War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1950 Discusses Unlucky Topics
As night fell over Sarajevo once again, the journalists Nicky Baker and Ronald Anderson, who had faked their deaths, arrived at the building where Wei Ran and the others were hiding under the cover of darkness.

"Is everything set up over there?"

Thomas asked in a low voice as he packed his camera and other belongings into his bag.

Everything is set up.

Nikki quickly replied, "The generator starts normally, and Vladan has learned how to use the radio. We've left the camera and film with them."

“Mr. T, Father Mikhail asked me to pass on a message to you.” Ronald said, glancing at Wei Ran, who was also preparing.

"What did he say?" Wei Ran asked without looking up.

"He said he would keep your coffee box for now. After the war in Sarajevo is over, he hopes you can visit his home, and he will treat you to coffee with milk and sugar."

"I will go. Did he say where he lives?" Wei Ran asked as he slung his backpack over his shoulder.

“He lives in the apartment next to that school,” Thomas answered for Ronald.

"Okay, let's go."

Dragan urged, "Klaus and I will be in charge of watching over our guide."

“Mr. Nicky B, Mr. R, you two walk at the very back,” Wei Ran said, looking at Thomas.

"We're ahead."

Thomas nodded. "Mr. T, I'm getting more and more curious about where you're from."

"When we have time, we can have a good talk."

As Wei Ran spoke, he loaded a bullet into the silenced submachine gun in his hand. "Mr. Blanco, which way do we go?"

“Go west,” Blanco said. “I’ll show you the way.”

"Go, go."

As Wei Ran spoke, he used wire cutters to remove the handcuffs from the two prisoners, re-handcuffed them behind their backs, and tied a grenade with a tether to their backs.

With everything ready, he was the first to step out of the apartment building.

With Thomas providing cover for them, Wei Ran and his companion led the way, carrying the six people behind them along the shadows of the street or through narrow alleys.

At 8:27 p.m., the group found the ruins of a building that had been bombed and was now only half intact, following Blanco's directions.

The building is now only three stories high, and the staircases to the first and second floors have been broken, with only a rope hanging down.

"The contact is up there, a bald old guy."

Blanco said in a low voice, "He knows the safe times and routes to and from Sarajevo, and these are constantly changing."

"Shall we take him down?" Ronald asked in a low voice.

"Do people come and go here every day?" Wei Ran, Thomas, and Dragan asked the same question in unison.

"I do not know"

Blanco shook his head. "I just know we can evacuate from here."

"Someone's coming," Dragan warned at that moment, "on the right."

Upon hearing this, everyone immediately used night vision goggles to look over.

With the help of French night vision goggles on their faces, they could roughly see that two men carrying guns were walking toward the building ruins.

They patted each other on the shoulder, and Wei Ran and Thomas started walking after the two as they entered the building.

A little later, Dragan caught up as well.

The three of them did not go upstairs with the two men dressed as snipers, but instead left them near the stairwell.

Soon after, the two men rappelled down one after the other along a rope.

However, before they could even stand up straight, two pistols were pressed against their backs.

With Dragan and Thomas in control of the two snipers, Wei Ran immediately climbed the rope and quickly reached the third floor.

Several thick, light-blocking, and warm blankets were hanging in the hallway on this floor. Passing through these blankets, he immediately saw an old man sitting at a table drinking.

Within easy reach of him, besides an AKS74U, there was also a walkie-talkie and two car batteries.

"You are."

Before the old man could finish speaking, he shut his mouth and raised his hands because of the USP9 pistol that Wei Ran was holding.

“We need a ticket to leave here,” Wei Ran said bluntly. “You can refuse.”

"Several people"

After a moment of silence, the old man asked.

"Six people," Wei Ran replied.

"I can't do it."

The old man shook his head. "I can only let three people leave at a time."

"Tell me your rules."

Wei Ran sat down at the other person's table, and casually moved the walkie-talkie and submachine gun further away.

“I used coded messages to inform the guards at the intersection how many people had left and whether it was safe for me to leave.”

The old man said, "Then the guard gave me the code word, which I gave to the person who was about to leave. The person who remembered the code word could then cross the intersection."

"What was the code you gave those two gentlemen just now?" Wei Ran asked with a smile.

