the main search and rescue work. We will cooperate with them. From the information we know so far, the captain's patrol team sent out a radio for the last time. The communication area is near the Geographical Society Island, that is, the Royal Danish Research Station near 72.6°N latitude 28°W and [-]°W longitude. Next, we will go to the continental shelf along the coast to see if we can find anything nearby. .Two people, walk forward. In addition, according to the data provided by Professor Murphy, because of the active submarine volcano, the continental shelf in this area is extremely unstable. My request is to ensure my own safety first and keep the radio channel unobstructed. Clear Yet?"

--"receive!"

Heath let Ian and another team lead, and he and Professor Murphy fell behind the team.

The hills in front of me were not too high. After climbing to the top of the mountain, what should have appeared in front of us was a flat ice sheet, but now that the ice shelf broke, the ice sheet's landform changed accordingly.From their positions, they can clearly see the clusters of ravines on the plain, as if someone had carved a few random strokes on the ground with a chisel. Some of the originally flat ice shelves arched high, forming a steep slope; some Some of them were cut off abruptly in the middle, forming a bottomless crack; some sank suddenly, like a big black mouth.

Devastated.

"The situation is worse than I thought." Professor Murphy's voice came from beside Heath, and her concern could be seen from the tight jawline exposed outside the hood.

"Can your colleagues still detect seismic waves?" Heath asked.

Professor Murphy shook his head: "The information transmitted 10 minutes ago shows that the seismic waves have subsided."

"In other words, at least this damn ice shelf won't crack again?"

"Theoretically it is."

Heath was obviously dissatisfied with her answer, but he didn't say much. He looked at where they were, and raised his finger forward: "If my sense of direction is correct, the scientific research station should be two straight ahead. The location in kilometers?"

Professor Murphy nodded to confirm the position, nodded: "Yes."

"Let's go then."

Ian's group was still at the head, and the group walked slowly down the snow slope.

Heath walked a little back beside Professor Murphy, and glanced at her movements, with both hands by his sides as if he was about to make a gesture of helping someone at any time.

Professor Murphy noticed his nervousness, and felt a little uncomfortable while laughing. He simply stopped and looked at him: "Captain Ebron, do I look like I'm about to fall at any time?"

Heath smiled awkwardly: "Uh... I'm just worried..."

"It seems that you rarely deal with people like us? We are not people who sit in an office all day. As scientists in the meteorological research team, we need to conduct a lot of field trips to accumulate experience. Although we have advanced computer technology , but there are many mysteries in nature that we can't imagine and computers can't simulate. So, you don't have to worry, I may come to Greenland more times than you think." She showed a slight smile on her face smile.

Heath saw the subtle sarcasm in her expression, and raised his hand in surrender: "Okay, okay, I'm thinking too much, I'm sorry Professor, shall we continue?"

Professor Murphy looked at him for a second, chuckled, turned around and continued walking forward.

Because it was during the polar night and the terrain changed, we had to pay attention to see if there were any traces of August and the others along the way. They didn't go fast.It wasn't until noon that they approached the coastline where the scientific research station was located.

The storm has died down, but visibility remains poor.The only good news is that the sky above the head has finally revealed a bright color, which is no longer dark as before, but a deep dark blue, and the Milky Way has also revealed its face from behind the wisps of clouds.

Heath confirmed their location for the last time, stopped Ian and the others, walked to the front of the team and turned on the bright flashlight in his hand——

"Oh my god……"

Under the white light of the flashlight, you can clearly see that the huge reef extending to the sea in front of you is cracked in two crookedly from the middle, and the edge of the crack is as deep as a chisel and an axe.The scientific research station at the end of the reef has disappeared, only half of the foundation can be vaguely seen.

Due to volcanic activity, the already frozen sea surface cracked again, and large pieces of ice floes floated on the sea surface, rising and falling slightly with the waves.

"The research station... is gone?" Ian turned his head to look at Heath, his tone full of disbelief.

"...After the first year of patrolling, three of our newcomers went away, and the rest held a simple enlistment ceremony after the patrol, and they officially joined Sirius." August His voice was deep and deep in the darkness, with a demagogic power.

