Whetstone Edge Volume 1: Fierce Tiger Breaks Free Chapter 1: Snow Leopard in Ambush

  In the mountainous area of the East Xingdu Kush Mountains at an altitude of over 4,000 meters, the white clouds in the blue sky seem to be within reach. The Noxak Peak with a highest elevation of 7,485 meters appears and disappears in the clouds and mist, like a loyal warrior guarding the desolate and barren highland under its feet. At the foot of the mountain, a highway winds along the Pezrak River like a python, which is the only road connecting Bozai Gumbad with the interior of Afghanistan on the Wakhan Corridor.

  Ling Tianxiang coldly observed the old man on the highway, who was as thin and barren as the land itself. He occasionally swung his whip to drive back the sheep that had stopped to nibble at the grass roots by the roadside, their bones visible under their skin. The goats walking ahead of him were also hairy but skinny. All this made Ling Tianxiang feel that this was the most remote corner of the world, a corner forgotten and abandoned by God, Allah, Buddha or whatever "God" there was.

  "Did you see?"

  Wei Daming beside him raised his binoculars and took a look at the old shepherd wrapped in a headscarf. "He's just a civilian, not even an armed one, no threat to us."

  "I know, it's just that I don't know if anyone will be interested in those sheep." Ling Tianxiang smiled and estimated the distance to the flock of mountain goats through visual measurement, which was about 550 meters away, perhaps a little closer. The scorching sun heated up the ground, and the hot air rose upwards, affecting the accuracy of his visual estimation.

  "If the squad leader agrees, you can bring one back with you, but I don't know if that's against the rules." Wei Daming recorded the data measured by the laser rangefinder in his sniper manual. "If we can eat roasted whole lamb, then no one will complain this time."

  "How's the retreat route arranged?" Ling Tianxiang was just joking.

  Wei Daming pointed with his finger to the north of Mount Noxak. "After dark, we'll retreat from the mountainous area, about 20 kilometers of mountain road, there will be a helicopter to pick us up, before dawn, we can sleep comfortably in bed."

  Ling Tianxiang glanced at the Noshak Peak hidden behind the clouds and fog, this was not the best retreat route, but it was also the only retreat route. However, no one could guarantee that they could safely hide until dawn, especially under the eyes of the US military. If the target arrival time was too early, even a nighttime retreat would be extremely dangerous. Thinking of this, Ling Tianxiang looked towards the highway in the west.

  The US military's mobile troops are stationed in Zabul, just 30 kilometers west of here, with an airborne brigade of the 10th Mountain Division, which has more than a dozen UH-60 "Black Hawk" helicopters, including armed versions. If the US military receives the news, it will take at most ten minutes to arrive, and maybe less than ten minutes, while completing the task would require at least fifteen minutes.

  Ling Tianxiang shouldered the M40 sniper rifle, a custom-made sniper rifle he had specially modified. The main modifications were the addition of a 20x scope and a silencer made by Ling Tianxiang himself. Should we eliminate the obstacles first? Ling Tianxiang's finger pressed against the trigger.

  "Don't be nervous!" Wei Daming seemed to see through his partner's mind.

  Ling Tianxiang let out a long breath, and his fingers slowly moved away from the trigger. That was just a villager from a nearby village, maybe his wife and children were waiting for him to return home for dinner. A poor herdsman on a barren land, this is not an obstacle.

  The communicator rang again, and Wei Daming immediately pressed down on the earpiece. "The target is here."

  Ling Tianxiang had already aimed the muzzle at the fork in the east of the highway, and the swirling dust was rising from afar. Because of the obstruction of the hillside by the road, Ling Tianxiang still couldn't see the vehicle, but he knew that the target had appeared.

  On the highway, a Nissan pickup truck was speeding along, with a white man wearing only shorts and a shirt sitting in it. Next to him on the passenger seat was a specially made "Pelican" safe, with an M4 carbine rifle pressed on top of it. On the man's right arm was a tattoo of an eagle head, which is a unique tattoo for a certain special forces unit in the United States.

  Clarke glanced over at the safe, then checked his watch again. It was 5:40 and the sun had dipped below the mountain peaks ahead, ten minutes later than he'd planned. Clarke floored it, and the pickup bucked violently, reminding him of when he was sixteen and drove alone from Sacramento to Salt Lake City to visit his grandfather's house, crossing the Sierra Nevada mountains.