"Two white roses," the old man answered honestly.

"How many people can you let leave in one night at most?" Wei Ran asked a new question.

"Sometimes there are more, sometimes there are fewer, but there are a maximum of three people at a time. Everyone knows the rules."

"How many is it tonight?"

“Those two were the first ones to arrive,” the old man replied.

Does someone leaving mean someone else will come in?

"uncertain"

The old man continued, "But they leave almost all of the night and return in the second half."

"What do you think about booking the whole place for the first half of the night?" Wei Ran asked, brandishing the gun in his hand.

"I don't know anything," the old man began to feign ignorance.

"Where do we leave from?" Wei Ran asked a new question.

"There's a road leading out of the city not far from here. Just follow that road, but the area outside is Serb territory."

I am very satisfied with your attitude.

Despite his words, Wei Ran still took out the handcuffs he had seized and cuffed the old man's hands to the two heating pipes above and below.

"How's the inquiry going over there?"

Wei Ran switched to French and asked in a low voice to those below.

Two white roses

Thomas answered first, "They said that a maximum of three people could leave at a time, and that the outside was Serb territory."

"The situation is about the same."

Wei Ran said, "Are we waiting for the prey to take the bait and replacing them one by one, or are we taking some risks?"

"What do you want to do?" Thomas countered.

"Let's gamble on how many guards are over there," Wei Ran said. "We'll take over that area and then go over together."

"We can go closer and check the situation," Thomas nodded.

"How about the two of us go?" Wei Ran asked before Dragan could speak.

"I have no objection," Thomas agreed to Wei Ran's proposal.

With time running out, after Dragan came up and subdued the old man, Wei Ran decisively snapped the necks of the two snipers, put on their coats, and slung their weapons over his shoulder.

“You stay in front, I’ll cover you,” Wei Ran said, leaving no room for argument. “Dragan, turn on the radio, Channel 3.”

"it is good"

As Dragan responded, he turned on the radio he had seized from his backpack.

At the same time, Wei Ran and Thomas also spread out a little and headed towards the road leading out of the city not far away.

As they got closer, they could clearly see the machine gun emplacement protected by sandbag fortifications at the intersection, and even more clearly, the two Soviet-made BTR-60 armored vehicles parked behind it.

Fortunately, although the firepower here seemed abundant, perhaps because of the extremely cold weather, the machine gun positions outside, though lit with campfire barrels, were unguarded. However, one of the armored vehicles had lights faintly shining inside.

As the distance closed, Thomas secretly released the safety of the silenced submachine gun hanging around his neck, while Wei Ran had already tucked the submachine gun into the gap between his back and backpack.

"What's the password?"

The soldier sitting in the armored vehicle asked in Serbian and pointed his machine gun at the two of them.

Two white roses

Thomas was the first to answer, "Do you have hot water and cigarettes here? We're freezing to death."

Let's look at it from another angle.

As the soldier stepped onto the stage and raised his gun, he quipped, "Two white roses."

"Which genius came up with this code?" Thomas asked with a smile, as he and Wei Ran, who was carrying a sniper rifle in their hands, walked to the other side of the vehicle.

"It's our captain," the soldier on the roof replied as he shrank back into the vehicle.

At the same time, Wei Ran, who had already walked to the car, subtly pointed to another armored vehicle.

Thomas nodded, crouched low, and darted over in one quick step.

Almost simultaneously, Wei Ran had also circled around to the side of the armored vehicle and handed his backpack, submachine gun, and sniper rifle borrowed from the prisoners to the people inside.

Before the people inside could put their things away, he had already climbed the ladder, reached his upper body into the armored vehicle, and retrieved his VSS silenced sniper rifle.

"Da! Da! Da! Da! Da! Da! Da!"

Amidst the faint gunshots, Wei Ran, with a smile on his face, shot and killed two soldiers who were playing cards and two soldiers who were ganging up on a young girl. He also shot and killed the soldier who had just crouched down from the sunroof of the car and the soldier hiding in the driver's seat.

"Shh-"

Wei Ran gestured for the girl, whose body was covered in cigarette burns, to be quiet. Then, thinking it wasn't safe, he climbed in and knocked the girl unconscious.

