"Seems like there are quite a few people..."
It was just dawn, about 700 ters away from Main God Mountain, when Jiang Feng suddenly shifted his position in a makeshift observation post.
"What's wrong?"
Song Heping noticed sothing was amiss and gently turned his head to ask.
This simple observation post had been constructed in the early hours of the morning.
It was still dark at the ti, and although they had already trekked nearly 20 kiloters, Song Heping still had Gabri lead a team to build two observation posts at this location.
For a reconnaissance soldier, constructing a rudintary observation position isn't difficult.
The challenge is the timing.
Every reconnaissance soldier must learn how to dig an observation position during training.
It's similar to an infantry fortification.
However, the requirents for camouflage are much stricter.
Because ti was so tight, Song Heping didn't ask Gabri to dig fortifications, but rather used the carried camouflage nets and raincoats along with so sand and soil to build sothing similar to a "shed," choosing a location behind a pile of rocks.
Afghan is nothing like the tropical jungles of South Arica.
In South Arica, even if you don't have a ghillie suit on hand, you can create a very effective single-person camouflage using camouflage nets or even raincoats.
Here, it's completely different.
This mountain has no trees, only sporadic clumps of grass and rocks.
The dust on the ground is so dry that it kicks up a cloud of dust with every step.
Although 700 ters is a long distance for Ata Organization mbers, since they are born and bred here, they can easily notice changes in the surrounding environnt.
"A snake..."
Jiang Feng's gaze drifts to the left.
Following his gaze, Song Heping indeed spots a snake about a ter in length.
"Damn!"
He blurts out subconsciously: "At least three or four pounds, enough for a al."
Jiang Feng almost couldn't hold back a laugh.
The two of them thought of the tis they ate snakes during wilderness survival training in the military.
This is a mandatory training subject for every PLA Special Forces mber.
"It's fine."
After taking a couple more glances, Song Heping determined: "It's a non-venomous water snake."
Jiang Feng breathes a sigh of relief and picks up his binoculars again.
Reconnaissance is a grinding task.
It's not the most uncomfortable ti yet. When the sun is high at noon, the ground temperature rises, and lying on the ground is akin to lying in a steaming basket.
Luckily, there are many of us now, so we can split into three groups, with each 4-person group responsible for a 3-hour surveillance shift.
Through the binoculars, Song Heping observes ard militants who had been stationed around the mountain start to erge from their posts.
When they first arrived here last night, they found through thermal imaging that there were at least a dozen hidden sentinels nearby, plus two mobile patrol teams—the vigilance was impressive.
The Ata militants leave their hidden spots and head towards an open field, where they stand facing west, as still as statues.
Jiang Feng slowly moves his binoculars, scanning the surroundings of Main God Mountain, then poses a question, "What are they doing?"
Song Heping is also watching and after a while responds, "They are probably about to pray?"
Indeed, not long after, these people begin to kneel down one after another, then start worshipping with great devotion as if they were performing so kind of ritual.
"I've heard they pray at least three tis a day..."
He suddenly has a strange thought and asks Song Heping, "When they are fighting and it cos ti to pray, do they have to stop and pray?"
Song Heping laughs: "I'm not a convert, why ask ? I don't understand these things."
Jiang Feng can't help but laugh too.
Soon, the ritual is over, and everyone goes back to their business, returning to their posts.
Feeling sowhat bored, Song Heping puts down the binoculars and rubs his sowhat sore eyes.
"Look quick!"
Just as he was rubbing his eyes, he suddenly hears Jiang Feng's deep shout.
"Look where?"
Song Heping quickly picks up the binoculars.
"The mountainside!" Jiang Feng almost raises his hand to point, "Position at 2 o'clock."
Song Heping takes the binoculars and slowly searches in that direction.
Soon, he finds the reason for Jiang Feng's surprise.
At the 2 o'clock position, a group of people erges from the entrance of a cave.
What stands out the most is one man in the crowd, dressed in standard camouflage pants and a green T-shirt.
"Is that the US Army?!"
Song Heping imdiately orders Jiang Feng: "Quick, take a picture!"
"Right on!"
Jiang Feng swiftly picks up the Nikon cara beside him, flips open the lens cover, aims at the group erging from the cave, quickly twists the focus ring, zooming in and locking onto the man's face.
Click—
Click—
Click—
The sound of the shutter keeps firing.
Everything is captured into the lens.
Jiang Feng, holding the cara, stares at the screen for a mont, then suddenly freezes.
"What's wrong?"
Song Heping asked.
Jiang Feng handed the cara to Song Heping: "It's not Curtis!"
Song Heping hurriedly took it and glanced at the cara's screen, then zood in on the face of the Arican soldier in the photo.
After looking for less than a second, he could be certain that this person was definitely not Curtis.
Niki had provided Curtis's photo during the briefing.
