War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 365 Juliet's Work
"Although I don't know what you are looking for in my room, but can you leave my underwear and the money I saved?"

At the door of the room, the singer Mia yelled loudly, and in the corridor on the second floor, the drunk drinkers who were awakened also started booing, and taunted the hall on the first floor with the help of alcohol and the large number of people. Those dogs on chains.

Most of these drinkers are submarine soldiers returning to Hong Kong for vacation. Compared with other land troops, although they also hate those chain dogs with dog tags, they don't have much fear. After all, chain dogs cannot chase them. Trouble in the submarine.And even if they did go, after leaving the post, there would still be sharks and accidents waiting for those obnoxious ghosts who didn't know what to do.

In the center of the hall on the first floor, the middle-aged man who had never introduced himself looked irritably at the submarine soldier in the corridor on the second floor. After the testimony of a submarine soldier who had never left the tavern, he asked abruptly, "Artur, your bartender isn't coming back tonight?"

"Victor is just my bartender, not my son."

Artur also put on a posture that someone is supporting me, "Even if he is my son, he is already an adult."

"So he won't come back tonight?" The middle-aged man who came to ask for trouble asked patiently.

Artur spread his hands, "If you want to find him, you can wait until tomorrow morning, and he will definitely come back by then."

"I'll be back tomorrow morning"

After the middle-aged man finished speaking, he stepped over Petra, who had been leaning on the bar to watch the excitement, greeted the soldiers under him, and walked out.

Seeing this, the spectators in the corridor on the second floor let out a mocking cheer, and Artur glanced at the soldiers who came out of Mia's room, and secretly heaved a sigh of relief.

However, just as the middle-aged man whose name was unknown was about to walk out of the tavern gate, he stopped abruptly, turned around and said, "Artur, in order to avoid another accident of missing soldiers in your tavern, we Two soldiers will be left standing guard at the door of your tavern to keep those upstairs safe."

"no problem!"

Before Artur could open his mouth, the captain who was ruined not long ago said loudly, "Friends who stay, we can have a drink together later, and then let Artur arrange a girl for each of you! I promise, The dancers at the Siren Tavern are the most exciting in the entire Port of Kiel!"

"Your boss is really kind. In order to give you a reasonable excuse to have a drink, he actually helped you find such an excuse." In the corridor on the second floor, a submarine soldier with a beard on his face joked loudly.

The middle-aged man in casual clothes glanced at the captain who had been fighting against him, snorted coldly and walked away from the Kraken Tavern, got on the sidecar motorcycle parked at the door and walked away.

"Artur, we were disturbed again tonight."

The captain with his arms around Petra asked triumphantly, "So is there still free wine to drink tomorrow? If so, I will continue to stay in this dilapidated tavern for one more night."

"wine?"

Artur glanced at the two chain dogs standing at the door, and said with a painful face, "Yes! Of course! There is now! But there is only half a bucket, so if any of you want to drink, you can come down now !"

Hearing that there were free drinks, this tavern, which had been quiet for a while, became lively again. Soldiers, either shirtless or wearing only a pair of shorts, immediately rushed downstairs with their mistresses. Before Artur and the dumb old man put the unloaded oak barrels on the table, they each picked up a cup and squeezed into it.

"Artur, let your Mia sing a song for everyone!" The submarine soldier who had been living in the tavern these days once again secretly helped Arthur.

"At this time, there is an extra charge for singing," Artur said reluctantly, "You have already drunk so much red wine from me for free these days, you have to let me make some money."

"Take it!" The leading submarine soldier took out a few coins from his pocket and threw them directly onto the bar.

With the leader, the remaining few with money on their bodies also generously took out some banknotes or Mark coins and threw them on the bar without looking at them. For them, they don’t know when they will die, and there is no place even if they are on vacation For the poor souls who can go, that money should have been spent in this kind of place.

"I'm going to change clothes," Mia said helplessly, then turned and walked into the room.

"Artur, can you light the gas lamp?"

"Idiot! Did you forget about blackout?"

A pilot, holding a glass full of red wine, deliberately walked to the door, turned his back to the two chain dogs standing guard and stopped them loudly, "If we dare to light the gas lamps, those wolf dogs will have an excuse to bite us!"

"Don't say that"

The submarine soldier who had been helping Artur to talk brought a dancing girl with big breasts and fat buttocks. The two of them each brought an extra glass of red wine to the door, and generously handed them to the two unwelcome chain dogs, "Have a drink Well, Artur's wine is the only one in Kiel that is not watered."

The two soldiers who were left to watch the door looked at each other in embarrassment, but then heard the submarine soldier say, "It's just a glass of free wine, do you want me to find a girl for you to feed it into your mouth?" ?”

