Hidden beneath layers of deceitful ownership documents and classified cover signatures dating back to the Cold War's darkest days, the last data core lurked beneath an unmarked bunker in Northern Norway. The permafrost beneath the surface hadn't thawed since the previous ice age.
As they continued north, they crossed increasingly inhospitable environments, transitioning from forests to tundra and finally to the boundless whiteness of the Arctic Circle. With their equipment posing as drilling apparatus, they had traveled on papers that identified them as geological surveyors. Their true goal lay concealed beneath the dull bureaucracy of environmental impact studies and mineral rights.
From above ground, the bunker could be seen solely as a collection of weather stations that had been co
