Red Moscow

Two cars arrived at the entrance of Hovlin Hospital, where a police car was parked and two uniformed police officers stood beside it.

Although they saw that one of the vehicles coming was a police car, the diligent uniformed police officers still raised their hands to stop the car.

A uniformed police officer came over and looked into Sokov's car. After seeing Victoria sitting in the co-pilot, he stood at attention and saluted, and then asked politely: "Major, what can I do for you?"

Victoria asked the uniformed police outside: "Is the rescue work in the hospital still going on?"

"It ended yesterday, Major." The uniformed police officer replied respectfully: "The people involved in the rescue said that there is no one inside, and there is no need to continue the search and rescue."

"Can we go in?"

Hearing Victoria's question, the uniformed police officer showed an embarrassed expression on his face. Obviously, he had received an order not to allow strangers to enter Hovlin Hospital to avoid any accidents. But now the officer who appeared in front of him was a much higher rank than him, and it seemed inappropriate to stop him from entering the hospital.

Just when the uniformed police were in a dilemma, Victoria said, "I got the news that there are still three citizens trapped in the basement of the hospital. We are here to rescue them. Don't worry, if your superiors blame me, I will help you explain."

Since Victoria had said this, the uniformed police realized that it was obviously inappropriate for them to stop him, so they stepped back and gestured to Sokov to drive the car in.

After arriving at the last parking spot, Sokov parked the car and turned to ask Victoria, "Vika, do you know where the rescue channel dug by the police is?"

Luckily, Victoria had done her homework before coming here, so she was not stumped by Sokov's question: "Don't worry, I know where the rescue channel is. When we are ready, I will take you there."

Victoria opened the door and got out of the car. Sasha and Yarosh in the car behind got out of the car, walked straight to the back of the car, opened the trunk, and took out the rescue equipment from it.

Watching Victoria and the other two wearing bulletproof vests, Sokov couldn't help but secretly complain: We are going down to look for people, not to rescue people from terrorists, is it necessary to wear bulletproof vests?

But the next moment, Victoria came over with a bulletproof vest and said to Sokov, "Put on this bulletproof vest."

Sokov took the bulletproof vest and asked tentatively, "We are just going down to find someone, not to fight. Do we need to wear bulletproof vests?"

"The environment down there is complicated, and it is inevitable that we will encounter bumps and bruises. Wearing a bulletproof vest can reduce the chance of injury to vital parts."

While putting on the bulletproof vest, Sokov continued to ask, "Give me the bulletproof vest in the bureau. If the superiors know about it, they won't criticize you, right?"

"Why do you talk so much nonsense?" Victoria said impatiently, "This is my spare bulletproof vest. If you don't want to wear it, take it off for me."

When the four of them walked towards the rescue passage with ropes, engineer shovels and other tools, Sokov specifically observed the equipment on Sasha and Yarosh. In the holsters on the waists of the two men was a Makarov pistol, which uses 9x18mm Makarov pistol bullets with a capacity of 12 rounds. It is not as powerful as the early Tokarev TT-33 model, but it is lighter and more flexible, and is the most popular sidearm for Russian police.

The two men were not carrying assault rifles on their backs, but PPK-20 submachine guns newly equipped by the military and police. This gun uses caliber ammunition and adopts a new telescopic folding stock, handguard and small grip design. The gun is 70 cm long and weighs 3 kg with a magazine. It can quickly and flexibly change the direction of the muzzle in small areas such as urban environments.

Soon, the four came to a one-meter square shaft. This is the rescue channel that the police dug yesterday. The brackets set up by the rescue team and the pulleys hanging on it have not been removed.

"Major," Sasha said to Victoria, "I'll go down and take a look first."

Victoria nodded and told her, "The environment below is complicated, you should be careful."

Sasha put on her gas mask, hung the hook on her waist on the pulley chain, and with the help of Yarosh, quickly entered the rescue passage.

A few minutes later, Victoria shouted down, "Sasha, what's the situation below?"

"Report to Major, everything is normal." Sasha replied down, "You guys come down."

