18 Floors Above the Apocalypse

Chapter 503

The snowmobiles the Russians were riding belonged to Union Base.

Stella and Arcadia had brand new ones, while theirs were only about seventy to eighty percent as pristine.

They maintained a cautious distance of 200 meters. Ivan trudged through the thick snow, his breath visible in the frigid air. "Jiang, Ho, how have you guys been holding up lately?"

"Not too bad, Union Base hasn't been pestering us for the past couple of days," Stella played dumb while casually checking in. "How about you? Did those jerks give you any trouble?"

Ivan laughed heartily, his gaze flitting over the pair. "We managed to take out Union Base."

Stella's jaw dropped. "You're not pulling our leg, are you?"

Ivan looked genuinely surprised. "Didn't you hear about what happened the night before last?"

Stella was confused. "What happened the night before last?"

Seeing that they genuinely had no clue, Ivan paused briefly and then laughed again. "The night before last, Union Base was bombed. A lot of people died or got injured. I thought it was you guys who did it!"

Stella couldn't help but chuckle. "Us?"

"Isn't it?" Ivan asked back, surprised. "We managed to free some folks Union Base had locked up. They said two people broke into the cells, but they were wearing gas masks and armed to the teeth."

Stella was amused. "Ivan, if we were that powerful, why the hell would we be up here in the Arctic taking crap? We'd be out saving the world! You don't seriously think we're some kind of monsters with superhuman abilities, do you? Two people taking on three thousand?"

Ivan considered this and agreed. The prisoners had been tortured daily by Union Base; it was no wonder their minds were a mess. Of the hundreds there, the majority claimed they saw nothing, and those who did couldn't agree on a story. Some said it was two individuals in gas masks, others claimed it was the second coming of Jesus, some even said it was King Li leading an army of celestial soldiers, and a few insisted it was the god Shiva himself.

Who else could it be but Jiang and Ho, though? After all, they had once quietly eliminated dozens from Union Base.

Not only was Ivan suspicious, but so were others. That's why he had made the trip today, to try and suss them out. If it was them, they'd need to watch their backs.

Australians might seem modest and peace-loving, but they were a deep and cunning people, inheritors of a five-thousand-year-old culture. They knew how to hide their capabilities and play the fool brilliantly.

underwater fortress and the mysterious disappearance of Union Base members, weapons, and supplies, he realized it

first, then some higher-ups took the chance to turn on them, causing a massive internal conflict..." The deaths were varied: trampled, killed in combat, asphyxiated by gas or smoke, friendly fire, suffocated, or attacked by crocodiles or bio-engineered bats. The underwater fortress was a house of horrors, and anyone who didn't know better would

and Ho, then the

truth, Russia was the biggest

as you guys would say, 'When the snipe and the clam grapple, it

outside, picking off anyone who emerged. It couldn't

"You

only a few hundred

giving Ivan a thumbs-up. "You

a tad embarrassed but couldn't reveal the

blowing smoke, Stella casually asked, "Ivan, with Union Base gone, what are you going to do with all the

sheep," nor was it his decision to make. But one thing was clear: they didn't share cannibalistic tendencies.

"They'll

Those who

the

to go."

torturing prisoners but saw the

"Ivan, did you come today

I've brought

second sub-level of the fortress and on the military

the sled, a twinkle of mystery in his eye. "Open

opened the crate,

surprised and stepped forward to

a dragon, one of the twelve zodiac animal heads that had been missing for

years in the Australian capital, knew that

ago.

on a transport ship among a large collection of artifacts from

Ivan deliver it, partly to repay a debt of gratitude for