In the last few hours of December 16th, as the wind stopped and the snow stopped, a continuous brilliant aurora appeared in the night sky. However, inside the abandoned building, no one was in the mood to appreciate this unique and magnificent night view of the polar regions. Even just
Even the meals that Wei Ran worked so hard to prepare were ignored like never before.
In this cold building, Apolly locked himself in the radio station. Through the relatively thick door, Wei Ran could only hear the faint chants of the Soviet Union.
Also locking themselves in the room were Dr. Murat and his two students Taras and Sharip, as well as Gennady who seemed to be escaping from reality.
As for Agravan, since he brought Pavel's body into the auditorium, he has been staying by Pavel's side, using a small file to carefully carve the pistol grip patch that was about to be completed under the kerosene lamp.
.
Seeing that these people all turned a blind eye to his food delivery service, Wei Ran simply stopped being hot-faced and cold-hearted, picked up his things and went downstairs to the workshop where the transport truck was parked.
Compared to the previous ten days of wind and snow, this night was unusually quiet. It was so quiet that Wei Ran could clearly hear the crunching sound of the snow under his feet.
Slowly walked into the workshop and closed the iron door. The only thing that could be seen clearly in the dark space was the faint red light from the stove that was not extinguished in the living cabin.
Opening the door of the living cabin, the familiar hot air came out, and Wei Ran secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Although it was far less spacious than that building, the atmosphere was not so oppressive.
Without turning on the light at all, Wei Ran threw a few pieces of firewood into the stove, and finally placed a half-filled enamel kettle on the edge of the stove, and placed a teapot, teacups, and a magazine on the table in advance.
Using the light from the fire, he briefly browsed through the stories in the magazine. Then he washed his hands carefully, opened the hatch, reached out and pulled out two tough steel wires from the cotton hat on his head.
Naturally, he didn't come here just to hide and relax. Although Pavel's suicide is sad, it is also a rare opportunity to find out what happened.
The locked cabinet door was easily pried open, and the inside of the iron cabinet that went straight to the ceiling became clear.
With the light from the stove behind him, Wei Ran could clearly see that the iron cabinet was divided into three layers. The patterned steel partitions, which were made of the same material as the cab floor, were also covered with an extra layer of thick rubber mats.
On the bottom partition next to the safe, in addition to two typewriters and two bulky laptops, there were also several experimental equipment such as microscopes.
The middle layer, which is almost parallel to the tip of the nose, is full of folders one after another. The spines of these folders also have detailed dates written on them. The date on the first one is September 1, 1991.
The time on the last folder is December 7, 1991.
Looking out the window, Wei Ran gently moved a chair over, stepped on the chair and looked towards the top floor.
Unfortunately, apart from consumables such as manuscript paper, ink, typewriter ribbons, and boxes of test tubes and various reagents, the only personal items on this floor are only a copy of Murat and Pavel
It was just a group photo of the two of them standing next to an old man with white hair.
After moving the chair back to its original position and wiping away the footprints, Wei Ran picked up the flashlight on the table and covered the lamp head with his hand. Only relying on a ray of bright light exposed between his fingers, he turned his sight to the folders on the second floor again.
With the help of this small amount of light, Wei Ran finally found two pieces of manuscript paper bound with staples on top of the documents.
He carefully took it out, and when he saw the lines of letters typed on it, he couldn't help but raise his eyebrows.
Wei Ran opened his fingers slightly to make the flashlight's light wider, and read on word by word.
To the Siberian Branch of the Academy of Sciences of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics:
In view of the current domestic situation, after discussion and decision by all the scientific researchers of the Fire Project, we will seal all the original data of this scientific research task until the situation stabilizes and restart the Fire Research Project.
Tinder project leader: Sergei Petrovich Barsukov
Researcher of the Tinder Project: Murat Nikolayevich Belov
Pavel Maslennikov
Taras Fidelovich Plishev
Agvan Danilovich Kosarev
August 22, 1991
August 22?
Wei Ran couldn't help but froze when he saw the last handwritten time. He even didn't think about it at all, and subconsciously thought of the 819 incident that happened three days before this time.
Could it be said that the person in charge of this project was also involved in the 819 incident? No, no, no, it’s impossible. Weiran instantly rejected this speculation.
In contrast, he is more willing to believe that the other party made this decision because he saw through or had a premonition of certain things after the 819 incident occurred or even subsided.
On the other hand, he could also clearly see that the signatures of Taras and Agwan were written in pens of completely different colors, and their respective names seemed more like they were filled in at a later stage, because only from
The location of the final date indicates that when this document was originally signed, perhaps there was no space reserved for the two of them to sign.
