War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1660 Stage Play

At the back of the auditorium, Wei Ran, Jima, the Kajianka sisters, and the Hela girls who had gathered around them formed a loose advance line, holding up their silenced weapons and quickly approaching the sightseeing bus that had stopped because it had lost its driver.

"Who are you!"

A man sitting in the car asked angrily. Unfortunately, the only response he got was the muzzle of a gun that was almost pointing at his face.

Almost at the same time when Hela controlled the "tourists" on the sightseeing bus, Wei Ran and others had already run to the garage door and saw the scene inside.

At this time, the concrete floor of the garage has tilted downward to form a ramp. Inside the ramp is an underground passage that is large enough for two trucks to drive side by side.

In this brightly lit passage that leads to nowhere, there are two other sightseeing buses.

Compared with the car in front, the two cars were filled with strong men in suits and leather shoes!
"Da da da!"

Without any hesitation, Wei Ran and Ji Ma immediately pulled the trigger and began suppressing fire. For a while, screams were heard one after another in the tunnel.

It was obvious that these people did not have any weapons on them, or they were probably not allowed to carry weapons when they entered here.

So what's in this passage?
With such doubts, Wei Ran, Jima, the Kajianka sisters, and several Hela girls led by Asma walked down the slope while firing alternately, killing the enemies who were either fleeing, surrendering, or trying to hide.

It took them less than a minute to reach the rear of the two sightseeing buses and kill the last person still alive.

"Finish the shot"

As Asuma spoke, he walked to the nearest corpse, put the muzzle of the gun to his forehead and pulled the trigger.

"Guess what's here?" Wei Ran asked while changing the magazine.

"How about we go and take a look?" asked Ji Ma, who had also changed the magazine.

"This passage seems to be connected to the airport of the aircraft manufacturing plant," Anfisa commented, "The straight-line distance between the two will not exceed one kilometer."

“There is no visible surveillance system in this underground passage.”

Anfia expressed her opinion and called a Hela girl over. She took out a remote-controlled car that she had just retrieved from her backpack. She also put on a helmet and hid in the front of the sightseeing bus. She sat directly on the back of a corpse and controlled the remote-controlled car to run along the marble floor.

After a moment, Anfia whispered, "This is a rather luxuriously decorated air-raid shelter with a locked blast-proof door at the end. There are also several meeting rooms along the way, but no one is seen."

"Go over and take a look later. Turn on the signal jammer and recording jammer first."

As Wei Ran spoke, he turned and walked out of the garage and came to the front of the car full of prisoners.

In just a short while, the Hela girls, working together, had completed the body search of these people one by one.

However, when Wei Ran saw the various documents and several external hard drives that the Hela girls found in those briefcases, he frowned.

Most of them are auction pick-up documents, including Soviet helicopters such as Mi-8, Mi-24, Ka-29, various individual anti-tank weapons, and even some Ukrainian arsenals!

In addition to these, there is also a file marked as "0D sample".

In this document, each page simply lists the busts of 10 young men and women, along with their corresponding blood types, ages, and words such as "heart," "liver," "kidney," "bone marrow," or even "uterus," and a meaningless number.

Not only that, there is also a long solid-state hard drive fixed in this folder.

But compared to these transactions that are both lucrative and sinful enough, the real big deal is a project flyer labeled "Bio Revolution."

After flipping through it roughly, Wei Ran's expression hidden under the silicone mask became increasingly gloomy. In this promotional document, the terrifying phrase "using RNA interference to create biological weapons" was frequently mentioned, as well as some experimental cases whose authenticity could not be verified.

In addition, another document lists a draft plan for investment support and public opinion guidance for several media organizations located in Wukelan.

He even found a fundraising proposal in it that attempted to transform his Time Film Studio, and use the control of him, a Chinese, and Suo Suo, a Russian, to carry out a series of public opinion guidance plans to create conflicts between the Chinese and Russian people and between Ukraine and Russia.

"Bring the target here," Wei Ran said in a low voice as he put away the documents.

Hearing this, Asuma, who had a recording jammer in his bag, immediately pulled a balding old man over.

"Did you instigate the kidnapping of that Chinese scholar in the Russian Federation?"

Wei Ran lowered his voice and asked, "Are you still planning to control him and his film studio to conduct propaganda?"

"No, it's not me." The old man nervously defended, "I don't know what you are talking about."

"How do you explain those documents?" Wei Ran asked in a flat tone.

"That's not mine, it's not mine." The old man defended in a pale voice.

