Chapter 1381
Kind Reminder
Chapter 1381 Kind Reminder
Back in my room, it wasn't fully light yet. Outside the window, the sky was a deep indigo blue, with only the eastern horizon showing a very pale gray.
Song Heping glanced at the watch face; the luminous hands glowed softly.
It was exactly 5:00 AM.
He locked the door behind him, the sound of the metal latch engaging the lock groove was exceptionally clear in the silence.
He went to the table and turned on the military-style desk lamp.
I turned on the laptop, and the machine emitted a low, muffled fan noise.
Using the permissions granted by the Joint Operations Agreement, connect to the U.S. military tactical data link port, enter a twelve-digit access ID and dynamic password, and log in to the system after triple encryption verification.
The top left corner of the screen displays a red watermark that reads "Confidential - Accessible to Authorized Personnel Only".
The screen lit up with a blue light, illuminating his expressionless face.
He pulled up a high-resolution satellite map of Badi, an image marked with a timestamp of "updated six hours ago," with a resolution of 0.3 meters. This level of detail was enough to see cracks in the streets, roof tiles, and even the distribution of bullet holes in the walls.
The target building was marked in a glaring red, like a freshly congealed scab on a map.
Ten blue markers are scattered around, arranged in three concentric circles.
The innermost three points are close to the building's perimeter wall, controlling all entrances and exits; the middle layer of four points covers the surrounding street intersections; and the outermost three points are positioned at the town's main entrance.
Those were Milos's pre-set surveillance points and perimeter blockade positions, a standard encirclement tactical setup.
The Delta Force's entry route is marked with a green dashed line.
Two six-man teams, designated Team A and Team B according to the standard naming conventions for U.S. special operations, approached simultaneously from the north and south sides, respectively.
Team A is responsible for the main attack, carrying MK13 linear cutting cables and M84 stun grenades; Team B is responsible for cover and blocking the rear.
The cleaning routes inside the building were also marked in detail with dotted lines. Every room, every corner, every corridor, and even the estimated firefight locations and cover points were marked, as meticulous as a surgical plan.
Song Heping zoomed in on the image to its limit, and the pixelated scene slowly loaded, gradually revealing details.
He studies every structural feature of the building—a habit he developed while serving in the PLA Army Special Forces, and the reason he's still alive.
Before taking action, mentally disassemble and reconstruct the goal, identifying all unconventional aspects, because unconventionality often implies danger.
First is the wall. It is 3.5 meters high, made of solid concrete, and topped with broken glass pieces that are tilted upwards at a 45-degree angle.
This is ridiculously high-end for a retired teacher's residence.
In rural Iligo, the walls are typically only about two meters high and are mostly made of adobe or brick, primarily for keeping livestock out rather than people out.
This concrete wall with glass shards resembles the outer perimeter of a military outpost or prison.
He used measuring tools to mark on the screen.
The wall is estimated to be 30 centimeters thick, which is sufficient to withstand small arms fire.
The observation ports at the top are evenly spaced, about one every five meters, which is obviously the result of calculations.
Secondly, there are the windows.
The first floor has only two doors, each less than half a square meter, fitted with iron railings as thick as a thumb. The welds on the railings are unusually robust, with full weld beads.
The second floor has three windows, which are also narrow, like shooting holes.
The disproportionate ratio of windows to walls makes the interior of the building inevitably dark like a cave, but it also means that it is difficult to observe the interior from the outside, while it can form a good shooting sector from the inside.
Here, every window is a natural machine gun emplacement.
He switched to the thermal imaging overlay.
The heat radiation at the window location is significantly lower than that of the surrounding walls, indicating that there is insulation material or thick curtains blocking it.
Third is the roof.
A flat cement structure surrounded by a 30-centimeter-high wall, known in military terms as a "breast wall".
This is not just for decoration; it provides cover for rooftop warfare, meaning that someone can set up observation points, sniping positions, or even light support weapons on the roof.
The shadow analysis of the satellite imagery revealed anomalies.
The length of the shadow cast on the west side of the building does not match the angle of the sun, suggesting the possibility of underground space.
Thermal imaging data also confirms this.
The ground temperature distribution is uneven, with several obvious low-temperature bands, which may be ventilation ducts or hidden entrances in the basement.
One of the low-temperature zones extends from the main building to the well in the backyard.
Song Heping retrieved historical image archives of the building, with the timeline starting from 1998.
