Chapter 35: A Perilous Place

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Mr. J had arranged for them to meet on top of a dam.

The dam lay near the Sarsar Lake district. Construction had begun in the 1950s, and it served as the sluice connecting the reservoir with the Tigris and Sarsar Rivers.

The town of Qarasah lay to the south, the Tigris to the north, and the Sarsar River to the west. Situated where the two rivers converged, it occupied a strategically dangerous position.

Ordinary people arranged secret meetings inside houses or in similarly secluded places. For Mr. J to choose a dam as the meeting site was simply incomprehensible.

“Boss, if anything goes wrong in a place like this, it’ll be very difficult to protect the VIP.” The moment White Bear saw the location, he voiced his concern. “If they’re after our lives, there won’t even be anywhere to run.”

His concern was not unfounded.

A PSD mission had to take every possible contingency into account and prepare countermeasures in advance.

Although Mr. J was Angel’s informant and, in theory, should not have been suspected, this was no ordinary informant.

No one could guarantee that it was not a trap.

Cook, as expected, frowned.

If things turned out as White Bear had described, and Mr. J really intended to kill them, it would be as easy as turning over his hand.

“Can’t we change the location?” Cook asked Angel.

Angel shook her head. “I have no way to contact him. He’s always the one who contacts me.”

“You’re always this passive. It makes our job very difficult.”

“If it weren’t difficult, why would I pay you such a high fee? Mr. J is on the coalition’s wanted list. If he weren’t cautious, he wouldn’t have survived this long. Langley, the military, other intelligence agencies, and even mercenary organizations are all looking for him. His life is worth five million dollars.”

Song Heping could not help laughing. “And you’re still meeting him in secret? Does that make you a traitor?”

Angel’s face flushed instantly.

That logic...

It did seem to make sense.

If Mr. J was wanted by the American military and government, then as an American citizen, did secretly meeting him and entering into some kind of deal count as treason?

Perhaps it did...

And perhaps it did not...

After all, helping Aunt Nancy expose the truth was a defense of justice, was it not?

But was that really the truth?

Even Angel herself could not face what lay in her heart.

Yet neither that inner struggle nor the secrets involved could be revealed to Song Heping.

What was she supposed to tell him—that she had come because of the partisan struggle between the two American political parties?

That she was doing it for her Aunt Nancy, who wanted to obtain compromising evidence with which to impeach the man at the top of the White House and drive him from office?

“Mind your own business and stop asking questions! I’m paying you to protect me, not to interrogate me like some kind of agent!”

Song Heping’s words had unintentionally struck a raw nerve, and Angel immediately grew angry and embarrassed. “Don’t forget your professional ethics!”

Cook hurriedly intervened. “Miss Angel, Sang has only just entered the business. He doesn’t know many of the rules yet.”

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With that, he shot Song Heping a meaningful glance, signaling him not to say anything more.

Song Heping had only made the remark offhandedly. He had not expected such a strong reaction from Angel.

The unwritten rule among mercenaries was not to concern themselves with positions or morality. They took money and did the job.

Either refuse an assignment or carry it out properly once accepted. Above all, they were not to pry into the employer’s affairs.

So he simply shut his mouth.

But before long, Song Heping found himself unable to hold back again.

This time, it was not because of Angel.

It was because Cook and White Bear had spent ages discussing tactics without reaching any conclusion.

The reason they could not agree was simple.

Ensuring the VIP’s absolute safety in a place like this dam was extremely difficult.

The dam stretched for more than three hundred meters, and Mr. J had forbidden them from driving there. They could only walk to the meeting point in the middle.

That meant that if a firefight broke out, Angel would have to run nearly two hundred meters before she could get off the dam.

A distance of more than two hundred meters would take a normal person over twenty seconds to cover, let alone a sheltered young lady like Angel.

Under those circumstances, she would become a living target and was certain to be riddled with bullets.

The fact that Mr. J dared to arrange the meeting here meant that he must have a large number of men in Qarasah. After all, Mr. J had once been Saddam’s security adviser. He was a soldier himself and still had plenty of former subordinates.

