Xixia dead book

Chapter 136 The Decisive Battle at the Peak of Helan (21)
【No.11 The world behind the stone wall】

1
The strong wind rolled up huge waves, violently slapping the cliff below the cliff, and the furious sea swallowed everything.When Schedrin led the people to the edge of the cliff, there was not a single body left on the cliff except for a large pool of blood.

Schedrin stared blankly at the dark sea under the cliff, letting the sea wind blow cold rain on his face.

"The bottom of the cliff is full of reefs and rocks, and those guys were seriously injured. If they fell to death, they must have been drowned." Nicholas walked behind Schedrin.

Only then did Schedrin come to his senses, and he ordered: "Notify the Coast Guard immediately and let them search for the bodies of those guys at sea. Be sure to find them."

"In addition..." Schedrin ordered again, "Strengthen the monitoring of ships entering and leaving the port, especially foreign ships, and never allow extra people on their ships. Remember, when necessary, you can board the ship for inspection."

After Xie Delin gave his orders, he picked up an AK-47 rifle in a daze. This was the gun that Li Guowen was holding just now.He unloaded the magazine, found that there was no bullet in the magazine, and picked up another gun, which was also empty.

Shchedrin threw the empty magazine to Nikolai, sighed, and said, "They fired all the bullets before they chose to commit suicide."

"That's how Bultenko trained them at the beginning." Nicholas was quite calm.

"Oh! Tell me about Buldenko, how did he train this bunch of lunatics." Although he and Nikolai had been together for more than two years, he rarely talked about Buldenko.

"Where do you start? You asked how Bultenko cultivated these lunatics. I can tell you that the person who can cultivate lunatics must be a lunatic himself."

"I didn't believe it back then, but now...now I believe it."

"Let's just say that his training of the perseverance and courage of these students is extremely cruel. He often organizes the students to play a kind of 'death adventure game'."

"Death adventure game?"

"Yes, he first let these students draw lots. The selected students will be blindfolded and taken to a valley far away from the base, and then throw the student in the valley, and stipulate that he will not pick up the student, student They were forced to leave that valley. It is said that the valley was very scary, with ghosts crying and wolves howling, without any usable food or water. The students had to stay in it for at least one night, sometimes for several days and nights, before Burtenko would pick them up return."

"Won't those students escape?"

"No! Because the surroundings are all vast Gobi, and the students were brought there blindfolded. If they leave that valley, they will die in the end. So those students can only stay in the valley obediently, enduring the scorching heat, Cold, fear, hunger, loneliness, despair, and only him—Burtenko—is their savior. The students in the valley can only wait for Buldenko to appear before they can be saved.”

"There is such a cruel training method, which not only trains the endurance and courage of the students, but also makes them absolutely dependent on Bultenko." After listening to Nikolai's narration, Shchedrin felt that his heart seemed to be beaten by someone. Caught it, so uncomfortable.

"So, when Burtenko died, these students, no, it should be this pack of wild wolves, and no one can restrain them anymore."

"Have you been to that valley?"

"No. The valley is terrible, and I don't want to go. Besides, Buldenko said it was dangerous, and he never asked us to go there. He always went there by himself. It is said that sometimes... Stay in the valley at night, monitor those students, and see how they behave in the valley."

"This lunatic!" said Schedrin viciously, "but now he's causing us so much trouble."

Xie Delin walked down the cliff, looking at the stumped limbs and broken legs all over the ground, he couldn't help feeling sad.He didn't expect to pay such a high price. Even if those guys were dead, Comrade Andropov might not be able to spare himself when he was furious.

Schedrin looked at his watch, it was already seven o'clock in the evening.It was already dark, and there was no news from the coast guard, nor from the port.He was at a loss, and it suddenly occurred to him that if he wanted to save himself, there might be another person who could help.

2
In the KGB branch, just as Shchedrin changed out of his wet clothes, Nicholas came in to report: "The coast guard said that the sea is too rough today, even if they go out to search, they can't find anything."

"Fart! Excuses, they are all excuses!" Schedrin cursed.

"But the waves on the sea today are quite big."

"I don't care if the waves are big or not. You tell them that those students must be picked up. They must see the people alive and the dead bodies. This is Comrade Andropov's order." Shchedlin calmed down a little, and said again, " Also, you can mobilize those fishing boats and let them fish with fishing nets, and those who catch the bodies of those guys will be rewarded."

After Xie Delin gave his orders, he hurried to the interrogation room without thinking about eating.He was anxious to get what interested him from the American called "White."

White was ushered into the interrogation room, where he apparently felt bad for a few hours.As soon as he saw Schedrin, he yelled loudly: "You are violating human rights, I want to call my lawyer!"

"Your lawyer? Your lawyer is in the United States!" Schedrin sneered.

"You can't treat me like this, I'm an American citizen." White's attitude was still tough.

