The MQ-1 Predator drone circled at an altitude of approximately 4000 ters above Mosul, its forward-looking infrared cara underneath the fuselage rotating slightly, monitoring everything near Rashim Street.
Inside the Mosul operation command center, Brigadier General Yue Ke and his staff sat in front of the monitoring screens.
On the large screen ahead, the outlines of buildings in the Rashim District were clearly visible.
Three humanoid bright spots moved between the buildings, using various covers to enter the Rashim District.
"Incredible!"
Brigadier General Yue Ke scratched his cheek and wiped his chin's stubble with a look of disbelief on his face.
"They actually went in."
As he spoke, he turned to look at Major Lonnie beside him.
"Lonnie, which PMC company are these guys from?"
"Musician Defense."
Major Lonnie hurriedly gave the reply.
"The CIA sent so many people in before, and not one could make it to the city center to find the 'Hunters' hideout. Who would have thought a rcenary leader could actually do it..."
He couldn't help but laugh, although it was a self-mocking kind of laughter.
"Should I say our intelligence departnt is excellent or rubbish?"
Major Lonnie quickly offered an excuse: "Commander, it's not exactly like that, there's only one rcenary in the action team, the rest are our people."
Brigadier General Yue Ke continued with the self-mocking smile, shaking his head slightly.
He didn't want to continue mocking his own people.
But the reality was right in front of him. After so many months of activity, the forces around Mosul hadn't accomplished much, and they were harassed by snipers and ard organizations in the city so much that they didn't dare to station in the district. In the end, it was the leader of a PMC company that brought a stunning breakthrough…
He said to Lonnie, "You did well this ti, at least you used the right person. Go back and get ready. After the Air Force conducts the precision strike, all troops will imdiately start the ground operation. We must completely clear out the militants in the city this ti!"
"YES SIR!"
Lonnie, receiving praise, was very happy, standing at attention with his back straighter than usual.
After Lonnie left, Brigadier General Yue Ke picked up the operation plan on the table and read it from start to finish again.
Seeing those very detailed and professional hand-drawn maps and the result calculated by the "cross thod", he thought that this man nad Song Heping was simply a military commander of natural talent.
"What a pity, he's a China People..."
He muttered to himself.
...
Near Rashim Street, in a room inside a building.
In the darkness, several ard militants lay sleeping on the carpet in the corner, and one stood at the window on sentry duty, behind which a DShK heavy machine gun was mounted, loaded with a belt of ammunition, ready to fire.
The building below was very quiet, with no one in the streets. Since the entire city was out of power, it was shrouded in darkness.
Fortunately, the moonlight was like water, illuminating the night and making the objects on the street faintly visible.
The sentry held a Soviet T3C-2 type night vision goggles in hand and could use it to observe dark places when visibility was poor.
This model of night vision goggle had infrared mode, was monocular, had a relatively narrow field of view, and was bulky, holding it felt like gripping a large flashlight.
If it weren't for its night vision capabilities, the sentry would definitely have thrown it aside and not bothered with it.
Knock knock knock—
There was a knock at the door.
"Who is it?"
He asked impatiently.
"It's ."
The person outside didn't answer with a na.
The sentry figured it must be one of the guys downstairs who had left sothing behind during the shift change.
After all, this floor was rely for sleeping, with everyone taking turns on sentry duty, changing shifts every four hours.
There were always so idiots who would forget to take their gear or water when they went out, leaving it upstairs and coming back to knock.
He walked to the door, irritated yet cautious, and casually opened it.
Click—
Before he could even see who the person was, a flash of gunfire erupted from the darkness, and his head was violently knocked back as if sothing heavy had hit his forehead, and his body softened and fell down.
Song Heping stepped forward and grabbed the sentry by the collar, while Mist entered the room with the gun raised.
The militants lying on the ground continued to sleep soundly, unaware that the Grim Reaper had arrived at their doorstep.
Tap tap tap—
Tap tap tap—
Tap tap tap—
Muzzle flashes repeatedly lit up the dark room and then extinguished.
