Starting from South America, speeding through the world

Chapter 106 Death
“It’s me, Fahod,” Zhou Yi said.

The sound of a gun bolt being reset came from behind the door.

Immediately afterwards, someone asked in a hoarse voice, "What are you doing here?"

Zhou Yi placed the rifle in the corner, held it out with both hands, and took a half step forward.

“I came from Nikolayev with intelligence about the attackers,” he said. “Let me in.”

A bodyguard with a blood-stained face emerged from the shadows, scrutinized him for two seconds, then stepped aside, gesturing for him to come in.

Igor sat at the far end of the room, leaning against a backup generator, his head tilted back slightly as if he were looking at the ceiling.

"Go ahead and tell me," he said calmly as Zhou Yi entered, "what's the situation outside?"

“Mikhail provided the location. The attackers were brought in by Boris. They were Israelis. I took care of about twelve of them.”

Igor sighed, seemingly unsurprised. "Where did they come in from?"

"A total of five teams were dispatched along the north mountain road."

Igor nodded. "That passage should have been demolished long ago. Alexei mentioned it, but I always thought it was too much trouble, so I kept putting it off."

He then turned his head and glanced at the man in the corner who was still tuning the radio. "How long until the reinforcements arrive?"

"Boss, Anton said there are two minutes left."

Igor raised his hand and wiped the bloodstains from his sleeve.

“Tell me,” he said, his tone firm though it was a question, “is it the truth that Yevgeny told you?”

"I followed them for about seven days," Zhou Yi replied briefly.

"We took action early this morning and confirmed that Mikhail did indeed have a problem. After that, I came straight here."

Igor listened, then lowered his head and chuckled.

The smile was faint and fleeting.

After a long silence, he spoke again:
“I had long suspected that something was wrong with Mikhail.”

"Question the allocation of supplies, meet with all sorts of people, and make phone calls."

He paused for a moment, his expression growing increasingly somber.

“I knew he would take action, but I didn’t expect him to choose this method, and I certainly didn’t expect him to bring in outsiders.”

"And my biggest mistake was being too confident and handing over the Yevgeny line to Alexei and you."

“I originally thought Yevgeny was just some Ukrainian who had been turned, not a key figure, and certainly not someone who could be directly connected to Israel.”

Igor's voice remained restrained, without regret or venting.

But Zhou Yi could feel that his whole being was being pulled down by that slow, internal emotional collapse.

“If you hadn’t arrived in time,” Igor continued, “I would be dead.”

“This isn’t a metaphor, it’s a fact.” He glanced up at Zhou Yi. “From this moment on, I owe you my life.”

After Igor finished speaking, he seemed to want to say something more, but he stopped.

Zhou Yi noticed that his gaze was not on him, but was fixed on the shadow in the corner.

Following his gaze, a corpse lay slumped beside the power cabinet.

There was a pool of blood on the ground that had begun to dry, its edges seeping into the cracks between the floor tiles.

Zhou Yi squinted and carefully examined him, recognizing him after a moment—

Alexei.

Face up, eyes open.

The bullet entered from the left side of the chest and pierced the heart.

Zhou Yi turned his head and saw that Igor had stood up at some point, his back very straight.

He didn't say anything, just stared at Alexie's face, which had already lost its warmth.

It's like waiting for a signal, or like waiting for myself to break down.

But he didn't.

A few seconds later, Igor finally explained:

"He took a bullet for me."

"It happened suddenly, and he didn't even leave a single last word before he died."

Zhou Yi remained silent. According to the plan, the next step was to force Mikhail to approach Kamine.

Given his existing connections with external forces, Igor would inevitably take action once the signal is clear enough, having lost allies within the government.

When things really get chaotic there, that's when we'll get our hands on a nuclear bomb.

Now, with Alexei's death, Igor's desire for revenge will inevitably intensify.

This should have been beneficial to him, but when Zhou Yi actually stood in front of the corpse, the unexpected feeling left him speechless for a moment.

Igor ignored his silence, walked over, squatted down, and straightened Alexei's collar.

"I have no son."

He spoke calmly, as if discussing the weather, "He is my son."

“When he was five years old, my sister developed mental problems and was almost unable to take care of the children.”

"So my wife and I discussed it and decided to bring him over."

He paused for a moment and gently straightened Alexei's head.

“He was quiet and didn’t bother people when he was a child, but he especially loved writing.”

“I write about everything. I write about the cat running away, I write about the neighbor’s kid falling down, I even write about when I’m drunk and swearing.”

“Back then, I was away from home most of the year, but every time I came back I would bring something strange.”

"Like Iranian canned soda and dried mutton from the Turkish border."

"Later, I got a leather hat from Kazakhstan."

"He was overjoyed and wore that thing to show off for days."

“One day, he was about seven or eight years old, I remember it very clearly. It was windy, and I was repairing a generator in the garage. My hands were covered in oil.”

He came over with a glass bottle in his hand, containing the tadpoles he had raised. He insisted I look at them, saying, "Look, they've grown legs."

"I told him I was busy, and he just squatted down next to me and waited like an idiot for half an hour."

"Then he went back to his mother's house and continued his schooling."

Igor took a deep breath, and placed Alexei's body against the wall with his hands folded in front of his abdomen.

"When he got older, he developed a love for history and linguistics. When he was fifteen, he copied out 'An Introduction to Ossetian Grammar' and gave it to me as a birthday present."

“Nobody looked at that thing, but he spent two months drawing structural diagrams while adding phonetic symbols.”

"In university, he studied ethnology and later earned a doctorate."

"I don't remember the full title of the paper, but it was probably a study related to Khosaur weddings."

Does this sound confusing?

“But he really likes these things, he’s not interested in guns, and he doesn’t care about my money.”

“He just felt that I was always alone and too lonely since my wife passed away.”

“At first, I didn’t want him to get into this circle, but I was afraid that no one would be able to help him after I died, so I gradually let him try to get in touch with it.”

"First Kherson, then Nikolaev"

"Looking back now, the worst decisions are often not made on impulse, but rather from hesitation."

"He was not born for war."

"But they died in this war."

The last few words were spoken softly, as if to oneself.

The room became eerily quiet for a moment.

Just then, a brief announcement came over the walkie-talkie:

"Boss, Anton is here. The area is cleared."

Igor did not respond immediately, but instead lowered his head slightly and grasped the corpse's cold fingertips.

A few seconds later, he stood up.

There was no sadness on her face, but she looked tired.

“Let’s go,” he said. “I don’t want to stay here for another minute.”

(End of this chapter)