Zhou Lin

On the peninsula at the eastern end of Ofutfjord, there is a place called Narvik.

This is the northernmost ice-free port in Northern Europe and the world.

Although this is only a small city with a population of less than 20,000, it has briefly become the focus of human history.

In April 1940, the evil German Third Reich staged a "battle of the trapped beasts" here. Relying on a temporary force of 6,000 young soldiers, they actually managed to survive the attack of 20,000 elite Allied forces. They resisted stubbornly for six weeks and successfully pushed the enemy to retreat.

On the last day of the retreat, the Royal Navy's aircraft carrier "Glory" and its two frigates sank forever in the ice outside the harbor.

Maybe the British had lost their "glory" long before that, or maybe they never had that kind of thing, but no matter what... this was undoubtedly a battle full of symbolism and irony.

Since then, many years have passed, until the twenty-third century, also in April, under the seemingly calm surface of Narvik, a drama similar to that of the past... was quietly brewing.

…………

scold--

The electronic door of the bar opened, and the cold north wind blew in, causing several guests sitting closer to the door to frown.

A few seconds later, a group of five people, four men and one woman, quickly walked into the bar, and then the door closed automatically.

The man in the lead is an Asian, just over 1.8 meters tall, with a strong build and quite handsome appearance. Following closely behind is a beautiful woman of mixed Eurasian descent. How beautiful is she? Even if her clothes are as thick as a rice dumpling, you can't help but look at her twice.

The three people following them were not so eye-catching: a tall white man with blond hair and blue eyes, wearing small round glasses; a man who was completely wrapped in ski clothes, wearing a ski mask and gloves. A slender man with almost no skin exposed; and a middle-aged white uncle in his forties who looked very ordinary.

Although these five people did not speak to anyone after entering, nor did their eyes meet, in the few steps they took to the bar, they had become the focus of the audience.

This situation obviously has nothing to do with the leader, Che Wuchen. He is a low-key person and no one here knows him.

It had nothing to do with Sophie. Although she would be stared at wherever she went, the people around her basically didn't recognize her at this moment.

Similarly, neither Karl, who was walking in third place, nor K, who was walking in fourth place, were recognized.

The problem... still lies with Prato, who is walking last.

Of course, people around him did not know that his real name was Mahomes Prato. They only knew his other identity - Pavel Zai, deputy commander of the Vladimirovich Iron-Blooded Alliance. Tsev.

"I want to see the person in charge." Che Wuchen, who came to the bar, had no intention of sitting down and having a drink. He stopped there and said this to the bartender straight to the point.

At this moment, both parties knew in their hearts that everyone in this bar, from the bartender to the guests, were remnants of the resistance organization. Therefore, they really don’t have to go around in circles when talking.

"Brother..." When the bartender was talking to Che Wuchen, he first glanced at Prato's face, and then said, "I don't know him..." He hesitated for a moment, then changed his words, "At least not I know all of you, so why don’t you tell me your name first?”

"Reverse cross, Che Wuchen." Che Wuchen replied to him in six words very briefly.

The guests in the bar were silent at this time. If the music of the imitation old-fashioned jukebox in the corner hadn't stopped, the atmosphere would have become quite solemn.

"Wait a minute..." The bartender stared at Che Wuchen's face with wary eyes. At the same time, he picked up the phone on the bar, dialed a few buttons, waited for a few seconds, and then chatted with a voice.

After hanging up the phone, the bartender opened the flap beside the bar and walked out, saying as he walked: "Follow me."

He walked straight to the jukebox and pressed a set of song selection buttons in a certain order without inserting any coins; after he finished pressing the jukebox, the machine pointed up and down like a "big mouth" Opened, its interior revealed a staircase leading diagonally underground.

"Please..." It seemed that the bartender himself did not intend to go down.

…………

Until Che Wuchen and the other five walked down the tunnel and the entrance was closed, the music on the jukebox did not stop. It can be seen that for such a large machine, only a small part of the parts that actually provide the playback function, and the other parts are not No matter how it moves, it will not affect the parts that play songs. If it were not for the antique appearance, the size of this thing might be reduced to the size of a bottle of mineral water.

