Chapter Sixteen: The Real Base!

  July 30, 1999

  A month of air force training has ended. Although in the end I still didn't learn how to fly a Mirage 2000 and play tricks like flying inverted eights in the air. At least I can take out a fighter jet for a spin without any issues, compared to that I'm more skilled at flying helicopters and military transport planes.

  When I finished my last flight today, I saw Hawkeye on another helicopter at the apron as soon as I got off the plane.

  "Hey! Hawkeye, how are you? Where are Butcher and Captain?" I patted his machine door.

  "Hello! Xing Tian! The Butchers are fine. They just asked me to come pick you up." Eagle Eye pointed to the passenger seat.

  "What about my training?" Flight training is over, but language courses and combat courses have not ended yet.

  "It's all over! You can learn your other subjects at home." Eagle Eye said with a smile, in French and German.

  "Alright then, I'll go get it." I went back to the campsite to gather my things.

  Just as I was about to leave the camp, I saw that fellow Tes and his comrades returning together.

  "WOO!! Our Chinese kid is going to retire from training. Haha! He's really a gutless guy!" He always loves to target me.

  "OK. Listen up, Tess, I don't want to know why you always target me! But if God blesses me to meet you on the battlefield, I'll definitely chop off your four limbs, use a wooden stake to insert it into your anus until it comes out of your throat, and then stand in the cesspit!" I scared him with the scene I saw in the Cambodian jungle, and walked out amidst everyone's astonished gaze. At the door, I met Captain Jason walking far away, and gave him the middle finger, haha! Anyway, won't see you again, not afraid of your bite either. Refreshing!"

  Sitting in the helicopter, I couldn't help but burst out laughing when I thought of Tess's pale face just now.

  "What are you laughing at? What's so funny that I should be happy too?" Eagle Eye asked curiously.

  After I told Hawkeye about my feud with Tess, Hawkeye burst out laughing: "Tess, I know him, he's the son of US Air Force Major General Frey. He hates you because his grandfather died in Korea during the Sino-Korean War, so he hates Chinese people!"

  "He must have been killed by Chinese soldiers? I remember there's also the North Korean People's Army!" Who would have thought it was like this.

  "Korean People's Army? Without Chinese soldiers, there wouldn't even be a North Korea. His grandfather would not have died either. That's what his dad thinks." Eagle Eye said while flying the plane.

  "Does his dad also hate China?"

  "Yes, his father is a core member of the American Hawks. Many views against China were proposed by him!" Eagle Eye seems to be very familiar with this.

  "Are you also from America? Or how else would you be so clear about this?" I asked Eagle Eye.

  "I? I'm not, I'm Swiss! It's easy to know these things, just pay attention and it's not a secret!" Eagle Eye.

  "Why did you become a mercenary?" I asked him, "Hawkeye."

  "Haha, my father is a mercenary, so I think when I grow up, I'll be a mercenary too! And then, when I grew up, I became a mercenary!" Eagle Eye laughed as if it was only natural.

  Son inherits father's business! Awesome! I made a knowing expression.

  The plane flew for a short while and landed at a base. The base was not large, square in shape, backed by mountains and facing the sea. From the sky, you could see the city not far away, but the base looked old. There were aprons and three hangars along the runway, with barracks behind them. After the plane stopped on the apron, Eagle Eye and I got off and saw Captain and Cowboy walking out of a hangar.

  "Hey! Xing Tian, how's it going? How does it feel to be learning to fly a fighter jet?" the cowboy joked.

  "Never mind! Cowboy! I don't want to think about it again! Thanks! Captain, you're good!" Just thinking about the first time I flew a fighter plane makes my face turn pale.

  "Alright, cowboy, stop teasing him! Xing Tian, welcome back to the team! Come on, let's go in!" The captain is still better.

  Following the captain, they passed through the hangar and walked towards the barracks in the back. When they arrived at the barracks in the back, the captain pointed to the barracks and said: "Just pick a bed, put things that are not close to you over there." Opening the door, it was similar to the military camp where I trained, with one room leading to the end, and eight beds inside. There were blankets on some of the beds. I chose a bed in the middle, and put my stuff in the cabinet at the head of the bed.

  "Captain! Ask you something, where is this? Where is our base?" I asked while walking with the captain.

  "This is Corsica, you won't stay for two months, didn't you know that?" The captain asked me in surprise.

  "No, I didn't mean that, I meant... here, where is this?" I asked the captain.

  "Ah, here is our base in Corsica, this is Calvi. The place you were at a few days ago was the paratrooper training base of the French Foreign Legion!" The captain said in detail.

  "By your tone, we have many bases? Captain. Then we also have a lot of people?" Looks like our army is not small after all.

  "How to put it? We have many bases, for example, the place we live in Cambodia is also one of our bases, but there are not many things, just a foothold. Such bases exist all over the world, this is the largest base in Europe, Africa has one, South America has one, and Asia has one. We have many people, but not many direct combat personnel!" The captain explained.

  "Captain, isn't this a bit exaggerated?! How much will it cost with so many bases?!" Just listening to it makes me feel the grandeur of the project.

  "It doesn't have to cost a lot of money, some are bought, for example, a house is like a small base, big ones like this base, some are rented, some are bought, and some are seized!" The captain opened the door to the kitchen in the barracks.

