London, MI6 Headquarters, Lady M's Office
The rain was still falling, pattering against the bullet-proof glass window, leaving winding trails of water that blurred the gray skyline outside.
Lady M held a cup of tea that had long since gone cold, feeling the chill from the porcelain against her fingertips.
She stood before the enormous screen, her silhouette appearing sowhat lonely.
On the screen, vague thermal imaging captured by high-altitude reconnaissance satellites played out a "solo drama" that completely overturned everything she had known in her decades-long intelligence career.
The solitary, white-hot spot representing a human figure was like the eye of a storm, surrounded and squeezed by hundreds, thousands of restless red spots symbolizing hostility, pinned to the knife-edged cliffs of Gelbi Mountain.
Tiny flashes representing gunfire lit up and extinguished around the white spot continuously and densely, like a swarm of infuriated bees stinging madly.
Each flash ant a deadly burst of fire, and as each flash faded, a few of the approaching red spots would suddenly dim and disappear.
Lady M knew well what that ant.
Each disappearing red spot signified the end of a life.
Watching as thousands surrounded a mountain yet failed to take it down.
Even soone as composed as Lady M, the top intelligence chief, couldn't help but be moved.
"One person…"
M's voice was as low as a murmur, almost swallowed by the rain outside.
Her well-maintained face uncharacteristically lost its usual calmness, her brows furrowed, and her deep eyes were turbulent with waves of emotion.
A slightly fearful thought crossed her mind—was she too rash in betraying Song Heping.
"Song Heping… what is he doing exactly?"
The chief analyst stood nearby, his expression equally grim, a touch of unease in his voice: "Ma'am, all intercepted signals and satellite images indicate the forr Vakner squad mbers and the Silia governnt army contact with him have disappeared. He… he appears to have deliberately exposed himself, putting himself in this… fatal position, acting as bait."
"Bait?!"
M turned sharply, her keen gaze cutting into the analyst like a surgeon's scalpel, filled with incredulity.
"Using himself as bait? Pinning Buckdadi's thousands of main forces on the mountaintop? At the cost of being torn apart?"
Her speech was rapid, carrying suppressed anger and deeper confusion.
Soon, she shook her head again.
"Song Heping isn't a madman! He's the most calculating and adept at weighing pros and cons in this era! This doesn't make sense! Absolutely doesn't!"
This seed too much like suicide, but based on her understanding of Song Heping, this guy would never commit suicide!
She stepped quickly back behind her large desk, her fingers tapping unconsciously and rapidly on the smooth mahogany surface, producing a dull and anxious "thump, thump" that was extraordinarily clear in the silent office.
Anxiety, like cold vines, wrapped around her heart, tightening more and more.
What is he aiming for?
To create a chance for Utekin and them to live?
The cost is too great!
In exchange for a few rcenaries?
Song Heping isn't that "noble"!
To deplete the living forces of the 1515?
How much can he deplete alone?
A drop in the ocean!
Or perhaps…
He calculated that the Aricans would intervene?!
This thought split the fog like lightning, causing M's heart to jolt!
Using others to do the dirty work?
Driving the tiger to swallow the wolf?!
If this is really the case…
Song Heping's nerve is too great! He considers himself as part of the bait too!
"Contact all our informants in Silia and Illiguo! Top priority!"
M's voice was resolute, even carrying a tension she hadn't acknowledged herself.
"I need to know the real-ti situation of Deir Ezzor, Ashala Town, especially the US Military Base and CIA liaison station! Any commotion, any unusual movents, report imdiately!"
She seed to have grasped a lead, hidden in the mist, and now she had to employ all intelligence reconnaissance capabilities to see the whole picture of this chess ga in the fog clearly!
After issuing the orders, her gaze returned to the screen.
That solitary white spot continued to flash, move, and counterattack tenaciously amidst the surging red tide.
Every move followed the most treacherous, deadliest path.
Every counterattack was precise as if it were a programd routine, shockingly efficient.
This didn't seem like a desperate defense…
This felt more like a ticulously planned, stake-your-life maneuver to win against the odds!
But Song Heping's ga seed shrouded in a dense mist that even she couldn't fully penetrate.
A sense of defeat and intense unease seized her so clearly for the first ti.
"Map, the map…"
She suddenly recalled sothing, grabbing the notebook on the desk, hurriedly waking the screen, quickly bringing up the Silia map, then pinpointing the coordinates on Gelbi Mountain.
Soon, the powerful intelligence database presented her with the full 3D view of the entire mountain.
Lady M's eyes rapidly scanned over it, hand on the mouse, linking up the route that Song Heping had moved along earlier.
Eventually, her face turned pale.
"His escape route is on the southern slope!"
Illiguo, outskirts of Baghdad, US military airbase.
Almost simultaneously with Vincent hanging up the red phone, the searing, dry air of the Baghdad airbase was suddenly pierced by the ear-splitting scream of engines!
Four F-15E "Strike Eagle" heavy fighters accelerated, their massive bodies trembling on the runway, the roar of their engines making the distant hangars seem to shake.
Under the wings and on the belly's bomb bay racks, the heavy GBU-12 "Paveway II" laser-guided bombs and CBU-105 sensor-fused Cluster Bomb Units (SFW) glead with a cold tallic luster in the dawn.
They were the scythes of the Grim Reaper, about to be unleashed towards the distant Gelbi Mountain to execute a thorough "purification".