Saddam had not yet been captured, and his former forces were still resisting in various places. For all they knew, the town of Qarasah could be full of former government soldiers living under assumed identities.

By that estimate, Mr. J held an overwhelming advantage in terms of armed strength.

If Song Heping were in Mr. J’s place, he would certainly have sent men to search everything within a three-kilometer radius before the meeting, then positioned armed support teams at various points within five hundred meters.

The moment anything went wrong, one signal would bring overwhelming reinforcements. By then, their escape would be impossible.

Song Heping had originally decided not to interfere. He merely stood to one side, watching these big Russians huddle together and argue back and forth for ages without producing a workable plan.

Then he suddenly noticed something comical.

Cook had a weakness: he had never served in the military.

He had become their leader because he had many connections, a quick mind, broad horizons, and a ruthless streak.

White Bear, Gray Wolf, Queen, and the others had all seen combat, but their minds were still steeped in Soviet-style tactical thinking.

What was Soviet-style tactical thinking?

One word: force.

Every plan centered on how to slug it out to the death, how to suppress the enemy with firepower, how to meet them head-on—and how to retreat afterward.

It matched the national character of the Russians: a preference for sweeping, headlong assaults with relatively little tactical subtlety.

“Mind if I say a few words?”

He finally could not hold back any longer.

Even if he had not shed as much blood as these men, he still had to speak.

Was that how tactics were supposed to work?

Of course not!

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Cook turned to him. “You have an idea?”

“Of course I do.”

Cook spread his hands. “Then speak.”

“There are two rivers here, and a lake this enormous, yet you’re fixated on this tiny stretch of dam?”

He pointed to the lake and the two rivers on the map.

“If we can’t get out by land, we use the water.”

Cook and the others stared at the map for a long while.

Then Cook said, “You mean we run by water if something goes wrong?”

Song Heping countered, “Why not?”

“The top of the dam is at least thirty meters above the water. How are you going to get down there?”

“Jump.”

Cook stared at him in astonishment. “Sang, are you planning to jump into the river with the VIP? That’s suicide! Even if you can do it...”

He turned toward Angel and looked her up and down.

“Miss Angel is another matter.”

Angel had heard Song Heping say that they would jump into the river. When she learned that the height was at least thirty meters, the color drained from her delicate face, and she shook her head like a rattle.

“No! No! No! I’m not jumping! Oh, you lunatic! You actually came up with a plan that involves me jumping into a river! I’d rather die than do it!”

“You won’t jump?” Song Heping said. “Fine. If something happens, run along the top of the dam and wait to be turned into a pincushion.”

Angel considered it and realized that he was right. But the thought of jumping into the river filled her with terror.

“Isn’t there any other way?”

Song Heping spread his hands. “There is. Either persuade Mr. J to change the location, or don’t go. Turn around and head straight back to Baghdad. That will guarantee your safety.”

Angel immediately froze.

Go back?

Impossible!

She had gone through so much to get here. Now that success was within reach, how could she simply turn around and leave?

And Aunt Nancy would never agree to it either.

As she hesitated, White Bear asked in confusion, “Sang, where are you planning to run after jumping into the river? You still won’t get away. You’ll just die there!”

“A lake this size? The shore is only seventy meters from the opposite side of the dam. Couldn’t you send someone ahead to hide in those woods and receive us? You were all planning to make a stand on the dam just now. Would it kill you to put one person over there?”

Without wasting another word, he pointed directly at Yulia.

“You—find a sniper’s position on that high ground east of the dam and seal off the entrance to the dam from the opposite bank. And you, Gray Wolf—drive the vehicle to the edge of the woods and conceal it. Then lie in wait on the shore and cover our retreat. As for you two, Cook and White Bear, find a position on the side of the dam and set up a fire-support point. If things go bad, use your machine guns to pin them down and buy me enough time to swim those fifty meters.”

At last, Song Heping shoved the map back into Cook’s hands as the latter stood there dumbfounded.

“There. Problem solved. And you’ve been discussing it for this long? It’s already seven o’clock, and the time is almost here! Move!”