"Yarosh, you stay up there." After Victoria told Yarosh, she said to Sokov, "Misha, follow me down."

As Sokov went down the well, he secretly calculated the length of the passage. When he fell to the basement below, he calculated that the length of the passage was no less than 20 meters. At such a deep distance, without the help of the rescue team, those trapped underground really had no chance of escaping.

After landing on the ground, Sokov observed the surrounding environment. Except for the light coming through the passage, which illuminated a small area, the rest of the place was pitch black. He quickly took out a high-intensity flashlight, turned it on, and shone it in all directions.

Don’t think that when you buy a high-intensity flashlight in the market, the light of the flashlight can illuminate the street. But in the dark underground, the light of the flashlight is swallowed by the surrounding darkness. Except for the area illuminated by the beam of light, the rest of the place is still in darkness.

"Misha," Victoria's voice sounded next to her: "Are you afraid?"

Sokov said nothing, just shook his head. But the next moment, he remembered that the visibility here was extremely low, Victoria might not be able to see him and shook his head, and quickly added: "Not afraid!"

"It's good if you're not afraid." Victoria continued: "Then look around to see if there are any passages blocked by construction debris and dirt."

Sokov agreed, holding a flashlight in one hand and an engineer shovel in the other, and walked forward one step at a time.

When he came to a wall, he used the light of his flashlight to examine it carefully, then poked at it with the engineering shovel in his hand. After discovering that there was a hard cement wall under the soil, he changed the direction again. Keep looking.

The entire basement covers an area of ​​about fifty square meters. Sokov, Victoria and Sasha spent more than half an hour but still could not find any way out of the basement.

Victoria was extremely puzzled by this result: 'It's strange that the person who was rescued was found here. There are no passages around the basement now. How did they get here? ’

"Yeah, it's really weird," Sasha agreed.

"Misha, what do you think?" Victoria asked.

Although Sokov did not find any passage in his recent search, he was not discouraged. Instead, he was thinking hard about whether he had missed any important clues. Hearing Victoria ask himself at this moment, he said thoughtfully: "Is there something wrong with the way we search?"

"There is a problem with the search method?" Victoria asked in confusion: "What do you mean?"

Sokov waved his bright flashlight up and down and asked, "How high do you think the basement is?"

"About four or five meters."

"I thought about it carefully. We used the engineering shovel to explore the location of the passage. It was basically at the waist, which means it was more than one meter high..."

Before Sokov could finish speaking, Sasha said impatiently: "I'm talking about Misha, what do you want to express?"

"Sasha, don't interrupt." After Victoria stopped Sasha, she tentatively asked Sokov: "Misha, if I understand correctly, you are saying that there may be something wrong with the height of our exploration. Who entered this basement? The location of the passage should be higher than we thought? "

"Yes, that's what I meant." Sokov nodded and said, "I suspect that those people rolled down from somewhere above, and then the passage was blocked by collapsed rocks and soil. If we want If you find the passage, you can try a higher position.”

"Well, that makes sense." Victoria agreed with Sokov's statement and told Sasha: "Sasha, follow Misha's instructions and raise the search height to chest level to see if you can find the buried passage."

"Yes, Major," Sasha replied decisively.

After only a few minutes of this search, Sokov discovered that when the engineer shoveled down, he no longer encountered a hard cement wall, but soft soil. He quickly shoveled it twice with an engineering shovel. Except for some gravel, it was basically filled with soil.

After making the discovery, Sokov quickly turned to the busy Victoria on the other side and shouted: "Vika, I seem to have discovered something."

Hearing Sokov's shout, Victoria walked over quickly and asked tentatively: "Did you find the passage?"

"It seems so." Sokov waited for Victoria to come to her and continued to say to her: "Please give me a light, shoveling the soil with one hand is too strenuous."

After Victoria shined the light of the flashlight on the excavation location, Sokov held the engineer shovel with both hands and shoveled down the soil one shovel after another. Soon, a pit the size of a washbasin appeared at that location.

Seeing this situation, Victoria also realized that maybe this was the buried passage, and quickly shouted to the side: "Sasha, come here and help."