Almost immediately, Thomas ran over, saying as he crawled into the carriage, "There's no one inside."

"Notify them to come over, and remember to have that old guy call using the normal procedure."

As Wei Ran spoke, he climbed back into the armored vehicle filled with corpses and began stripping the soldiers of their clothes.

"Are the guards here really that weak?" Thomas asked, frowning, after crawling in.

"They are already very strong, especially for Sarajevo, which is surrounded."

Wei Ran paused, then added almost as if possessed, "It was pretty much the same when Beirut was besieged ten years ago."

"I know about that Tusha battle."

Thomas shook his head, picked up the dirty woman's clothes that had been stepped on from the floor, looked at them, and then simply took off his own coat and wrapped it around the thin, unconscious young woman.

"From a certain perspective, the existence of the Soviet Union might have been a good thing, at least."

You'd better not have such a stupid idea.

Wei Ran quickly changed back into the clothes that had been taken off him and said, "The lack of discipline in the military of the Warsaw Pact countries is something that the Soviet Union alone cannot contain, especially the people here. Do you really think these are Serb militias?"

"Isn't that right?" Thomas asked, taken aback.

"What do you think?"

Wei Ran pulled the armored vehicle driver's body over and showed it to the other man. He was a black man, a matte black man. "Do you think there were any native-born black men in Yugoslavia?"

"Mercenaries again?" Thomas frowned.

"This is just a business deal."

Before Wei Ran could finish speaking, in the besieged Sarajevo, the old man controlled by Dragan began to call out in code.

Using the code word they had just obtained, they conducted a simple routine communication, and Wei Ran determined that the code word was "Ace of Hearts".

Soon after, Nikki and Ronald carried the "wounded" Yarf over on a stretcher. Wei Ran also crawled out of the turret and conducted the routine questioning in a serious manner, and warmly invited the other party to the car.

He had to be so cautious because no one knew if anyone else was listening on that channel, and no one knew if there were eyes watching them from afar.

While shoving the "wounded" Yarf into the vehicle, Nikki had a bold idea: "What if we drive an armored vehicle in?" "I guarantee both sides would love for you to do that."

Wei Ran reminded them, "Although the people in Sarajevo don't have powerful weapons, they can overturn this car with just their manpower."

And once we drive in, the Serbs surrounding us will definitely spot us, and then guess what will happen?

Seeing that Thomas, who realized the problem, remained silent, Wei Ran continued, "They will let us go, and may even help us."

But Deyang, having also received the news, will pin the blame for starting the war on us. Just think about it: a few frontline reporters started the war.

"us."

“We didn’t have a chance to explain ourselves while we were alive,” Thomas finally said.

Just then, a new round of calls came in, and Wei Ran once again communicated in code.

Shortly afterward, Dragan and Klaus carried Blanco, who was "injured in one leg," over.

While Wei Ran and the other side were pretending to check the code, Thomas, who had changed into the guard's uniform, had already crawled out of the armored vehicle again, crawled into another armored vehicle, turned on the lighting system inside, and planted a Soviet directional mine he had brought.

After Dragan and Blanco squeezed into the now extremely crowded carriage, Thomas also returned to the armored vehicle.

"Where do we go next?"

Wei Ran, who was in charge of the machine gun on the roof, asked Dragan and the others who were changing clothes.

"It is not possible for us to leave through the airport now."

Thomas was the first to speak, saying, "We'll probably be taken into custody immediately if we go there."

"So we can't leave Sarajevo for the time being?" Nikki pressed.

“I might have a place to go,” Dragan said.

"Where to?" Thomas asked immediately.

Kozala Mountain

Dragan gave an address that Wei Ran had just guessed: "If the story my father told me is true, I can probably find some friends there, or at least a church."

"Then let's go"

Thomas urged, "Do you know the way?"

"Having a general understanding"

As Dragan spoke, he climbed into the driver's seat and sat down. "I studied the map here in detail before coming to Bosnia and Herzegovina."

"Then let's set off quickly!"

Urged on by Klaus, Dragan only studied the armored vehicle briefly before starting it up, making a rather rough U-turn, and heading towards the outskirts of the city.

