War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1907 The Debtor Has a Responsibility

When the late sunlight finally enveloped the abandoned mine in the polar wasteland, Wei Ran and Sui Sui finally got up and, as if they had completely forgotten what had happened yesterday, carefully toured the abandoned military camp.

I wonder if the location was chosen to allow the radar to function better, as the entire complex is built on a flattened hill.

Standing on the rooftop, you can clearly see the winding riverbed at the foot of the mountain, which is still frozen.

"That's the Kuleika River."

Sui Sui, who was wrapped up like a polar bear, pointed to the frozen river below the mountain with half a broken fishing rod that she had found somewhere, "Upstream to the south of that river is the town of Tula, and to the north is the Arctic tundra."

Due to climate restrictions and environmental protection limitations, apart from some oil and gas fields, there are no other mines that can be legally exploited here.

In order to protect the local ecological environment, the law no longer allows the establishment of new settlements here.

"So... a nature reserve?" Wei Ran asked.

"That's right"

Sui Sui nodded. "We have revitalized the town of Tula, but that's not enough. We also need a town that is closer to the Arctic Circle in the summer."

The guides who are temporarily unemployed during the short summer also come here to participate in environmental patrols and patrols against illegal mining and poaching, and incidentally help us entertain our guests.

“You will make those nomadic tribes live a good life here,” Wei Ran said with a smile.

"I think so!"

Sui Sui nodded with a big smile, tossed the broken fishing rod aside and said, "They will make our lives better too. Let's go hunting!"
The herders who agreed to move here as a summer pasture said that wild caribou herds were already migrating north this season, and it was the best time to eat them. So our goal today was to hunt at least two caribou.”

"So we came all this way just to hunt a couple of deer to eat?" Wei Ran pressed.

“I have to come and see for myself,” Sui Sui said matter-of-factly. “I have to come and see this matter.”

While Wei Ran and Sui Sui were busy hunting in the coniferous forests surrounding the abandoned military base under the protection of the Hela girls and Apoli, Greva had already arrived in the town of Tula with his men to begin their hunt.

During the day, many families living along the banks of the Tunguska River were "recruited" and "voluntarily" boarded flights bound for Papua New Guinea.

Also during the same day, a junior manager and police officer involved in the kidnapping of Wei Ran, especially Sui Sui, along with their respective protectors, began to be investigated due to conclusive evidence of corruption.

It was still daytime, and several Hela girls who usually stayed in Irkutsk had already taken a public flight to Ulan 8tuo. Shortly after leaving the city, they boarded a Mi-8 helicopter equipped with an auxiliary fuel tank and flew to Sainshand, the fourth largest city in this large ranch.

During this day, which may be short or long, Wei Ran, located in the northernmost part of Eurasia, successfully hunted 12 male reindeer and two fawns that seemed to have some limp from four reindeer herds using the G43 semi-automatic sniper rifle he brought.

He personally cut off the newly sprouted antlers of the male reindeer to give to his father-in-law. While Apolli and the girls were cutting up the venison and offal under Sui Sui's personal command, Wei Ran took the Kajenka sisters, who were not allowed to participate in kitchen activities, and used the excuse of chopping firewood to go to a huge workshop next door that had been cleaned up and was temporarily used as a parking lot.

"The officials involved in this kidnapping have been arrested, including some officials who had close ties with them."

Anfisa spoke first, saying, "This matter was handled by our transport plane captain, Mr. Dmitry."

"That captain who talks a lot?" Wei Ran asked.

"That's right"

Anfisa nodded. "The Department of Energy will send new people soon. The positions of the police chief and his deputies have also been filled by our people. The new people who will take office will all have worked in Inta before."

"The people who were replaced, along with Lenard and his two sons-in-law, will be sent to Owl Prison after trial on charges of espionage, corruption, and murder."

Anfia continued, "This is Mr. Kalp's promise, which is not far from our abandoned military base on the eastern foothills of the Ural Mountains, making it convenient for us to visit at any time."

Objectively speaking, killing them was actually being lenient with them; letting them serve their sentences there and allowing them to communicate regularly with their friends in Tula would have been more effective in deterring greed.

"Then let them enjoy their lives there," Wei Ran said nonchalantly. "Have you found out who's behind this?"

"I found out."

Anfisa said, "According to Lenat and his two daughters, the proposal was made by his second daughter's husband, who came from Birobidzhan and was named Sergei."

