War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1332 Mission Requirement: Killing

On the sea filled with thick fog, accompanied by the sound of splashing water, Julian, who was wearing a Luftwaffe uniform and a German flight suit that had not yet been dried, and wrapped in a layer of British parachute cloth, was pushed forward by Phil himself. A calm sea.

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Six consecutive gunshots emptied all the bullets in the P38 pistol, and Phil pinned the German pistol that had lost its threat to his waist.

Immediately afterwards, Phil pulled out his Webley pistol again, then took out a bullet from his pocket and stuffed it into the cylinder. He pointed it at the sky above his head that was obscured by sea fog and clouds again, and pulled the trigger expressionlessly. .

"boom!"

After the last gunshot, Phil threw the pistol in his hand that his father had left to him into the sea, then slowly raised his right arm and silently gave a military salute.

"Crash!"

Almost at the same time he lowered his arms, a sea breeze blowing from the northeast also hit the simple sail that had just been tied to the deck railing and watchtower.

As the roaring sails flapped, the surrounding fog also began to move driven by the wind.

"Mr. Spear is an excellent meteorologist"

Phil sighed. In Spear's plan, the time he predicted for the wind to rise was only less than 15 minutes later than the actual time.

"We should go back"

Wei Ran took one last look at the sea surface where Julian disappeared, "According to Spear's prediction, we will have to fight against violent swings until noon tomorrow."

"Go, go."

Phil sighed and asked in an increasingly hesitant tone, "Victor, should we kill Julian from the beginning, so that Spear can survive? I hid a bullet Yes, I had a chance, I just thought"

"I don't know, I don't know, I...I had a chance."

Wei Ran sighed. From Phil's perspective, Julian was a real enemy, and he should have prioritized killing him.

But from Wei Ran's perspective, in the first scene he and Julian were on the same crew, and in the previous scene he was "abandoned" by Spear.

In other words, killing Spear was also the option that he should have prioritized, and he had countless opportunities to do it.

At this moment, both of them were trapped in their own self-blame, and neither of them dared to face Heidi, who had completely collapsed emotionally and mentally in the buoy.

"This damn war!"

Phil hammered hard on the shell of the buoy watchtower, and forced himself to climb the ladder and enter the interior of the buoy one by one.

Behind him, Wei Ran closed the hatch of the watchtower, and as written in Spear's plan, tied the handles of the two doors tightly together with ropes to prevent them from being blown open, and then removed them The oil lamp was of little use.

When he finally entered the buoy after some procrastination, he found that Heidi was already huddled in the corner of the bed, tightly holding Spear's body, which was carried to the bed by Wei Ran and Phil.

"Let them be together"

Wei Ran stopped Phil who was about to do something, and just tied Spear and Heidi together with the bed frame and the blankets they were wrapped in with ropes.

Finally looking at Heidi, who was holding the Spear's Plan in her hands and crying, Wei Ran hung a small bucket for vomit on the bedside.

Before the buoy was blown more and more by the wind, Wei Ran filled the only two oil lamps they had with kerosene, then lit one of them and hung it on the hook between the two beds.

"Dear Heidi, if our baby is a boy, let's call him Benjamin. If our baby is a girl, let's call her Vanessa!"

Under the constantly swaying light, Heidi read aloud the letter Spear left her in skilled Hebrew, but she couldn't stop the tears from sliding down her cheeks and finally dripping on Spear's face.

On her slender fingers, which were cracked by frequent starching of clothes, she wore a golden wedding ring that she didn't have before.

And Spear, who was in her arms, also had a ring on his hand that he didn't have before.

"Whether they are boys or girls, I hope they can grow up healthy and happy, in a peaceful environment without war."

In the buoy that was shaking more and more violently, Heidi read the Hebrew suicide note louder and louder, as if she wanted to use her voice to fight against the waves and strong wind that sent them to England!

It turns out that this woman also knows Hebrew. She loves Spier so much, how could she not be able to learn it?

Wei Ran sighed, and Phil each tied himself with a rope to the ladder leading to the watchtower. Between the two of them, there was another lamp filled with kerosene but not hanging on the crossbar of the ladder. Lighted kerosene lamp.

There is also a rope hanging above the head. If necessary, they can untie one of the ropes tied diagonally to the chest, and let the rope hanging above the head pass through the belt and the crossbar of the ladder as protection. , safely climbed up to the observation tower to observe the situation - this was also prepared in accordance with Spear's plan.

"I hope they will never know that they have a Jewish father or that they have Jewish ancestry. Let them grow up happily as British people in England!"

In the buoy, Heidi was still reading the suicide note loudly in Hebrew, but above Wei Ran's head, a wave was already hitting the deck.

