In the warm off-road vehicle, Kajik stepped on the accelerator while talking, turned the steering wheel and prepared to go back.
"Wait a moment"
Old Ivan took out a Zenit camera of the 50th anniversary edition of the October Revolution from his arms and shook it. Please help me take a photo here.
"Let Victor help you," Culp said while patting Wei Ran on the shoulder, "He once wanted to be a war photographer."
"What now?"
As Old Ivan spoke, he handed the camera to Wei Ran, "I remember seeing him on TV."
"Now he is a well-known historian," Kajik said and patted his chest. "I am his teacher in name."
"Only in name only," Wei Ran reminded him with a smile as he took the camera.
"Take a picture for me next to that bulldozer," Old Ivan said, opened the door and jumped out.
After looking at Culp who smiled and nodded at him and Gorman who was focused on picking his nose, Wei Ran took his camera and jumped out of the off-road vehicle behind Old Ivan.
"Just here," Old Ivan said, putting a hand on the bulldozer.
Upon seeing this, Wei Ran raised his camera, found a suitable angle, tried his best to include old Ivan, the bulldozer, and the words on the bulldozer blade and pressed the shutter button.
After taking the photo, Old Ivan took the camera from Wei Ran and asked with a smile amidst the falling snowflakes, "Do you know why I brought you here?"
"Why?" Wei Ran asked knowingly.
"Except for the shockingly lethal explosives in the collapsed mine, there are no secrets here."
Old Ivan put the camera around his neck and explained to himself, "Whether it's greed or curiosity, there have been several young people around your age who have sacrificed their precious lives here for the same reason.
"
Wei Ran smiled, turned around and walked in the direction of the off-road vehicle while making a promise, "Don't worry, I'm not that curious. If nothing else, this will be my last time here."
"I hope so"
Old Ivan muttered noncommittally, walked slowly and followed Wei Ran into the off-road vehicle again.
After a while, Kajik stepped on the accelerator again, pulling a car of people along the wide ruts that had not been covered by the wind and snow, and slowly returned to the camp of the Liehuo Wilderness Rescue Station.
"Victor, let the girls go sit on your off-road vehicle first." Culp said before getting off the car.
Hearing this, Wei Ran immediately jumped out of the car, called for Suisui and others to end the game, and temporarily left the living cabin with their mahjong and three pets who were hugging each other by the stove for warmth.
But Jima was not here. According to Maya, during the time they left, a driver's truck on the distress channel had a flat tire, and Jima had already driven Apolly's crawler tractor there.
Helped.
Hearing this, Old Ivan immediately sat by the radio station and started calling. He first made sure that Ji Ma was heading in the right direction, and then gave some instructions for operation. Even the charging standards were explained on the public radio channel.
While he was busy here, Kajik also used the set of keys that Wei Ran had seen before to carefully open the safe that was the size of a washing machine. He took out the contents one by one and placed them on the table.
"These are the work records of the exploration team after December 8, 1991"
As he spoke, Old Ivan picked out one of the books, opened it, and pulled out a document with many signatures. He pointed at the name on it and said with emotion, "At that time, all of them believed that the safe contained the data of the Fire Project.
Some people lost their lives for that non-existent document, and some gave up their faith without hesitation."
"what about this?"
Wei Ran pointed to the Soviet Union's national emblem that occupied most of the area on the table and asked, "It can't be..."
"There used to be an auditorium in that mine."
Old Ivan sat down, picked up a towel and wiped the wooden Soviet national emblem and said, "Their bodies were all placed in the auditorium at that time, under the national emblem. Later, the building collapsed due to the earthquake.
It took me a lot of effort to find it out of the rubble."
Having said this, old Ivan raised his head and looked at Kajik who was sitting opposite, "It's okay for me to help you run the tavern in Tula Town, but what about here? Without this rescue station, this place would die every winter.
how many people."
"Don't worry, I have made arrangements." Kajik said confidently, "As long as you are willing to run the tavern, someone will take over your job before dark."
"I will leave with you after the person who replaces me comes here."
Kajik thought for a while, knocked on the table with his knuckles and said, "I want to take this transport truck away."
“This is indeed a problem”
Kajik frowned, and after thinking for a moment, he took out the satellite phone and dialed, briefly describing the situation here.
Although they were some distance away, Wei Ran could still tell from the few words that came out of the receiver that the person who was talking to Kajik should be the talkative Dmitry.
"You're not going to let that chatty guy come here to guard the rescue station, are you?"