"Birobijan?" Wei Ran asked with interest, "The Birobijan from Kutachi?"

"That's right"

Anfia nodded. "But it has nothing to do with the mastermind behind your attack in Vladivostok last time. Neither Sergei nor that Lenat are Warts."

"go on"

As Wei Ran spoke, he picked up the axe leaning against the wall. After Anfisa helped him erect a wooden stake and moved away, he swung the axe hard at it.

"About ten years ago, with the support of Lenat, Sergei started a border trade business with China in Birobidzhan, and the business was quite large."

According to his interrogation, it was his secretary, a female secretary, who instigated him to do this.

"The kind of female secretary you sleep with?" Wei Ran asked after delivering his second blow.

"That's right, and she has already given birth to two sons and two daughters for him through a proxy, all of them twins."

Anfia continued, swiping her tablet, "When we urgently went through Greva's gang to arrest Sergei's secretary, she had already escaped. We only found the two sets of twins, who were all less than a year and a half old."

After a brief pause, Anfia continued, seeing that Wei Ran didn't say anything, "With the help of Mr. Big-Eared Chabu's friend, we confirmed her flight information; she flew to Tai Country."

"Where?" Wei Ran couldn't help but laugh.

"Eliminate the country"

Anfia shrugged. "We promptly sought help from your friend, Mr. Zhong, so the female secretary was caught by his men as soon as she landed and has now been sent to the hospital for treatment."

"Did you ask anything?"

After Wei Ran and Anfisa helped him erect a new stake, they raised their axes again.

"Asked it out"

Anfia said, "Although this female secretary is of Chinese descent..."

"Of Chinese descent?" Wei Ran asked strangely after splitting the wooden stake in two with an axe.

"She is only nominally of Chinese descent; she was born a Russian citizen."

If we extrapolate from her age, she was born shortly after Russia's defeat at Grozny, when the country's household registration system was practically nonexistent.

Anfia said, "This woman is actually a spy working for Recruitment, but this operation against us did not come from Recruitment's orders, but from a private bounty of $50 that she received from her friend."

"Whose bounty is it?" Wei Ran asked, leaning on his long-handled axe.

Aurora

Anfia replied, “The bounty is $50 for capturing Aurora alive. This woman is very greedy. Besides wanting the $50, she also wants Sergei, whom she’s entangled with, to take over our travel business in Tula and make Lenat and his second daughter take the blame.”

"go on"

Wei Ran swung his axe again and slammed it hard into the wooden stake that Anfisa had re-erected.

"This woman's friend is in France; he's a business intelligence broker."

"We haven't found it yet, boss," Anfia said. "Perhaps we can use this opportunity to test Charon's abilities."

"Give it a try if you think Charon is trustworthy," Wei Ran said nonchalantly. "Find him as soon as possible."

“I’ll contact Charon’s friend right away,” Amphia said.

"So Lenat knew nothing about this?" Wei Ran asked.

“Quite the opposite”

Anfisa took over the conversation, saying after a stake was re-erected, "Sergei received the full support of his wife and daughter Lenat after he told them about the plan."

Or rather, they'd had their eyes on our business for a long time. And according to interrogation, Lenat and his second daughter knew about Sergei's lover all along, but they didn't know she was a spy.

“Go on,” Wei Ran said after striking with his axe.

"It's pretty much the same plan Sergei and his spy lover had."

Anfisa helped put the split stakes back up and said, "They also intend to have Sergei take the blame. The person who actually led the kidnapping was Lenat's eldest daughter's husband. He is from Irkutsk and his name is also Viktor."

About ten years ago, he worked on a mining exploration team near Tula. He was the one who discovered a black gold mine near Tula for Lenat, and that's how he became the husband of Lenat's eldest daughter.

"Interesting." Wei Ran thought for a moment and asked, "Is there any other interesting news?"

"Next up is the gossip section."

Anfisa said, "According to the information obtained through interrogation, this Mr. Victor mentioned earlier has had affairs with both Mr. Lenat's French wife and Mongolian wife."

The daughters that these two women each bore for Lenard were actually the children of this Mr. Victor.

In addition, Mr. Victor also intended to use this incident to get rid of his wife, Lenard, Lenard's second daughter, and the aforementioned Mr. Sergei.

“This family is interesting,” Wei Ran clicked his tongue, while also noticing Apoli pulling a small sled as he walked in from outside.

"I also have some belated intelligence to share."