The lead pilot of the first strike group, codenad "Razor", was wearing a flight helt filled with electronic interfaces, his fingers rapidly tapping on the control panel glowing with a ghostly light, like a pianist playing the prelude of an opening ceremony, confirming target coordinates and weapon status.
"Reaper 1, target coordinates XXX-XXX confird. Payload: two GBU-12s, two CBU-105s. Fire control data link synchronized. Estimated ti to target airspace: thirty-seven minutes."
His voice transmitted through the encrypted channel, devoid of any emotion, without a hint of hesitation executing the "indiscriminate clearance" mission.
The wingman "Anvil" followed closely, completing the sa checklist, responding silently.
"CAOC confirms, 'Reaper' formation."
The directives from the Air Operations Center (CAOC) were as cold as an electronically synthesized voice, transmitted clearly into the helt's earphones.
"Target area authorized. Mission content: indiscriminate clearance. Repeat, indiscriminate clearance. Weapon release authority granted. Happy hunting to all of you."
The last four words carried a hint of programd ruthlessness.
"Reaper acknowledged. Mission understood: indiscriminate clearance. Weapon release authority confird."
"Razor's" voice remained as steady as ever, as if rely confirming a routine training mission.
Amidst the deafening roar, the lead pilot gave a thumbs-up to the ground crew below, who were watching nervously — a cold gesture symbolizing "all systems go, mission start".
The ground crew waved the guidance batons, like a conductor in front of an orchestra, signaling the "ready for takeoff" semaphore.
The massive fighter jets lifted their noses at the end of the runway, powerful engines unleashing one final roar, breaking free from the bonds of Earth's gravity, like two unsheathed silver-gray swords piercing towards the skies in the direction of Deir Ezzor.
The scorching exhaust flas from the engine nozzles left two brief, heat-distorted trails on the runway.
Siria, southern slope of the Gelbi Mountains, mountaintop.
Song Heping perford a sudden tactical roll, dodging a burst of machine gun bullets that ca splashing like water.
The bullets struck the rocks where he had previously been hiding, sending shards flying, slicing a thin cut on his cheek.
He knelt on one knee, the stock of his AK-12 firmly against his shoulder, aligning the sight without even needing to aim.
"Bang! Bang!"
Two ard n, who had peeked half their bodies out from behind rocks on the flanks to flank him, fell in response, screaming as they tumbled down the steep slope.
Sweat, blood, gunpowder smoke, and dust mixed together, forming a layer of gri on his face. Only those eyes remained as sharp as a hawk, burning with a cold fla. He glanced at the tactical watch on his wrist.
An hour had passed.
From "accidentally" letting Is "leak" his location to 1515, to successfully pinning down their thousands of main forces on the top of this death mountain, an hour had passed!
"It's about ti, Simon, Vincent... it's your turn to take the stage."
He silently muttered, a cold smirk tugging at his lips.
Soone like Vincent would never tolerate him being captured alive by 1515, nor would he miss this "divine opportunity" to wipe out both himself and the 1515 elite in one go.
The roar of the F-15s should be coming soon!
Down the mountain, the assaults from 1515 ca in waves like the enraged sea, but the treacherous terrain of Gelbi Mountain ford Song Heping's most impregnable fortress.
The narrow ridges, nearly vertical cliffs, and jagged boulders made it impossible for the ard n to deploy their forces.
They could only ascend in groups of a dozen or so, along a few "guiding" paths that Song Heping had deliberately outlined as "easier but deadlier".
Every charge was exposed to Song Heping's overlooking firepower.
Song Heping was like a precise killing machine.
He utilized every rock for cover, aiming to kill with every shot. Rapid movent, short bursts, precise sniping.
In his hands, the AK-12 seed to have life, the muzzle flash claiming at least one life with every burst.
The mountain wind swept away the smoke, also carrying the frantic roars and dying howls from below.
Bodies stacked up layer upon layer on the steep slopes, trampled and rolled down by those behind, forming grotesque paths of blood and flesh.
Ammunition was rapidly depleting. He replaced another full magazine, the last rifle magazine he had.
He took a deep breath, his lungs burning, his stamina nearing its limit.
But there was not the slightest panic in his eyes.
Now is the ti!
He forcefully pressed the send button on his throat communicator, calling out the codenas for Utekin and Jiang Feng with undeniable determination: "'Tsar'! 'Hummingbird'! Listen up, now is the ti to act! Attack Ashara Town, move fast!"
Lurking in the low hills south of Ashara Town, Utekin and others suddenly heard Song Heping's command in their earphones.
Utekin's eyes flared with a fierce light, he slapped the machine gunner beside him hard: "Brothers of Vakner! Attack! For Song! For the chef! For the commission! Kill them all!"
The elite of Vakner, already raring to go, sprang out from concealnt like ferocious tigers, using a skilled tactical formation, like a red-hot blade, piercing fiercely into the relatively unguarded periters of Ashara Town!
At the sa ti, Is, moving with Utekin, also contacted Assam waiting anxiously in the temporary command center of the 104th Brigade through an encrypted channel: "General, the ti has co! Launch the counterattack! Drive those Mad Dogs besieging us back! Reclaim the outer positions! Now is the ti!"
The regular soldiers of the 104th Brigade, eagerly awaiting, surged from multiple hidden attack points like a bursting flood, launching a fierce counteroffensive against the now weakened 1515 siege forces due to the redeploynt of main forces!
The sounds of gunfire and explosions instantly erupted in the suburbs of Deir Ezzor!
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