War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 345 Rescue and Call for Help (Two in One)

The long flight, which lasted more than one day, made a short stopover in San Francisco for the last time and took off again. After a brief noise, the cabin became quiet again. Soon after, even the lights were turned off, leaving only a few passengers. With the dim light provided by the reading lights, I spent the next nearly six hours of long flight.

Glancing at Sui Sui who had been dozing off since boarding the plane again, Wei Ran yawned, adjusted the seat to the most suitable angle, put the blanket back on, and planned to sleep through the difficult last few hours .Obviously, there were quite a few people who had the same intention, and soon, the few remaining reading lights in the cabin also went out one after another.

Just when the plane was just over an hour away from Houston Airport, at a diagonal position across the aisle from Wei Ran, an old white man who looked to be in his sixties seemed to be awakened from a nightmare , opened his eyes abruptly.

After distinguishing the dream from the reality, the old man let out a sigh of relief, stretched out his hand with some age spots, and made a reverent sign of the cross on his chest.Only then did he gently lift off the blanket, and picked up the crutches at hand to help him stand up.

Slightly relieving the joints that had been tortured by rheumatism for a long time, the old man leaned on a cane with one hand and supported the seat beside him with the other, and limped towards the bathroom not far away.

Almost when the old man closed the bathroom door and turned on the faucet to wash his face to wake himself up, the plane full of passengers began to turbulent violently. Almost at the same time Wei Ran was awakened, the lighting in the cabin The lights also came on, and at the same time, there was a broadcast that he couldn't understand.

"What's the matter?" Wei Ran pushed Sui Sui who was staring at him in a daze and asked.

"Encountered a turbulent airflow," Sui Sui yawned and translated, "Let's adjust the seats and fasten the seat belts."

Wei Ran, who was awakened, was immediately relieved when he heard the words, but before he could buckle his seat belt, there was a bang of a heavy object falling to the ground not far from the bathroom, followed by a painful scream , and then a knock on the door from the bathroom.

Perhaps there is no distinction between nationalities, skin colors, and even beliefs when it comes to watching the excitement. Many passengers in the cabin who were just awakened by the bumps all stretched their necks like groundhogs, and even poked out half of their upper bodies. Looking in the direction of the bathroom, a few black brothers held up their mobile phones and recorded a video.

Soon, under the busyness of several blond-haired flight attendants, an old man with blood on the corner of his mouth but holding his right hand with his left hand was helped out of the bathroom by them, and a flight attendant even followed behind with a walking stick.

At this time, although the turbulence of the plane was not so severe, it still did not return to stability. With the help and onlookers of the surrounding passengers, the flight attendants helped the old white man with wet face back to his original position.

As he got closer, Wei Ran could see clearly that the old man probably fell down in the bathroom. Not only did he have a lump on his forehead, but also his lip with blood stains seemed to have been bitten off by himself. While taking a breath, Wei Ran could vaguely see that the unlucky old guy had a gap after his front teeth were knocked out.

But apart from these, the most serious injury on the old man's body is probably the wrist that he has been supporting all the time. Judging from the appearance of that palm, it is either fractured or dislocated.

While he was observing secretly, the radio in the cabin rang again, and Sui Sui, who was also leaning over half of her body to watch the excitement, also cleverly translated in Chinese, "The radio is looking for a doctor, this old man is really miserable, isn't he Did you throw your face into the toilet? It looks wet."

"Why is it so disgusting?" Wei Ran angrily tapped the other party's forehead lightly.

Sui Sui covered her forehead and shrank back to her position, picked up an airline magazine and flipped through it absently, but at the same time put most of her attention on the old white man who was constantly gasping for air from the pain body.

Seeing that the broadcast that he didn't understand a few words was played back and forth three times and no one came, Wei Ran hesitated for a moment and waved to the stewardess who was still greeting the injured old man.

Seeing this, the not-so-good-looking blond stewardess immediately turned around and asked something in English. Wei Ran subconsciously looked back at Sui Sui, who immediately said nonsense, "She asked what do you want?" What kind of work do you do?"

"Tell her I'm a veterinarian and maybe I can help that old man."

"When did you become a veterinarian?" Sui Sui glanced at Wei Ran with a strange look, and translated his words without waiting for him to explain, but Wei Ran could also see that this little thing Although he can speak English, it is estimated that at most it is barely able to communicate.

