Chapter 3 Chapter two

Hearing this figure, Hecroft felt as if he had suffered from transient cerebral ischemia.He eyed the banker suspiciously.Outside the carriage, various sounds from the train station faintly pass through the thick walls of the carriage, like a group of musical instruments with muted instruments playing. Manfradi put the letter aside and said: "Don't think it's that easy for you to get the money. There are some conditions. Let me tell you by the way, none of the conditions will make you feel unacceptable. At least we don't think it will overwhelm you." "There are still conditions?..." Hecroft felt that he had lost his voice, and the other party must not be able to hear what he was saying.He tried his best to let go of his volume to speak, "What are the conditions?"

"The terms are very clear in the letter. There are several large sums to be spent on doing great good to people everywhere. But then again, you will get some personal benefit out of it." "You said you didn't think it would overwhelm me... What do you mean?" The banker's big eyes with glasses blinked, and he glanced away, with a somewhat embarrassed look on his face.There was a small brown suitcase on the edge of the table, and he reached into it and took out a long, thin envelope.It had some strange markings on the back--four circles that looked like old copper coins, attached to the seal of the envelope.

Manfradi showed him the letter across the table; and in the light of the lamp it was evident that the coin-like thing was sealing-melt, which appeared to be intact.He said: "This letter is not the same as the personal letter written by your father in April 1945. According to an instruction given to us thirty years ago: the directors of the Bank of Geneva are not allowed to open this letter without authorization. It is not part of the agreement I just mentioned, it is a separate letter. And as far as we know, Crossen himself does not know the content of this letter. You have a look at his April 1945 to you You can know this from your personal letter; and that was the last communication between Berlin and us that year. This letter came within a few hours after we received your father's letter and agreement in April 1945. Delivered to us by a messenger."

"Then what does this letter say?" "We don't know. It is said to have been written by a few people who knew about your father's activities. They were all enthusiastic supporters of your father's activities, and they thought: In many ways, your biological father was German. A true martyr. We have been ordered to deliver this letter unopened to you personally. You should read this letter before reading your own handwritten letter from your biological father." Manfradi finished Just handed over the envelope. On the front of the envelope is a line written in German in pen:

"If you receive this letter with the seal intact and the letter unopened; please sign below." Knoller took the envelope and looked at the line in German.But he didn't understand German, so he asked, "What does this sentence mean in German?" "It means that you have checked the sealing seal and you do not think it has been tampered with." "Then how do I know if someone has taken the initiative to seal it?" "Young man, you are talking to the director of a large bank in Geneva. I can assure you that this letter has not been opened; What are you worried about?" The old man's voice was not high, but it was obviously a reproachful tone.

Knoller thought: Yes, too.However, he felt uneasy about whether the letter had been opened or not, so he asked, "If I sign this envelope, how are you going to deal with it?" Manfradi didn't speak for a few minutes, as if trying to figure out whether to answer the question raised by the other party.He took off his glasses, took a silk handkerchief from his breast pocket, wiped them, and finally replied: "Only you have the right to dispose of this letter..." Knoller interrupted: "And only I have the right to decide whether I should sign or not." Putting his glasses on, the banker retorted: "You let me finish. I mean, you alone have the right to dispose of this letter; yes, but the contents of this letter are meaningless now. Also That is to say, after so many years, it is meaningless. We intended to send this letter by post to a post office box in Long Simbra, Portugal. This place is located in the south of Lisbon. On the corner of Espichel's Land."

"Why is the content of this letter meaningless now?" Manfradi waved his hands and said: "There is no post office box. If we send this letter to that box, it will be returned to the Bureau of Undelivered Letters sooner or later. The people there They will take the letter apart and look at it, and eventually they will return the letter to our bank." "Do you think this is the end?" "Yes, I believe it must be so." Knoller turned the letter over and took another look at the sealed seal.It is true that the seal has never been opened.He reached into his pocket to take out a pen, thinking: Has this letter been opened, so what does it matter?He put the envelope down and signed his name on it.

