War Photographer's Notebook

At 26:[-] a.m. on the second day after arriving in Columbia City, Wei Ran, who was wearing a pajamas, opened the door sleepily, and took Anfisa's arm, who was also sleepy and with a hint of drunkenness, and took her Helped back to the room, and closed the door smoothly.

Outside the door, Anfisa yawned and stretched her waist, and glanced at the surrounding rooms where reporters lived. She also had a smug expression on her face, and by the way, she threw a toss With the two transparent dice the size of longan in his hand, he walked back to the room next to Wei Ran.

In the room, Sui Sui, who was still sleepy before closing the door, also woke up instantly, lowered her voice and asked expectantly, "How is it? Did the illegitimate child bring you anything yesterday?"

"no"

Wei Ran shook his head regretfully, pointed to the chair not far from the door and said, "I waited for most of the night and the other party did not come, but this is normal, after all, we have just arrived, and the other party must make some preparations."

"So let's continue to wait?" Sui Sui immediately lost interest, kicked off her slippers and walked into the bedroom, throwing herself on the big soft bed.

"Wait another day"

Wei Ran said indifferently, "If he doesn't come today, I'll go to the Vietnam Veterans Association in this city tomorrow, and then you, Kou Kou and Katenka will stay in the hotel, maybe I will lure those reporters away After that, he came over."

"This method works!"

Sui Sui turned over without any image, yawned and said, "Let me sleep first, don't call me after lunch, we cleaned up all the snacks last night, now one o'clock Not hungry."

"In that case, I'll eat it myself later." Wei Ran casually suggested.

"Anything is fine," Sui Sui replied vaguely, hugging the quilt and closing her eyes.

In the living room of the suite, Wei Ran also took out his laptop, seemingly casually browsing the local news according to the recommendations on the page.

It's a pity, I don't know if it's still early, these news didn't mention the murder case in Charleston.

Closing the notebook, Wei Ran hesitated for a long time, but he did not take out the memory card in the food box to spy on the secrets inside. Instead, he took out the micro-sound revolver that he got last night from the metal notebook, unwilling to give up. Unscrewed the screw in the middle of the pistol grip patch.

Unfortunately, there is no memory card in the middle of the grip patch of this pistol.

Not disappointed, he reinstalled the grip patch and played with this wonderful little pistol with great interest.

Unlike common revolvers, this pistol not only has a lower barrel, but also has a bullet nest that swings to the right. As for the purpose of doing so, it is actually just to avoid injury from the explosion of the bullet casing that still has high-pressure gas. Shooters only.

Of course, compared to these careful thoughts at the beginning of the design, the biggest advantage of this silent revolver is that it does not need to "bend down to pick up shell casings" after shooting.The second advantage is that you can use the laser pointer above the barrel to perform real "hip fire".

As for the micro-sound function, whether it is the relatively more common PSS or even the VSS micro-sound sniper rifle also obtained from the Grozny battlefield, it mainly depends on the unique and universal ammunition design.

I hope this thing never needs to be used in the future
Wei Ran muttered to himself, reloaded the five SP-4 bullets fixed together with the moon-shaped clips back into the magazine, and then put away this small and quiet weapon.

He glanced at the time and saw that the time was almost up, so he changed his clothes unhurriedly, and went downstairs to the cafeteria of the hotel alone.

He casually took some food, and before he had time to cut the steak into small pieces that fit into his mouth, Ninel also walked into the restaurant with an American Sweetheart-style blonde.

"Hey! Victor! Why are you here?!"

From a long distance away, Ninel greeted loudly in English, and Wei Ran looked over with a blank expression.

"It's me, Fidel! Don't you remember?"

Ninel ran over quickly while speaking, and then patted his forehead, "Sorry, I forgot that you don't speak English."

After finishing speaking, the weird man who had been silent at the No. 33 fishing ground immediately shouted to the American sweetheart who followed, "Jenny! Come here and help me translate!"

"Hello, Mr. Victor, we meet again."

