winter in greenland

Chapter 5

Hiss has the potential to be prophetic in some things.

The day after the assessment results came out, August organized a lottery. When he saw the same group C on the note in Dan's hand as his own, he silently made a note for Heath in his heart.

This year, because he participated in patrols, Heath stayed at the base as a matter of course, and by the way, he handled the 4 applications for leaving the team.August started to plan short-distance training during the training period.

A week later, the applications of the four team members were completed, and they sent them to the transport plane on a sunny afternoon.

August stood on the edge of the tarmac, not passing.He quietly watched Heath shake hands with the four people one by one in front of him, the look in his eyes was dim.

"Aren't you going to say goodbye to them, Captain?" Dan's voice came from behind.

August turned his head and adjusted his expression in an instant: "It's not necessary."

Dan chuckled, "Should I judge you as calm or cold-blooded?"

August didn't answer, he took out a cigarette from his pocket, lit it, and slowly blew a smoke ring into the sky.

Dan stood beside him and asked for a while, "Do you send off newcomers like this every year?"

August nodded: "Yes." After thinking for a while, he looked at Dan: "Lieutenant, if you don't mind, I want to ask you a question."

Dan shrugged: "You are welcome."

"Why did you come here? I don't know what secret mission you performed in Northern Ireland, but according to your resume, you can definitely find a good position in the Danish headquarters, not to mention your training results... To be honest, it's very beautiful .”

Dan tilted his head slightly, his eyes reflected a glass-like blue color in the sunlight: "You don't trust me."

His tone was sure.

August did not deny: "If you feel offended, then I apologize. But I must be responsible to my team. If you just want to experience the scenery of the Arctic, patrol by the way, and experience a different life, then I It is recommended that you submit your application for leaving the team as soon as possible. Our route will take nearly half a year, and once you set off, you will face an environment that you could not have imagined before."

"It seems that you are trying to make a more personal assessment of me as my future teammate." Dan's tone was very gentle.

Seeing that August did not answer for a while, the smile in his eyes gradually deepened: "How should I put it, a person's thoughts are very private things, although I don't mind sharing them, but I am afraid that some of my past tasks do not allow I do. Although we passed the initial assessment, the follow-up training results will also be included in the overall evaluation? I would be happy to wait until the training is over to hear what you think of me."

After speaking, he no longer looked at August's face, turned and left.

Looking at his slightly thin back, August's eyes became a little thoughtful.

After a few short trips around Ferringe, mid-July is a routine trip to the Jensen Glacier.

The Jensen Glacier is located in the north of the town of Palmut, on the southwest coast of the island of Greenland.After the team members arrived in the town by transport plane, they were divided into groups of four for a week-long glacier training.

August was originally leading the team, but when everyone assembled on the tarmac of the base on Monday morning, everyone saw Heath standing next to the transport plane, yawning, with a look of impatience.

The old team members seemed to be used to it. After saying hello to Heath, they filed into the plane from the gangway. The three new team members, including Dan, hesitated for a few seconds and fell behind.

Heath didn't even need to look up to guess the expressions on their faces. He yawned again, and said vaguely: "Boys, you read that right, it's me, Captain Heath Eblon himself. Everything about this training session has not changed, except for the Commander. Your captain, Major August Field, received an emergency order from headquarters an hour ago and is probably almost in Copenhagen now. When will he be back and will he be back? I don't know, what I know is that if you don't get on the plane quickly, I'm going to kick you up one by one."

The other two were obviously afraid of being kicked by the officer in public (based on what they knew about Heath, it was entirely possible for him to do such a thing), so they caught up with the first few steps and stepped onto the gangway.Dan was the last one, and he took two quick steps. Before boarding the plane, he looked back at Heath, with a flash of thought in his eyes.

After getting on the plane, Heath squinted his eyes in the seat next to Dan to catch his sleep. On the seat to Dan's right, the other two rookies crowded together like quails. In contrast, the six veteran players in the front row were It seemed much more relaxed, and from time to time, a low-pitched laughter spread to the back.

Dan glanced over the head of the person ahead and landed on the porthole.

The porthole of the transport plane was a large square, and from Dan's position he could just see the slanting sky outside.

The climate in Greenland in July is particularly pleasant, the sky is a clear gray-blue, the snow-capped mountains in the distance are towering into the clouds, and a few clouds hang on the mountainside, reflecting the colorful huts on the gray-green land, giving people a fairytale-like feeling. illusion.

"Why, you've been here for two months, and you still haven't gotten used to the scenery here?" Heath's voice came from beside him.

He turned his head, but Heath didn't open his eyes, and his head was still leaning on the back of the chair, with his hands folded on his chest, as if he hadn't woken up yet.

Dan raised his eyebrows: "I thought you were resting."

Heath sneered: "I think it takes at most half an hour from here to Palmute Town, and I have to get off the plane as soon as I close my eyes."

