At three o'clock in the afternoon local time, Wei Ran, who was sleeping soundly on the recliner, was woken up by the alarm clock. Before he could turn off the alarm clock, Soliman next to him also opened his eyes sleepily.
"Is it time?" Soliman angrily pulled away the big-eared little fox that was pointing his butt towards him, and was about to sit up as he spoke.
"There's no rush, it doesn't matter if we leave later."
Wei Ran glanced at the off-road vehicle not far away, and saw that Mr. Edward was already asleep in the carriage. He then looked at the Berber children who were playing around his armored pickup truck, and simply turned off the alarm clock again.
It was delayed by half an hour.
"Shall we rush to the destination directly next?" Soliman asked, stretching.
"Are there any interesting places around where we can visit?" Wei Ran asked with a yawn.
"There are rock paintings left on a mountain more than ten kilometers away. Do you want to see them?" Soliman pointed to the north. "If we go, we have to go back. If we are lucky,
, you might be able to see wild camels there.”
"Forget it" Wei Ran waved his hand and rejected the proposal.
"Then there are no attractions." Soliman spread his hands, "This is not Cairo after all."
"Then go directly to your destination."
Before Wei Ran finished speaking, Saleh also came over with a short and thin Berber wearing a white robe.
"Have you rested?" Saleh asked with a smile, "If you have slept enough, let's set off now."
Hearing this, Wei Ran, who originally wanted to wake up again, quickly stood up, collected the recliner and stuffed it into the cargo bed of the armored pickup truck.
After taking out a few extra cans of cold Coke from the car refrigerator, Weiran slowly started the engine after successfully coaxing away a few children who were playing on the roof and hood of the car.
Contrary to his expectation, the Berber guide that Saleh hired was driven by Soliman. Correspondingly, the first car was also the Ural truck pulling supplies.
After bidding farewell to the Berbers who had given them a warm farewell, the three cars drove in a half circle around the low hill that served as a sunshade, and then drove in the direction of their destination.
Compared with the need to eliminate the connection between them and the filming camp in the morning and the extra long detour to visit the Berber tribe, the straight-line distance of only 40 to 50 kilometers in the afternoon was not much easier.
Many times, the three vehicles had to drive in seemingly meaningless circles, and sometimes they even had to drive longer distances in order to bypass some towering sand dunes that stretched for several kilometers or the depression between two sand dunes.
But even with the guidance of the Berber guide, when the numbers on the odometer indicated that they had driven nearly 60 kilometers but had not yet reached their destination, the Ural truck at the head stopped with an explosion.
"What's wrong?"
Wei Ran, who was walking at the end, immediately asked on the radio. Due to the dust brought up by the running of the two cars in front, although he could hear the loud noise, he could not see what happened at all.
"Unlucky, I got a puncture." Soliman's somewhat helpless response made Weiran and Saleh breathe a sigh of relief.
They each drove to the left and right sides of the truck, and Wei Ran immediately saw the huge gap on the side of the passenger side, the shriveled front wheel.
"It should have been scratched by a stone." As Soliman spoke, he and the guide had already jumped out of the cab.
"How can I help you?" Wei Ran opened the car door as he spoke.
"Help me remove the wooden board on the other side of the cargo bed," Soliman said as he walked around to the passenger side and began to remove the spare tire between the cab and the cargo bed.
Upon hearing this, Wei Ran immediately went around to the other side and removed the three-meter-long and half-meter-wide wooden board specially used to eliminate rut marks.
Under Soliman's command, Weiran stuffed the wooden board under the car to serve as a pad, placed a jack on top to support the car.
While the three young men were busy changing the tires, Saleh on the other off-road vehicle did not get off the car. Instead, he enjoyed the cigars shared by Mr. Edward under the cool breeze of the air conditioner while enjoying the scenery of the South China Sea.
Bei was chatting, collecting useful pieces of information from the chat.
"Our current location is up to 20 kilometers west of Libya."
Soliman, who was busy removing the tire, pointed in the direction of his back with a wrench, "Do you see the shadow of the mountain range at the end of your sight?"
Hearing this, Wei Ran put his hand on his forehead and looked in the direction pointed by the former. Sure enough, in his distorted vision burned by the sun, he could vaguely see the shadow of a mountain range the size of a corn kernel.
"That mountain is already in Libya."
Soliman continued, "Just now, when our guide pointed me to look there, I accidentally pressed on a sharp stone and the tire burst."
