Lu Mingfei Returns from Monster Hunting

Chapter 224 The Demise of the Old Era (Two in One)

The vodka was added shot after shot, and the pot of beef stew was cold and reheated.

When Vatutin talked about the Cuban Missile Crisis for the third time, Zero suddenly spoke, interrupting his eloquence.

"I'm here this time to ask you about the 'Delta (Delta) Project'."

The warmth and happiness in the room seemed to be cut off by a knife in an instant. Vatutin stopped his energetic narration, and the wine glass he held high stopped in the air.

Lu Mingfei was also silent, he thought Ling brought him here to ask Vatutin for some passes to the military restricted zone.

But obviously, the old man in front of him knew more than he thought.

As soon as the word "Delta Project" was uttered, Vatutin's face seemed to be blown by a cold wind, and the temperature plummeted?
Lu Mingfei wanted to say something, but Ke Ling signaled him to shut up.

The wine glass slowly fell back on the table, Vatutin slowly turned his head, looked at Zero: "The last time you asked me this question was ten years ago, I didn't answer at that time, I thought you would never ask me again But today you brought this boy here and asked the same question, did you ask it for him?"

At this moment he should be respectfully called "General Vatutin Army".

The majesty that belonged to the old era suddenly returned to the old man, and there was a dazzling light in those chaotic eyes from drinking too much vodka.

"No, it's just that I got a little secret about that plan by accident, so I want to know the bottom line." Zero denied lightly.

But Vatutin didn't believe her, but asked, "Who is he?"

"You don't need to know this."

"That's a state secret!" Vatutin said.

"Your country is dead long ago." Zero said, "That secret is very important to us, and I will offer you a price you are satisfied with."

"A price I'm satisfied with?"

"You tell me everything you know about the 'Delta Project', and I will use all my connections to get you out of Russia. You can go to Spain or France and live the rest of your life freely." Zero stared at Vatutin's eyes, "You're not afraid of loneliness or death, but for someone like you, isn't it too humiliating to die old in this cage?"

Vatutin suddenly fell silent: "I shouldn't let you know me that much."

He poured himself a full glass of vodka and drank it slowly while watching the fire.

This was a dinner like a family feast, but at some point it turned into a negotiation between two businessmen.

One businessman made an offer that another businessman couldn't refuse.

After several minutes of silence, Vatutin began to speak.

He agreed...or accepted zero "conditions".

This majestic old man of the last century has been trapped in this remote suburb for too long. He lives in a log cabin every day, which is no different from a prison.

Vatutin felt that it was time to find a way for himself to provide for the elderly.

"Earthworms have no eyes, no ears. They perceive the world as dry, wet, soft, and hard. But if one day you catch an earthworm and say to it, 'Hey! Brother, do you know what seeing is? ’, and the earthworm goes mad because it has no eyes.”

The old man's voice was hoarse and long, like a vicissitudes bard.

"We are the earthworms who live in their eyes. The unknown is what makes us earthworms crazy. Once you know part of the world, you will want to explore it more and more deeply. It's like an older man who relies on Aphrodisiacs, or Faust depends on the devil."

Hearing the last sentence, Lu Mingfei's heart was slightly shaken. Maybe Vatutin just said it accidentally, but Lu Mingfei immediately thought of the little devil.

"In the most prosperous era of my country, it fought against the entire Western world with its own power. It was an era when people were full of ideals, although violence and politics were inevitably mixed, although there was a gap in economic strength, and although there were many shortcomings, But our military strength is still not inferior to them, and we try to achieve a balance with external forces in this regard, so many related military experimental research programs have been put into use, but they are basically abandoned or failed."

After drinking, Vatutin lit another cigar.

"Among these advanced military research projects, the 'Delta Project' is the most special, because its research object is human beings themselves."

"As for its goal, it sounds very stupid, because its goal is to create super soldiers, just like Captain America and Wolverine in American comics, and our experiment is more radical. We screened from the republics of the Soviet Union. Children with obvious genetic advantages, some people think, assuming that their superior genes can be combined, they will create a perfect person who dominates the battlefield."

"A genetic engineering project, so simple?" Mai Shutoku frowned slightly.

"It's not easy either. It's a bloody project. We repeatedly use these genes to create embryos and destroy them again and again. Life is a consumable in this project. They create various types of embryos, most of them in twos. Some products that seem to be successful have a very short lifespan."

Lu Mingfei poured wine glass by glass, lowered his head and listened to the old man tell the not-so-long story.

He knew the general idea of ​​the story, but it was not as detailed as Vatutin's.

"Dr. Herzog always gives us hope. Each generation of his products has indeed improved, making us long for the next generation of products to be perfectly finalized. Unfortunately, the super soldiers have not yet been put on the battlefield, and the country is gone."

Vatutin spread his hands: "That's all I know."

"Dr. Herzog, what impression do you have of this man?" Lu Mingfei asked subconsciously.

"He is the person in charge of the 'Delta Project'. He came to Moscow for several meetings. I met him at the meeting. He is a very ambitious scientist, but his level of secrecy is very high. I told him Contact was also limited to those few meetings, he was a German, captured when Berlin fell in 1945, so he was older than me, but it was strange, I couldn't tell his age from the appearance, and the gene It is said that he also brought the whole set of technology cultivated, and the academicians of the National Academy of Sciences all marveled at Dr. Herzog's understanding of genetic engineering."

"What about Bondarev?" Lu Mingfei asked again, "Have you heard of this name?"

Vatutin thought for a while, then shook his head slightly: "This is not a rare surname in Russia. I know more than one person named Bondarev, but none of them are related to the 'Delta Project', or ' He was a newcomer when Project Delta' was shut down and I lost control, and I don't know what happened after that anyway."

