It wasn't fire—it was water.
The soldiers raised their sprayers, and brilliant mist burst forth. It was clearly some kind of insecticide. The mosquitoes dancing through the air dropped in swarms, quickly forming a thick, writhing layer across the ground.
After spraying for several minutes, the air was completely clean. Not a single flying insect remained, and the metal door in the mountainside finally began to open slowly.
The soldiers outside gestured. Song He pulled open the car door and jumped out. A cracking sound came from beneath his feet, with a faintly crisp quality to it—the sound of a thick carpet of insect corpses being crushed underfoot.
He entered. After passing through several layers of gauze curtains, he finally saw a brightly lit corridor.
Song He sighed inwardly. Another secret base!
When he was little, secret bases like this had seemed incredibly mysterious. He had never imagined he would get the chance to visit one in his lifetime. Yet now he came to places like this every few days. It seemed the organization truly trusted him and didn't regard him as an outsider.
The first two secret bases he had visited had mainly focused on scientific research, and he had seen large groups of researchers there.
This was clearly a military base. Many soldiers moved back and forth in the distance, their footsteps clacking sharply. Every so often, a face would turn toward him—expressionless, with a piercing gaze. The air was thick with a grim, murderous solemnity.
On the way here, he had felt that the remote mountain wilderness was somewhat eerie and haunted. But after entering this place, that ghostly feeling suddenly vanished, replaced by an overwhelming aura of righteousness. Even Satan would have to stand at attention and call out a report here, and even Sadako would