At night, next to a tent in the desert, the dry and dead branches collected by the Berber desert guide are burning happily, releasing light and heat, and on the sand next to it sits a circle of frightened members wearing expedition uniforms, and guides with robes and scarves covering their faces, everyone is baking on the fire with sticks and baguettes, drinking hot tea in an enamel cup, so as to dispel the cold of the night.

There were a few people whose faces were a little bloodless, and there were also a lot of blackened blood stains all over their clothes, which were people who had been wounded by a gunshot when they encountered robbers during the day, although the team doctor and the team members who knew how to treat the wounds were removed, and the wounds could not be seen when they were covered by clothes, but the gunshot wounds would not be able to heal for a while.

Song Xiaoshuang, who was in the same way as the locals covered his body with a robe, was carefully baking the second loaf of bread skewered with wooden sticks by the fire, and when he raised his head, he saw Uncle Issam sitting on the opposite veil to cover his face, the beautiful Daisy in the denim suit, and the handsome American guy Gordon all cast incomprehensible expressions, in their opinion, a bread more than a foot long was eaten by Song Xiaoshuang after being roasted on the fire in a few clicks, and the speed was super fast!

Song Xiaoshuang smiled disapprovingly, and muttered to himself in his heart: I wipe it, eat the bread when it's hot, I just eat it faster, what's so strange?

The member of the team with a gunshot wound in the abdomen was wearing an off-white expedition uniform jacket lying on a velvet blanket, the uniform was covered with dried blood stains and looked a little creepy, occasionally a slight cough, the team doctor around him would always carefully check whether the injuries in his clothes were repeated, and after checking that there was no problem, he was helped up and leaned against his body, handed over the enamel cup filled with broth and watched him drink it slowly, the treatment of the seriously wounded was different, only he enjoyed a small pot of meat soup alone, The raw material of the meat soup is Uncle Issam, who is familiar with the desert environment, and the desert rattlesnake that he found all the way away, which is used to make soup to replenish physical strength, and has a good effect on the seriously injured, which is nutritious and easy to digest, much stronger than dry and difficult to swallow bread.

Isabel sat by the fire with her legs crossed, drinking tea with dried mint leaves and sugar in an enamel cup, and roasting hard bread with a wrinkled forehead, and secretly sighed that Uncle Issam's bread was much better than this Raush bread, and heard Udai's fluent Arabic voice behind her, and turned to see Udai holding a satellite phone with an antenna drawn out, and came out of the tent with a strange expression.

Emina, the inseparable work partner of Ude, saw Isabel's puzzled expression, shrugged her shoulders slightly and signaled that this call was very important, she and Ude couldn't figure it out, Isabel stood up quickly, held a toasted strip of bread with a slight fragrance in one hand, took the satellite phone from Ude's hand, and motioned to Ude and Emina to bake bread and chat with everyone, walked to the side with the satellite phone alone, and began to whisper something to the person who called the satellite phone.

Song Xiaoshuang couldn't understand Arabic, but from Isabel's whispered tone at the beginning and the short sentences that gradually became louder, he guessed that this bespectacled female man had a fire hidden in his heart, and was brewing to try to break out.

"The expedition team will go to the army station in the north tomorrow first, submit a report and hand in weapons and ammunition, and then we can go back to the city!"

Isabel walked to the campfire, looked at the inquiring eyes of everyone, pulled the black hair on her head with her fingers in some confusion, and said the latest decision in Arabic with a slightly annoyed tone, which immediately caused the discussion of everyone in the expedition team, there are several wounded in the expedition team, why don't you go back to the city with better conditions as soon as possible and go to the army base in the desert oasis?

Seeing that everyone was a little excited, Isabel had to show the authority of the team leader, and shouted in Arabic in a resolute tone: "Okay, this is a decision made by the office, I can't fight for it, after Udai and Emina reported our situation in the afternoon, the office transferred the information to the army for our safety, hoping that they could give us appropriate help, but the result was that the army was unable to spare manpower to rescue because of the recent unstable border situation, Let's go to the oasis by ourselves and hand in our weapons and ammunition before we can go back to the city! ”

As soon as Isabel's voice fell, the audience was silent, everyone is not stupid, and now they are carrying out scientific research activities on the border of Mauritania, and since the army has requirements, they naturally cannot ignore it.

