"The desert is lonely, and the long river is round."

Standing at a height of a thousand meters above the ground, looking at the magnificent scenery of the desert at dusk, Lynn silently read the famous sentence that she will never forget in her life.

A round of sunset slowly sank into the sea of sand, the sky was getting dark, the stars dotted the night, the cool breeze replaced the warmth of the day, and Lynn leaned on the hanging basket to look into the distance. It turns out that it is such a pleasant pleasure to float quietly in such a night sky. If it weren't for the fetters of this unfinished battle, I would have lived an ordinary and peaceful life, worked hard to make money, worked hard to support my family, and strived to see the most beautiful scenery in the world in my lifetime, such as ...... "The scenery here is beautiful!" ”

Little Hughes held the roast sausage in one hand and the beer bottle in the other, and let the breeze stir his bits of short hair, sometimes looking far away, sometimes looking down, everything here seemed to be in his bosom.

"Well, it's beautiful!" Lynn told her truth about her feelings, before that, he had spent nearly half a year fighting to the death with the Russians on the cold Eastern Front, or sharpening his body and mind in the training camp of the "Vampire" commandos. Even at this moment, it is difficult for him to understand the mysteries of man and nature, to free his state of mind from the influence of mundane and trivial things, and to truly feel the vastness and generosity of the world.

Little Hughes said proudly: "Hey, this night view is enough for you to earn the return fare, and when the sun rises tomorrow, you will really be worth the trip!" ”

If it was just to see the scenery, Lynn should indeed be satisfied, but the real intention of this trip ...... The young American next to him may never understand.

Having eaten and drunk enough, Hughes Jr. determined the direction of the wind, told Lynn that he did not need to wake himself up if there was no change in the direction of the wind, and that he could sleep as much as he could, and then shrank into the hanging basket, and after a while he began to snore.

Being able to eat, sleep, and play Noh is enough to be simple and happy, Lynn gave herself a wry smile, picked up the telescope and continued to look for light in this endless desert. The desert of New Mexico is different from the desert of thousands of miles, there are towns and villages along the railroad and roads every few distances, and before the night is dark, Lynn has to pick up a map from time to time to check it, and after midnight, this problem is naturally reduced. In addition to the twinkling stars in the sky, there are the lights of the locomotives that occasionally glide along the horizon in the distance.

If it is dull for too long, it will also become a kind of sleepiness. After smoking half a pack of cigarettes and drinking half a cup of cold coffee, Lynn's eyelids grew heavier. People can hold on without sleeping, but it is difficult for their eyesight to maintain normalcy, with the dimming of the starlight, the sky and the earth are the same color, not to mention the secret base in the desert Gobi, even a huge red rock wall can not be distinguished. The physical fatigue did not affect Lynn's consciousness, he tried his best to keep his mind clear, in order to refresh himself, he recalled the graceful time in the farmhouse stable on that cold and snowy night, the restrained enthusiasm of the light mature woman was like a charcoal fire covered in dust, as long as the surface of the cover could be removed, the inner heat was enough to melt. But when I thought about it, my mind drifted to another scene without obeying the call: the rose-red Tibetan silk shirt, the black waist-length braids, the loose fur trims, and the affectionate eyebrows, bright eyes, and broad lips...... Suddenly, Lynn saw the lights of vehicles on the ground in front of him, and there was nothing strange about driving late at night, but this was already quite a barren desert depth, and Lynn suddenly had a gut judgment: these vehicles must be closely related to the target he was looking for.

In order to see better, Lynn took the initiative to twist the kerosene stove - it had only a faint flame that would have been difficult for anyone on the ground to detect without careful observation, and with his adjustment, the furnace was almost completely extinguished.

After the fire was turned down, the hot air in the air bag did not cool down quickly, and at first, the height of the hot air balloon barely decreased, and after several minutes, it began to slowly descend, and then there was a slight shaking, but the sleeping little Hughes obviously did not realize this.

As the altitude continued to decrease, Lynn could already make out that it was a convoy of more than a dozen trucks, driving northeast along a relatively straight road, looking along the barely visible outline of the road, faintly sporadic points of light flickering, that must be the base's indicator light, maybe a sentry on duty, but certainly not an ordinary civilian facility. At this time, Lynn's mood became slightly excited, and he made a lot of calculations, thinking about buying agricultural planes in the name of buying land and farming, and then deliberately deviated when sowing pesticides, but he never thought that using a hot air balloon to fly at night could so quietly approach a high-alert target!

When he noticed that the altitude of the hot air balloon had dropped to a low altitude, seeing that the Yankees' secret base was ahead, Lynn hurriedly took out a map to calculate the direction and distance of this last leg of the trip, so as to confirm its exact direction, and when the wind blew the basket more violently, little Hughes finally rubbed his eyes and got up, and when he looked out, he almost screamed loudly.