"So the 'Delta Project' you mentioned is just a failed genetic engineering project, a bloody human genetic experiment?" Mai Jiude confirmed again.

"For those dead experimental subjects, of course it is bloody. But at the national level, this is just the price that must be paid." Vatutin said coldly, the power and indifference of politicians can be clearly seen in him.

When he said these words, it was rare for Lu Mingfei to see a disgusted expression on Ling's face, she stared at Vatutin, her pupils were full of loneliness.

Even in the face of the annoying Fingel, she never showed such a look.

Vatutin immediately read the meaning in her eyes, and sneered: "Is it disgusting? This world is not something children can understand. I am a soldier. The duty of a soldier is to defend the country. For the country, I can sacrifice anyone including myself. "

"You can leave after listening to the story. You don't want to visit my fake adoptive father. Such rough food is too shabby for your highness. Your offer is indeed attractive, but I don't want to leave this place right now. nation."

As soon as the voice fell, he got up quickly and walked out the door.

"Zero Razumovsky Romanova, I hope this is the last time we meet." Vatutin said slowly, "You and the family behind you are unfathomable, and I am just an old man who has lost power, I can do nothing for you, and I will not fail my country for you."

Zero pretended not to listen, and left without looking back.

……

Inside the wooden house, the music had stopped, but the firewood in the fireplace was still crackling and burning.

The old man Vatutin sat alone at the table, silently eating the cold red cabbage soup.

The sound of the car engine has long gone, and the wind blows the birch trees, making a rustling sound.

Suddenly, there was a sound of military boots crushing grass blades in this sound, from far to near, and not long after, someone knocked on the door of the wooden house.

Before Vatutin could respond, the man had already opened the door and entered.

The person who came was wearing a straight Russian uniform and carried the rank of major on his shoulders.

He didn't speak, but took out a mobile phone from his pocket, pushed it to Vatutin along the table, and then turned and went out.

This wooden house is fully equipped, but it does not have any communication equipment. Vatutin, who is under surveillance, has no right to call the outside world without permission.

So Zero had to contact him by letter.

Vatutin watched the phone until it rang.

He picked up the phone and put it to his ear, but didn't speak.

"Hi, Vatutin, my dear friend, how are you?" The phone came in a fairly standard Russian, but with a bit of an exotic flavor.

It's a man whose age can't be discerned from his voice. His voice is kind and cheerful, just like an old friend who travels around the world occasionally thinks of you and calls to greet him.

"I'm not your friend. If you really treat me as a friend, send me out of this ghost place as soon as possible." Vatutin whispered, "The last time we met was more than 20 years ago, right?"

"Yeah... It's been more than 20 years. The last phone call was the day you left the Kremlin. When I called you, I was standing on Red Square, watching the old era leave on this land." On the other side of the phone The man sighed, but his voice was still cheerful, "That was a great ending."

"You told me at the time that that was our last call, and when you hung up the phone, our cooperation was completely over."

"I wouldn't call you anymore, but someone insisted on rehabilitating the old score. Fortunately, you are a tight-lipped friend. If you talk nonsense to those kids, we may have to put you in a five-kilometer radius." It's blown flat."

"I have no intention of helping you keep it a secret. It's just that people are old and are always a little tired of memory. Let them stay under the coffin for the past!"

"Is it for that girl? An old man who has no children wants to protect a little girl who is like an adopted daughter. Although this kind of drama has been seen a lot, it is still very touching."

"She has grown up and doesn't need my protection. She can protect herself."

"But that girl is really suspicious. Her Royal Highness, who suddenly appeared, approached you, gained your trust, and then asked you about the inside story of the Delta plan. It feels like a ghost escaped from Black Swan Harbor... Although The age is a bit wrong." The man on the other side of the phone said.

"If it is a child who escaped from Black Swan Harbor, he should be in his 30s by now." Vatutin said lightly.

"If she knows that you are actually the person in charge of the 'Delta Project', that you signed the documents and sent the poor children to Northern Siberia, will she still see you as a foster father? Maybe she is here Oh revenge!"

"It doesn't matter, my hands are already stained with blood, and it's normal for someone to seek revenge."

"Why don't you make some excuses for yourself?" The person on the other end of the phone sighed, "For example, you are for the great federation, and only by cultivating pure dragon blood can help you fight capitalism. Or that although you have sacrificed some children, but saved many more lives."

"You're wrong. It's precisely because of this that I don't make excuses for myself. After all, war should never have anything to do with... children." Vatutin said every word.

Everything in the past should have ended in his generation. If Zero hadn't mentioned the plan decades ago, maybe he would really bury Black Swan Harbor in a corner of dust.

"Vatutin, you are really a self-hypnotic executioner." The man on the phone sighed, "God's secrets cannot be known to humans."

"Of course I know." Vatutin said, "but there are times when it can't be hidden. Listen, let me pay for all the sins of the past."

There was silence on the other side, and it took a few minutes before the phone came back.

"Good-bye, Vatutin."

"See you in hell." Vatutin hung up the phone emphatically.

The sound of the leaves being blown by the wind became clearer, like a group of snakes waking up from hibernation crawling out of their caves.

He knew that it was the killers hiding in the grass who stood up, and countless guns with killing intent in the dark were aimed at his aged body.

"Farewell, Renata," Vatutin said softly.

He cast his gaze over the stove, where a picture frame stood alone.

In the white snow, the burly old man was lifting the dark-eyed girl high, as if he wanted to put her on his shoulders.

It was an endless winter. In the 80s, a girl named Renata Yevgenia Chicherina was sent to Black Swan Harbor by her parents for Herzog to study.

And Vatutin is her guardian.

(End of this chapter)