Chapter 473: Parallel Timeline in Modern Times (01)
Earth, South Carolina.
It was the height of August, and the border town in the northwestern desert was so hot that it made people dizzy.
Hicks opened a bottle of water and poured it directly over his head. He wiped his face and continued to lie on the ground, observing a street not far away through binoculars.
Beside him were two teammates holding sniper rifles.
They were currently in a two-story bungalow about 500 meters away from their target street.
The heat outside was intense, and their team members were still wearing heavy gear. However, they were a team that had undergone the most rigorous training, and they were still able to endure it.
"Boss, target spotted."
Apa, who was standing nearby, spoke up to remind him and subtly adjusted the angle of the sniper rifle.
Through his binoculars, Hicks watched as a black pickup truck pulled up in front of a house. A tall, bald man got out of the truck, accompanied by two armed bodyguards.
Hicks saw them unload a large crate from the pickup truck; the crate was wrapped in cloth, so you couldn't tell what was inside.
The bald man exchanged a few words with the people who were greeting them before going inside.
Hicks pressed the button on his headset and signaled to the teams lying in ambush elsewhere, "Get ready, the goods should be in their hands."
The other team members' voices came through the headset: "Boss, they have someone lying in ambush nearby. We got word that the real buyer hasn't arrived yet. Should we wait a little longer?"
Hicks continued watching through his binoculars. Through the second-floor window, he could see the bald man leading his men upstairs. They seemed to be in a hurry, as they brought out a lot of ice and the large box as well.
In this impoverished desert town, ice is a scarce commodity, so they must have prepared it in advance.
Hicks's gaze lingered on their large crate. Although he knew in advance what their contents were, he still felt something was amiss.
He watched as the bald man hurriedly opened the combination lock box. A bodyguard reacted and went to the window to close it.
In the instant the window was closed, Hicks saw a small figure huddled inside the box.
It looked like a child.
Hicks's expression hardened. Weren't they here to trade energy crystals? Why was there a child in the box?
The teammate's voice came through the headset, "Boss, the buyer is here."
He immediately issued the order, "Action!"
Another pickup truck stopped in front of the house, and after the people inside got out, the Qianlong Squad immediately took action.
After the buyer went inside, the ambushing Dragon Squad took out some of the bodyguards with silenced pistols. Hicks thought of the small figure in the box, drove towards the target, and reminded his team that there was a child among the goods being traded.
By the time Hicks drove over and dealt with the ambushing bodyguards, the team had already completed their mission.
"Where is that child?" Hicks asked hastily.
"child......"
Hearing the team member's hesitant voice, Hicks asked in a deep voice, "Is the child alright?"
Team member Fink quickly said, "It's nothing, it's nothing. She's just hiding and won't come out. We're afraid of scaring her, so we don't dare to force her out. Captain, why don't you come and take a look?"
Hicks quickly entered the room. Both parties to the transaction had been hit by tranquilizer guns and were lying on the ground. He saw his team members gathered around a cabinet, and Fink was patiently coaxing the child hiding inside.
Seeing Hicks approach, the team members quickly made way for him. Fink looked troubled and said, "Boss, this kid won't come out no matter what we say."
Hicks walked up to the cabinet. "I'll give it a try."
Fink warned him, "Boss, be careful, she's holding a dagger."
Hicks said, "He's just a child, what's there to be afraid of?"
He crouched down, opened the cabinet door a little, and saw the child huddled inside, meeting a pair of wet, pale blue eyes.
“Don’t be afraid…” Hicks reached out to the child, “We’re here to save you.”
He looked at the child, who was so exquisitely cute that he seemed unreal. His hair color was also different from that of ordinary people; a natural pink-gold color was quite rare.
He looked at the child, who held a dagger in one hand and a block of ice in the other. His eyes showed no fear, only some wariness.
He couldn't immediately tell which continent the child was from, so he repeated himself in both the official language of South Africa and the local dialect.
The girl's expression changed after he spoke the local dialect. He tried to reach out to her, and the next second, her dagger slashed at him.
Hicks didn't dodge; instead, he grabbed the dagger. The girl froze when she saw bright red blood seeping from his palm.
Hicks continued to speak softly to her: "Don't be afraid, we won't hurt you. Come to me, you must be hungry, right? We have food."
The girl seemed a little puzzled by his words, but her eyes lit up for a moment when he mentioned food.
Seeing that the girl had released the dagger and lowered her guard against him, Hicks tried to hug her. Although she was still somewhat wary, she didn't struggle much when she saw that he didn't want to hurt her.
