Chapter 69 - The Cryo-Archive of Ny-Ålesund
The dreadnought surfaced within a hidden subterranean fjord beneath the glacial ice shelves of Svalbard.
The air outside was negative thirty degrees, so brutally cold that moisture froze instantly on the eyelashes. Daniel, clad in white thermal combat gear, moved swiftly across the cavernous ice shelf, flanked by Vance’s tactical operators. Leo and Julian were tucked between two heavily armored bodyguards, their thermal hoods pulled tight, their tablets wired directly into the dreadnought’s remote data link.
Ahead of them, embedded directly into the living granite of the mountain, lay the blast doors of the Ny-Ålesund Archive.
The massive circular vault door had been breached from the outside. Thick cables snaked into the dark interior, carrying power from an idling private transport jet parked on an auxiliary ice strip two hundred yards away. The stealth gunship that had escaped Platform Null-Seven lay abandoned nearby, its damaged engine smoking in the arctic chill.
"Breach team, move in," Vance ordered into his throat mic.
Daniel was the first through the threshold. His carbine was up, sweeping the frosted corridors of the facility. The walls were lined with thousands of glass-encased seed pods, genetic archives, and biometric canisters stretching into the gloom.
The floor was slick with condensation and frozen coolant fluid. Dead guards in dark uniforms lay scattered across the entry chamber—gunned down with precision headshots.
"Vance," Daniel whispered, kneeling by one of the bodies. The wounds were clean, executed with military efficiency. "Your men didn't do this."
"Neither did the Syndicate," Vance muttered, checking the dead man’s pulse. "Look at the entry wounds. Point-blank. Fired from a low angle."
Daniel’s blood ran cold. He turned his tactical light down the corridor. Small, bloody footprints—the size of a seven-year-old child's winter boots—led deeper into the vault toward the cryogenic core.
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Subject Four had eliminated the Syndicate extraction team.
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