Wei Ran gloated and thought to himself, if that were the case, it wouldn't take even one winter for Dmitri to go crazy.
After hanging up the phone, Kajik said to Karp with a pained face, "Twelve million rubles."
"Then twelve million rubles," Karp nodded noncommittally.
Hearing this, Kajik breathed a sigh of relief, stacked the work records on the table together with the document signed by Dr. Murat and others and asked, "Old Ivan, can we take these things away?"
"
"Of course you can." Old Ivan put down the towel in his hand, "but you can't take away other things."
"Of course, of course." Kajik promised again and again, "The people who are coming to replace you have already set off, and they are expected to arrive by nightfall."
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! "Tell me about those girls." While changing the topic, old Ivan returned the things on the table that he planned to keep one by one.
safe.
"Victor, please explain the first half." Gorman, who had been silent just now, ordered, "Make a pot of coffee by the way, thank you."
Wei Ran, who had already slipped to the cabin door, reluctantly let go of the door handle he had just held. While making coffee, he briefly told about the underage mothers and the illegal organ trade discovered in the United States.
"That's roughly the situation"
Gorman waited for Wei Ran to finish speaking and continued, "Because of the kindness of this young man, those girls and their children were sent to us, but if we want the HeLa organization they established to generate value, we need another person.
A quiet enough environment will do.”
"What do they need to learn?" Old Ivan asked casually as he took the coffee from Wei Ran.
"Church," a meaningful religious word popped out of Gorman's mouth.
Old Ivan raised his eyebrows and finally nodded in agreement, "I still need to hire two cultural teachers."
"Victor will bear and pay the corresponding expenses." Culp smiled and took the coffee Wei Ran brought to hand, raised his head and confirmed, "right?"
"Yes" Wei Ran reluctantly agreed. Even if he wanted to blame him for this, he could only blame himself for greedily accepting the box of diamonds.
"Mr. Culp, I have a question." Weiran asked as he handed the last cup of coffee to Kajik.
Culp picked up the coffee and took a sip, "Ask, maybe I will give you an answer."
"If I don't find Mr. Ivan this time, those girls..."
Wei Ran was halfway through, and then said again, "As far as I know, Maya had already started negotiating with the tavern owner when we came."
"If you fail to find Mr. Ivan, you will have to come here if you want to see Gorman in the future." Culp replied casually, "Of course, the dead Mr. Ivan is indeed a better choice, but it's just that
He is not the only option."
"Why did you choose here?" Wei Ran continued to ask.
"You have to choose a place, right?"
Culp gave a perfunctory answer, "Okay, we have satisfied all your curiosity, now is it time for you to give us a private space?"
"It's not what I want to hear." Wei Yan put down the coffee pot, turned around and left the living cabin.
Almost at the same time as he closed the hatch from the outside, Old Ivan, Culp and others also stood up and pulled the metal rod beside the window, closed the steel shutters outside the window, and then closed the curtains.
It is unknown what the four old men talked about in the living cabin next, and Wei Ran naturally had no interest in eavesdropping.
However, after Jima came back, Old Ivan assigned them a new task - to move all the flour loaded in the scrapped truck to the two Ural 375 trucks that Gorman and others drove over.
This is definitely a strenuous job. According to the driver who was still lying in the off-road vehicle, the scrapped truck contained more than five tons of flour. However, with such a large amount of goods, there were only two porters, Weiran and Jima.
personal.
Fortunately, after learning that the two trucks were gifts to the two drivers, Suisui and Maya also volunteered to bring the Katenka sisters over to help. Even the driver who only injured his finger came to help.
He struggled to get up and used his shoulders to help transfer the flour.
With the concerted efforts of these people, by about six o'clock in the afternoon, all the flour in the scrapped truck was evenly distributed into the cargo compartments of the two Ural 375 trucks.
"These two trucks are given to you for free by this young man named Victor and his girlfriend Ms. April. I hope they can be helpful to your lives and families."
As Old Ivan spoke, he handed two keys to the driver whose fingers were splinted and whose shoulders were covered in flour, and to the other driver whose thigh was injured and was still lying on the bed.
Before the two grateful drivers could speak, Old Ivan continued, "As we all know, I am not a traffic policeman, so I have no right to judge whose fault is the accident between you, but you have both lost a vital
Truck, so how about you two share the damage to the cargo?”
"Old Ivan, we all listen to you."
