Chapter 101 The Search (2)

　　And Khrushchev hesitated for half a day, finally at six o'clock in the morning when he summoned up the courage to pick up the phone, trembling to Stalin to report the disappearance of the gold train. At this time, Comrade Stalin should be at breakfast, in case he waits until he arrives at the train station to report, then there really won't even be a tiny bit of leeway.

　　"What! The gold is missing?!!!" The original mood of immense pleasure due to the 560 tons of gold instantly dissipated and was replaced by a monstrous rage. Khrushchev almost didn't fall to his knees and kowtow toward the telephone in thanks as he listened to Comrade Stalin's furious roar coming through the microphone.

　　He wiped the sweat from his head and spoke cautiously. "Great Leader Comrade Stalin, please calm your anger. On my head I guarantee that the gold train will be found, not a single piece of gold will be missing."

　　"You have one day." Stalin, who had been hysterical for half a day, was probably tired and hung up the phone after coldly dropping this sentence.

　　"... " Khrushchev only felt chills all over his body, Comrade Stalin didn't say what would happen if he couldn't find the gold after one day, but this was even more frightening than threatening to kill him. He could not sit still any longer, and immediately left for Daharkov, intending to personally sit in command to find the gold.

　　"Comrade Khrushchev, what brings you here in person?" The secretary, who had arrived before him, came to greet him.

　　Khrushchev now hated this bastard who was netting him bad news, and he was going to get rid of this bastard at the first opportunity after this matter was resolved. "Cut the crap, what have you found?"

　　The secretary hesitated before speaking. "It's not that there's no discovery, let's report to you in the conference room."

　　Following the secretary to the government conference room in Daharkov, seeing that the large conference room was already crowded with people, Khrushchev was very dissatisfied and said. "Why are there so many idle people? It would be better to find a train with this effort."

　　"These people are experts in various fields." The secretary clapped his hands after a whispered explanation. "Quiet everyone, Comrade Khrushchev has arrived."

　　With a crash, the people in the conference room flocked to Khrushchev, extending their hands enthusiastically.

　　"Greetings, Comrade Khrushchev."

　　"Hello, Comrade Khrushchev."

　　Looking at the situation everyone had to come a little, Khrushchev simply waved his hand. "Finding the train is the key now, other issues will be discussed later, what have you found?"

　　An old man in his sixties with a full head of gray stepped forward. "Comrade Khrushchev, I'm the construction director for this section of the railroad. I've studied it with a few experts and think the most suspicious place is here." He said pointing to a place on the map. "This is a section of the railroad 20 kilometers outside of the town of Alexei, a cliff, and we suspect that the train may have lost control here and tumbled off the cliff."

　　Khrushchev frowned. "Can you be sure? Why didn't you think of this place within the first hour?"

　　"Comrade Khrushchev, this section of the railroad is equipped with deceleration warning lights at both ends, and with the fact that there hasn't been a single accident on that section of the railroad since it was built, no one would have thought of ..."

　　It was good to have a clue, and Khrushchev couldn't help but breathe a secret sigh of relief. "Then we'll leave now!"

　　The secretary spoke up and urged. "Comrade Khrushchev, you'd better rest here, we'll just go."

　　Rest? He'd have to rest forever after a day of not finding the gold train.

　　Dakharkov station immediately mobilized a locomotive and two carriages to carry the crowd straight to that cliff.

　　Dakharkov is still only cloudy, dozens of kilometers away is already continuous heavy rain, wait until the destination after the sky is thunder and lightning pouring rain.

　　Sure enough, as they neared their destination the crowd saw the unmistakable slow down warning light standing on the side of the road, which was impossible to miss unless the driver was drunk. The locomotive began to slow down slowly, and continued traveling for a while before stopping at a curve.

　　The construction director, who was in his 60s, pointed out the window at the cliff and said. "Comrade Khrushchev, this is it."