At this moment, the group did not let their guard down, especially when they drove less than 500 meters away and saw a large area of ​​Serb positions.

Fortunately, perhaps because they recognized the armored vehicle, the Serbian soldiers did not stop them or even conduct a search, and allowed them to cross the road in the area.

After leaving the position behind in the darkness, Dragan immediately turned off all the vehicle's lights and switched to night vision goggles to continue his journey.

In the carriage filled with corpses, Wei Ran handed a cigarette to each of the men, including Alf and Blanco, and asked with concern, "Klaus, is that old man still alive?"

"Still alive"

Klaus replied, “I tied him up and laid some mines in his room and around the building, which should buy us some time.”

"How many landmines do we still have?" Wei Ran asked anxiously.

“I only have three grenades left,” Thomas shouted.

“I have a directional mine in my bag,” Klaus replied, “and three grenades as well.”

"I have two directional mines in my bag."

Dragan said, "If I remember correctly, each of Alf and Blanco had four directional mines in their bags."

"We don't."

Nicky and Ronald answered in unison, "We each only have two grenades."

That's enough.

Wei Ran breathed a slight sigh of relief. Although they had left Sarajevo, they had not actually left the battlefield; in fact, they had already "deep into enemy territory."

Before they could be exposed, they naturally couldn't rashly lay mines, as that would only lead to trouble.

"Speed ​​up!"

Wei Ran glanced at Thomas, who was fiddling with the radio, and had to add a reminder, "We'd better keep the radio silent right now."

"I see"

Thomas nodded, but did not turn off the radio.

After Dragan drove for more than 200 kilometers, the car radio, which was still running, began to make interrogative calls.

"We have at most an hour left."

Wei Ran, who was already sitting in the passenger seat, reminded, "If there's an intersection ahead, let this car drive itself."

"Alright"

After a moment of hesitation, Dragan agreed, "In the stories my father told me, Dragan and Milos did the same thing back then."

“Really?” Wei Ran sighed. “That’s quite a coincidence.”

"Hopefully, we'll be as lucky as them and survive."

As Dragan spoke, he floored the accelerator.

After driving along the road for nearly 20 minutes, the armored vehicle stopped at an intersection.

After everyone, including the still unconscious girl, got off the bus, Alf and Blanco became nervous, realizing they were "useless."

"You two are responsible for carrying this girl."

Dragan found them a job, and they immediately breathed a sigh of relief, obediently enduring the excruciating pain as Wei Ran helped them unlock their handcuffs and reset their dislocated wrists.

When they carried the girl, covered in wounds, on a stretcher and allowed Wei Ran to handcuff their hands again.

With the help of Thomas and the two reporters, Dragan had already stuffed the two bodies into the driver and co-driver's seats of the armored vehicle and used the bodies and captured weapons to jam the steering wheel.

With everything ready, the armored vehicle slowly started moving along the road, and shortly after Dragan jumped out, it drove off the road and into a wheat field covered with a thin layer of snow, eventually disappearing into the night.

"Let's go too."

Dragan called out, "Yalf, it's about time. Perhaps you can start negotiating with Deyang."

Carefully glancing down at the Mauser bayonet pressed against his neck, Alf nodded cautiously and brought his mouth to the radio Wei Ran was holding up to begin making a call.

"You are indeed alive," a voice quickly came from the radio.

“I want to sell those things for a good price,” Alf said.

"No rush, once we find you, we'll discuss the price with you properly," the person on the other end of the radio said.

"You've already cooperated with one of the intelligence agents who infiltrated the Holiday Inn, and he left Sarajevo last night with some of the negatives."

Wei Ran paused for a moment and said, "That was just a presupposition for you. You can handle the specifics yourself. Tell the other party that your partner has left Bosnia and Herzegovina through certain channels, and let him think it over before he speaks."

You'd better not threaten me.

Following Wei Ran's instructions, Yalf said, "My partner has already successfully left Bosnia and Herzegovina. Even if you kill me, it won't make a difference. If you also intend to use my family to blackmail me, he will immediately release some of the evidence."

"Is your partner that Frenchman named Thomas? Don't worry, we'll find him."

“That naive fool was killed in the bombing along with those Germans,” Yalf said. “Otherwise, where would I get so many chips?”