Closer to home, the tunnel under the bar is very narrow. In order to isolate it from detection by electronic instruments, the surrounding walls are naturally covered with special insulation materials. Wireless devices such as mobile phones and I-PENs are disconnected here.

Che Wuchen and the others walked along the passage for a few minutes and came to a door. There was a soldier standing guard (although he was not wearing a uniform, he could tell he was a soldier from his stance and the gun in his hand). They opened the door.

Passing through this door is a slightly larger space. The equipment placed inside and the three soldiers already on standby indicate that this should be a place for security checks for people entering and exiting.

The three soldiers were two men and one woman. After Che Wuchen and others passed the detection of the instrument, the soldiers searched them separately to prevent these guys from carrying resin pistols made by 3D printers. .

In short, after going through numerous inspections, fifteen minutes later, they finally met the person in charge in a "reception room" - the temporary commander of the "Cossack Rangers", Hanna Medvedeva; Gasili, the commander of "The Soul of Bal" (Gassili is just the first name or the abbreviation. There are many people in Africa with very long names, and it is very common to have more than forty letters. The content of the name mainly depends on the interests and hobbies of the parents, so after If characters with such names appear in the text, their full names will not be included.)

The reason why Hannah's title has the word "temporary" in front of it is because the original leadership of the Cossack Rangers was almost wiped out in the "Iron Curtain" incident, and Hannah, as the only member of the leadership not in the war zone, according to the He became the commander based on the principle of filling vacancies step by step.

Although these resistance organizations are all rabble-rous in the federal propaganda, in fact, the internal rules and regulations of some organizations are quite strict; according to the internal regulations of the Cossack Rangers, all commanders who accept command under abnormal procedures must be The word "temporary" must be added until the next vote or resolution in the charter "legitimizes" his position or until a new commander is elected.

The other Commander Gasili is indeed a genuine commander, but unfortunately he is basically a polished commander now... Since the main force was wiped out in the war zone two months ago, Gasili has not been able to contact him yet. The remnants of the old troops in North Africa have no way to go back, so they can only stay temporarily in this stronghold jointly operated by the Cossack Rangers and the remnants of the Iron-Blooded Alliance.

"What a rare visitor, Pavel." Hannah is in her fifties this year. She used to be a typical Eastern European beauty when she was young, but now she looks like a tough aunt who can pick up young men and beat them. "You The deputy commander of the Iron-Blooded Alliance has been missing for so long, but as soon as he showed up, he suddenly came to my place with a bunch of old federal troops, what is he trying to do?"

She spoke very straightforwardly and made it clear to the other party as soon as she opened her mouth - "I have just checked your identity", and used this to take the initiative in the conversation.

"We are here to help you." Prato did not reply. It was Che Wuchen who responded.

"Agent Che, we are talking to Deputy Commander Zaitsev." Commander Gasili rushed at this time, "You are a defected FCPS inspector, you have no position to speak here, right?"

"Ha..." The next second, Prato laughed and said with a smile, "There is such a kind of person in the world... who just happens to stand aside when others are talking about world affairs, and feels that he He has become a big shot."

Hearing this, Gasili also chuckled: "Yes, people have to be self-aware."

Unexpectedly, Prato looked at him immediately and said with a mocking face: "The person I'm talking about is you, Gasili."

Gasili's expression changed from joy to anger in the next breath, and he squeezed out a sentence through his teeth: "What do you mean? Mr. Zaitsev."

"Don't be angry." At this moment, Sophie's sweet and soft voice suddenly sounded, and her face turned towards Gasili.

Gasili's eyes quickly fell on Sophie's face.

"Commander Gasili, we are talking about something very important." After making eye contact, Sophie looked at the other person, smiled and said an incredible request in a gentle tone, "Can you please take my For the sake of face, why don’t you hurry up and die?”

"Okay! Okay!" After receiving this request, Gasili nodded excitedly, and then with lightning speed, he took out the gun from his waist and fired a shot at his temple.

