The sharp sword comes out of its scabbard

  In the southwest of Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, northwest of Lake Magadi, on the east bank of the Njoro River, a drilling site with a Mobil Oil sign hangs above it. The workers are busy as can be. From time to time, several workers stop their work, pick up towels that smell sour and wipe away the sweat from their bodies, while casting resentful glances at the scorching sun hanging high in the sky. Before they put down the towel, they have already cursed the damn God hundreds of times in their hearts.

  In a thicket of bushes eight hundred meters northeast of the construction site, a group of lions who had just eaten their fill were taking a leisurely stroll. The two adult male lions at the front gazed intently at the humans behind the iron fence, seemingly considering whether to add an appetizer to their dinner. Several female lions were busy dealing with a group of frolicking and fighting cubs, occasionally calling back straying cubs as if afraid they would be harmed by the mysterious visitors.

  As the sun sets in the west, night will bring a hint of coolness to this land forgotten by God.

  In the late afternoon, the lion group got up and left the thicket, slowly heading towards the grassland in the north. Two adult male lions still looked back from time to time, their eyes fixed on the alien that was about to complete its last task of the day. The male lions were reluctant to give up the prey at their mouths, but they had no choice. The lionesses, on the other hand, showed little interest in those two-legged creatures, probably thinking that the prey was too weak and wouldn't fill the bellies of all the lions. Perhaps a few hours later, they would hunt down an antelope or a wild buffalo on the vast grassland in the north, providing enough nutrition for all members of the family, especially the young lions who were growing rapidly and needed plenty of food.

  The night fell slowly, the earth was covered with a black cotton quilt, and the lights on the construction site also lit up.

  In the thorny bushes where a pride of lions was resting in the daytime, two dark shadows emerged from underground and immediately disappeared into the darkness. Eight hundred meters away, workers were having dinner, and no one noticed this tiny change.

  "Aren't you afraid?"

  "What's wrong?"

  In the thicket, two figures began to converse in hushed tones. They were no ordinary people, but special soldiers with extraordinary skills, true kings among soldiers.

  "Are you talking about lions?" The man on the left sneered and said, "The most terrifying enemy is not a beast, but a human."

  "It's a good thing I'm your partner, not your enemy."

  Both of them burst out laughing, and the mournful lowing of the bison from the north drowned out their conversation.

  The lion group succeeded, and with one life gone, more lives gained the right to survive.

  Such things are performed on the vast grasslands every day. The cycle repeats itself, and life goes on endlessly.

  Some workers returned to the construction site after dinner. The drilling machine was restarted, and the roar of the engine immediately buried the sounds of nature.

  "Lao Kang, you said there is oil here?"

  "Oil? I don't know, anyway they're not looking for oil."

  Kang Xiaoting, 28 years old, from Cangzhou, Hebei Province, belongs to the 103rd Special Forces, also known as the "Lion" special forces. He has been in service for ten years, eight of which were spent in the special forces, making him a true "veteran". Like all people from Hebei, he has a strong physique, a bold personality and a tough style. Coming from a martial arts family, before joining the army, he had already mastered some good skills. After entering the special forces, he was like a fish in water, his kung fu improved even further, winning him the championship of the military region's hand-to-hand combat competition for five consecutive years. In addition to this, Kang Xiaoting is also among the top in the team in terms of reconnaissance, stealth and marksmanship.

  "What are they looking for?"

  "I don't know." Kang Xiaoting shook his head and looked at his partner beside him, "Little Su, did you participate in that secret operation in Iraq three years ago?"

  "Iraq?" The young man shook his head, looking both embarrassed and envious.

  Su Mingjian, 24 years old, from Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, is a lieutenant in the 103rd Special Forces Unit. He enlisted six years ago and joined the special forces four years ago. Two years ago, he officially became Kang Xiaoting's partner. Although he was just an observer in the sniper team, Su Mingjian surprisingly won the championship in last year's team shooting competition, making a name for himself. Unlike Kang Xiaoting, Su Mingjian has a slightly thin build, giving people the impression that he is weak and bookish. However, this is just appearances. Su Mingjian's grandfather participated in the Battle of Xuzhou and later followed the troops to rebel, participating in the Liberation War and the Korean War. His father was also a soldier who lost an arm in the border counterattack war in the south. From birth, Su Mingjian had the blood of a soldier flowing through his veins, destined to inherit the "family business" and become a soldier, an excellent soldier.

  "Have you seen those drill rods on the construction site?"

  Su Ming carefully picked up the micro-optical night vision telescope and adjusted the focus.

  "The total length is less than two hundred meters." Kang Xiaoting pulled the camouflage net covering his head, "As far as I know, there are only a few oil fields in the world that can produce oil with a drilling rod of less than two hundred meters. Moreover, the geological activity in the East African Rift Valley is very frequent, and a major earthquake occurred just last month, it's impossible to have oil here."

