“This is it.”
After passing through the tunnel, Lu Hao stopped in front of a slightly recessed patch of sand, looking at the loose quicksand in the sand pit ahead. He knew this was the entrance to the base.
“Where’s the base entrance?”
Ada and the others looked around suspiciously, finding only yellow sand and a few dilapidated mud walls, with no trace of steel and concrete that would indicate a base.
“This is it, I won't be wrong. You can follow me later.”
Lu Hao took out a bandana and covered his face to prevent the quicksand from entering his eyes and nose. Then, under the surprised gazes of Jack and the others, he didn't say a word, put away his machine gun and jumped straight into the sand pit.
Crack~
As Lu Hao landed heavily, the sand pit immediately collapsed, revealing a large, dark hole.
“This really is the entrance to the base.”
“How did Lu Hao find out that the base entrance is under this sand pit!?”
Ada and the others were completely dumbfounded. However, with the entrance to the base right in front of them, they couldn’t care less about that. They followed Lu Hao's example, took out their bandanas and wrapped them around their heads, then plunged headfirst into the sand pit.
Swoosh Swoosh~
After entering the sand pit, everyone slid down the pit all the way.
Soon, they reached the bottom.
Ilse couldn’t control her body and stumbled forward, almost face-planting. Thankfully, Lu Hao reacted quickly and grabbed her before she fell.
“Thank you!!”
Ilse breathed a sigh of relief and thanked him happily.
“Be careful.”
After reminding her, Lu Hao began to survey the surroundings.
It was pitch black, you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face.
He was prepared, taking out a powerful flashlight from his storage ring and turning it on to illuminate the surroundings.
Looking at the familiar environment, Lu Hao confirmed that this was the entrance to the base.
When Jack and the others came down, Lu Hao reached out to help Ilse, who was still a little dizzy.
“This is the entrance to the base!?”
Everyone took out their lighting equipment and examined their surroundings.
Lu Hao shone his flashlight around, then focused it on a skeleton dressed in a World War II German uniform.
“It’s a German uniform!!”
Colonel Bird immediately recognized the origin of the uniform.
“This might be one of the Eighteen Guardsmen. Let’s look around.”
Jack and the others’ faces lit up with a hint of joy. The discovery of the German corpse meant that this place was most likely the old Bucky base.
“Everyone come here.”
Lu Hao took the lead in exploring, quickly discovering the base's command room. Beside the desk lay another skeleton wearing a German uniform.
He didn’t change his expression as he looted the corpse, taking a Iron Cross medal, a nameplate necklace, and a notebook from the body.
“This is my grandfather!!”
As everyone arrived in the command room and searched around, Ilse suddenly shouted when she saw the items Lu Hao had taken out.
Everyone’s eyes immediately focused on her.
The Hans deputy officer who was responsible for burying the gold back then!?
“Ilse, you can’t be mistaken!?”
Ada looked at the skeleton that was no longer human-shaped, and she could still recognize him?
“I can’t be wrong. These are my grandfather's belongings.”
Ilse pointed to the items on the table that Lu Hao had laid out, her eyes a bit dim. Although she had already anticipated her grandfather’s death, she couldn’t help but feel sad when she saw the corpse.
“Ilse, your grandfather was murdered!”
Lu Hao lifted Hans' skeleton and pulled out a military dagger from his back. He looked at the German writing on the dagger and said, “This is Adolf’s dagger. The person who killed your grandfather was Adolf.”
He handed the dagger to Ilse to examine.
“It’s the employer of those mercenaries who have been following us!?”
Ada and the others were stunned, not expecting so many hidden details.
“It must be him!!”
Looking at Ilse, who was a little sad, Lu Hao walked over and gave her a hug, comforting her: “Ilse, the dead can’t be brought back to life. You have to let go.”
“Lu Hao, thank you.”
Ilse felt a warmth in her heart and leaned on Lu Hao's shoulder, softly thanking him.
“You’re welcome.”
Lu Hao released Ilse and said: “This isn’t a place to stay long. Take your grandfather’s remains, we need to enter the base as soon as possible to avoid being chased by Adolf's men.”
“These are your grandfather’s belongings, you keep them!!”
Lu Hao handed the Iron Cross medal, necklace and notebook to Ilse. He also took a German military flag from the wall and wrapped Hans’ remains with it, turning it into a bundle and putting it into his “backpack”.
“Ilse, see if there are any useful clues in the notebook.”
Ada’s eyes lit up when she saw the notebook. People who are used to taking notes usually leave a lot of important information in their notebooks.
It might contain clues about the gold.
Lu Hao already knew the contents of the notebook, so he didn’t linger. He shone his flashlight on the base map hanging on the wall, took a Polaroid photo of it and then tore it up.
As everyone was distracted by Hans’ notebook, he walked forward with his flashlight, from the command room down to the base's rest room.
He shone his flashlight in, and it was full of German corpses.
So, he quickly told Jack and the others about his discovery, calling them over.
“So many corpses!?”
“One, two, three… seventeen. Including the two outside, there are eighteen corpses in total… hey, there’s one missing.”
Ada counted the heads, and finally found that one was missing.
Lu Hao and Jack looked at each other and said in unison: “It’s Adolf.”
If you include Adolf, who survived, then the number is right.
In other words, of the team responsible for burying the gold back then, everyone died in the base except for Adolf.
Da da da!!
Just as everyone was speculating, a series of short bursts of gunfire suddenly came from the ground.
“Damn it, it’s Adolf’s men.”
Jack’s heart sank, the situation was terrible.
“What should we do? Should we charge out?”
Ada was a little panicked. Lu Hao vetoed her suggestion: “We can’t charge out, or with their firepower, they can turn us into sieves in an instant.”
“Fly Eagle, what should I do now?”
Colonel Bird and Colonel Banner looked at Jack, who was the leader. Jack then looked at Lu Hao, who raised his eyebrows and said: “My suggestion is to enter the base directly. This is a military base, there’s a lot of military equipment stored here, and the base is tightly sealed. Some of the weapons inside should still be usable.”
“At the very least, we can find some grenades and explosives to ambush the mercenaries.”
“The base is narrow and has fortifications. As long as we have plenty of weapons, we can defend ourselves by relying on the terrain, and the mercenaries won’t be able to break through.”
Colonel Bird and Colonel Banner, two veteran soldiers, looked at each other and agreed: “Yes, we also think we should get weapons before fighting the mercenaries.”
Hearing the da da da sounds coming from above, there was no need to think to know that the mercenaries had automatic rifles.
They only had two small pistols, their weapons were too inferior.
“Let’s take a vote.”
This time Jack didn’t make decisions unilaterally, instead, he let everyone make a democratic decision together.
The final result was, of course, to follow Lu Hao’s plan.
They were outnumbered and lacking weapons.
Going out under these circumstances was suicide.
Even if they wanted to negotiate, they needed to get their hands on guns, and stand tall.