Manfradi raised his hand to stop the other party and said: "I hope you understand this: no matter what the content of this letter is, it must not affect the agreement between your father and the Bank of Geneva that you and I will be involved in the future. because the issues involved in this letter have not been contacted with our bank in the past, and our bank has no knowledge of it." "I think you have something to worry about? Didn't you just say that the content of this letter has long since passed and is meaningless?" "Mr. Heckcroft, there are certain fanatics that always trouble me, and even the passing of the situation can't change my mood. This is a kind of cautiousness that is inevitable in the banking industry."

Knoller removed the wax with his hands.Due to the age of the sealant is too long, it becomes very hard.It took a lot of effort to get it off.He tore open the envelope, pulled out the letter, and flattened it. Due to the age, the letter paper has become brittle and has a light brown color.The letter was written in English, in a strange square imitation of German.The writing has faded, but is still legible. Hecroft first looked at the signature at the end of the letter, but there was no signature.He began to read the letter. This is a letter shrouded in the shadow of death, and it is the product of the desperate mood of the writer thirty years ago.It makes people daydream: in a dark room, sitting a few people in a trance.They stared at the panicked ghosts on the wall, speculated about the future, and told the fortune of a person who was not yet born.

The original text of the letter is as follows: "From this moment on, Heinrich Crossen's son will be tested in various ways. There are certain people who will hear about this arrangement we made in Geneva, and they will try to hinder him. They live The purpose is to kill him, so that the ideal of the giant - that is, his biological father - cannot be realized. We cannot allow them to succeed because in the past we — all of us — have been betrayed.We must let the world see what we were, and not let the world believe what these traitors say about us; because they smear us as traitors; and we are not, Heinrich K. Rosen especially was not.