That guy looked clean and well-grood.
While the man in the lens had a big beard and did not match in age.
Curtis was very young, in his twenties, while this person looked to be at least thirty.
"Send the photo to Willie and his team, let them check who this is."
"Okay."
Jiang Feng imdiately connected the cara with a data cable, and then sent it through the satellite network to Will and Dax, hiding inside a nearby cave.
However, Will did not respond after receiving the image.
In these few short minutes, the people coming out of the cave had already brought the Arican soldier to a relatively flat area on the mountainside.
Song Heping witnessed the scene he least wanted to see.
The Arican soldier was pushed down on his knees, and soone in front of him started recording with a mini DV cara.
It seed like they handed him a piece of paper to read.
Guessing that they were not satisfied with his reading, a leader-like person ca over and kicked the Arican soldier to the ground, then pointed the gun at him.
"He's about to be executed."
By this point, Song Heping finally understood what these people were planning to do.
After all, such incidents had happened before in Illiguo.
"Should we save him?!" Jiang Feng asked.
Song Heping shook his head: "The incident was sudden, completely outside of our plan, there is no way to save him, even if we fight with our lives, it wouldn't be possible."
Jiang Feng said: "I agree."
He picked up the binoculars and continued observing.
Suddenly he rembered sothing, turned his head to Song Heping and said, "It's been several minutes since the images were sent. Why haven't Willie and his team identified the person yet?"
"It's not that they can't identify him." Song Heping said with a look of expectancy: "They know who he is, but they can't tell us, nor can they suggest that we go to save him, so they just pretend to be oblivious. If I'm not mistaken, this is one of the Green Berets."
"One of the Green Berets?" Jiang Feng rembered: "The small team sent to rescue Curtis before?!"
"Correct."
Song Heping said: "It must be one from among those people. It was thought that they had failed and died in action, but it seems not all have perished. We can only watch; we can't do anything, not that we don't want to help him, I just don't want to risk everyone's life for him. There are at least two to three hundred people inside the Main God Mountain."
Having two to three hundred people hidden in a mountain is actually not a small number.
After the US Army invaded Afghanistan for counter-terrorism, the Ata Organization could not withstand the onslaught, so they dispersed and went into hiding to avoid attacks, also to prevent being wiped out in one fell swoop.
Large-scale troop deploynts into combat are not possible here; what persists are guerrilla warfare and surprise attacks.
The Ata are using the sa tactics against the Aricans that they used against the Soviets back in the day.
Events changed and progressed very quickly.
Song Heping saw that the soldier eventually read the piece of paper after receiving nurous blows, after which the Ata leader kicked him to the ground, stepped on his head with his shoe, and two others ca up and pinned down the Green Beret's legs.
It seed that the execution was about to begin...
Song Heping watched all this with cold eyes, then deliberately asked over the channel: "Willie, did you see the photo?"
"Saw it."
Willie's voice sounded very low.
"Who exactly is this person?" Song Heping said: "A Green Beret mber?"
Willie was silent again.
"Speak up, don't beat around the bush. You didn't ntion that there were survivors in the Green Berets in the briefing before," Song Heping asserted.
Willie finally spoke to explain: "Our intelligence analysis has its principles, we can only treat uncertain cases as 'missing'..."
Song Heping laughed: "Unnecessarily complicating things. You should have known soone was alive. Why conceal it from us?"
Willie cleared his throat and said: "It's a decision from above, I'm just sent to assist you with the mission."
"Who is this person?!"
"It's Sergeant Dicky..."
"A Green Beret?"
"Yes..."
Song Heping didn't ask further.
There was no need to ask Willie if they were going to save Dicky.
Because not only did Willie not have the authority to interfere with his actions, even if he did, he understood the consequences.
While the two were conversing over the radio frequency, on the opposite mountainside, the leader expertly pulled out a knife and stabbed into the unfortunate Dicky's carotid artery, slaughtering him like a pig, sending Sergeant Dicky off to et God.
But the matter was not over yet.
After Dicky struggled a few tis and finally stopped breathing, the knife-wielding leader did not want to stop there. He kept cutting back and forth on Dicky's neck, like a butcher slicing up pork.
Soon, he lifted Dicky's head from the ground, holding it in front of himself as if admiring a proud trophy.
Dicky's blood sprayed all over the leader, covering the yellowing white robe with bloodstains.
The rising morning sun cast its golden rays, shining on the Ata leader's face, reflecting a reddish glow on the oily face of this devoutly traditional believer; the blood flowing out from Sergeant Dicky's body, and the decapitated head with eyes rolled back, not shutting even under the morning sun...
It was as if Song Heping had been montarily transported to Hell.
This is the Empire Graveyard, this is the earthly purgatory.
"Fuck!"
At the end, Jiang Feng squeezed out two words through clenched teeth to express his indescribable frustration.
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