In the increasingly turbulent waves, the sail, which was sewn and tied with blankets, sheets, and paracords, became more and more swollen, causing the entire buoy to tilt in a fixed direction. At the same time, a wave of Driven by waves, the drifting speed is getting faster and faster.

One hour, two hours, three hours, five hours!

Once, twice, three times, ten times, a hundred times!

In the buoy, Heidi's voice as she recited the suicide note became increasingly hoarse and she even lost her voice completely. Under the constantly shaking oil lamp, Phil and Wei Ran could only see her opening her mouth continuously and shedding tears.

Behind Wei Ran, only separated by a ladder, Phil was holding the German lunch box that was stuffed into his arms with one hand, and holding the weapon fastened to his waist with the other hand. P38 pistol.

After an unknown amount of time, the oil lamp in the buoy went out, and the oil lamp that originally hung between Wei Ran and Phil was also lit, illuminating the small buoy again.

But from the beginning to the end, Heidi was holding the book and reading Spier's last letter to her over and over again as if she was not affected by the light or dark at all.

Amidst the noise of the waves hitting the watchtower from time to time, Phil, who had his back to Wei Ran, had already burst into tears at some point. The P38 pistol that was originally fastened to his waist and had no bullets, also He pressed it against his chin.

"Click, click, click"

Amidst the small noise of the trigger being pulled again and again, Phil also murmured something in his desperate recitation in a voice that only he could hear.

"Boom!"

There was a muffled sound mixed with tremors, and the shaking of the buoy weakened a lot in just a few seconds, but the sound of the waves and the wind did not stop.

I looked up at the window of the observation tower. The sky outside was already gloomy, and from time to time I could still see the waves hitting the glass.

"Victor! Are we?"

Before Phil, whose voice was hoarse, could finish speaking, Wei Ran had already untied the rope from his chest and climbed up the ladder as quickly as possible.

He took out the flashlight from the metal book and lit it and looked outside the window. After the beam passed through the glass, it first illuminated the round and full sail that was still blown by the wind. Then he saw the continuous beach at the focus of the beam. And the black woodland and vague building outlines beyond!

Aim the flashlight at the north compass on your wrist. The wind is still blowing from the northeast!

"Land! We've reached land!"

Wei Ran yelled and untied the rope on the hatch as quickly as possible. Pushed by the northeast wind that never stopped, he rushed to the edge of the deck and used Julian's body to find the gravity knife as a souvenir. It was easy Cut the rope holding the sail on the railing!

"Crash!"

Under the wildly flying sails, Wei Ran, who was looking up at his neck, also saw the long-awaited strong white light that could allow him to escape the oppressive atmosphere in the raindrops and waves hitting him.

After a slightly long wait, the white light gradually faded, and Weiran once again returned to the buoy of later generations.

Without giving him any time to react, the metal quill pen wrote lines of text again:

Act Four

Role identity: Tailor Apprentice Victor

Return mission: After assisting Vanessa in killing everyone on the farm and cleaning up the scene, they drank a bottle of brandy together.

Assist Vanessa in cleaning blood stains and all clothing. Clean all the rooms, light the fireplace when the weather clears, and drink a bottle of whiskey together.

Position Limitation: Temporary Deprivation of Memory in Act III

grass! Be bad!

Wei Ran cursed secretly, and then his eyes were once again filled with dazzling white light.

But immediately after, when he saw the props that could be used this time, he couldn't help but cursed again.

This time, he had only a bottle of wine, a lighter, a cigarette case, and a three-piece sterling silver set from Leningrad.

Before the white light dissipated, Wei Ran felt that his forehead hit something hard under the inertia, making a "dong" sound that reached straight to his soul, so that he could not bear the severe pain that followed. I didn't realize that something seemed to be missing silently in my memory.

When the white light completely dissipated, Wei Ran, who was grinning in pain, also noticed that he was sitting in a carriage with a canvas canopy. Just now, his head seemed to have hit the carriage panel at the rear of the carriage.

While rubbing his forehead, which was almost knocked out of the bump, Wei Ran looked around carefully at his surroundings.

"Where is this?"

Wei Ran muttered to himself, unaware that he had lost all memories of the third act and only thought that the present moment was the beginning of the third act. Soon, he noticed that next to him, Vanessa was covered with a gray blanket, sleeping soundly on his lap.

The girl was still wearing the same clothes that Sammy, the honest chain dog, had given her to the ship after they had boarded the ship at Calais.

Looking at myself again, I saw that the brown flannel suit I was wearing was not a cheap one that Sammy, the chained dog, had prepared for me. Moreover, there is a gray trench coat outside, and a thick scarf is wrapped around the neck.

