"Well, there are not so many finds, more and more cartridge cases, and cartridges."
Dara clicked his tongue, the finds were really not rich. There are only two silver buttons from the camisoles of middle-class officials, three copper coins, one small silver coin.
In Small-An it was not possible to hand over the casings for non-ferrous metal. The level of security was at an extremely high level, if a cartridge case was found in a citizen's house or pocket, then they would be given 3 years of correctional labor and a fine of $ 1,500.
When casings, cartridges, weapons, human bones were found, the police had to be immediately notified. But this is such a headache. So he decided to call the general from state security. Since the dungeon took place under the complex of government buildings. Here, notifying the state security was the primary task. But Dara decided to consult with her cousin first.
Shir Ali, meanwhile, reached a fork where the dungeon was divided into two parts.
He first walked along the left side, the tunnel was not deep; 50 steps from the fork, it was covered with broken brick, clay, and wooden beams. Apparently 110 years ago, during a military coup, the tunnel was blown up.
Letting out the cultivator's gaze, Shir Ali did not find anything, the tunnel did not exist any further. Land and nothing else.
Returning back, he went along the second tunnel, fragments of skulls, bones, remnants of rifles were lying on the floor. The walls of the tunnel contained marks of burning and bullets. The tunnel lasted 1000 steps. On the right side of the wall, doorways were visible, but now they were bricked up with bricks.
By directing his gaze to the cultivator, Shir Ali was able to see what was behind the walled doors. One went out into a wild park, completely abandoned with a strange stele dedicated to the fallen soldiers of the Belgians, Germans, and Austrians in the First World War. The once European cemetery is now a forgotten park, near a ravine.
The second door opened into the forgotten basement of the building, of which only the foundation remained. Grass grew on top and it was part of the city park. No one even suspected that the entrance to the dungeon was hidden under the beautiful lawn.
The third door opened onto the underground floor of the district children's library, which had been closed for preservation for 30 years. Dust, devastation, spiders. Nothing interesting, except that the underground floor was littered with the remains of bones, skeletons, they were all dressed in torn greatcoats. There were no rifles. There were dusty bandages on the floor, a lot of shells. Apparently, there were seriously wounded soldiers, so that they would not be tormented by the insurgent troops, they were all shot there.
It is surprising that the dungeons hid a terrible secret of the first northern European empire.
The last walled door opened into an old and dry well. At the bottom of which were stacked wooden boxes with rifles, grenades, and cartridges, about a dozen. Up there was an iron staircase nailed to the wooden walls of the well, all rusted.
What tragedies of the past played out in the dungeon, one could only imagine.
Shir Ali, disappointed, a little sad, wandered back. Bones were scattered everywhere, skulls with holes in different places, fragments of checkers, rifles, in some places bayonets stuck out of the skeletons, a lot of cartridges and cases. They rustled under his feet, amazing that there were no mice or rats in the dungeon.
The answer was around the bend. There were large rings of shed snakeskin ...
Dara walked to the place where they parted with their cousin. He found another secret door in the wall, it led to a small bunker. The walls were made of concrete, they were hung with old maps from the 30s of the 20th century. Some faded posters. Near one of the walls stood small tin boxes, one of which was open and machine-gun belts hung from there. There, leaning against the wall, sat the skeleton of an officer, headless.
And the head and cap were lying a little further away. Walking forward, Dara saw on the machine, three large anti-aircraft machine guns 12.5 mm, fully loaded, and two old Maxim machine guns. They rested against a steel plate.
Using the magic power of coins to increase muscle strength, Dara managed to move the plate with great difficulty. With a nasty creak, it opened. Light began to penetrate the room. The concrete loopholes looked at the old bridge, from the side of the second terrace of the large city canal. Judging by the fact that there was not a single pothole from bullets and shrapnel on the loopholes, this fortified point has never seen a battle in its lifetime.
Looking around, Dara saw that the premises of the fortified point had one more small room, there was a low concrete ceiling, there were no loopholes. A blank wall only had small manholes for the removal of gases and a shock wave. In the center was a small, wooden table. On which stood a medium-sized wooden box with the lid open. Dozens of blued revolver handles peered at him from the drawer. There were 98 of them in total ... two were missing. All with cartridges. On the table lay a silver Straub-Thaler.
Dara felt something was wrong. He reluctantly found a hidden spring on the coin, when pressed, it opened. There was a crumpled sheet of parchment with the numbers 47086-1 "last assignment."
Dara swore aloud, he swore. Are these partisans again ?! It means they knew everything! Again a secret project, the development of a partisan movement, and sabotage operations in the event of the capture of the capital Small-An by the Wehrmacht paratroopers.
"Damn, how unlucky!"
"Again secrets ... and no gold!" Dara stood tired and angry.
"What are you talking about"! Suddenly a hand fell on his shoulder.
Dara, startled, he did not hear the steps in thought.
"Who is it"? Dar's voice trembled involuntarily, and he himself began to clench his fists.
"Don't be afraid, it's me, Shir Ali," and the cousin smiled at him cheerfully.
"Oh, you scared me!" Dara hummed tightly.
"So what are we talking about?" asked Shir Ali.
"Look!" Dara showed him the find.
"So what"?
"I don't understand anything, some kind of coin, for some reason opening, with a piece of paper, well?" asked the unaware of the secrets of project 47086-1*, the unsuspecting Shir Ali.
"This means you will be looking for a new home!" Dara said dryly without explaining anything.
