Twelve days later, Baghdadi International Airport.
Song Heping had just walked out of the immigration hall when Ferrari approached him.
"How are things?"
"Things are bad." Ferrari shook his head, "Last night's attack caused over thirty casualties among us, and most of the convoy's supplies were destroyed. These supplies were ant for the US Army's forward camp in Mosul, including ammunition and food, with losses estimated to be over ten million US dollars."
"Ten million..."
Song Heping wasn't too concerned about this kind of loss.
The "Musician" Defense Company currently has an extrely abundant cash flow, earning hundreds of millions of US dollars each month just from xico alone, so ten million is trivial. Even adding the compensation for the local rcenaries, there isn't any problem financially for the company.
However, the key issue is not here.
"What did Peter say?"
"The military side wants to terminate the contract and hand it over to AAFES company."
Ferrari said, "Song, there's sothing fishy about this."
"Go on." The two spoke as they approached the car, with about a dozen rcenaries spreading out to occupy key positions to form a security circle.
Since the operation in Ba Country, Song Heping knew it was only a matter of ti before the Elder Council moved against him, so he has been very cautious over the past month.
He quickly boarded the bulletproof Lincoln and sat in the back seat.
Ferrari got in from the other side of the door and sat next to Song Heping.
Jiang Feng then took the passenger seat.
"Recently, the security situation in the northwest of Illiguo had been improving, but I don't know why, last night the Resistance Organization launched an unprecedented intense attack on our transport convoy. Strangely, no other attacks occurred a few days before and a day after our incident."
"You an this operation was targeting us?"
"I feel it was targeted, very specific."
"Hmph!"
Song Heping scoffed: "I knew the Elder Council wouldn't have the patience to wait three months for the contract to expire automatically. I always wondered why they were so patient…"
"There's more to it."
Ferrari continued, "Last night when you were still on the plane, there was also an issue at the oil field."
"An issue?" Song Heping was slightly shocked, "What happened at the oil field?"
"It was also attacked." Ferrari stated, "It was hit by rockets by unidentified ard militants, causing a large fire in the oil region, with quite severe losses."
"Damn!"
Song Heping said, "No need to ask, it must also be related to the Elder Council, they are trying to kill ."
He paused, then asked, "Ferrari, did you find out who was behind these two incidents?"
"Not yet, the security forces and police in Illiguo are unreliable. Depending on the US military intelligence departnt to investigate probably won't yield any results. If the Elder Council can influence the military, then we will not receive any help and will likely face continuous suppression. What I'm most worried about right now is…"
He stopped there.
Song Heping said, "Say what you're worried about."
"If Wood Energy and the military cite our failure to fulfill the contract obligations as a reason to cancel our contracts, then we would essentially lose our entire base in Illiguo, and we probably won't have any business there in the future."
Ferrari's worries were not unreasonable.
The military has already proposed to terminate the contract.
This ans that there will soon be outcos from the Wood Energy Group side too.
Before Song Heping could think of a counterasure, Turner's call indeed ca through.
"Song, I have so unfortunate news to inform you."
"I know, your group wants to terminate the contract with my defense company because of the oil field attack, right?"
Turner strictly cited the contract clause. "It seems you have already heard, sorry, but our contract does include a clause that if the losses at the oil field are due to your factors, it ans you haven't fulfilled your contractual responsibilities, so you have to bear the consequences."
"I understand, no problem, a termination, right?" Song Heping sneered, "Your company is really efficient, attacked last night and you already have a decision today, such an efficient company is really rare."
Turner was slightly embarrassed, repeating the old rhetoric, "Song, you know I'm just an employee…"
"Alright, I know." Song Heping didn't wish to speak another word to these small fry.
Indeed, although Turner is a senior executive at Wood Energy Group, as he himself said, he's just a senior employee.
It's the Wood Family behind him that controls the core of the group.
It all has nothing to do with him at all.
Turner is just a pawn.
"Thank you for your understanding, I wish you all the best."
After that, the call ended.
Song Heping said, "Ferrari, any progress on Henry's side?"
"Not yet." Ferrari said, "We haven't got any valuable clues for now."
Song Heping took a deep breath, suppressing his rolling emotions.
Currently, the opponent is like a ghost hiding in the shadows, invisible.
He clenched his fists not knowing where to swing.
This is the most fatal part.
However, no one who takes action will leave without flaws.
Since soone has attacked his company's personnel, there must be traces left behind.
Nobody dares to touch the Elder Council, but here in Illiguo, there must be soone who knows who was behind last night's actions.