Apolly walked up to Wei Ran and said, "Last night, among the prisoners I interrogated were Lenat's confidants, Sergei's confidants, and Viktor's confidants."

Besides, Lenard's brother, whose wife had been sent to prison to take the blame, was also there.

"Aren't there any innocent people in this family?" Wei Ran asked as he and the Kajenka sisters gathered firewood from the sled. "Strictly speaking, Lenat's Mongolian wife can be considered somewhat innocent."

Anfisa began, "Even her affair with Victor was to get revenge on Lenat."

"Besides getting some firewood to take back, I came here to tell you that Lenat controls a copper mine near Sainshand in Mongolia, and it's under the name of this Mongolian wife."

As Apoli spoke, he pulled on the rope tied to the sled and started walking back. "The copper mine has already started operating," he said. "Whatever the reason for the kidnapping of you and Aurora, the copper mine is yours now."

Thank you for your generosity.

As Wei Ran spoke, he picked up the axe again, and Anfisa helped him put a wooden stake back up.

Only after Apoli walked out of the huge factory workshop did Wei Ran say, "Find that spy secretary's friend as soon as possible."

"What do you plan to do with this family?" Anfia asked.

"Tell me your plans," Wei Ran said nonchalantly.

"Lennett and his two sons-in-law will be sent to Owl Prison and will live there indefinitely."

Anfisa revealed their planned arrangements: "Soon, Lenat's eldest son, Lenat's wretched wife, and his two eldest daughters will all die in prison."

Seeing that Wei Ran seemed to have no objections, Anfisa continued, "Lenat's black gold mine will be handed over to the Ministry of Energy by Sister Aurora, and this will serve as a warning to the others who covet us."

"Continue!" Wei Ran swung his axe again and began chopping.

"Lenat's youngest son, along with his French wife and three other young daughters who are recruiting nuclear weapons, will be under our control for life and molded into our adversary force."

Anfisa continued, "Lenat's Mongolian wife will also be taken over by us, and the mines in Mongolia will be operated in her name."

"Okay," Wei Ran nodded.

"Then there's that spy lover and the four children she had through surrogacy."

Anfia picked up the conversation, "Boss, does that spy lover need to be shipped back and given to the Russian authorities? Is that possible?"

"No need to trouble them."

Wei Ran said, "Let her live first, and we'll deal with her together after we find her friends."

"it is good"

Anfia readily agreed, "Why don't we give the two sets of twins she left behind to Hela to raise?"

After a moment's hesitation, Wei Ran finally nodded, then swung his axe again, splitting the wooden stake in two.

Seeing this, the Kachenka sisters breathed a slight sigh of relief.

That night, in the cleanest factory workshop in this abandoned military base hidden in the wilderness, bonfires were lit and tables were set up.

Amidst the rising steam, the red copper hot pots they brought were filled with spicy broth, boiling over charcoal. The gang members, the recruited workers, and the beautiful Hela girls sat down around the tables, enjoying their food, drinks, and even singing and dancing.

Meanwhile, in Europe, where the sun was still shining, Alain, the chief designer of the Paris Parade Jewelry store, also received a reward from Mr. Shoebill.

“Find this person,” Alan typed, “She will be the key to Charon’s rebirth.”

With this brief email sent out, Charon, an intelligence-trading organization that had existed since the collapse of the Soviet Union, began to operate.

At 3:18 a.m. local time in Tula, an encrypted email was sent to Anfia's inbox—the person had been found.

About an hour later, the two sisters quietly got up and left the room, then walked to Wei Ran and Sui Sui's door and knocked twice.

Startled awake by the soft knocking, Wei Ran first glanced at Sui Sui, who was sleeping sprawled out beside him, and gently covered her with a blanket before getting up and leaving the room. He then followed the Kajenka sisters, who were also only wearing pajamas, into an empty room diagonally opposite.

“Found it,” Anfia said before her sister closed the door and turned on the light.

"Where?" Wei Ran asked as he sat down on the edge of the bed.

"In Austria"

Anfia said, "This person was hiding near our castle. Our people have already gone there and captured her. They are interrogating her now."

"Then let's wait," Wei Ran said softly.

"Mr. Chab sent a message earlier through Mrs. Dalia."

Anfisa said, "He wants the nuclear spy, and he says he also needs to warn some people."

"Now that her friend has been found, let's hand her over to Mr. Chabu," Wei Ran said nonchalantly.

