War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 239 The Code Word on the Oil Drum
Less than half an hour after Wei Ran hung up the phone, a taxi stopped at the door of the studio, followed by a bald middle-aged man with a big belly who was about the same height as Professor Alexei. He got out of the compartment which was a bit narrow for him, and walked into the studio quickly carrying a not-so-big aluminum alloy suitcase.

"Mr. Victor, hello, I'm Herbert who just called." The middle-aged man with a big belly greeted him warmly after entering the door.

"Hello, Mr. Herbert." Wei Ran enthusiastically let the other party sit down at the long table. Before he could say anything, the other party had already opened the suitcase in his hand with a snap.

"I bought this when I was traveling in England two years ago. Please have a look!" Herbert said as he took out a standard 20-liter WWII tank with a khaki color from the suitcase. German barrels.

Taking the oil barrel from the opponent's hand, Wei Ran looked it over and over again. The handle in the middle of the oil barrel was near the lid, and there was a small iron piece fixed on it. A number surrounded by a circle was punched in the middle of the iron piece. 80, and there is a letter B outside the circle. Just from this small iron piece, we know that this oil drum was once used to hold gasoline with an octane number of 80.

Putting the oil drum flat on the table, Wei Ran finally found something interesting.

On the square in the middle of the reinforcement groove on one side of the oil barrel, the stamped out marks are the double lightning bolts of the gear army, but at the same time, a mark in the shape of an umbrella is painted on the square with red paint.And this mark represents the 15th Panzer Division of the German Wehrmacht that once fought on the North African battlefield.

"Look at the other side, the other side is more interesting." Herbert, who was sitting opposite, reminded.

Hearing this, Wei Ran turned the oil drum over, and then found that on this side, a series of irregular letters and numbers were carved with something like the tip of a knife, and the deep scratches The paint coating of the oil drum itself has been destroyed and replaced by a conspicuous brown rust.

"What does it mean?" Wei Ran raised his head and asked Herbert.

"do not know"

Herbert spread his hands, "But according to my guess, the letters and numbers above should be encrypted. I tried to decipher it with the cipherbook used by the German 15th Armored Division, but unfortunately, it didn't work." Translate the corresponding information."

Opening the lid of the oil barrel and smelling it, Wei Ran asked after thinking for a moment, "Then Mr. Herbert, what do you need me to do?"

Herbert looked at Wei Ran expectantly, "Decipher the secret on this oil barrel, you will get one-tenth of the income behind the secret, how about it?"

"not so good"

Wei Ran shook his head without thinking, "It's just an oil barrel. I don't think anyone will use the oil barrel to pass on secrets. Besides, even if there is a genius who does this, I don't think the secret will bring much benefit. Not to mention I only get a tenth."

"Don't rush to refuse," Herbert said as he pulled out a tablet from his briefcase, called up a video and pushed it to Wei Ran.

This video is of an irregularly shaped gold coin. With the movement of the hand in the video, it can be clearly seen that one side of the gold coin is a profile of a woman, and the other side is a horse.

After the video ended in less than half a minute, Herbert waited for Wei Ran to push the tablet over, and then explained, "The Carthage goddess gold coin in the video was found in this oil drum."

"Found it in an oil drum?" Wei Ran looked at Herbert suspiciously, he always felt that there seemed to be water in Herbert's story.

The latter nodded, "After I bought this oil barrel, I always felt that there were secrets hidden in the letters and numbers engraved on it. It wasn't until an accidental bump that the gold coin stuck in the oil barrel fell out. out."

"So do you think those code words on the oil barrel?" Wei Ran paused for a while, "Let's call them code words for now. Do you think there may be more gold coins hidden behind those code words?"

Herbert tapped the tablet computer whose screen was still on, "Mr. Victor, such a Carthage goddess gold coin is worth at least [-] euros, as long as"

"Even if we find 100 pieces, it's only 40 euros. One-tenth is only 100 euros. And even if we find [-] pieces, it may take a long time to sell them for [-] euros each." Bar?"

Wei Ran smiled and looked at Herbert who was sitting across from him. In fact, he still had nothing to say. Judging from the psychology courses and torture techniques he learned at Hongqi Forest Farm, he became more and more sure that this archaeologist with a big belly The story just told was either mixed with water, or some key clues were deliberately concealed.

Since the expected return was not high, and the other party deliberately withheld information, there was no need to accept the job.Anyway, not long ago, he had already earned a full 16 euros at one time in Noah's hands, plus those earnings from years ago, and now Wei Ran's pockets are very fat, and he is not short of money at all.

"Forehead"

Herbert grinned, and after a moment of silence, he asked unwillingly, "Mr. Victor, please make a price. How much should I pay for finding out the information hidden in these code words?"

"20 euros in cash."

Wei Ranhun paid a high price indifferently, making it clear that he was refusing.Excluding the two reasons just now, he has often encountered dreamers like Herbert who always dream of finding treasures in history books.