As long as we know who did it, we can follow the vine to get the lon, tracing it back to find the mastermind.
He suddenly thought of soone.
Maybe this person could help him.
When he returned to the company, while everyone thought Song Heping was going to gather the core staff for a eting, they found him entering his room and closing the door, not coming out for a long ti.
During dinner, Song Heping simply inquired about Henry's intelligence gathering status. This ti, Henry totally lost face in front of Song Heping.
The company had given him a generous remuneration to oversee the intelligence gathering.
Now that the company is facing difficulties, he couldn't produce any intelligence to create a counterattack plan.
Henry felt like he was drawing a salary for nothing.
"I'm sorry, boss, this ti…"
"Okay, stop there, the opponent this ti is not an ordinary one. Continue increasing the bounty, 20 million US Dollars."
"Increase the amount?"
Henry was shocked.
"Because of this huge bounty, I receive a heap of junk information daily, and even scamrs concoct fake intelligence to extract the bounty, if we increase it to twenty million US Dollars…"
"Do as I say." Song Heping's tone was undeniable: "It's your job to vet the credibility of the intelligence. Increasing the bounty adds pressure on the opponent; we can't let the Elder Council stab us in the back without a worry, continuing to sleep soundly at night. With 20 million US Dollars, they need to be vigilant every day, fearing their own people might get tempted and betray them."
"Alright, I will do as you said." Henry no longer objected.
Song Heping turned to Ferrari: "Ferrari, work hard these next few days. The contract with the military and Wood Energy has been terminated, there are many procedures and materials to be transferred, you are in charge of this matter. As for the few hundred local rcenaries, let them take a break and go ho, pay them the basic salary to sustain them, tell them the company's situation will improve soon, they will have work to do quickly, and let them co back to the training ground every day, don't slack off."
"Okay, I will arrange it properly." Ferrari replied.
"Ferrari, co out with after dinner."
"Where to?"
"Don't ask."
After dinner, Ferrari drove Song Heping away from the company.
"Head towards the oil fields."
"Now?"
"Yes, now. Once we get there, just say we are there to handle the oil field's handover tasks. At that ti, park the car outside the northwest area of the oil fields, and I will leave on my own."
"Where are you going?"
"To Persia."
"Persia?"
Ferrari suddenly realized, Song Heping was going to et Avanti.
The oil field area in the northwest of Illiguo just borders, and previously, Song Heping had cooperated with the Persians to control this area, eliminate the Freedom Army supported by the Kurd people, and helped establish the Ard Organization, Madheh Army, that's why the oil fields had been very safe before.
Now that soone had acted here, it's clear that Avanti and Madheh Army couldn't possibly be unaware, they surely have so intelligence that could point to the culprit.
eting Avanti, Song Heping was there to find clues, then formulate a counterattack plan, determine who is responsible, who must pay the price, and find out who is behind all this.
The biggest issue currently is not being able to find the enemy, it's like facing a transparent wall of air, impossible to exert any force upon.
To break these shackles, one must find the target to strike back at.
Three hours later, the car reached the oil field area.
From a distance, several work areas in the oil field were burning fiercely, the resulting black smoke dragged up to the sky like long tails.
It seems that the damage caused by last night's attack was indeed very severe.
Wood Company was actually willing to pay such a cost to imdiately clear the boundaries with him, showing just how powerful the Elder Council really is.
Such a huge energy giant, yet has to bow down and obey whatever they are asked to do.
Song Heping grew increasingly interested in this secret society lurking in the shadows; if one day he could stand before their leader for a confrontation, what a situation that would be.
Just like a Hunter, always taking pride in capturing the most formidable beast in the forest.
Now, Song Heping was just like a Hunter.
Initially caught in a passive state, but he must find that beast hiding deep within the forest to hunt it down.
Either he kills the opponent, or the opponent kills him.
Between any formidable beasts, there is no room for compromise.
After making a pretentious round in the oil field, Ferrari, following Song Hepin's arrangents, organized the security personnel to start organizing the duty archives and checking the security facilities, preparing a list for handover.
While Song Heping took advantage of the mont when no one was paying attention, sneaked out of the oil field area, got into the bulletproof Lincoln SUV, and stepped on the throttle towards the northern desert.
About forty minutes later, as usual, Song Heping parked his car below a dune near the rendezvous point, checked his watch, then found a hidden spot to hide.
Twenty minutes later, a low-flying helicopter ca from afar and hovered at the rendezvous point.
Song Heping walked up, familiarly t with the person, and verified identities.
After that, he boarded the helicopter and quickly disappeared into the night sky.
User Comments
0 comments from readers