Chapter Fifty-Three: The Mysterious Mountain Range

Following the sound of Saloyan’s voice, the group came upon an opening in the rock. Beyond it lay the icebound expanse of Antarctica.

At the sight of the snow-blanketed world outside, everyone let out a breath they had not realized they were holding. Their connection with the outside had been severed, but if this cave led to the surface, then there was still a chance to restore contact. That was far better than being trapped underground.

Yet once they stepped out of the cave, the scene before them struck them dumb. Across the endless white plain stood a mountain that seemed to pierce the heavens. Above it, the black night sky was strewn with stars, lending the strange peak an air of eerie mystery.

But under the influence of some hidden force, they all instinctively overlooked every unnatural detail. Desire swelled in their hearts, and instinct told them that the summit held all they sought. So each of them wanted to climb it.

After a brief and makeshift rest, Robert and the others set out toward the mountain. Though it looked close, the foot of the peak was still at least several kilometers away. Fortunately, no storm had risen, and they were able to press on at a brisk pace.

“Captain, do you hear anything?” Mike, young and vigorous, walked at the front while speaking to Robert. Ever since they reached the mountainside, he had felt as though he kept hearing some strange sound.

“What sound? Don’t make a fuss, Mike. I haven’t heard anything. Isn’t it only our footsteps and the wind here?” Robert stopped, drew a slightly breathless gasp, glanced at the distant summit, and then turned to Mike.

“We don’t hear anything else either. Mike, are you too tense? Hahaha.” The other team members also stopped. After carefully listening to the surroundings, they teased him.

“I’m not imagining it. I really did hear it. It was a little like a snake’s hiss.” Mike’s face flushed red as he tried hard to describe the sound he had heard.

“Then that’s even more impossible. This is Antarctica, a place dozens of degrees below zero. How could there be snakes here? Let alone hissing?” Franklin, the biologist in the group, objected first. He also took out the recording equipment he had been carrying.

These recording devices were the same cameras that had previously connected them to the outside world. After discovering that the live feed had been cut off, they switched the broadcast cameras into recording mode, so they had been gathering footage all along.

Franklin immediately pulled up the earlier recordings, trying to hear the so-called hissing for himself, but there was no such sound in the footage.

“All right, little Mike, don’t get worked up. Maybe you heard wrong. Let’s keep moving. A happy tomorrow is waiting for us.” Captain Robert patted Mike on the shoulder and led the team onward.

Mike could only suppress the unease in his heart. There was no such hissing in his own video either, so he could only conclude that he had misheard. Yet a faint uneasiness still stirred within him.

After no one knew how long they had walked, Captain Robert’s excited voice rose once more. “Hey, guys, I think we’re almost there.”

Looking in the direction of Robert’s pointing finger, they saw a black opening in the cliff face. The sight stirred the weary spirits of the whole group once again. After all, one of their major theories about this mysterious civilization had been that it built a network of passages within caves. The opening before them was very likely the remains of that ancient culture.

When they reached the cave mouth, Mike felt that hissing sound seemed even stronger. Yet when he tried to listen carefully, he heard nothing at all. He could not help wondering whether something was wrong with his ears. It seemed that after this expedition, he would need a full medical examination.

Staring into the black and gloomy passage, the expedition members felt a trace of tension, but it quickly faded into the background. Even they did not know why a sudden flutter of panic had passed through them.

After a preliminary inspection of the entrance, Robert happily announced that this was indeed an ancient site bearing the same carved traces as the earlier caves. Moreover, judging by its size and scale, and considering their present location, everyone felt they had arrived at a place of great significance. They were certain that here they would uncover news that would shock the world.

Since they had already found their destination and had lost contact with the outside, Robert did not assign anyone to wait at the entrance. Instead, everyone entered the cave together.

At present, the team consisted of six people: Captain Robert, biologist Franklin, archaeologist Saloyan, physicist Mike, geologist William, and engineer John. With the two people still outside, the expedition totaled eight.

Meanwhile, the two outside had already begun trying to reestablish contact with their home country and seek government assistance. The half-hour deadline had passed, yet there had been no word from within the cave. Uneasy and restless, the pair no longer dared remain there. Every time they thought of that black fissure, they could not help associating it with things like spatial rifts.

Could this really be some alien base?

After gathering their things, the two hurried toward the monitoring station. Staying here was simply too dangerous, so they planned to wait inside the station while contacting rescue services at home. Otherwise, those people would surely order them to stay put.

A spatial rift could not possibly be the work of primitive humans. Whatever lay behind it, whether alien civilization or something else, it had already far exceeded their field of expertise. That was why they were so frightened. Before the rift appeared, the captain and the others had even danced some strange, unknown dance. And to ensure the safety of the mission, everyone who had gone down into the underground cavern had been wearing the latest insulating suits developed by Sterk Industries, yet they had still been affected. They were deeply worried that they might also have been influenced.

In New York, Coulson had just finished handling an assignment and was preparing to leave work for home when he received word from his subordinates.

“What did you say? Who gave them permission to act on their own? Tell them to stay where they are. Prepare a fighter immediately. I’ll inform Director Fury.” Coulson let out a long breath. If there was one word he was especially sensitive to now, it was “spatial.” The matter of a spatial rift appearing in Antarctica could not wait a moment longer and had to be reported to Fury at once.

So Coulson immediately relayed the matter to Fury. “Director, a team of scientists has discovered a spatial rift in Antarctica. We still do not know who is behind it. What do you think?”

Fury was also slightly startled. Spatial rifts were no joking matter, but he knew Coulson’s professionalism very well, so he immediately instructed him, “Coulson, contact the Avengers at once.”