red moscow

Chapter 2692

According to the navigation, we encountered a traffic jam when we were still seven or eight kilometers away from Hovlin Hospital.

The road became a stagnant river of cars, and some impatient drivers kept honking their horns, making annoying noises. As for those drivers who were used to this phenomenon, they took out their mobile phones, watched videos, and waited quietly.

Sokov looked at the endless stream of cars ahead and said irritably, "What's going on? Why are so many cars leaving the city today?"

"It's almost June," Victoria said casually, "Everyone wants to go to their country villas to plant various vegetable seeds and harvest them in September. This way, there will be more vegetables at home in winter."

Sokov asked curiously, "I know that people in the city grow vegetables in their villas in the suburbs. They grow tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers, carrots, onions and cabbages, but apart from potatoes and onions, the rest of the vegetables probably won't last for a few months, right?"

"Have you forgotten that they can can vegetables?" Victoria said, "According to tradition, they start canning in September every year, find a place to store them after they are done, and then eat them when there are no vegetables in the market in January or February. Although supermarkets now have vegetables available all year round, the tradition of canning has been passed down."

Sokov took out his cell phone and checked the time. He said worriedly, "The traffic is so bad. I'm afraid I won't be able to get to Hovlin Hospital within the time specified by the policeman. Will he cause trouble for me?"

"It's okay. I'm here for you." Victoria said confidently, "If he says anything later, I can explain it to him."

Sokov saw that Victoria's phone seemed to be playing a video, so he leaned over and asked curiously: "Vika, what are you watching?"

"Victory Day video." Victoria moved the phone in front of Sokov. "My great-grandmother also had many old friends in Ukraine. Although they are all gone, their descendants and I are in touch. This is the Victory Day video one of them sent me."

"Is their Victory Day also on May 5th?"

"Yes, it's also May 5th." Victoria said: "In the Victory Day parade in 9, the Russian honor guard and the Ukrainian honor guard formed a joint parade team and passed the reviewing stand together."

After hearing what Victoria said, Sokov also remembered something: "Speaking of the Victory Day parade in 09, the troops participating in the parade on Red Square included not only soldiers from Russia and Ukraine, but also NATO troops including the United States, Britain, France, and Germany, who were also invited to participate in the parade."

"Yes, that's true." Victoria said thoughtfully, "NATO troops were invited to participate in the Red Square parade only once, in 09, and they have never been invited again since then. I never thought that the two previously opposing military groups would have a joint parade one day."

Sokov smiled faintly and said casually: "Maybe one day in the future, we will meet the armies of these countries again."

"Between countries, there are no eternal enemies or friends, only eternal interests." After Victoria said this, she lowered her head to watch the video on her mobile phone.

Sokov tilted his head and quietly watched the people in the video, giving flowers and hugs to the veterans. A five or six-year-old girl hugged an old soldier with medals on his chest and said in a baby voice: "Thank you for your efforts, so that we can have a happy life today!"

The traffic started to move, and Sokov sat up, driving seriously.

By the time we arrived at Hoflin Hospital, nearly two hours had passed, but fortunately, the policeman did not call to urge us.

From a distance, the unfinished hospital building was still just a frame in many places, but the scaffolding had been completely removed and a circle of barbed wire was used around it to isolate the hospital building from the outside world.

At the entrance were two rusty iron doors that looked as if they were about to be revealed. There were two police cars standing at the door, and five or six uniformed police officers guarding the door.

Seeing a civilian car taking photos coming over, a uniformed police officer came over, stopped Sokov's car with his hand, and said sternly: "This place has been blocked by the police. No outsiders are allowed to enter without permission."

Victoria, who was sitting in the co-pilot seat, leaned over and said to the uniformed police officer outside: "I'm Major Victoria, and I'm here to investigate a case." As she spoke, she took out her ID and showed it to the other party to verify her identity.

