-[Objective: Follow the cookie crumbs left by Caron.]

"...I don't know if it was necessary to do this. Why didn't you just lead me to the safe house normally?"

"Well, let's ask him when we meet. Besides, the weather is really crazy, really."

"That's true. I don't know about sharks, but polar bears and owls probably don't mind this weather at all, but you might be pretty cold. If you can stand it, try to endure it for a while. I think you know what I mean."

"...Yes."

Mid-December, on the western outskirts of Hartford, a small city in the northeastern United States, -21 degrees Celsius, blizzard, and the wind chill is around -40 degrees Celsius.

Even as a once-in-50-years bomb cyclone slammed into northeastern New York in December, Dagger Team 3 traversed it without a hitch. Several long tracks carved into the bare forest about 8 kilometers from downtown Hartford.