The blond Caucasian girl named Jenny was wearing a pink tube top that was at most as wide as a brick and low-waisted tight hot pants that were almost the same width, but she was wearing a loose Houston Rockets shirt that couldn’t cover anything. 7 jersey, which appears to have "Carmelo Anthony" signed on it.

This guy doesn't really have a girlfriend, does he?
While Wei Ran was muttering to himself, this blonde girl with a figure as hot as her clothes also sat beside Ninel, and greeted her warmly in Russian, "Why are you here?"

"I took a job"

Wei Ran pretended to show off and said in Russian, "A business worth 288 million US dollars. What about you, why are you here?"

"We're going to North Augusta to watch the Rockets play"

The blond sweet girl named Jenny explained in Russian, "But we started late and couldn't buy a ticket to Augusta, so we had to fly here."

"Victor, my friend, do you also live in this hotel?" Ninel, whose alias is Fidel, pointed to the upstairs and asked in English.

After Jenny finished translating, Wei Ran replied in Russian, "We checked in yesterday, don't tell me you live here too."

“We checked in two hours ago”

Jenny took the initiative to explain without waiting for Ninel to speak, and at the same time sent out an invitation, "Victor, do you want to go to the game with us?"

After finishing speaking, the girl Wei Ran had never seen before seemed to have not noticed the reporters around who were obviously eavesdropping, and switched to English again, and conveyed her invitation to Niniel who was sitting next to her.

Seeing Ninel looking at him, Wei Ran spread his hands helplessly, "I still have work, I was planning to meet with a Vietnam War veteran this afternoon, and we also planned to go to Charleston for two days, you know, I We usually live in Russia, how attractive are the sun and the beach to us.”

"There are bikini beauties, right?"

After listening to Jenny's translator, Ninel joked loudly and blinked.That sunny, outgoing and even somewhat socially obsessive look is completely different from the look that couldn't kick a fart with three legs in the No. 33 fishing ground!
"Who doesn't like beautiful women?" Wei Ran waited patiently for Jenny to finish the translation intact and responded with a smile.

"Is your work urgent?" Ninel asked as if he didn't notice the reporters around him.

After Jenny finished translating again, Wei Ran spread his hands, "It's not too urgent."

"In this case, go to the game with us!"

Ninel even stood up while speaking, "I also know a few veterans of the Vietnam War. After we finish watching tomorrow's game, I will take you to meet them!"

"There is also the sunshine and sandy beach in Charleston," Jenny raised her neck and reminded in English after finishing the translation.

"exactly!"

Ninel patted his forehead, "I just happened to be on vacation recently, let's go with you when the time comes! Victor, which room are you in, I'm going to talk to you later, we haven't seen each other for a long time We met, I never expected that I would meet you here."

"I didn't expect to meet you here either." Wei Ran deliberately lowered his voice when he said this, and told the girl named Jenny his room number.

After this set of pleasantries, the three of them gathered around the table and chatted about various things when Wei Ran came to the United States last time to help his family's travel agency find travel routes.

After finishing lunch with these half-truths and lies, Ninel, ah no, it should be Fidel, Fidel used his loud voice to make an appointment with Wei Ran to go to the parking lot first and then visit him at the door, and then Immediately left the restaurant with the girl named Jenny.

Pretending not to see the reporters who were chasing the two of them away, Wei Ran left the restaurant with a toothpick in his mouth, took the elevator back to the suite on the top floor, and woke up Sui Sui who was still sleeping in the cage.

"Wait for a friend to come over? What kind of friend?" Sui Sui immediately cheered up when she heard the words, and asked in a low voice, "The illegitimate child?"

"No, but he knows Jima and Maya."

Wei Ran briefly explained and then changed the subject, "His name in the United States is Fidel, and in Russia, his name is Niner. Anyway, he invited us to go to North August with him tomorrow to watch the Rockets What about the basketball game, and then we are going to take us to the beach in Charleston."

"I'll change clothes now!"

Sui Sui hadn't finished speaking, she turned over and got out of bed and went into the changing room, obviously she didn't doubt every word Wei Ran said at all.

