Mercenary’s War

Chapter 2308 - 2284: This Woman Is Not Simple

Phoenix went on in that utterly emotionless voice of hers, "I got into a building, hid myself, waited for the sniper I’d been watching to show up, then smashed his head in with a chunk of concrete, knifed his buddy to death, and went to ground. After waiting seven hours, a patrol showed up. I used an Iraqi’s rifle, fired three shots at a distance of three hundred and sixty Mi, killed three men, then pulled out."

Gao Yang felt something was off, so he hurriedly said, "Wait, your squad leader wasn’t in an armored vehicle when he was on patrol?"

Phoenix exhaled and said, "If I go into detail, it gets complicated. Fine, I’ll go back and explain. That day their mission wasn’t just a routine patrol, they were supposed to set up a temporary outpost in a high-risk area. I made up my mind to act that day only after I learned that."

That made sense now, so Gao Yang said, "All right, go on."

"I fired three shots, killed three people, then quickly left the firing position, went back to my observation post, changed clothes and ditched them, and stayed there until someone came to relieve me. Then I went back to camp."

Gao Yang glanced at Murphy. Murphy said quietly, "I told you she’s good. Iraqi rifles are crap, and she still put all three rounds into their heads, without any prior test firing. Could you do that?"

Gao Yang immediately said, "Phoenix, I’ve got a technical question. How did you manage three hits out of three with an Iraqi rifle?"

"I knew what time it would happen, so I left the building, test fired nine rounds, decided the weapon’s accuracy was acceptable, familiarized myself with its handling, then went back to the ambush site."

Gao Yang shrugged at Murphy, then went on, "Okay, I got the first operation. What about the second one?"

Phoenix said flatly, "In detail?"

"Yes, you have to answer in detail. That’s an order."

Phoenix said softly, "Copy. I knew he’d been transferred. He suspected I’d taken out the other three and he was scared. I’d been tracking his movements the whole time, so I decided I had to eliminate him immediately, or I might never get another shot at him."

Even though Phoenix couldn’t see them, Gao Yang and Murphy both couldn’t help nodding.

"I went to Mosul, entered the camp..."

Gao Yang blurted out, "Wait! Hold it! How did you get to Mosul? Baghdad and Mosul are three hundred kilometers apart. How did you get there and back in a single day?"

Phoenix let out a light sigh, making Gao Yang feel like he was that annoying guy who always asked too many questions.

"I took a helicopter to Mosul and took a helicopter back to Baghdad."

Gao Yang and Murphy stared at each other, wide-eyed. Murphy said blankly, "That part’s easy. But how the hell does she get on a helicopter? It’s not like just anyone can hitch a ride."

Gao Yang raised his voice, "How did you get on the helicopter?"

Phoenix sounded genuinely puzzled as she said, "Our camp is very close to the airfield. I went to the airfield and told them I needed to report in at Mosul, and asked if a helicopter could give me a lift. At the time there were operations going on in Mosul, and Baghdad was constantly sending in manpower and supplies. So I just hitched a ride on a helicopter. Is that so hard to understand?"

Gao Yang said, baffled, "That simple? No way. They just gave a random passenger a lift?"

"I’m American, I’m a soldier, I’m geared up and headed to Mosul. Most importantly, I’m a woman. You really think that’s not enough to make a bunch of soldiers who haven’t seen a woman in ages give me a ride?"

Murphy turned his head away and started thumping the wall with his fist, then said bitterly, "Those damn grunts have never seen a woman before or what? Do they have any idea what ’combat safety regulations’ even mean?"

Gao Yang let out a breath and said, "So you didn’t have any paperwork, no written orders to show, you just got on a chopper and flew to Mosul. Fine, looks like you really don’t need that stuff. Go on."

"I didn’t know where he was supposed to report, but at that time there was only one rear-area camp in Mosul. I figured he’d check in and rest at the camp before going to the front, so I went straight to the camp."

Gao Yang said, "No one checked your ID, right?"

"The helipad is within the camp perimeter. There were lots of Sentinels. A couple of them even chatted with me for a while. I needed to gather intel, they needed to talk to a woman."

Phoenix paused after she finished, then asked curiously, "You’re not going to ask any follow-up questions? Okay, then I’ll keep going. I stayed near the helicopter landing area in the rear camp and watched for a long time. I got lucky. I saw my target get off a helicopter and walk into the camp, so I tailed him. I waited for him to report in, watched which barracks he went into, and then waited for nightfall."

Gao Yang had to interrupt again. He asked urgently, "You got there before he did?"

"Yes. He had to wait for the helicopter that was assigned to transport them. I got on one that was about to lift off immediately. Plenty of people were willing to give up a bit of space for me. One extra body over the weight limit doesn’t kill anyone."

"No more questions. Go on."

"I waited until full dark, then after their barracks lights went out I waited another half hour. Then I took off my boots and went barefoot to their barracks. The door wasn’t locked. I watched for a bit, confirmed everyone was asleep, drew my knife, went inside, used my night vision device to identify my target, covered his mouth, one cut to the throat, one to the heart. Once he stopped struggling, I couldn’t resist cutting off his dick. That was impulsive. It was my only mistake."

Gao Yang looked at Murphy. Murphy spread his hands, shook his head, and said quietly, "Just leave it. My questions are answered. Now that I know how she did it, I’ve got zero interest left."

Murphy had lost interest, but Gao Yang hadn’t. He immediately said, "So how did you get back?"

"I put my boots back on, went to the airfield. Helicopters were taking off and landing constantly. I found one heading back to Baghdad and flew back. After landing, I walked to the vicinity of our camp, turned on my radio, made up some bullshit story, and that was that."

Everything Phoenix said sounded incredibly simple, but anyone with a normal IQ knew there wasn’t a single simple link in that entire chain of actions.

Phoenix was really not a simple woman.

Gao Yang let out a breath and said, "All right, I get it. Do you have any questions now?"

"Yes."

"Then ask."

"You said we’d talk in person."

Phoenix was back to her usual self. Gao Yang said helplessly, "Fine, fine, we’ll talk when we meet. I just wanted to tell you ahead of time that there’s nothing to worry about. Everything in the past is over. You’re one of Satan now. Me asking you this won’t cause any trouble for you. Okay, that’s it. The rest we’ll talk about when we meet."

Phoenix hung up without a moment’s hesitation.

After Phoenix ended the call, Gao Yang froze for a moment, then finally said to the dead line, "Goodbye."