The uniformed police officer saw clearly the police uniform on Victoria and the ID in her hand, and quickly took a step back, raised his hand to salute, and signaled his colleagues standing at the door to let her pass.

Sokov had seen similar scenes many times when he traveled to the 1940s. Seeing that the police let him pass, he drove into the hospital area.

There were more than a dozen police cars parked at the main entrance of the hospital building. Sokov drove his car directly to the police car and stopped, then took out his cell phone. He didn't know the policeman's phone number, but Bakharov's cell phone was in his hand. If he called Bakharov's cell phone, he would definitely be able to contact the other party.

Sure enough, the phone rang only twice before the other party answered the phone and asked in an impatient tone, "Hello, who is this?"

"Officer," Sokov said politely, "you called me two hours ago and told me that my friend was missing in the Hovlin Hospital and asked me to come look for you. I'm here now. Where are you? I'll come look for you."

There was silence for a moment, and then the policeman's voice came again: "Is your car black and parked next to a police van?"

"Yes, that's my car." Sokov asked again: "Where can I find you?"

"Wait for me by the car, I'll be right there."

After Sokov finished the call, he got out of the car and stood beside it, waiting patiently for the police to arrive.

After a while, a uniformed policeman with the rank of lieutenant on his shoulder straps came out from behind a police car. He walked quickly to Sokov and said with a stern face, "Didn't I tell you to get here within an hour? Why did you take so long to get here?"

"I'm sorry, Lieutenant." Sokov politely explained to the other party: "I encountered a traffic jam on the way here, so I came here just now."

"What's your name?" asked the uniformed police lieutenant.

"My Russian name is Mikhail, you can call me Misha."

At this time, the passenger door opened and Victoria walked out.

The uniformed police officer didn't expect that a police officer with a higher rank than himself would come out of Sokov's car, so he quickly raised his hand and saluted the other party: "Hello, Major! How can I help you?"

"Lieutenant," Victoria raised her hand to return the greeting, and then asked, "What exactly is the disappearance case you mentioned?"

If Sokov had come alone to ask the lieutenant about the case, the lieutenant might have been indifferent. But the one who asked the lieutenant was Victoria, whose police rank was two levels higher than the lieutenant, so the lieutenant had to answer respectfully: "Major, the situation is like this. We were ordered to expel the vagrants in the building, but we found three cars with civilian license plates parked on the west side of the building, but there was no one in the cars. After asking the vagrants about the situation, we learned that a group of young people who came to explore entered the building yesterday, but they have not come out yet. After searching, we found a mobile phone, and the last number called by the mobile phone was the number of your friend next to you." "Misha, is this the case?"

"Yes, that's right." Sokov explained to Victoria and the lieutenant, "Yesterday Khabarov called me and said they were going to explore the Khovlin Hospital and asked me to come with them, but after repeated consideration, I finally rejected his invitation."

After Victoria understood the general situation, she asked the lieutenant, "After discovering that someone was missing, did you conduct a carpet search of the entire building?"

"Yes, Major. We have searched all the places that should be searched, but we still can't find the person." The lieutenant said, "It's as if he disappeared suddenly."

"Did you search everywhere?"

Hearing Victoria's question, the lieutenant hesitated. It seemed that he had hidden important information. Seeing this, Victoria said dissatisfiedly: "Lieutenant, the information you provided is incomplete, which is very disadvantageous to our search for the missing person."

The lieutenant stammered, "There's still one place we haven't searched."

"Where?"

"Underground Parking Lot."

"Why don't you search?"

The lieutenant said with a bitter face: "Major, there is no way to search. The underground parking lot has been flooded."

"What, the underground parking lot is flooded?" Victoria raised her eyebrows and ordered the other party, "Take me to have a look."

Led by the lieutenant, Sokov and Victoria came to the entrance of the underground garage and saw that the entrance had been flooded.

Seeing this, Victoria turned to the lieutenant and said, "Lieutenant, look, the water has flooded the entrance to the underground garage. The missing person definitely did not enter from here."

