War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 235 The Fire on the Lakeshore

Under the Petyaskh pier, Wei Ran, carrying a huge hiking backpack, strolled into the city. After finding a small restaurant to fill his stomach, he directly moved into a nearby restaurant on the recommendation of the restaurant owner. A small hotel with a strong Soviet style.

Now there are still five full days left before returning to Hongqi Forest Farm for class, and it will take at least one day on the way back. In other words, what he needs to consider now is how to avoid the tracking of those nannies during these five days and return smoothly. Yakutsk.

Shall we try to find the smuggler?

Wei Ran lay on the single bed less than one meter wide and fell into hesitation. Being able to get here successfully almost meant that he had temporarily successfully escaped the monitoring of the "nanny" arranged by Karp.But whether he could find the smuggler, and whether he had a chance to kill him, he was not sure at all.

While he was tossing and turning, Karp, who was far away in Kazan, finally received the news of Wei Ran's disappearance.

When he hung up the phone, Teacher Dalia, who was obviously watching a joke, asked with a smile while holding a cup of coffee, "Did he really run out?"

"No accident, I should have gone to Lower Petyaskh."

Karp seemed very satisfied with Wei Ran's performance, "It's not easy to escape from that bastard Galkin. Before he escaped, Galkin was still questioning my teaching ability! It's ridiculous!"

"That's just Galkin's carelessness."

Teacher Dalia leaned on the desk and continued, "But even if Galkin is careless, if it is not prepared in advance, it will be difficult for Victor to escape Galkin's sight. So we can also see from this incident that Viktor Kedo is very guarded. No, it is more accurate to say that he is very wary of us, at least not as easy to control as Jima."

Karp nodded noncommittally, "So I asked Galkin to wait at the Yakutsk airport. Since Victor doesn't need help, let him play freely."

"Now you're not worried about him getting into an accident?" Teacher Dalia asked with a smile while still smiling.

"It's much safer than letting him go to Japan to take risks in his own country"

Karp said indifferently, "But if he can come back alive, he must be punished accordingly. No, if he can come back alive, give him some more targeted courses, wait until August, and continue to send him to Japan. Try it in your own country!"

"What are you going to do?" Teacher Dalia looked at Karp in surprise, "This is asking him to die!"

"calm down"

Karpura opened the drawer, took out a thick stack of test forms and pushed it to Teacher Dalia, "Don't you realize how fast his learning progress is? Before starting the skydiving course, he had already completed it for almost a year. Considering that he only studied at the Hongqi Forest Farm 15 days a month, his learning speed is no worse than those geniuses selected by the Soviet Union all over the country.”

"You mean he lacks combat experience?"

Teacher Dalia flipped through the thick stack of test forms. Not only did many psychological tests hide in these messy questions that seemed to be punched here and there, but they were also mixed with a lot of questions that Karp had taught him before. All kinds of course knowledge and even knowledge that have not been taught.

It may not be obvious if you take a test every day, but when you put these test forms together, Teacher Dalia immediately sees Wei Ran's "talent" in medical treatment and language.

Karp did not answer the other party's question, but took out the second stack of test forms from the drawer, "This is the test form for Ji Ma, let's take a look, this is what normal people should do when facing these courses." learning progress. If it wasn’t for the captain’s recommendation, I would have even thought he was our colleague.”

Dalia took it and just casually flipped through a few pages before giving a pertinent evaluation, "It's like shit licked by Gorbachev."

"When Victor comes back, consider starting some more professional courses. In addition, let him learn another foreign language to see how much potential this little guy has." Karp paused, and continued, "By the way, you can Give him more chances to practice during the holidays."

"Where's Jima?"

"Just give him something he can understand." Karp said nonchalantly. An auditor who doesn't pay tuition is not worth his attention.

Teacher Dalia was about to say something when she heard the words, but the mobile phone on the table rang.

"It's the captain's call." Teacher Dalia pressed the answer button before she finished speaking. At the same time, Wei Ran tried hard to fall asleep. This night was a rare time for him to rest. He had to recover before the nannies found Nizhny Petyaskh.

There was nothing to say all night, and the next morning, Wei Ran had already gotten up, wandering along the street while observing the small town by the river.

Lower Petyaskh is not too big, and the only main road is only about five kilometers long from north to south.Basically, the most prosperous and fashionable or the most expensive shops in this town are all distributed on both sides of this cracked main road, one after another.

Walking along the main road from the southernmost end to the northernmost end, Wei Ran also found out the location of the only local bar and gas station, as well as the most luxurious hotels and restaurants.

