The submarine surfaced, and since the sea was calm, everyone went up to the deck to breathe some fresh air.
Arthur Stone also came up, carrying a black bag.
Unlike ships, submarine decks are not wide; their narrow, elongated surfaces resemble the spine of a giant shark, causing them to sway somewhat at sea. Boris and Ivan's group were fearless of storms and were used to this lifestyle, sitting, standing, or lying down as they pleased. But to their surprise, Mr. Stone walked gracefully to the bow deck as if it were flat ground.
"Sir, you must have served in the Navy before?" Boris asked, lying on his side on the deck as he distributed the box of cigars to everyone.
Arthur Stone turned around and laughed, "I've never served in the Navy, but I did spend a few years in Somalia."
Boris said, "Ha, you're joking! Only the Guardian of the sea, with Aegir's approval, can face the sea so calmly. Those Somalia pirates couldn't do it."
Stone smiled, walked over and sat down next to Boris, asking, "You must be Boris?"
"Yes, sir, thank you for remembering my name." Boris handed him a cigar.
Stone didn't answer, saying, "You served in the Navy for eleven years, longer than Ivan. You used to have a wife who admired you and was proud of you being an excellent submariner, right?"
Boris looked at Ivan and complained, "Oh, Ivan, you have such a long mouth!"
Ivan said, "I never said that."
Boris was skeptical. Ivan was a reliable man who never lied to them, which was why everyone trusted him. But how would Stone know about his past if he hadn't told them? He and his wife had been divorced for a long time. His adoration of the Navy was just a youthful impulse on that woman's part. In years of loneliness and poverty, her ideals and beliefs had become like liquid in a chamber pot—new fluid was poured in every day, but every day it would become sour and foul that it had to be emptied.
However, Boris quickly came to terms with it and stopped thinking about it. If they knew, they knew; there was no secret to it. After years of wandering, he had become indifferent to women.
"I've been divorced for a long time. She's just a woman! Once I make money, I can go ashore anywhere— Aarhus, Belfast, Tokyo, Houston, Lu Port ... there are countless beauties everywhere who will strip naked and lick you for a few Huahua bills." Boris said without any restraint.
" Boris!" Ivan snapped, "Watch your step!"
"I know, I know! Ivan, you're going to pull your usual stunt again..." Boris waved his hand impatiently, holding the cigar to his nose and sniffing it again and again, looking like he was reluctant to smoke it. "This cigar is really nice! It must have cost a lot of money, right?"
Ivan chimed in, " Boris, this box of Behike that Mr. Stone gave you is a first edition rolled by Fernandez, costing nearly ten thousand dollars a stick."
Boris's hand trembled, and the cigar fell to the ground. He hurriedly caught it, worried that it would be unsmokable if it fell onto the wet deck.
" Ivan, you even know that! Do you smoke all the time?" Boris said, annoyed. "How many cigarettes are in this box? Hmm... twenty... forty... God, that's four hundred thousand dollars!"
"If we buy in bulk, we don't need that much; half will be enough," Ivan said.
"That's expensive enough! Laozi work hard all year and that's all I earn!" Boris said.
"Take them if you like, they won't cost much." Stone picked up the bag on the deck and took out a tablet and a gray box about the size of a radio. As he connected the box to the tablet and pulled out a long antenna from the box, he said, "I have more if you want, but they're all on shore. You'll have to wait until the mission is over to go back and get them."
Boris said, "While cigars are nice, I still prefer money."
His words seemed to express the sentiments of everyone, and they all echoed his sentiments.
Arthur Stone adjusted the antenna, then turned on the computer and said, "Good signal! Ivan, I'll transfer the remaining half of the money to your account now."
Ivan said, "Sir, the mission isn't over yet..."
Arthur Stone interrupted him, "The mission is over. Now it's just a matter of whether we can get back alive."
"What did you say?" Everyone was startled.
"I don't know what will happen, but it's better to be safe than sorry," Arthur Stone said. " Ivan, go check the torpedo compartment first."
"Yes, sir." Ivan stubbed out his lit cigar, put it in his pocket, and climbed down the hatch.
"Is it really going to be a war?" Boris suddenly became nervous. "No wonder you wanted to equip yourself with so many torpedoes; I thought you were just wasting money!"
"It's not war," Stone continued typing on the computer.
"What else could it be but war?" Boris asked curiously. "One Type 533 torpedo is enough to destroy a destroyer, and we have fourteen of them. Is Godzilla coming?"
Boris's question had actually been on Ivan's mind for a long time. He had once suspected that Arthur Stone might be a terrorist, but after careful investigation and consideration, he dismissed the idea.
Ivan checked the torpedo compartment and everything was normal. On his way back to the deck, he passed the lounge and glanced around curiously. He saw that both computers were on, one of which was playing an old movie, while the other displayed a strange image.
The image was somewhat similar to the magnetic field detector he had seen before, consisting of dotted lines with some color blocks already filled in, like a half-finished 3D jigsaw puzzle. The surrounding blue likely represented seawater, and the image in the middle looked somewhat like an underwater volcano, with a gradient from gray to red all the way to the bottom; the dark red part probably represented magma.
Strangely, inside the irregular crater is an inverted triangular shadow, like a triangular pyramid funnel inserted upside down into the volcano. A thin, rainbow-like straight line runs from the center of the funnel into the dark red at the bottom.
Ivan looked around for a while but couldn't figure it out, so he went back to the deck and told Stone that everything was normal in the torpedo room.
Arthur Stone nodded, then said, " Ivan, I've transferred two million dollars to your wife's account."
Ivan asked in surprise, "Sir, what's wrong with you...?"
Stone closed the laptop, gesturing for him to be quiet. " Boris, even though you're divorced, you still care about your wife and children, right? I transferred some money to your ex-wife in your name; it's enough for her to live comfortably for the rest of her life."
Boris was stunned and didn't know what to say.
" Vasily... Andrei... Modevich... Anthony..."
Arthur Stone went through the names one by one and transferred money in the names of their closest family members, friends, or comrades.
"Sir, I don't understand, why are you doing this?" Ivan asked, puzzled.
" Ivan, I'm sorry I didn't tell you beforehand that this mission was actually very dangerous," Stone said.
"Enough, stop!" Boris roared. "It's just war, isn't it? I've been looking forward to it since Laozi was a soldier! Mr. Stone, just tell me, what do you want us to do? I'm putting my life in your hands!"
"It's not war, but it's more dangerous than war." Arthur Stone stood up, his white clothes fluttering slightly in the sea breeze.
"What's that?" Boris asked.
"Look around you!" Stone said.
Everyone looked around and saw that the horizon in the distance had disappeared, and a layer of white mist had risen on the vast sea. Above the mist, the outlines of some buildings could be vaguely seen, like a mirage.
As the white fog drew closer, the buildings became clearer. Ivan saw several pyramids standing among them, but the problem was that these pyramids were upside down, their spires resting on the sea surface, and their reflections were visible in the water.