Chapter 116: Exploring the Secret Cavern
The next day, Chen Chen went to the reef coast in person.
Namibia was already spa.r.s.ely populated in the first place with only 2.5 million people living on 800,000 square kilometers of land. The scarce population proved to be more evident in off-road remote places like this.
Only four to five B.S.S. members were required to drive and patrol around the area to prevent any prying eyes.
Thus, Chen Chen did not have to be concerned about their activities being spied on.
At the moment, Chen Chen was standing on the deck of a luxurious yacht. He watched as several able-bodied B.S.S. members put on their diving suit and dove into the water with the hydraulic saw and similar underwater cutting equipment in tow.
Shortly after, a dull buzzing sound could be heard.
“Boss, seven meters down from this bulge of rock leads to the entrance of the cave.”
Qian Wenhuan stood beside Chen Chen and began explaining carefully, “This reef coast may not appear to be particularly wide, measuring at several hundred meters, but the complexity of the operation was greatly increased due to it being underwater. If it wasn’t for Hanamal, we might not be able to find the entrance even after a month or two.”
“That’s true.”
Chen Chen nodded profoundly. “I wonder what the first person who discovered this cavern had to go through to find it.”
“I asked around. Even though Hanamal was not the first one who discovered it, his playmate during childhood happened to stumble into it while looking for oysters on the beach.”
“Did you enquire in Gorob Village recently?” Chen Chen asked.
“I did.”
Qian Wenhuan nodded. “I found two people in the village who knew who Hanamal was, both of them are women though. That playmate of Hanamal died a long time ago, all of his siblings are deceased as well.”
“Which means that Hanamal is the only person who knows about this cavern?”
“Should be. But I’ll keep on the lookout.” Qian Wenhuan quickly a.s.sured.
Chen Chen nodded again. “Better to be safe than sorry, make sure the information stays here.”
“How about Hanamal?” Qian Wenhuan lowered his voice to a whisper. “Now that we found the cavern, what do we do with him?”
“Isn’t he an electrical engineer? Let him work here then.”
Chen Chen did not display much concern regarding the matter. “Erase his memory from the last few days and string together some excuses. Just keep him around.”
“Understood.”
As their conversation went on, the noises underwater gradually grew louder. After a while, several B.S.S. members emerged from the water, clamoring as they were pulled onto the deck.
“Boss, it looks like the cavern was opened up,” Qian Wenhuan expressed excitedly.
“Send the next batch down there, bring the cameras as well.”
“Got it!”
The next batch of members put on their diving suits following Chen Chen’s orders. In addition, they had head-mounted waterproof cameras strapped to their heads which were connected to the monitor on the yacht via a data cable.
When Chen Chen stepped into the cabin, a group of B.S.S. members were sorting out their diving suits.
“Sir!”
“Chen Sir!”
They were caught by surprise when they saw Chen Chen entering and quickly stood to attention and saluted accordingly. It would appear that Cheng Cao’s training yielded impressive results.
“Sir, please take a seat here.” Brando, who was put in charge, immediately got up and gave his seat to Chen Chen.
“Thank you.” Chen Chen thanked him and sat down, accepting the kind gesture.
At this time, the second batch had begun its operations. Everyone looked at the monitor and watched as two members dove into the water and began searching for the cavern under the light emitted from their equipment.
The cavern’s entrance took on a hollow form and was well hidden among the shadows. Unless one was searching for it intentionally, it would be difficult to chance upon it.
As the view of the camera entered the cave, everything turned narrower. The widest part of the cavern was only about fifty centimeters. The sense of claustrophobia was conveyed merely by looking at it through the monitor feed.
Taking a glance at the data graph reflecting the physical condition of the two divers, their heart rate and blood pressure reading could be seen soaring up as well.
This was with the mental condition of experienced mercenaries who had been through intense combat to boot. If it was an ordinary person or someone who suffered from claustrophobia, they might instantly spiral out of control in such conditions.
Fortunately, it was not a long trip into the cavern as they arrived at the end of the pa.s.sage after swimming a little over ten meters where the s.p.a.ce immediately opened up at this point. The two of them swam upward.
After a while, the two of them broke through the surface of the water and found themselves in a s.p.a.ce within the mountain.
“All conditions normal, we’ve arrived at the point of destination.”
Brando, who was in charge of the operation, took a glance at Chen Chen. When he noted that Chen Chen was not planning to intervene, he provided further instructions through the headset. “Set up the signal antenna and check the equipment condition. Get ready for the connection.”
“Roger that.”
Following Brando’s orders, they began setting up the video signal terminal devices. After the signal cable they brought was connected to the endpoint of the terminal, they would be able to wirelessly connect the cameras to the terminal. This way, the people outside would be able to see the live footage coming from the head-mounted cameras.
After they had completed the setup process, they ran further inspection on the firearms and various survival devices. Even though Hanamal claimed that there were no signs of danger inside the cavern, they were not going to gamble their lives based on one person’s statement. They made sure to prepare an automatic rifle for each person entering the cavern.
After they had concluded the necessary preparations, they made a thumbs-up gesture in front of the camera.
“Team three good to go.” Brando continued issuing orders.
After the initial group’s setup procedures, things were much easier for the third batch. It only took them roughly a minute to enter the inner section of the cavern.
The operation proceeded with teams of twos entering the cavern at a time. In the end, a total of four teams had entered. The lighting equipment strapped to their head illuminated the inside of the cavern.
“Alright, everyone form a line now, each one at least three meters apart, and begin exploring the pa.s.sages in front.”
Brando further instructed, “One more thing, n.o.body is allowed to open fire without my permission, in case there’s flammable gas down there.
“I repeat, n.o.body is to open fire under any circ.u.mstances unless given explicit instruction from the command center. Is that clear?”
“Understood!”
The responses came one after the other from the video feed.
“Alright, Thomson will be leading, Wei En follows after and Cabol up third. Enter the cavern one by one. Go, hurry up!”
Brando used to be a field commander back when he was in the army. This was a task he was more than familiar with. “Thomson, boot up your gas and temperature detection device and pay close attention to any changes in the gas level. Everyone else, get ready to put on the gas mask if there are any abnormalities!”
Upon receiving Brando’s instructions, they began shuffling into the gap.
In times like these, one had to admire the amazing craftsmanship of mother nature. n.o.body knew when this gap in the earth erupted. It was an extremely deep and narrow tunnel. At times it was just a naturally flat terrain, now and then, there would be an extremely sharp incline. They had to continuously climb their way through to get to the next destination.
Along the way there, they saw a vast amount of stalact.i.te. These natural structures were acc.u.mulated after the ages of buildup in an area infested with carbonate rock. This suggested that the terrain in this region had not undergone any changes for at least hundreds of thousands of years.
This was a good sign for Chen Chen and his group.
Unlike Hanamal and the band of younglings who came here decades ago, the physical fitness of the mercenaries far surpa.s.sed ordinary people. It only took them half an hour of traveling to get to the end.