"Doppler, you are really a good man." The soldier who deliberately provoked the trouble just now said mockingly, "You even bought a chain dog to drink. There is no good man like you in the entire port of Kiel."

"Leave that idiot alone"

While the submarine soldier named Doppler was speaking, he had already stuffed the cup in his hand into the hand of a soldier who looked younger, and the dancing girl beside him was offering the red wine in his hand. Before that, he even teasingly licked another soldier's earlobe.

Artur, who had been watching from the bar, touched the dumb old man with his toes without a trace, and the latter walked into the kitchen slowly, sat on a greasy chair, bent down to pick up a wine bottle at his feet, He stared out of the window intently, ready to smash the wine bottle on the floor at any time.

At the same time, Mia, who returned to the room, picked up the iron hook again, and lightly tapped a signal representing safety on the metal plate burning with charcoal fire.

Upon hearing the signal, the woman code-named Juliet in the basement immediately turned on a flashlight, and then, using the beam of light, used a wooden pole to push open the tin washbasin that was fastened to the bonfire in the fireplace, and then lit another one. The kerosene lamp was placed on the table densely covered with manuscript paper.

"It's safe," Juliet whispered to Wei Ran, "but the voice can't be too loud."

Quickly glanced at the criss-crossing scars on the opponent's face, Wei Ran asked in a low voice, "His wound is already inflamed, and surgery is necessary. Besides, I also need morphine."

"Hold on"

Juliet went to the shelf against the wall, searched, and took out a carton of morphine and a glass syringe.

"Burn a pot of boiling water," Wei Ran whispered.

Juliet nodded, found a small enamel pot, went to the bathroom to get some water, covered it and put it on the campfire.

While the water was boiling, Wei Ran looked around and observed the situation in the basement.Compared with decades later, apart from the absence of a coffin, the basement is not much different.It's just that there are more manuscript papers, and a lot of firewood is piled up beside the fireplace.

"Can he keep his leg?" Juliet asked in a low voice.

"It's hard to say." Wei Ran withdrew his gaze and shook his head, "You can only know after cutting the wound."

Juliet didn't say anything else, just sat quietly on the chair by the table, turned on the two radio stations placed side by side a little strangely, then put on the earphones as if no one else was there, and wrote on the manuscript paper with a pen The painter recorded something, as if he didn't care about the life of the man on the bed at all.

Resisting the doubts in his heart, Wei Ran quietly waited for the water in the pot to boil, then briefly sterilized the glass syringe, the only scalpel and two surgical forceps, and then injected morphine into the body of the man on the bed .

After waiting for a while, Wei Ran started the operation under the bright light provided by the kerosene lamp, but the woman codenamed Juliet did not stop her work from beginning to end.

From the cut wound, foul-smelling pus and black blood slowly flowed out. Wei Ran frowned, carefully found the bullet stuck in the muscle, took it out, and cut off the surrounding carrion. Debridement and final suture dressing were completed.

"Finished?" Juliet asked without raising her head after hearing that Wei Ran was relieved.

"finished"

Wei Ran picked up a towel from the bedside, went to the bathroom to wash his hands, wet the towel again, and put it on the forehead of the man in a coma, "But we lack penicillin, so whether he can persist, we just have to He can see himself."

"Penicillin?" Juliet repeated the words that came out of Wei Ran's mouth, "What is that?"

"Nothing." Wei Ran waved his hand perfunctorily, and asked after a moment of hesitation, "Juliet, what are you doing?"

"Cracking the German radio encryption method" Juliet didn't mean to hide anything, and told her work happily.

"Enigma?" Wei Ran asked subconsciously.

Now, Juliet finally raised her head and looked at Wei Ran in surprise, "Do you know Enigma?"

"I heard." Wei Ran found a chair and sat down, "That kind of thing is not easy to crack, and its encryption method is very complicated."

"I've tried to crack the commercial Enigma, it's really complicated." Juliet lowered her head again and said while continuing to work.

"Success?"

"no"

There was a trace of despair in Juliet's tone, "The commercial Enigma is already difficult, and I have never succeeded. I think the military one must be even more difficult, especially since I have no way of getting their passwords. Under the premise of this and the encryption machine."

"then you."

"Someone has to do this, right?" Juliet opened the drawer, took out a box of R6 cigarettes, took out one, and threw the box to Wei Ran.

The two lit a cigarette with a match, and Juliet closed her eyes tiredly, "I have been working in this basement for more than six months, but there is no progress at all, your name is Victor, right? Tell me about your knowledge of Enigma, maybe it can give me some ideas."

"I don't know much about it." Wei Ran let the cigarette burn slowly between his fingers, "I only know that it is difficult to crack, and it is as complicated as a clock."

"Complicated like a clock." Juliet muttered, and said painfully, "It's a very apt description."

(End of this chapter)