“I’ll arrange it later,” Anfisa replied.

“Charon’s speed is good,” Wei Ran said. “Hopefully, they’ll keep their mouths shut.”

Charon has always had a good reputation.

Anfia responded, "Besides, they've already agreed to be absorbed by us, and those old guys and the Kachenka they trained also need a secure job."

No sooner had she finished speaking than Anfia's phone screen lit up, and she immediately connected to the authenticator to start receiving emails.

Shortly after, Anfia turned off the screen and said, "It's pretty much as I guessed. This was done by the Warts, and it was decided in private by the two revenge hunter teams."

Their organization was warned not long ago through some channels not to carry out any more assassination attempts against you.

"So you've set your sights on Aurora?" Wei Ran asked.

"That's right"

Anfia nodded. "That warning actually piqued the curiosity of both teams about your identity, especially since Aurora wasn't mentioned in the warning."

So they decided to risk taking control of you by kidnapping Aurora, and they suspect the chairman is in your hands.

"Find those two squads," Wei Ran said, "and arrest them all."

"it is good"

Anfia readily agreed, and then mixed in a somewhat non-standard Chinese word in her German, "How about in Charon's name? Anyway, Charon won't exist anymore, so this is their transparent makeup."

"It's a pledge of loyalty."

As Wei Ran corrected the other person, he stood up and said, "Let's do it this way and find them as soon as possible."

As he spoke, he turned off the light, opened the door, and walked towards the room diagonally opposite his and Sui Sui's room.

"Why don't we take this opportunity to transform Charon into a hunting organization?"

In the darkened room, Amphia suggested, "We should also get a knife."

“Charon is a fine hilt,” Amphiza said, his voice revealing a long-suppressed eagerness.

“In that case, after we win over Charon, we’ll immediately send our own people to take action,” Anfia said in a low voice. “We can also bring in Niner, whom we promised him.”

“We did promise him that, so let’s bring him along,” Anfisa asked. “But can you find those two squads?”

"Of course they can, they can't escape," Anfia replied confidently while tapping her phone screen.

When the sun shone on the wasteland once again, and Sui Sui, still hungover, got up, Wei Ran had already cooked a large pot of vegetable and rice porridge, and even prepared a sesame seed cake with sausage for her breakfast.

"Where did you get this?" Sui Sui asked in surprise.

"I specially saved these for you a couple of days ago," Wei Ran coaxed with a smile. He would never admit that he had taken them out of the metal notebook out of laziness.

"Is there a share for us?" Before the question was even finished, the Kachenka sisters were already sitting at the table.

"There's only one left, but there's plenty of porridge," Sui Sui said proudly, holding up the sesame seed cake in her hand.

"Porridge is enough."

The Kachenka sisters sat down and began to report on the changes that had occurred the day before, one after the other.

However, the intelligence given to Sui Sui naturally omitted the spy secretary storyline, and also regretfully mentioned that they had not captured Lenard's youngest son, his French wife hiding in Zhaohe, and his other three daughters.

Although Sui Sui seemed somewhat disappointed, she finally became all smiles and had a great appetite after hearing that she could take over Lenat's copper mine in Mongolia, which was already in operation, and even personally report his black gold mine to the Ministry of Energy.

During this daytime, as Wei Ran drove his monster truck with Sui Sui, hunting and exploring the surrounding terrain, some minor conflicts, not particularly noticeable, occurred in Europe, which was already shrouded in night.

In a small town in southern Italy, right next to the Adriatic Sea, a young man resembling a "second-generation Kazenka" parked his van in front of a supermarket that had already closed.

As the tailgate of the van opened, several figures carrying weapons silently jumped out.

Among these people were several girls from Hela, a core group of Niner's men, and even some helpers sent by Uncle Chab with big ears.

The entire process, from surrounding the supermarket to storming in, capturing everyone inside, and putting them into a van, took less than ten minutes.

Before long, the car arrived at the dock, and halfway there, another car, which was exactly the same in color and license plate, took the opportunity to replace it while passing through the underpass.

As for the original car, when it drove out of the underpass again, it had a conspicuous advertising sticker on its side, and even the license plate number had been changed.

On this tranquil night, a dilapidated shipping container was loaded onto a bulk carrier and slowly sailed towards Albania on the other side of the Adriatic Sea.

On this tranquil night, some young people, unaware of their own limitations, vanished completely from everyone's sight.