The one with the injured thigh said simply, "We have already discussed it just now. He will share half of the flour in my car with him. In this way, we will only lose half of the goods. Although the coming winter will be difficult, Victor
With the new truck sent by the doctor and Ms. April, we are all confident that we can survive this."
"It's good that you think so."
Old Ivan smiled and took out two wads of banknotes from his pocket and handed them to the two drivers respectively, "I borrowed this from you. Although each of them only has one hundred thousand rubles, it should be able to help you get through this winter easily."
"Old Ivan, I will pay you back before next summer." The driver whose finger was injured patted his chest and made a promise, and then took the cash from Old Ivan.
"I will pay you back before tomorrow winter." Another driver who was seriously injured also made his own promise.
"Not urgent"
Old Ivan glanced at Wei Ran and others who were covered in flour, and said with a smile, "Starting from tomorrow, I will go to the town of Tula to open and run the Aurora Tavern. Then you can go there for a drink."
"You don't work here anymore?" the two drivers asked in unison. Although their tone was reluctant, they quickly gave their blessings one after another.
"Congratulations, old Ivan"
The driver who injured his thigh said happily, "Finally you don't have to suffer in this hellish place every year."
"We will definitely go to your pub for a drink then," another driver said equally happily, "Old Ivan, is the Fire Channel still available?"
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! "Of course, of course it can be used."
Old Ivan replied affirmatively, "I just don't work here anymore, but the Fire Wilderness Rescue Station will not disappear. Someone will replace me tonight."
"Old Ivan, are you having some health problem?" The driver lying on the bed asked with concern. After hearing this, the other driver also followed up and asked.
Seeing that the three people were chatting more and more intimately, Wei Ran and others quietly exited the off-road vehicle. Maya went to the Katenka sisters' off-road vehicle to line up for a shower, and Jima got into the off-road vehicle driven by Culp and others.
Li randomly washed away the flour stained on his body. As for Wei Ran and Suisui, they naturally returned to their own cars.
When these young people took a shower, changed clothes, and got out of the off-road vehicles one after another, a bright red DT-30 transport truck with the logo of the Tunguska Coalfield also rolled through the forest on the edge of the river and rumbled to the Agni Fire Camp.
Outside the barbed wire fence.
This transport vehicle is far more exaggerated than Old Ivan's transport vehicle, because at the rear of its second carriage, it also tows an additional trailer that also uses crawler tracks. Not only does a large and scary trailer lie on the trailer,
There were also pieces of frozen, hard venison tied to the oil storage tank, the oil tank, the carriage, and even the roof of the cab.
While Wei Ran and Jima were busy cutting out a large enough entrance and exit on the barbed wire fence, the bright red transport truck also turned off its engine outside the barbed wire fence.
Immediately afterwards, an old man holding a pipe opened the car door and waved enthusiastically to Wei Ran and others.
"This is...Old Peter?"
Wei Ran didn't realize until Beria at his feet let out a threatening, childish growl that this old man was exactly the old Peter who rented a car to him at the vehicle maintenance yard outside the small town of Tula!
Before it was over, the door on the passenger side of the car was pushed open, and chatty Dmitri also got out. While waving to them warmly, he shouted loudly, "Victor, Jima, we meet again."
!”
"Why is this bastard here?" Jima muttered with a grin on his face.
Before the two Weirans could respond, Kajik took a few steps forward and asked, "Dmitri, is he the one who is here to take over the job?"
"Yes, Teacher Kajik"
Dmitri greeted Old Peter to get out of the transport truck, and helped out a simple woman who looked about the same age as Old Peter from the cab.
The three of them passed through the newly cut barbed wire fence. Dmitri put his hand on Old Peter's shoulder and introduced, "This is Old Peter, the dispatcher of the automobile maintenance plant in Tula Town, Tunguska Coalfield. This is him."
His wife is willing to take over the work of this rescue station.
And I had already talked with the person in charge of the rescue station in the coalfield before coming here. From now on, old Peter and his wife can get the same high salary. Of course, this salary will be paid to Mr. Ivan first, and then I will trouble Mr. Ivan.
Mr. Wan then transferred the money to the couple’s account.”
"I'm troubling you this time"
As Kajik spoke, he handed a bunch of car keys to Dmitri, "Drive the car we drove here back."
"You don't have to be polite to me, Teacher Kajik. I really have to rush back to Tula overnight for my flight. Remember to call me when you want to go back."
“Be careful on the road”
Kajik patted Dmitri's shoulder affectionately and watched him get into the off-road vehicle and drive onto the river in the dim sky.
