At nine o'clock at night, at a makeshift airport on the outskirts of Fallujah.
To prepare for tonight's hoisting, Yousuf had made full preparations by arranging a generator and so outdoor lighting equipnt to be brought here during the day.
The team responsible for the hoisting and transportation consisted of three container trucks and a crane truck dispatched from the "Musician" defense transportation fleet.
The SA-9 anti-aircraft missile launching system had a total weight of just about 8 tons, which was not hard to load.
Song Heping stood in silence not far away, watching as the driver loaded the last launcher vehicle into the container, then lifted his hand to check his watch and took a glance around.
He could almost be certain that in the surrounding darkness, soone was watching him with video equipnt and high-powered surveillance gear, probably clear enough to see the sweat on his face.
"Song, everything is loaded."
As the last container closed, Yousuf ca over and asked, "Your ship won't enter the port until tomorrow night, so you will transport the containers to Umm Qasr tonight. The Brotherhood will help you with the related procedures, and before dawn the day after tomorrow, you can have it loaded onto the ship."
"Okay," Song Heping patted Yousuf's shoulder and said, "Thanks for your hard work, I'll pay the remaining balance once the goods are on the ship."
Since he had only paid the 900,000 US Dollar deposit earlier, there was still a balance of 600,000, which Song Heping casually ntioned.
While saying this, he glanced intentionally or unintentionally in a certain direction.
He believed that with the CIA's surveillance capabilities, even his conversations were probably being recorded at this mont.
"No rush, no rush, don't I trust you?"
Yousuf's chubby face squeezed into a cluster, grinning like a chrysanthemum.
"Personal feelings aside." Song Heping said, "Business is business, that's my principle in dealing with things."
After speaking, he waved to the drivers, "Depart!"
At the usual spot in the distance, the CIA's two-person surveillance team sent a ssage to the action command center at the station.
"Nightingale calling Big Crow, the target has obtained the goods and is leaving the airport."
"Big Crow received, wait for the target to withdraw before you follow carefully. The drone is on its way; don't follow too close to avoid detection."
"Received."
The two-person team was already well-practiced.
They had been keeping surveillance on Song Heping for a full week and were getting a little impatient.
After all, as far as they were concerned, the evidence of Song Heping colluding with the provisional governnt officials to smuggle and traffic arms was ironclad. The audio recordings and photos and videos from the past days were more than enough to convict Song Heping more than ten tis over.
They didn't understand why station chief Simon had beco so cautious; they could have closed the net three days earlier, so why wait until now?
As usual, once Song Heping's convoy left the makeshift airport, the surveillance team imdiately followed in their Nissan car.
In the co-driver's seat, one of the agents opened a military PAD and obtained the drone footage from the data link.
Under the drone's bird's-eye view, the target convoy was clearly visible, driving south along the highway.
Normally, after leaving the makeshift airport, Song Heping would go straight back to Baghdad, entering the Green Zone to return to his company, but tonight, for a change, he was heading south.
To the south was a major port, and the two agents exchanged a look, revealing smug smiles.
The agent in the co-driver's seat imdiately reported the route of the convoy to station chief Simon via radio.
Inside the CIA Illigo Station office building in the Green Zone, Simon received the latest developnts. He turned and walked up to a large screen, looking at the convoy's route and pondering for a mont before walking to the radio and putting on a headset.
"Big Crow calling Team B."
Soon, a response ca through the radio.
"Team B, listening. Go ahead, Big Crow."
"What's the situation at the makeshift airport?"
"They are packing up, looks like they're planning to leave."
Simon pondered for less than two seconds before giving orders to Team B.
"Close the net, don't let anyone escape."
"Understood, the action will start imdiately."
After ending the conversation, in the grass near the makeshift airport, several GRS operatives dressed in camouflage and wearing night vision goggles crouched on the ground.
Under the moonlight, the leader pressed the talk button and said on the tactical frequency, "The helicopter has taken off and will arrive in 3 minutes. Once it arrives, the operation begins. All teams move to optimal attack positions now and rember to capture the targets alive as much as possible."
"Team 1, understood."
"Team 2, understood."
"Team 3, understood."
The lead quickly received responses, ended the conversation, turned to several team mbers behind him, made a few tactical hand signals, then slowly stood up, crouching and using the wild grass as cover to stealthily approach the makeshift airport.
As they got to about a hundred ters from the makeshift airport, a dull chopping sound tore through the sky above.
The helicopter's searchlight snapped on below its nose, illuminating the ground as bright as day.
Yousuf had already reached his car, ready to leave.
His job was done.
The SA-9 missiles had been delivered, and his task now was to return ho and watch his account to see when that 600,000 US Dollar paynt would enter his offshore account.
The strong light startled him as it shone on him, and he instinctively crouched down.
In mid-air, the helicopter blared its loudspeaker.
"We are a CIA operation squad, everyone on the ground is surrounded. Imdiately drop your weapons, put your hands on your head, and lie down to surrender, or we will resort to force and attack!"
The warning was not polite.
Disobey, and face death.
In fact, Song Heping had concealed from Yousuf that he knew the CIA was going to take action on this transaction.
It wasn't that he didn't trust Yousuf, but rather he thought that Yousuf didn't have the nerve to stay calm after knowing the truth.
If he showed any abnormal expression or behavior after learning of it, those crafty CIA foxes would definitely notice sothing was amiss.
So the truth behind the entire matter was known only to himself and Ferrari.
But not telling Yousuf also posed a certain risk.
The risk was that Yousuf might get killed.
He wasn't worried about Yousuf getting caught.
There was a plan in place for that; even if he was caught, the CIA couldn't do anything to him.