"Name your price," the person on the other end of the radio said after a brief silence.

"Delay it a bit," Wei Ran reminded him.

“I’ll give you a suitable offer after I’ve thought it through,” Alf said. “I just wanted to let you know that I’m still alive and the item is with me.”

Wei Ran released the send button, switched channels, and then handed the microphone to Thomas.

"Calling the Olympic Organizing Committee," Thomas said, gripping the microphone.

"Speaking"

A response quickly came from the channel; it was Luna, who stayed at the school.

"We are safe now and will continue to contact you. Please keep a close watch and remain silent."

"Received," Luna said, suppressing her excitement.

"The Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games?" Wei Ran took the microphone and asked with great interest as he switched channels again.

"It was a code name she came up with herself," Thomas explained with a laugh.

"Can we talk about something less auspicious now?"

Dragan led the group toward Mount Kozara while asking questions.

"We can definitely talk about this."

Thomas nodded, and before anyone could ask, he volunteered to explain, "I met a frontline reporter during the Gulf War; she was from Sarajevo."

"she?"

"Yes, it's a woman, a woman full of energy and a strong sense of justice."

Thomas sighed, “We fell in love, but the day after I proposed to her, she died—shot by a sniper, in my arms.”

“If it’s true, perhaps we can end this topic now,” Dragan said apologetically.

"Before she died, she hoped that I could come to Sarajevo to visit."

Thomas smiled. "She said her grandfather's name was Mikhail, and he was the principal of a school. She said her mother's name was Ivana, and she was a teacher at that school. She also hoped I could help her keep it a secret from her family as much as possible."

"You should have said so sooner," Wei Ran said, coming back to his senses.

"Neither Father Mikhail nor Mrs. Ivana knew about this. They didn't know I had proposed to her, nor did they know she had died in the Gulf War."

Thomas sighed. "I've never had the courage to tell them that their pride, the girl named Tanya, is dead."

They always assumed that the freckled blonde was still working for Le Canard enchaîné in France. They didn't even know that she had long since gone to another newspaper and to the battlefield.

They thought that once the war was over, the girl would be able to go home.

"It's better that he's dead."

Dragan sighed. "At least it's better than dying meaninglessly in Sarajevo."

"I know the Tanya you mentioned," the girl lying on the stretcher said weakly.

"you know?"

Sarajevo is only so big.

The girl said in a hoarse voice, "She was always Mr. Mikhail's pride, even though she secretly ran away to France. I never thought she would not survive."

"How did you end up in that armored vehicle?" Thomas abruptly changed the subject.

"I volunteered."

The girl sighed self-deprecatingly, “I am a Serb. Last night, two snipers captured me and asked if I would be a gift for their friend. If I agreed, they could take me away from Sarajevo.”

"What if you don't want to?" Ronald asked a stupid question.

"Killed"

The girl said calmly, "What's the difference between living and dying? But I still want to live. No, actually I just want to eat my fill. I haven't had a full meal in a long time."

"Then let's eat something."

As Wei Ran spoke, he took out a bag of Yugoslavian individual rations that he had just seized from the corpse from his bag and handed it to the girl who was still lying on the stretcher.

Seeing the young woman wolfing down her food, the group exchanged glances and then quickened their pace.

Before dawn, after walking for several hours at a rapid pace, Dragan finally led them to stop in front of a dilapidated church. As the sun rose above the horizon, Wei Ran saw the small church that he had seen 40 years ago.

He was almost certain that the church had been rebuilt. But sadly, it was destroyed once again by war, and there were even many corpses outside the church—their crime was perhaps simply not being Orthodox, the exact opposite of those who died in Sarajevo.

"I hope the story my dad told me wasn't a lie, and I hope this church has a basement."

As Dragan spoke, he walked to one side of the church, and after searching for a while, he moved aside the broken bricks and painstakingly lifted a wooden board.

Just as Dragan straightened up and waved to them, everything in Wei Ran's eyes was filled with white light.

has it ended?

Wei Ran sighed inwardly. He clearly remembered that one of the tasks in the return mission was to bury his comrades.

Then
Who didn't survive? Was it those who escaped, or those who couldn't escape?