"Look, what's professionalism?"
Lieutenant Colonel Freddie sat in the command tent, speaking softly to the staff officer beside him, "This is professionalism. The US Army's Special Forces truly are professional."
By now, the temporary frontline headquarters had been set up in the style of a US Army field command post, with several military laptops arranged on the desk, and the command platforms of various military branches connected to the ODA group's command and control system.
Since there had been multiple joint training sessions before, the data interfaces were compatible, so there were absolutely no compatibility issues.
This linkage even allowed positions of each group to be pinpointed directly in the system through one of the computers, enabling the command nucleus to clearly see the location of each search team and to reflect on the computer imdiately when a team encountered a firefight.
From last night when the ODA team arrived at the scene until now, in just eight short hours, the entire command had been completely transferred to Colonel Jas's hands. It could be said that at this point, the overall commander was no longer Freddie but Jas.
But Lieutenant Colonel Freddie had no objections at all.
He felt that Colonel Jas was more professional than himself; after all, the Seventh Special Operations Group had long been specifically responsible for special operations in Latin Arica and was quite skilled in mountain and jungle warfare.
With them around, Freddie felt entirely reassured.
Colonel Jas had now gathered the company commanders from the Special Forces participating in the operation and was explaining his encirclent plan to them on the map.
In Jas's view, the target was definitely still within the encirclent and had not escaped.
The reason there had been no movent in the past couple of days was that the enemy wanted to "drag out" the hunt, using a strategy of delay.
With his experience, for locals like Morins, surviving in the tropical rainforest was not difficult, even if it ant living without food for a month.
Dragging this out, however, was entirely detrintal for the governnt army.
According to previous intelligence, it seed the ELN ard forces were unaware that their leader was still alive, and Lieutenant Colonel Freddie had intentionally released a smokescreen, informing the dia that Morins had been killed in a camp raid.
This bought precious ti for the success of the operation.
As long as the ELN did not know that Morins was still alive, they would not launch frantic attacks to pressure the governnt.
Thus, the pair hiding in the jungle were effectively isolated and beca "the forgotten ones."
However, such a situation was inevitably temporary. With a large number of AGLAN troops operating in the area and the Army deploying an entire battalion, there were no walls in the world that do not leak secrets. If Morins was not captured within a short period, they probably could not keep it hidden for much longer.
Since the enemy wanted to delay, Colonel Jas decided to employ a tactic of pressure.
In his words, the two n were like two panicking mice, hiding in the nooks of a pile of debris. The best thod was to prod randomly with a broomstick into the pile, maximizing disturbance and forcing them to start fleeing.
As soon as there was any movent, they could then track them and imdiately dispatch the most elite combat teams to parachute to the firefight and encircle them.
Therefore, he planned to start the operation early this morning, putting all AGLAN teams stationed at critical points into action as the broomsticks to disturb the mice.
"Lieutenant Colonel."
After arranging everything, Colonel Jas waved Freddie over.
"Colonel, what is it?"
Jas pulled Freddie outside the tent, "The situation on your side is quite lacking. That Chinese arms dealer, do you have a photo?"
"No," Freddie said. "I also wanted a photo of him, but our inside man hadn't sent one out to us before he died."
Jas said, "Proceed as planned. If I am not wrong, they will definitely head northwest, into the heart of the Tbilisi Mountain Range, where there are so ELN camps, also their best escape route. However, what concerns most is their combat capability. You currently have teams of seven in the field. If a five-man elite team before could not stop those two n, it's possible that a seven-man team can't either."
"Then I will deploy more personnel and structure a team based on a 14-mber pattern, commanding them to combine two teams into one," Freddie rashly replied.
"No," Jas said. "That's exactly falling into the enemy's trap. Currently, you have 50 teams, 350 personnel spread out in the jungle; if you combine them, the number of teams will inevitably be halved, and that would create gaps in the encirclent. If that Chinese arms dealer is really a master, he will definitely take this opportunity to slip through the gaps in your encirclent and run into the Tbilisi Mountain Range."
Freddie's eyes widened. "That skillful?! Can there really be soone that skillful!?"
"Otherwise, how do you explain that so many of you surrounded a camp yet let two of them kill five of your n and escape without a trace?" Jas retorted.
"That is..."
Freddie felt uneasy.
"What should we do now, Colonel?"
Colonel Jas said, "My plan is to dispatch five jungle warfare experts from my squad to act as leaders in five search teams to the northwest. These five teams will be the main elent of the operation. The other teams will conduct a sweeping search throughout this area by sectors. Once we stir up the 'rats,' these five teams will imdiately move to that area and encircle the two."
At this, a determined smile appeared on his lips.
"Once my n find them, they won't escape my grasp."
"Great! I'll follow your plan, Colonel. You have command here, you lead, and we'll cooperate!"
Freddie felt a great relief as if he had found a strong support.
Before Jas arrived two days ago, indeed, he had felt overwheld.
It was like facing a hedgehog with its spines raised, not knowing where to begin.
"The operation will start at 5:00 AM," Jas checked his watch. "I'll get so rest now; we start promptly at five."
...
5:00 AM.
In the rainforests of the Ta Region.
The insects that had been chirping all night were tired, the nocturnal animals began to return to their caves, and the dayti animals woke up, leaving their nests in search of food.
The early bird catches the worm.
The chorus of bird calls in the forest gradually increased.
In a cave, Song Heping, who had been sleeping against the cave wall, suddenly opened his eyes.
He raised his hand to check his watch.
5:10 AM.
Wiping his face with his hand, his gaze moved deeper into the cave.
Having been in the dark for a long ti, his eyes had adjusted, allowing him to faintly see Morins curled up in a corner of the cave.
He approached and gently patted the other person's thigh.
"Wake up."
Morins jolted awake, sitting up to look at Song Heping in the dark.
"I'll go out and check the surroundings; you go to the observation point, keep an eye on it, and notify using our previous signal if you notice anything."
"Okay."
Morins got up, rubbed his eyes, then sitting on the ground listened for a while, "It seems like it's raining."
Song Heping said, "Yes, it's raining, let's go."
With that, he turned and crawled out of the cave entrance.
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