Cold Entry

The journey south felt different this time.

Jessica sat by the window of the small propeller plane, Patagonia didn’t feel like a place people were meant to stay. It stretched out below them—endless, white, quiet. The kind of quiet that waited for you to leave or die trying. The last time they had been here, it had nearly cost them everything. This time, they weren’t walking in blind. This time, they had information. A plan.

The airstrip was nothing more than a frozen clearing, a relic of an old mining operation. Their plane touched down roughly, skidding slightly before coming to a halt. As they stepped out, the cold bit at their skin, the wind howling across the open tundra.

Leanna adjusted her scarf. "I don’t like this. Too exposed."

"It’s the only way in without setting off alarms," Olivia replied. She had already pulled up her hood, her breath visible in the frigid air. "We have thirty minutes before our contact arrives."

Jessica checked her gear, her mind racing. The flash drive Astrid had given them contained a partial map of the underground facility—enough to guide them to an access tunnel hidden beneath an abandoned observatory. Their best way in.

Olivia glanced at her tablet, then the horizon. "No visible movement. Doesn’t mean no one’s watching."

A black SUV appeared in the distance, kicking up ice and dust as it approached. It came to a slow stop a few feet away, and the tinted window rolled down just enough for them to see a pair of sharp eyes staring back at them.

"Get in," the driver said.

Jessica hesitated. "You’re the contact?"

The driver smirked. "If you had another ride, you’d already be in it."

They exchanged glances, then climbed into the vehicle. The interior was heated, the contrast from the outside nearly overwhelming. The driver, a grizzled man with a military demeanor, threw a dossier onto Jessica’s lap. "Everything you need to know is in there. Your window to get in is less than two hours before the next security sweep. If you miss it, you’re trapped."

Leanna flipped through the papers. "And once we’re inside?"

"Then it’s on you," the driver said. "I don’t do rescues."

The SUV wove through the frozen landscape, eventually stopping at a rocky outcrop. The observatory ruins loomed ahead, a skeleton of metal and concrete long abandoned to the elements. Old mining stations, weather towers, observatories, Patagonia was littered with relics no one bothered to tear down. Perfect places to hide things beneath. Beyond it, nothing but sheer cliffs and endless snow.

Jessica took a breath. "Alright. Let’s move."

The team moved quickly, slipping into the ruined structure. The entrance to the access tunnel was hidden beneath a collapsed floor panel. Olivia worked fast, using a crowbar to pry it open. A rusted metal ladder descended into darkness.

Jessica went first, landing softly on the damp ground below. The air was thick, stale, untouched for years. One by one, the others followed.

Leanna’s voice was barely above a whisper. "No turning back now."

Jessica drew a slow breath. Cold metal in one hand. The past in the other. Whatever waited down there — it already knew they were coming.