Watching the shepherd boy slowly approaching, both of them reduced their breathing to the lowest possible level.
The shepherd boy didn't notice that there were two people hidden in the bushes just over ten ters away.
After all, the ghillie suits Song Heping and his companion wore were very well-made, with quite an effective camouflage.
If one didn't look carefully from a few ters away, it was indeed very difficult to spot anything amiss.
The little shepherd humd a tune, swung his whip, completely unaware that he was in danger.
Song Heping had no desire to kill the kid.
He hoped that the other party wouldn't notice him and Willie.
The flock of sheep slowly passed by, and it seed the shepherd boy wasn't paying attention to their direction.
Song Heping breathed a sigh of relief.
It seed that the boy had not noticed anyone's presence.
But just at that mont, a sheep ca over and stopped in front of Willie.
This animal seed very interested in the grass on Willie's ghillie suit.
Snipers add nearby grass and plants to their ghillie suits after entering their sniping positions to blend into the environnt better.
So Willie had used so grass for his disguise earlier.
But this now drew the sheep's attention.
Soon, the sheep approached Willie, and it actually tried to bite the grass on his body.
Song Heping couldn't move, watching that life-threatening creature out of the corner of his eye.
One could imagine Willie's mood at the mont...
He probably wanted to serve up this animal as a roast whole sheep on the spot.
The trouble didn't stop there.
As this animal was enjoying its al, another of its kind ca over as well.
Perhaps it thought this clump of "grass" was lush and got interested.
Soon, it joined the team nibbling on the "grass."
Sheep are vigorous when it cos to eating grass; they are fast and thorough, pulling it out by the roots.
In no ti, a patch on Willie's body had beco "bald."
The exposed strips of fabric on the ghillie suit were tugged at by the sheep, and the two animals soon discovered they could not pull this clump of "grass" apart and began bleating loudly.
Song Heping had a bad feeling about this.
Indeed, the sheep's bleating quickly caught the shepherd boy's attention.
He walked over to the bushes where the two were ambushed.
Arriving at the sheep's location, he waved his whip and struck the two animals, driving them back to the flock.
The sheep, pained, bleated and scampered off.
The shepherd boy was about to leave but suddenly noticed that the clump of "grass" in front of him was odd.
His eyes were drawn to the patch on Willie's body where the disguise had been stripped off.
It was only then that the shepherd boy realized these two clumps of "grass" seed rather strange.
Out of curiosity, he moved closer and poked Willie with the stick that had a whip tied to it...
Just then, the other clump of "grass" next to it suddenly sprang up and pounced over like a tiger bursting out of its cage.
The shepherd boy had no ti to scream before he was tackled to the ground, with his mouth tightly covered by Song Heping's hand.
Willie also ca over to pin down the boy's legs, pulling out zip ties to bind his hands and feet, then stuffed a field scarf into the boy's mouth.
After they had dealt with everything, they finally released the shepherd boy.
Seeing the two strange figures in front of him, wearing odd clothes and face paint in black and green, the shepherd boy trembled with fear.
Although in this place, ard personnel were not an uncommon sight.
But ard individuals with such attire and appearance were indeed a first for him.
Song Heping glanced at Willie's ghillie suit, puzzled, "Why do these sheep like eating the grass on you so much?"
"Damn it! Just my luck!"
Willie was already in a bad mood.
He had been hit in the face by his own statent.
He was confident that the request for a joint counter-terrorism operation, which would have been approved quickly and released as a false signal to lure the enemy out, was coming from the US Army Command.
Now it was getting to dusk, and the sun was about to set, but there was still no response from the Pentagon.
If the delay was too long, the risk of the two of them staying here would increase.
The initial plan to take out Curtis was supposed to be executed within 48 hours.
After all, a lot can happen in a night.
Any further delay, and if he has started uploading the video to the internet, it would be a disaster for the US Army stationed in Afghanistan, and a political crisis for the White House as well.
"What do you plan to do with this kid?"
Willie pointed at the shepherd boy on the ground.
Song Heping said, "What do you think?"
Willie said, "Get it over with quickly, send him on his way."
Song Heping said, "No use, if we kill him and it gets dark, his family are sure to co looking on the mountain, and then we'll still be exposed."
Willie said, "So, we let him go?"
Song Heping shook his head: "Of course not! Killing him or not, it's all the sa."
He looked at the shepherd boy on the ground, who appeared to be only about eleven or twelve years old. It was really unnecessary to just finish him off.
"Tie him up and hide him sowhere." Song Heping looked at the sky and said, "After dark, if we still can't see Curtis before his family arrives, then the operation has already failed, and we'll have to retreat."
Willie looked upset, "Damn it! To not kill Curtis is simply divine blindness!"
Seeing this, Song Heping couldn't help but mock him, "When has God ever not been blind?"
Willie agreed with Song Heping's opinion, tied the boy up and threw him to the side. After all, even if they killed him, they would still be exposed later, and whether to kill or not doesn't affect the final outco. That was the only way to deal with it.
The two n bound the shepherd boy tightly with several restraints, then found a bush nearby to throw him into, and continued to re-camouflage their sniper position, starting to monitor the movents in the village again.
Eventually, the sky grew dark. Song Heping looked at his watch and asked Willie, "Any news from your command?"
"Not yet..."
Willie looked helpless and ashad.
The efficiency of his superiors was really extraordinarily slow.
After waiting for most of the day, they still hadn't communicated and coordinated with Ba Country on the joint counter-terrorism operation.
By the ti these bureaucrats finish dealing with it, it would probably be too late.
"Let's go, we need to pull out."
Song Heping heard loud calls coming from the village.
There was no electricity here, but there were lights.
The dim lights in the small village slowly ca on.
Song Heping took his binoculars and looked in the direction from where the voices were coming.
Sure enough, he saw several people carrying torches moving around the village, seemingly searching for soone.
"His family must be looking for him. They will definitely co up the mountain soon. Let's go, this is no place to stay for long. We must admit, we have failed this ti,"
Willie reluctantly accepted this reality.
Even though he still wanted to kill Curtis, under these circumstances, it was indeed impossible.
Moreover, Ma Hang had to make a decision. Once the whole village ca out to search, escaping would beco difficult.
"Alright, I agree. Now I will imdiately contact headquarters to inform them of the mission failure..."
Two minutes later, Song Heping and Willie packed up their things and lded back into the night, heading towards the Afghan border.
They were very close to the Afghan border, less than ten kiloters away.
At their pace, they would be able to cross the mountains and reach the border within four hours.
Once across the border, they could call for a helicopter to pick them up.
Willie was still seething with frustration, cursing under his breath.
Suddenly, Song Heping stopped in his tracks.
"What's up?"
Willie finally stopped cursing, looking back at Song Heping who stood still.
Song Heping seed to be contemplating sothing.
In his mind, a map erged.
Shortly after, he seed to have figured it out: "Willie, show the electronic map."
"What do you want with that?" While speaking, Willie took out a military phone, fetched the map, and handed it over.
Song Heping kept looking at the map, zooming in on certain locations to examine closely. After about two minutes, a smile appeared on his face.
"I have a way!"
"What way?"
"We still have a chance to take out Curtis, but we need to take a bit of a risk."
Song Heping's gaze fell on Willie's face.
"Do you dare to do it?"
Willie gritted his teeth and said, "As long as there's a way, I'm in!"
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