The MK18 assault rifle, a favorite of US Special Forces mbers, perford well with its silencer, muffling the gunshots so they didn't sound too harsh in the still of the night. At least such gunfire was inaudible in the adjacent buildings.
And just monts ago, on the lower floor to this location, Song Heping and Mist had silently taken down seven people.
Song Heping gently laid the body down to avoid any loud noise.
Mist checked the bodies to see if anyone was still breathing; if they were, he'd draw his P226 pistol, equipped with a silencer, and deliver a final shot to send them on their way.
This floor was already the topmost one, with only the rooftop left.
The two n dared not dawdle and, gun in hand, made their way to the rooftop, one following the other.
Ti was critical for the guidance team.
The sooner they established the observation post, the more information they could gather and the quicker they could complete the mission.
Upon reaching the rooftop, to their surprise, there was no one there.
"Strange, they haven't set up an observation post here?"
Mist was puzzled.
Song Heping said, "This just shows that we are close to their headquarters."
Mist didn't understand, "What do you an?"
In his view, shouldn't there be more guards and patrol teams in the heart of the area?
Previously in the external periter, they had seen many ard militants hiding on rooftops, surveilling the streets and alleys, but here, closer to the enemy's core area, there were suddenly fewer guards?
"Lately, your US Army drones have been frequently monitoring from the sky. Placing too many people on the rooftops would attract attention, so the sentries are hiding inside the buildings."
After explaining, Song Heping imdiately contacted Mira downstairs.
"Mira, hold down the first floor, lock the door, and don't open it for anyone. If they try to force their way in, open fire."
"Okay..."
Mira sounded very tense, and Song Heping could hear his sowhat hurried breathing in the earpiece.
"Don't be nervous, if all goes well, we should be finished before dawn."
"Mm..."
Mira still sounded very tense.
Song Heping didn't have ti to offer psychological guidance.
Fear is a natural human emotion.
Here, if their presence were discovered, there was only one outco: a dead end.
He whispered to Mist, "Let's head back."
"Back where?" Mist asked.
"Back inside the room."
Having said that, Song Heping led the way off the rooftop.
Once back in the sixth-floor room, the cramped space was filled with a strong and pungent sll of blood.
Mist scowled in disgust.
Spending several hours in such a room with several corpses was not a pleasant experience.
"Let's begin."
Song Heping checked each window, determined the directions, then took off his backpack; Mist did the sa with his.
Both n took various surveillance and communication equipnt out of their packs.
The observation scope and guidance instrunt were mounted on tripods in front of windows, and the miniature satellite communication device's dish antenna was set up to point at one of the windows.
The rest of the windows had their curtains drawn to prevent outsiders and those across from seeing inside the room.
With everything set up, Song Heping began to adjust the night vision scope.
Looking out northwest from the window before him, at a distance of about 500 ters, lay the entrance to Mosul's most vital underground water storage network.
Having focused the lens, Song Heping saw two sentries.
They were likely standing in front of the tunnel leading to the underground facilities.
Song Heping crouched down, pulled out a map, grabbed a blanket from one of the militants to use as a light shield, and hid underneath it to examine the map.
When he ca out again, Mist was squatting beside him, curiously watching.
"Shit!"
Song Heping was suddenly startled by his presence.
The guy was squatting silently next to him, and in the darkness, all he could see was a dark, indistinct shape.
"What the hell are you doing squatting over there silently for?"
Mist asked, "What were you looking at?"
Song Heping said, "I compared the map; I can see the entrance and the location is correct. It's probably right there."
Mist asked, "Shall we give it a try now?"
Song Heping nodded, "Yeah, it's ti to poke the hornet's nest."
Mist went back to the satellite communication equipnt, picked up the walkie-talkie, and began calling the command center.
"GHOST calling Eagle's Nest."
"Eagle's Nest here, go ahead."
"We have reached the designated position, requesting to execute Plan A."
"Understood, carry out Plan A imdiately, good luck to you."
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