Isabel took out the hot toasted bread from her pocket, tore the bread with her fingers and put it in her mouth, chewed a few times and swallowed it, and after seeing everyone's reaction as expected, Isabel sat on the sand, picked up the enamel cup just now and drank a few sips of tea, and then said: "There are desert roads in the desert oasis in the north, in addition to the army base, there are some local residents, we can find an off-road vehicle to replace the broken car, if there is no car, it doesn't matter, follow the desert road tool truck tow speed is not slow, So be it, don't think about anything else! ”

When Isabel spoke, the pupils behind the glasses were carefully observing everyone's reactions, and she was a little relieved to see that there were not many objections, as the leader of the inspection team, her responsibilities were great, and it was particularly important to unify everyone's thoughts

In the early morning, Isabel was doing a group prayer for Udai, Emina, and a few other Muslims, and wanted to talk to Song Xiaoshuang, but the Berber guide told her that Uncle Issam and the strange Song Xiaoshuang had gone out to the sand dunes a kilometer away in the early hours of the morning to prevent desert robbers from attacking the camp again at night, and had not yet returned.

After Isabel instructed the guide a few words, she went straight to the sand dunes in the distance, and after walking a few hundred meters, she saw two figures in robes getting closer and closer, and it was the guides Uncle Issam and Song Xiaoshuang, Song Xiaoshuang did not have the habit of covering his face with a scarf, and both of them carried an AK74 assault rifle (a weapon seized from the desert robbers) with a gun belt.

Isabel sighed secretly, stood in place and waited for the two to approach, then looked at Song Xiaoshuang, who was expressionless and even a little cute, and said in Chinese with some hesitation: "Song Xiaoshuang, thank you and the uncle for being on guard, there were a lot of people last night I am inconvenient to say, there are only three of us here, the uncle is a dutiful guide, what he will not say, our team will pass through the desert depression and rush to the oasis military base to hand over all the hot weapons, including this AK on your body, After submitting the necessary report, I will turn around and go southwest, and take the desert road on the way back, and I will be able to reach Attar tomorrow morning at the latest, and I will go to the capital with you after the whole expedition, what do you think? ”

Song Xiaoshuang showed a weird smile on his face, untied the assault rifle on his shoulder and threw it to Isabel, seeing Isabel Lisso checking the rifle in her hand, checking the safety and chamber for bullets, Song Xiaoshuang walked past her and paused, and said with a puzzled expression: "Don't worry, there are no bullets in the chamber, your technique is very skillful, trained by the shooting club?" ”

"How could you think that? Why don't you say that I have no experience as a professional soldier? ”

Isabel put the assault rifle with the safety off on her shoulder, and walked a few steps to keep up with Uncle Issam who walked back without saying a word, and the funny Song Xiaoshuang, looking at Song Xiaoshuang and saying with a puzzled face.

Song Xiaoshuang has not yet spoken, Uncle Issam next to him asked Isabel in Arabic with some curiosity, when he learned the content of Isabel and Song Xiaoshuang's communication in Chinese, the uncle's face covered with a scarf was a little shaky and laughed, speaking Arabic to tell Isabel that people are of course different, Song Xiaoshuang has extraordinary insight and ability, she has long known that she will use small arms, but she is definitely not from a soldier's background, just deliberately teasing her!

As soon as Uncle Issam finished speaking, he immediately walked towards the tent camp, leaving Song Xiaoshuang, who was walking in the desert unhurriedly, and Isabelle, whose brain was a little messy in the wind, she really wanted to kick Song Xiaoshuang who was walking in front of her, this guy couldn't see the potential of the whole person, just now she didn't feel the slightest feeling and was fooled, clenched her fists and thought about it, she would only use women's self-defense techniques It is impossible to challenge Song Xiaoshuang, and if you want to defeat him, you may have to rely on the anesthetic gun

In the afternoon, the sun was already in the west, and finally the three off-road vehicles finally passed through the northern part of the desert depression and arrived at an oasis next to the desert road.

