"We're swapping."
Song Heping still held back.
They had co this far; it wasn't possible to give up.
What's more, giving up would more easily raise the other side's suspicions.
As for what to do once they got there, that was sothing to figure out later.
Adapting to circumstances would never go out of date.
Even if there were no signals left, in the worst case, they could just start a fight at the processing factory to see who had a mobile phone and snatch one.
Perhaps Adrian had one on him.
"Why do we have to swap?!"
Yet, Mist seed very pissed off.
"You want to pat us down, fine, I'll let you, but why do we have to change clothes?!"
He yelled fiercely at Rabbani, expressing his discontent.
Rabbani said, "They said they're afraid you're hiding signal transmitters that they can't find. After all, this is your first ti here for business, and they're not familiar with you."
"FUCK!"
Mist tore open his shirt, wearing a utility vest with many pockets.
Cursing his mother, he started pulling things out of the pockets and throwing them on the ground.
There were lighters, cigarettes, and even a few packs of candy, as well as a wallet and so cash.
"Let them take a look for themselves; where is there any transmitter?!"
Having said that, he picked up the lighter and clicked it on.
Actually, while he was doing all this, Song Heping broke out in a cold sweat.
Seal was indeed Seal, quite gutsy indeed.
Actually, Mist's lighter was a micro signal transmitter.
His own was on his belt, and Mist's was inside the lighter.
The guy really had the guts to make it so conspicuous.
Can't help but admire him...
As Mist spoke, he also tore open the cigarette box, lit one up, and took a deep drag, blowing out a cloud of smoke.
"Look, look, look, is there anything wrong with this smoke?! Want one? Want one?!"
Song Heping quietly watched the guy's performance but was very clear that doing so was entirely useless.
The militants here were all too shrewd.
It wasn't a matter of just saying there's no problem and all problems would disappear.
They had been on the losing end of too many high-tech gadgets from Aricans; if it wasn't their own stuff, they wouldn't trust it.
Sure enough, Hula spoke up.
"Boss Han, it's not that I don't respect you. We're doing this for the safety of everyone. Arican reconnaissance planes are often flying overhead. They can do many unimaginable things, we have to be careful. If you are sincere, what's the harm in changing into a set of clothes? It's just a set of clothes after all."
"Lao Mi, let's just change," he said, turning to Mist and giving him a look.
Mist was still furious, his face puffed up angrily.
But he had already reached out to take the clothes handed to him by the guards of the Revolutionary Brigade.
Song Heping also picked up a set, and as they turned to get into the car, they heard Hula say, "Gentlen, please don't move too far out of our sight."
Hearing Rabbani's translation, Mist almost exploded with anger.
Song Heping pulled him over to the side of their Lexus SUV and said, "Let's change here; we're just showing our upper bodies, we're all n, no worries."
"These freaks!"
Cursing, Mist started to change his clothes.
They both moved quickly, stripping down in no ti.
A guard from the Revolutionary Brigade sneaked a peek from the side.
Mist glared at him viciously, making an incredibly bizarre gesture. He stood bare-assed facing the guard, shaking his "tool" at him and shouting, "Look at it! Don't you have one of these?! Are you embarrassed?! Are you a eunuch?!"
The guard clearly hadn't expected Mist to be so shaless. He intended to watch them change, but instead, he beca the embarrassed one. His face reddened and he turned to leave.
After the guard walked away, Mist ca back to the side of the car and whispered, "That belt of yours is useless now, and this lighter..."
"What are you planning?" Song Heping guessed that Mist definitely wanted to sneakily leave the lighter transmitter behind, which could maintain a signal for three hours.
"They're sure to pat us down again later. If that's found, we're all screwed."
As Song Heping changed clothes, he murmured quietly, reminding Mist not to be rash.
"Don't worry, they won't find it."
Mist revealed a sly smile.
Then he slid the hand holding the lighter into his underwear.
Song Heping noticed a fleeting look of both pleasure and pain on Mist's face, the action and expression lasting likely only about a second.
Then Mist's hand ca out of his underwear, the lighter gone...
"I perford a little magic trick for them..."
Mist caught his breath, exhaling through his nostrils like a snorting bull.
Song Heping's jaw almost hit the ground.
Of course, Mist wouldn't have just simply hidden his lighter in his underwear.
Because it would've been discovered that way.
Not safe at all.
He made the lighter disappear, which ant there were only two places it could be: either up his urethra or...
Song Heping frowned, the scene was too graphic for him to even contemplate.
"You really are a tough bastard!"
He quietly raised his thumb to Mist.
Had to respect that.
Really had to.
The kind of respect you can't help but offer.
An act too extre for Song Heping to even imagine, Mist had done it.
They quickly finished changing clothes and stepped out from beside the car.
"Ahem—"
Hula scrutinized them and then said sothing to his n before having Rabbani translate it.
Sure enough, Song Heping wasn't wrong.
The bastard wanted to search them.
Even after changing into the provided clothes, this guy still wanted a pat-down.
Song Heping said with displeasure, "Second-in-command, by doing this, you're blatantly treating us as spies, aren't you?"
Hula remained exceedingly polite, apologizing with a smile, "I'm sorry, this is just procedure."
While Song Heping and Mist were being subjected to a series of checks and changes of clothes in the tunnel, far away in the ISA camp command center in Kandahar, Niki was so anxious that she kicked the table for the fourth ti.
"What the hell is going on?! What are they doing in the tunnel for so long, with no one coming out? Can soone tell a way to check if they're dead or alive? Might they have been shot in the tunnel?!"
