Mercenary I am the king

Chapter 711: Chase in the Arish Desert
As soon as Song Heping's Salomon hiking shoes stepped onto the gravel beach at the edge of the El Arish Desert, he felt a burning pain on the soles of his shoes.

Although this brand of hiking shoes is of good quality and many mercenaries like to purchase them themselves for use as military boots, they look like they are about to melt in this extreme desert environment.

He looked at his watch. At 47: in the afternoon, the thermometer needle had jumped into the red zone of degrees Celsius.

This is just the temperature measured by the watch. The actual surface temperature has long exceeded 60 degrees.

Five hours ago, several people left the woods by the sea and headed south into the "Diamond Corridor", attempting to reach the Suez Canal basin from here and then find a way to enter North Africa.

Few people dare to cross the desert in such extremely harsh conditions.

If there is, you will be considered crazy.

But Song Heping had no choice.

Except heading south, any other direction is seeking death.

Even if Mossad knew that they were going to take the "Diamond Corridor", it would probably have to consider the cost of chasing them.

Even if they sent an air assault team to intercept, they could not risk entering the El Arish Desert because it was already under the radar surveillance of the Egyptian military. Once their tracks were exposed, it would trigger an international incident, which would be equivalent to an invasion.

Of course.

For Mossad, there is nothing they dare not do.

Since its establishment decades ago, this world-famous intelligence organization has shocked the world with various incredible assault operations, and has always obtained the security of others with ruthless, cold-blooded and fearless means.

Even after the "Black September" incident, he would rather risk being sanctioned and condemned by Western countries and assassinate the perpetrators of the incident all over the world. This shows his style of doing things.

Therefore, before reaching North Africa, there is a high probability that they will be hunted down by Mossadet attack teams along the way.

"It looks like a sandstorm is about to hit this desert..."

Antonov took off his sunglasses, revealing his eye sockets burned by ultraviolet rays, and stared at the distant skyline that was slightly golden.

Song Heping stopped and sniffed the air, feeling an indescribable dullness in it.

Before a sandstorm in the desert arrives, there are often a series of subtle but obvious signs.

The first thing is the change in the air. The originally dry air will suddenly become dull, as if even breathing becomes difficult.

The sudden drop in air pressure makes people feel chest tightness, and the eardrum will also produce a slight sense of pressure due to the change in air pressure.

Also, the color of the sky began to change strangely. The originally azure sky was gradually covered by a layer of yellow-brown mist, and the sun became blurry, like a glowing copper plate hanging in the sky. This is why the sky looked yellow as if it was flashing with a layer of golden light.

Song Heping grabbed a handful of fine sand and let it slip through his fingers.

The sand did not fly in one direction, but moved left and right, appearing very erratic.

"Yes, a sandstorm is probably coming..."

He couldn't help but feel a little worried.

Sandstorms come in different sizes. Severe sandstorms can even blow cars into the air, let alone these people.

All of this is consistent with the characteristics before a sandstorm arrives - the wind direction suddenly becomes turbulent, the originally stable airflow begins to swirl, and tiny sand particles are rolled up to form miniature sand columns in the air.

Fine ripples would appear on the sand, as if gently stroked by invisible fingers. The temperature would also fluctuate erratically, potentially dropping several degrees in an instant.

Once upon a time, Song Heping's unit would send them to the most difficult areas for survival training, including desert survival.

So he is no stranger to this phenomenon.

"We need to find a place to hide!"

"Sokka! We don't even have a map! We don't know where to go, we can only rely on directions. It's a blessing that we don't go wrong. Where can we hide? It's all desert here, where can we hide?!"

Antonov cursed rudely, but as soon as he opened his mouth, blood started flowing from his cracked lips.

"Damn it! My lips!"

He couldn't help cursing again, but the more he cursed, the more his lips cracked, the more they bled, and the more painful it became, repeating in a vicious cycle.

"It'll be fine if you can hold back from cursing..."

Song Heping tried hard to hold back his laughter as he looked at the Russian.

He was afraid that if he laughed, he would end up like this guy.

"There's a village ahead..."

Sarah, who was lying on the tent, suddenly struggled to sit up and pointed excitedly into the distance.

Song Heping tied a tent with ropes to make a small sunshade cot, let Sarah lie on it, and they took turns pulling it forward.

Along the way, most of the pitiful fresh water collected at the beach was given to Sarah to drink. After all, a woman and a wounded person was more vulnerable than anyone else.

Several people hurriedly looked in the direction Sarah pointed.

The result was disappointing.

Because nothing was found.

Apart from the yellow skyline, there are no villages, let alone oases.

"Sarah..."

Song Heping returned to the cot and squatted down to comfort the injured woman.

"That's an illusion."

Before a sandstorm arrives, the scenery in the distance begins to distort and deform, the horizon seems to be jumping, and sometimes a mirage-like scene will appear. This is a visual illusion caused by the violent convergence of hot air and cold air.

