Chapter 27 Chapter Twenty Seven

At five o'clock in the morning, Juliet showed up at Old Walker's electronics workshop.She was worried that he might have fallen asleep, but unexpectedly, she smelled a pungent smell of melting solder volatilized throughout the corridor.Seeing that the door was open, she went in and knocked on the panel.There were several green circuit boards in front of Old Walker, and he was buried in soldering one of them, when a wisp of smoke came out from the soldering iron in his hand, lingering in the air.As soon as he heard the knock at the door, he looked up at once.He was gray-haired and wore a pair of glasses with large magnifying lenses.

"Joey!" He yelled, and immediately took off his glasses, and put the electric iron on the iron bench, "I heard you're back, I wanted to send you an email, but—" He raised his The starter pointed to the mountains of parts piled up all over the floor.There are also sequential number plates hanging on the parts with threads. "Too busy," he explained. "It's okay." As she spoke, she hugged Old Walker, and found that he smelled of solder all over her body, and she couldn't help but recall every bit of the time when she was with him in the past.And Scott.

"I'm sorry you're so busy, but I must take a moment of your time," she said. "Oh?" He took a step back, looked at her carefully, and suddenly frowned, his thick white eyebrows and wrinkles on his face seemed to be tangled together, with a worried look on his face. "Anything for me?" He looked up at her, then down at the broken machine.His hobby in life was fixing small things that broke. "I just wanted to borrow your mind." She sat down on a battered stool, and Old Walker found another. "What's wrong?" He raised his hand and wiped his eyebrows with his sleeve.At this time, Juliet noticed that Walker had become very old.In her memory, his hair didn't seem so white before, and his face didn't seem to have so many wrinkles and spots.The memory of her apprenticeship has lingered to this day.

"It's about Scott," she reminded him first. Old Walker suddenly turned his head away, then nodded.As if he wanted to say something, he raised his fist and beat his chest, clearing his throat. "Damn, what a pity." He managed to squeeze out a few words.Then he looked down at the ground for a long time. "Well, it doesn't have to be so urgent." Juliet said to him, "Take your time and wait for you—" "I persuaded him to work above." Old Walker shook his head and said, "I still remember that when they came to recruit him, he was very scared and said he didn't want to go. It was all my fault, you know? Actually, His concern was that I wouldn't be happy if he left. I was worried that he would probably be here for the rest of his life, so I encouraged him to go." He looked up at her, tears welling in his eyes. "I just want him to understand that he's free to choose. I'm not trying to drive him away."

"You can't be blamed," said Juliet. "Nobody can blame you, and you shouldn't blame yourself." "I just thought he wouldn't be happy here because it's not his home." "Well, he's too smart to be here. It's a waste. Remember, that's why he's gone. It's always been that way." "He loves you very much." Old Walker rubbed his eyes, "God, do you know how much that kid admires you?" Juliet began to feel the heat in her eyes again.She reached into her pocket and pulled out the note she had copied from the e-mail.She told herself, don't forget what to do here today, cheer up.

"He really doesn't look like the kind of person who can't think about it—" Old Walker muttered. "Of course he isn't," she said. "Walker, there is something I want to discuss with you, but it must not be leaked." He smiled, but stiffly, as if trying to hide that he had just cried. "Has anyone seen me leave this room? I've never been out, so of course it won't be leaked," he joked. "Well, anyway, absolutely must not let anyone know. Absolutely not. Understand?" He nodded. "I don't think Scott committed suicide."

Suddenly old Walker raised his hands to cover his face, bent down, trembled all over, and began to cry.Juliet got up and went to him and put her arms around his trembling back. "I knew it." He covered his face and cried loudly, "I knew it, I knew it." Then he looked up at her, his face was stained with tears, and his pale beard was also stained with tears: "Who did it? They must not escape, right? Zuer, tell me who did it?" "Whoever did it, they can't get away," she said. "Is it the information section? Those bastards." "Walker, I need you to help me sort this stuff out. Scott emailed it to me, and it didn't take long for him to be...uh, he was killed."

"Send you an email?" "Yes, you see, I met him the night before he was killed. He told me to go down to him." "Go to the information area?" She nodded: "Before, I found something in the computer of the former security officer—" "Hoston." He nodded, "The person who went out to clean the lens recently. By the way, Knox gave me something earlier, saying that you gave it to him. It seems to be a procedure. I told him, Shi Court probably knows this stuff better than anyone, so I asked him to forward it to him." "Well, you're doing the right thing."

Old Walker rubbed his face, then lowered his head again: "He's smarter than any of us." "I know. That's what he told me. It's a program that makes very sophisticated images. It's like we're up there looking out—" She paused at this point, wanting to see how he would react.No matter what the occasion, some words should never be mentioned.Old Walker didn't move.She guessed right, he was already too old, and had long forgotten the most feared taboo in childhood.But maybe it was because he was too lonely and sad to care. "However, in the e-mail he sent me, he mentioned something called a pixel. He said the pixel density is too high." She showed him the note.Old Walker picked up his magnifying glasses and put the straps on the lenses over his head.

