"Moreover, I have so doubts about this intelligence, as if it was deliberately leaked. Based on my longstanding understanding of Song Heping, the ease with which I've tracked his financial path always makes feel sothing is off."
Simon seed hesitant for a mont, but ultimately voiced his doubts.
"Deliberately leaked?"
Pence fell into contemplation.
He also had a deep impression of Song Heping.
This man is indeed cunning.
"Hmm... you have a point, but the intelligence you've provided is indeed valuable. Simon, leave this matter to Jasper and let him handle it."
"Sir..."
Simon seed sowhat anxious.
"I strongly request to join the plan to hunt Song Heping."
"You want to join?!"
Pence's gaze settled on Jasper's face and then moved to the suspect list on the table.
After hesitating for 0.5 seconds, he made his final decision.
"Currently, you are the head of intelligence operations in the Illiguo region, and there's still a lot to be done there. I heard the northwest region is unstable, is that correct?"
"Yes, lately the ard organization in that region has been active, and there seem to be signs of expansion among local factions and extremist groups..."
"That's right, you already have a lot on your plate. As a regional chief, it's impractical for you to split your focus and participate in the operations in Africa. Let's leave it at this. If the operation is successful, I'll ntion you in the report."
Pence offered Simon a sweetener.
What he said was just an excuse.
Simon's current role as head of Illiguo Intelligence Station wasn't a barrier to participating in the operation; it was the list.
The list was the real obstacle.
Seeing Pence refuse Simon, Jasper standing at the desk secretly sighed in relief.
He didn't want to collaborate with Simon.
The closest competitor to him right now was Simon.
That guy's abilities are decent.
The hunt for Song Heping is currently one of the bureau's key missions, ranked just below the hunt for Dengge but among the top five on the pursued list.
Taking down Song Heping would be a great rit and would benefit his career imnsely; he couldn't allow others to interfere.
"Sir, Song Heping is too cunning. I'm afraid he might play tricks. It's my intelligence, so I need to be responsible for the upcoming actions. What if it's a trap..."
Simon still seed to want to fight for involvent.
But Pence interrupted him: "You don't need to worry about this matter. Whether the intelligence is true, there are specialized teams from the bureau and the Africa departnt to verify, so don't question their professional standards. As for responsibility..."
Pence shrugged: "You don't need to be responsible for anything upcoming, those are my words, let's leave it at that."
"Alright, Sir..."
Simon finally gave up the fight and silently hung up the phone.
Pence thought for a mont with his phone, then looked up to ask Jasper: "How did your main suspect provide Song Heping's positional coordinates?"
"Well..."
Jasper shrugged, appearing sowhat awkward.
He didn't dare to definitively declare Simon's clues as false intelligence.
After all, he was a cautious person.
What if it's true?
"Alright, imdiately contact colleagues from the Africa departnt and coordinate with the Secret Action Departnt. Contact the military to dispatch drones for surveillance and reconnaissance in the Atlon Oasis area. We must find Song Heping and verify Simon's intelligence."
"Yes, sir!"
After Jasper left, Pence picked up a pen on the table and rotated it several tis between his fingers, then picked up the list again and drew a question mark next to Simon's na.
Jasper's actions were swift.
Upon leaving Pence's office, he imdiately began contacting departnts for coordination.
Two hours later, a reconnaissance MQ-9 drone took off from the US Air Force base in Saudi Arabia, flew along the Red Sea, and ascended to an altitude of ten thousand ters, flying stealthily along the border.
In the surveillance room at CIA Headquarters, Jasper sat in a swivel chair with coffee in hand, his eyes never leaving the big screen.
"Already inside Sudan territory, thirty more minutes of flight south to reach the Atlon Oasis..."
A report ca through the microphone, the operator's voice coming from Whiteman Air Force Base's drone control center in Missouri.
"Visuals are clear, high visibility, good weather."
The drone operator sat in an authentic leather chair, staring at more than ten screens of varying sizes.
The drone control center was set up in the Air Force base, a container area fenced with barbed wire.
A dozen antennas of different heights and shapes surrounded the container area, used to link satellite signals and coordinate signals between various military and intelligence departnts.
Each container was an independent control room.
Inside was like a living room, with two leather chairs and over a dozen screens with various functions.
The desk was equipped with specialized keyboards and control joysticks—it's essentially like playing a ga.
Apart from being sowhat cramped, the environnt here was quite comfortable. Since operators often stayed for over a dozen hours, or even an entire day, the room was not only well air-conditioned but also filled with coffee and snacks for energy replenishnt, and even a small private bathroom for urgent needs.
Operators were typically Air Force Academy graduates trained to take up the role or forr squadron pilots who ca here due to psychological reasons that made flying unsuitable, or so other aspect preventing combat aircraft operation.
Compared to a fighter jet cockpit, this place is like heaven, especially since controlling a drone poses no risk—even if the aircraft is shot down, the operator feels as if a ga level was rely "GA OVER," no different.
Below the nose of the MQ-9 reconnaissance drone, the protruding reconnaissance module slowly rotated, the high-definition cara aid at the ground, the infrared sensor, laser rangefinder, radar system coordinated to function normally, transmitting ground-captured images fra by fra through satellite channels to the operator's screen, and simultaneously to the monitoring center at Langley Headquarters.
"Entering airspace near Atlon Oasis, executing routine reconnaissance protocol..."
The so-called routine protocol ans brief scanning.
Capturing and photographing ground sceneries requires quickly scanning larger and broader areas.
Once the cara captures people or relevant buildings on the ground, it triggers the next higher-level reconnaissance procedure.
The drone operator will maneuver the cara to target buildings, people, suspicious points, and start capturing high-definition images.
They can even control the altitude to achieve a clearer resolution, lock on and identify ground faces, and after taking screenshots, conduct a database comparison to verify identities.
Upon identifying ground target faces, the location of the target can be quickly confird.
Twenty minutes passed...
The drone operator yawned.
He had been sitting in the chair for four hours already.
"Damn, besides trees, everything here is trees and sand..."
Beep beep beep—
Beep beep beep—
A red box appeared on one of the screens ahead, the system emitted a buzzer alert sound.
"Sothing's up."
The weapons operator beside reminded the operator.
Although this was a reconnaissance mission, to maintain higher endurance, the drone was equipped only with fuel, without any offensive weapons.
The mission was to identify if Song Heping was at the Atlon Oasis and verify the accuracy of Simon's intelligence.
And on the screen, the drone had scanned sothing.
Those were ground buildings.
So appeared unfinished, but most of the fences were erected, enclosing a large area.
"Suspicious buildings detected, seemingly unfinished."
In the Langley monitoring room, once sleepy Jasper instantly perked up, sprung from his chair, gulped a mouthful of coffee, and quickly moved up to the big screen, afraid of missing any fra.
"Looks like there's people!"
He picked up the radio and began communicating with the operator.
"Lock onto their faces, take clear photos."
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