The fierce female commander paced in front of the big screen like a caged beast.
Afghan is full of caves.
She even doubted whether there was a pathway leading to a third-party exit inside the tunnel.
Entering the tunnel without coming out, she could guess what these ard militants were up to with her toes.
Four Nissan SUVs were driven in.
Together with the original Lexus SUV driven by Song Heping and his team, it was almost certain they would use decoy tactics to shake off aerial surveillance.
"Are Plane 2 and Plane 3 in position yet?!"
Niki asked about the other two MQ-1 drones on duty.
Originally, one drone was on air patrol, while the other two were on standby at the airport. They would rotate flights for continuous 24-hour patrols.
Now, as the situation had arisen abruptly, Niki decided to deploy the remaining drones, although it was not possible to tail all five SUVs at the sa ti, at least there was a greater chance of tracking them.
"Not yet, they are still doing the pre-flight checks, they need ten more minutes before they can take off."
"Ten minutes..."
Niki cursed irritably, "Ten minutes is enough for those guys in the UAV control rooms in Nevada to get off ten tis! Why can't they be faster?!"
This remark left everyone in the command center stunned, then one by one they covered their mouths and stifled a laugh.
"They're out! They're coming out!"
Thom suddenly pointed at the screen and shouted.
All eyes imdiately focused on the screen.
"Where is the KH-11 satellite?! I need a wide-range ground scan of this area!"
"It has just passed over, it's no longer above Asia. We have to wait for KH-12, it will be here in about half an hour."
Thom's response set Niki off on another tirade of curses.
Watching the two convoys of SUVs that had appeared on either side of the tunnel on the screen, she was unable to determine which one Song Heping and his group were in.
The southern group consisted of three vehicles, two Nissan SUVs and Song Heping's Lexus SUV.
The northern group consisted of two Nissan SUVs, both driven by Hula's n.
"Which one do we tail?!"
Thom asked Niki.
He had to inform the UAV operators stationed at the Air Force base in Nevada right away to tail one of the two directions.
After all, there was only one drone available, and it was impossible to tail both convoys simultaneously.
"The southern one!"
Niki gritted her teeth and made her own deduction.
"The new golden crescent is in the south. They're definitely heading south; going north is the way back to Kandahar."
"Alright!"
Thom imdiately relayed the command center's instruction to the UAV operator.
Soon, the MQ-1 Predator UAV abandoned the chase of the two Nissan SUVs heading north and focused solely on the convoy going south.
By doing so, while not knowing if the answer was right, at least a choice was made.
To choose, there was a 50% chance of being right.
Not to choose ant a 100% chance of losing the trail.
As it turned out, Niki had made the right choice.
"Major!"
It wasn't long before Thom yelled out again.
"They're splitting up!"
On the big screen, the originally unified three SUVs split at an intersection, with Song Heping's Lexus turning east.
The Lexus was heading east.
"Do we follow it?!"
"Don't follow! We have a tracker on that car, no worries about losing it!"
"Yes, Major!"
The drone surveillance footage now only showed the remaining two Nissan SUVs belonging to the Revolutionary Brigade.
About five minutes later, at the next intersection, the two vehicles went their separate ways; one turned right to head west, and the other continued south.
"Major, which one do we tail now?"
Thom's question was posed to Niki again.
Niki stared at the screen, watching the two vehicles sprint in different directions, kicking up clouds of yellow dust.
Ti was slipping by, second by second.
The scope of the drone's cara was limited, and in about a minute, both vehicles would be completely out of sight.
He had to make a choice within this minute—Which one to follow?!
"Keep following the one heading south!"
Niki made her choice thirty seconds later, by which ti both vehicles had nearly gone beyond the surveillance range of the drone.
The MQ-1 Predator drone quickly adjusted its position and cara in the air, focusing on the Nissan SUV heading south.
Heading south...
That was deep within the territories of the new Golden Crescent.
It made sense that the processing plant's location would be in the south, deep within the new Golden Crescent, aligning with conventional logic.
Niki had also considered whether the enemy might be laying a trap.
Perhaps the processing plant wasn't necessarily in their hinterland or even in the southern region.
But she had no choice.
When you can't verify the outco, you have to make the decision that seems most likely based on intelligence and information.
Yet even so, it was nothing more than a gamble.
Niki wasn't confident in her own heart.
"We have a positioning signal!"
Thom suddenly shouted excitedly.
Niki, overjoyed, rushed over to Thom's computer.
"Is it their GPS signal?"
"Correct!" said Thom, "It's a signal emitted by one of the transmitters; we've captured it but..."
Suddenly, Thom frowned, "It's just... the source of this signal is heading west..."
"West?!" Niki was shocked, aning her previous assumption about heading south was wrong!
"Are you sure it's going west? Couldn't they have placed the other signal transmitters on that Lexus?!"
"No, the signal from the Lexus is here."
Thom pointed at another green dot.
"It's going east. Logically, they wouldn't use this Lexus SUV, and the signal heading west is from that Nissan SUV. I believe it's the real signal source! Song He and Mist are in that car!"
Thom was confident in his judgnt.
After a brief consideration, Niki also found Thom's logic convincing.
"But why was there no signal before?!"
The Major herself hadn't figured that out yet.
However, regardless, Thom's judgnt seed sound.
"Imdiately command the drone to follow it; keep an eye on that Nissan SUV!"
"Roger that, Major!"
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