  "Rob? Rob who? Is this base being robbed?" I asked, what are you doing in the kitchen?

  "Plunder the other mercenary group's, poisonous, criminal!" The captain opened the huge refrigerator door in the kitchen, pushed open the back panel, and behind it was a passage.

  "Oh, aren't you afraid of others taking revenge? Which way is this?" I didn't expect there was still such a road.

  "Dare to rob and don't be afraid, usually it's the butcher who does this job. Until now, no one has come to take revenge! This is going to the base!" The captain led the way in front.

  No wonder! The butcher rushed to the base, I guess it's not rushing to the base, but to the people inside. No one avenged? That also requires living people to come and avenge. Looking at the construction of this secret passage, it's all steel-reinforced concrete structure, taking the elevator down so far without feeling suffocated, it seems like a huge project. The elevator stopped, opened the door, and came out into a garden-shaped large hall, three passageways dividing the hall into three walls, many sofas in the center of the hall with many people sitting on them, several tea tables in between the sofas with all sorts of guns and military knives on top, one wall had a small bar, another wall had an oversized display screen, and two rows of computers that looked like a monitoring system. Only after stepping out of the elevator did I notice that the floor was made of a non-slip, anti-static material with a sunset color, somewhat like walking on carpet - a rough feeling from the fine particles.

  Most people in the hall I didn't know, only Da Xiong, Di Huo, and Mo, they knew each other from doing tasks together. When we came in, everyone saw us but didn't get up, just turned their sofas to face us. Now I could see clearly that there were men and women wearing various military uniforms in the hall, most of them looked like they weren't good people, but the women were all beauties. One was a white blonde girl with a flat top in front and a braid in back, another was a South American beauty with a head full of small black braids. Because the two women's outfits were very cool, I took a closer look, unexpectedly they suddenly shouted together.

  "Ha ha, bring out the money! Bring out the money!" The two female soldiers shouted with their hands stretched out.

  "Damn it! What bad luck!..." The other soldiers all started digging into their pockets for money.

  "Xing Tian, you're really useless!" Di Huo complained while handing over the money.

  I looked at the captain in confusion, what's wrong with me? As soon as I came in, nobody recognized me and scolded me!

  "You can't watch, you have to watch those two cheaters! They made me lose money!" The devil said while counting his money, looks like he lost a lot.

  "What's wrong with me?"

  "We made a bet, whoever you look at first when you come in, if it's us two, we win, if it's someone else, they win! Thanks!" The blonde beauty waved the banknotes at me.

  "......" I didn't expect these people...

  "Captain! This... you..." I originally wanted the captain to make a decision for me, but then I saw that the captain was also taking out money...

  "Alas, Xing Tian! You're really disappointing! Sigh!" The captain shook his head.

  “。。。。。。”

  After everyone's indignation has subsided, I dare to raise my head and look at everyone. This is terrible, as soon as they came, they lost all the people.

  "Alright, stop playing around. Let me introduce everyone to you. This is Xing Tian, from China. Xing Tian, this is Reckman, also known as the Assassin. This is Dute, also known as the Wolf Man. This is Luo Lian, also known as the Charger. This is Niefu, also known as the Fast Blade...". The captain introduced the twenty or thirty people present to me one by one: "The blonde is Isabella, also known as Little Cat, and the black-haired one is Lina, also known as Beauty. These are just some of our team members; others have tasks elsewhere and aren't here right now. We'll introduce them to you later when we have a chance."

  "Hello everyone!" I greeted everyone: "I hope you all don't lose too much!"

  "EVERYBODY REPLIED 'FUCK YOU' TO MY GREETING."

  "How much did you lose?" I asked, pulling on the bottom fire.

  "10,000 US dollars!" Di Huo said

  He's really good at gambling, and he gambles so big, no wonder he wants to be a mercenary, doing other things would be too humiliating!

  "Alright, everyone sit down! I have two things to say. First, welcome Tian Xing to our mercenary group, he's new so please teach him if he doesn't understand anything. Second, there are two tasks in Africa, one is to help the Liberian anti-government forces steal a batch of military supplies, and the other is to help the Congolese government clean up the remaining forces of Mobutu's regime. Neither task is very difficult, the deadline is half a month from now. Sorry, we're short-handed so you'll also have to go on the mission." The captain nodded at me with a hint of apology.

  I also nodded to the captain, indicating that it was okay. The captain continued: "OK! This time, we don't need many people for the mission to grab the weapons. I think eight is enough, Devil, Quickdraw, Assassin, Knifeman, Xingtian, Werewolf, plus Butcher and me. The others will go help the Congo government fight. Any questions?"

  "Alright! Demon, take Xing Tian to get familiar with the surroundings! Everyone else, dismiss!" The captain arranged everything and took a cup of wine from the young master standing in the crowd.

  Following the devil, I wandered around and found out how big this base is. We stayed in the personnel living quarters, above which was a layer for parking vehicles, below which were three layers: one shooting range and combat training room, one gym, and one storage area for various supplies. The lowest level was an underwater harbor that led directly to the open sea, where two submarines were docked. One of them looked like a Soviet-era "Kilo" class conventional submarine, while the other's origin was unknown.

  I really don't know how Captain and his team got this base!

  Click to view image link: "Kilo" class conventional submarine