Sotis choices are difficult.
All consequences must be left to God.
Yousuf, who had ducked, scurried behind the SUV's front hood like a frightened boar.
Actually, everything was superfluous.
Three attack teams had already surrounded the makeshift airport from three different directions.
There were helicopters from the GRS squad in the air.
Escape was impossible.
"We are the CIA operations team, everyone on the ground, you are surrounded, imdiately drop your weapons, put your hands on your head and lie down to surrender, or we will use force against you!"
On the helicopter, the pilot was still repeating the sa ssage while the sniper had taken a position on the edge of the cabin, his gun pointed at a gunman who was guarding the airport.
"I surrender! I surrender!"
In the end, it was Yousuf's cowardice that saved himself.
When the helicopter called for surrender a second ti, he raised his hands and walked out, shouting to the other guards around, "Drop your guns! Drop your guns! Hurry up! Otherwise, we are all dead."
Having said that, he imdiately knelt down, and in the quickest motion, put his head in his hands and lay down.
Seeing Yousuf lying down and surrendering, the other guards figured there was no need to resist.
Weren't they just pawns?
Why risk their lives?
The airport guards walked into the open area one by one, put their guns on the ground, then stepped back and lay down, doing the sa thing as Yousuf.
Team B's leader was very satisfied with the submission of these guys, he waved his hand, signaling for the squads to enter the airport from different directions.
On the road to the south, Song Heping's bulletproof Lincoln began to accelerate, quickly leaving the three trucks behind by a full two kiloters.
"The target is speeding up, he's shaken off the convoy!"
Inside CIA command, the agent responsible for aerial reconnaissance was the first to give a warning.
"SIR, it looks like he's trying to escape! Did he discover us?"
Simon loudly said, "Switch the tracking image to the big screen."
The image was quickly cast onto the big screen.
Simon stared at Song Heping's bulletproof Lincoln for a while and said, "Keep an eye on him. If he diverts and tries to escape sowhere else, imdiately order Team A to intercept!"
Five minutes later, Song Heping's bulletproof Lincoln suddenly stopped when it passed a culvert.
He turned to the two engineers in the back seat and said, "Mohamd, Hazi, get out of the car imdiately, wait here for ten minutes after leaving the culvert, don't go ho tonight, find a hidden spot to hide, and wait for my call!"
Mohamd and Hazi looked dumbfounded.
They had no idea what Song Heping was talking about.
According to the original plan, the two were to follow Song Heping to Umm Qasr to supervise the lifting of containers to the yard and then onto the ship the following night when the cargo ship arrived.
But this...
"Boss..."
"Quick!"
Song Heping didn't have ti to explain nor the ti to do so, "Get out of the car!"
With that, he drew his pistol and pointed it at Mohamd.
This ti, the two of them moved very quickly, taking less than two seconds to get out of the car and run to the side of the road.
Song Heping didn't waste words, he glanced at the rearview mirror. The truck convoy had caught up, the lights barely visible.
Song Heping pressed the accelerator and continued along the road.
"His speed seems to be normal now..."
A few minutes later, the CIA agent inside headquarters, looking at the Lincoln SUV that had resud normal speed and rejoined the convoy, quipped uncertainly, "Maybe he wasn't paying attention and hit the gas too hard?"
Simon, standing by, was also perplexed.
Everything seed unchanged.
Everything still looked normal.
Perhaps...
It really was just Song Heping accidentally accelerating too much...
"They have five kiloters to go before entering Team A's ambush circle!"
The agent checked the large map, looked at the trajectory and Song Heping's current location, and reported this to Simon.
Simon snapped out of his previous reverie. He quickly grabbed the walkie-talkie and began to call Team A, which was responsible for capturing Song Heping.
"Big Crow calling Team A, the target convoy is five kiloters from your ambush circle."
"Team A received, we are well ambushed, they won't escape our grasp."
"He's in a bulletproof Lincoln, be careful."
"No problem, everything is ready."
The two had just finished their communication when the sentry set up ahead imdiately sent a warning through the channel, "Boss, the convoy has appeared."
"n, stay sharp, squads get into combat state imdiately, interception team, are you ready?"
"Ready, it doesn't matter what car he's driving, he's not getting through."
About three kiloters ahead of Song Heping, on a narrow stretch of road, a large freight truck was parked across it, blocking the entire road.
This was a trap specifically designed for Song Heping.
Even a bulletproof Lincoln couldn't escape on a road with slopes on both sides and a truck blocking the way.
Inside the Lincoln SUV, Song Heping calmly looked at the road in the distance, and soon, his headlights illuminated a truck lying across the road.
He slowly applied the brakes, causing the entire convoy to slow down with him.
Finally, the convoy stopped about fifty ters from the truck.
At that mont, several glow sticks were thrown from the slopes on both sides and landed next to Song Heping's car.
Song Heping watched all of this calmly while sitting in the driver's seat, then picked up the walkie-talkie and instructed the drivers behind him, "All drivers, be advised we're being intercepted, do not resist, do not retaliate, stay in your seats, and cooperate with the other party. Understood?"
The drivers of the several trucks behind were all puzzled, involuntarily looking around, but still hesitantly replied to Song Heping, "Understood, boss..."
"Okay, boss..."
Indeed, a dozen figures with automatic weapons in hand and night vision goggles on their helts appeared on the slopes on both sides.
A helicopter suddenly leaped into the air like a fish jumping over the ridge, appearing above the road.
With a swish, a searchlight ca on, lighting up the ground bright as day.
"We are the CIA operations team, you are surrounded, imdiately put down the weapons in your hands, co out of the vehicles, put your heads in your hands and lie down! Don't resist, or we will use force..."
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