We are survivors of the wolf den.We seek to clear our shame and restore our stolen honor. Therefore, as long as Crossen's descendants spare no effort to fight for the ideals of our father and restore our honor, the survivors of Wolf's Den will do their best to protect him.But if his son abandons his father's ideals and commits a betrayal, and does not return our honor, he will surely die; and even his mother, wife, children, relatives and friends will not be spared. No one should attempt to interfere with our plans.Give me back the honor because it is ours and we claim it. " Knoller pushed back the chair, stood up and said, "What's the matter?" "I'm also baffled. I didn't tell you that the content of this letter has not been contacted with us before..." Manfradi replied calmly and his tone was very composed, but his stern blue big There was a look of panic in his eyes. Knoller yelled: "Hmph! What 'didn't contact you beforehand'! Read this letter for yourself! Who are these lunatics who wrote this letter? Are they all real lunatics?" The banker picked up the letter and read it.Without raising his eyes, he said softly, "This is a letter written by a group of No. 2 lunatics. They wrote this letter when they were at the end of their rope." "What is wolf den? What does this German word mean?" "This is the name of Hitler's East Prussian staff headquarters, where the attempted murder took place. It was a coup by the generals. Generals von Stauffenberg, General Kruger, Hoepner The general—these guys were all involved, and they were all shot. Rommel committed suicide." Hecroft stared at the letter in Manfradi's hand and asked, "You mean, this letter was written by a person like this thirty years ago?" The banker looked terrified, his eyes narrowed into a line, nodded and said: "Yes, but I didn't expect the tone of their letter. It's just a threat. It's so unreasonable. Those people are not unreasonable people. On the contrary, their time was an irrational time. The decent people, the brave people, were tossed almost crazy; Unimaginable." Knoller asked disapprovingly, "A decent person?" "Can you understand what it means to be implicated in the Wolf's Den case? The conspiracy was uncovered, followed by a massacre. Thousands of people were killed everywhere. People today have never heard of Wolf's Den. At the time It also became another means of final purges, an excuse to wipe out dissidents throughout Germany. What was supposed to be an act of righteousness aimed at exterminating a madman for mankind turned out to be a catastrophe. Survivors of the Wolf's Lair They all witnessed the disaster." Knoller interjected: "And these survivors will follow this madman for a long time." "You should understand them, and you can understand them. Those people saw the coup fail, the situation was over, and they were the only ones in the pot; and for them, things turned upside down. In the end they found that the world they helped create It was not what they imagined at all. All kinds of terrible things that they could not have imagined in their dreams appeared one after another, but they couldn't escape the responsibility for these terrible things. All this made them dumbfounded, but They can't clean themselves up." "They're a good bunch of Nazis, aren't they? I've heard of these kind of sneakers in the past," Knoller said. "If you want to understand this type of people, you have to go back to history, back to the economic crisis before the First World War, the Treaty of Versailles, the Treaty of Locarlo, the Bolsheviks coming to power, in short, you have to go back to the consequences of various factors in history. " Heckcroft said: "I just want to understand the letter I just read. Tell me, what are these poor misunderstood stormtroopers! If you say anything, 'he will surely die, and even his mother, wife, children, relatives and friends will not be spared.' They want to kill people! Don't tell me about these kind-hearted people Butchers!" "It's all nonsense uttered by a group of old, faint and hopeless people. It has no practical significance. It's just a way for them to express their inner anxiety and atonement. These people have long since passed away. Now, you can let them rest in peace. It is important to read your father's personal letter first..." Knoller preemptively said, "He's not my father." "Read Heinrich Crossen's own letter. You will understand everything after reading it. Read it. We have a few things to discuss, and time is running out." A man in a light coffee-colored tweed overcoat and a dark, narrow-brimmed, pointed Tarot hat stood beside the platform column opposite the seventh car.At first glance, there is nothing particularly conspicuous about this person. Probably only his eyebrows are distinctive. Not only are they thick and dense, but they are also black and light gray. In the upper half of the cave, there seem to be two arch holes in the color of salt and pepper. But if you look closely, you can see that, from his appearance, although this person has ordinary features, he is not vulgar, and he has a resolute demeanor.Although small whirlwinds blew across the platform, he stood in the wind without blinking.He was engrossed in the seventh car, thinking to himself: when the American stepped out of the car, and when he entered this car half an hour ago.It will be a different person before and after.Few people in the world have experienced in a lifetime such a huge life mutation as this American experienced in a few minutes.But this is only the beginning of the mutation.The journey he is about to embark on is beyond the imagination of today's people.So, from the minute he stepped out of the door of the seventh car, all his reactions should - not just "should", but "absolutely must" - be closely monitored. The last announcement before departure sounded at the station: "Passengers, please pay attention, the train to Zurich at nine o'clock..." Meanwhile, a train from Roshan was about to stop on an adjacent track.In a blink of an eye, the platform will be full of tourists who are going to Geneva for the weekend.The man standing by the column thought; it would be rather like the English mainlanders rushing to London and crowding into Charing Square in the center of the city, just to dance there a little bit. The train from Luo Shan finally stopped, the passengers got off, and the full moon platform was full of people again. The tall figure of the American suddenly appeared in the aisle of the seventh car.A red hat was carrying a piece of luggage and blocked the door so that he couldn't get out of the car.Under such urgent circumstances a quarrel usually arose, but Heckcroft was in such an abnormal state of mind that he showed no hurry, no expression on his face, and was concerned about the driving time. There is no response to urgency.He stared blankly at the chaotic scene, but turned a blind eye, showing a pensive look.He still has lingering fears about what he just experienced.It was evident from the way he held the heavy