The Death Knell

"The most precious thing for a person is life, and life belongs to a person only once. A person's life should be spent in this way: when he looks back on the past, he will not regret for wasting his years, nor will he be ashamed of doing nothing; in this way, On his deathbed, he could say: My whole life and all my energy have been dedicated to the most magnificent cause in the world - the struggle for the liberation of mankind."

Standing in the narrow bedroom, with a narrow camp bed next to him and a bohemian-style colorful carpet on the dark floor under his feet, Su Ming recited the famous passage in proficient Russian.

This is the villa given to Ostrovsky by the upper class of Mao Xiong in 1935. The writer spent the last years of his life here, and his mother and sister also lived here to take care of him.

After his death in 1936, the upper level took back the villa in 1940 and converted it into the current exhibition hall for people to visit. A new museum three times larger was built on the left side of the villa to display various supplies of the master during his lifetime. Facing the street on the right is the newly built photo studio and ticket office.

There is no charge to enter the villa, but the museum is charged, and the photo studio requires a ticket, but it also gives you a postcard full of the flavor of the times, which is a bit interesting.

It's a pity that none of Su Ming and the other three can leave any video evidence outside. Safety comes first.

The three of them left the Sky Ring and arrived in Sochi very early. They found that it was not yet time for lunch, so Natasha suggested taking a walk in the small town.

Although the city of Sochi has a small population, its area is not small at all, which fully embodies Mao Xiong's concept of building buildings casually on vast land and sparsely populated areas.

Of course, it is a cold winter in Russia, and this is inland Hawaii. There are many people coming here to recuperate. The streets that are not spacious are full of people walking slowly. It is not only senior cadres who can come here to recuperate. On the contrary, , here are more workers brothers.

With the smell of vodka in the air and the cheerful accordion tunes, this is indeed a city full of sunshine.

"Comrade leader, you don't look like someone who likes reading." Natasha also asked in Russian, with a rich expression on her face. She really didn't know that her boss had literary talent.

"Appearances can be deceiving. I am your leader, Comrade Romanov." Su Ming replied with a smile. The two of them seemed to be role-playing. But in fact, in this era, homosexuality is just the most common thing. It's just a title.

Natasha circled around, looking around this very ordinary bedroom, but she had only seen such an ordinary bedroom when she was very young. She couldn't help but try to recall the past, but the past with Ivan , has been blurred.

"So does this sentence in the famous book have any special meaning to you?"

She came to her senses and followed Su Ming and Gin Jiu as they left, because there were other tourists waiting to visit behind them.

"Of course." Su Ming lowered his voice and said in Natasha's ear: "I think the author may have seen aliens before and realized that if humans fall behind, they may end up in a tragic ending in the universe. So he wants to liberate all mankind."

"Uh... I always feel that the person who wrote the book didn't mean it that way."

Natasha rubbed her ears, feeling a little itchy, and could only roll her eyes at the boss's nonsense.

Su Ming smiled, strode out of the villa door, nodded and said hello to the strangers outside, acting like an excited tourist, but he no longer planned to go to the museum next door.

Sochi has a small population, but in addition to the small Ostrovsky Museum here, there are five other large museums, seven parks, three ski resorts, and countless hot spring resorts.

They are all prepared for foreign tourists.

Taking his time, Su Ming planned to rest here for a few more days. As a wounded person, he decided to try more hot springs.

The slightly troublesome thing about food, clothing, housing and transportation is that if you want to stay in a good guest house, you need a letter of introduction from your employer, but Natasha has received systematic training in the art of forgery from the Red House.

It is not difficult for her to first steal a real letter of introduction from someone else, and then imitate a fake one. What's more, this is a furry bear, the place she is most familiar with, and there are many things in her mind. Ready-made document styles.

She was also brave enough to create a letter of introduction to the KGB, which really scared the hotel staff.

Su Ming felt that this was a bit high-profile. After all, they occupied the best suite in the Seagull Guest House. This was the guest house with the best view on the Black Sea. Many leaders had stayed here.

But after thinking about it, he let Natasha arrange it. She was not sure how long it would take before she would officially start the 'deep dive' mission. He just wanted to make her happy now. Anyway, he was here and couldn't get out. What a mess.

Gin only knows a little bit of Russian, Japanese, and Italian, which she learned when she communicated with those dynamic social groups, so she rarely speaks when outsiders are around, and she looks aloof.

However, when she entered the room, she immediately looked to see what wine was in the wine cabinet and kicked her beautiful high heels aside.