"The summer at the base can be called boring, except for training or training. It is not as exciting as I imagined in school. At that time, Arthur and I lived in a dormitory. Because of his special profession, he spent half of his training time in Running codes in the computer room, doing tests and so on. About June, we received a notice from the headquarters that it was a collaborative mission, actual combat, and the cooperative unit was the Navy. According to the rules, they will not disclose more mission details, only I sent a photo of the mission target. Their intelligence is that the other party has smuggled onto the ferry to Greenland and wants to leave Greenland. Our task is to cooperate with them in capturing the mission target and kill it if necessary."

"Arthur went with you?"

August paused, as if he didn't expect him to ask this question: "Strictly speaking, Arthur is not actually an actual combatant, but he happened to need to test a new program at that time, so he called the captain to apply for participation." Considering that it was just a collaborative mission, the captain approved his application. He only brought two newcomers, Arthur and me.

"According to the usual practice, ferries entering and exiting Greenland's customs border have to go through our inspection at the port. The content is not complicated. The basic work is done by the customs staff. We just need to take a look at it. Our communication system that day It was updated to a new program designed by Arthur. He pretended to be a customs officer and used a computer port to monitor the program in real time. If something unexpected happened, he would immediately switch back to the previous mode.

"Everything went well. The captain and I guarded one pass, and the other two team members guarded the other pass. There are three people in the mission, two men and one woman. We guessed that they would definitely do some camouflage, so we took pictures during the normal inspection. A face analysis model was implanted in the system in advance. But I didn't expect that Arthur was the first to find something wrong.

"At that time, there were about 20 people who passed by our gate, and they all waited in line outside the security line. Arthur sat opposite me and watched the computer screen. A short yellow-skinned man just handed out his passport. As soon as he stepped through the security door, the siren above his head went off."

"Your system must be malfunctioning, I guess."

August nodded silently, although he knew that Dan could not see: "Originally, according to the plan, after the system recognized the mission target, it would send the location directly to each of us, and we would arrest it according to the situation, but when the alarm came, The sound changed everything. The man was alert, he took a step back as soon as the door frame of the security door was lit, and before we had time to react, he locked Arthur. I don't know how he saw Arthur It's different. Anyway, he pulled out his gun and shot directly in Arthur's direction. Arthur reacted very quickly, and he lifted the computer on the table and got under the table. Thanks to him, that person After being stunned for a second, I shot him in the back. Two of his accomplices were in the queue behind, and when they saw the commotion, they were about to turn around and run away, and they were caught by other team members on the spot."

"Your reaction is so fast..." Dan's voice was very soft: "Is Arthur injured?"

"No."

After a few seconds of silence, Dan said slowly, "If you don't mind, Major, can I ask... when Sergeant Arthur died... the accident?"

This time there was a longer silence. August did not answer, but stretched out his hand and tried Dan's forehead: "Your fever has not subsided."

Dan's heart sank, and he couldn't tell what it was like. He tried his best not to sound so disappointed: "I feel better."

"Go to sleep for a while. I'll be on guard, the rescue from the base will arrive soon."

Dan didn't refute this time, and closed his eyes quietly.

He didn't know when he fell asleep, or it would be more appropriate to say he lost consciousness. The pain in his chest and abdomen didn't ease at all, and every time he took a breath, it was as if someone had stirred his lungs with a long, rough needle. He could almost hear himself making a sound like an old bellows.

He opened his eyes again because he felt a slight coolness on his lips.Something with icy water was dipping his lips.

water?

His eyes slowly widened, and the alcohol stove beside him did not know when it was lit again. The bright yellow flames flickered slightly in the dark cave. August half knelt beside him, holding a small ball of ice in his hand. Block, the coolness he felt on his lips earlier seemed to come from this thing.

"You're awake, how do you feel?" August's expression was full of anxiety that couldn't be concealed.

Dan shook his head slowly, he could hardly feel the pain in his ribs, and there was a burning sensation from his throat to his entire airway.

August saw his discomfort, didn't ask any more questions, and continued to dip his chapped lips bit by bit with ice water that melted from his body temperature.

"The way I am now... must be scary, right?" The hoarse voice startled him.

August shook his head and said nothing.

In fact, Dan's face at this moment was abnormally pink due to the high fever, his lips were faintly bruised, and his eyes were dark blue. If you look closely, you will find that pair of green pupils trembling slightly.

"If... I mean, if, Major, if I can't wait for rescue, can I ask you a question, or just say a word to you?" Dan turned his head with difficulty, fixed his gaze on August.

As if anticipating something, August's hands trembled slightly, and he looked back into Dan's eyes without saying a word.