Niki seed to suddenly understand sothing.
She fiercely scanned all the people around her.
Many faces were filled with astonishnt.
Only Thom lowered his head.
Niki had her answer and imdiately approached, saluting Miles, "General, what are your instructions?"
"Niki! Are you playing dumb!?"
Miles looked very angry.
"Don't you have a brain?!"
He stord to the head of the conference table and sat down, pointing to his head, "Do you know what you are doing? You are acting on your own, disobeying orders; did I approve of this? Did I authorize you to send troops across the border into Persia?!"
"No."
Niki knew everything was over now.
As the Deputy Commander of the US Army stationed in Ah i, he would never allow such an operation.
"I think I should send you to a military court!" Still raging, Miles spoke loudly to Thom, "Thom, imdiately get a line to Lieutenant Jones of the Quick Reaction Force!
"YES SIR!"
Thom quickly established communication with Lieutenant Jones, then handed the radio handset to Miles.
"Jones, this is Brigadier General Miles, stop all actions imdiately; from now on, all ISA operations must have my approval!"
"YES SIR!"
The response from Lieutenant Jones on the other end was clearly confused, but he still provided an imdiate and clear reply.
Miles put down the radio handset, turned his gaze to Niki, "The operation stops now, I don't want this to happen again, or I will take you to military court!"
"Yes, General!"
After responding, Niki couldn't help but ask, "What about our infiltration team?"
Miles, who had already stood up to leave, stopped at Niki's question. After standing still for a mont, he spread his hands and said, "May God bless them!"
Then he turned and disappeared out the door like a gust of wind.
"FUCK!"
Once Miles was gone, Niki finally burst out, kicking a folding chair so that it flew across the room.
Coincidentally, the chair landed right on Thom's desk, startling him so much that he jumped up and stumbled back several steps.
...
"I can't run anymore... can't... run anymore..."
Rabbani was gasping for breath, his face almost devoid of color.
His chest heaved violently; he could even hear the sound of his own lungs breathing, like the hissing of a bellows being torn apart.
At an altitude of over four thousand ters, he had been running non-stop for ten kiloters.
Right now, he felt it might be easier to just pull out his pistol and fire a round into his own temple, ending this misery.
Song Heping stopped in his tracks and looked at the equally winded Mist, "Lao Mi, how are you feeling!?"
"I'm still okay." Mist was soaked with sweat, beads forming on his beard. Pointing to Rabbani, he said, "This kid can't make it anymore!"
Song Heping took off the battered bag he had taken from a Revolutionary Brigade soldier, rummaged through it to find a rope, then went to remove Rabbani's AK47, adjusted the strap, and put it back on Rabbani.
The strap was adjusted just right, neither loose nor tight.
Then he tied the rope to the gun strap and tied a knot, "I'll drag you."
"No, no, no..."
Rabbani almost broke down when he heard Song Heping say he would drag him.
"I think... my heart condition... is about to act up..."
Saying so, he sat down on the ground.
"Don't you freaking sit down!"
Song Heping kicked him in the buttocks.
"Get up!"
Rabbani suddenly began to cry.
Really cry.
Sobbing.
"...Song, you're inhuman... We've... we've run so far... If I run anymore, I'll die..."
He cried as he gasped for air, and eventually, he started to vomit.
Song Heping watched him coldly, "We'll talk about it if you die running, but if you linger here any longer, we'll all end up dead for sure."
Mist asked from the side, "Song, have we run twenty kiloters yet? Forget him, even I can hardly take it anymore, how much longer are you planning to run? What's the point of running blind in this place? Where are we?"
He said this while surveying his surroundings before spreading his hands and looking at Song Heping with a face full of confusion, seemingly seeking an answer.
Seeing both of them like this, Song Heping was at a loss.
They needed a break.
Even if it was just for a minute or two.
Seizing this opportunity, he took the chance to explain to them why they were running around the highland like madn.