Two seconds later, the six security guards stationed at the door rushed in due to the sound of gunfire. When they saw Gasili's body and the brains there, they naturally raised their guns and aimed at the visiting five. people.

"We haven't finished talking yet, can we let them out?" Facing the gun, Che Wuchen calmly looked directly at Aunt Hannah and said.

But Hannah was still shocked at the moment, and she didn't know how to respond to this weird scene.

"Gentlemen!" At this time, it was Sophie again, loudly attracting the attention of the security guards, "And madam..." She also specially winked at the only female security guard, " …Can I please just pretend that nothing happened and go out first?”

They agreed and closed the door when they went out.

"Are you here to drive us all away?" After a moment, Hannah seemed to have calmed down. She adjusted her breathing and asked this question without trembling in her voice as much as possible.

"I said, we are here to help you." Che Wuchen said.

"Killing Commander Gasili is considered to be 'helping us'?" Hannah thought after thinking that Gasili died from supernatural powers, so she asked.

Che Wuchen replied unhurriedly: "Ghaxili is just an insignificant person... He was able to sit on the throne of commander by assassinating his former boss, so he has no influence within the Berber Soul." Unpopular.

"After the war in Eastern Europe broke out, he eagerly stretched his hands from North Africa. In fact, he wanted to plunder the fruits of victory, because he believed that sooner or later, all of Africa would be his, and it would be better to grab more territory on the other side of the Mediterranean. a little.

“Unexpectedly, I ended up stealing the chicken but losing the rice...

"After the 'Iron Curtain', because Gasili's whereabouts were unknown, the remnants of the Berber Soul Party in North Africa quickly established a new commander; no one even tried to find Gasili, the 'former commander', so he I've been staying here with you for so long.

"To sum up, keeping a guy like this who has lost his real power and whose abilities and ambitions are not proportional will be a problem.

"We helped you solve this problem, aren't we helping you?"

Since the original contact network between various resistance groups was severed after the bombing, Hannah could not verify Che Wuchen's words for the time being; but she basically believed it... because this guy like Gashili was indeed He does almost nothing useful, and still wants to be served delicious food and drinks like a master. Even though he is just a guest here, his bureaucratic style is still obvious.

"Let's assume that what you said about Gasili is true..." Hannah thought for a moment and then said, "But it's still hard for me to believe you." She paused, "Except for the guy over there with a straight face. In addition to the gentleman who is not showing himself and Deputy Commander Zaitsev, the other three of you...one is a former inspector of FCPS, and the other two are deputy wardens of the 'Nine Prisons'...all within the federal system. Senior personnel; you are now saying that you belong to the 'Reverse Cross', but who can determine what your true position is?"

"It's not three people, it's four people." At this time, Prato said, "I am also a high-level member of the Federation..."

Then, under Hannah's surprised gaze, Prato reported his real name and revealed the fact that he had been an undercover agent in the Iron-Blooded Alliance for many years.

"You actually..." Hannah has been in the resistance organization for many years. Her husband and children are also members of the organization, and they have all died one after another in the past ten years; and what Hannah hates most in her life is Those undercover agents who infiltrated the resistance organization.

"No matter who or what I served before, my only thought now is revenge on the Federation... nothing else." Prato ended with these words and lit a cigarette for himself.

"Huh... What about those things you did before? Just because you betrayed me again, have they been written off?" Hannah asked with a sneer.

"One day, someone like you will eventually come and kill me to avenge your comrades who were killed by spies. Fu—" Prato puffed out smoke, "Or...my Fortunately, he died in the hands of the Federation before that." He dusted off his cigarette ashes, "But this kind of thing... is not the focus of our discussion today."

"Then what's the point?" Hannah asked still in a hostile tone.

"The point is..." Che Wuchen took over again, "At this moment, a federal joint sea and land operation force is approaching Narvik. Although the specific location of your stronghold has not been exposed yet, But in such a sparsely populated place, it is only a matter of time before we find you; and the only solution that can save you from being exterminated is..." He shrugged, "...cooperate with our 'Reverse Cross'."