Steel steam and flame

Cassia remembered the origin of the round piece of broken glass. It was the mask that everyone had at the old station. The glass embedded in it was the same as the broken piece of glass, but half of it was lying in the shadow of the flower pot.

"Mr. Dorn, are you the only one at this station?" Kara drank the third glass of grape juice quickly, but did not interrupt for the fourth glass. She wiped her mouth and talked to Dorn again. The old man started chatting.

"Haha, of course there will be other people. Otherwise, in this desolate desert, except for the sound of equipment and not even the sound of insects, it would be so lonely." The old man from Dorn poured a cup for himself Filling a glass of white wine, he took a sip and continued, "There is also a hunting team from the empire here, with dozens of people. We live together in this small supply station, which barely makes this place a little more lively. .”

"Hunting team? Are you hunting those animals deep in the desert?" Cassia also suddenly became interested. The situation has changed, and they are not in a hurry to leave now.

"Yes, the ecosystem in the desert is different from the areas outside that have four seasons all year round. There is generally only summer here, and the only change is the temperature. This creates a unique ecosystem in the desert. The animals here have a layer of Good biological insulating furs, whether they are snakes, lizards, or unique sand wolves, the furs on their bodies are very good materials, and the prices they sell for in some places in the empire are still very considerable."

"Because I'm old, and I have to manage the station, I won't follow them out at night when hunting is good." The old man from Dorn nodded, "Two brave travelers, you are here too. Are you hunting these desert animals? Or are you just traveling in the desert? If you are here to hunt, you can rest here for a day and go with the hunting team tomorrow. After all, they are very experienced. If you are here to travel, You can also use this place as a base or as a destination. There are no operational stations ahead. In three days, the hunting team will go back, and you can also take a ride with them."

The old man from Dorn gave Cassia and the others an idea.

"We also have such a plan. After hiking for a few days, we are really exhausted. The journey ahead will probably only be yellow sand." Cassia said, "If possible tomorrow night, we also want to go out and join the hunting team. Look at the sand wolves in the desert and see if you can learn to kill a few sand wolves."

Cassia's tone was very excited, and it seemed to be genuine joy and interest.

The old man from Dorn seemed to be infected, and he happily talked with them for a while.

In the end, Kara asked for two rooms to rest in, and paid a high rent of four thousand holy coins.

The rooms are all in basement buildings, and next to them is a closed storage room, where a bit of cold air still comes out. The basement is built under five houses, a small half of which is used as a storage room, and the rest are all small rooms for accommodation.

There are many rooms, and the metal doors have a lot of friction marks from frequent use. When the old man from Dorne led them to the room, Cassia looked over and silently calculated the number in her heart.

Kara's room was in the middle, while Cassia was placed at the end.

"Young man, we're here. I hope you can have a good rest. Following the hunting team tomorrow night will require a lot of physical strength." Dorn opened the door with the key and threw it to Cassia. Finally, he said that if necessary, he could go directly to the room on the ground and he would stay there during the night.

Cassia smiled and thanked him. When the metal door was completely closed by Dorn, his expression changed and he spit out a number - thirty-seven.

This is an approximate number, the approximate number of people in the hunting party mentioned by the old man in Dorne.

"Okay, then the first thing to do now is to rest." Cassia smiled. The room was not big, only about half as spacious as his dormitory in the military school. There is a small bed, a chair and a long cabinet. On top of the cabinet were kettles, glasses, food cans, and a bottle of what the old man from Dorn said was "a free cheap white wine." In addition, there are other basic accommodation supplies.

Cassia pried open the can of food, revealing greasy marinated fish inside. He opened the wine bottle again and poured a full glass of wine. The aroma of wine suddenly filled the whole room. After making other preparations, Cassia placed her backpack next to the bed. Without taking off her clothes or turning off the lights, she lay down on the bed and closed her eyes to rest.

The temperature in the room is very suitable, just the kind of temperature that makes people want to close their eyes, rest, and sleep deeply.

Cassia and the others arrived at the supply station at 12:30 in the morning. After struggling for more than half an hour, they finally lay down on the bed.

The room where the two people were separated was very quiet, only the slight snoring sound and the sound of air supply from the heating pipe could be heard. Probably because they were too tired from the journey, the two of them seemed to have been immersed in a sweet dream. The matter of crossing the desert to reach the Gerun Oasis seemed to be completely forgotten at this time.

The time came to about 2:10 in the morning, and Cassia was covered with a thin quilt, and her pale face seemed to be rosy due to rest.

The metal door also made a "click" sound at this time, which was the sound of opening the door with a key. The calm air in the room was disturbed by the door that opened quietly, and a lean-looking man walked in swaggeringly. The high-top shoes on his feet clicked on the floor, but Cassia didn't have anything right now. reaction.

"Look, look, I said that as long as I increase the dose of medicine, I guarantee that everyone will sleep like a dead pig, and they still don't believe it!" The lean man smelled the aroma of alcohol emanating from the room and held a hand in his hand. Rope, walked to Cassia in a few steps. After cursing for a few times, he had already skillfully tied a slipknot on the rope in his hand. He helped tie up the carcasses of prey in the hunting team, which was his old profession.