"In addition to the entrance here, there is another exit in the building." The lieutenant said hurriedly: "I'll take you to have a look."

In this way, the lieutenant brought the two people into the building again, pointed to a staircase leading down and said to Victoria: "Major, look, this staircase leads to the parking lot below. Although most of this staircase is flooded, it is possible to enter the underground garage from here."

Victoria walked to the stairs, took a few steps down, took the strong flashlight handed to her by the lieutenant, and shone it downwards, trying to see the situation in the underground garage. But she could not see anything except the reflective water.

Not finding anyone, Victoria sighed softly, turned to the lieutenant and said, "Lieutenant, I want to walk around the building. I'll return this flashlight to you later."

"No problem, you can use it." The lieutenant said respectfully, "This flashlight was just charged last night, and it can still be used for at least seven or eight hours."

After sending the lieutenant away, Victoria took Sokov around the building.

The two went up to the second floor and found that the ground was full of construction waste. They had to step over the waste carefully when walking, otherwise they might trip. Victoria kept reminding Sokov: "Misha, pay more attention to your feet. This building has been in disrepair for a long time. The floor slabs in many places are rotten. If you accidentally step on those places, you might fall down directly."

After hearing Victoria's reminder, Sokov immediately became alert. He couldn't afford to step on empty air and end up with hemiplegia, so he was very cautious with every step he took.

As soon as she reached the third floor, Victoria seemed to have discovered something. She shone a strong flashlight into a room and then walked in quickly.

Sokov didn't know what was going on, so he quickly followed.

After he followed her into the room, he asked curiously, "Vika, what did you see?"

"Look at the ground." Victoria shone the flashlight on the ground: "Look at what these are."

After Sokov looked down and saw what was on the ground, he couldn't help but widen his eyes in surprise: "Wow, why are there only egg shells?"

That's right, the floor of this room was covered with eggshells. Sokov saw Victoria standing on the eggshells, with half of her instep covered by eggshells, which showed how terrifying the number of eggshells in the room was: "Vika, what's going on? Why are there so many eggshells?"

Victoria looked around and said, "I guess there are a lot of homeless people living here. Their hobby is eating eggs. Look, there is a small kerosene stove and a blackened aluminum pot in the corner. They should use them to boil eggs."

Sokov walked a few steps towards Victoria, stepping on the eggshells, which made a series of crisp sounds. He judged from the feeling under his feet that the eggshells on the ground were at least two inches thick.

"Let's go, Misha." Victoria grabbed Sokov's hand and pulled him outside, saying, "Your friend won't be here. Let's go to the first floor and take a look."

Soon, the two returned to the first floor from the third floor and searched in another direction.

Although it was not dark yet, the lighting in some places on the ground floor of the building was poor and it was pitch black everywhere. The whole place had to rely on the high-powered flashlight in Victoria's hand to illuminate the room.

Looking at the gloomy surroundings, Sokov couldn't help but feel a chill in his heart. He had fought in the battlefield and was used to seeing life and death, but in this building with a terrifying atmosphere, he felt a chill, and a chill rushed from his tailbone along his spine to his brain.

"Misha, look what that is?" Victoria, who was walking in front, suddenly stopped and shone her flashlight on the floor of a spacious hall in front, as if she had discovered something remarkable.

Sokov looked along the light and found a manhole cover on the floor of the hall with a pattern on it. However, due to the many leaves that fell on the cover, it was impossible to see clearly what the pattern on the cover was.

Victoria walked over to the manhole cover and used her foot to sweep away the fallen leaves on the cover so that she could clearly see the pattern on it.

Sokov took a closer look and was surprised to find a hexagon on the manhole cover, which was exactly the same as the yellow six-pointed star that Jews wear on their chests. He looked up at Victoria and asked, "Vika, what's going on? Why is there a six-pointed star on this manhole cover? Is there some secret hidden underneath?"

(End of this chapter)