My Realistic Simulation Game

Chapter 212 Thirty Thousand Heartbeats

The car's interior was completely sealed off, with the windows blocked by heavy curtains, making it completely dark.

Qin Yuan sat in the back seat with a rough black cloth hood covering his head, blocking out all visual information.

He was unable to determine the direction the vehicle was traveling, and even lost his accurate perception of the passage of time.

All you could hear was the deep rumble of the engine, the noise of tires rolling over the road, and the occasional, muffled sounds from the outside world, dampened by the car's sound insulation.

The clearest sound he could hear was actually his own heartbeat coming from inside his chest.

Bang...bang...bang...

Steady, powerful, with a constant rhythm.

He silently counted, relying on his precise perception of his bodily functions and his powerful mental arithmetic ability to construct a time scale in his mind.

When his heart rate broke through the 30,000 mark, he was pretty sure he had been in the car for at least six hours.

The vehicle speed began to decrease significantly, and the engine noise decreased.

Outside the window, the faint sounds of other vehicles honking, the cacophony of voices, and the unique, mixed noise of the city could be heard.

The destination appears to be a densely populated area.

However, this uproar did not last long.

The vehicle seemed to have entered a relatively enclosed environment and eventually came to a complete stop.

The external noise vanished instantly, replaced by a depressing, deathly silence.

"Alright, we've arrived." Major Perkov's voice rang out from the front seat, breaking the silence in the carriage.

Qin Yuan's heart skipped a beat!
Six hours!

Based on the average speed of vehicles on Soviet roads and the possibility of detours, the car must have traveled at least 600 kilometers.

Major cities within a 600-700 kilometer radius of Moscow...

His brain, like the most efficient computer, instantly retrieved the map of the European part of the Soviet Union stored in his memory and quickly performed a geographic location search.

“It’s definitely not Kuibyshev!” He immediately dismissed his initial guess. “Kuibyshev is nearly a thousand kilometers from Moscow, and it takes at least fifteen hours to drive there.”

"So, within this distance range, the largest and most important city is..."

A name instantly jumped into his mind!
The black cloth covering his head was suddenly ripped off, and the sudden light made him squint slightly.

He found himself in an open area that looked like a warehouse or an old factory. The surroundings were ordinary, even somewhat dilapidated, with nothing particularly unusual about them.

He turned to Major Perkov, who was about to get out of the car, and calmly asked, "Major, is this St. Petersburg?"

Perkov, who was about to open the door, suddenly froze, turned around and looked at Qin Yuan, his blue eyes revealing undisguised surprise and scrutiny for the first time.

He quickly glanced at the unremarkable warehouse scene outside the car window, then looked at Qin Yuan, his brow furrowed: "Did you see it on the road? Or did you hear something unusual?"

Qin Yuan simply shook his head and did not answer.

But his heart was in turmoil.

St. Petersburg!

Why here? And not in Kuibyshev, where the incident occurred?
The mayor of St. Petersburg was Sobček, a renowned jurist, a leading figure in the reform movement, and a close political ally of Yeltsin, who rivaled the Gorbachev camp in Moscow.

The head of the KGB's 12th Directorate brought him all the way from Moscow to Sobček to meet him.
The hidden political signals and complex intentions behind this instantly alerted Qin Yuan, and his mind raced.

Seeing that Qin Yuan remained silent, Perkov did not press further, but his curiosity and wariness deepened.

He opened the car door: "Let's go, our director is waiting for you inside."

The group walked silently into the depths of the warehouse.

This is clearly a secret KGB outpost or safe house in St. Petersburg. It looks ordinary on the outside, but the inside is heavily guarded, with winding passages and surprisingly sophisticated facilities.

As you walk along, some of the rooms you pass have their doors ajar. In a fleeting glimpse, you can even see all sorts of chilling, gleaming torture instruments that exude a cold aura.

However, along the way, Qin Yuan did not see any of Elena, Binzi, or Gangzi.

Where were they being held? What was their situation? These questions weighed heavily on his mind.

Perkov stopped in front of a heavy iron door at the far end of the corridor. He knocked on the door, then pushed it open and gestured for Qin Yuan to come in.

