The Year I Stopped Being His novel Chapter 223

"I know. There won't be any trace left behind."

He ended the call and tossed the satellite phone onto the table. The coffee beside it had gone cold, a thin film forming on its surface. He stared at the film for two seconds before reaching out, picking up the cup, and giving it a gentle swirl. The film shattered, the fragments spinning into the brown liquid.

"Arlo," he called out.

The cabin door was yanked open from the outside, letting in a blast of freezing wind. A young man stood in the doorway, no older than thirty, sporting a buzz cut. His cheekbones were high, and his narrow eyes looked like two slash marks.

He wore a black tactical jacket, a gun holstered at his waist, standing as rigidly as a blade stabbed into the snow.

"Boss," Arlo Vance replied, his voice low.

David didn't even look at him.

He set down his coffee, picked up a silver metal briefcase from the table, and snapped it open. Inside sat five neatly arranged blocks of grayish-white paste, each sealed in a waterproof bag like bars of soap. A label stuck to the inside of the lid bore a few stark words: The Glacial Spike.

"Specialized polar plastic explosives. They won't fail even at minus sixty degrees. Highly malleable, they can adhere to any surface."

David's tone sounded like a calculated product pitch—calm, professional, and entirely devoid of emotion. "Five blocks, two kilos each, to be planted at five distinct points. Upon detonation, they'll blast open an ice crater roughly three hundred feet in diameter, more than enough to swallow four people whole."

"No, actually... there are seven of them now."

He snapped the case shut and slid it to the edge of the table.

"They have one last dive left. The moment they succeed, everyone will gather around the ice hole..."

"That is your window."

Arlo stared at the silver case and gave a curt nod, though a sliver of doubt crept into his voice. "But... if the ice collapses, won't everyone be..."

He didn't finish the sentence, but David fully understood. He was afraid of a suicide mission.

David didn't answer immediately.

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