1998: The building was newly constructed, a typical rural Iligo house with a flat roof, large windows, low adobe walls, and a fig tree in the yard. The surrounding houses were densely packed, and there were thermal images of children playing in the street.
2003: After Saddam Hussein's downfall, the buildings did not change significantly, but the surrounding houses began to show signs of damage, and residents' activities decreased.
2005: First major renovation. The perimeter wall was raised to 2.5 meters and replaced with concrete, the windows were made smaller and fitted with iron bars, and the roof was reinforced. Thermal imaging showed that the number of people living inside the building had decreased to 1-2.
2009: Second renovation. The wall was raised again to 3.5 meters, and a glass shard was added to the top. An annex was added to the west side of the building; thermal signatures indicated it was a small generator. The well appeared in the backyard.
2014: During the 1515 control period, many surrounding houses were damaged, and residents' thermal signals disappeared. However, the target building remained intact, and occasional single-person thermal signals were observed entering and exiting.
Song Heping switched to street view mode.
This was taken by a CIA reconnaissance team 48 hours ago.
A modified Toyota pickup truck, painted in the white color of the United Nations World Food Programme, with a 360-degree panoramic camera disguised as a roof rack on its roof, slowly drove through the streets of Badi.
The vehicle had bullet holes and scratches, and looked no different from other aid vehicles traveling through the war zone.
The streets were unusually deserted.
Despite the occupation in 1515 and the subsequent recapture, the town of Badi still has 327 residents, mostly elderly people, women, and poor people who cannot escape, according to the United Nations.
On this street, you can't see clothes drying in the sun, children playing, or elderly people sitting at their doorways smoking hookahs and chatting.
The camera slowly pans across the target building.
The gate of the wall was tightly closed. It was a heavy wrought iron gate, painted dark green, and the paint had begun to peel off, revealing dark red rust underneath.
There are two peepholes on the door, one high and one low. The higher one is about 1.7 meters high and the lower one is about 1 meter high.
This means that observers can choose to stand or squat as needed when observing.
It's a very professional design, unlike what you'd expect from an ordinary residential house.
At the top of the wall, broken glass glittered in the morning light, but there were several obvious gaps.
It wasn't naturally damaged; rather, someone used tools to carefully knock off part of the glass, creating a 30-centimeter-wide observation opening.
From that position, you can clearly see the street in both the north and south directions, as well as the alleys on the east and west sides.
Song Heping paused the video and zoomed in on one of the gaps.
The edges of the nick are neat, the glass break is fresh, and there are no traces of dust or rainwater, indicating that it has been cleaned recently.
He continued playing the replay.
The vehicle slowly drove past the north side of the building, where there was a narrow alley about two meters wide, piled with construction waste and household waste.
But upon closer inspection, the way the rubble was piled up looked very unnatural.
What appears to be a random dumping of debris actually creates a series of obstacles of varying heights, effectively slowing down the rapid passage of people while leaving a winding passage that requires turning sideways to pass through.
This is a typical defensive arrangement, which both hinders the speed of the assault team's advance and does not completely block their own retreat route.
Even more suspiciously, several large pieces of concrete were deliberately placed in specific locations to form simple firing positions.
The situation is similar on the south side.
There is a small courtyard behind the building, but the courtyard wall is four meters high and has no doors or windows, making it completely enclosed, like a cement box.
In the corner of the yard, there was a well covered with a rusty iron plate. A brass padlock hung on the plate, its surface shiny, indicating that it was frequently used.
There were traces of repeated trampling on the ground around the well, but there was no water-drawing worker, no windlass, and no buckets.
Song Heping leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes, and gently pressed his temples with his fingers.
In his mind, he began to reconstruct the entire scene:
A 67-year-old retired teacher lives alone in a heavily armed concrete fortress?
The surrounding neighbors were nowhere to be found, and the streets were cleaned exceptionally well.
The building has underground space, carefully designed observation ports in the walls, and defensive barriers around it.
There is a well in the backyard, but there are no tools to draw water, and the well cover is always open.
This is not a residence.
This is a safe house, a stronghold, a hideout.
It could also be a carefully laid trap.
He opened his eyes and reviewed the action schedule again.
The operation was scheduled for 6:00 a.m. because "the light conditions at dawn would provide sufficient brightness to identify targets, while also offering some cover from the morning fog, and avoiding peak civilian activity."