After the sun rose completely, Wei Ran got a tattered Vaz bread half bought and half rented in a car repair shop, and blatantly drove it to the door of the luxury hotel and waited patiently.

From the rising of the sun to the setting of the sun, there were not many people coming in and out of this most luxurious hotel in the local area, not to mention the people Wei Ran was looking for.But he was not discouraged, but immediately started the car, drove to the only local bar and continued to wait.

It stands to reason that as long as he goes to the bar for a while, he can easily ask for information about the recent strangers from outside, but at the same time, it will undoubtedly make the locals in the bar realize that there is a second stranger coming, and Later strangers are still looking for the former one.

On the edge of the dark street, Wei Ran was wrapped in a dark blanket, holding up his binoculars and staring at the door of the bar for a moment, carefully looking at every person who came in and out.

However, until the bar put out the neon sign in the shape of a wine bottle at the entrance, neither the smuggler nor the few boys who accompanied the smuggler came here for a drink.

Is a guy who doesn't drink alcohol still a guy?
Wei Ran muttered angrily, and after yawning, reluctantly put the binoculars back into the metal book, started the car again and drove towards the hotel.However, when the car he was driving passed by the gas station, Wei Ran made a U-turn and drove the car in the opposite direction.

Unobtrusively glanced at the middle-aged man who was pulling the oil gun into the car to refuel the two [-]-liter oil barrels, Wei Ran silently stuffed money into the machine, then picked up the oil gun and stabbed it into the machine. into the gas tank of the van.

Taking advantage of the refueling time, he glanced at the license plate of the van from the corner of his eye, and then glanced at the two oil drums and a generator covered in mud in the compartment, and then he looked away and drove leisurely. Filled up the gas and drove the van out.

Parking the car at the opposite intersection, Wei Ran glanced at the time on his watch, it was not yet six o'clock in the morning, it is not normal to come to refuel so early, and it is even more abnormal to carry two such big oil drums .

After all, whether it is Yakutsk on the other side or the small town of Petyaskh, although they are remote, they all have cheap electricity supply with unlimited refills.That being the case, the generators can only be used in places where there is no power supply in the wild.

And in this season, at this point in time, the only people who need so much fuel in the wild are obviously only those who poached mammoths.As for whether this group of people has anything to do with the smugglers I'm looking for, I can only find out if I follow the past.

While he waited patiently, the van with two oil barrels finally left the gas station slowly.Didn't dare to turn on the car lights at all, Wei Ran chased the car lights of the other party from a distance and followed all the way north. After leaving the town, he continued to drive north for about five or six kilometers, but the van turned right and drove off the roadbed. Turned into a logging road wrapped in coniferous forest.

When Wei Ran drove his car through this intersection, he found that the end of this logging road was at most 400 meters away, and it turned out to be a lake with a rather large area.

At this time, the sun had just shone a little red, and the little red and the headlights of the van pulling the oil barrels were all reflected on the calm lake, making it look extraordinarily beautiful.

But what attracted Wei Ran more than this scene was the flickering flashlight on a small boat illuminated by the headlights at the end of the logging road.

After roughly figuring out the location, Wei Ran stepped on the accelerator and continued to drive north for a while, then turned around decisively and returned to the hotel he rented in the town, lay on the bed and fell asleep with his head covered.

After sleeping until it was dark, Wei Ran, who stayed at night and went out at night, bought some food and drink at random, drove the rented van again, revisited the old place in the night, and drove to the logging road connected to the lake that he discovered in the morning Fork in the road.

Slowing down the speed of the car and looking in the direction of the lake, he saw that there were no lights there, so he continued to drive the car for a while and parked on the side of the road. Go back to the fork in the road.

Leaving the potholed road and walking onto the logging road, Wei Ran became more and more careful.This 300-meter-long logging road is in pretty good condition. Although there is also a lot of mud, it is paved with a lot of logs and gravel, which is barely enough for traffic.

Walk carefully all the way to the shore of the lake, where there are still deep ruts and arc marks left by the oil drums falling on the mud.But what is more conspicuous than this is the faint fire that looms on the easternmost side of the opposite bank.

Remembering the position of the light, Wei Ran looked around carefully, and after making sure that there was no one else, he carefully took out the rowboat from Baiyangdian Lake from the metal book and pushed it into the lake, slowly walking along the lake shore. Slowly head north, and finally found a dense enough coniferous forest on the northernmost bank to go ashore.

Glancing at the fluorescent hands on the watch, Wei Ran took out the rowboat he had just put away and put it behind a bush, then took out a sleeping bag bought in Yakutsk from his bag and wrapped it around his body, sat in The boat waited patiently for the night to fall completely.

(End of this chapter)