As for Wei Ran, at this time, he was thinking secretly whether the Niner in the No. 33 fishing ground was the real Niner, or the Fidel just now was the real Niner.

Of course, he couldn't help wondering whether the girl named Jenny next to Ninel was his girlfriend, and if so.
I really want to call Olga.
Wei Ran smacked his lips, and couldn't help but want to see if the old guy who dotes on his daughter will rush over and use oil barrels to build a boat for Niner that can cross the North Atlantic Ocean and float back to his hometown in Russia from the east coast of the United States. submarine.

While he was thinking wildly, Sui Sui also changed his clothes.However, before she could put on her makeup, someone rang the doorbell.

"I'll come out later!" Sui Sui said, closing the bedroom door very quickly.

Seeing this, Wei Ran didn't take it seriously, walked to the door and opened the door, and then found that besides a bottle of red wine with a bow tie in his hand, he was also carrying a travel bag that seemed to contain beer , and the girl named Jenny behind him was carrying a basket of various peach products from Georgia next door.

"Come in!" Wei Ran enthusiastically greeted the two of them into the room and closed the door.

"Is anyone else here?" Ninel asked in a low voice.

"My girlfriend is doing makeup in the bedroom, she will come out later." Wei Ran said apologetically in Russian.

Hearing this, Ninel nodded, and seemed to have regained the look of being unable to kick a fart with three legs. He followed Wei Ran to the balcony and sat down. He lowered his voice slightly and asked, "Are you in trouble?"

"No trouble"

Wei Ran said indifferently, without detailing what happened last night, but just reminded, "I didn't go anywhere last night, I slept in my room."

"Do not worry"

Ninel responded slowly. After the girl named Jenny closed the curtains, she immediately opened the luggage bag she brought, and took out several Glock 48 pistols with the trigger guards tied together with straps. He asked in a low voice, "Do you need a weapon for self-defense? They are all ghost guns without identity."

"No need." Wei Ran quickly waved his hand, "I'm a historian."

"Ah"

The girl named Jenny snorted in a moderate voice, obviously she absolutely did not believe Wei Ran's nonsense.

"This is" Wei Ran asked with a smile, "your girlfriend?"

"No"

Ninel and the blond sweet girl denied it in unison, and then said together, "We are partners."

"Heh" Wei Ran snorted imitating the tone and demeanor of the girl just now.

"It's really a partner. Her real name is Ania. Her father was a gang leader when he was alive. At that time, I was also a gunman in that gang, and I was responsible for teaching her Russian by the way."

Ninel, who had no reservations about Wei Ran, paused when he said this, raised his chin towards the bedroom and reminded emphatically, "Also, tell your girlfriend to stay away from her, Ania is a very Playful gay."

"Niniel! You bastard!" Ania gritted her teeth and pointed her middle finger, "I won't be tempted by a friend's woman."

"But you will definitely do it"

Ninel finished speaking slowly, without giving the other party a chance to speak, he wisely changed the subject and said, "Ania and I will stay with you in the next few days until you leave the United States, so if you have You are welcome to help me with anything.”

"Forehead"

Wei Ran glanced at the bedroom where the door had already sounded, and then looked at Ania, who was still sitting slung across her shoulders just now, but now she was sitting upright, and finally said with a grin, "The only request is to take care of your partner."

"I'll tie her up"

Ninel slowly made a promise in Russian, then turned around, and together with Ania, greeted Sui Sui who had already walked out of the room in Russian.

As for Wei Ran, he took the first step, pulled Sui Sui to his side, let her sit on the side away from Ania, and then introduced "Ni Niel" and "Ania" to her.

After the three of them had a short exchange of pleasantries, Ninel also sent out another invitation to watch the game together.

Seeing Sui Sui looking at him, Wei Ran nodded after a little hesitation, "You can ask Kou Kou first, if she has no objection, go together."

"I'm going to ask now!"

Before Sui Sui finished speaking, she stood up and ran out of the room under the attention of the girl named Ania.

Before the door was closed, Ninel raised his chin, followed by Ania got up and walked to the door, put his eyes on the cat's eye and looked at the corridor outside.

