CHAPTER 15: BENEATH THE ICE
769 Words
The arctic wind screamed across the frozen wasteland like something alive.
Snowstorms swallowed the horizon while jagged ice cliffs towered over the abandoned military outpost buried deep beneath the northern glaciers.
Vaelora stood at the edge of the ridge overlooking the facility below.
White.
Silent.
Dead.
And somewhere beneath all that ice—
The Helix core waited.
Kaedrin approached beside her, dark coat whipping violently in the storm winds. His injury from the Cerberus bunker still slowed him slightly, though he refused to admit it.
“You’re bleeding again,” Vaelora said without looking at him.
“I’m multitasking.”
“Poorly.”
A faint smirk touched his lips.
Small.
Dangerous.
Too familiar now.
Vaelora hated how much she noticed those expressions lately.
Below them, the arctic research station flickered with weak security lights buried beneath layers of snow and steel.
According to Nysera’s stolen drive—
This place officially did not exist.
Which usually meant it hid something terrible.
Kaedrin activated a holographic map from his wrist device.
“The Helix core is stored beneath the main laboratory sector.”
Vaelora studied the layout carefully.
Guard towers.
Drone patrols.
Thermal scanners.
Too much security for a research station.
“This place feels wrong,” she murmured.
Kaedrin glanced toward her.
“So does every place connected to Cerberus.”
The words settled heavily between them.
Neither spoke again for several moments.
Snow drifted around them while distant thunder echoed through the frozen mountains.
Finally, Vaelora broke the silence quietly.
“You really think your sister could still be alive?”
Kaedrin’s expression tightened instantly.
For once—
The question hurt him visibly.
“I don’t know what to think anymore.”
Vaelora looked away toward the facility lights below.
Hope frightened him.
Because hope could be destroyed.
She understood that too well.
Kaedrin checked his weapon calmly.
“We go in quietly.”
Vaelora raised an eyebrow.
“You remember who you’re talking to?”
“Unfortunately.”
Before she could answer—
A sudden spotlight swept across the ridge behind them.
Both spies instantly dropped into the snow.
Military drones hovered overhead scanning the storm.
Search teams.
Already here.
Kaedrin cursed softly beneath his breath.
“They increased patrol rotations.”
Vaelora’s instincts sharpened immediately.
“No,” she whispered.
“They’re waiting for someone.”
The spotlight passed dangerously close overhead.
Then finally moved on.
Kaedrin exhaled slowly.
“Move.”
They descended the frozen ridge carefully until they reached the facility perimeter fence buried beneath thick snowdrifts.
Vaelora sliced through the security grid within seconds.
Kaedrin watched quietly.
“You make federal crimes look elegant.”
“I practice.”
The two slipped inside the perimeter unnoticed while the storm covered their movements.
The arctic facility felt disturbingly abandoned up close.
No visible personnel.
No voices.
Only the low hum of hidden generators beneath the ice.
Vaelora reached the main access corridor first.
Steel blast doors sealed the entrance completely.
Kaedrin inserted Nysera’s stolen access drive into the control panel.
The doors hissed open slowly.
Cold white light spilled outward.
And instantly—
Vaelora felt it.
The same feeling as Black Aether.
The same sterile silence.
The same ghosts buried in the walls.
They moved carefully through endless white corridors lined with frost-covered glass chambers and abandoned laboratories.
Most rooms looked evacuated in a hurry.
Documents scattered across floors.
Broken equipment.
Blood stains frozen beneath the ice.
Kaedrin frowned darkly.
“Something happened here.”
Vaelora stepped toward one of the laboratory windows slowly.
Inside—
Rows of empty medical restraint chairs faced massive neural interface machines.
Her chest tightened immediately.
Memories clawed at the edges of her mind again.
Cold needles.
White lights.
Screaming.
Then suddenly—
The emergency lights activated crimson throughout the facility.
WARNING: SECURITY BREACH DETECTED
Kaedrin swore softly.
“We’ve been seen.”
Heavy blast doors slammed shut behind them instantly.
Locking them inside.
Wonderful.
Vaelora drew her weapon immediately.
“Too easy.”
Footsteps echoed through the corridor ahead.
Slow.
Measured.
Not soldiers.
One person.
Then a familiar voice spoke softly through the red-lit hallway.
“You still came.”
Vaelora froze.
Nysera Quinn stepped from the shadows holding a pistol directly at her chest.
Blood stained the sleeve of her coat from the bunker collapse.
Alive.
But her eyes looked different now.
Harder.
Empty.
Kaedrin’s expression darkened instantly.
“Nysera.”
She never looked at him.
Her weapon remained fixed on Vaelora.
The storm howled violently outside the frozen facility while silence filled the corridor.
Then Nysera said quietly—
“You should’ve stayed dead, Ghost Orchid.”
- Writer