Fortunately, the stewardess quickly called an Asian colleague who could speak Chinese. With the help of the stewardess, at least the communication was barely a problem.

"I can help him deal with the wound briefly, at least make his hands a little more comfortable."

Wei Ran unbuttoned his seat belt and said, "But I'm just a veterinarian and I don't have the qualifications to practice medicine, so you should decide whether I want to help you, and you will bear the consequences."

The Asian stewardess who can speak Chinese first glanced at Sui Sui, who was already using her mobile phone to start recording beside Wei Ran, and after a moment of hesitation, she translated into English to convey Wei Ran's meaning.

On the contrary, the injured old man was so happy, he nodded immediately before she finished speaking, and spoke very quickly, a series of words of thanks that Wei Ran could understand and a series of content that he could not understand.

"He just said that he is very grateful for your help. He believes in you. Even if there is any accident, you don't have to bear the consequences. However, can you really help him?"

“Should be no problem”

Wei Ran leaned over to the old man, held up his right hand which had started to become red and swollen, and looked at it. Fortunately, the old man was only dislocated, which is not difficult.

"Ask him what he had for breakfast this morning." Wei Ran said to the Asian stewardess beside him in Chinese without raising his head.

This question not only caused question marks on the faces of the stewardess and Sui Sui, who was watching the excitement behind him, but also the injured old man subconsciously looked up at the stewardess and waited for him to translate.

At just such a moment, Wei Ran grabbed the opponent's palm and yanked, pushed, and pressed it violently, accompanied by a crisp sound of "click", followed by a scream and the shock of the two stewardesses around him. Huh, the dislocated wrist also returned to its original shape.

"All right"

Wei Ran let go of his mouth at the right time, and said to the stewardess, "It will be a little uncomfortable to let him move his wrist, but it should be fine."

"Then is he still asking what he ate this morning?" the Asian stewardess asked stupidly.

Wei Ran shook his head with a smile, and when the other party finished the translation and the old man tried to move his wrist, he continued, "His tooth was knocked out, I can't help you with this, you can find some ice cubes to help He may be more comfortable with a mouthful. The wound on his lip is not a serious problem, but his head seems to have been hit. There may be some problems at this age, so it is best to send him to the hospital for a careful examination as soon as the plane lands. "

"Thank you, thank you!" The Asian flight attendant quickly thanked, "We will contact the airport to prepare an ambulance."

Waving at the other party, Wei Ran was about to sit down, but the old white man said something, then took out a business card and handed it to Wei Ran.

"He said thank you for your help, and said that if you need help in Houston, you must call him." Sui Sui translated before the flight attendant could speak.

Taking over the business card stained with a little blood from the other party with both hands, Wei Ran sat down again, and with the help of Sui Sui, he exchanged a few simple greetings with the other party but did not have a detailed chat. At this time, the turbulence of the plane was still continuing, but Outside the porthole with tassels, you can already see the lights of the surface city and the skyline dyed red by the rising sun in the distance.

"Why didn't I know you could do this?" Sui Sui, who had finished the translation work, sat up straight and asked in a low voice, "Did my grandfather teach you the art of bone-setting massage?"

"You don't know a lot." Wei Ran pretended to be proud, but he didn't explain in detail.

"What are you proud of!" Sui Sui wrinkled her nose, temporarily suppressed the doubts in her heart, and asked instead, "I'm about to land soon, where shall we go next?"

Wei Ran looked around without a trace, and said with a smile, "We'll talk about it when we get off the plane, we're in a hurry today."

"Mysterious" Sui Sui muttered a word and didn't ask any more questions, and simply brought the topic back to the question of where Wei Ran learned how to massage and set bones.

While Wei Ran was fooling around with this gadget, their flight landed smoothly at the Houston airport named after a certain president after more than an hour.

When the injured old man was the first to leave the cabin with the help of the stewardess, Wei Ran also took a small amount of luggage and walked out behind Sui Sui.

After joining the sunset red tour group led by Director Zhang, and following the crowd to complete various matters of entry, the sky was already pale, and Wei Ran also saw Ka Jianka waiting at the airport.

"This is the person you're looking for?"