It was a very reasonable arrangement, but Song Heping knew there was another layer of consideration. At this time, people's physiological alertness is at its lowest.
However, when he thought about the building's layout, he felt something was amiss.
So he pulled up the drone's real-time monitoring footage.
Fifty minutes before the operation was scheduled to begin, an MQ-9 Reaper drone hovered at an altitude of 3,500 meters over the town of Badi, scanning using both infrared and thermal imaging modes. Inside the building, there was only one heat source, located in a room on the east side of the first floor, which remained stationary, its outline appearing as a human-shaped seated figure.
However, the temperature distribution of the heat source is abnormally uniform. The human body should have a clear temperature gradient in infrared imaging: the head, neck, armpits, and groin are hot spots, while the extremities are cold spots.
However, this heat source has no obvious gradient, and the entire outline is a uniform orange-yellow color, with a temperature difference of no more than two degrees Celsius.
This means you might need to wear thick, insulated clothing, or...
Song Heping's finger stopped on the touchpad.
Or it might not be a real person at all, but a heat source simulated by a heating device.
He glanced at the time: 5:07.
There's still time; maybe it's not too late.
But on second thought, this was ultimately an action by the Americans.
As the owner of a PMC company, he has already fulfilled his obligation to remind others; saying anything more would be overstepping his bounds.
The contract did not stipulate that he would be responsible for the casualties of U.S. military personnel. Duke and Lamont are both professionals, and Delta Force is one of the world's top special forces units. They have their own judgment.
However, his professional ethics led him to decide to say something.
Just one sentence.
The lights in the corridor were switched to night mode, making it as dim as a tunnel.
The command center is located on the second floor of the main building and requires passing through three security checkpoints.
Song Heping, as a contracted personnel providing peripheral support, only had authority up to the second level, but the officer on duty recognized him.
When Lieutenant Jansen on duty saw Song Heping, he raised his chin as a greeting: "Song, are you here to see the general? They are doing the final simulation."
"Just a few words."
Song Heping said, "It's something urgent."
Jason waved his hand, signaling the guards to let him in: "Let him in."
The briefing room was filled with smoke, not from cigarettes, but from a mixture of e-cigarette smoke and coffee vapor.
The large screen was divided into twelve sub-screens.
Real-time monitoring of drones, satellite multispectral images, test signals from team members' helmet cameras, 3D modeling map of Badi Town, communication status table, and meteorological data stream.
The air was thick with the smell of sweat, the restlessness from excessive caffeine, and the suppressed excitement unique to the eve of a major battle.
Major General Duke stood in front of the central tactical console, his hands resting on the edge of the console, his body leaning slightly forward, staring at the architectural model on the screen.
Lemont leaned against the opposite wall, holding a white ceramic coffee cup in his hand, but Song Heping noticed that the cup was empty, and he unconsciously rubbed the handle with his fingers.
Four Delta Force officers surrounded Duke, checking the action list.
Song Heping knew one of them.
Captain Marcus, commander of Delta Force.
Marcus looked up at Song Heping, nodded as a greeting, but his eyes immediately returned to the tablet in his hand.
The screen displays the vital signs data of the six members of Team A.
Heart rate, body temperature, and blood oxygen levels are all normal.
"Song." Duke didn't look up. "Are all your troops in position?"
"We have reached the designated location, completed preliminary reconnaissance, and found no unusual contact."
Song Heping walked to the side of the tactical platform, maintaining an appropriate distance.
"General, I've examined the building's structure, and something seems off. The walls are too high, there are too few windows, and the heat sources are distributed abnormally. It might be a trap."
Duke finally raised his head, his eyes bloodshot from staying up all night, but his gaze was still as sharp as an eagle's.
He looked at Song Heping, paused for two seconds, and then spoke: "We have conducted a comprehensive reconnaissance and assessment. Drones, satellites, and ground reconnaissance teams—all the data indicate that there is only one target inside the building. The anomalies in the walls and windows also fit the target's background and life here, after all, this place has always been unstable."
“But the streets are too clean, and none of the neighbors are around,” Song Heping said.
“This was a stronghold during the 1515 occupation; the residents either fled or died.” This time, Lamont chimed in: “Post-war satellite images show that the population density in this area is less than 20 percent of what it was before the war. Empty houses are quite common.”
Song Heping nodded and did not insist further.