  Suddenly, the wireless walkie-talkie in front of the steering wheel rang out. "Wildcat, this is Wolf's Den, Wildcat, this is Wolf's Den..."

  "Keller picked up the walkie-talkie and pressed the talk button. "Wildcat receiving, Wildcat receiving, all smooth, arriving at Wolf's Den in 20 minutes. Repeat once, all smooth, arriving at Wolf's Den in 20 minutes.""

  Without waiting for a response, Clark impatiently hung up the phone and glanced at his watch again. He had been driving on this mountain road for 11 hours straight now.

  At the age of eighteen, Clarke joined the military and entered his dream unit, the 10th Mountain Division. During his eight years in the army, Clarke earned a bachelor's degree in Persian from National University. After leaving the service, Clarke initially sought to find work with an oil company, hoping that his language skills would be useful, but was disappointed by the results, both professionally and personally. Over three years, Clarke changed companies five times, had six girlfriends, and lived in ten states, never having a stable family life. Disillusioned with all this, Clarke found his current job at "Blackwater" using his language skills and good military record to deliver "secret packages", or the Pelican case that sits on the passenger seat.

  As soon as he turned the corner, Clark slammed on the brakes. A flock of sheep, frightened and confused, had wandered onto the highway, blocking his path. "Damn it!" Clark muttered under his breath before honking the horn loudly and shouting in Persian.

  The old man frantically waved the whip in his hand, trying to drive the sheep towards the side of the road, but this had the opposite effect, and the sheep became even more frightened. Clark suddenly realized the danger, as he grabbed the grip of the M4 carbine, he looked around cautiously. The afterglow of the western sunset was shining right on Clark's face, blocking his vision, and a thought of fear of death suddenly rose up.

  Ling Tianxiang calmly looked at the panicked white man in the car, and at this distance, he would never miss a bullet. Over 500 meters, for a sniper, it was like the length of an arm.

  "Understood...understood!" Wei Daming turned off the communicator, "Target confirmed, open fire!"

  Ling Tianxiang immediately pulled the trigger, and the 7.62mm bullet flew out of the barrel at a speed of 890 meters per second. As it passed through the silencer, its speed slowed down to 330 meters per second, while most of the noise was absorbed by the silencer. Even most of the muzzle flash was absorbed, leaving only a slight tremble in the nearby wild grass. Everything quickly returned to calmness.

  The tempered glass of the driver's side window shattered into several pieces as it was struck, and then penetrated the driver's head. The severely destabilized bullet almost shaved off half of the driver's skull. Even from hundreds of meters away, Ling Tianxiang could still clearly see through his scope that white brain matter and red blood splattered all over the driver's cabin.

  "Bullseye! Well done, I'll go get the goods and retreat in ten minutes."

  "Be careful!" Ling Tianxiang felt that this sentence was a bit redundant. Wei Daming had joined the "Snow Leopard" two years earlier than him and had completed dozens of missions, big and small, safely. It could be said that Wei Daming was the team's renowned "safety expert".

  As Wei Daming rushed towards the pickup truck, Ling Tianxiang cautiously watched the panicked old man on the road while pulling back the bolt, catching the ejected shell and casually putting it into his chest pocket, then loading a second round into the chamber, which was a standard 7.62mm NATO cartridge.

  Wei Daming spent 3 minutes running over 500 meters of rugged mountain road. He first checked the body on the steering wheel, the hit point was very accurate, and only a bullet hole with a diameter of less than 1 cm was left on the windshield glass, and half of the driver's head had been blown off. Then, Wei Daming went around to the other side of the pickup truck, smashed the window glass with the gun butt, threw aside the M4 that hadn't been loaded yet, and picked up the "Pelican" safe inside. Next, he found that the safe was connected to the corpse's right wrist by a pair of handcuffs. Wei Daming took out his pistol without hesitation and shot off the steel chain on the handcuff.

  Ling Tianxiang watched Wei Daming's series of actions in the scope, without any hesitation or pause, completely smooth. "Old Wei, time is almost up, it's time to withdraw."