"Oh my God, why did you fly so low? It's a hassle to fit a dune or a mountain bag! ”

Although he didn't scream, Hughes Jr. complained while going to adjust the kerosene stove, and when Lynn reacted and wanted to stop him, it was too late. The flames on the kerosene stove sprang up, which did not cause any harm to the hot air balloon itself, and strictly speaking, did not violate the safety procedures, but by this time most of the stars in the sky had gone home, and the flames rising in the air were very conspicuous in the dark night.

"Oh no......"

Lynn sighed bitterly, and although Hughes Jr. immediately turned down the flames, the negligence just now caused them big trouble. Soon the sound of cars braking and talking was heard below, and then the shrill sound of gunfire pierced the peace of the night, and several dark red bullets flew in the distance.

"Oh my God, they actually shot, they actually shot!" In front of the bullets that were not long-sighted, Hughes Jr. threw all his calm and sophisticated scoundrels out of the clouds, and he grabbed the edge of the hanging basket in a panic, probably annoyed at the moment why he didn't put an iron plate at the bottom of the basket before he set off, so that he could still resist the bullets fired from below.

The sound of gunfire shatters the silence and awakens everything hidden in the desert. When the dazzling searchlight column rose from the ground, quickly locking on the uninvited guest in the night, Lynn's fatigue, confusion, and trance had long been swept away, and he looked at the pillar of light shooting from not far ahead. At first, there was only one, and then a second and third appeared, and looking at these extremely eye-catching lights in the night, he slapped his head fiercely: what a stupid, why didn't you think of this!

Most of the time, combat operations need to avoid surprises, but sometimes it's the opposite. In order to find the location of the opponent's secret base, Lynn can hire an unwitting person to drive the aircraft at night to make noise, so as to attract searchlights and even defensive fire around the opponent's secret base. In the relatively flat and open desert area, the location of these pillars of light can be found from dozens of kilometers away, so as to judge the exact location of the test base, so that there is no need to take the risk of losing troops and losing troops, let alone go out in person as now.

It's too late to realize now, a few high-powered searchlights have already illuminated Lynn and their hot air balloon, I am afraid that I don't know how many anti-aircraft guns are quickly turning their guns, waiting for the order of the superior to shoot down the approaching hot air balloon. Facing the dazzling pillar of light, Lynn couldn't see the situation of the base ahead at all, and could only roughly estimate his current distance from the ground - it should not be more than 200 meters, let alone machine shells, and even bullets could not dodge. At this critical moment, Hughes Jr. finally made a behavior that matched his age and experience, he took out a white handkerchief, lay on the edge of the hanging basket and waved desperately and shouted, saying "Don't fire, I'm a civilian".

At this time, Lynn calmed down, isn't this exactly the situation she has always considered? Since it happened, follow the planned steps, pick up the eraser in a hurry, erase all the numbers, lines and diagrams left by the pencil on the page that was just used to calculate and mark the location, wipe it clean, and at the end of the day, blow a breath to blow the eraser crumbs away, close your eyes and think about it carefully, take out the matchbox that Boston bought with the place of origin from your pocket, and burn it to ashes by striking the match. After the efforts of Hughes Jr., the people below did not continue shooting, but instead shouted "landing" in a loud voice, and after completely turning off the kerosene stove, the hot air balloon continued to float forward while slowly descending. Confirming that there were no "dangerous objects" on her body, Lynn stood up and lay on the edge of the hanging basket like Hughes Jr., pretending to be frightened, but her eyes were seizing this last chance to observe the environment. The good-natured air currents blew their hot air balloons in the direction of the searchlights, and soon passed the convoy parked on the way, which were heavy six- or eight-wheeled trucks that appeared to be the same type of trucks they saw when they first ran with the "vampire" commandos to the temporary camp of the Soviet armored troops. Searchlights, hundreds of kilometers apart, outlined a rough square, and against the extremely strong light, Lynn could only vaguely see that there was a base with barbed wire and walls, and most of the buildings standing on the surface were low houses, and the real content must be underground—it was not difficult to construct the fact of excavation in the desert.

Landing in a temporary forced landing, the landing posture of the hot air balloon is very indecent, the hanging basket dragged dozens of meters on the sand, and finally loaded a sand dune, the rope between the airbag and the hanging basket has broken several times, Lynn and Hughes Jr. even rolled and crawled out of the pod, the sideways airbag still stubbornly pulled the empty hanging basket to take off, at this time I only heard someone shouting "The people in the hanging basket have left", suddenly, the searchlight broke out near the fire, only a moment of effort, the hot air balloon in the air was torn into pieces by the machine shell, Hughes Jr. was dumbfounded, but in Lynn's eyes, such scenes were commonplace on the battlefield.

(To be continued)