"Our destination should still be in Egypt, right?" Wei Ran looked away and confirmed again.
"Yes, of course. It's just closer to the border."
Soliman obviously knew what Wei Ran wanted to ask, "But don't worry, I have asked. There are usually no people there. Even the Egyptian or Libyan border guards will not show up easily. The only ones we are likely to encounter are...
It's a camel smuggling caravan from Sudan."
"Smuggling weapons?"
“And khat tea”
Soliman replied while busy, "Like all camel teams engaged in smuggling cargo business, they like to travel close to the borders of the three countries, so that no matter which country's patrol team catches up, they can cross the border immediately.
Hide."
“Khat?”
Wei Ran reacted for a while and asked uncertainly, "Are you talking about the kind of thing called Chat Grass?"
"that's it"
Soliman temporarily stopped what he was doing, lit a cigarette and explained, "In recent years, there have been more smugglers of that kind of stuff than weapons, and the profits are also huge. Whether it's Libya or
There are many buyers in both Egypt and Egypt."
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! "Shifted from Sudan?" Wei Ran asked with interest.
“Southern Sudan, probably”
Soliman picked up the wrench again, "The climate in that place is very suitable for planting. My father said that many people who used to do the arms smuggling business have switched to growing grass, and then used the channels that used to transport weapons to transport the grass to Libya or
Egypt, they all made a fortune."
"More valuable than weapons?"
"certainly!"
Soliman gestured casually with his hand, "Just think about how much an AK rifle weighs. Chat grass of the same weight is much more valuable than a rifle."
"Are you also in the grass business?" Wei Ran asked rather inquisitively.
"I mentioned doing that kind of business two years ago."
Soliman pointed to the opposite side of the truck, his tone becoming more helpless, "Then I was almost beaten to death by my father. I never understood it. After all, weapons are used to kill people. Aren't the results the same?"
Wei Ran smiled and shook his head, "It should be different."
"What's the difference?" Soliman asked nonchalantly.
"Although it can still kill people, at least the weapon can protect yourself from being killed by others." Wei Ran shook his head when he said this, "Of course, it will still kill more people."
"You and my father have the same views." Soliman had already removed the flat tire as he spoke.
The topic of smuggling content has come to an end here. After all, we are people from two worlds. Weiran doesn't care whether Soliman will do the business of Chat Grass in the future, and the latter also doesn't care about Weiran's involvement in this matter.
How do you see things.
Fortunately, at least for now, these two young people of similar age, and even the Berber guide with most of his face covered by a turban, are determined to change the tires as soon as possible to avoid being burned by the still hot sun.
High degree of consistency.
After the small episode, the three cars were back on the road. Perhaps it was because of the bad luck caused by the previous puncture. Although the road ahead still required going in circles from time to time, they finally arrived at their destination without incident before the sun set.
"Mr. Edward, are you sure your grandfather was captured here?" Wei Ran asked as he climbed onto the roof of the car and looked at the surrounding situation.
The only landmark here is the nearby low mountain that stretches for four to five hundred meters. Other than that, there is really not a single hair except sand.
"Of course sure"
Mr. Edward, who was holding a sun umbrella, pointed to the mountains not far away and said, "My grandfather has been here more than once and took many photos, most of which were taken with that mountain as the background."
.”
"This is strange..."
Wei Ran squatted on the roof of the armored pickup truck and muttered to himself.
"What's wrong?" Edward, who had already hid in the shadow of the pickup truck, asked, raising his neck.
"Mr. Edward, was your grandfather really captured by the British?"
"It can't be German, can it?" Edward asked helplessly.
"But what are the British doing here? Just to capture a German?"
Weiran glanced at the map on the satellite phone. It was less than 20 kilometers from the border, exactly 500 kilometers from Matruh Port, and nearly 700 kilometers from Cairo.
If it might be acceptable to say that Germany was doing some small tricks behind the scenes, then the British really had no reason to appear in this vast desert, let alone capture Edward's grandfather by chance.
Suppressing the doubts in his heart, Wei Ran glanced at the setting sun that was still some distance away from the horizon through his sunglasses, jumped off the roof of the car and said, "Let's rest here for the night. I'm too tired after driving all day today.
My mind can no longer turn around."
Edward opened his mouth, but finally nodded patiently and agreed to Wei Ran's suggestion. Although it was the former's invitation to come here from the filming camp for an on-site inspection, it was also his own nod of agreement. Naturally, there was no reason to complain at this time.