10 September 1991, Aral Sea region of the former Soviet republic of Uzbekistan (hereinafter referred to as Uzbekistan).

On the evening of September, there is no longer a trace of sunshine near the Aral Sea, the original blue sky gradually turns into a deep blue, and the alternation of day and night makes the dark blue sky more than countless twinkling stars, and on the shore of the Aral Sea lake under the starry sky, a large group of machinery has just started, digging a huge ditch to lead the water of the Aral Sea lake to the Karaam Desert in Turkmenistan.

This is a huge project that has not been completed for nearly 100 years, but in the last 10 years, the Soviet government has suddenly quietly stationed a large number of engineering troops, desperately digging canals, trying to completely drain the lake of the Aral Sea.

A middle-aged man in a desert hazmat suit stood beside the ditch, looking first at the Aral Sea, then at the other side of the ditch, which was crowded with all kinds of excavation machinery and people, some of which he had never seen before, but he knew that if he continued like this, it would definitely cause unimaginable and irretrievable results.

"Comrade Sergey!" The middle-aged man saw a jeep slowly passing by, and he saw that the person driving the car was none other than Sergei, the commander-in-chief of the operation. Merosky. Karrichiv, immediately trotted forward to stop.

Sergei, who was driving, frowned, and looked at the dusty middle-aged man, who did not like the so-called environmental expert Yuri who accompanied the team. Constantine. Fedorf, the proud son of heaven at Moscow University, was sent by the state to Europe and the United States for further study, and received several doctorates, because he thought too much, talked too much, and did not know his position in this team, and seemed to like to reveal secrets to everyone.

If it weren't for the order from above, I'm afraid I would have let people throw him into the desert and die.

"Dr. Yuri, haven't you rested yet? Shouldn't you close your eyes after dark? Sergei sarcastically said that the last thing he, the director of the 15th KGB Bureau, liked was these guys who always liked to chew words.

Yuri pulled out a map from his clothes. It was tiled on the hood, but the wind was too strong for the map to unfold, so he had to lean over to pick up a few more rocks. Pressing a few corners of the map with stones, he pointed to the location of the Aral Sea on the map and said: "Comrade commander, this is our location. ”

Sergei nodded, reached out and took a sip from the flask, which he certainly knew, not so much that he didn't even know the map.

Yuri swallowed and said, "Since decades ago, we have diverted the water of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers that enter the Aral Sea to the desert and grow crops, and although the yield of crops has indeed increased greatly, the amount of water in the Aral Sea has greatly decreased. It destroys the ecological balance here...... Did you know about ecological balance? ”

Sergei still nodded, Dr. Yuri had said this a thousand times, and since he had not been here, Yuri had been muttering, and he had been muttering excitedly because Yuri thought that this operation was to save the Aral Sea. But after I came, I realized that it was actually leading the water of the Aral Sea into the desert, so the chatter was even more intense.

"The Aral Sea is landlocked." Yuri said, drawing an arc on the map with his hand, "Located in the Tropic of Cancer desert zone, it has little precipitation and long sunshine hours. There is a lot of evaporation, and if you add a lot of diversion for irrigation, this will cause the surrounding desert area to expand, not decrease, we are not doing it right, absolutely not! ”

"Dr. Yuri!" Sergey turned his back to the map. Leaning on the front of the car and looking into the distance, "Just a few days ago, on August 31, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan declared independence. Independence from the Soviet Union, many of the republics had declared their independence before then, and it would not be long before the greatest alliance on earth would cease to exist. ”

Yuri looked at Sergei dumbfounded, but then went to point to the map.

Sergei turned Yuri around, looked into the distance, and pointed to his feet: "Yuri, look around, look at your feet, this is no longer Soviet land, do you understand?" Sooner or later, neighboring Kazakhstan will become independent from the Soviet Union, and now they have promised to give us some assistance due to some things, but Ukraine is different, and if we can't get what we want within seven days, then all the efforts we have made over the years will be in vain. ”

Yuri's mind was in chaos, he was not interested in any independence or politics, what he knew was that if this continued, this inland lake would definitely be finished, and the surrounding area would be completely turned into a hellish desert.

"Remember! No one but you and me knows what's going on in the outside world, if they do. Sergei turned to look at the workers on the other side of the ditch, the so-called workers were actually soldiers, capable sappers, and also strong combat units.

The older of these people had fought in the war in Afghanistan and were later recalled to the army because of their experience, and this operation, called "archaeology", did not need a rookie.

