Chapter 47: The Eye of the Sky

"What were you two talking about just now?"

Seeing Song Heping and Cook return to the main hall, Angel immediately stepped forward to ask.

While Song Heping was away, she had been extremely anxious, left in the hall with only White Bear and Gray Wolf.

Without Song Heping around, Angel felt completely insecure.

"We just went to discuss some tactical arrangements."

Faced with Angel's question, Song Heping naturally wouldn't tell the truth.

Both he and Cook shared a consensus: Angel must not be allowed to know that the "Musicians" PMC had joined forces with the CIA.

This sounded rather underhanded.

It felt a bit like selling Angel out.

In reality, however, there was nothing disloyal about it.

After all, the "Musicians" PMC had taken on a PSD contract, which meant ensuring Angel's safety here.

They had no other obligations beyond that.

As long as Angel didn't die and returned to America in one piece, Song Heping and the others wouldn't be in breach of contract.

"Miss Angel, there is something I'd like to discuss with you."

"Song, please go ahead and share whatever is on your mind."

Among everyone present, only Angel could pronounce his surname with the correct tone.

This forced Song Heping to reflect that knowledge was truly power; Angel was certainly worthy of being a Yale graduate.

Just look at Cook and Thomas's crew.

They definitely hadn't studied hard when they were kids, and now that they were grown up, they couldn't even pronounce people's names properly.

"Cook and I were just talking, and we feel that this voluntary meeting requested by Saif is a huge trap."

"A trap?" Angel asked in surprise. "You mean you want me not to go?"

Song Heping said, "This is also for your own safety. You must remember, we are still responsible for keeping you alive."

This statement wasn't entirely insincere.

After all, she had paid real money to hire them, so they couldn't just stand by and watch her die.

However, Song Heping saying this definitely didn't mean he wanted to stop Angel from going to meet Mohammed Saif.

On the contrary, he was dying for Angel to go meet Saif.

Otherwise, how were they going to pocket those five million dollars?

"No, I must go!"

Angel's desire for fame still conquered her fear.

"This meeting is far too important; I can't miss it!"

Seeing how insistent she was, Song Heping blossomed with joy on the inside.

Earlier, Cook had been worried that Angel might not dare to go.

Song Heping had told him back then: given Angel's personality, despite all her crying when things went wrong, she was a woman with an absolute obsession for her career. If given a chance to be in the spotlight, she would never give it up.

Now, Angel's reaction completely verified what he had told Cook earlier.

Standing nearby, Cook secretly gave Song Heping a thumbs-up to show his admiration.

"Very well then."

Song Heping put on a grave expression and said, "We take people's money to help avert disasters. You are our employer, and since you've decided to go, we will do our utmost to guarantee your safety. But you must cooperate with us and follow our arrangements in everything, otherwise I cannot guarantee that you won't die here."

"Of course!"

Seeing Song Heping agree, Angel was instantly overjoyed.

"Wait!" Cook chimed in at this moment. "Miss Angel, for this second meeting, we need to request some intelligence resource support from the company. Otherwise, with just our tiny handful of people, there's simply no way to guarantee your safety if things go wrong. These resources cost money—things like drones or signal-tracking services. These are all paid services..."

"No problem," Angel said. "Money is no object!"

Song Heping finally witnessed Cook's skill at wealth-accumulation this time around.

When it came to tactical guidance, he was a cut above Cook.

Yet when it came to making money and business management, Cook was the real master.

Clearly, it was he who had requested support from Thomas, yet after passing through Cook's hands, they could actually charge an extra fee for it?

It seemed the mercenary trade was inseparable from a commercial mindset; only by understanding business could one maximize profits.

Cook's move had completely brainwashed this naive, sheltered girl.

"By the way," Song Heping remembered something. "This time we need to track Saif's cell phone signal to confirm that it's actually him coming to meet you. So during every call, you must try to prolong the conversation as much as possible to give our technicians some assistance, understand?"

"Understood!"

Just as Angel finished speaking, her satellite phone rang.

Glancing at the caller ID, it was indeed Mr. J, which meant Saif.

Song Heping signaled for Angel to answer and stall for time.

Angel did as she was told.

...

Karrasa had by now returned to normal order.

The US Army 4th Mechanized Division's Victory Battalion had moved into the town, though they had not engaged in any firefights with Saddam's loyalist death squads.

Because prior to that, those death squad members had already evacuated the town.

Just as US troops, accompanied by the local ICDC lackeys, were searching the town, a US RC-12 electronic reconnaissance aircraft with the call sign "Guardrail" had also been deployed to the airspace above the region, patrolling at an altitude of 4,000 meters.

The interior of the RC-12 was fitted with a combined communications intelligence and direction-finding system, standard equipment for the US Army's intelligence branch.

The primary mission of this system was to intercept radio waves emitted by enemy command and control systems, weapon systems, radars, and other communication and electronic signal emitters, and to perform direction-finding and localization on the targets.

Satellite phones utilized digital signal transmission methods; the emitted signals were first processed digitally and then transmitted via satellite, making them quite easy to distinguish.

The RC-12 quickly picked up the communication between Angel and Saif in this area. Although the satellite signals were encrypted and difficult to crack, as long as the call lasted long enough, the locations of both parties could be pinned down.

Unfortunately, during this call, Saif did not seem to be tangled up for very long; he merely left behind an address.

"They told us to arrive in the town of Sajil before 2:00 AM. He will call me at exactly 2:00 AM to tell me the specific meeting location in the town. If we fail to arrive on time, he will cancel the meeting."

Inside the oil refinery, Angel hung up the phone with Saif and stared at Song Heping, asking, "Where is this town of Sajil?"

"It's 30 kilometers south of Tikrit, about 90 kilometers away from us here," Cook said, still quite familiar with the map. "However, I must remind you, there is currently suspicion that Saddam is hiding in Tikrit, so the firefights there have been the most frequent. Up until now, the coalition forces cannot claim to have Tikrit under control. Going to that region carries a very high risk coefficient."

"Do we have any other choices?" Song Heping spread his hands. "Doesn't look like it, right?"

Gray Wolf was quite decisive: "Since there are no other choices, let's move."

Soon, all security sentries were pulled back, and everyone got back into the vehicles.

One of the Lincoln armored cars had been damaged, so the only usable vehicle the mercenary group had left was the Lincoln Cook and the others had ridden in earlier.

Fortunately, most of the people in the Humvee belonging to the interpreter Samir had fled, leaving only him and two other subordinates. White Bear and Queen volunteered to take the Humvee, while Song Heping, Cook, and Gray Wolf stayed in the Lincoln with Angel.

The convoy quickly departed the refinery.

Tikrit was located north of Karrasa.

The "Musicians" PMC drove northward all the way, rushing toward the town of Sajil at top speed.

High above the night sky, the RC-12 followed closely behind.

In addition, an MQ-1 Predator launched from the Green Zone was deployed into action, flying in the direction of the town of Sajil.