Red Moscow

Now that Bakanidze had made up his mind to go home, Sokov couldn't stop him, so he drove him back to the instrument factory.

As the car entered the town and passed a small church, Bakanidze suddenly shouted: "Misha, stop the car! Stop the car quickly!"

Sokov thought he had met an acquaintance, so he quickly stepped on the brakes, parked the car on the side of the road, turned his head and asked, "Did he meet an acquaintance?"

But Bakanidze shook his head and said, "No, I saw a church here and wanted to go in and pray for Asiya."

Sokov knew that after the outbreak of the Patriotic War, many churches that had been closed had been reopened. During the war, although I liked to set up my headquarters in churches, they were all empty churches. I had never seen what a reopened church looked like. Since Bakanidze mentioned it, I would follow suit. Go and have a look, you will gain insights.

Entering the church, Sokov found that it was dark inside, and even the lights were not turned on. Only two extremely thin candles were lit in the hall, barely illuminating the surrounding area of ​​four to five meters wide, so that the place would not be invisible.

With the help of weak candlelight, Sokov saw that the front wall was covered with gilded statues of various gods. And Bakanidze came to these statues, knelt down on one knee, lowered his head and made the sign of the cross on his chest, muttering something in a low voice. Although he couldn't hear what he was reading clearly, Sokov knew in his heart that he was praying for Asiya.

After a long time, Bakanidze stood up, came to Sokov's side, sighed softly, and said: "Misha, let's go."

When Sokov sent Bakanidze home, looking at the deserted house, he suddenly remembered something and hurried to the room prepared by Mr. and Mrs. Bakanidze for Asya.

Pushing open the door, the furnishings in the room are very simple. There is no furniture except a bed, a desk and two armchairs.

"Misha." After seeing Sokov enter the door, Bakanidze ran directly to the room prepared for Asya, followed him quickly, and said apologetically: "Asya has less time to come back, so for her There is no furniture in the prepared room. If you think it is too basic, I can add some new furniture recently..."

But before he finished speaking, Sokov waved his hand: "No, no, no, what I want to talk about is not about furniture."

Bakanidze asked in confusion; "Then what are you going to say?"

"I would like to ask, if the flour is packed in bags and stored at home, how long can it be stored?"

Although Bakanidze felt strange when he heard Sokov's question, he still answered truthfully: "If the bag of flour is not opened, it can theoretically be stored for five years. You also know that our flour here The winter is drier, so the flour can be stored for eight years or even longer.”

"How much food can you and your wife eat in a year?"

Bakanidze thought for a while and then replied: "We eat 40 kilograms of bread, two kilograms of cheese, eight kilograms of meat and ten kilograms of sugar a month."

Sokov calculated silently in his mind for a while, and then said: "So, you will eat almost 500 kilograms of bread, 24 kilograms of cheese, 96 kilograms of meat and 120 kilograms of sugar a year, right?"

"Absolutely." Bakanidze finally felt that something was wrong. How could his son-in-law ask about this matter for no reason, so he asked: "Misha, has something happened? Why did you ask about grain storage? Woolen cloth?"

Sokov did not answer immediately, but continued to talk to himself: "A bag of flour is 25 kilograms. You have to eat 20 bags a year, and 100 bags in five years. Asiya's room is relatively empty, even if you put 200 bags Bags of flour are no big deal.”

"Misha, what on earth do you want to say?" Bakanidze couldn't help it and shouted at Sokov: "When I hear you say that, it feels like a famine is about to happen."

"It's not as if, but definitely." Sokov turned to look at Bakanidze and said seriously: "You are Asiya's father and my father-in-law. There is something I think it is necessary to tell you in advance. , so that you can be mentally prepared. A serious famine may break out starting this summer, and the normal food supply may be interrupted, so you should store food in advance to tide over the coming famine.”

"What, a famine is going to happen?" Bakanidze said with an expression of disbelief on his face: "Where did you hear this news?"

"Don't worry about how I learned about this news, but I can tell you responsibly that the source of the news is absolutely reliable." Sokov said secretly, I saw it from the historical data of later generations. It is true. Sex is unquestionable, but it cannot tell you the truth, lest it scare you: "So from now on, you must start hoarding food to cope with the coming great famine."

"Great famine?" Hearing the word Sokov said, Bakanidze couldn't help but trembled, and then asked: "How big can it be?"

Sokov was silent for a moment, and decided to tell the other party part of the truth, lest he be half-hearted when hoarding food and not store enough food to survive the famine years: "In this famine, tens of thousands of people may die from hunger. And die. You are Asiya’s parents, and I can’t just watch something happen to you because of hunger.”

If someone else had said this, Bakanidze would definitely have doubts in his heart, but since Sokov said it, he had to take it seriously. After all, Sokov's status was different and he could understand it. There were many things he was not qualified to know.

It was out of this consideration that he asked cautiously: "Misha, how much food do you think we should hoard?"

"Of course, the more, the better." Sokov returned to the living room and continued to ask: "I remember that your house also has a basement. How is the environment inside? Is it dry?"

"Of course." Bakanidze said in an affirmative tone: "When this house was built, sufficient moisture-proof treatment was done, so our basement is used to store things, and they will be stored for a long time."

"In addition to flour, I suggest you stock up on potatoes and corn. After all, these two items can be stored for a long time."

"Misha, please tell me truthfully how long I used to store food." Bakanidze was convinced of Sokov's statement, but he also raised a question: "If I use it in a short time If there is a large-scale famine, someone will definitely report me to my superiors for hiding food, and a food requisition team may come to my house to confiscate my food. ”

"I have just said that the famine occurs in the summer, probably in July and August, and food shortages will occur." Sokov sighed and said: "Although the rationing system has been cancelled, as the If food shortages occur, rationing will definitely resume again, so you have to be prepared in advance.”

