War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 558 The Poisonous Snake in the Desert
When the white light dissipated, Wei Ran also sat on the passenger seat of the armored pickup truck again.

"Finally back." Wei Ran muttered to himself and let out a sigh. The experience of surviving in the desert this time was definitely not a good experience.

Compared with the past, not only did he have less communication with the protagonists in this "historical fragment", but at the same time, after excluding the background of the faction, Felix's behavior of breaking through the lower limit also made him see what Called "outright egoists".

In his exclamation, the metal quill also wrote lines of text under the black and white photo:

"The Serpent of the Desert"

Felix/Laus Berger, 1941 September 9, bought by the British Desert Scouting Squad.

On October 10 of the same year, he was sent to Cairo Prison for Prisoners of War to serve his sentence. He was released on December 2, 1942 because he performed well and provided important information during his sentence.

In January of the following year, recommended by the British Prisoner of War Management Office, Felix joined BP under the name of Laus Berger.

During his tenure, he used his position for a long time to hire oil field guards to search for nomadic tribes in the desert to carry out retaliatory massacres, but failed to find the crash site all his life. In July 1988, he died of esophageal cancer.

Navigator Morris, on September 1941, 9, was killed because he failed to test his companion Felix. The false position he left "11 degrees north by west" became a lifelong knot of Felix/Rouss Berger.

At this point, after the metal quill started a new line, it listed two sets of extremely fine coordinates.

"Is one of them the crash site?" Wei Ran frowned and looked at these two sets of coordinates, his heartbeat also accelerated suddenly, "Then the other set could be it."

What it was, he didn't say it after all, and at the same time, the metal quill wrote in another line: "The most terrible thing in the desert is thirst, and what is more terrible than thirst is the lies and greed born of greed." murder."

After writing this, the light yellow page slowly turned to the back, under the blood-red swirl, the metal quill wrote again, "No matter what kind of predicament, don't lose the direction of persistence."

With a light slap, the metal quill fell to the page and completely lost its movement.

Probing out the ups and downs in the red vortex, Wei Ran's face was happy at first, but then he frowned.

What he held in his hand was a British Army MK3 liquid levitation compass, but on the brass ring of the compass, a piece of Khan Hart who was walking around was fixed with a leather buckle. Flyback chronograph.

"Why did you give me such a boring crap?"

Wei Ran grinned in disgust. He found these two things in the cockpit of the plane.But just like the original concern, the fluorescent paint on the watch used the radioactive metal radium.

Although I don't know how much radiation this watch has, I can't stop the disgust in my heart.After all, this is real radiation, and it really has nothing to do with academic qualifications.

Observing these two things, as expected, the production information and trademarks on them are gone, but on the back of the compass and even in the center of the dial of the watch, there is an extra delicate hourglass logo.

He closed the metal book and glanced at the hourglass relief on the cover. Wei Ran looked at the hourglass imprint on the watch and compass. After thinking for a moment, he waved it away and took out the Mauser bayonet he got first.

As expected, on the spine of this Mauser near the handle, there is also a rice grain-sized, finely carved hourglass imprint.

Unwilling to give up, he put away the bayonet and replaced it with the titanium alloy pistol given by Mr. Alexander at the beginning. Wei Ran found out whether it was on the magazine, the silencer or the trigger of the pistol, there was also an hourglass the size of a grain of rice. imprint.

How about stamping with Lao Tzu here?I'm afraid this broken book wasn't surnamed Aixin in the previous life, right?
Wei Ran habitually murmured in his heart that this is a broken book that always wants to kill him, and then changed everything, trying to take out all the metal books that could be taken out, and checked them carefully.

Sure enough, all the things that can be taken out of the small space in the car, except for the Guqin Yaoguang that I gave myself as a New Year gift, the rest are the same, and all of them are in various inconspicuous positions. The hourglass mark, and even the two foot wraps that go with the German boots, each has a fingernail-sized, embroidered hourglass mark.

Putting the Robert camera bag that was taken out last into the metal book, Wei Ran turned the metal book to the page about Felix again, reached out and took out a thick stack of negatives from the paper bag next to the black and white photo.

Although there was no photo assignment this time, the photos he took were quite a few.On the other hand, although most of the negatives recorded are from the back, they faithfully restore the history, almost recording the daily survival status of Felix and others, as well as the appearance of Leon and Morris after death.

Satisfied with putting away the negatives, Wei Ran got into the back compartment, took out a can of cold Coke from the car refrigerator, opened it, leaned back and drank happily.

Throwing the emptied soda can out of the window in an extremely unqualified manner, he took out his tablet computer and entered the two sets of coordinates provided in the metal notebook one after another.

The distance between these two sets of coordinates is about 15 kilometers, and the nearest one is more than 150 kilometers away from itself, and they are all located in the hinterland of the desert in Egypt, and the distance to the border with Libya is more than [-] kilometers.

After roughly comparing the approximate location of the abandoned airport that he had talked about with the abandoned Willys Jeep in the Berber camp, Wei Ran shook his head involuntarily. The airport is the destination Morris wanted to go to.

