One of them walked while using the walkie-talkie to start reporting the situation here, informing Kawasi that Song Heping and the others had entered the mountain, their location and direction.
"They must have crossed the border, just one kiloter south from here to cross the national boundary line..."
"Wait there, we'll be right there, just a short distance from you!"
"Yes, boss."
After ending the communication, the small leader with the walkie-talkie glanced into the distance and indeed saw the lights of a convoy.
He stood there for a mont feeling sowhat bored, watching as Kawasi's convoy was fast approaching, so he began to stroll over to the side of the pickup truck.
He noticed the vehicle was still idling and hadn't been turned off.
He shone his flashlight under the direction indicator and, sure enough, saw several wires linked together exposed.
The other side had started the vehicle by hot-wiring it directly.
He then noticed a few boxes of Desheka heavy machine gun ammunition still on the floor of the driver's cabin and a few question marks popped into his head.
Why leave the ammunition here?
Perhaps due to so compulsive reasons, he reached out to pull apart those wires, intending to turn off the engine.
But the mont he pulled the wires apart, it seed as if sothing fell out from sowhere and hit the floor with a dull light thud.
The boss looked around with the flashlight out of curiosity, trying to find what had rolled away.
Finally, he found the object that had rolled next to the ammo box.
It was actually two hand grenades...
"Ah——"
With his scream, a blaze of fire flashed in front of him, engulfing him completely.
Boom——
The massive explosion shattered the cab of the pickup, and the small leader holding the flashlight was the worst hit, his body flying more than a ter into the air, and one of his hands was blown off, soaring into the sky...
The ard militants standing nearby weren't spared either.
The explosion brought hundreds of shrapnel pieces that pierced the bodies of several militants from different angles, especially since the explosion had ignited the ammo boxes, making the 12.7MM caliber heavy machine gun bullets fly around like fireworks.
The sky was filled with bullets blasted into the air and exploding rounds, looking from a distance like a giant firework.
"My God!"
Casiva was less than a hundred ters from the blast site at this ti and saw the fireball the explosion had created.
The driver was so scared that he slamd on the brakes, his face filled with horror as he watched the terrifying scene.
"Boss... that's..."
"Those damn guys! They planted a bomb in the car!"
Casiva clenched his fist and pounded several tis hard on the dashboard.
He wished he could catch up with Song Heping right now and after capturing them, thodically cut off their vital parts, then hang them on a tree to dry into human jerky!
...
The cook lay on the rooftop of a residential building just outside the small town of Awaz on the Persian border, basking in the sun.
In May in Persia, the weather was not particularly scorching yet.
The reflection of the sun landed on the cook's sunglasses, shining with a blinding light.
Sitting beside him, Grey Wolf was constantly staring in the northeast direction, where from this spot, one could see the continuous mountain ranges.
That was part of the Persian Plateau.
Before Song Heping left for Xingjin Moon, he sent a ssage to the company, notifying everyone about the event he was heading to and the approximate location, as well as the likely directions he might head to in case of an incident.
According to Song Heping's Plan B, if the Aricans couldn't be relied on and weren't able to provide support, in an ergency situation he would choose to head in the southwest direction, crossing into the Persian Plateau.
The specifics of the route and timing were unclear, but Song Heping ntioned that there were three points he would definitely pass through—Awaz, Nehbandan, and Istand Mountain.
These three points ran from north to south, along the border connecting a line, all within the range of the Persian Plateau.
When deciding on these three points, Song He had studied the map.
At the junction of the Persian Plateau and Afghan, these three places perfectly covered all the possible directions of entry, whether coming from the southwest border of Afghan, one could find the nearest point.
Considering that communication might be lost, he left these three points for the cook and the others to find him.
Avanti offered strong support for this operation.
Close to the above three points, he had an entire platoon of reinforcents lying in ambush.
Don't underestimate the military force of just a platoon in each place; these were all mbers of the Revolutionary Guard Special Brigade, well-equipped and well-trained, with air support on call, all under the command of Song Heping's old acquaintance, Naxin.
Furthermore, starting from the first day Song Heping went to Xingjin Moon, every morning and afternoon, Avanti dispatched helicopters from a small military-civilian airport near Awaz Town, carrying the "Musician" defense team in two helicopters to enter the highland area, searching from north to south.
"It's about ti, brothers, have you finished lunch? Once we're done eating, we're going to take a stroll by the border."
The cook picked up a piece of naan bread from the table next to him, wrapped up a piece of mutton, stuffed it into his mouth, and after gulping down a big swig of mineral water, stood up.
"Cook, it's already the third day,"
Grey Wolf, who had been holding binoculars to observe the distant mountains, put away his binoculars, his face filled with worry.
"Song has been missing for at least two days."
His deduction was based on the fact that Song Heping's journey on the first day would have needed to reach his destination by evening.
If Adrian arrived that day, Song Heping would definitely have to take action.
By this calculation, this was already the second day of Song Heping's evacuation.
Although it hadn't reached 48 hours yet, at least 30 hours had passed.
They had agreed with each other that if Song Heping safely returned to Kandahar, he would imdiately contact the company's personnel to be on standby.
Now, without receiving notice from Song Heping, it ant that Song Heping hadn't returned to the ISA headquarters in Kandahar, and the only possibilities were two—either Plan B was successful and Song Heping was currently in the Persian Plateau area, or he had failed and was killed, dead in the Xingjin Moon area, possibly buried in an unknown hole sowhere.
"One day without news from him, we patrol here for another day,"
The cook was quite stubborn.
Not even King Yama could dissuade him once he made up his mind.
Grey Wolf actually knew very well that if there was no news for over a week, it was 99.99% certain that the person was gone, so to keep patrolling was an exaggeration.
But the cook said so, and he wasn't going to oppose it.
Song Heping was too important to the company, without him it was as if they had lost their soul.
This ti, aside from Ferrari, who stayed in the Green Zone to handle the company's day-to-day operations and recruit new mbers, the "Musician" elite were in and out, core team mbers all arrived, just to et Song Heping.
As Grey Wolf asked, the cook's mood beca sowhat sour, repeatedly urging the others, "Hurry, hurry, hurry! Don't dawdle! Suka! What if Song arrives at one of those points right now and we miss him?! I say we don't co back tonight, having two people at each point is better than sitting on that damned helicopter every day to patrol the mountains!"
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