Song Heping didn't intend to make a move from the darkness; hiding behind the cabin door, he silently stayed alert until the screams in the corridor gradually subsided. Only then did he slowly extend his gun around the door, sending two "peanuts" to the unfortunate soul who had just regained so consciousness.
Pop pop—
The forehead of the pirate who had killed his own companion burst open, with brain matter spraying from the back of his head. The man quickly fell to the ground without even a whimper, dying more cleanly and neatly than anyone else.
Jiang Feng, seeing this, gave Song Heping another thumbs-up.
He realized that he had seen soone who could fight with such fluidity.
Although he himself was fierce, sothing was missing, so indescribable feeling.
Watching Song Heping kill was not terrifying at all, not in the slightest; instead, there was a sense of enjoynt, like appreciating an art performance.
This reminded Jiang Feng of a term—born killer.
Exactly.
Killing is an art form as well.
Just a bloody one.
It suddenly occurred to him that he had never asked Song Heping where he had served.
Special forces?
Or reconnaissance?
Or maybe so famous ard police force?
After killing that unfortunate pirate, Song Heping made a hand signal to Jiang Feng to follow and cover the rear.
Then, raising his gun, he left the cabin to continue forward. As he passed the pile of bodies, Song Heping kept his gun pointed and quickly drew the Glock pistol with the silencer attached from his left hand, giving each of the bodies on the ground an additional shot to ensure they were off confessing to God.
"There are six dead here; I estimate they have fewer than twenty n left."
"Even if it's fewer than twenty, we still have to take on ten each."
"They don't even have night-vision equipnt; as long as we drag them in here, taking on ten each doesn't seem so hard."
In the darkness, Song Heping's face broke into an easy smile.
Jiang Feng asked, "Where to next?"
This question highlighted the difference between him and Song Heping.
Jiang Feng's combat quality wasn't bad.
But it was limited to that of a good soldier, not an excellent commander.
Song Heping imdiately pointed out the crux, "What do you think they want to do the most right now?"
Jiang Feng shook his head.
Song Heping said in a low voice, "Follow ."
With that, he took the lead and moved forward.
Less than five minutes after the two had left, several beams of flashlight appeared near the corridor where the previous gunfight had occurred.
The one leading was Sali, the boss who had orchestrated the interception of the cargo ship.
He had heard gunshots from the deck and knew there was a fight below in the ship's hold.
Seeing his n being severely attacked and sent to the Netherworld one by one as they boarded the ship, Sali was both shocked and enraged.
To board this damned cargo ship had cost so many lives.
If he had known these two security personnel aboard were so fierce, he wouldn't have co to touch this bad luck for all the money in the world.
This deal wasn't ad hoc, it was a contracted job.
Ad hoc activities for pirates rely on various fishing vessels on the sea to obtain information about cargo ships passing by, or the pirates themselves would pretend to be fishern and loiter in these waters, striking when they see a suitable target.
Contracted jobs were different.
They involved soone offering a payoff to have one's own crew go to a specific area of the ocean to rob a certain ship.
Such jobs often had underhanded dealings behind them, such as shipowners committing insurance fraud, or having valuable items onboard with insiders collaborating.
The reasons varied.
As one of the pirate gangs active along the coast of Somalia, Sali's team had undoubtedly been the most dazzling upstarts recently, hijacking the most cargo ships in the past three months, thereby rising swiftly and being co-opted under the wing of a local ard organization in Somalia.
The benefit of joining these ard organizations was a more secure supply of weapons and ammunition, having protection on land, and having one's own territory.
This ti, the superiors summoned Sali to take on a job worth one hundred thousand US dollars, to hijack a cargo ship on a certain sea route, kill everyone on board, and as for the goods and property, Sali and his n were free to loot as they wished.
Although one hundred thousand dollars wasn't an extrely high price for Sali's gang, it was a task assigned by their superiors, and he had no choice but to do it.
Pirates are generally reluctant to kill, since hostages are the most valuable, but considering the freedom to dispose of the ship and cargo as they wished, Sali begrudgingly accepted the job.
After all, offending the leaders of the ard organizations on land ant his little gang at sea would suffer.
Of course, Sali understood the pros and cons.
With only two security personnel, Sali believed based on past experience that dispatching just three or four small boats for a pincer attack would do the job.
Unexpectedly, the first group he sent lost seven n without even getting close to the ship, and they also lost a speedboat.
This infuriated Sali, so during the night he mobilized all his associates and all the speedboats, determined to hijack the "Man Tianxing".
He could never have anticipated that even with his best n, they would board the cargo ship.
But before they even got aboard, several had died, and a large number were injured, nearly half of the n were lost.
Such losses would be painful even if they could extort one or two million from the ship.
After all, assembling a handy team of pirates is no easy task.
When the flashlight finally shone on the dead bodies strewn across the corridor, Sali slled the thick, pungent scent of blood in the air.