"Let me remind you, this is not the United States." Shedling paused, took out his ID card and waved it in front of White, "And I want to remind you, we are not the police, do you know the badge on it?"

White squinted his eyes and shook his head: "I don't know."

"KGB, have you heard of it?"

When White heard the word "KGB", his body trembled slightly, and none of this escaped Schedrin's eyes.

"KGB, I've heard of it." White said calmly.

"It's good if you've heard of it. You have to understand that it's not our turn to take care of ordinary cases. We will only take care of the most important and major cases. Do you understand?"

"I don't understand what crime I committed, or a major case?" White looked innocent.

"Then I'll tell you, the most dangerous terrorists you're meeting with this afternoon, so..."

"So you suspect me?"

"Aren't you suspicious? All the crew members who went ashore with you have returned to the ship. Why did you only go to the abandoned factory?" Sheidrin scolded.

"I've already said that I was entrusted by a friend to meet those people there. I don't know those people either. They are the terrorists you mentioned." White became emotional again.

"Well, I believe you don't know those people. Let's talk about this so-called friend of yours. Who is he?" Schedrin changed the subject.

"Actually, I don't even know who he is!"

"You don't know your friend's name?" Shedrin had a sneer on his face.

"He said his name was Martin, an American, and he was the second officer on another oil tanker. I met him in the port of Yokohama, Japan. We were drinking together in a bar, and that's how we met."

"Go on."

"I chatted very speculatively with this Martin. When he heard that our ship was coming to Vladivostok, he gave me $5000 and asked me to do something for him."

"Ask you to help these people smuggle? Then you are too naive to think."

"No! He didn't ask me to help those people smuggle. First, I'm just an ordinary crew member, and I'm not capable of persuading the captain; second, there are too many people and their goals are too big, so it's impossible to bring them all on board. At first I thought Martin wanted to Asked me to help them smuggle, but he only asked me to hand over a letter to those people."

"A letter? What is it?"

"I didn't see it, how could I know!"

"Damn it!" Xie Delin cursed, this letter must have been buried with Li Guowen in the belly of the fish, "is the whole thing so simple?" Xie Delin looked at White suspiciously.

"It's that simple, I don't know anything else." White looked even more innocent.

"Do you think I'll believe you?"

"Why don't you believe me?"

"Don't you think the story you made up has too many loopholes?"

"A made-up story? What I said is the truth!" White was anxious.

"Fact? Then let me ask you, according to what you said, you don't know that Martin and these terrorists. How do you know that those people are hiding in the abandoned factory by the sea?"

"Martin told me!" White replied calmly.

"Impossible! This group doesn't have the means to communicate with the outside world, especially with foreign countries. How could that Martin know that they were hiding in an abandoned factory by the sea?"

"Perhaps you missed something?"

Schedrin quickly recalled their actions along the way, especially the experience in Vladivostok these days, and finally he was convinced that it was impossible for those students to have any contact with the outside world, let alone contact with foreign countries.

"We have monitored all the international calls made from Vladivostok these days, especially those to Japan. It is impossible for those terrorists to have any contact with Martin in Yokohama!" Schedrin said firmly.

White shrugged: "Then I don't know. Martin gave me the address and told me to go to the abandoned factory by the sea to find your so-called terrorists. That's the way it is, I'm just a messenger."

Seeing that there was nothing valuable to be asked about White, Schedrin had no choice but to order White to be detained first, and then quickly ordered Nicholas: "Go and find out whether the 'Joyce' was on board before arriving in Vladivostok. Stopped in Yokohama, Japan."

Nicholas quickly found out the result: "I checked, the 'Joyce' did dock in Yokohama, Japan before coming to Vladivostok, and because of a mechanical failure, it docked in Yokohama for three weeks. "

"Three weeks, this really leaves plenty of time for White to get to know the mysterious Martin, but how can it explain that White can directly find the abandoned factory?" Schedrin still couldn't figure it out. The more he thought about it, the more he felt that White was There must be something still hidden.

3
In the next two days, the weather gradually improved, and the coast guard and fishermen salvaged several corpses from the sea one after another, and all the corpses were sent to the KGB.Schedrin inspected all the salvaged corpses in detail, and found that they were riddled with holes. In addition to bullet holes, there were multiple fractures caused by jumping off the cliff.

The bodies recovered from the sea, together with those in the ruins of the factory, were all frozen in ice storage.Schedrin waited another week, but no more bodies were recovered.Schedrin counted the corpses in the freezer, a total of 41, and 7 corpses were still missing.He wanted to compare the roster to find out the exact identity of each corpse, but the dozen or so corpses that were fished out of the sea were all swollen due to the seawater soaking, and it was already difficult to recognize the original appearance.

Nicholas comforted Schedrin from the side: "The 7 people who were not found must have died too. After being shot so many times and jumping off the cliff, plus the huge waves that day, who can survive? 41 bodies can be found , it’s not easy anymore.”