When the soldiers who received the notice from their superiors and were waiting for the inspection team stationed at the military base saw three off-road vehicles rolling up sand and dust and rushing out of the desert to appear on the desert road next to the oasis, the time was almost four o'clock in the afternoon.

Surrounded by barbed wire, there are only a few rows of flat-roofed houses with thick earth walls, and there are warning signs for minefields in the surrounding sand, and dozens of people are stationed at the gate of the desert military base, wearing helmets and vigilant eyes, and the soldiers with guns behind sandbags are watching the three off-road vehicles at the gate.

After a tense and orderly handover, all the weapons and ammunition obtained from the desert robbers in the scientific expedition team were handed over to the military base, and a 30-year-old second lieutenant wearing a desert camouflage uniform with a resolute face commanded his subordinates to inspect all kinds of carrying equipment on the off-road vehicle in detail to ensure that not a single bullet could be left on the vehicle!

When several soldiers at the base moved their weapons and ammunition to the base, the second lieutenant personally had a "cordial and friendly" conversation with Isabel next to the hood of the off-road vehicle, in order to get a report to be handed over, and Isabel basically answered all questions. Soon a handwritten report was written by the soldiers on the side, Isabel read it and signed the matter even if it was over, the whole process took less than an hour, this point is that the second lieutenant of the base saw that there were wounded among the members of the expedition team, and accelerated the handover process, he did not want the seriously wounded to hang outside his base in an accident, and then it would be troublesome, these people are very talented people, scientists from UNESCO institutions, he can't afford to provoke.

After leaving the military base, Isabel who drove into the oasis was a little disappointed, most of the residents of this desert oasis had gone to the big city to beg for a living, and there were only a few dozen people who continued to stay in the oasis, the old and the young, basically women, children, young and strong men at all, crops were planted in the limited water-bearing soil plots, some sheep were raised in captivity, there were no off-road vehicles at all, only some old off-road motorcycles and rubber tire board cars, it looked like the oasis with green jade and date palms and various plants was a little deserted, A few children in robes and bare feet stood under the date palm trees, watching curiously as the adults and outsiders traded goats.

After Isabel instructed the guide to get the supplementary food and drinking water, she found that Song Xiaoshuang actually climbed a date palm tree nearly twenty meters high, cut off the date palm fruit branches at the top of the tree with a short knife, and used a large linen rope net pocket that I don't know where, when Song Xiaoshuang carried nearly 100 kilograms of dates on his back and went down the tree, Isabel quickly pulled him aside and whispered that this would be like a robbery, and the date palm tree is guarded in the oasis, of course, it belongs to the owner!

Song Xiaoshuang just smiled, handed the short knife to Uncle Issam, and gently put it next to a few children with a net bag containing date fruits, seeing the eyes of several children shining with joy, Song Xiaoshuang walked to Isabel again, and whispered in a mysterious tone almost close to her ear: "Great scientist, I didn't see that many of the date palm and date fruit in the oasis are still hanging on the tree, and now the harvest season has long passed, and if you don't harvest it, it will affect the next season's fruit, which means that you can't think of anything, right?" ”

Isabel heard what Song Xiaoshuang said, and after a moment of silence, she found Uncle Issam and asked several Berber guides to go up the tree to get down the dates that had not been picked.

As a result, the entire expedition team was able to have the courage and strength to climb the date palm tree to help the oasis residents harvest date palm fruit from the date palm tree, there are more than 20 date palm trees with dates, Song Xiaoshuang and Uncle Issam are the two fastest to get dates, in order to thank the help, the oasis residents held a bonfire party, the residents all gathered together, the delicious roast lamb and dough made the members of the expedition team eat stomach pain, Uncle Issam's Arabic folk song humming also has spontaneous musical accompaniment