Illiguo, Green Zone, US Army Command.
An ISA officer knocked and entered, bringing a briefing to Major General Peter.
"General, Song Heping is missing," he said.
"Missing?"
Peter hastily picked up the briefing, flipped it open, and started to read through it carefully.
The more he read, the more his heart raced.
The docunt provided a rough description of the contest between Song Heping and DGSE in Eritrea.
It listed the details of the gunfight at the Jade Hotel, including the number of casualties, and more.
The report ended with the incident at the Jade Hotel, stating Song Heping had disappeared into the night in Eritrea.
"You have no clue about his whereabouts?"
Peter could not help frowning and glanced at the ISA intelligence officer in front of him.
The intelligence officer seed sowhat embarrassed.
He shook his head and said, "We have utilized all our intelligence personnel currently deployed in Africa, but have found no clues."
"What about his passport? He should have two of them. Haven't they appeared at airports or ports in nearby countries?" Peter pressed, unwilling to give up.
As Peter knew, Song Heping had two passports in his possession.
One was his Chinese passport, his real passport.
The other was supplied by the ISA, a legitimate United States passport that could even be traced to Song Heping's driver's license number within the US.
Such a small matter was a piece of cake for the ISA.
"We've checked. There's been no discovery," the intelligence officer said.
Peter then asked, "Any reaction from the Salafi Ard Forces in Africa?"
The intelligence officer replied, "Our contact, Jimado, is dead, and with Song Heping missing, they've said they want us to send another three sets of SA-9 missiles. Otherwise, they won't be able to cooperate with our plan."
Peter scoffed, "Ha! Do they think it's as easy as shipping three sheep? The previous two shipnts failed, intercepted by DGSE right at the port. It's not easy to get heavy equipnt into the Sahel Region. This ti, Song Heping actually did quite well..."
He narrowed his eyes, deep in thought.
Eventually, he declared, "Song Heping isn't dead."
The intelligence officer's eyes lit up, "Exactly. I also believe he's not dead. But... it has been five days since he disappeared. No one knows where he is. Isn't it too long? Could sothing unexpected have happened?"
Peter shook his head, "A man who survived an all-out assassination attempt by DGSE, do you think sothing else would get him on the way?"
The intelligence officer suggested, "Could he have been scared? Knowing that DGSE was after him, might he have fled to Illiguo? Maybe he just hasn't made it back here yet."
Peter continued to shake his head, "You don't understand that kid. I have so understanding of his character. This man will never give up until he achieves his goal. Do you think he'd easily bow down and resign himself to misfortune? It's not that simple."
The intelligence officer paused and asked, "So, what do we do now?"
"Nothing," Peter closed the briefing and tossed it back to the officer, "We continue to wait. This isn't urgent."
"But the Salafi side..."
The intelligence officer clearly felt troubled, "Their leader Bernard is pushing us hard."
"Don't bother with them, just tell him the goods are still en route and will definitely arrive soon," Peter instructed, "If he gets impatient, he can sever the cooperation with us. We can find another organization to collaborate with."
"Yes, General."
The intelligence officer turned to leave, but he didn't move and then asked, "General, should we not reach out to the CIA?"
"Approach them?" Peter, who had picked up a pen to review docunts, stopped at this suggestion and looked up at his subordinate, "Are you suggesting we collaborate with them to find Song Heping?"
"Yes, after all, the CIA has a well-developed intelligence network in Africa as well. We could share intelligence," the intelligence officer revealed his thoughts, "With their help, chances are we'll find Song Heping much easier."
Peter scoffed, "Do you know why we're only using the ISA? Because you simply cannot trust the CIA. Working with them is looking for trouble. Song Heping has bad blood with the CIA, personal issues with Simon. That's also why I partnered with him. You think CIA hasn't infiltrated us? Hasn't been surveilling us? Rember, the CIA would just love it if they were the only intelligence agency in the entire United States. So, no matter what, we cannot ask the CIA for help with this. I even suspect that the previous two shipnts of missile launchers to Africa were intercepted because of the CIA's shenanigans..."