Without a clear explanation, they had no motivation.
"Do you think I'm running aimlessly?!"
He looked at the ground, found a small withered branch, and started drawing on the ground under the moonlight.
Mist was curious about what he was drawing and watched intently without looking away.
In a short while, Song Heping had drawn a sketchy map on the ground.
"See this? This is a map of the nearby area."
He picked up a few pebbles and then placed them at different positions.
"Here we are, and these pebbles represent our pursuers…"
"Wait a second."
Mist said, "How do you know the position of the pursuers?"
Song Heping said, "I'm guessing!"
Mist said, "Oh! God! Do you think this is a ga of guessing? Relying on guesswork?!"
Song Heping glared at him and said, "We've been running for hours, have you encountered an enemy?"
Mist was stunned.
He thought back.
"Twice…"
"What did I do after each encounter with the enemy?"
"…"
Mist was at a loss for words.
Previously, Song Heping had led the two of them, shooting to kill an enemy upon sight then imdiately turning to run again.
He had never had the chance to ask why Song Heping acted that way.
Now, the question was being turned back on him.
"I thought you were running blindly…"
Song Heping said disdainfully, "Is that how Seal Team teaches you field orientation and navigation? Haven't you ever done escape and evasion training?"
Mist said, "Of course we have! Our training is the most scientific!"
"The most scientific…"
Song Heping disdainfully passed the withered branch to him.
"Your turn. Tell , what am I doing? Mark on the map and deduce the enemy movents and their encirclent strategy, and then tell what my plan is?!"
"…" Mist was speechless again.
He genuinely couldn't rember.
Because the route that Song Heping had taken before was extrely complicated.
One mont heading south, the next north, then west again…
How could he possibly retrace their steps now?
Seeing that he remained silent, Song Heping began to deduce the situation on the ground using the branch.
"This is where we first encountered the enemy; after the firefight we ran this way, while they chased us in this direction… This is where we encountered the enemy the second ti; then I turned north. At that point, the enemies from the first encounter would have moved to here, and the second group would have tried to block us here…"
"The enemy that was persistently chasing us is now in this position, probably only five kiloters away from us right now. We need to run this way. If I'm not mistaken, we will encounter a third group of enemies here…"
The more Mist heard, the more shocked he beca.
"How do you rember all that?"
"I use my brain!" Song Heping said, "Don't you have one?"
Mist: "…"
Song Heping continued, "Have you rested enough? We must leave imdiately and run this way. If we still haven't encountered any enemies once we get here, we will double back and take this route south towards Awaz…"
"Are you certain their movents will be like this?" Mist asked.
"Almost certainly." Song Heping said.
Mist, looking at the crisscrossed lines, asked with a puzzled face, "It seems like they are closing in for an encirclent."
"That's right," Song Heping said. "There must be trackers among the Revolutionary Brigade, familiar with the highland. I estimate our frequent changes in direction, north then south then west, are to confuse them. However, deceiving them cos at a cost; we need to run fast. We can't afford a drawn-out fight with them; otherwise, it's a dead end. The only thing we can beat them with is speed, our legs."
He threw away the branch and stood up, looking into the distance and said, "If my calculations aren't wrong, they are confused now. We need to seize the mont before they figure out our destination to slip through a gap in their encirclent. So, if we don't run now, we're dead…"
He looked towards Rabbani, "If you still want to see your uncle and his family, you'd better summon the energy. Even if you run out of breath, you have to keep going. If you can't, I'll drag you."
ntion of his uncle seed to energize Rabbani.
He stood up and rubbed his thighs.
His thighs were stiff as wood, and he felt like they were about to cramp.
"Okay, I'll do my best... If it really becos too much, just leave behind."
"No problem," Song Heping was unsparing, "When it cos to that, I'll definitely leave you here to fend for yourself. If a man can't save himself, don't expect others to save him."
After that, the three of them picked up their weapons and, under Song Heping's lead, started sprinting once more.
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