Not to mention, even Professor Alexey was obsessed with finding the treasures looted by Germany in World War II for a long time, but in the end, he spent a lot of time, energy and bottles of juniper berries Apart from wine, the only gain is that I have a lot of daydreaming.

"make a deal!"

Contrary to Wei Ran's expectations, Herbert stretched out his hand happily, "As long as you can find out the secret of the code word on the oil barrel, I will pay you 200,000 euros in cash."

Now it was Wei Ran's turn to feel uncomfortable, he never expected that there would be someone really willing to pay such a high price for the letters engraved on a broken oil barrel.

"According to the rules of Time Studio, half of the payment will be paid first as the event expenses."

The insatiable Wei Ran, who has already learned from Professor Alexei, has added a new rule to the studio. If the other party is really willing to pay 20 euros, the reasons why he did not want to accept this investigation work before are all the same. Optionally ignored.

"Can't find out?" Herbert put down his hand and asked cautiously.

"Return [-]%"

Wei Ran added the second rule without any psychological barriers, can't find out?This situation does not exist.

Herbert thought about it secretly, and then reached out to Wei Ran again, "Let's draw up an agreement first, I'll have a look with a lawyer, and if there's no problem, I'll send 10 euros over tomorrow morning."

"Of course!" Wei Ran shook hands with the other party, got up and took a standard contract from the innermost workbench drawer, filled in the corresponding information and handed it over.

This contract was specially prepared for new customers when Professor Alexey was in charge of the studio. As for the old customers who have worked with him, this agreement is basically not used.

Watching Herbert leave with the agreement template, Wei Ran glanced at the oil drum that was still on the table, got up and carried it to the inner storage room and found a random place to stuff it.

The other party didn't even pay the money, so there was no need to worry about the broken oil barrel.All he wanted to do now was to rest for a good night and refresh himself, after all, he had to help Mr. Nicholas to go to Vienna tomorrow.

At the same time as he locked the shutter door of the studio, that Herbert, after waiting for his taxi to run, immediately took out his mobile phone and dialed the number of his employer, and paid the investigation fee that he had just negotiated with Wei Ran. Repeated in detail.

Soon, Herbert hung up the phone after getting a clear answer from his employer, and at the same time, Wei Ran also locked the old mobile phone taken out of the food box into the safe in the bedroom.He didn't know whether this phone was used by Karp to locate his real-time location, but it didn't prevent him from expressing his attitude in this way.

After locking the phone, Wei Ran took the high-explosive shell casings taken out of the food box, drove to the bridge across the Volga River, put on rubber gloves, and wiped them carefully with alcohol wipes After one pass, all of them were thrown into the middle of the sparkling river.

After dealing with the last little bit, he drove the windy off-road vehicle around the city and brought back all kinds of food and drink.

In the blink of an eye the next morning, almost at the same time Wei Ran woke up, Herbert also knocked on the shutter door of the studio with a bulging briefcase.

"It's 10 euros"

Herbert, who was let in, took out wads of cash from his bag and put them on the table before his butt touched the chair, and then took out yesterday's agreement and handed it to Wei Ran, "The agreement is fine. , please sign."

Accepting the agreement with a smile on his face, Wei Ran became more and more sure that it was definitely not Herbert who really put the one hundred thousand euros on the table.

But even so, after carefully counting the cash on the table, he finally happily signed the agreement.After all, it doesn't matter who wants to know the secrets on the barrels, as long as the cash isn't fake.

After sending Herbert away again, Wei Ran didn't stay idle, locked the shutter door and left with both feet. He drove straight to the airport and worked hard as an errand for Mr. Nicholas.

It took nearly two days to revisit the old place. When he once again stood in front of the bookstore named Tree Hole with a disguised face, he happened to see Katenka helping the old man suffering from dementia. Basking in the sun on a bench by the door.

What is quite joyful and sad is that the dazed old lady still has a pink anti-lost rope and a big red hydrogen balloon that keeps flashing on her wrist, and the other end of the anti-lost rope is stuck firmly. The card is secured to a latch on the edge of the bench.Finally, he opened the locator fixed on the old lady's belt. Just as Kajianka straightened his waist, he saw Wei Ran standing not far away.

"Is there something wrong?" Katenka asked with an unnatural expression, and every move showed that she did not want to see the former.

Wei Ran pointed to the second floor, and after the former nodded hesitantly, he gently pushed open the wooden door of the bookstore.

Katenka, who was still standing at the door of the bookstore, sighed, took out a piece of taffy from his pocket and stuffed it into the old lady's mouth, coaxing the child to say, "Stay here for a while in the sun and don't run around, I'll wait I'll come back and read you Anna Karenina."

Hearing this, a smile appeared on the old lady's old face, but she just nodded quietly without making any sound at all.

(End of this chapter)