manila envelope tightly in his arms.He clasped both ends of the envelope tightly with both hands, and his fingers clenched the paper were clenched into fists due to excessive force. His lingering fear came from this paper document written by the previous generation.And the miracle that the man standing beside the column and the people before him longed for day and night, and spared no efforts to pursue, is precisely this paper document.After more than 30 years of anticipation, this instrument has finally appeared! The journey has begun. Hecroft entered the stream of passengers, and made his way to the ramp from which he could exit the station gates.Although the people around him were squeezing him, he ignored him, staring straight ahead, staring aimlessly. Years of specialized training.The person standing by the column suddenly became aware of something unusual: there were two people whose faces were different from those around them. But only with a murderous look on his face.The two of them walked forward in the crowd, one behind the other, staring at the American.No need to ask, they want to murder this American!The man walking in front had his right hand in his pocket, and the man walking behind had his left hand in his bosom, thrusting into his open coat.The man standing by the column decided that the hands in his pockets and arms must both be holding weapons.He squeezed into the stream of people from the edge of the column as if flying.Now there is no time to delay.The two men drew closer and closer to Heckcroft.They must have come to grab that thick manila envelope.This is the only possible explanation.If so, it means that the miraculous contents contained in that envelope have been leaked from Geneva.Compared with the priceless paper in that envelope, the life of this American is worth nothing.The two approaching Heckcroft would have killed him as lightly as a bug crawling on a gold bar for the paperwork.They would have killed him without a care.As everyone knows: kill the son of Heinrich Crossen, then no miracle will happen. They were only a few yards away from him.The man with pepper-and-salt gray eyebrows is like a beast possessed by a wild ghost, crawling forward from the shoulders of passengers recklessly, and pushing aside luggage or people who block his progress. , or simply step on it. When he was within a few feet of the assassin in his pocket, he reached into his pocket and grabbed a pistol hidden in it.Then he yelled at the assassin in German: "Don't kill Crossen's son! Don't take away the documents!" The assassin had squeezed onto the ramp, just a few blocks away from the American.Hearing these two words yelled at him by a stranger, he turned around abruptly and stared wide-eyed in surprise. The passengers in the back rushed forward and climbed up the ramp, surrounding the two who seemed to be enemies. The assassin and the "bodyguard" stood facing each other, each with a tiny foothold. The gray-browed man licked the trigger of the pistol in his pocket, and then licked it again.The sound of bullets tearing clothes almost completely drowned out the gunfire.Two bullets penetrated the assassin's body.The first bullet made the man's body jerk forward suddenly; the second bullet made the man's head suddenly flung back, and the blood from the throat spurted far away, splashing on the faces, clothes, and so on of the surrounding people. The suitcases in their hands and the ramp were also covered with blood in pools, and people shouted in panic. The gray-browed shooter suddenly felt a hand grab his shoulder.He turned around and saw that another assassin was attacking him.But the opponent didn't hold a gun in his hand, but stabbed him with a hunting bayonet.The man with gray eyebrows could see that the opponent was not a professional agent, and he instinctively—this instinct was cultivated by years of agent training—immediately reacted to the opponent's attack.He dodged sideways cleverly, like a matador dodging the corner of the bull's chair; at the same time, his left hand-grasped the wrist of the knife-bearer, and his right hand came out of his pocket and grasped the opponent tightly. The fingers holding the handle of the knife will never let go.He yanked the opponent's wrist down until he tore the cartilage in the opponent's hand.He continued to pull down, until finally the point of the knife penetrated into the soft flesh of the opponent's belly; then he raised the point of the knife upwards, and inserted it straight into the opponent's ribs, severing the artery of the heart.The opponent's facial muscles twitched, he uttered a horrible scream, and died instantly. The chaos on the ramp was out of control: there were horrible screams, one after another.People stepped on a large area of ​​bloody footprints under their feet.The crowd crashed, adding to the hysterical atmosphere. The "bodyguard" knew exactly how to get out of a situation like this.He suddenly showed an expression of incomparable hatred for the blood splattered all over his body.And showing a completely panic-stricken look, holding his hands high, he ran forward with all his strength, so that he could blend himself into the hysterical crowd. People are like a group of frightened animals, running forward with all their strength.He also fled from the blood-stained platform. He sprinted off the ramp, past the American he'd just rescued. Heckcroft had also heard that terrible scream just now.The sound jolted him out of his dazed, thought-numbed state.He would have turned his head to see what confusion was behind him; but the frightened crowd was too great to turn.He was pushed against the edge of the ramp, until his body was squeezed against the three-foot-high concrete parapet—a low wall that served as a railing for the ramp.He grabbed the top of the wall and turned his face to look back, but couldn't see what was going on. All he saw was: on the ramp below, a man bent backward with blood gushing from his throat; another man with his mouth wide open in pain;The turbulent flow of people carried him again, forcing him to continue walking up the slope. Someone brushed past Hecroft, and gave Hecroft a sharp pinch on the shoulder; and when he turned his face, he had time to see the bushy grizzled eyebrows of the man who had bumped him.His eyes stretched out in shock.He thought: There has been an outrage here, probably from an attempted robbery followed by a fight that ended with a death.He sighed; unexpectedly, peaceful Geneva is no safer than the lonely streets of New York City at night or the small alleys of Marrakech in Morocco. For the moment, however, Hecroft went up to ponder these matters.He can't distract himself, he has something on his mind.So he fell into the fog of his own thinking again. In this bewildering state, he vaguely realized that from now on, his life would be completely different from the past. Holding tightly to the envelope in his hand, he followed the screaming crowd, hurried down the ramp, and turned toward the station gate.