A year ago, Song Heping might have indeed set a trap to directly eliminate the person tracking him.
But now, Song Heping considered more factors.
The underworld isn't just about fighting and killing.
It's also about human relationships and social norms.
Eliminating a tracker might feel satisfying, but it's a brainless move that could easily land oneself in a dilemma with no way out.
If the other party was from the CIA, though one could feign ignorance and claim it was a mistaken killing, it would still make life restless for "Musician" Defense afterward.
Now, what he wanted was to roast the CIA on the fire while having the military willingly endorse him.
anwhile, Simon completely underestimated Song Heping's capabilities.
He thought his tracking was undetected, but it had already been exposed.
The next evening, Song Heping went out on ti to pick up Yusuf from his ho.
This ti, there were two forr Illigo governntal army weapons technicians who had been professional engineers responsible for maintaining air defense systems in Sadam's army.
One was called Muhammad, and the other was Hazi.
Upon seeing Song Heping, both n were very polite, saluting and shaking hands.
Song Heping noticed that these n were clearly not ordinary people; they were evidently well-educated.
Once in the car, Song Heping, as usual, chatted nonsensically with Yusuf while driving towards Fallujah.
As they turned from the junction outside Yusuf's house onto the main road, Song Heping glanced casually at the rearview mirror.
As expected, a Nissan was parked not far off on the roadside.
"Hmph…"
A cold smile appeared on the corners of Song Heping's mouth.
Is this it?
The CIA?
Heh.
Pretending everything was normal, he continued chatting with Yusuf about his recent work, frequently inquiring about how the "Brotherhood" was operating.
The reach of this organization was not negligible.
While it mainly consisted of middle-level officials from the Illigo governnt without many high-profile figures, its size was massive, covering various sectors and industries, all responsible for specific affairs in different departnts.
Up to now, Song Heping had still been providing these people with personal ard protection for free.
Hence, Song Heping's prestige in this organization was very high.
After all, nothing was more important than safety.
As Song Heping's bulletproof Lincoln entered the highway heading toward Fallujah, inside the Nissan, a CIA agent with a Nikon cara continuously clicked the shutter, capturing clear shots of Song Heping's car and its license plate.
He then opened the preview to view so earlier shots taken at the junction.
A good cara truly makes a difference.
The photos of Song Heping, Yusuf, and the two Illigo engineers chatting by the door and the car heading towards Fallujah were all clearly recorded.
"Follow them."
He nodded to the driver.
The driver, another agent, chuckled while shifting the gear, teasingly said, "This guy thinks he's about to strike it rich!"
Saying this, the vehicle also entered the highway, heading toward Fallujah.
The copilot agent scoffed, "The evidence is conclusive this ti. We'll take more pictures tonight, and act when they move the rchandise."
Finishing, he picked up the radio to connect with the command post.
"Robin calling Big Crow, the target is on the road, we have him in sight."
"Big Crow received, keep a tight tail, don't slip up, this guy is cunning."
"They definitely haven't spotted us, and there were two additional people tonight; not sure if they are the buyers."
"Did you get the photos?"
"Got them."
"OK, report back once you return."
At eight fifty in the evening, Song Heping's Lincoln once again arrived at the makeshift airport outskirts of Fallujah.
As usual, Yusuf's plump face served as their pass, and the soldiers opened the tal gate, allowing the group to drive through to the warehouse.
After getting out of the car, Yusuf had the soldiers take Muhammad and Hazi to inspect the SA-9 air defense missile system, then he stood in the open space chatting with Song Heping.
Song Heping asked him, "Where did you find these two? Are they reliable?"
Yusuf glanced back towards the warehouse, nodding, "One hundred percent reliable."
"That certain?" Song Heping asked.
Yusuf said, "Trust in my arrangents; both are forr governnt army weapons experts, specializing in guiding weapon maintenance and upkeep. You can be completely assured of their technical expertise."
Just then, he sighed, "It's really sad when you think about it."
Song Heping quickly asked, "What's sad?"
Yusuf gestured towards the warehouse and said, "These two are rare talents, both highly educated, experts in weapons maintenance and repair. Previously, who needed them to personally inspect? When Sadam was still in power, these kind of people could walk sideways in Illigo, responsible only for advisent in whichever unit they went to; now look at them, reduced to re technicians, no, even worse than technicians—if it weren't for , they'd probably starve in the streets."
Song Heping was greatly surprised, "Is it that bad?"
In his view, how could soone able-bodied starve to death?
Even in a war-torn country like Illigo, doing tough manual labor should be enough to scrape by, surely not so dire as to starve to death in the streets.
Especially for two highly educated technical bureaucrats, how could they end up in such a desperate situation.
Seeing Song Heping's disbelief, Yusuf briefly explained why these two n had fallen into such unfortunate circumstances.
It turned out to be related to Illigo's policies.
Illigo, nowadays, anyone related to the forr governnt army wouldn't have an easy ti.
Due to concerns that the remnants of the forr governnt army might regroup and counterattack, Illigo's new governnt adopted an extrely foolish strategy—anyone who had served in the forr governnt military or had worked for Sadam's governnt would never be employed, unless under special circumstances.
Whether Illigo natives or Aricans, they seed to never understand the wisdom of "punish yet provide a way out."