At this point, he stopped himself.
Peter was a cautious old fox.
So things from the mouth of such a high-ranking officer were sowhat politically incorrect.
"Alright, get out now and do as I instructed," he said.
"Yes, General!"
This ti, his subordinate didn't say another word and left.
anwhile, Song Heping was lying on a sun lounger on the private balcony of his room aboard a luxury cruise ship called "Tulip," sunbathing.
The "Tulip" cruise was a luxury liner registered in the Netherlands, setting sail from the Alexandria Port in Egypt, crossing the diterranean, passing through the Gibraltar Strait, and finally docking at the port of Rabat in Morocco, North Africa.
Song Heping had boarded this ship four days ago, using a United States passport provided by Avanti under the na Johnny Lee.
Actually, Song Heping now has two United States identities.
One is called "Johnny Lee", and the other is "Jack Song", both are real passports, with specific physical representations, neither fictitious nor false identities.
Thus, he passed through security with ease, dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, with a pair of LOWA boots on his feet, looking exactly like a young man traveling the world, with no one knowing that he was the notorious owner of a PMC company, a real-life version of a killing god.
These past few days, Song Heping lived quite comfortably.
Before arriving in Morocco, all Song Heping needed to do was to thoroughly enjoy life.
Because no one knew where he was.
He also avoided any contact with the outside world to prevent any intelligence agency from picking up his trail.
The world out there was dangerous—that's what Song Heping believed.
The whole situation had beco very complex since the night at the Jade Hotel.
The DGSE was after him.
The person who leaked information to the DGSE was code-nad JK, a key figure involved in who was behind the entire operation against him.
Although Song Heping suspected it might be Simon,
he needed evidence.
Song Heping had never thought about removing Simon before.
But this incident made him realize that if Simon did not die, he would not have peace.
And to bring down Simon, it was necessary to find out JK's whereabouts, catch JK, and get evidence from him about who was the mastermind.
For one, he could reveal it to Peter, and secondly, he could use it as ammunition to stash away for bringing down Simon later on.
To topple a CIA station chief in Illiguo over a trivial matter was an impossible task, everything had a process and required patience.
Having set his goal, he would now proceed step by step towards it.
Bringing down Simon beca one of Song Heping's new objectives.
The most important task at hand was to get three SA-9 missile systems to Mali, to the Salafi Ard.
Next was to assassinate the leader of the Salafi Ard, fulfilling his promise to Dominic.
He reached out for a Long Island iced tea on the nearby table, took a sip, and settled back into the lounge chair, enjoying the warm sunshine of the diterranean.
If he had not guessed wrong by now, Ferrari and Jiang Feng were already implenting Plan B as per his instructions.
No one would think that the three SA-9 missile launch systems would enter the North Africa Sahel Region in such a way.
And the fact that DGSE was tracking his SUV, he had anticipated that too.
Of course, those French agents wouldn't get any clues.
They wouldn't even be able to find the SUV.
Ding—
Song Heping heard a faint notification sound.
He opened his eyes and pulled over the backpack beside him.
He took out a new phone and glanced at the ssage.
"JK's identity has been found, the information you want is ready, but what do you plan to exchange for it?"
This was a ssage sent by Chris Chen.
Song Heping thought for a mont, then sent a reply, "What do you want to know, what kind of intelligence can be exchanged?"
After editing, Song Heping pressed the send button.
Then he waited.
For a long ti, there was no reply from Chris Chen.
"Heh..."
Song Heping chuckled to himself.
It seed that even Chris Chen had his monts of hesitation.
Five minutes later, the phone finally chid again.
Ding—
Song Heping opened it to look.
There was only one sentence: "Information related to your three sets of SA-9 missiles, buyer, seller, purpose."
Song Heping's eyebrows twitched, and he sat up from the lounge chair.
After thinking seriously for a mont, he replied with two words—"Deal".
User Comments
0 comments from readers