Sui Sui looked at Kajianka, who was wearing gaudy eyes, gaudy hair color, and a lollipop in his mouth, then looked at Wei Ran beside him with a strange expression, and then seemed to have made up his mind , patted Wei Ran on the shoulder and said righteously, "Although my godfather and godmother probably won't accept this style, don't worry! I'll definitely help you hide it first!"

"Fuck me, it's not her I'm looking for."

After Wei Ran finished speaking, he deliberately greeted Katenka in Russian, and then continued to say in Russian, "This is Katenka, I contacted the hired translator in advance, I didn't know you would come with me before, there is no translator , I don’t even think I can get out of this airport.”

"Translation? Really a translation?"

Sui Sui froze for a moment, then put on a disappointed expression, "I thought so."

"Why do you think so much, let's go, or the time will be too late." After Wei Ran finished speaking, he introduced Sui Sui to Kajianka.

After the two girls got to know each other, they all looked at Wei Ran at the same time, and asked in unison, "Where are we going next?"

"Odessa"

Wei Ran said, and handed the first half of the address that Gorman gave him to Kajianka, "Choose the fastest way to get there, we are in a hurry."

Katenka took a look at the note with the address on it, took out his phone and searched it, and then said, "It takes about seven hours to drive there directly, and there will be a flight from here to Dallas in more than an hour. Flights, but it’s not that much faster when you factor in the waiting time and the time to get from Dallas to Odessa. So I’d suggest driving directly.”

"Then let's drive there"

Wei Ran heaved a sigh of relief. Due to various reasons such as jet lag, the local time at this time was still the morning of January 1th. Within the scope of the Orthodox Christmas.

Katenka naturally had no objection to Wei Ran's request, and simply took the two of them out of the airport and got into a white Mercedes-Benz business car.

When the car started running, Wei Ran whispered, "Merry Christmas."

Sui Sui, who was originally sleepy, and Katenka, who was in charge of driving, were stunned at the same time, and then the former replied "Merry Christmas" with a smirk, while the latter returned to a flat expression and did not say anything, but increased the speed of the car a little Some.

I don’t know if this holiday greeting has the effect of refreshing the mind, but Sui Sui regained her energy. After applying the mask on her face, she immediately moved to the co-pilot’s seat, and took the initiative to chat with Katenka in Russian. It's been a day.

Although Katenka's dressing style is not flattering, he really pretends to be a serious tour guide with an English translation. In his words, no matter the various scenic spots in Houston or the destination of this trip, Odessa, all kinds of historical stories and even food and drink The places, natural scenery and scenic spots are all at your fingertips.

Without even needing Wei Ran to hint, the girl told the history of Odessa and the nonsense family legend that "great-great-great-grandfather once dug up gold when he was building the railway in Odessa" she didn't know where to tell, and she gave it a logical explanation. Own arrangement A father who is a descendant of early Russian immigrants and a Belarusian mother.

"So, the Odessa here and the Odessa in Ukraine really use the same name?"

Sui Sui asked in surprise, despite the fact that this girl is Russian by nationality, let alone that she has a father who was once a professor of history, Jiu Mengzi, but her understanding of Russian history is not even as good as that of Wei Ran, who became a monk halfway through .

Katenka, who has been intentionally or unintentionally leading the topic in this direction just now, explained with a smile, "It was originally a name. In the 19s, Russian immigrants built the railway there. The name Odessa refers to those Russian immigrants at that time. It took the name of Odessa in Ukraine."

"So there are many Russians there?" Sui Suo asked curiously.

"That was in the 19th century"

Katenka joked with a natural tone, "There used to be a lot of Indians in North America, so they were cleaned up?"

"I'm now beginning to believe that you're really of Russian descent"

Sui Sui became interested, and chased after the other party to ask if there were any other scenic spots or delicious and fun places besides the meteor crater mentioned in the chat.

While Katenka was enthusiastically dealing with the curious Sui Sui, Wei Ran closed his eyes and began to think about the next arrangement.

According to his original expectation, he wanted to take photos of Gorman's ex-wife and son on Christmas Day and send them to each other as birthday gifts, and then find an opportunity to find an excuse to give the money to Gorman's ex-wife and son. Son's.Now that there is an extra follower Sui Sui by his side, I am afraid that he can only rely on Kajianka to do many things.