There was even an English top hat on his head, and on his feet he wore a pair of thick brown country boots that were stained with a lot of mud. Even his hands were wearing a pair of sheepskin gloves that fit snugly and were soft.

Although he still doesn't know where he and Vanessa are currently, Wei Ran has to admit that the clothes in this metal book are worthy of recognition.

Vanessa didn't wake up, so he simply continued to look at the surrounding environment. At this time, on the other side of him, there were two brown cowhide suitcases side by side. Each of the suitcases had a pair of leather suitcases fixed with belts. Black umbrella.

Separated between the two suitcases, there was a rickety figure also wearing a windbreaker, but with his back to them. He was holding the reins, steering the carriage in the cold drizzle, and pattering along a muddy country road.

Have you already arrived in the UK? Could this be the countryside of Liverpool? Heidi and Vanessa's "grandma's house"?

After recalling the mission requirements this time, Wei Ran couldn't help but shiver and carefully touched his pockets all over his body.

Soon, he found a pack of unopened Marlboro cigarettes and a ferry ticket from Dublin to Liverpool. The boarding time on it was September 1940, 9.

Continuing to rummage, he also found a leather wallet containing several pounds sterling in the inner pocket of his windbreaker, and a copper-case pocket watch in the pocket of his suit jacket. The time displayed on the pocket watch was 42:. Look, Looking at the gloomy sky covered with rain outside, you can tell that it should be dusk now, otherwise, even if it rains, the sky will not be so dark.

Looking down at Vanessa who was still sleeping soundly, Wei Ran gently opened the nearest suitcase. In addition to a few changes of clothes and a pair of women's boots, there were many other things in the mezzanine. Few banknotes and a few silver coins.

Wei Ran could see that these were the windfalls he had shared with sisters Heidi and Vanessa before escaping from the tailor shop.

After searching and finding that there were no weapons inside, he carefully closed the suitcase and then brought another suitcase over and slowly opened it.

The changes of clothes in this suitcase were obviously men's clothes, and they were extremely complete from the inside out. He even found a large copper flashlight inside that looked particularly familiar.

This flashlight, which is almost half a meter long, is also wrapped in a circle of engraved brown cowhide, which obviously highlights British elegance to the extreme.

In addition to these things, he also found some banknotes in the box, which were also the stolen money he had scratched before leaving the tailor shop.

Although there were no weapons in it, there were the Rolleiflex twin-lens reflex camera with a horse fur protective case, and a bottle of brandy that looked very familiar to him - he had found it in the lighthouse basement of Castle Philippe. Antique brandy!

Is this the bottle of brandy you need to drink in the mission requirement?

When Wei Ran saw the bottle of brandy, he couldn't help but become more vigilant. Naturally, he was not wary of the bottle of wine, but of other requirements for this return mission.

He didn't know what the outrageous things the people on the farm mentioned in the mission did that angered the metal book, so much so that he asked to "kill everyone" in his return mission this time.

So, how many people are on that farm now? Is it just Spear that scumbag?

No, it's impossible. Is there still Heidi? Probably. It’s impossible, right?

After Wei Ran closed the box, he glanced at Vanessa who was still sleeping soundly on his legs with fear. He secretly wondered whether this girl's heart would be darkened because she was abandoned at Castle Philip last time. change.

Just at this moment, the rickety figure also shouted for the carriage to stop. When he turned around with a little effort, his body that had been soaked by the drizzle, Vanessa, who was sleeping soundly, was also awakened by the stop of the carriage. Then he stretched again and then sat up.

"Sir, Miss, we have arrived at the address you specified. How should we go next?" the old man driving the car asked in a hoarse voice.

"Just here"

Vanessa yawned, took out a few scattered bills from her pocket and handed them to the old coachman. Then she looked at the rain outside and said in French, "Victor, we'll get off here." Bar."

"it is good"

Wei Ran nodded, first carried their suitcases to the back of the car, then jumped down and helped Vanessa get out of the car. Then they each picked up a suitcase and propped up the black suitcase that was originally fixed on the side of the suitcase. Umbrella.

"Come with me"

Vanessa said, already carrying her suitcase to the roadside, lifting up the skirt under her windbreaker, and deftly stepped across a road made of large and small stones, less than one meter high, but always It spread to the low wall at the end of sight.

"Where are we going?" Wei Ran, who was following behind, asked as he climbed over the low stone wall wrapped in grass.

"Inside this wall is the farm left by my grandfather."

Vanessa pointed to the grassland on a gentle slope inside the railing and said, "Did you see the oak forest in front of you? When we get around the oak forest, we can see a three-story red brick house. ."

Glancing at the oak forest more than a hundred meters away, which was half the size of a playground, Wei Ran followed Vanessa and asked curiously, "Why are we getting off the bus here?"

