The Mechanic [BL]

[120]

Chapter 120 – Descendant (4)

The aircraft had landed on a deserted tundra. The hatch opened and several reconnaissance aircraft flew out first, followed by Natalie's men, who were wearing protective clothing with a thermal function, and began to build simple tents and erect a signal transmitter.

Large patches of unbroken snow and ice undulated slightly with the shape of the Earth. In the distance, the Arctic Sea reflected a hazy, holy light in the sun. The air here had a cold feeling of detachment and arrogance, displaying a sturdiness that had never been conquered by human beings.

Before Adam stepped out of the hatch he glanced back at Zhang Xun, who was following him. He turned around, tugged on Zhang Xun's unfastened collar, carefully pulled the zipper all the way to the top and straightened the hood on his head, saying in a rambling voice, "Stay here in the warm, or you'll get frostbite."

Zhang Xun allowed him to fix his collar, his eyes distant, as if he had withdrawn from his own body and was watching the scene in front of him as a third party.

Adam still remembered the way Zhang Xun used to look at him, with a look of wonder and warmth, rooted in some deeper emotion, as if Adam were the most beautiful creature in the world.

Now Zhang Xun's eyes were only confused, numb and with a persistent hint of fear, as if he were trying to grasp something that was passing through his mind, something that belonged to humans, but he was doomed to failure and became more and more frightened.

Zhang Xun would never look at him that way again.

As if to make up for something, Adam took Zhang Xun's hand and led him down the steps that extended from the craft to the frozen ground.

Zhang Xun lifted his eyes and gazed at the long line between earth and sky in the distance. It was a world of vastness that he couldn't have imagined back in Lost Paradise. Between the sky and the Earth, the human sphere of life was so small, like dust moving slowly and instantly into extinction in the moment of stillness after a violent storm.

A thick loneliness ate away at him, making him want to grasp something more vast, more...... powerful.

But he couldn't feel it, he couldn't feel anything. He was like an outcast isolated from the group, bewildered and disoriented.

Natalie stepped out behind them, the wind ruffling her long, thick, curly hair, "The Northwest Territories are so big, it's not going to be easy to find them."

Adam frowned slightly, his eyes looking somewhere in the air before he spoke a series of coordinate numbers.

"Go to these locations and you might be able to find them."

Natalie looked at him in shock, "How do you know that? Aren't you disconnected from Eden?"

"He used his knowledge of my father and the distribution of the various towns and military garrisons in the Northwest to calculate a few locations where my father would most likely be hiding." Zhang Xun quietly answered for Adam beside him, as if it were a perfectly ordinary thing to do, "But what Adam can calculate, Eden can probably calculate too."

"So we need to find him before Eden does." Adam thought for a moment and narrowed it down to a definite coordinate, "Zhang Shuo is of a stable nature and it's reasonable to assume that he would choose the furthest location from the Canadian garrison and Eden's forces. And since he escaped in a hurry and didn't have time to prepare adequate armaments, it's likely that he would have gone to the abandoned Inuit or Métis villages. But word of what had happened to Zhang Xun in Feathered Serpent City has probably reached his ears, so his immediate priority would probably be to find a way to contact some forces to rescue him. The most likely person he would contact here is the 'Free Folk' leader who is number thirty-seven on my list."