Before he knew it, Wei Ran was already snoring, and even Sui Sui, who was sitting in the passenger seat, was lulled to sleep by Kajian Kahu's fabricated gold rush story.

Glancing at the two people who were sleeping soundly, Kajianka turned down the soothing voice that he had deliberately adjusted just now, then secretly heaved a sigh of relief, and slightly increased the speed of the car.

After all, she is not a tour guide. Except for a small part of what she just talked to that girl named Aurora, she saw it during the few days when she arrived early, and most of the rest were improvised on the spot. .

However, unlike Wei Ran who has been worrying about safety issues, Kajianka thinks it would be a good thing to have such an ordinary girl who doesn't know where to come from to help cover up. There can also be a scapegoat to facilitate their escape.

As for the idea of ​​letting Wei Ran know what the result would be, Kajianka subconsciously ignored it. If it is really counted, this trip to the United States is actually the first time for her to "go to the field", in other words In other words, as a "keyboard man" who mostly relies on the Internet to complete her work, in this kind of field activities, her experience is far inferior to that of Wei Ran, who has experienced many assessments.

In this girl's wild imagination, the rented commercial vehicle sped westward along the road that split the Gobi wilderness. Outside the window, the wild animals passing by in a flash, and the long-headed freight trucks that were overtaken by Katenka from time to time were in the rear view. The mirror quickly became smaller, and then it was completely overwhelmed by new passers-by and the fiery red sunrise behind it that had crossed the horizon.

When Kajianka drove the commercial vehicle into a gas station, Wei Ran was woken up by the sound of parking.

"Are you there?" Wei Ran opened the car door and asked in a daze.

"Here," Katenka, who was refueling, answered with a fuel gun, "Where shall we go next?"

"This location," Wei Ran said, and took out the second half of the address from his pocket and handed it to the other party.

After taking a look at the note, Katenka put it into the pocket of his jeans, and asked casually, "Are you staying in Odessa tonight? If you live here, I will book a hotel later. It's one o'clock in the afternoon, do you want something to eat?"

"I live here, and I will be here in the next few days if there is no accident. As for eating, let's talk about it after finding the address just now."

Wei Ran glanced at Sui Sui who was still sleeping soundly in the car, and said in a low voice, "Kajianka, I'm afraid you have to do some things yourself."

"Kill who?" Katenka screwed on the fuel tank cap, stepped on the tire with one foot, and asked in a flat tone.

"No one will be killed." Wei Ran shook his head helplessly, and emphasized again, "We will not do anything illegal this time."

Katenka looked at, "You might as well tell me everything I know at once."

"Simply put, I have a client who wants to see how his ex-wife is doing."

"that's it?"

"My client is a fugitive murderer." Wei Ran said nonsense, "He just wants to ask us to help see how his ex-wife and children are doing."

"Gone?"

Katenka looked at Wei Ran with a strange expression, "You called me from Turin to help, just to help your client secretly take pictures of his ex-wife? Boss, your business scope sounds really perverted."

"Can your brain not have as many colors as your clothes?"

Wei Ran shook his head dumbfoundingly, "In short, find this position as soon as possible, there are still many things to do."

"You are the boss and listen to you," Katenka said and got into the cab.

When Wei Ran sat back to his original position and closed the car door, and when Kajianka drove the car out of the gas station, Sui Sui also woke up stretching and yawning.

Sui Sui climbed back to the seat next to Wei Ran from the co-pilot, and asked sleepily, "Are you there yet?"

"It's already here, let's get down to business first." Wei Ran said, picked up a bottle of mineral water, unscrewed it, and handed it to the other party.

After receiving the mineral water, Sui Sui poured half of the bottle in one go, then hiccupped regardless of her appearance, and then said with relief, "It's finally here, my waist is almost broken."

"Should I send you to the hotel first?" Katenka asked with a smile.

"No, no!" Sui Sui looked at the Mexican-style buildings on both sides of the road outside the window, "Busy his business first, but when the work is over, you have to take us to eat the best local food."

"no problem!"

Katenka gave a swearing response, then turned the car to another street, casually pointed to a shop on the street and said, "His food is delicious, I usually take friends there, but I don't I know if it suits your taste."

Seeing that Suisui was really attracted by such a sentence, Wei Ran who was sitting in the back row just shook his head secretly with a smothered smile. That flamboyant girl was indeed handed over by the old Kajianka who was born in KGB. Lie really didn't blush and couldn't breathe.