Sasha hurried over with an engineering shovel and asked Victoria: "Major, what are your instructions?"

Victoria waved the flashlight and said to Sasha: "Have you seen this pit? There should be a passage buried in the soil behind it. Help Misha and dig out the passage as soon as possible."

"Yes!" Sasha agreed loudly, then waved the engineer shovel and worked with Sokov to dig the buried passage.

After half an hour of excavation, the buried passage gradually revealed its original appearance.

Sasha also became excited. He turned to Victoria and said, "Major, it seems that we have indeed found the buried passage."

Victoria nodded, and then said to Sasha: "You may be tired, go up and rest for a while, and let Yarosh come down to take over your work."

"Okay." There was already some lack of oxygen in the basement. Sasha had been digging for such a long time and had already felt tired. After hearing what Victoria said, she quickly agreed, and then shouted to the top: "Yarosh, Yarrow Varied!"

Soon, an echo came from above: "What's going on?"

"Pull me up first." After saying that, Sasha hung the hook at her waist on the chain of the pulley.

When Sasha began to rise slowly, Sokov, who was digging, was surprised to find that part of the soil shoveled by the engineer shovel no longer fell out, but fell in the opposite direction. Seeing this situation, Sokov couldn't help but be overjoyed, and quickly said to Victoria: "Vika, look, some of the soil is falling inward, which means that we will be able to dig out the blocked channel soon."

"That's right, if we work harder, we can dig through the tunnel." Victoria asked with concern: "Misha, are you tired? Do you want to rest for a while and continue digging?"

"It's okay." Sokov waved his hand: "We will dig it out soon. It's not too late to rest after digging it out."

Besides, after Sasha returned to the ground, Yarosh asked with concern: "Sasha, how is the situation down there? Have you found the passage?"

"Found it." Sasha nodded and said, "We don't know how long the passage is blocked, so it's still unknown when it will be dug through."

Seeing Yarosh about to go down the passage, Sasha quickly stopped him: "Yarosh, don't worry, just smoke a cigarette first, otherwise you won't be able to smoke even if you wait down there."

Yarosh felt that what Sasha said made sense. Although there was no lack of oxygen underground, it was still quite dangerous to smoke down there. It was not too late to finish smoking on the ground before entering the underground. So he took out his cigarette, sat next to the shaft with Sasha and started puffing away.

After finishing a cigarette, Yarosh threw the cigarette butt on the ground, crushed it with his toes, hung up the hook around his waist, and said to Sasha: "Okay Sasha, the time is almost up. If you don't go down any longer, Major It’s time to curse.”

Unexpectedly, not long after Yarosh went down the well, he started yelling from below. Sasha quickly stuck her head in and asked, "Yarosh, what happened?"

"What the hell, Sasha, what the hell." Yarosh said from below: "Both the major and that Misha are gone."

"What, Major and the others are missing?" Sasha asked in an unbelievable tone: "Have you looked carefully?"

"I searched the entire basement and couldn't even see a shadow."

Sasha thought for a while and then said: "They may have entered the passage. Look around carefully to see where the passage is."

"There are walls on all sides, so there is no passage."

"Just wait, I'll be down soon."

When Sasha went down to the basement again, he said in a complaining tone: "Yarosh, what's wrong with you? You can't see such a big passage. Is there something wrong with your eyes?"

"I've searched everywhere, and I can't find the passage you mentioned."

Sasha quickly shined the flashlight at the location where she had just dug the soil. She did see a slope of mounds of soil on the ground, but the passage on the wall disappeared without a trace. He rushed over with a quick stride and knocked on the wall with an engineering shovel. He was surprised to find that it was a hard cement wall. He was dumbfounded: "Damn it, what's going on? The passage just now was obviously here, why?" Disappeared in the blink of an eye?"

"Sasha," Yarosh asked with a serious expression, "are you sure you remembered the location correctly? The passage you just discovered is here?"

"You can't be wrong." Sasha said with some excitement: "Didn't you see this pile of soil on the ground? I just dug it out of the tunnel."

"But now, not only has the passage disappeared, but the whereabouts of the major and that Misha are also unknown. What is going on?"