This approach of only punishing without offering a way out led to nurous forr governnt military officers, soldiers, and technically skilled bureaucrats finding themselves unemployed without exception.
The only option for those associated with the forr governnt army was to turn to the various disorganized ard organizations within the country, swear allegiance to these groups, and beco part of the resistance or even radical ard forces.
Even so, the provisional governnt and the Aricans never reflected on their policies but were even more convinced that their approach was correct—see! I told you those guys were unreliable! They would definitely turn against us!
However, such policies turned out to be beneficial for private PMC companies and ard organizations like those of Song Heping.
Forming a PMC company, one of the most difficult tasks is assembling a team of privately ard forces with a high level of professionalism.
A surge of forr military officers and soldiers ousted from the system, along with technical talents, flooded towards Song Heping's company.
After all, working here not only offered high salaries, but the benefits were also better compared to those of the armies under the provisional governnt, and Song Heping, a Chinese boss, was approachable and lacked the superiority complex common among white bosses.
So far, among all the PMC companies in Illigo, if one talks about the core team mbers, Song Heping's company was clearly minor-league, but regarding the number and quality of local Illigo rcenaries, the "Musician" Defense Company commanded the most professionally skilled team.
The reputation spread from one to ten, ten to a hundred.
Currently, within the local circles of forr governnt military personnel, the "Musician" Defense Company was the best employnt option.
So when Ferrari posted a recruitnt notice, the company's doorstep saw such long queues.
Hundreds of positions were available, yet over three thousand people applied, and after a rigorous selection process, just over five hundred were retained.
"There's sothing I need to ask of you." After discussing Muhammad's and Hazi's situations, Yusuf appealed to Song Heping.
Song Heping readily asked, "What's the matter? Just say it, what is our relationship like?"
"I've been secretly finding them odd jobs, but they aren't in their field of expertise—just running errands with low inco. I was thinking, brother, aren't you running a defense company? I see you're also looking into the arms trade; you'll need weapons maintenance experts, Muhammad and Hazi could be useful, how about recruiting them to work at your company?"
Yusuf's request caught Song Heping sowhat off guard.
He had previously thought of dealing in aircraft, thereby having White Bear scout for Russian Air Force engineers, but he hadn't considered recruiting local Illigo engineers.
Seeing Song Heping hesitate, Yusuf quickly added, "The two are really in a dire situation, each has a family of more than ten people, they used to work in tech, not physically strong, and now in Illigo, there are not many jobs involving physical labor, let alone these people with tainted backgrounds finding any work…"
Song Heping interrupted him, "Yusuf, are you related to them?"
He had his own deeper reasons for asking this.
Favors.
That was the key.
He knew these two were skilled.
But it was more crucial for him to understand the relationship between Yusuf and the two.
If they were relatives, then Yusuf owed him a bigger favor.
The bond with Yusuf as an ally would be further solidified.
Yusuf awkwardly smiled, "Actually, they're not relatives, just classmates from school. I used to copy their howork; they were top students in our class."
"I see," Song Heping finally understood. "The people must be reliable. You know, so of my business is in a gray area."
Yusuf imdiately thumped his chest, "Don't worry! Absolutely no problem. Also, introducing them to you is not without benefits. The army not only phased out the old air force equipnt, including the army equipnt, do you know how many tanks Sadam still has left? Have you ever thought about selling tanks?"
"Tanks!?"
Song Heping was stunned.
He had never thought about that.
That thing was just a big chunk of iron, and quite heavy.
How much could it sell for?
He wasn't sure either.
"Yes, tanks, so models are pretty good, like the T-72," Yusuf said with a cheeky grin.
It seed he had developed a taste for the profit and commission from the arms trade.
It wasn't Song Heping who initially dragged him into the arms trade.
Now, Yusuf was scratching the ground three feet deep trying to find sothing else to sell to Song Heping.
Song Heping was his God of Wealth.
"Alright, after this deal, have them co work at my company, how about a base salary of one thousand US dollars? Plus commission on deals they are part of," Song Heping offered his terms.
Initially, Song Heping felt it might be too low.
After all, they were weapon specialists.
A thousand dollars a month wasn't high.
To his surprise, Yusuf was overjoyed, "No problem! A thousand dollars is enough to support a family!"
As the two stood chatting on the open ground, about four hundred ters away from the makeshift airport, two CIA agents slowly withdrew behind a hill.
One agent asked, "Got everything?"
The questioned agent nodded, "No problem, got it clear."
The other agent said, "Okay, let's pull out."
The two cautiously packed up their equipnt and, bending low, discreetly retreated from the site, using the tall grass for cover.
About ten minutes later, in a secluded area about one kiloter from the makeshift airport, the two returned to their Nissan off-road vehicle, opened the doors, and climbed inside.
However, during the half-minute they approached and entered the vehicle, about three hundred ters from the vehicle, a surveillance cara quietly erged from behind a pile of grass and snapped away at the two.
Only after the Nissan off-road vehicle had left did Ferrari take out his phone to call Song Heping.
"How did it go?"
Song Heping asked cryptically.
"Got it."
Ferrari, looking at the cara screen and browsing the images, couldn't help but smile vainly, "My photography skills are not too bad."
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