Dan smiled, but didn't answer.

"Speaking of which, it seems that we haven't had a good chat since you came here?"

Dan looked out the window: "What do you want to talk about?"

Heath slightly opened his eyes, squinting at him: "Anything is fine. For example, what do you think about the base, and what are your plans after this year."

"So do you want to hear the official answer, or just my personal opinion?"

"Yo, it seems that someone has already asked you before me."

Dan shook his head indifferently: "It doesn't count, but the content is similar."

Heath laughed: "Come on, don't think of me as that old antique August, he has that kind of virtue to everyone. I'm just curious about your thoughts. To be honest, I think you are very suitable. here."

Dan was a little surprised: "You think so?"

Heath raised his hand and stretched his waist: "Yes, you are the kind of person who can quickly adapt to your role. It has something to do with your past experience, I guess?"

The smile on Dan's face faded: "Can I take it as some kind of compliment?" Without waiting for Heath to answer, he added: "It's just that I personally don't think it's an advantage."

Heath's eyes hidden under his narrowed eyelids became sharper. Just as he was about to speak, the communicator at his waist rang a few times. He took it out and looked, and muttered: "August? Such an old man Send me a message from afar what to do."

Dan consciously looks away.

After a while, Heath laughed and put away the communicator. Just as he was about to continue squinting, a person in the front row turned his head: "Heath, every time you laugh like that, I think someone is going to be in trouble."

He has a pair of blue eyes with slightly narrow eyeliner and fair complexion, and he greeted Dan in a friendly manner.

Heath's tone was still lazy: "Come on, Newman, the whole team belongs to your sixth sense."

The person next to Newman simply turned around halfway and put his arms on the back of the chair. His skin color was darker than Newman's, and his eyes were deep black: "So Newman guessed right?"

Heath raised his foot and kicked the backs of their chairs, and scolded with a smile: "Ian, I think you have grown hairy in the past few months."

Ian shrugged, put his hand on the back of Newman's head and turned his head away, and went to talk about something else.

Dan's eyes fell on him, looked at him for about two seconds, and then moved away as if nothing had happened.

Nearly 10 minutes later, the plane landed at the military airport on the outskirts of the town of Palmute.

After everyone got off the plane, Heath looked at his watch and clapped his hands: "Gather the lads. I just received news from August on the plane that this year's training plan has been temporarily adjusted. The specific situation can only be decided after August comes. Now is an hour of free time, and the range of activities is this airport. One hour later, that is, 10:40 in the morning, come back here to gather. Are there any questions? "

Everyone answered no, and then dispersed.

It is said to be free activities, but in fact the scope of the airport is very limited, so most people still hugged and chatted on the side of the runway.

The huskies were sent by another plane, and they also landed about ten minutes later.Now they finally found something to do, the air was filled with the barking of dogs, occasionally mixed with a sentence or two of human instructions.

Heath found a leeward corner to smoke, and Rogers followed his scent to find it, turned around twice at his feet, and happily walked in the direction of Dan next to him.

Heath just put out his cigarette butt and wanted to brush its hair, when he saw this, he said depressedly: "Rodgers, you did it on purpose, right?"

Standing a few steps away from him, Dan saw Rogers approaching, squatted down and raised his hand to caress the fluffy black hair on its back, and couldn't help laughing when he heard Heath's complaint: "Captain Heath, you can't blame me, can you?" ?”

Heath let out a breath, walked over, saw Rogers' expression of enjoyment, and raised his eyebrows: "I didn't expect Rogers to be so close to you."

"Maybe I have been more attracted to small animals since I was a child."

Heath shook his head: "It's not the same. Although Siberian Huskies are very friendly to people, they are usually more wary of people they just met. They are a very smart dog. Rogers, the situation is even more special A few. When it first arrived at the base, no one was allowed to touch it except August and Arthur, and it was not allowed to touch it. My hand was bitten with several teeth marks."

Dan keenly caught a strange name: "Arthur?"

Heath consciously made a slip of the tongue, and the expression on his face became a little sad.He knelt down beside Dan: "Arthur was our former teammate. There was an accident on patrol two years ago. He... was not rescued."

"Feel sorry."

Heath forced a smile, and was a little dazed: "It's okay. Rogers was actually picked up by Arthur at the pier. It was just a puppy at the time. It was probably beaten when he was wandering before. Arthur took it back to the base It was very pitiful when I was in the hospital. Gbagbo cured it and found that it was a Siberian husky with good innate aptitude, so I left it in the base for training. At the beginning, except for Arthur and August, other people ordered it They didn’t listen to anything, and it wasn’t until a month later that Arthur was almost inseparable from him, and he almost took him to the toilet, that he gradually adapted to the other people in the base.”

Dan reached out and scratched Rogers' head until it let out a pleasant grunt.

There was a gentle smile in his eyes: "That 'Arthur'... is a very good master."