　　The railroad was less than half a meter from the edge of the cliff, and looking down it was pitch black, so even with a flashlight shining down it was impossible to see what was actually under the cliff.

　　"Send someone down!" After sticking his head out and looking at the outside of the cliff for a few moments, Khrushchev gave the order on the spur of the moment.

　　"..." the crowd you look at me and I look at you, this cliff is at least a hundred meters deep, if this thing is halfway down to the accident, it is absolutely proper must die ah! And now it's pouring rain, don't need to think too much, with the rain washing away, it's hard to find a suitable landing spot on the cliff wall.

　　Looking at no one initiative to come forward, Khrushchev snapped. "What? Getting scared? You must know that this train is Comrade Stalin's heart. Whoever takes credit for this search operation will be a hero of the Soviets. Not only will Comrade Stalin personally receive him, but prizes, awards, and medals will be given." Khrushchev, of course, did not know whether Comrade Stalin would receive them, but this emergency still promise them benefits, and then again, when the gold train is found, everything will be easier.

　　"Comrade Khrushchev, I'll lead the way down." Finally, Khrushchev's secretary took the lead. As mentioned before he was a person who was quite good at reading people's words, and from Khrushchev's words and actions he had already guessed that Khrushchev would be out to relocate his anger. Although he is not at fault, but mixed with the officialdom is not so like walking on thin ice.

　　I don't know which words were moved, finally, three strong young men followed out. The crowd will be ready to rope on their bodies, the use of simple pulley device carefully put them down the cliff.

　　The crowd in the carriage carefully maneuvered the pulley device, and everyone's attention was focused on the bottom of the cliff. Although they couldn't see anything, people still crowded in front of the window and stared closely at those four people gradually disappearing into the darkness.

　　Khrushchev was no exception, and he didn't even notice the mutterings of those around him. "Do you guys feel a little wobbly?" Was it hard to believe that the force of the four men's descent was making the car wobble? Not only was the car wobbling, but what was even weirder was that the thunder had been coming from the south up until just now, so how come there was now a "boom," "boom," "boom," "boom," similar to thunder, coming from behind them as well? Boom?

　　Khrushchev did not pay attention, most people did not pay attention, but one of them face changed wildly, ran to the other side of the window, looking at the side of the cliff, and violently let out a heart-rending scream. "Mudslide!!!"

　　"Mudslide?!" Hearing those fateful words, everyone in the carriage was suddenly shocked!

　　"Run!!!" Not knowing who shouted at the top of his voice, the crowd rushed towards the carriage door like crazy. The narrow carriage door could not accommodate so many people to pass through at the same time, everyone pushed and shoved each other. "I'm Khrushchev, get out of my way!" Only 1.62 meters tall Khrushchev was squeezed in the crowd can not move, the surrounding which is not a head taller than his big man, he felt some lack of oxygen, can not help but yell.

　　But who cares who you are at the moment of life and death, I'm afraid that Stalin will have to be squeezed aside when he comes.

　　In the crowd crowded in the doorway can not move when the ear came "rumbling", "rumbling", "rumbling" a series of as dry as the thunder of the strange sound. Everyone looked out the window in horror, and saw a turbid yellow torrent, is like a tiger down the mountain general along the cliffs whistling down, shaking the entire cliffs are slightly trembling!

　　As we all know, mudslide is torrential rain, flood will contain sand and soft soil mountain saturated dilution of the torrent, usually by the suspension of coarse solids, debris and clay viscous mud, area, volume and flow are larger, because of its outbreak of sudden, ferocious, high-speed forward, with a strong energy, and therefore extremely destructive!

　　"Boom!" Like a fierce beast, the mudslide hit this train fiercely. The force was so great that this train with only three sections instantly tilted into 45 degrees.

　　Accompanied by the crowd's desperate screams, a second mudslide came roaring in again, easily pushing the shaky train off the cliff.

　　Behind it was a continuous stream of mud and rocks cascading down to the base of the cliff.