Not to mention how far the straight-line distance between these two places is, it is impossible for them to be the "29 degrees north by west" that Felix has been pursuing all his life.

Because no matter which set of coordinates given by the metal book is used to calculate, no matter which point the airport exists within the range drawn by myself, there is an angle of at least 35 degrees between the line connecting the two and true south and true north. .

After all, although Felix deceived the navigator Morris, the latter also cheated Felix severely.If the direction deviation exceeds at least 6 degrees, after zooming into this vast desert with ever-changing terrain, if he can still find the correct position, it will be considered blind.

On the other hand, the location of the airport where Felix was captured and changed his life was also quite different from what Wei Ran had guessed before.

Trying to search for a series of associated words such as "North Africa, World War II, Sirte, Airport" on the webpage, the expression on Wei Ran's face became more and more strange.Although the Willys Jeep and Felix I saw in the Berber tribe before seemed to have nothing to do with Willyx's half-dime.

But what was mentioned at the time, the predecessor of the British SAS special forces, is really inextricably linked with Felix.

Because, at the end of 1941, the L team at that time really attacked an airport in the depths of the desert about 80 kilometers south of Sirte!
Perhaps this is the fundamental reason why Felix not only cleared his suspicions and left the prison smoothly, but was also recommended to BP?
But what excuse should I go to those two coordinates?

And, are those two sets of coordinates the exact location of the wreckage of the plane and the buried gold?If so, which of these sets of coordinates is that of the wreckage?

Wei Ran couldn't help feeling worried, and after much deliberation, he finally opened the car door, changed back to the driver's seat, started the car and drove back to the camp [-] meters away.

The reason why he was so troubled was naturally that he didn't intend to hand over the gold that Felix had hidden back then to Edward.After all, he is not the Virgin, and Felix is ​​not a good person, and the gold is not Felix's private property.

Besides, although Mr. Edward, who has been thinking all the way, promised a high fee of 50 Euros for this investigation, Wei Ran kept in mind that what he wanted to investigate was where his grandfather's colleagues went, but Never said to investigate where his grandfather's gold went.

After completing the psychological preparation, the armored pickup also drove back to the camp.During this time of going back and forth, the two immature big-eared foxes were busy burying excrement with their little paws upside down.

"Victor, you shit really fast." Mingli was drinking coffee at the door of the tent, but Mr. Edward, who had been monitoring Wei Ran, joked in German with a smile on his face.

shit?

Wei Ran thought about it, and it seemed that he really used such a nonsense excuse at the beginning, so he simply responded with a laugh, "I also want to last longer, but I have been eating meat these days, so I am a little constipated."

Edward twitched the corner of his mouth, but finally did not continue this slightly disgusting topic, "Victor, how do we find it next?"

“Only staying here for a few days”

Wei Ran pretended to be helpless and said, "These days I have not only translated the work notes left by your grandfather, but also consulted a lot of information, but I have not found any valuable clues, so I can only continue to look for a place near here. found."

Edward opened his mouth hesitantly, "Then stay for a few more days, I have more time."

"Don't talk about this, let's go eat."

Wei Ran pulled the two little foxes away with the toe of his shoe, deliberately disgusted the old thing opposite, and said, "I want to tell the guide that we must eat more vegetables from today, otherwise everyone will be constipated. I just did."

"Okay, stop talking about that"

Edward pointed helplessly at the coffee next to him, "I haven't even drunk my coffee yet, I won't have any appetite if you continue talking."

"Feel sorry"

Wei Ran pretended to be embarrassed and apologized, and ignored Mr. Edward, who was obviously disgusted, and walked around to find Saleh who was making breakfast.

"I heard that you are constipated?" Saleh asked in a low voice with a smile.

"Why do you know German?" Sitting by the campfire, Wei Ran asked in Russian in a low voice.

"daily needs"

While speaking, Saleh served Wei Ran a bowl of oatmeal with diced carrots, and asked in a normal voice, "Where shall we go next?"

"Not going anywhere." Wei Ran pointed to the dilapidated tent in the distance, "When our Berber guide wakes up, I want to ask him something."

"You can ask me first, maybe I know." Saleh suggested with a smile.

"The Mountain"

Wei Ran pointed to the stone mountain stretching for 500 meters beside him and asked, "I want to know if this mountain has any unique significance to the Berbers and other nomadic tribes."

"How do you ask this?" Saleh asked curiously.

"Of course it's because the location is so weird"

Wei Ran took a sip of the thick oatmeal, "This place is too far away from the North African battlefield at that time. Under normal circumstances, it is impossible for British soldiers to come here, let alone capture Mr. Edward's grandfather."

"So?" Saleh asked with great interest.

"So the only person I can think of who might have captured Mr. Edward's grandfather is the nomadic tribe in this desert."

Wei Ran paused and continued, "That's why I want to ask if this mountain has any special significance to the local nomadic tribes, which makes them come here often. After all, only in this way can there be greater chances of catching Mr Edward's grandfather."

"It seems that only those Berbers can give you the answer to this question." Saleh stood up and walked towards the tent of the Berber guide.

(End of this chapter)