When Song Heping was inspecting African wood in the warehouse with Old Demon and Hou Liang, Alvin was perusing a docunt that had been delivered an hour ago in an office at the CIA station in the Green Zone.
This docunt was a routine briefing.
The so-called routine briefing was an analysis report on all sudden incidents within Illiguo's borders.
The grassroots intelligence personnel collected the information that would be compiled into these routine briefings, and they reported it daily.
Such briefings typically covered hotspots, key events, or any unusual behavior of value within the monitored areas, and they briefly analyzed the impact of these incidents on the region's politics, military, economy, and more.
The docunt in front of Alvin was a very close investigation report, not the original routine briefing.
The original briefing, delivered yesterday, simply reported on the discovery of 215 bodies inside a fire-resistant factory in Gaiala City, estimated to have been dead for about a week before they began to decay and were reported by locals.
Agents suspected a massacre by local ard groups, but upon examining the bodies, they found fatal bullet holes in everyone's head and all were killed in short bursts. Most strangely, there were no signs of exchange of fire at the scene, raising many questions, and an application was filed for a joint in-depth investigation with local police to determine the cause of the incident.
The report was first delivered to Simon, the head of the Baghdad station, who, after reading the briefing, directed the agents to investigate.
The CIA's efficiency is comndable, and this morning, a detailed report had arrived.
Simon was greatly surprised by the detailed report and imdiately sent it to Alvin.
As the SAD operations director, Alvin held a higher rank than Simon and reported directly to the leadership in Langley. Simon had sent the report imdiately to him because after the agents' intervention in the investigation, it turned out that a large basent had been discovered at the scene, which contained so strange powder.
After analysis, the powder turned out to be gold dust!
Literal gold!
This imdiately reminded Simon of Sadam's fifty tons of gold.
He promptly went to find Alvin and handed over the investigation report for review.
Gold dust.
Gold.
215 bodies.
All shot in the forehead, none missed.
No signs of gunfire at the scene.
This was clearly the work of a special forces unit.
Ordinary militants definitely lacked such capability.
Further examining the identities of the deceased, all were forr mbers of the Revolutionary Guard's Suicide Squad.
In Sadam's ard hierarchy, the Revolutionary Guard was the highest rank and best equipped.
How were these two hundred n silently killed without even a chance to resist?
Alvin questioned himself, knowing even his own "Watcher" squad could hardly achieve such a feat.
What concerned him more was the gold dust.
He picked up a photo from the desk and inspected it repeatedly.
Then he picked up another.
One of them was a photo of the basent.
From the photo, the basent was quite large, capable of directly accommodating equipnt like forklifts.
The other photo showed a disard detonator, analyzed in the report as a delay-trigger type of explosive device, not exquisite, but beyond what ordinary army engineers could manage.
From this, it could be deduced that soone from the mysterious force that killed these 215 Suicide Squad mbers had easily disard this device.
Gold dust, detonators.
A conclusion seed to form in Alvin's mind.
Yet this realization made him feel a surge of blood rushing to his head, montarily blacking out.
It was the fifty tons of gold.
It had to be!
All intelligence had long indicated that the fifty tons of gold were managed by Sadam's confidant, Hassan, but those specifically responsible for its concealnt were surely mbers of the Revolutionary Guard's Suicide Squad.
These n were fiercely loyal to Sadam and extrely formidable in combat.
The gold must have been under their guard and concealnt.
Now, the problem was, with the Suicide Squad mbers who guarded the gold all eting their maker, the gold had vanished once again.
Unlike prior incidents, Alvin was very clear that the gold had definitely fallen into others' hands, and might have left Illiguo by now.
Who did it?
Persians?
How could Persian special forces have managed to deeply infiltrate Gaiala City, and silently eliminate over two hundred people without firing a shot?
Currently, Mosul was under siege, and all the surrounding highways and transport routes were blocked.
Yet the enemy managed to steal the gold right under his nose.
It was a disgrace of monuntal proportions.
Especially the date, which caused a rush of blood to the heart.
A week ago?
Wasn't that when he was operating in the southern desert city of Shebakey?
The timing matched up perfectly.
It was an extrely failed operation.
The target of the raid was mistaken.
The intelligence received indicated that there was gold hidden on the farm, but when the "Watcher" squad moved in, they found only a local family hosting a birthday party.
The assault team even killed about a dozen people on the spot.