  "Ah, wait a minute..." Wei Daming suddenly reached into the truck and pulled out something from the corpse. "Little Lingzi, guess what I found? An MP7A1 with a silencer! Oh man, this is my favorite submachine gun!"

  "Alright, come back quickly." Ling Tianxiang sighed and Wei Daming had mentioned several times that he wanted an MP7, but never got one. Suddenly, the ground started shaking violently, Ling Tianxiang was startled and instinctively looked westward. "Damn it, Old Wei, hide quickly!"

  In the western sky, three UH-60 "Black Hawk" helicopters are rapidly approaching, two of which are clearly armed variants with rocket launchers and machine guns mounted on their short wings, while the third is a personnel transport variant carrying at least a dozen fully armed soldiers.

  Wei Daming also discovered the helicopter in the west, and similarly, the soldiers on the helicopter also discovered him.

  "Lao Wei, what are you doing? Quickly find cover!" Seeing that Wei Daming had gone around to the back of the pickup truck and hadn't escaped, Ling Tianxiang was almost driven mad.

  "Little Lingzi, don't move around, the US military won't be able to find you." Wei Daming, hiding behind the car, checked the magazine on his G36. "Remember to help me send back that letter in my backpack and tell Huizi, when he grows up, not to learn from his dad."

  Ling Tianxiang was shocked, Hu Zi was the nickname of Wei Daming's son. It was obvious that if Wei Daming rushed to where Ling Tianxiang was hiding at this time, then Ling Tianxiang would be exposed and both of them would be finished. Wei Daming chose to stay behind, in order to ensure his partner could return alive, he voluntarily chose to stay behind.

  The G36 spat out a tongue of fire, but the helicopter was not within the range of the assault rifle. Two armed "Black Hawks" were circling nearby, giving Wei Daming no chance to escape. Another transport "Black Hawk" also quickly followed up. Then, the loudspeaker on the US military helicopter broadcast a shouting voice, and it was in Chinese.

  Hundreds of meters away, Ling Tianxiang heard it very clearly. He was startled in his heart and felt a bit uneasy, but soon his attention focused on Wei Daming hiding behind the pickup truck. The G36's bullets were quickly used up, and Wei Daming pulled out his pistol. He didn't aim at the helicopter in the sky.

  No! Ling Tianxiang almost shouted out loud, he knew that Wei Daming did not want to be captured, and no "Snow Leopard" would become a prisoner.

  The US military seemed to have anticipated this, and as soon as Wei Daming raised his pistol, a bullet hit the sleeve of his right arm. Before he could switch the gun to his left hand, another bullet hit his left shoulder blade. Under the huge impact of the bullets, Wei Daming fell to the ground.

  Watching his comrades fall, Ling Tianxiang clenched his teeth tightly, and fresh blood flowed down from the corner of his mouth. He really wanted to kill his way out, and he even had the confidence to take down a helicopter. However, he didn't have the confidence to escape with his comrades, and the US military obviously didn't want to silence them, or they wouldn't have tried to capture them alive. As long as Wei Daming was still alive, there would be an opportunity to rescue him. With this thought in mind, Ling Tianxiang suppressed the anger and impulse in his heart.

  Several US soldiers carrying M4 carbines jumped out of the helicopter and ran to the front, with the first one kicking away the G36 and M23 pistol next to Wei Daming. The following US soldiers quickly checked the wounds on Wei Daming's body and then beckoned for a stretcher. Soon, Wei Daming, who was completely unconscious, was lifted onto the helicopter, and the US soldiers also boarded the helicopter in an orderly manner.

  The sky gradually darkened, and Ling Tianxiang slowly loosened his tightly clenched fist. The rock he had been holding in his palm was already shattered into several pieces. Ling Tianxiang did not rush to leave, as there were still American snipers nearby. It was the American sniper who had descended from the helicopter earlier that started shooting at Wei Daming. Sure enough, just like he had expected, more than half an hour later, two American snipers hiding on the mountain slope across the highway stood up and quickly slid down the slope.

  The two US snipers who had been shot did not notice that as they turned to retreat, another person on the opposite side of the road also got up and followed them from behind towards the US military camp in the west. The desert night was cold and desolate, Ling Tianxiang did not look back at the radio which was still making a rustling sound, he chose this route for himself, in the opposite direction to the retreat route.