But this is just fooling the heartless Sui Sui, but anyone who is more careful will find that this girl relies on navigation to drive in this so-called "growth" place.

Listening to Katenka's mouthful of lies, a group of three drove around this small town also called Odessa for about ten minutes, and finally stopped at the opposite of a detached villa with a garden.

Katenka parked the car on the side of the road, looked at the building with a strong Mexican style across the road and said, "It's the khaki house."

He took out the picture that Gorman found through the street view and briefly compared it with the building on the opposite side of the road. After confirming that he had found the right place, Wei Ran took out his mobile phone and took a photo of the house, and then took it out of his bag. The SLR prepared in advance was handed to Sui Sui.

Immediately afterwards, he handed Katenka the photo taken by Gorman's ex-wife in the Soviet era, "We are looking for this woman, but this is a photo of her before she immigrated here about 30 years ago. Katenka Ka, think of a suitable and gentle reason to let the people in the house come out, or you can find a way to knock on the door to see if she is still living here now."

Katenka took the photo and looked at it, then returned it to the former and asked, "Where did she come from before?"

"Odessa, the Odessa in Ukraine, immigrated here after the collapse of the Soviet Union."

Hearing this, Katenka took out her mobile phone and searched for something, then took off the colorful down jacket she was wearing, stooped into the back compartment, and took out a pink pullover from her own bag The shirt is worn on the body.

This is not over yet, under the surprised gazes of Wei Ran and Sui Sui, the girl actually took off a colorful wig from her head.

"Your hair is fake?"

Wei Ran asked belatedly, and at the same time secretly complained, even if this girl took off her wig, her original hairstyle was still not much more aesthetically pleasing than Ji Ma, who was still a gangster back then. The peacock blue hair wrapped in a hairnet , making her look like she has a big emu egg shell on top of her head.

“Too lazy to wash my hair”

Katenka perfunctorily gave an excuse that sounded natural, reached out from his bag and took out a light golden wig and fixed it on his head, even the corners, carefully wiped some unknown Paste to give a more natural look to the edges of the wig and the transition to the skin.

"How did you do it? Can you teach me?" Sui Sui asked in amazement.

"Do you want to learn?"

Katenka, who was intentionally messing up the makeup on her face, saw Sui Sui nodded excitedly, and generously threw the box of cream in her hand to the other party, "I made it myself with foundation and other things. , if you like, I will teach you some time, it's very simple."

Before the words were finished, Katenka had already kicked off the boots with all kinds of exaggerated metal studs on his feet, changed into a pair of ordinary sneakers, and then carried a sports backpack on his shoulders, and put on A pair of myopic glasses with thick frames, and a cigarette case-sized object was handed to Wei Ran, and then he opened the car door on the side facing away from the house and walked out.

"Why did she go?" Sui Sui asked with the DSLR in one hand and the paste sent by Heka Jianka in the other.

"I'll explain later"

Wei Ran signaled Sui Sui to look at the house on the other side of the road, "If someone comes out of that house later, take a few photos of her, remember to take more, and the photos are clearer."

"What are you doing?" Sui Sui hurriedly put the box of paste aside and asked frantically the DSLR in her hand.

"A client of mine wants to see how his ex-wife is doing." Wei Ran pointed across the road, "The person living in that house is my client's ex-wife."

"Your studio doesn't even choose this kind of work now?" Sui Sui looked at Wei Ran strangely, "Is it you who is perverted, or is your client perverted?"

"It's just doing things with money." Wei Ran knocked on the glass helplessly, "Concentrate, we can find a place to play for a few more days after we finish our work as soon as possible."

"Oh!" Sui Sui immediately raised the DSLR in her hand, stretched the lens out of the half-opened car window, and aimed at the house across the road.

Almost at the same time as she was getting ready, Katenka in disguise also walked weakly to the door of the house from a distance, and then fell to the ground with a limp foot.

It wasn't over yet, Katenka, who pretended to fall, still walked towards the house in a decent manner, raised his arm and rang the doorbell with great effort.

At the same time, from the thing the size of a cigarette case that she had left in the car before, there was also a weak cry for help from the former in English with a thick Maozi accent.

(End of this chapter)