"Pixel." He sobbed, "The pixel he said is an element that makes up an image. Every picture is made up of many small dots, and these small dots are pixels." He took it from her hand Pass the note and continue reading. "He said he was in danger there." Old Walker rubbed his chin violently and shook his head vigorously, "Those bastards." "Walker, which kind of screen is only eight inches wide and two inches high?" Juliet turned her head to look around the workshop. There were circuit boards, screens, and bundles of wires everywhere. "Do you have anything like that here?"

"Eight inches wide and two inches high? It should be an instrument display, like the one on a server. This size can be used to display simple text, temperature data, and clock cycle—" He shook his head, "But, then There’s no way this kind of gauge display can display such a high pixel density. Even if you can make such a gauge, it’s inexplicable. What’s the use? Even if you put your eyes on the gauge, you can’t see the pixels.” He rubbed his bearded face, looked at the note, and thought for a while, "What tape did he mention, what joke, what does it mean?" Juliet stood next to him and looked down at the note, "I don't quite understand it either. The tape he mentioned is probably the heat-resistant tape he helped me get last time." "I seem to remember that." "Well, do you remember when we had a problem? We taped the exhaust pipe and it almost caught fire. Then he sent me a letter and asked me if I accepted it. To the tape. I remember I wrote back to him and said I received it and thanked him, but I told him a joke, saying that this kind of tape rots if you touch it, it must have been deliberately designed." "Is this the joke you said?" Old Walker sat on the swivel stool and spun around, leaning his elbows on the workbench, his eyes fixed on the note written in charcoal, as if Scott was on the note. His face, as if his little apprentice came to see him for the last time, to tell him something very important. "He said, I was joking, and it turned out not to be a joke. It really happened," said Juliet. "I woke up three hours ago, and I couldn't sleep because I kept thinking about it, and it was very painful." I want someone to study it and see what he means.” Walker turned to look at her, his eyebrows suddenly raised. "Walker, I don't like being a security officer, and I don't like investigating. I'm not made to be a security officer. I shouldn't have been there in the first place. But I know, everyone knows, and what I'm going to say next will not be accepted by anyone. Hear, I will definitely be sent out to be cleaned—” Old Walker slid off the stool immediately and walked away from her.Juliet cursed herself secretly, why did she come to see Old Walker, why didn't she just go to work obediently, and forget about all this— Old Walker went to close the door of the workshop and locked it.Then he stared at her, put a finger to his lips, and walked over to the air compressor, pulled out a tube, started the compressor, and the high-pressure air came out of the tube all the way, making a harsh hissing sound , and the compressor motor also made a loud noise.At this time, he went back to the swivel stool and sat down, staring at her with wide eyes, waiting for her to continue. "There is a sand dune up there, and there is a curved ravine on the sand dune." She had to raise her voice when she spoke, "I don't know how long it's been since you went to see that sand dune, but there are two corpses there now, by Very close, almost hugging. They are a couple. If you look hard enough, you can see a dozen other corpses on the dunes, all from people who went out to clean the lens. Of course, the corpses are decomposed To varying degrees, but over the years, most of them have turned to ashes." Old Walker shook his head, as if he could imagine the scene she described. "Over the years, they have been improving the protective clothing so that those who go out to clean the lens can last longer. How many years, hundreds of years?" He nodded. "But the strange thing is that no one has the means to go further. What's even more strange is that they definitely have time to clean the lens." Old Walker looked up into her eyes. "Your joke, it turned out not to be a joke. There really is such a thing," he said. "That heat-resistant tape. It was designed to corrode quickly." Juliet pursed her lips. "That's what I was thinking. And, it's not just the tape. Do you remember those gaskets from years ago? We used to fix the pump? Those gaskets were supposed to go to the information section, It turned out that the courier made a mistake and sent it to us, remember?" "At that time we laughed at the people in the information section, saying they were a bunch of idiots, a bunch of idiots—" "It turned out we were the fools," said Juliet.It feels so good to finally be able to say what is in my heart to others.She racked her brains to come up with these things, which have been stuffed in her heart, and now she can finally say them.Also, she thinks that sending emails is expensive because they don't want the bunker residents to communicate with each other.She was right about that too.It's inevitable that people will think wildly, it doesn't matter, anyway, you are all isolated, and you can think whatever you like.However, gatherings to discuss and exchange opinions are absolutely prohibited. "Do you think they put our M&E section on the bottom because it's closer to the oil wells?" she asked Old Walker. People with common sense are too close to them, keep them as far away as possible. There are two production lines in the bunker, producing different parts, and both are classified as top secret. Who dares to question them? Who dares to take this risk? Who wants to be Send it out to clean the lens?" "You think they killed Scott?" he asked. Juliet nodded. "Walker, I think the situation is even more dire." She leaned closer to the old Walker, and the compressor "rumbled" and made a harsh "hissing" sound that filled the entire workshop. "I think they killed those people outside."