He stood by the bed and bent down to put a slipknot on Cassia's neck, but a hand had already reached out and grabbed his neck.

The strength of the arm was so heavy that the lean man felt as if the fingers stuck on his neck were made of steel. He desperately tried to move away those fatal fingers with his hands, but it had no effect at all.

His throat was completely strangled, and he wanted to shout but couldn't make a sound. His eyes were wide open and bulging as if they were about to bulge out. He saw the person in front of him who should have been sleeping like a dead pig opened his eyes and stood up. His short body was held in the air by one hand by the man in front of him who was half a head taller than him. He wanted to struggle, but the other hand of the man in front of him was like a knife, slashing on his neck, and he passed out completely.

Cassia placed the unconscious lean man in her hand on the bed, tied him up with the rope he brought, and then covered him tightly with a quilt. Then he quietly walked toward the door with his rapier in hand.

"Fortunately, there is no one else in the corridor." Cassia filled a glass with the grape juice she had spit out in advance and used it as a mirror to look at the corridor. There was no one there, only pale lights.

He walked lightly along the corridor, and the boots custom-made by the military school on his feet were indeed not like the cheap ones on the feet of a lean man. Under the subtle control of his strength, he did not make any sound.

Kara's door was ajar, it was dark inside, and the strong smell of blood mixed with the aroma of wine could be smelled at the door.

"No way!" Cassia's heart tightened. As soon as she stepped into the door, before turning on the light on the side, she felt something above her head pressing against her heavenly spirit cap.

"It's me." Cassia turned on the light in the room. The gray floor was still clean, but on the bed in the corner, the outlines of two people bulged under the quilt, and the smell of blood came from inside.

On top of her head, Kara had already put away the sniper rifle that was pressed against Cassia's scalp, and even the cross pupils had changed back. Cross pupils have an exceptional ability to capture light, and the dark of night has little effect on them. She jumped down from the corner of the door, making only a slight sound.

"You will suffer if you are not careful." She warned in front of Cassia, simulating the sound of a sniper rifle bullet coming out of the barrel.

Cassia spread her hands helplessly without any explanation.

"You solved it over there." Kara closed the door and fired the bullets from the sniper rifle. "Sure enough, there is a problem with this supply station. How did you determine that it was just because of the bushes that were not watered? "

"How is that possible?" Cassia shook her head. "When I was putting my luggage away, I smelled a fishy smell and saw the spectacle lenses embedded in the same mask. I was just suspicious at first."

"Then I didn't expect it to actually turn out like this." Carla smiled. "When I heard you say your name was Gulica, I was thinking about what I had neglected and needed you to remind me with a code."

"I was just lucky and happened to see them." Cassia blinked, "Then you don't have to kill them all."

Cassia walked over and opened the quilt. The person inside was an old man from Dorne. His wise eyes were full of unexpected surprise before he died. His heart was opened with a stabbing sword, and his blood infected the bed beneath him. The other face was also a face I had never seen before, and the fatal injury was also located at the heart.

"Isn't that what you said?" Carla rewrapped the sniper rifle with no concern on her face, "'If possible tomorrow night, we would also like to go out and see the sand wolves in the desert with the hunting team. See if we can "You can't learn to kill a few sand wolves." These were your exact words. After hearing the code word "Gulika", I carefully considered every word of your words. Besides, are you still killing the animals these days? not enough?"

In Kara's eyes, the value of these people is only equal to that of animals.

Cassia stopped talking about this issue: "Let's go and look around all the places first. I'm not sure if there are other people at this station. I'll consider other things when I come back later. There's another person in my room who needs to be interrogated. Now hurry up It's two and a half o'clock. The hunting team that the old man from Dorne said was definitely not lying to us. They will probably come back at dawn. Whether to leave or stay will be decided later based on the situation."

"Okay." Kara put back the sniper rifle and had a silver-gray clip-type pistol in her hand. Feeling Cassia's gaze, she shook the pistol and explained, "The things in old man Dorn's hands are well maintained. "

The two walked out of the basement. There was still only one room lit outside, and no one was in the other rooms. Finally, the two returned to the basement and opened the storage room. The space inside was very large, filled with neatly arranged iron boxes and wooden shelves.

Canned food, various types of wine, beverages, and a large number of completely dried animal furs, among which the sand wolf has the largest amount of gray-yellow fur. In several iron boxes, Cassia and the others found many different types of weapons, all of which were brand new, and there were boxes of ammunition wrapped in oil paper next to them.

"Good guy, these are all unused items shipped by the Imperial Military. I didn't expect there to be so many." Kara looked at several iron boxes, which contained all of these things.

There is also a large cold room in the storage room. When you open the steel door, you will see the bright red carcasses of various animals with their skins shaved off stacked on the steel platform. They store these meats as one of their food sources. On the other side, there are various vegetables that are drooping in the ice and are no longer fresh.

Finally, in the corner, there is also a row of iron tables, but everything on them is covered with thick white cloth. Through the outline, Cassia felt uncomfortable in her heart.