Persian Plateau, 7 PM.
On a bare hillside, several soldiers of the Revolutionary Brigade sat in a circle.
They had just finished praying, a fire nearby had been lit, flatbread was set out, and jerky had been brought out.
In the high-altitude area at night, the temperature was low, so lighting a fire, warming the flatbread, and boiling so hot water for tea ward their bodies.
In such a desolate place, lighting a fire was not sothing to worry about being detected, as no one would willingly co to such a godforsaken place at this ti.
They chatted and laughed, sharing the food among them.
The water boiled, and soone took the tin kettle off the stand, going around pouring hot water for tea.
Pup—Pup—
The person standing with the kettle suddenly had his head burst open in a spray of blood.
Bits of red and white splattered onto the bodies of those nearby.
"Enemy!"
One of the veterans scread, reaching for his gun which was placed to the side.
They had been about to eat, so everyone had carelessly laid their guns on the ground nearby, so piled together three ters away.
After all, they had lost the initiative, the gates of hell had already opened to them.
Bullets flew from different directions, the air filled with the sound of the warheads slicing through.
Pup—Pup—
Pup—Pup—Pup—
The sound of the gunfire was very muted.
Clearly, the attackers were using assault rifles fitted with silencers.
Within less than ten seconds, only one of the six n remained.
And that man lay on the ground, his hand nearly touching one of the guns on the ground when a foot wearing Salomon tactical boots stomped harshly on the back of his hand.
"Ah—"
He let out a cry of pain.
A silenced M4A1 assault rifle was pressed against the top of his head.
"Scream again and I will finish you!"
Although he couldn't understand, the Revolutionary Brigade soldier on the ground shut his mouth, not daring to scream again.
The cook ca to the front of the soldier, squatted down, and asked in Arabic, "Do you speak Arabic?"
The man nodded.
The cook breathed a sigh of relief.
While Persian and Arabic shared so grammatical similarities, they were not the sa language, making communication very difficult.
Fortunately, the mbers of the Revolutionary Brigade active in this area were a mixed group, including both Persians and Arabs, so it was not surprising that so understood Arabic.
"What's your na?"
"Bandak."
"Bandak, listen, you have two choices now, one is to honestly answer all of my questions and then I will let you go, the second is you refuse to answer my questions, fail to give satisfactory answers, and I will slowly cut off your head with a knife. Which one do you choose?"
Bandak's face went pale, and he nodded repeatedly, "The first one, the first one!"
"You're a smart guy."
The cook smiled at him and gave him a thumbs up.
"I ask you, are you guys searching for two people here?"
Bandak hesitated for a second, then said, "Not two, three."
The cook frowned and then said, "Among these three, is there a person from China?"
"Yes." Bandak was very honest.
The cook nodded in satisfaction and continued, "Have you captured them or have you killed any of them?"
Bandak shook his head, "No, these people are tough. We have lost many brothers these past few days; the higher-ups have inford us to be cautious upon seeing them, kill on sight, and not hesitate."
The cook and several team mbers around him breathed a sigh of relief.
Song Heping was not dead.
White Bear said to Julia, "Baby, I told you, Song He isn't so easy to kill."
The cook asked, "When was the last ti you heard about their location?"
As he spoke, he took a map out of his pocket and spread it in front of Bandak.
"Point it out to on here."
Bandak looked at the map, scratching his head, "I don't understand English."
The cook then rembered that the map was in English.
"Then tell a place na."
"In Danzi Canyon, heading north, the higher-ups told us they were probably trying to reach Sanggan, many of our brothers are heading there now."
"Sanggan?"
The cook sucked in a breath of cold air.
He hurriedly located Sanggan on the map.
Sanggan was situated north of Awaz, a full sixty kiloters away.
Previously, Song Heping had ntioned that he would be conducting flight patrols over Awaz, Nehbandan, and Istand Mountain, implying he planned to break out of the highlands at one of these three points or sowhere in between.
But Sanggan was completely out of this range.
Perhaps he was surrounded and forced to change his strategy at the last mont?
Theoretically, since Avanti's special brigade support teams were deployed in those three places, changing the plan to go through Sanggan ant that those support teams deployed by Avanti wouldn't be able to cover him.
But at least he now knew Song Heping was alive and that Song Heping and his associates were heading north, probably planning to break out in the direction of Sanggan.
The cook stood up, suddenly pulled out his gun, and shot Bandak in the head.
Pup—
Bandak's brain exploded instantaneously, dying a violent death.
"Sorry, buddy, you shouldn't have trusted ."
The cook holstered his pistol, feeling no guilt at all.
Actually, from the mont Bandak fell into the cook's hands, his fate was sealed.
Promising not to kill him was just to give him an illusion.
The cook would never let soone who could potentially leak information about them leave alive.
"Song He is not dead, he's moved north, in the direction of Sanggan, probably planning to escape from there."
The cook pointed at the bodies on the ground.
"Push these bodies into the ravine and call the helicopter. We'll head to Sanggan now."
"Sanggan?"
The Hunter furrowed his brow upon hearing this.
"There aren't any Avanti support squads deployed there, so what are we doing there?"
He found it unbelievable.
After all, the Hunter originated from a sniper background, and one of the skills that snipers excel in is escape.
Due to the particular nature of their profession, snipers often have to evacuate after completing their missions, and they typically devise multiple retreat plans beforehand to handle any contingencies that arise.
However, no matter the plan, they never included such substantial last-minute changes.