"Who are they?" Wei Ran pointed at the other people who were under control without comment.

"I am my client," the old man replied nervously. "My client's agent."

"What's at the other end of that tunnel?" Wei Ran asked again.

"My warehouse."

"How do you explain the information just now?"

"I"

"I'm not torturing you. This is your last chance to answer." Wei Ran reminded, and at the same time raised his gun to point it at the other person's eyebrows.

"This is an auction! I'm just the organizer of the auction." The old man answered nervously, but he was determined not to reveal the specific details.

"Is it an auction of biological weapons? Or is it an auction to support these NGOs?" Wei Ran asked again.

"No, it has nothing to do with me! None of this has anything to do with me!"

The old man quickly denied it, "That was just an auction of some biological research results. I was just the organizer of the auction. I had no idea about those things!"

"Those NGOs have nothing to do with you?" Wei Ran's follow-up question made the old man shut up.

"Do you want to take him back?" Ji Ma asked from the side.

Turning his head to look at Ji Ma, Wei Ran did not answer the question, but continued to ask, "Tell me their specific identities."

"I I don't know"

The old man gritted his teeth and threatened, "This is not a secret you should know. You'd better stop it immediately! Otherwise, someone will find your family and kill them one by one."

"despair!"

Wei Ran fired a shot at the other person's head, close to his ear.

Although the gunshot was not loud and the bullet did not hit him at all, it frightened him so much that he even forgot to avoid the hot bullet shell that hit his collar.

"Pfft!"

The old man's legs went limp and he sat down on the ground. He then covered his chest and began to breathe heavily, as if he was about to pass out.

Before he had a heart attack, a Hela girl had already opened the medicine she had just taken out of his body, poured out a few pills and stuffed them into his mouth.

Ignoring the frightened old man for the moment, Wei Ran walked up to the other captives and asked, "Who among you can introduce yourself?"

Seeing that all these people were silent, Wei Ran waved his hand and said, "In that case."

"Wait a moment"

Just as he turned to leave, a woman who looked to be in her forties spoke up, "I want to negotiate."

"How do you plan to talk?" Wei Ran asked with interest.

"What conditions will allow you to let me go?"

The woman calmly asked in Russian, "What conditions would allow you to give me all the seized information?"

"You want all the information?" Wei Ran looked at the other party in surprise.

"I need all the information and delivery documents you seized."

The woman became calmer and said, "I still need you to kill all the others."

As soon as these words were spoken, the rest of the captives all started cursing, but soon shut their mouths at the warning of the gun pointed at their heads.

"What is your identity?" Wei Ran asked bluntly.

"I need my background to be kept secret, and you can set conditions for that as well." The woman's tone became more confident.

"Which gentleman or lady would like to tell me the origin of this old woman?" Wei Ran asked with a smile.

"Don't bother. We are just agents. No one knows who our employer is except ourselves."

Another old man spoke up, "Sir, if only one of us can survive, please set the conditions. The person who meets the conditions will survive and complete the transaction with you, and leave here with all the information."

"It's a transaction no matter who you are. Sir, please return your phone to us. We can contact the employer immediately to change the payment account."

The third person spoke up, "This will be a large sum of money, enough for all of you to retire from the Russian Federation and live an unimaginable life in anonymity."

"As long as you keep it a secret, no one will know that someone is missing."

The fourth person also spoke up, "But you will all become rich. Who will survive next? Please let us compete among ourselves."

"So, you don't plan to reveal who your respective employers are?" Wei Ran asked with a smile.

"We are just agents. If we reveal our employers, not only will we die, but our families will not survive either. Even the employers we know may not be real.

"The woman who spoke first said, "So sir, please name your price."

"last question"

Wei Ran patted his backpack and said, "Can anyone tell me how much this information is worth?"

"Five million dollars," the woman who spoke first said, "that's enough for all of you to become rich." "She's lying to you."

Another captive who had not spoken before said, "There is more information on any of the hard drives inside. Sir, I am willing to offer 15 million US dollars."

"Twenty million." Someone else offered a higher price.

"Snapped!"

Wei Ran snapped his fingers, ignored Ji Ma's hint, and said with interest, "Since it's an auction, there must be a suitable venue.

But before that, please satisfy my curiosity. Can anyone tell me what is on the other side of the blast door at the end of the tunnel?"

“It leads to the runway of the aircraft factory and is also a product exhibition room.”

The woman who spoke first answered, "We landed there by plane, then passed through the blast-proof door and held the auction in a conference room in the underground air-raid shelter."