The bodies on the ground belonged to his subordinates; the team sent to the third level of the cargo hold had been completely slaughtered.
At the sight of the bloody corpses, even the fierce Sali couldn't help but frown.
"Boss... they're all dead... the security on this ship is too strong..."
The subordinate who went to check the bodies lifted his head, and in the light, his eyes were filled with horror.
"What's the panic for!?"
Sali had to act as the stabilizing force.
He suppressed his own fear, steadied his emotions, and gave the order, "They must have night vision goggles; we're at a disadvantage because we don't have them. Toran, take three people to the control center to find the electrical panel, connect the power. As long as we have electricity, we have light, then we can easily take them out..."
"Yes, boss!"
Toran left with his n.
After they were gone, Sali stood in place, stunned for quite a while.
He didn't know whether to continue the search.
Or perhaps he should first return to the deck and wait for the electricity to be connected before starting the search again.
One of his subordinates couldn't help but ask Sali, "Boss, shall we go up to the deck first?"
Clearly, he did not want to stay in this narrow space filled with the stench of blood.
The darkness all around seed as if it could spawn a monster at any mont to devour everyone present.
"Good, that's not a bad idea."
Sali, taking the hint, at least didn't seem too timid before his own n.
"We'll go up first."
"What about these corpses..." the subordinate who had inspected the bodies asked, "Should we carry them up?"
After hesitating for a mont, Sali said, "No need, just leave them here for now. You guys take their ammo, don't let the other side get it."
"Yes, boss."
Everyone agreed to go back to the deck when they heard Sali's order.
Sali turned and headed for the ladder to the deck, but after only a few steps, he heard gunfire from above.
It frightened him to a stop, and he listened intently.
The gunfire lasted about twenty seconds, like popping beans.
Then it went silent.
Sali sensed sothing was wrong.
He began to feel an urge to flee, as if staying here was a sure path to death, and he had an eerie feeling of being aboard a ghost ship.
"Hurry up and get your weapons to the deck!"
Sali finally made a decisive decision, he had to choose.
The ship's lower level was too terrifying.
The firefight must have originated from the control room.
God only knew if Toran and the other three he'd sent were now eting their maker.
Back on the deck, at least there was moonlight, and the speedboat below could provide so lighting assistance.
It was better than waiting for death here.
"Quick!"
As he urged his n, he turned and fled.
He hadn't gotten far when he heard explosions behind him.
Boom—
Boom—
Two loud blasts.
The fierce air wave pushed Sali more than two ters away.
He felt a burning pain on his back...
He struggled to stand up, but his legs seed to be numb...
"Damn..."
Looking around in the darkness, Sali sensed people writhing.
His hearing was finally coming back a bit.
He heard moans of pain.
He reached out and grabbed a body next to him. His palm was slick, and he felt it was covered in blood.
Now Sali was truly terrified.
He struggled again, only to find he still couldn't stand up.
Shrapnel might have hit a vital part of his spine.
Only then did he feel desperate.
He reached for his walkie-talkie but couldn't find it.
He reached for his gun; it, too, had been blasted away...
What's it called when neither heaven nor earth will answer your calls?
This seed to be it.
Sali crawled forward like a desperate worm, not getting far before he heard gunfire again from behind.
Pop pop—
Pop pop—
He twisted his head and saw bursts of muzzle flashes in the corridor's darkness.
A shadow was illuminated by the flashes; it appeared like the Grim Reaper walking in the darkness.
Eventually, the shadowy figure ca in front of Sali and raised the gun in hand.
Sali felt a warm gush in his groin, and suddenly he was wet...
"Don't kill , please, I beg you, don't kill !"
He scread frantically in English.
To rob the cargo ship, he had actually put so effort into learning English.
Ludicrously, it seed to have co in handy now.
Desperate to make the other party realize his worth, Sali no longer cared about appearances.
"Don't kill . I know so things. Soone paid us to hijack your ship. Don't you want to know who it was? I can tell you, just let go..."
He kept pleading.
Like a dying bug.
The gun in the other's hand did not spit fire.
After a while, Sali heard a voice as cold and firm as steel asking him in the darkness, "Speak."
Sali swallowed and voiced his demand, "If I tell you, you swear you'll let go."
"Fine."
"You swear."
"I swear, you tell and I'll let you go."
Sali, reassured by the promise, seed to relax slightly.
"Soone offered a hundred thousand US dollars and provided your route. They ordered to intercept you here, to make sure we stop the 'Man Tianxing' and kill everyone on the ship..."
The shadow asked, "Do you know who it was?"
Sali shook his head, "We belong to the Somali Youth Army. It was my superiors who ordered ; I don't know why they want it done."
The shadow nodded silently, "At least you're being honest."
Sali asked, "So, can I go now?"
The shadow replied, "You can, if you can still walk."
Clenching his teeth, Sali made a firm decision and desperately crawled forward.
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