Yuri was silent for a long time before nodding, then Sergei turned around and jumped into the jeep and drove in the direction of the ditch, he had to make another round, because of this sensitive period, they could only work at night and rest during the day, because during the day on this endless plain, from a distance of several kilometers, they could clearly see this engineering brigade that was five or six hundred meters long.

Sergei knew in his heart that they would not be able to complete their mission unless a miracle happened. Also, in the face of tensions in Moscow, as well as the unsuccessful coup d'état that took place on the 19th of last month, known as the 819 incident, Sergei, the veteran KGB, did not choose to return, and also had his purpose.

He thought that if things were not in his favor, he could enter Kazakhstan, land on the border between Iran and Turkey on the Caspian Sea, and cross the Black Sea to Bulgaria. If it doesn't go well, he can temporarily stay in Istanbul, Turkey, which is the city of spies, where there are many fish and dragons, it is complicated, and in this sensitive period, no one will choose to use force to solve something, so, he will be safe for the time being.

Sergei pulled over the car, took out cigarettes and cans and greeted those working on the front line, with a smile on his face, hoping to hide his inner uneasiness in this way, so as not to affect others and prevent others from noticing that something was wrong. He had already ordered the destruction of some documents about the outside world, and if these people had known that such a great change had taken place in the Soviet Union, the project would certainly not have been able to continue, and the things that should be found would certainly not have been found.

"Comrade commander, call from Moscow!" Not long after, another jeep carrying high-frequency communication equipment stopped beside Sergei, raising a thick cloud of dust.

Sergei waved his hand to disperse the smoke and dust, jumped into the car, signaled the driver to drive the car a little farther, then took the microphone in the hand of the signal soldier, listened quietly, and then said: "Comrade Chardorf, I am very serious to answer your question - no, I cannot drain all the water of the Aral Sea in just seven days or half a month, unless you give me the largest stove in the world, I will dig a pit, put it under the Aral Sea, and use the stove to evaporate the Aral Sea." ”

Chaldov on the other end of the phone didn't know what to say, Sergei took a deep breath, lit a cigarette and said: "What if I smoke it all and find that there is nothing underneath?" What the? What did you say? ”

Sergei gritted his teeth and listened to the other party's words, waved his hand to let the communications soldier and the driver go farther, and then lowered his voice into the microphone and said: "Tell those old guys, you won't do that, I won't do that, I won't kill all my men, you ask them if they know how many people I have here?" More than 300 people! They want us to attack these more than 300 people who have sacrificed everything for the motherland? Chaldov, now you should understand, why did the USSR become what it is now? It's because of those old crumbs! ”

After a long time, Sergei's face changed drastically, and he said into the microphone: "What? Tonight in the middle of the night is the last airdrop of supplies, so let's fend for ourselves? Without documents from Moscow, even if we wanted to leave, there was nothing we could do, this is on the territory of Ukraine, opposite Kazakhstan, and now there is tension, and we only have light weapons in our hands. ”

After a long time, Sergei put down the phone in despair, and when he turned around, he found that Dr. Yuri had appeared behind him at some point, looked at him with a puzzled expression, and pointed to the phone again, meaning: What did you mean by saying earlier?

"Moscow has abandoned us." Sergei sat in the car and smoked fiercely, "Those old bastards! ”

Yuri shook his head: "What did you just mention about weapons?" Why weapons? And what does it mean to start? ”

"Doctor, it's been 10 years, we are the last group of people sent here, only we are the team closest to the truth, even the commander of the first few teams doesn't know what they are doing, they all think that they are leading the team to open a canal to divert water, only I know, only I am so unlucky!" Sergei sat there with a wry smile, "Moscow said that there are ruins under the Aral Sea, what kind of ruins of ancient humans, what a hell of a super ridiculous!" In order to bring this ruin back to life, they spent 10 years deciding to slowly divert the waters of the Aral Sea and bring them back to light. ”

Dr. Yuri, who had always had a silly expression, stood there, listening to everything Sergei said, completely unaware of what was going on, but suddenly understood why the water diversion project was named "Archaeological Action".

Half an hour later, Sergei, who had returned to the camp, led Yuri into his tent, perhaps because of his years of involvement with KGB, and after entering the house, he motioned for Yuri not to speak, and then searched the tent to make sure that there was no listening equipment, and then motioned for the doctor to sit down.

"Yuri, I advise you to leave quickly, you have two ways, the first is to return to Moscow, and after you go back you go to Comrade Chardorf, the same person you met on Red Square before we left Moscow." Sergei lowered his voice and said, "There is another way, but that is the next step, and that is to leave this place, go to Europe or the United States, disappear, and never show your head, although you don't know much, but they will not let you go." ”

Yuri was stunned, completely unaware of what he was involved in.