After all, there needed to be soone at the rendezvous point to et them, otherwise changing plans last-minute to run to a location without any personnel or helicopter support was just as good as a death sentence.
So he felt sothing was off.
"Maybe Sang decided to change plans last-minute, guessing it's because those sons of bitches from the Revolutionary Brigade have us too tightly surrounded, and there was no other option but to change the plan. Is there anything wrong with that?"
The cook retorted to the Hunter.
The Hunter replied, "No, even with a last-minute change, we should be heading to a place where there are personnel to et us. Before Sang left, he designated three locations, which were three backup plans. Not using any of them, but instead running north to a place with absolutely no support? Is there any point to that? It's pointless. No one will et us; it's still a dead end."
This ti the cook remained silent.
The Hunter's doubt made him indecisive.
Judgnt.
What was needed now was a correct judgnt.
If a decision is wrong on the battlefield, the cost is human lives.
After taking such a big risk and landing here, obtaining the intelligence, a decision must now be made.
"Suka! It's good Sang is here!"
The cook uttered sothing pointless.
Ever since Song Heping joined the team, he had usually made all the basic tactical decisions.
Everyone was accustod to not worrying about it.
Now that they had to make their own choice, they all felt the pressure.
"What do you all think?"
The cook couldn't help but seek the opinions of others.
Disaster Star was the first to throw up his hands.
White Bear followed.
Then Queen Julia.
Luckily, Grey Wolf didn't throw up his hands.
"I think what the Hunter said makes sense... But the intelligence also shows that Sang went north..."
"That's like saying nothing at all!"
The cook was sowhat angry.
Unexpectedly, without Song Heping, handling even a single matter had beco so difficult.
Hunter insisted on his opinion, "I think Song He will not go north and will not break through at Sanggan."
"Damn it!"
The cook was indecisive; he simply took out a satellite phone and called Ferrari, then explained the situation again.
"Ferrari, you have a good head on your shoulders. What do you say, will Song He go north, or will he choose to break through at one of the original spots?"
"Hunter is right! Cook, you dumb donkey!"
Ferrari began mocking the cook.
"No wonder your rcenary group nearly lost everyone before you t Song Heping. Otherwise, you and your few brothers would be dead."
"I'm not calling you from this godforsaken place on the Persian Plateau to waste satellite phone charges for you to curse , I'm asking for your opinion. If you know the answer, hurry up and tell . Wasting ti in this hellish place ans people die!"
The cook was not pleased and snapped back at Ferrari.
Although Ferrari usually enjoyed mocking the cook, he knew the seriousness of the situation at this ti. Wasting a minute ant Song Heping was in more danger.
"Song will definitely break out at the three spots he had pre-selected. First, he knows that changing the plan last minute won't get him backup or support; second, his personality and style of doing things will dictate he sticks with these three spots and doesn't shift north... I guess the guy wants to confuse the Revolutionary Brigade, you know, he's cunning!"
The cook pondered Ferrari's words thoughtfully.
The more he thought, the more it made sense.
"Fine! Assuming you're right, then which spot do you think he will break out from? We have three spots, which one should we go to?"
"Are you a pig?"
Ferrari couldn't help but curse, "Where is Sanggan? Don't you look at the map?! It's in the north! Which of the pre-planned break-out spots is the closest to the north?"
"Awaz..."
"Exactly, you dumb pig! It's in Awaz! Song Heping will definitely break out from there because it's the closest to his current position! Do you think he'd go far when he can stay near? Continue south to Nehbandan or Istand Mountain? Do you think he's as dumb as you?"
"Fuck!"
The cook was furious.
"Ferrari, just you wait, I'll deal with you once we get back to the Green Zone!"
After hanging up, the cook had made up his mind.
"Brothers, I believe what Ferrari said. After all, the guy is smart. Song He's break-out location is definitely in Awaz, which is nearby. We go to the pre-determined spot now and set up an ambush to wait for him!"
The n imdiately began handling the bodies and then started moving towards the designated spot.
As the cook and his team hurried towards Awaz, at the ISA command center in Kandahar, the big screen was already showing the helt cara footage of the quick reaction teams.
From the footage, three units of the quick reaction support teams, totaling thirty personnel, were already positioned near Hanix in the suburbs and were preparing to board helicopters to head to the border area.
At this ti, Niki had deployed all her ISA operational resources in Afghanistan. The Air Force had already launched an electronic surveillance aircraft to the border area an hour before, and two MQ-1 Predator drones were patrolling the border, ready to provide air strikes across the border in ergencies.
This unprecedentedly lavish arrangent shocked the other ISA mbers in the command center.
Since they hadn't received authorization, such an action was very risky if it crossed the border. If successful, it would be fine, but if the quick reaction teams suffered casualties or bodies fell into Persian hands, it would be headline news internationally the next day.
"Is every unit ready? The reconnaissance aircraft just sent the latest news saying there's a large amount of electronic signals around Awaz to Sanggan, indicating that the Revolutionary Brigade has mobilized a large number of troops to carry out tasks in that area. Apart from our infiltration team, I can't think of anyone else they would deploy such great forces for. So, I've decided to send the quick reaction teams to parachute at the border and then infiltrate into the Persian Plateau to search..."
As she was speaking, the door suddenly was pushed open.
A male officer with graying hair, around fifty years old, appeared at the door, followed by two other junior officers.
"Brigadier General Miles..."
Niki was startled.
The visitor turned out to be Miles, the Deputy Commander of the US Army Command in Afghanistan responsible for intelligence and special operations!
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