Hicks successfully lifted her out of the cupboard.
Only after emerging from the dimly lit closet could everyone see the girl's full appearance.
The girl looked to be about four or five years old. Her clothes were so tattered that they were unrecognizable. She was barefoot with fine scars on her feet and looked rather thin.
However, even though she looked dirty, it couldn't hide her excessively delicate appearance.
When the girl saw the bucket of ice on the table, she immediately broke free from Hicks's grasp, climbed onto the table, hugged the bucket, and started eating the ice cubes.
Seeing the girl munching on ice, Hicks and his teammates felt a pang of heartache and their anger towards these thugs intensified. They were inhuman for catching such a young child!
Hicks took out a piece of chocolate and handed it to the girl. The girl smelled the sweet aroma of the chocolate, her nose twitched, and she immediately took it from his hand and stuffed the whole piece into her mouth.
After quickly finishing a piece of chocolate, she licked her fingers, looked up at Hicks and the others, and her eyes, as pure as a mirror lake, softened the hearts of these tough men. They all took out everything they had to give to the girl.
Hicks stopped them and gave the girl two pieces of chocolate. She was very hungry and eating too much at once would be bad for her stomach.
After the girl finished eating the chocolate, Hicks took her back to their temporary camp.
After the female team members in the camp gave the girl a quick wash and changed her into clean clothes, Hicks brought a first-aid kit and treated the wound on her foot.
With new and old injuries piled up on her feet, Hicks gently treated her wounds, applying medicine and blowing on them to ease the pain, while Apa and Fink tried to distract her.
The girl paid no attention to the two teammates; she was munching on a soft bread in her hands.
Some of her wounds were infected, and Hicks needed to rinse, disinfect, and apply medicine. This process might be painful even for an adult, but the girl didn't even flinch throughout.
Hicks had no idea what she had gone through in this place that would allow her to endure such severe pain from external injuries at such a young age.
After bandaging the wounds on both of her feet, the girl finished eating the bread in her hand.
Hicks and his teammates sat together, discussing how to settle the girl.
The girl sat on the table, munching on a big red apple that Apa had given her. Her clothes didn't fit; they were a shirt from one of the female team members. There were no clothes for children here, and the team member who went to town to buy her clothes hadn't returned yet.
"What country is she from? She doesn't look like she's from Yugoslavia."
"They don't seem like people from North Lots or West Lots either."
Apa stroked his chin and said, "This hair and eye color are definitely not from our Dongwuzhou. Could it be that they are mixed-race?"
Fink nodded: "I also think she looks mixed race. Maybe she was stolen by those people. We can ask her name."
So the group started asking her name in broken local dialect, while the girl looked at them blankly.
Hicks couldn't help but interrupt them, "Your broken Nanska dialect is only understandable to yourselves."
One of the team members said with a wry smile, "The languages in Yugoslavia are mixed, boss, you can't expect us to all speak them."
Hicks ignored the team members' complaints and asked the girl some basic information in the dialect she could understand before, such as her name and parents.
The girl barely spoke, and judging from her responses, she didn't fully understand what he was saying, only individual nouns such as "eat" and "drink."
Hicks could only repeat single nouns, until the girl finally spoke.
“Aloo”
She uttered a word, and everyone looked at each other, none of them understanding.
Hicks called out the girl's name several more times, and each time she responded with "Aloo".
"Anunu? Is that your name?"
The girl nodded.
"And what about your mom and dad?" Hicks asked again.
Anunu shook her head; she didn't know her parents.
Hicks continued, "Anunu, have you been here all this time?"
The gang that traded energy crystals always operated in this area, and the girl could understand the local dialect.
Anunu nodded. "Always."
As far back as she can remember, she had been wandering around this desert. When she was hungry, she would pick a plant from the desert to eat, or go to some small towns around the desert to beg for food with other homeless children like herself.
However, she spent most of her time with the glowing stones in the desert, which helped her avoid feeling hungry.
One day, the stones were guarded by people in military uniforms, so she could only leave or sneak in to spend some time with the glowing stones.
Anunu rarely speaks, dislikes crowds and doesn't interact with people. She can only understand some simple local dialect and cannot communicate with people in a normal language.
Hicks talked to her for a while and also discovered this.
The conclusion is that Anunu has been living in this area, or rather, she has been wandering in this area. Her parents are definitely not found, and they cannot communicate normally with her, so they can only take her with them temporarily.
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