50s: Starting with a storage ring

Chapter 854 Transfer
Sun Zhiwei had no idea that the Henry Jackson submarine would suddenly launch a torpedo. In fact, such a test was not impossible.

The iceberg, which had been trembling, suddenly stopped moving after their arrival, and the high-temperature areas inside the iceberg suddenly became cold. There must be a reason for this.

Since they couldn't figure it out, they decided to test it with a shot. This was probably the idea of ​​Captain Henry Jackson of the submarine.

If Sun Zhiwei were in command of this submarine, he would probably do the same. If there's really something fishy going on with this iceberg, bombing it with a torpedo would be a good way to see the other side's reaction.

This is also why Sun Zhiwei did not intercept the torpedo.

It was just a torpedo; no matter how powerful it was, it wouldn't cause much damage to an iceberg several kilometers in size. There was absolutely no need to intercept it, which also prevented the Henry Jackson from detecting the activity again.

As expected, the torpedo explosion did not lead them to any further clues, and the Henry Jackson lingered for a long time before finally leaving.

However, with the departure of the Henry Jackson, a more practical problem arose for Sun Zhiwei.

The torpedo explosion just now will attract the attention of nearby detection units. This place has become a new hotspot, and we can't stay here any longer.

But he still needs to think about which path to take.

It's impossible for him to fly a helicopter at low altitude; he's not skilled enough to fly a helicopter in a Force 10 gale.

Even without strong winds, the Arctic skies remained the main area of ​​contention between the Soviet Union and the United States, with aircraft from both sides patrolling everywhere.

Because, in terms of distance, the Arctic region was the shortest air route between the Soviet Union and the United States, and also the most closely monitored airway between the two countries.

The shortest route is the fastest.

Everyone knows that the faster the missiles are, the better. Ideally, they should hit the enemy's base within minutes, leaving the enemy no time to react.

Naturally, the Arctic became a key air route for the two countries to guard against.

Thule Air Base on the northwest coast of Greenland is America's northernmost military facility.

This area is equipped with a high-powered early warning radar that monitors the Arctic airspace year-round, serving as America's first line of defense against missile attacks in the Arctic region.

The Russians are similar; they have deployed multiple radar facilities along the Arctic coast, monitoring the airspace 24 hours a day.
So if a helicopter suddenly appeared over the Arctic right now, it would be incredibly conspicuous.

Going underwater would be a good option, but he doesn't have a single-person submarine right now, so this route is just a thought for the time being.

Speaking of which, he really should have a single-person submarine. He remembered that the world's first single-person submarine, the Deepwater Worker, was invented in recent years.

The inventor's name is Sylvia Erle, an American marine biologist and explorer known for her deep-sea research and environmental protection work, and she is known as a legendary marine researcher.

Fifteen years ago, she set a record for the deepest dive by a woman at 3300 feet (about 1000 meters), a record that remains unbroken.

The "Deepwater Worker" single-person submersible was invented by a company she founded, and she mainly used it to explore deep-sea creatures.

Her company reportedly invented many single-person submersibles, but the target audience for these single-person submarines is really narrow, and it would be very difficult to make money from them; it's a losing proposition.

If she weren't relatively wealthy, the research on so many single-person submarines alone would have bankrupted her.

However, now that this thing has actually been invented, he believes Dr. Earl wouldn't mind selling a few to recoup her meager savings.

He couldn't go anywhere by air or underwater, and while he could walk on land, accidents were unpredictable, given the lack of cover on the Arctic ice cap; being discovered wouldn't be surprising. However, he didn't want his name on the investigation lists of both the Soviet and American militaries.

He was caught between a rock and a hard place, and leaving was equally difficult. He was starting to curse. The captain of that Henry Jackson submarine was a lunatic.

He inexplicably showed up at Sun Zhiwei's door and even fired a torpedo at him. If Sun Zhiwei hadn't been worried about attracting attention, he would have been tempted to retaliate.

He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down, and started thinking about whether there was a better way.

What is his advantage? Space.

What is he good at? Digging holes?

But this is the ocean, and there's no surface to dig a hole in unless he goes deep into the seabed, which he can't do now.

Wait, a question suddenly occurred to him.

This is the Arctic. Although there is no land, there is a thick ice sheet. The thinnest part of the ice sheet here is more than 4 meters thick. He can easily dig a hole in the middle of the ice to move forward.

After carefully considering the feasibility of this idea, he realized that it was indeed feasible.

He doesn't need to travel for long through the ice; once he's away from the area where the incident occurred and cleared of suspicion, he can return to the surface.

Even if he gets discovered, he's not afraid. He has legal status and entered the country legally. His Arctic expedition is nothing to hide, so he's not afraid of investigation at all.

Once he had thought it through, he took action. First, he took the snowmobile off the top of the polar vehicle, sat on it, and then put the polar vehicle back into his storage space.

Then he began digging a tunnel through the iceberg, driving his snowmobile forward as he dug, and the tunnel quickly extended into the surrounding ice.

He strictly maintained the thickness of the ice layer at the bottom of the tunnel, never allowing it to be less than 1 meter thick, to ensure that the ice surface could support the weight of the snowmobile and himself.

As his movements became more and more skillful, he also increased his speed. Four hours later, Sun Zhiwei was more than 200 kilometers away from the scene of the incident.

In the first hour of his advance, he spotted soldiers with national flags passing over the ice sheet above him four times.

In the second hour, there was only one time.

From the third hour onwards, no one walked over his head anymore, indicating that he should now be out of the search area.

Just to be on the safe side, he continued for another hour before finally extending the passage upwards back to the ground.

When he drove his snowmobile out of the passage and back onto the surface of the Arctic ice cap, he was not far from Svalbard, where he had started.

After confirming that no one was nearby, he sealed off the passage behind with crushed ice and then changed vehicles.

He took out the "Kharkovchaka 2" polar vehicle again, climbed into the driver's seat, and immediately and skillfully started the engine, then began the return journey.

More than ten hours later, Sun Zhiwei saw the Svalbard Islands again.

This time, his driving route was closer to the edge of the islands. After driving along the coastline of the archipelago for a short while, he saw a cluster of lights, which should be the research town of Ny-Ålesund.

(End of this chapter)