"If that's the case, why come here?" Wei Ran asked a new question.

“The seller’s agent is waiting here.”

The woman replied, "We are here to complete the final part of the deal. Now that your curiosity has been satisfied, can we start the deal?"

"certainly"

Wei Ran said with a smile, "But let's go to the auditorium. Since it's an auction, we need a decent environment."

As he said that, Wei Ran turned his head and looked at Asma, "Take them to the auditorium."

After saying this, he winked at Ji Ma, who immediately grabbed the feet of the target person who had a sudden heart attack and dragged him into the auditorium through the back door.

When everyone was brought here, the strong smell of blood and the corpses sitting in the audience seats immediately made them panic again.

"Please ignore those quiet and insignificant audiences"

Wei Ran pointed to the first row that was not yet occupied by corpses, and said, "Everyone, please go sit in the first row."

After a slight hesitation, the woman who had first started negotiating with him took the first step and sat down in the middle, farthest position from the corpses on both sides.

With someone taking the lead, the other agents also found a place to sit as far away from the corpses as possible, and according to Wei Ran's command and the instructions of the people standing behind them with their guns, they raised their hands high above their heads and spread all their fingers.

While they were waiting, the target person who had suffered a sudden heart attack was dragged to the center of the stage and, with the help of Ji Ma, knelt down in front of the audience.

"clatter!"

Wei Ran pulled the trigger above his head and said enthusiastically, "Well, the auction begins now."

After a brief panic, the captives in the audience immediately perked up, and the woman took the initiative to say, "Sir, we need a mobile phone to contact the employer to make a bid remotely."

"No problem," Wei Ran replied calmly, "Except for this woman, kill her."

"despair--"

In the almost completely overlapping gunshots, except for the middle-aged woman, the agents were shot in the back of the head, and with a "thump" their raised arms dropped and became completely motionless.

"Auction Ended"

Wei Ran muttered to himself, then raised his voice and said, "Pay special attention to checking their cuffs and hands, and arrange explosives and incendiaries. Knock out that woman and take her away."

After everyone agreed, Wei Ran squatted down and patted the target person who had just recovered, and whispered in his ear, "I'll ask you one last time, was it you who planned the kidnapping of the historian and the plan in the file?"

"Is it me? It's my son. Yes! That's right! It's him!"

The old man kneeling on the stage with his pants soaked pointed at a body in the corner of the first row and said, "I didn't know. I didn't do that! It was him! It was him! He was always on that electric..."

"Are you from the Wartie tribe?" Wei Ran switched to Hebrew and asked again, whispering into the other person's ear.

Sure enough, when this question was asked, the old man couldn't help but tremble.

"It seems so." Before Wei Ran finished his words, he had already pointed the gun at the back of his head and pulled the trigger repeatedly.

Slowly putting away the gun, picking up the hot shell and putting it in his pocket, Wei Ran supported the body and asked him to continue to kneel and sit, and gave an order, "Continue to clean up the scene, bring all the bodies here, and remember to check them carefully."

After saying that, he called Ji Ma to leave the auditorium, go around the back and enter the tunnel again.

They covered each other with the Kajianka sisters and went to the end of the tunnel to check all the rooms. Finally, the four of them found nothing and arrived at the huge explosion-proof door.

This explosion-proof door was not locked, and there was even an observation window less than half a meter square on it.

After listening for a moment, Wei Ran carefully opened the heavy steel plate blocking the observation window, while Anfisa took out a camera mounted on a mobile phone holder and reached in.

The other side of the observation window was also brightly lit, but there was no one within sight.

Instead, there are several helicopters of different models, various airborne weapons on the shelves, some individual air defense and anti-tank missiles, and some large screens that continuously demonstrate PPT contents.

After observing for a while, Wei Ran locked the observation window again and gestured to the three people to follow him back.

When they returned silently to the entrance of the underground corridor, the bodies of the security guards and one of the sightseeing buses were gone, and outside the garage, Asma was waiting for them.

"All the bodies have been sent to the auditorium. TNT explosives have been attached to the backs of the seats of each body. Detonators and incendiary agents have also been set up."

Asuma whispered, "The dashcams of all the cars in the parking lot have been removed from their storage devices. Our equipment and bullet casings have also been recovered. Nothing has been left out."

"It's time for us to leave," Wei Ran said, turning and walking towards the gap in the fence leading to the sanatorium.

It was not until they returned to the forest and joined the team led by Hela's deputy captain Yulia who came from the other direction that Jima, who had gained a lot, whispered, "Have we caused a bigger trouble?"

