Mercenary I am the king

Chapter 799 The Vanished Target

"Song Heping has disappeared!"

Reis handed over a briefing.

Pence snatched the briefing away, like a starving person grabbing a life-saving meal, appearing somewhat out of control.

"Gone?! What does that mean?"

He muttered a question as he opened the briefing.

Inside were some pictures, clearly aerial views taken by drones.

Several of these are satellite images.

Judging from the terrain, it is clearly Sindi, a small town in North Darfur near the Chadian border.

Pence knew this place all too well.

Since he decided to reorganize his forces to launch another decapitation strike against Song Heping, a map of Sudan, especially a topographical map of the area around Cindy Town, has been placed on his desk.

The border area between North Darfur and Chad is a region where desert and plateau overlap, but the area near the town of Sindi is flat.

The situation there is very unstable now. Neither North Sudan nor South Sudan can say that they have 100% control over the area. Many armed groups have also emerged there. They don't cooperate with either side and only want to seize mineral resources and oil fields.

Therefore, that area was a no-man's-land.

The North Sudanese government reached an agreement with Song Heping to provide asylum, sending him there and giving him a piece of land, which was essentially a way of giving something away for nothing.

Although that area nominally belonged to the Sudanese government, it was not under the control of the North Sudanese army at all.

Song Heping went there to act as a mercenary for the North Sudanese government in order to stabilize the local situation.

The town of Sindi has a unique location. Controlling it would allow one to hold the border with Chad, as it is bordered by rebel territory to the south and Lebia to the north. It is a strategically important location where three parties meet. Controlling it would mean controlling the flow of oil and minerals out of the country, and militarily controlling the route for South Sudanese rebels to move north. It is a win-win situation.

After looking at the map, Pence felt like the Sudanese were throwing their abacus beads at his face.

Now his subordinates have come to tell him that Song Heping is not in Cindy Town at all.

“When we were conducting preliminary reconnaissance for Operation Blood Feud, we discovered that there was no mercenary base near Sindi town, and we did not see any armed forces deployed in that area. At first, we thought that Song Heping had not arrived in Sindi town so soon and needed to do some preparations, but after monitoring for three days without any movement, our inside sources in North Sudan reported that Song Heping had not returned to Khartoum and was still in North Darfur, but we did not know his exact location.”

Reese's answer sounded quite helpless.

"Bullshit!"

Pence slammed the briefing onto the table, scattering papers everywhere.

His knuckles were white from excessive force, and the veins on his temples were bulging.

"Seventy-two hours! I gave you seventy-two hours!"

He turned to Jasper, who was standing to the side, his voice like sandpaper scraping.

"And now you're telling me the target has disappeared?"

Jasper swallowed hard. "Sir, our intelligence indicates that Song Heping did indeed accept the assignment from the North Sudanese government to go to Cindy Town, and our analysts believe that it is indeed the most reasonable deployment location—"

"Reasonable?"

Pence suddenly grabbed the coffee cup on the table and smashed it against the wall, sending shards of porcelain and coffee stains flying across the pristine white surface.

"I don't want your fucking geography lessons on military topography, telling me if Cindy Town is a reasonable deployment point! I want Song Heping's corpse!"

Pence's outburst plunged the office into a deathly silence.

The only sound in the vast space was Pence's heavy breathing.

A moment later, he straightened his tie, composed himself, and his voice suddenly became eerily calm: “Listen, mobilize all resources immediately. Informants in North Sudan, satellite coverage, electronic surveillance, drone reconnaissance—I need to know exactly where that bastard is hiding in the sands within twenty-four hours.” Jasper and Reese nodded, preparing to leave, but Pence called them back: “Also, contact our friends in Mossad. Tell them that Operation Blood Feud requires the support of their ‘Bird’ satellite constellation.”

"Sir, that requires the bureau chief's approval—"

Pence gave a chilling smile. "The director's more concerned with his political future now. Go on, Jasper. Don't let me down."

While Pence was lashing out at his subordinates at headquarters in Langley, in North Darfur, at the temporary camp in the Atron Oasis, Song Heping squatted under a tree in front of a makeshift sand table he had constructed, pointing the tip of his dagger at a high point on the eastern side of the Atron Oasis: "This is the ideal location for an air defense position, with 360-degree field of vision, allowing us to detect incoming drones immediately."

Jiang Feng frowned and said with a wry smile, "Sergeant, the problem is we don't even have a decent anti-aircraft machine gun. How are we supposed to defend against drones?"

"Um……"

Song Heping sighed.

"What you said is indeed a problem."

He squinted and looked into the distance, seemingly aimlessly wandering around.

Outside the camp, the hot desert wind whipped up sand and slapped against the canvas tents, making a soft, rustling sound.

"It looks like we need some help."

Song Heping got up, walked to the communication equipment, picked up the satellite phone, and dialed a number he remembered.

The call was finally answered much later.

There was a three-second silence on the other end, followed by a deliberately lowered voice: "Are you crazy? Calling me in broad daylight! I told you to text me before you call, and I'd find a safe place to take the call!"

“You’re in your office all day, and I know about the CIA’s informant system. You have the right to develop your own secret contacts without having to report to your superiors. Just consider me one of your informants.”

Song Heping's words almost made Simon explode.

"FUCK! You're my informant?! You're a shameless bastard!"

"Alright, Simon, now is not the time to lose your temper. I told you that if you cooperate with me, I will make it up to you. Right now, I really need your help."

Simon's heavy breathing subsided after a while: "Now what do you want me to do! Do you know that headquarters has started investigating the reasons for the failure of the last operation? They suspect that someone leaked the details of the operation! I'm in a precarious situation myself."

"Don't worry, leave this to me. I'll clear your name. It's a piece of cake!"

"You bastard, keep bragging!"

"Bragging?! Have you forgotten that we fought before? Do you need to doubt my abilities?"

Simon was speechless.

After a moment, he asked, "Tell me, what do you want this time?"

Song Heping stated bluntly, "The whereabouts of the SAM missiles. In the Sahel region, preferably within Sudan. I know you've been keeping an eye on Peter and the military's dealings here; you must have some information."

"FUCK! You're even trying to poach Peter's man?!" Simon sneered. "You probably don't even know the word 'friend'!"

"friend?"

This time it was Song Heping's turn to sneer.

"When did I become your friend? We're just partners who benefit each other and use each other. Now, give me the information, and I'll clear your name and help you avoid internal investigations. Then your wife, who loves buying designer bags, will suddenly receive a lucrative contract that doesn't require any professional skills—a really lucrative one... a contract from an overseas trading company to hire her as a consultant."

Simon ground his back teeth, realizing that Song Heping had him completely under Song's control.

"I'll send it to you tonight; I need some time."

"Okay, I trust you to handle things." Song Heping smiled. "Then I'll await good news. Goodbye."

(End of this chapter)