Free Web NovelChapter 460: Chapter 460 Military Base_1
Several days later, Gistas outside Sunset City, a military base.
Qiqimora walked down the camp’s road, her eyes intently fixed on the officer walking in front of her. ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm
The camp patrol, leading a military dog, came towards them, saluted the officer greeting him. After the officer had walked on, they continued forward, passing by Qiqimora without noticing the witch at all.
From the outside, this military base at Sunset City looked like an ordinary army training camp, and since the projects housed within were extremely sensitive, not many soldiers and officers were permanently stationed there. The research facility built into the mountain rock, which was publicly claimed to be a weapons development department and an ammunition warehouse for storing explosives, was even more clandestine.
The core participants of the research facility almost never left it, but because space inside was limited, some of the officers involved in the project lived in the camp outside the facility.
Qiqimora was now investigating these individuals who had access to the research facility, looking for an opportunity to exploit.
The research facility’s core area was so well protected that she couldn’t find an opportunity; it looked like disguising herself as one of the critical personnel and strolling in might give her a better chance than trying to sneak in by hiding her presence.
Previously, she had discussed strategies with Lamia in Abigail’s summoning space. Lamia had been urging her to take control of this base as much as possible—of course, stealing the results of Gistas military’s research would be ideal. Whether Qiqimora eventually intended to snatch the "Hand of Annihilation" from Professor Dodge or negotiate a trade, having control of what the other party wanted would undoubtedly be a strategic advantage.
Lamia made no attempt to hide her intentions in this proposal, but Qiqimora felt there was some merit to her words.
She planned to identify personnel inside the base related to the research project and find suitable candidates to control.
The research facility was covered with a magic power sealing barrier similar to those found in special prisons, rendering mental spells ineffective. However, this did not deter them. With their research findings, they had many other methods to choose from, such as Lamia’s Magic Potion and Abigail’s transformation spell...
The precondition was that Qiqimora, working as a scout, had to gather intelligence first.
After some investigation, Qiqimora set her sights on this officer who entered and exited the research facility.
People who stayed inside the research facility all the time were closer to the core but were not convenient targets. They had to start with the personnel who entered and exited the facility.
Although the officer was just a logistics executive, the nature of his work was... in some ways, quite critical.
Before making her move, she needed to understand the man and figure out his routine.
For this reason, Qiqimora had been following him for three days now. During the day, this officer was mostly inside the facility. He spent evenings and nights active in the camp outside, slept in the camp’s dormitory, and on the surface, his work was much like most logistics personnel. Just yesterday, he had delegated a task of "procuring supplies" to his subordinates.
And now, he was on his way to verify those supplies.
Qiqimora followed him to a warehouse-looking building guarded by sickly guards. The carriage carrying the goods was parked outside the warehouse.
Qiqimora watched the officer verify his identity with the guard, who respectfully opened the door. After the officer entered, the guard shut the door again.
Qiqimora followed at a steady pace, walking right between two unsuspecting soldiers and through the heavily-locked entrance of the building.
She noticed the officer first entered a room and changed out of his military uniform before heading into the inner warehouse area.
The warehouse had no windows, only ventilating pipes, and its lighting depended entirely on a few gas lamps, which made it somewhat dim.
When the officer arrived, the soldiers working inside all saluted in unison; none of them wore the Gistas Kingdom’s military uniform like him.
The officer simply nodded at them and then turned his gaze to the supplies they had brought—a row of sacks on the ground. Some of the sacks were moving, emitting muffled sounds.
Qiqimora observed in silence from the side, well aware that the sacks were filled with people—refugees used for experiments, the "materials" that the institute required the officer to "purchase."
It was precisely this reason that Qiqimora had her sights set on this officer, who appeared to be one of the key personnel in charge of the "dirty work." In the camps outside the research institute, he commanded his subordinates to kidnap refugees, and inside, he handled the unrecognizable "waste" made up of executed experimental subjects.
This man might not necessarily be aware of the core area’s situation, but these dirty tasks he dealt with were the most sensitive operations, with any leak potentially bringing a public relations disaster upon the research projects at this base. freewёbn૦νeɭ.com
Therefore, only those deeply trusted internally could be appointed to this position, and he had a better chance of approaching the secrets of the core area or at least getting in touch with other key personnel who knew the core secrets through him.
The officer began to command the soldiers with hand signals to check each person in the sacks, assess their physical conditions, and then strip them for a search.
This was a necessary procedure, and they would do this regardless of age or gender. However, on the rare occasion they captured a young female, within permitted limits, they would seek their pleasure—naturally, those with a conscience could not undertake such tasks. These people were expendables for dangerous experiments, and whether successful or not, they were to be executed for confidentiality; the researchers only cared that the subjects were alive, and thus they were naturally keen to "make full use of them."
Qiqimora simply watched in silence, and even lit up a cigarette to pass the time, without any intention of rescuing the refugees. Witches like her, who pursue the forbidden, seldom have such humanitarian spirit, holding the view that pursuit of knowledge can justify the abandonment of moral restraints. Some, like Lamia, had even committed acts far crueler than these.
However, in terms of scale, conducting human experiments en masse like this was beyond their reach.
The officer checked two people, tore open the sacks, removed their hoods, and while they looked on in terror with muffled cries from their sealed mouths, he searched them.
This batch of "materials" seemed to lack any prospective entertainment, but he didn’t mind—his duty was his duty, and leisure was merely incidental.
The officer directed the soldiers to open the third sack, which seemed to contain a healthy young male refugee, well-built and unexpectedly compliant, having shown no struggle inside the sack.
The officer signaled the soldiers to remove the man’s hood, but they stayed motionless.
The officer looked displeasedly at the sluggish soldier in front of him and opened his mouth to repeat the command.
Just at that moment, another soldier standing behind him suddenly moved, raising his rifle and smashing the butt against the back of the officer’s head.