"When I went upstairs, a reporter asked me about you."

Nie Nie paused, and continued, "However, I didn't disclose any effective information. I only said that we are partners in the tourism business."

"clear"

"Last night, there were two robberies and one rape and one theft in Colombia, friend, which one did you do?"

Neil looked straight at Wei Ran and asked, "I can help you erase the remaining traces."

"No, it's enough to help me erase the traces of me getting into your car and returning to the hotel last night." Wei Ran finally chose to have reservations about what happened last night.

"No problem" Ninel agreed slowly, not seeming to care about Wei Ran's guard.

"Tell me about your business scope?" Wei Ran asked, changing the subject.

"Express Shipping Business in North America and Latin America"

Ninel explained in a simple and direct whisper, "Except for nuclear bombs and unique products, most of the other things can be safely transported to the borders of most countries. What? You want to take care of my business?"

"The business scope is limited to North America and Latin America?" Wei Ran asked casually.

"There is no problem with recruiting nuclei and including sticks"

Ninel also casually added two new destinations, "I can't do it in other regions, but I can find my colleagues to help you."

"How to charge?"

"See where you ship what"

Ninel smiled, and said sincerely and seriously, "But no matter what it is, I will give you the lowest price."

"I will contact you if necessary." Wei Ran also suppressed his thoughts while responding.

Seeing this, Ninel changed the subject, "Tell me about your apparent job, do you need my help?"

"No big deal"

Wei Ran smiled, first gave a general description of the illegitimate child, and then said with a smile, "This time I am just a bait, it would be best if I can catch the illegitimate child, but it doesn't matter if I can't. "

"Are all historians making money like this?" Ninel asked with raised eyebrows, "You can earn $288 million for such a small matter?"

"It's only a nominal $288 million," Wei Ran reminded with a smile.

"So, if we get hold of the illegitimate child, we can extort at least 300 million dollars from the Gravett family?"

During the conversation, Ania, who was in charge of hiding behind the door just now, came over and looked at Niniel with excitement, "Should we help Victor?"

"I'm afraid there are other people behind the illegitimate child." Before Wei Ran could finish his sentence, someone knocked on the door of the room from outside.

"Let's wait"

Taking advantage of Wei Ran getting up and opening the door, Ninel said seriously, "It's fine if Victor finds out about the illegitimate child. If not, we'll look for it again and talk to the Gravett family."

"Click"

Wei Ran opened the door at the same time as the other party finished speaking, followed by Sui Sui and sisters Kou Kou and Katenka and walked in in a line, and behind these girls was followed by the legal counsel Horta .

Seeing outsiders around, Ninel also seemed to change his face, and in an instant he turned into that socially obsessed look again, and he raised his voice and changed to English and asked loudly, "Fak! Victor, Why do you want to go to the sea after bringing so many beauties here——! Victor! I have to admit, you are a genius!"

While Wei Ran resisted the urge to hit someone, Ania also with difficulty withdrew her gaze from Katenka and Kou Kou, and also raised her voice, transcribing Ninel's words almost verbatim. All the nonsense was translated into Russian.

Sui Sui glanced at Wei Ran strangely, and then at Ninere, who could speak Russian just now, and there was an expression of enlightenment on that small face.

Immediately afterwards, the little girl turned her back to the wide-open door, put her hips on her hips and winked, and said, "So that's your idea!"

"A showman."

Wei Ran muttered to himself, ignored the quarrel at all, and asked directly, "Have you made a decision yet?"

"Go to the game!"

Sui Sui took advantage of the time when Anfisa was translating Niner's stupid words to Koko and said, "Of course we are going to watch the game, and we plan to leave now!"

"Let's go now?"

Wei Ran glanced at Sui Sui, who had been winking at him, and simply followed the topic, "Then let's go now! Fidel, how about you? Is it convenient to go now?"

"Convenient! Of course it's convenient!"