Hallucinations are more likely to occur in weak people.

Song Heping stretched out his hand to Antonov: "Give me your dagger."

Antonov was stunned for a moment: "How do you know I have a dagger?"

"I saw it." Song Heping said, "Give it to me quickly."

Antonov drew a dagger from his waist and handed it over.

Song Heping took it and took a look. This was a tactical dagger used by former GRU agents. It was of very good quality and very suitable for combat.

He used his dagger to draw contour lines and rough maps in the sand.

"I remember there's a dry riverbed about ten kilometers southwest of here where we can avoid the first wave of heat..."

"How do you know?" Antonov was surprised. "Have you been here before?"

"I always look at the map when I have nothing to do. This is my hobby. Before I go to a place, I will look through the maps of the surrounding areas."

He pointed at his head.

"I have a very strong memory for maps. I will never forget them once I have seen them." "How do you know our current location?" Antonov felt like he couldn't close his mouth.

"By calculating the direction, pace, and speed, and figuring out the distance, we can roughly determine our location. It's not exact, but it's pretty close," Song Heping said. "Of course, that assumes we're not going the wrong way."

As the two were talking, Jiang Feng behind them suddenly fell to his knees.

This scared Song Heping and Antonov.

He hurried over to help Jiang Feng up. Wherever his hands touched, there was a layer of hard salt on the back of Jiang Feng's clothes. The blood from his cracked lips had just seeped out but was evaporated by the heat wave.

"Water," his voice rasped like sandpaper.

Song Heping quickly took out the saline solution from the first aid kit. This was the last half bag in the two first aid kits for both of them, used for emergencies.

But I can't care about that now.

He used the tip of the dagger to accurately pierce the water bag, and the light salt water flowed into Jiang Feng's mouth along the blade.

"Song, if this continues, we will all die..."

Antonov licked his lips.

Seeing water at this moment, people will feel like they are possessed and may lose control and collapse at any time, and rush to grab water at all costs.

"I know."

Song Heping said: "Although the riverbed is dry, there was water there once, and maybe we can find some..."

In fact, he himself didn't even believe what he said.

But what can we do?
As the leader of this team, I can't just say nonsense like "we're all doomed and dead."

Even when it really comes to the last moment, you must let your teammates face death with a smile, rather than letting them mentally collapse when they still have a chance to survive.

"Jiang Feng, just follow us. We don't need you to bring anyone else with you. Antonov and I can handle it."

After saying that, he turned to Antonov and said, "What do you think of my proposal?"

Antonov shrugged. "As you say."

Several people began to move forward.

3:45 pm.

Thermal refraction in the shifting dune fields distorts the horizon into waves.

The dull and oppressive feeling in the air became heavier and heavier, and the temperature became strange, sometimes hot and sometimes cold.

Song Heping no longer sweats.

Because there is not much water in the body.

Antonov joked, "Song... do you have any urine... I think I have some... If you have any, we can take turns drinking..."

Song Heping smiled and said, "Exchange drinks? No, forget it. I still like to drink my own..."

Antonov was happy: "I have a large urine output, so you won't suffer any loss..."

"Get lost..." Song Heping pointed ahead and said, "There's a camel thorn ahead. Follow it."

The gravel crackled like popcorn under my boots.

Suddenly, some strange sights appeared in the distance - low sand dunes stacked like hillsides, and gullies crisscrossing each other, as if there was something between the dunes and gullies.

"Does that look like a house?"

Antonov became excited.

Song Heping looked in that direction and it really looked like a house, a typical Eastern-style building.

He rubbed his eyes and looked around to confirm whether it was a mirage.

"Why is there a house here?"

"Maybe smugglers built it here to make it easier for them to stay."

Antonov's eyes lit up.

"If this is where they settled, there must be a water source!"

No one knows the Diamond Corridor better than the smugglers.

Of course, there is a high probability that there will be water wherever they choose to stay.

This reminded Song Heping of the desert area in the northwest of Irigo.

There are also many dilapidated stone and mud buildings there, which serve similar purposes to this kind of resting place.

"Hurry up! That's not a mirage!"

It feels great to survive a desperate situation. Song Heping couldn't help but get excited and felt a surge of power suddenly emerging from his body.

Several people quickened their pace and walked towards the dry riverbed and the building.

Suddenly, a huge, thick "wall of sand" appeared on the horizon, covering the sky and blocking out the sun.

"Fuck! Sandstorm!"

Song Heping touched his dry mouth.

"Run!"

At this moment, the sound of a propeller cutting through the air suddenly came from behind.

Song Heping knew it was a helicopter without turning around.

Sure enough, when he turned around, he found two black spots appearing on the horizon behind him.

Those were two Black Hawk helicopters.

"Mossad!"

Song Heping was shocked.

These guys actually went deep into the Sinai Peninsula and risked international disputes to kill me!
What the hell...

As for that? !

"Run!"

He roared, exerted force on his feet, and dragged Sarah across the sand.

(End of this chapter)