He has said what he needed to say; saying anything more would only be pointless.
"Okay, I'm just mentioning it. You're the professionals, you can decide for yourselves."
He turned to leave, but Duke's voice came from behind him: "Song, your mission is to seal off the perimeter. Make sure no one enters or leaves Buddy. Leave the rest to us. Delta Force is the world's top special operations unit; we have state-of-the-art technical support and tactical planning."
Song Heping didn't turn around, but simply raised his hand to indicate that he understood.
He opened the door and went outside.
Back in the corridor, he glanced at his watch: 5:12. Forty-eight minutes until the operation began.
At 5:15, 30,000 feet above Buddy.
An RQ-4 Global Hawk drone, resembling a giant metal albatross, hovers silently at the bottom of the stratosphere.
With a wingspan of 39.9 meters, the roar of the four turbofan engines could hardly reach the ground in the thin air at high altitude.
Its sensor bay is equipped with synthetic aperture radar, electro-optical/infrared high-definition cameras, and signals intelligence gathering arrays. At this moment, it is transmitting encrypted real-time data streams of the target building and the surrounding 500-meter area back to the Mosul base at a rate of one gigabit per second.
Meanwhile, three MQ-9 Reaper drones established standby orbits at an altitude of 5,000 meters.
Each aircraft carries four AGM-114 Hellfire air-to-ground missiles and two GBU-12 Paveway laser-guided bombs under its wings.
Their mission is not to launch proactive attacks, but to establish air deterrence and provide immediate fire support.
If any organized armed personnel attempt to reinforce, or if the target tries to break out by vehicle, they will deliver a precision-guided death within thirty seconds.
On the ground, the CIA's covert reconnaissance has been ongoing for seventy-two hours.
Forty-eight hours earlier, two dilapidated Isuzu trucks drove into the town of Badi, their bodies painted with the blue logo of the World Food Programme and the abbreviation of the United Nations.
The truck was loaded with flour, cooking oil, children's nutritional supplements, and basic medicines.
Both the driver and the "aid workers" were of Arab descent and held passes issued by the Kurdistan Regional Government and UNHCR identity cards.
They set up makeshift tents in the town square and began distributing humanitarian aid.
But in reality, the truck's compartment contained reconnaissance equipment—an AN/PPS-26 through-wall motion detection radar, an MSS acoustic sensor array, and an AP4C chemical warfare agent detector.
Of the three "medical personnel" at the aid station, two were reconnaissance experts from the CIA's technology division.
Twenty-four hours earlier, a "water engineer" visited the mayor's office in Badi, claiming to be commissioned by the United Nations Development Programme to inspect the repair of the post-war water supply system.
He entered the town government building, a three-story building that was one of the few remaining well-preserved houses in the town.
While "inspecting" the water tank on the roof, a wide-angle surveillance camera disguised as a solar panel was installed.
The camera's field of view covers the entire town, especially the northern area where the target building is located.
All of these visual, auditory, thermal, chemical, and motion data intelligence were gathered at the Mosul base's analysis center. After algorithmic filtering and manual interpretation, a seemingly solid and reliable conclusion was reached: there was only one adult male inside the target building, no large-scale gathering of armed personnel, no signs of large-scale storage of explosives, and no chemical weapon signature spectrum.
But Song Heping's doubts were like a thorn, always bothering him.
He returned to his room, turned off the lights, sat in the dark, and picked up the satellite phone to contact Milos.
"Boss, we're in position."
Milos's voice came through the air, accompanied by the faint hissing of the desert wind whistling through the rocks in the background.
“All teams are in position, and there have been no unusual contacts. But the town is eerily quiet; not even the dogs are barking.”
“Maintain the highest level of alert,” Song Heping said. “Report any unusual noises or sounds immediately. Be careful; I always feel something is wrong.”
"Understood. What about the Americans...?"
"They acted according to plan. We did what the contract stipulated: blockade, surveillance, and support when necessary. But remember, if the situation worsens, protecting the team is the top priority. Contracts can be renegotiated, but dead people cannot be brought back to life."
“Got it, don’t worry.” Milos paused for a second, then joked, “You be careful too, boss, Delta is a professional.”
"Yeah, those who drown are all good swimmers..."
Song Heping hung up the phone after speaking.
call ended.
Asking for a monthly ticket! Asking for a monthly ticket!
(End of this chapter)