"Why"??? "I just bought this one"? began to boil and play with Shir Ali's nodules. His eyes turned red and his face turned black.
"Your pressure must have risen," his cousin muttered sourly.
"Here, take a drink," and he handed him a pill to reduce blood pressure.
"I don't want to drink anything, you really explain why I have to move out of my new house, just because of this piece with incomprehensible numbers 47086-1"? Shir Ali could hardly restrain himself so as not to start screaming.
"Bro, don't get hot, I went to look for treasures in the mountains of Light a couple of years ago, you know? Not? Nevermind! I found some gold, but I could not take anything with me, I found these stupid Strabtaller coins there. "Dara did not say that he earned a couple of hundred thousand US dollars then. It was the ethics of a merchant, not to talk about your money.
"What's next"? a nervous voice rang out.
"And there was no further! I called the colonel, he came and took over all the work. Project 47086-1 is a secret, well, I can tell you from the friendship that during the Second World War, it was planned to create a network of partisan detachments and sabotage groups throughout the country in Small-An. Bunkers, pillboxes, pillboxes were built, ancient dungeons were used to create warehouses for weapons, food, medicine, and other things for conducting a sabotage war on the supposedly occupied lands of Nazi Germany".
"Well? As I know there were no fascists with us "?! Shir Ali was surprised.
"There were, but dozens, not millions, there were parachutists, spies, but almost all of them were quickly discovered. But here we are not talking about that, but about that project with that number. It was the big guy's way of making good money. Instead of high-quality reinforced concrete, they used cheap concrete. Some of the weapons were sold to the side, as well as food, medicines. Then this fraud was revealed. Almost everyone who participated in this project was shot in the early 40s of the 20th century. Now no one knows anything about this project "!
"Ha"! "Now it is clear that my house is fucked!" "Ahahaha"! narrowing his eyes, clenching his fists, Shir Ali laughed.
"You saw it yourself, human bones, skeletons, skulls, weapons, cartridges, and sometimes boxes with shells, machine guns… you know what to do" Dara shrugged.
I know! "Okay, call him!" "But for my home to be!" "Let them buy a new one today!" Shir Ali shook his fist as workers used to shake their fists in support of the Rot Front trade union movement!
"First, let's share our findings!" Dara showed on his palm several found copper and silver coins and buttons. Nothing worthwhile.
Shir Ali shared the find of the old Governor-General.
"Well, what will we give everything to your General or hide the notebook, maybe the gold is still there, we will wash it, we will become rich" ?! Began to tempt his cousin, Shir Ali.
"Yes, you go, we have not the country to joke with the state!" Pursing his lips, clenching his teeth, Dara said.
"Here you are right ... and it's a pity for that Governor-General, we need to restore his honest name, and it's a pity, we could walk through the old places and try to wash gold in the city, can you imagine"? Shir Ali could not calm himself.
"You won't hand over gold anywhere without a sample. Immediately imprisoned for 10 years. The entire precious metals market is supervised by state security. Do you need any problems? I don't! " brushed off cousin Dar's idea.
"Well, what shall we decide?" asked Shir Ali.
"What, what ... we are calling the general" and Dara went to the exit, Shir Ali followed him.
They walked along the old corridors of the dungeon, the spirit of research was gone, it was boring and not interesting. Shir Ali was depressed, in order to somehow cheer him up, Dara suggested, before calling the general, to look at the second room in front of the basement, where everything was burnt and next to the underground tunnel with a metal detector.
Shir Ali took this idea well, so as they walked through the dungeon, he sent his cultivator spirit to look through the walls, floor, ceiling of that room, and tunnel.
He discovered on the floor a small cache containing 12 gold coins and 30 silver coins, from the first northern European empire. There was a small box in the ceiling and there was a small map of the European part of the city with some signs. The tunnels were empty. But his attention was attracted by the laid wall, behind which was another part of the dungeon.
Did they reach the entrance or exit?
While Dara went out into the courtyard of the Shir Ali house, to call the general, his cousin, quickly confiscated the treasure and the box. Entrusting the research of the second part of the dungeon to the general.
Returning, Dara was engaged in 30 minutes searching for treasures, but of course, he did not find anything, and he did not pay attention to the laid wall.
After 1 hour, five luxury cars arrived, jeeps with tinted windows, 4-class reservation protection. From them came out people dressed in a spotted gray uniform, several people remained on duty near the gate. And the rest were scattered around the perimeter of the small courtyard of Shir Ali.
The general greeted the brothers by the hand, briefly asked about their findings. Dara pulled out his finds from his pocket, his trousers - rifle cases, revolvers, a machine gun, and a couple of large anti-aircraft gun cases. The general appreciated the find. After that, Dara threw him an exit point near the river. The general shook hands again, Dara.
And he said something to him in a low voice. General, slyly looked at Shir Ali. Then he laughed when he saw Dar's displeased face.
With a hand gesture, one of his men approached him, who respectfully passed the radio.
The general spoke to someone. From time to time, his voice was heard "I need…", "right today",… "from our fund", "yes, so that I have the documents in 2 hours"!
He smiled again. He waved his hand, the radio was taken from him. He approached Shir Ali, "don't worry, today in 2 hours you will receive new documents for a new house, it is nearby, we will pay you extra for the find"!
Shir Ali just shrugged his shoulders, what can you do.
On this, the story of searching for treasures in the dungeon, as the upset Dara though, is over. But he was wrong, his wiser brother, gave him a wonderful surprise ...
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* The history of the project appears in the novel - "The Adventures of Treasure Hunters - 1 season"