  Su Ming carefully put down the telescope and cast an admiring glance at his partner beside him.

  "Take a closer look at the way the workers walk, don't you think they've all received strict military training and are veterans who have served for many years?" Kang Xiaoting sneered coldly, then said, "And take a look at the southwest corner of the camp, near the riverbank, that movable house that can be towed by a tractor. From last night to now, not a single worker has gone in, but there's always a group of workers surrounding it. If I'm not mistaken, what we're looking for is inside that movable house."

  "Should I use the instrument to scan it?"

  "No, we can't flush them out. These people are definitely professional soldiers, or mercenaries, or special forces like us. They're not oil drillers. They must have installed anti-reconnaissance equipment in the camp and radiation shielding on the inner walls of the mobile homes. The detection instruments we brought won't be useful. Don't worry, it won't take long before we find out what's inside."

  As soon as Kang Xiaoting's voice fell, a beam of light landed on the shrubbery, and the two immediately buried their heads.

  A faint tremor came from the ground, and the light pillar slowly moved away. When the two of them raised their heads, a convoy of over ten off-road vehicles drove along the dirt road on the west side of the bush. The two workers guarding the construction site gate pushed open the iron gate, and all the workers inside the site stopped working and returned to the tent one after another.

  The fleet stopped on the empty land north of the construction site, and more than a dozen fully armed personnel wearing civilian clothes got off the car. The workers who came out of the tent also carried armed belts and held light weapons such as guns.

  In the bushes, Kang Xiaoting and Su Mingjian also moved.

  Kang Xiaoting slowly pulled out the PSG-1 sniper rifle placed beside him, and calmly installed a custom-made low-light scope. After zeroing in the scope, Kang Xiaoting took out a magazine loaded with 20 rounds from his right waist holster, carefully inspected the barrel, then inserted the magazine and cocked the gun, loading the first round into the chamber. Finally, Kang Xiaoting gently placed the sniper rifle's stock on the backpack covered with dry grass in front of him.

  Su Mingjin quickly checked the MG4 light machine gun he was carrying, then took out a notebook from his body and memorized the distance data of various landmark reference objects in the construction site. These data were measured by them last night when the construction site was attacked by a group of dhole, using laser rangefinders. During the battle, he didn't need to use the rangefinder to measure the distance of each target one by one, but instead used the shooting reference object, combined with other data such as wind speed, to quickly provide the shooter, Kang Xiaoting, with the shooting parameters of the target.

  All lighting equipment inside the construction site has been turned on.

  A middle-aged white man in a suit, accompanied by over a dozen armed personnel, walked up to the door of the mobile home. The other armed personnel quickly dispersed, forming a skirmish line. The middle-aged man pulled out a magnetic card from his body and swiped it on the electronic lock's sensor. A small keyboard popped out from the door panel next to the sensor.

  "550GM smart password lock, CIA equipment."

  Su Ming quickly pulled out a special device in the shape of a professional camera from his backpack.

  As the white man typed in the password on the keyboard, the mobile house's door popped outwards, revealing a gap. Su Mingjin aimed the front end of the instrument at the mobile house, and immediately a prominent waveform appeared on the small screen at the back end of the instrument. As the door opened wider, the waveform on the screen became steeper and eventually broke through the red line in the middle of the screen.

  "Radiation characteristics fully match, target nature confirmed."

  "Send out the signal." Kang Xiaoting wiped his sweaty right hand on his backpack.

  Su Ming carefully took out a special miniature communication radio from his backpack, pointing the curved antenna at the night sky above his head. As the radio started up, a group of invisible, inaudible, yet extraordinary mixed-frequency electromagnetic signals slipped into the night sky and flew towards an earth-synchronous communication satellite 36,000 kilometers away from the ground. Following this, the signal passed through another earth-synchronous communication satellite and arrived at a certain military base more than 10,000 kilometers away in a flash of lightning.

  About two minutes later, a white man walked out of the mobile home.

  As he instructed the armed personnel around him to move the house on a trailer, an armed man ran to his side, whispered something, and looked over at the bush where Kang Xiaoting and Su Mingjian were.

  "Damn it, we've been discovered!" As he spoke, Su Mingjin pulled the bolt of the machine gun and loaded the bullets into the chamber.

  Inside the construction site, a white man blew his whistle and made several gestures to the armed personnel around him. More than ten armed men immediately jumped onto two off-road vehicles and drove towards the main gate of the construction site.

  The newly armed workers also sprang into action, and each one was well-versed in individual combat tactics.

  Kang Xiaoting and Su Mingjian were not tense, just very anxious. The time left for them was only a few minutes.