Qin Yuan took a deep breath and stepped inside.

The room's furnishings were simple, yet exuded a cold and authoritative aura.

He spotted Elena standing behind the desk at a glance.

She changed into a well-fitting KGB uniform, her posture upright, but her face was expressionless, her eyes vacant, like a delicate porcelain doll.

The moment Qin Yuan entered, her pupils contracted almost imperceptibly, flashing a complex light that mixed surprise, worry, and despair, but it quickly vanished, and she returned to her previous blank expression.

Qin Yuan's gaze did not linger on her for long, quickly shifting to the area behind his desk.

There sat a middle-aged woman.

She was wearing a well-tailored dark suit, and her hair was neatly pulled back.

Her face shows the deep marks left by time; her skin is slightly pale, and the crow's feet at the corners of her eyes and the nasolabial folds at the corners of her mouth are as clear as if carved by a knife, but one can still vaguely see that she must have had stunning beauty in her youth.

At this moment, her gray-blue, sharp, hawk-like eyes, peering through a pair of frameless glasses, were quietly, with a sense of scrutiny and pressure, staring directly at Qin Yuan, who had just entered the room.

She was Ekaterina, the head of the 12th Division of the KGB's Second Directorate.

She shared a name with that famous empress in Russian history, and indeed wielded a formidable power.

“Mr. Qin, what impressive methods and pomp.” Director Ekaterina spoke, her voice slightly hoarse, bearing the marks of long-term smoking, her pace slow, yet carrying an air of cold authority.

"Ever since you disappeared at the Moscow airport, the three secure phones in my office have been ringing almost nonstop."

She tapped the table lightly, making a soft, tinkling sound.

"From certain high-ranking officials in the Moscow City Committee, the Ministry of Trade, and the Ministry of Heavy Industry, down to the heads of the Volga Automobile Plant, the Moscow State Bank, and even some research institutes... even,"

She paused, a hint of sarcasm in her voice, "An old friend from the military region's logistics department also made a roundabout call to inquire about the safety of a Chinese businessman."

"Mr. Qin, if I remember correctly, you've only been on Soviet soil for a little over six months, right?"

"You've given me another big surprise by building such a deep and powerful network of relationships in just six months."

When she saw the preliminary assessment report on Qin Yuan submitted by her subordinates, her first reaction was to suspect that someone was playing a trick on her and making up a fantasy.

However, after Qin Yuan was "invited" by her, the almost incessant phone calls, as well as the enormous power and intricate web of interests represented by the callers, all proved that the contents of the report were not only not exaggerated, but may even have been somewhat withheld!

"even,"

Ekaterina's gaze shifted to Elena, who stood beside her like a statue. She reached out and gently patted Elena's stiff arm. "The 'Swallow' I personally selected and raised for seven years seems to have developed feelings for you that I shouldn't have...?"

"Could he even waver in his loyalty to his country because of you?"

"Mr. Qin, should I say you have extraordinary methods, or are you just incredibly audacious?"

Her gaze locked onto Qin Yuan again, as if trying to penetrate his body and see through all his secrets.

However, Qin Yuan's expression remained unchanged in the face of a series of questions from the powerful KGB director.

On the contrary, after confirming the other party's attitude and intentions, the tension in his heart eased slightly.

The fact that the other party did not immediately resort to torture, but instead chose to conduct this conversation first, and revealed the immense external pressure they were under, speaks volumes in itself.

Without the slightest restraint or fear, he walked straight to the chair in front of the desk and sat down calmly.

He pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket. Fortunately, the pack hadn't gotten too wet. He took out a dry cigarette.

After lighting it, Qin Yuan began to puff out smoke.

"Director, you flatter me. They are just my business partners and some elder friends who care about me. They just wanted to express their concern and inquire about the situation after learning that I might have encountered some unnecessary trouble."

"I think that even in the Soviet Union, this would be a perfectly normal and reasonable thing to do, wouldn't it?"

Qin Yuan exhaled a smoke ring and said calmly, "It seems... there's no need to make a fuss about this?"

(End of this chapter)