Even in Darkness She Chose to Rise (Tatiana and Jasper) novel Chapter 431

Chapter 431 The Deep Earth

In a place like this, no one was truly innocent.

“My name is Ginnie. You can call me Ginnie.”

“Ms. Ginnie,” he replied formally.

“Ugh, stop. You’re making me feel old.”

He remained silent.

Finished

Ginnie was annoyed by his lack of tact, yet fascinated by how different he was. Unlike the others in the stronghold, he didn’t look at her with fear or with eyes that practically screamed a desire to possess her just to gain her father’s favor. This man was different–refined and elegant.

He was truly one of a kind.

Jasper remained in the stronghold to recover from his injury. Although he had been recruited by Max, he had no freedom; he was confined to a single room. The room had an attached bathroom–basic, but functional. Because the lights in the room and the hallway were always on, he deduced that he was underground.

It made sense. Before the emergency landing, he had seen the landscape from the air: a sea of jagged peaks and dense forests with no large structures in sight. The base had to be subterranean. And it wasn’t small.

A massive underground city paired with an extraordinary magnetic field–what exactly were they hiding here? His mind was filled with unknowns, but his primary concern remained Tatiana. He prayed she had made it out safely.

Meanwhile, in the dense forest.

Tatiana and the tactical team took a brief moment to rest. They had been searching for an entire day without finding a single lead. The only silver lining was that the enemy hadn’t spotted them either. She sat with a furrowed brow, her temper growing more volatile with each passing hour.

“Here. You need to keep your strength up.”

“Thank you.” She took the dry rations without complaint and ate heartily. After a day together, the officers had been thoroughly won over by her sharp hearing and uncanny intuition.

Captain Ben Rand spoke up. “Do you know how long it usually takes us to cover these few kilometers?”

Tatiana paused, guessing a number. “Three days?”

“Fifteen,” he corrected.

She froze.

“There’s a powerful magnetic field here. High–tech equipment is useless. To get anywhere, you have to rely on raw manpower. But the forest is perpetually shrouded in miasma; stay too long, and you lose your sense of direction. You can’t find your way out.”

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Chapter 431 The Deep Earth

Finished

She finally understood why they had looked so haggard and filthy when she first met them. They had been trapped in these woods for weeks. Her respect for them deepened.

“A team went in before us,” Ben continued, his voice dropping. “A month passed, and not a single soul came out. We lost contact. We don’t know if they’re dead or alive.”

The atmosphere turned heavy. Tatiana finally couldn’t help but ask, “What exactly are these people hiding? What is worth this kind of sacrifice?”

Ben offered a grim smile. “Do you know what the highest crime in Hindersville is?”

She understood immediately. It was drugs. No wonder they were willing to risk everything, wave after wave of them entering this green hell.

“We’ve tracked them for a long time. We lost many good men just to locate the headquarters of this international criminal organization. The amount of product they move out of here every year is measured in tons. A poison like that must be eradicated, even if it costs me my life.”

“Captain Rand,” she said softly, “they won’t get away with this.”

“I’m telling you this so you understand the stakes. You can still stop here. We can arrange for you to be escorted out, and we will find Mr. Jasper for you.”

Tatiana smiled, her voice calm but unshakable. “Captain Rand, I’m not going back. I’m staying to help. Before, I wanted to save one man. Now, I want to save the people.”

She wasn’t a selfless saint, but she wasn’t a cold–blooded devil either. The fight against drugs was etched into the bones of every Hindersville citizen; once triggered, it commanded total fearlessness.

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