"The main entrance of the farm is at the lowest point of this slope"

Vanessa raised her finger and pointed in the direction, explaining with a familiarity, "Even when it doesn't rain, it's very muddy there. If this kind of weather comes from there, our shoes will all be soaked in the mud."

"You are really familiar with this place," Wei Ran couldn't help but say.

"certainly"

Vanessa twirled the umbrella in her hand, stopped by a stone the size of a truck tire, put her suitcase on it, and rubbed the mud on the soles of her shoes on the edge of the stone as she said, "In my grandfather's case, When my grandmother and I were alive, my sister and I would vacation here almost every summer. Everything here, of course, including the horrible weather now, I can even imagine it when I close my eyes."

"All right"

Wei Ran also placed the suitcase in his hand on the stone and asked seemingly casually, "What else is there on this farm?"

"At least when I came here last time, this farm was full of pasture, goats and cows. I forgot to mention that there was a barn not far from the house, and there were a lot of hens in it."

Vanessa changed her muddy shoes and looked around and explained, "They used to have three shepherd dogs. Generally speaking, when my sister and I walked to this stone, they were already shaking. The tail is coming.”

"It sounds like your grandfather and grandmother had a prosperous life?"

While Wei Ran was talking, he had already taken off his gloves, took out the wine bottle under the cover of his pocket and took a sip. In this humid, cold and rainy weather, carrying a wine bottle has become a necessity to keep out the cold.

"My mother had a much happier childhood than my sister and I."

As Vanessa spoke, she reached out and snatched the wine bottle from Wei Ran's hand, and also took a sip of the vodka inside.

"This is...ahem! What kind of wine is this?"

Vanessa, who was choked, asked while coughing, "It's like drinking alcohol, there is no other taste at all."

"Vodka, I asked a sailor on the ship to buy it."

Wei Ran, who was making nonsense, took the wine bottle and took another sip, then used the cover of his pocket to put it back into the metal book.

"When did what you just said happen?"

Wei Ran then took out the cigarette case and opened it. Seeing that there were only two cigarette holders inside, he simply handed the umbrella to Vanessa to help hold it. Then he took out the cigarettes and placed them one by one in the cigarette case, and then gave them to Vanessa. One of them was put on a gold cigarette holder, lit and took a puff.

Perhaps the sip of wine just taught Vanessa a lesson. This time she didn't ask for a cigarette to taste it. She just explained after Wei Ran took away his umbrella, "The last time I came here was when I was 15 When I was 4 years old, my sister and I buried our parents here. Speaking of which, we haven’t come here to visit in four years.”

Having said this, Vanessa pointed to the gravel road covered with grass on the other side of the stone and said, "This crossroad was specially paved by my grandfather for me and my sister about ten years ago. You see , this place is still the same without any changes, I just don’t know if the house left by my grandfather can still be lived in, but if my sister has arrived here, she must have packed it up. "

"Let's go over and take a look."

Wei Ran took a puff of his cigarette and urged, if Spear were here, he couldn't wait to hear the other party's explanation of the cut rope.

Not long after walking along this cross road, the two of them had already bypassed the oak forest that had lost all its leaves.

Immediately afterwards, Wei Ran also saw a three-story country villa built with red bricks.

"Sister, they must have arrived!"

When Vanessa saw the lights on the first floor of the villa, she let out a trance of surprise, threw away her umbrella, picked up her skirt, and ran over cheering!

Compared to Vanessa who was full of joy, Wei Ran felt a trace of uneasiness in his heart. Before he had time to think about it, he also threw away his umbrella and chased after him with his suitcase.

By the time he ran to Vanessa, the girl had already bypassed the two-horse carriage parked at the door, ran up the steps and stood at the door, knocking on the heavy door with a bang. He opened the door and shouted happily, "Sister! Open the door! I am Vanessa! Sister!"

"Squeak-"

Just when Wei Ran tried to pull Vanessa away first, the wooden door in front of the two of them was also opened. At the same time, both Wei Ran and Vanessa smelled the strong smell of tobacco and alcohol mixed in it. taste.

But compared to the smell, there were two young men in newsboy hats who looked to be no more than sixteen or seventeen years old inside the door, each holding a double-barreled shotgun and aiming at them.

"You are"

Vanessa, who was startled, didn't even finish her words. Along with the tapping sound, a short and fat old man wearing a black suit and a top hat also stepped forward. Holding a silver-wrapped cane, he walked behind the two young men holding shotguns with a smile, and said hello kindly, "Vanessa, long time no see, oh! And Victor, my good boy, you won't help me." I looked at the grocery store, but why did I find it here?"

(End of this chapter)