Because of this, he was severely reprimanded by his superiors.
"Damn it!"
He slamd the photo down on the desk.
Knock, knock, knock—
The door was knocked.
"Co in."
"SIR."
Simon appeared at the door.
"Simon… did you find the stuff I asked you to check on?"
"No…"
Simon, holding a docunt, ca over and placed it in front of Alvin.
"I have examined all the information provided by our informants, and I haven't found any trace of Persian special forces unit movent…"
"Could it really have been done by an ard organization?
Alvin looked at the docunt and fell into deep thought.
"SIR, I have a bold guess," Simon said tentatively, "though it might sound a bit far-fetched."
Alvin's gaze left the docunt and landed on Simon.
"Go ahead."
"Do you think it could have been done by a rcenary organization?" Simon cautiously voiced his speculation.
"Impossible!"
Alvin stood up from his chair.
He was clearly agitated, walking straight to the window and staring blankly at the scenery outside.
After a long ti, he said, "I have a premonition that the sa group of people who stole the gold in Gaiala so stealthily and attacked the 'Watcher' squad in Turkey causing us heavy casualties are connected."
He turned around, looking at Simon who was still standing by the desk.
"Simon, in your opinion, which rcenary organization within Illiguo has the combat capability to wipe out a 'Watcher' squad? Black Water? Or AAFES? Or maybe the British Sparta Defense?"
His tone was filled with sarcasm.
Indeed.
If he had to admit that it was done by a rcenary company or a military contractor, it would be a disgrace for Alvin.
As the operation director of the SAD departnt, having access to resources like "Watcher," and it being wiped out by rcenaries?
If that wasn't a disgrace, what was?
Of course, he was not willing to admit it.
But Simon seed very persistent.
Although Alvin appeared sowhat angry, he still did not give up on his idea.
"As for the rcenary organizations in Illiguo, including contractors, there used to be no group capable of this, but…"
"But what?!"
"But recently, there's a small team that's very striking. I even believe their capabilities should not be underestimated. If we are to find a suspect with matching abilities for the incident in Gaiala, I think it's very likely them."
"Who?"
"'Musician' Defense." Simon identified the target he had always regarded as hostile and a threat.
"It's a small company, so far, only having over two hundred local rcenaries, but the core mbers are 8 people, most of whom are Russian retired paratroopers, two forr foreign legionnaires, and one administrative leader who is a mixed-race nad Ferrari, previously worked at the Temporary Managent Committee. What's more important is one of their core mbers, a Chinese nad Song Heping."
Alvin did not imdiately react, continuing to stand at the window wall, seemingly lost in thought.
"Originally this 'Musician' was an insignificant Russian-led free rcenary team, but since this Song Heping joined them, they've undergone a transformation, not only snagging an oilfield contract from Wood Company, but they also went deep into the northern mountains with a small number of troops, cutting off the headquarters of the Free Army," Simon continued.
"I heard they recently took a contract from the engineering departnt at Sherbut water station. On their first night stationed there, they were attacked by Salafi Ard. They retaliated that sa night, stord into Gela Town, and wiped out nearly two hundred of the Salafi Ard headquarters…"
Alvin finally reacted.
Because wiping out two ard organizations with inferior forces in a short period was not sothing ordinary people could accomplish.
"Do you think it's all just this one person's doing?"
Simon spread his hands: "While I know it sounds absurd, we cannot deny the facts. I've investigated his background, and he used to serve in the Chinese military, but information we obtained says he completed five years of service and should have been discharged as a non-commissioned officer.
However, the records we found indicate he spent five years as a livestock caretaker on an army breeding farm," Simon continued. "Last ti we found an excuse to bring him in for interrogation, we even used waterboarding, and he endured a whole night! This clearly isn't normal, he must have received anti-interrogation training."
"So, I believe his records were deliberately altered and do not reflect his actual service. In China, there's this saying that their military has a very strict confidentiality system, but the higher the security level of the special forces, the more likely their files are listed under so insignificant logistical unit.
I have reason to suspect that this Song Heping is a top Chinese special forces, absolutely not simple."
"A livestock caretaker? A pig farr?"
Alvin was even more confused.
At last, he raised his finger and pointed distantly, saying, "Then keep an eye on his every move and look for any clues."
After a pause, he added, "If any problems are detected, view them as a threat and proceed to elimination."
"Yes!"
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