It wasn't until the off-road vehicle driven by Dmitry completely disappeared from sight that Kajik shook hands with Old Peter and enthusiastically introduced the couple to Old Ivan.
While old Ivan was leading the couple to hand over the work in the rescue station, Weiran also stopped Kajik and asked curiously, "Boss, Dmitri is one of yours too?"
"He? He's just an ordinary person."
Kajikhun said nonchalantly, "I lived in Irkutsk for a period of time, and I rented his family's house at that time."
After a brief explanation, Kajik pointed to the two trucks and said, "You and Jima are ready. After Ivan decides to return to Tula town with us, you will be responsible for sending the two injured drivers and the trucks back to the town.
They will stay in their respective gathering areas, and then rush back to Tula as soon as possible."
"Shall we go?" Jima came over and asked reluctantly.
"Should we go?" Gorman put his arms around Jima's neck and asked affectionately, "Since you don't want to go, Kajik, let your good student Maya go."
"Who says I don't want to go?" Ji Ma immediately changed his tone, "I can't wait to get going."
"How about asking Maya to go for me?" Wei Ran asked with a shy face.
"sure"
Kajik nodded happily, but his half-smiling expression made Wei Ran immediately change his mind.
While they were chatting, Old Ivan also finished explaining all the conditions at the rescue station to Peter and his wife, and left the bright red crawler tractor with flame patterns to the couple.
Under everyone's gaze, old Ivan started the transport truck that had been staying here for who knows how long, broke free of the ice and snow that buried the tracks, and drove into the camp along the gap that Weiran and Jima had just cut in the barbed wire fence.
Outside in the coniferous forest.
Before he could stop the car, Old Peter also drove the DT-30 transport truck he drove in along the gap in the barbed wire fence. He skillfully controlled the front of the truck to move back and forth, bit by bit, pulling the storage tank at the end.
The oil tanks are placed next to the container containers.
At the same time, Weiran also learned from Kajik's inconsistent explanation that this transport truck was also bought in the name of Maya, and it was regarded as a replacement for the transport truck that Ivan had just driven out.
An identity, and the price for all this is twelve million rubles.
Fortunately, as a supplement, the off-road vehicles brought by Wei Ran and others also became the property of Aurora Tavern.
After being busy for more than ten minutes, Old Peter disconnected the link between the second car and the crawler tractor, and maneuvered the transport truck with only two cars left to park at the spot where Ivan had parked the transport truck.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Immediately afterwards, Old Peter opened an idle container, and together with his wife, he pulled a large volume from the gap of the flatbed truck pulling the oil tank.
Felts and several large bundles of dry weeds were thrown in.
After the couple covered the container with weeds and felt, they took out a cast iron stove from the cargo hold of the transport truck and lit it. After obtaining the consent of old Ivan, they used a grinder to cut the container.
Exit the chimney opening and the stove's air inlet duct.
After all this work was done, Old Peter greeted everyone to get into the off-road vehicle, then opened the living cabin door at the rear, and greeted three Caucasian dogs as strong as calves to stroll around the barbed wire fence.
One circle.
After the three Caucasians peed in a circle around the barbed wire, they pulled out their bright red tongues and followed Old Peter into the container specially prepared for them.
It wasn't until the old couple closed the cabinet door together that everyone breathed a sigh of relief, opened the car door and walked out.
"Comrade Peter, I leave this place to you."
As Old Ivan spoke, he also handed a satellite phone to the other party, "Usually, drivers along the way will communicate on the rescue channel. I have also marked the locations and coordinates of each rescue point. If I encounter even you
If there is any trouble that cannot be solved, or if you need any supplies, you can call the Aurora Tavern at any time."
Old Peter took the satellite phone and handed it to his wife, "We will definitely cherish this job."
"That's it." Old Ivan glanced at the bright red crawler tractor with nostalgia, "Remember to replenish it with lubricating oil frequently."
"Ivan, I am a car mechanic with more than 20 years of experience." Old Peter said confidently, "I will definitely not treat him badly."
Hearing this, Old Ivan shook hands with the other party vigorously, and asked Kajik and others to get into the transport truck that he had driven out of the barbed wire fence. He started the engine and followed the ruts of the transport truck that replaced it.
In the wind, snow and darkness, with a circle of dazzling car lights, we drove toward the small town of Tula with a rumble.
However, just when the white transport truck with flame patterns completely disappeared from Wei Ran's sight, he felt a fleeting burning sensation coming from the tattoo at the tiger's mouth again.