Since it was a holiday for self-cultivation, it was natural to do whatever you wanted. After drinking gin for a while, the three of them went out to a restaurant to eat. They ate whatever was expensive, and the rubles in their hands were like handfuls blown by the strong wind. Throw it out.

The ruble in this era was still quite valuable. The exchange rate of the ruble to the US dollar in 1955 was 4:1, but the money Su Ming earned was not used for much other than secretly arranging plans and purchasing raw materials. Just spend it.

After lunch, the three of them went swimming in the Black Sea in the afternoon, went skiing in the mountains the next day, and went fishing by the river on the third day. The days were extremely happy.

But after playing for about a week, when the New Year just arrived, Natasha got the news from the spider web.

The intelligence given to her by the girls lurking inside SSR stated that SSR was officially dissolved by Congress. After a scapegoating meeting about the incident at the end of last year, SSR lived up to expectations and took the lion's share of the blame, although some were given to the CIA and FBI. , but it was still not enough. Under the surging public opinion, it was still disbanded.

The invasion of Hydra and the Nazis caused so many casualties and bad effects. If they are not disbanded, it will not be enough for the people to be angry and to comfort the souls of the dead.

Natasha carefully burned the information that the three of them had read. Looking at Su Ming who was still having a barbecue on the terrace of the suite, she said helplessly:

"SSR is disbanded, what should I do next?"

"Don't worry, how can the Strategic Science Corps be disbanded so easily?" Su Ming quickly flipped the mutton skewers on the fire and sprinkled seasonings skillfully. He was not good at cooking, but as a mercenary, his barbecue skills were pretty good. .

Of course, when you sprinkle salt, you still have to inject soul.

Gin was used to his antics and just smiled while skewering mushrooms. She wanted to eat some vegetarian food, but her food was too greasy these days.

"Are you saying this is a cover-up?" Natasha squatted by the stove and helped baste the skewers: "But all the internal staff have been assigned new positions, or have simply retired."

Su Ming picked up the skewers, blew out the open flame below, and put the skewers back again: "That's just for people who are a little bit interested to see. In a few days, these people will receive new orders, or Notice to return and start over in a new place.”

The Camp Caspian base is probably going to be abandoned, and the next base should be the hidden underground base ‘The Playground’ in New Jersey. Of course, there may be other changes, such as the emergence of new bases that have never been heard of before.

In fact, the current Congress is not stupid at all. Mustache is not dead yet, and Hydra still exists. To really shut down SSR just because of public opinion is to cut off an arm.

The military's apology, the president's public speech of condolences, the banning of certain departments, and the holding of certain people accountable are all for outsiders to see.

The senior officials secretly support SSR. With the support of these people and sufficient funds, the Strategic Science Corps can take root wherever it changes its name.

The question now is who will be the next director? If another new person is parachuted in, it will probably be Hydra...

.............................

"It can be considered as an escape..."

On the vast sea, Howard, who was sitting next to the boat, saw the vague horizon in the distance and the Coast Guard warship heading towards them. He couldn't help but relax and lay on the board of the boat, covering his forehead with his hands, crying. Eyes full.

It was too difficult for him and Steve. Not only did they have to face all kinds of poisonous insects and mosquitoes in the Cuban rainforest, they were also pursued by AIM and local anti-American guerrillas.

He and Steve fled all the way, running out of ammunition and food. In the end, he even made a homemade slingshot and bow and arrow, and the two relied on such weapons to fight the enemy.

Thanks to Steve, otherwise they wouldn't have been able to reach the beach, let alone grab a small boat and row back to the United States. They were almost discovered by the furry bear submarine during the journey. It's really hard to describe.

Not only did he miss Christmas, but he also missed New Year.

Steve also looked defeated now, and the green military uniform on his body was in tatters. Although he was a super soldier, he was a man of iron rice and steel. The two of them were pursued in the wild for more than ten days. I didn't even have a warm meal. I could only eat raw grass roots, fruits and insects. How could I feel better?

"This world is still unsafe."

Steve adjusted the small sail and continued to row the boat towards the guard. Finally, under Howard's gaze, the two boarded the warship.

Back in the civilized world, the money in Howard's pocket was put to use. He scattered the U.S. dollars, checks flew one by one, sent several telegrams, and forced the warship to send them back to New York Harbor like a yacht.

After getting off the ship, Howard saw the news of his unemployment in the newspaper. Before he could complain to Steve, a piece of black coal came out of the crowd.