Niniel and his partner Ania, who had been peeking at the Katenka sisters, finished the translation, stood up immediately, picked up the backpack that he had just brought, and said loudly in English as he walked out, "Let's meet up on the first floor later! Jenny! Let's go back to the room first!"

"But we haven't"

"There's plenty of time on the road." Ninel stopped, "or."

"I'll go right away!" Aniya said, walking out of Wei Ran's room with three steps and turning her head, and helping Wei Ran close the door by the way.

"That woman had a problem just now." An Feiya said with a frown.

"She seems to be staring at us all the time." Anfisa also frowned, "Her eyes make me very uncomfortable."

"I think so too," Sui Sui muttered with a weird face.

"She's gay." While Wei Ran was speaking, he also noticed Kou Kou who subconsciously covered her chest with her arms around her just now, "very carefree gay."

As soon as these words were said, sisters Suisui and Kajianka rolled their eyes together, and when Anfisa translated the original words to the little rich woman Koko, the girl also patted her forehead helplessly.

"So you still want to go to the basketball game with them?" Wei Ran asked with a smile.

"Go, of course, and we'd better leave at once!"

When Sui Sui said this, she had already changed into Chinese, and at the same time snapped her fingers at her little fan girl Kou Kou.

Seeing this, Kou Kou immediately took off the light pink canvas bag she was carrying on her shoulder, and took out an envelope from it.

"At noon, Kou Kou asked the waiter to bring the lunch."

Sui Sui said close to Wei Ran's ear, "Then I found this envelope under the dinner plate."

"What's inside?" Wei Ran asked, frowning.

"I don't know, we haven't opened it yet."

Sui Sui said proudly, "I found it by accident when I went to look for her just now, and she didn't notice it herself."

"wait a minutes"

While speaking, Wei Ran got up and walked to the table, took out a pair of white silk gloves from the briefcase and put them on, and then carefully opened the sealed envelope with wax lacquer.

Unexpectedly, there were only two photos in the envelope.

In the first photo, it is an American soldier wearing the second version of the American TCU combat uniform and black sandals, without armbands, but with a revolver on his waist.

What's more special is that the American soldier is holding a naked little guy in his arms, and I don't know if it's the bad taste of the person who took the photo. The little boy in this photo not only clearly reveals his newly born A bird in a shell, and a red birthmark in the shape of the letter "G" was clearly exposed on the chest.

This is not over yet, there is a third person in this photo, who is wearing a bamboo hat on his shoulders, holding an SKS semi-automatic rifle with a bayonet in his right hand, and holding the American soldier in his left hand, with his chin raised and his face full of love Young women looking at each other.

Turning the photo over, there wasn't any valuable information on the back of the photo. The only thing he could tell was that he was roughly sure that this photo was probably developed recently.

Look at the second photo again. In this photo, there is an old man who looks five or sixty years old and is shirtless.

Just by looking at his face and hair color, you can tell that this old guy is a typical mixed race.But most importantly, this old guy also has a dark red birthmark on his chest that looks like the letter "G"!

Not only that, the old guy held the photo that everyone had just seen in his left hand, and a brown-red negative in his right hand!There was even a revolver pinned to his waist!
Turning the photo over, there is actually a line of short traditional Chinese characters written on it!

"Cooperate, or leave America."

Sui Sui read out the Chinese characters on the back of the photo, and then looked up at Wei Ran, "Is this an ironclad proof? What should we do?"

"What else can be done"

Wei Ran had already stuffed the two photos back into the envelope while speaking, and asked in French, "Kou Kou, would you mind giving me these two photos?"

"Unless you invite all of us to watch a basketball game." Kou Kou asked her property guardian in a joking tone.

"Then it's settled"

After finishing speaking, Wei Ran put the photo in the envelope back into the briefcase, took off his gloves and stuffed it in, "Hurry up and pack your bags, we will set off to watch the basketball game immediately!"

"Wait! Wait!" Sui Sui asked, pointing to the briefcase, "What about the photos? What about the illegitimate child? Forget it?"

"Like you said"

Wei Ran smiled, "Wait, wait, he's not our illegitimate child anyway, so why worry?"