"It's a pity that it doesn't work if you and I think so. It only works if the higher-ups think the same way." Schedrin sighed helplessly.

"We can only blame Bultenko for this matter. It was this lunatic back then, otherwise how could we be here today!"

"Okay, what's the use of scolding a dead person! This is the only way to go now. However, I really want to confirm that Li Guowen's body."

"The corpses that were fished out of the sea are unidentifiable. However, I think this corpse should belong to Li Guowen." Nicholas suddenly pointed to a corpse with a provisional number Φ026 and said.

“How come you see?”

"First of all, in terms of appearance, this corpse is similar in stature to Li Guowen's. Although the face is hard to identify, some clues can still be seen. Moreover, when the corpse was salvaged, the clothes on his body were also the same as the clothes Li Guowen wore before jumping off the cliff. the same."

"Only for this?"

"Also, let me conclude that this corpse is the important feature of Li Guowen." Saying this, Nicholas put on his gloves and turned Li Guowen's body over.Schedrin was surprised to find that there was a huge tattoo on the back of the corpse, which almost occupied the entire back.Although the tattoo pattern has been blurred due to the immersion in the sea water, Schedrin still vaguely recognized the pattern - an eagle with wings spread out, standing on a howling wolf.

"What is this?" Shedrin asked in surprise.

"As far as I know, Li Guowen has such a huge tattoo on his back, so I can be sure that this corpse belongs to Li Guowen." Nicholas said with certainty.

Schedrin stared at the rotting corpse for a long time, until his stomach felt sick, and then he slowly covered the white cloth.At this point, he no longer had any hope of recovering the bodies of all the students.

Another day later, the "Joyce" slowly sailed out of the port of Vladivostok without waiting for White to return.And these days, under the strict surveillance of the KGB, every ship entering and leaving the port of Vladivostok has been inspected in detail, and no valuable clues have been found.

Are those students really dead?The doubts in Schedrin's mind still haunt him.He knew that at this stage, it would be very difficult to make any further progress. After losing so many people and not yet capturing all the students, it seemed that he was not far from bad luck.Schedrin was not reconciled, and after much deliberation, only the American White might be able to open a breakthrough.

4
Schedrin pinned his last hope on White.But when he interrogated White again, White was very uncooperative and couldn't ask anything of value except for the situation that Schedrin had already grasped.

When Schedrin and White were confronting each other, Nicholas suddenly walked in and motioned for Schedrin to go out.Schedrin followed Nikolai out, and Nikolai whispered, "Someone is here from the headquarters!"

Headquarters is here?Schedrin's heart skipped a beat, what he was worried about was about to become a reality.

"Who is here?" Shedrin asked nervously.

"The military rank of the person here is not as high as yours. He is a major and looks very young."

"Just one person?"

"And his assistant."

"Major? You actually sent a major to deal with me?" Xie Delin was quite unconvinced.

Shchedrin followed Nicholas through the long corridor to a meeting room.Schedrin tidied up his clothes nervously. He hoped that the person who came was an old colleague he knew.He suddenly thought of Makarov, but he knew that the person behind the door couldn't be Makarov.

Schedrin walked into the conference room, and a young officer stood up.He didn't know the young officer in front of him. After the man saluted, he extended his strong right hand.Schedrin thought that if he was here to deal with him, he should not have this attitude, so he calmed down a little, and stretched out his right hand.

When they shook hands, the man introduced himself: "Nikolai Dmitmievich Stenov, but people have recently given me a nickname - Stechkin, you can call me that too .”

The person who came was very cheerful, not the kind of straight-faced bureaucrat, which made Schedrin heave a sigh of relief.He smiled and started to make friends with Stechkin: "Why didn't I see you when I was at the headquarters?"

"Oh! I was just transferred to the Second Directorate of the headquarters, so I am a new face in the headquarters."

Second General Administration?Schedrin knew that the KGB Second Headquarters was an anti-espionage department. Is this case related to the Second Headquarters?While Shchedrin was thinking wildly, Stechkin cut straight to the point and said bluntly: "The headquarters sent me this time mainly for the American who was detained by you."

"Warren White?!" Schedrin was startled, he was having a headache because of this White.

"Yes, this is White. The opinion of the headquarters is that this White is an American citizen, and we cannot keep it like this. Although I know that you are performing important tasks and I will not interfere with your official affairs, we must quickly come to a conclusion about this White. .If there is a problem, he is a spy, and he should be arrested justifiably, so that if the Americans ask questions, we can answer them. If there is no problem, let him go as soon as possible.”

"So the headquarters sent you to review this White?"

"No, not here. I'm going to take this White away now." Stechkin said in a tone that was almost commanding, suddenly changing his tone.

"Take White away?" Schedrin just put his final hope of saving himself on White, and now Major Stechkin is going to take White away.

(End of this chapter)