Bakanize frowned and thought for a while, then continued: "Misha, even if I have half a year to stock up on food, if I buy a lot of food nearby, I'm afraid it will attract the attention of others. What can you do? Is there a way to hoard food without being discovered by others? "

"Unless you have your own house in the forest in the countryside." Sokov said with a wry smile: "There are almost no homes there. Let alone one or two tons of food you hoard at home, even if it is one or two hundred tons, it will not matter. It will attract others’ attention.”

"We have a house in the country, but we haven't retired yet. It's OK to live there occasionally, but it's not possible to live there for a long time."

"Can you take me to have a look?" Sokov asked tentatively.

"Of course, of course." Bakanidze said: "I will take you to the villa in the country to have a look. When you come back, I will find someone to survey the scene."

When he heard Bakanidze say that he wanted someone to investigate the accident scene, Sokov's mouth twitched violently. He didn't expect that Bakanidze still remembered this. But at this moment, I was in a hurry to go to my villa in the countryside, so I couldn't care less about this matter.

Bakanidze's villa is only 20 kilometers away from the town of Khimki, and Sokov drove there in only 40 minutes.

The car stopped outside a yard surrounded by wooden boards. Bakanidze got out of the car first, went over and opened the closed door with the key, and at the same time explained to Sokov: "This villa originally belonged to a colleague of mine. . He died while working on the front line with me, and his wife sold the villa to me shortly after I came back."

Walking into the yard, Sokov saw a two-story wooden house with a slope roof. There was a downward passage next to the wooden house, which should be the basement of the villa.

Sure enough, after Bakanidze closed the courtyard door, he took Sokov into the basement, and at the same time introduced: "Misha, there are two rooms in this basement, with an area of ​​about fifty or sixty square meters. If food is stored, It’s no problem to save one or two hundred tons.”

Sokov carefully looked at the empty basement and felt that it was more convenient to store grain, potatoes, corn, etc. here. Even if one or two hundred tons were stored, there were almost no homes nearby, so there was no need to worry about being discovered. The next thing to consider is where to buy food, and then unknowingly come across this place to store it, so that it can be put to use when the famine comes.

Although Sokov paid close attention to the surrounding environment on the way here and did not see any people at all, he still asked worriedly: "Will no one discover this place? What if we store food here, but no one is there?" Living in a house here, if someone breaks in, they can move away all the food."

"Misha, your worry is justified. This is what I am worried about too." Bakanidze said with concern: "If the food we have worked so hard to hoard is taken away by others, when the famine comes, By then, we will be hungry.”

"So for safety reasons, we cannot store all the food here. We need to store some food in the house in the family area of ​​the instrument factory." Sokov said: "When the food stored in the family area is almost eaten, Come back here to get food.”

"Misha, you haven't answered my question yet. How can we prevent someone from stealing the food stored here?" Bakanidze reminded Sokov: "If after the great famine you mentioned, a large amount of food would be enough to A kind person turns into a vicious gangster.”

"What can I do?" Sokov said dumbfounded: "I can't arrange for two soldiers to be on duty there and at the same time lay mines around the villa wall to kill those who try to break into the villa."

"Forget it." Seeing that Sokov was helpless in preventing thieves, Bakanidze stopped embarrassing him and changed the subject: "Can you think of a way to buy food?"

"Well, I'll think of a way." Sokov was driving while thinking in his heart, where should he go to buy enough food and store it?

After returning to the family quarters, Bakanidze said sympathetically: "Misha, I think you must be tired, why don't you take a rest first, I'll go out to find some friends. When they come, it won't be too late for us to go to the scene."

"Yeah, okay." Sokov nodded, then lay down on the sofa and began to close his eyes to rest.

Although he hadn't slept for a few minutes since yesterday, because too many things had happened, his cerebral cortex was always in an excited state, so that he lay down for a long time and still couldn't fall asleep.

Since he couldn't sleep, Sokov simply sat up and began to think about what he would face next. Since Bakanidze said he wanted to find someone to investigate the scene, the person he found must have some criminal investigation experience. Maybe they will find out the truth after they go there. How should he explain to Bakanidze then?

But after waiting for a long time, Bakanidze never came back. Sokov even had an illusion that Bakanidze was worried about affecting his rest, so he took people directly to the scene of the car accident for investigation?

Just when he thought this guess was correct, the door was opened from the outside, and then Bakanidze walked in. But Bakanidze did not come back alone, and there were two men of about his age behind him.

Seeing Sokov sitting on the sofa in a daze, Bakanidze asked in surprise: "Misha, why don't you sleep, but sit here in a daze?"

Sokoff looked at him and said: "Too many things happened today, my mind is in a mess, and I can't sleep at all." When he said this, he looked at the two men who followed Bakanidze in: "What are the names of these two comrades?"

"They are both my good friends." Bakanidze introduced the names of the two to Sokov, and continued: "They used to work as criminal investigators in the police station, and they have their own unique way of investigating the scene. Misha, if you are sleeping now How about taking us to the scene?"

"Okay." Sokov stood up and said cheerfully: "Let's go now."

After the four of them got in the car, a man in a peaked cap said to Bakanidze who was sitting in the passenger seat: "Bakanidze, I never thought that we could have a general as our driver. I can brag about this for years in the future."

"Yuri." Bakanidze said to the man: "You are right, there are not many opportunities for a general to be your driver, so you must cherish this precious opportunity today, so that you can brag about it in the future."