“Quite the opposite”

Wei Ran was silent for a moment before saying, "We are safe now. The future will be safer than ever before."

"Why?" Jima asked puzzledly.

"I'll explain it to you when we get back." Wei Ran said no more and asked Ji Ma to speed up.

But on the way back, he couldn't help but wonder how to deal with the hot potatoes in his backpack.

If these things are handled well, someone will rush to take all the blame, but if one is not handled well, everyone will probably be silenced.

And the woman who was knocked unconscious and carried away by the Hela girls was the scapegoat he prepared for everyone.

Before he could figure out the best way to deal with the situation, everyone had already passed through the dense forest and returned to the forest path.

After a careful observation, the two Hela girls covered each other and walked to the side of the van, opened the door and checked it. Seeing that everything was safe, they waved to Wei Ran and others.

After everyone got on the bus, the driver, who had never gotten off the bus and even had his feet handcuffed to the clutch and brake, immediately put on night vision goggles, turned the car around in the dark and left, taking another route towards the Ukrainian-Russian border.

As everyone was doubly vigilant, more than an hour later, the car successfully took them to the middle of an abandoned logging road and they changed to the van they had been riding in before.

Still without any communication, the car simply returned along the same route and took them across the border in a roundabout way.

Wei Ran and the others didn't know that shortly after they left, the van driver who took them to their destination and then brought them back was hit in the forehead by a bullet of unknown origin on the way back.

When they crossed the border, the car and the bodies inside were thrown into a pre-dug pit in the dense forest and buried and camouflaged.

The question of whether this land will grow a few new vans next year is naturally not worth discussing.

Just as the people who buried the van left, Wei Ran and others, along with the only prisoner they brought back, were sent to a pitifully small metal processing plant on the outskirts of Belgorod.

This factory building is not too big, only about 100 to 200 square meters at most. In addition to some bench drills, cutting machines, electric hammers and electric furnaces, it seems to also serve as a boiler room.

It was in such a dirty and greasy room that teacher Daria, who had not been seen for a long time, was already waiting for them.

Without avoiding everyone, after the car stopped, Daria suddenly raised a PSS pistol and shot the driver dead, then she closed the iron door of the workshop herself.

"Get out of the car," Daria didn't speak until this time.

With a "whoosh" sound, Wei Ran personally opened the car door and was the first to get out.

"You have one hour to destroy the items you used."

Dahlia pointed to a boiler not far away and said, "Throw everything that needs to be burned into the boiler, and figure out how to get the weapons. I'll take you away in an hour."

Upon hearing this, everyone took out the weapons they had obtained before, and tacitly operated the cutting machine to cut them into sections. They also used a bench drill or lathe to grind off all the rifling, and heated them in an electric furnace until they were red, and used an electric hammer to beat them into steel bars. They also threw them into the boiler along with electronic devices such as night vision goggles and remote-controlled cars with the batteries removed, turning them into fuel that could be burned or not.

Finally, they took off their black combat uniforms and boots that were one and a half sizes larger, and threw them into the boiler along with the black silicone masks and gloves. The young men and women, who had already been sweating profusely and were only wearing the innermost set of warm clothes, lined up to receive the new clothes and shoes that Daria had prepared in advance.

"Come with me"

After Daria and everyone had changed their clothes, she took them out of another small door of the dilapidated workshop and got into a minibus.

Teacher Dalia didn't say anything, so Wei Ran and others naturally and wisely remained silent.

Soon after, Darya drove out of Belgorod herself. The road ahead was long and bumpy, but as quiet as ever.

It was not until two hours later that the road conditions improved a little. Before driving into the city, Daria took them to the roadside in the suburbs and changed to an ordinary-looking light van truck.

Before dawn, the truck drove into the Kursk airport unimpeded and drove straight into a transport plane that had just landed and unloaded tropical fruits and was preparing to take off.

Even the minibus had been sent to a scrapyard, where it was violently dismantled and compressed overnight, turning into scrap metal waiting to be reused.

Almost at the same time as the truck's cargo door opened and the rear hatch of the transport plane closed, Anfia also sent a text message on her mobile phone.

Less than two seconds apart, a series of dense explosions were heard from inside the auditorium of a sanatorium built in the Soviet era in the dense forest next to the aircraft manufacturing plant northwest of Kharkov.

The sound of these explosions was not loud, but it was enough to shatter the bodies of people or animals and scatter the broken body parts everywhere.

It was as if a bloody and thriller revenge play was being performed in this auditorium.