After thinking for a moment, Wei Ran turned to the second page, which densely listed the names of various materials and the corresponding page numbers. Even at the end, the corresponding time and even location were marked.
Among them, the earliest date even came from the Antarctic in December 1982. From this point of view, it is consistent with the origin of the "Tinder Project" that Agravan revealed to himself.
But obviously, these data cannot be in the folders on the second floor. Apart from anything else, the number of pages and thickness alone do not match up.
Almost subconsciously, Wei Ran looked at the safe that was the size of a washing machine directly under the metal cabinet.
However, before he could take action, the unique noise of the workshop's iron door being pushed against the ground came from outside the half-open hatch.
Seeing this, Wei Ran immediately extinguished the flashlight, returned the two thin pieces of paper in his hand to their original shape, and re-locked the metal cabinet as quickly as possible.
Unhurriedly, he filled the teapot that had been prepared with half a pot of water, and filled the teacup that had been prepared half full, and deliberately shook the cup to sprinkle some water on the table. Only then did Wei Ran pick up the flashlight again.
Open it, pick up the gun, walk out and ask loudly, "Who?"
Before he finished speaking, the flashlight beam in Wei Ran's hand had already hit the other person's face, and then he saw Taras who subconsciously blocked his eyes.
"Why are you here?" Wei Ran and Taras asked the same question in unison.
"I'll put fuel in the stove so the water tank doesn't freeze."
Wei Ran pointed his thumb behind him and proactively explained, "Of course, we have to start the engine later to keep this big guy warm. What about you?"
"I..." Taras took a deep breath, "I just feel that the building is too depressing, and I want to find a quiet place to stay by myself for a while."
"Come in and have a cup of tea," Wei Ran said as he walked behind him, "If you think I will disturb you, I can go to the cab."
"No, no need." Taras quickly waved his hand and followed Weiyan into the living cabin, which was not very warm.
"There was only a little charcoal fire left in the stove just now."
Wei Ran concealed the reason for keeping the door open just now with a normal expression, "I have to wait for it to burn for a while before adding coke, otherwise it will still go out."
"You take really good care of this car." Taras sat across from Weiran as he spoke.
"If we take good care of it, it can take good care of us, right?"
While Wei Ran responded to the other party, he poured the other party a cup of tea, and at the same time refilled his own half-full cup, and then used the kettle that was already full to fill up the teapot that was also not full.
Using this series of inadvertent actions to prove that he had been drinking tea, Wei Ran sat down again by the stove, picked up the magazine, and continued reading by the light of the fire.
"Why don't you turn on the light?" Taras asked curiously.
"Turning on the lights will consume electricity. After a long time, the car will not start. I just wait for the stove to burn. It is not worth starting the engine. And don't you think the generator is too noisy?"
Without raising his head, Wei Ran came up with the warm story he had prepared in advance, "My grandfather is a forest ranger. He has a small hunting cabin in the forest. In winter, I often go with him.
Hunter's cabin, reading by the stove like this."
"It sounds very warm," Taras said with some envy.
“Really a good memory”
Wei Ran put down the magazine that he had not read twice, "I remember that the hunter's cabin was about the same size as our living cabin, but I haven't been there for a long time."
"Before coming here, I had been living in the city."
Taras picked up the tea cup and took a sip of the black tea with sugar. "At that time, I also longed for this kind of wild life. I even bought a Tula brand shotgun. But in fact, after so long, I
Haven't even hit a fox."
"My marksmanship isn't very good either."
Wei Ran responded with a smile, "My grandfather never taught me hunting, but he taught me how to drive a GAZ truck when I was very young. Otherwise, I wouldn't be just a transport truck driver."
"Maybe it's a good thing. Although it's a little colder here, it's still better than going to Afghanistan."
Taras put his feet on another table opposite, looked up at the ceiling and said, "I still want to become a Soviet soldier in the future, but it seems that I will never have this opportunity again.
.”
"At least you'll be able to go home soon."
While Wei Ran was talking, he stood up and poured a small bucket of coking coal into the furnace. Suddenly, the living cabin, which had no lights on, also became dark.
"Maybe" Taras sighed, falling into a long silence in the dim living cabin like the dimming stove.
"How is Dr. Murat's condition?" Wei Ran asked while he was busy.
"Sharip is with him," Taras responded almost dully.
"Looks like you need some time by yourself."
Wei Ran patted the other party's shoulder, picked up a small bucket of coking coal and a few sticks of firewood, stood up and left the "depressed" living cabin.
