178: Demon's flight radius

Mauritania, Nouakchott International Airport.

As soon as the door of the Gulfstream G700 swung open, a wave of heat capable of roasting a person alive swept inside.

The heat was mixed with sand and an unfamiliar scent, as if it wanted to sear right through one's lungs.

"Holy crap... is this damn place even fit for humans?"

Wang Dalong had barely leaned halfway out when the hot wind slapped his face, instantly causing a layer of fine sweat to break out on his forehead.

He felt like a pig prepared to be thrown directly into an oven.

On the other side, Shitou and his elite SAS Team Members had silently finished changing their gear.

Dressed in sand-colored combat fatigues with tactical face veils covering their faces, only their hawk-like eyes were visible.

They quickly completed the handover with the contact waiting outside the airport.

Three Toyota Land Cruisers, modified like demons, roared with low engines like three steel beasts ready to pounce at any moment.

"Sir," Shitou walked quickly to Lin Feng's side, his voice slightly muffled by the veil. "The guide has been arranged. He's the most experienced local Tuareg, and he says he can take us to any corner of 'Richat' with his eyes closed."

"Stop."

Lin Feng's voice was soft, yet it acted like an invisible command, causing the SAS Team Members who were about to open the car doors to freeze instantly.

Everyone's gaze converged on him in unison.

Lin Feng shook his head. Without even looking at the local guide waiting in the distance, he pulled open the passenger door of the first Land Cruiser and sat inside.

"We don't need a guide."

His voice drifted out through the car window, clearly reaching everyone's ears.

"Letting him lead will only take us to places where tourists go."

"What we're looking for isn't there."

He raised a hand, signaling Wang Dalong and Shitou to get in.

Without any hesitation, Shitou immediately waved for his men to dismiss the guide, while he opened the back door.

Wang Dalong plopped into the car, and the leather seat was so hot he let out a yelp and nearly jumped up.

"Brother Feng, you're not joking, right?" He looked at the military tablet Lin Feng had opened. "The Eye of the Sahara is forty kilometers in diameter! That's bigger than our city! With just a few of us, going in there is like looking for a needle in a haystack, isn't it?"

The cold light from the military tablet illuminated the side of Lin Feng's face.

On the screen was that map of North Africa, where the Ouroboros mark sat like an ominous curse.

"No, it's not a needle in a haystack."

Lin Feng's fingers slid gently across the screen. There wasn't a hint of anxiety in his eyes; they were so calm it was chilling.

"Fatty, I've been thinking about a question on the plane."

"In 1942, an era without satellites, how did the Germans discover this place with such precision?"

Lin Feng didn't wait for Wang Dalong's answer, speaking as if stating a truth that had long been verified.

"The answer is on the Count's map."

His finger tapped on the small, hand-drawn airplane icon next to the Ouroboros mark.

"To see the complete outline of the 'Eye' from the air, there was only one way for aircraft of that era—fly high enough!"

"How high?" Wang Dalong asked subconsciously.

"At least ten thousand meters, or even higher."

Lin Feng quickly pulled up a top-secret equipment file from the Luftwaffe of WWII from the tablet's encrypted database.

A grainy black-and-white photo popped up on the screen.

It was a fighter jet with a sleek and elegant shape, yet it exuded a ferocious, murderous aura.

"In 1942, there was only one type of German military aircraft that could reach this altitude." Lin Feng's finger tapped heavily on the photo.

"The Focke-Wulf Fw-190C, a high-altitude fighter prototype. At the time, it was the Luftwaffe's top secret, in a strictly confidential testing phase."

Wang Dalong was stunned. "So... you mean these Nazi maniacs were flying around in their ultimate secret weapon and accidentally discovered the Eye of the Sahara?"

"You could say that." Lin Feng actually nodded. "An accidental, yet inevitable discovery."

"And this gives us a direction."

Lin Feng's tone suddenly shifted.

"Their secret base would never be built in the exact center of the 'Eye'. The target would be too large and completely exposed. Their base must be established within the combat radius of this high-altitude fighter!"

His fingers moved so fast across the map tool on the tablet that they left afterimages.

"Check the combat radius of the Fw-190C high-altitude model!"

"Between 300 and 350 kilometers," Shitou answered instantly from the back seat.

Lin Feng made a sharp swipe across the screen!

A massive, translucent red circle, centered on the Eye of the Sahara, instantly overlaid the map!

Wang Dalong's eyes widened. "Brother Feng, this range is still pretty big..."

"Now, we start the process of elimination."

Lin Feng's gaze was as sharp as a scalpel.

"First, they needed a secret airfield capable of taking off and landing the Fw-190C. The terrain must be hard Gobi or dried salt flats. Shifting sand dunes, excluded!"

He tapped a few times quickly.

Large swathes of yellow sand dune areas on the map instantly turned gray.

The selection range within the red circle was immediately cut by a third!

"Second, the takeoff run for the Fw-190C requires at least 400 meters. To ensure the safety of the prototype, the runway must be absolutely flat. Exclude all areas where the slope fluctuation exceeds the safety threshold!"

Shitou immediately rattled off a series of precise geographical parameters.

Lin Feng input them quickly.

Another large area on the map turned gray.

The available locations within the red circle were reduced to just a few dozen scattered patches!

"Finally, and most importantly."

Lin Feng's voice dropped very low.

"This is a top-secret base of the Ancestral Heritage Society, with an extremely high level of confidentiality. Therefore, they would definitely choose a place with natural cover to evade Allied aerial reconnaissance at the time!"

His finger slowly traced over the few remaining scattered areas on the screen.

The air in the car seemed to solidify.

Wang Dalong and Shitou even forgot to breathe.

Finally, Lin Feng's finger stopped.

Where he stopped was an inconspicuous dot about 280 kilometers southeast of the center of the Richat Structure.

He instantly zoomed in on the map!

A high-definition satellite topographic map appeared clearly.

It was a vast, endless black Gobi plain!

And surrounding this plain were several craters of various sizes, like meteorite impacts... extinct volcanic craters!

"A flat, hard black Gobi, with enough length and width to construct a runway over a thousand meters long."

"This ring of mountains is the perfect natural barrier! Flying over it, you'd just think it's an ordinary volcanic geological area. You'd never imagine a secret airfield is hidden in the valley's embrace!"

Lin Feng looked up, his gaze sweeping over a completely stunned Wang Dalong and a shocked Shitou.

He extended his finger and tapped firmly on the center of the black Gobi, surrounded by the crater walls.

"We're going here."

In the car, there was a deathly silence.

Wang Dalong looked at Lin Feng's face, made inscrutable by the cold light of the screen. His Adam's apple bobbed several times before he managed to squeeze out a sentence.

"Brother Feng... level with me."

"Are you... an alien sent to study Earth's unsolved mysteries?"

Ignoring him, Lin Feng sent the precise coordinates he had calculated directly to the SAS driver in the front seat.

"Let's go."

The engines of the three Land Cruisers roared simultaneously, kicking up clouds of yellow sand as they charged like three arrows shot from a bow into the depths of the vast desert, toward a secret buried by history for eighty years!