Stepping aside, Song Heping took out an emergency kit and retrieved a tube of hemostatic gel from inside. He then removed his tactical vest, gently lifted the hem of his camouflage uniform, and carefully searched for the wound.

During the recent scuffle with Nielsen, Song Heping's lower unprotected edge of the tactical vest had been slashed by the latter's butterfly knife.

Though small, the butterfly knife was exceptionally sharp, its blade keen, easily cutting through Song Heping's camouflage uniform and leaving a wound of about ten centimeters long on his lower abdomen.

Luckily, the wound was not too deep and did not penetrate the abdominal cavity; it was merely a laceration of the muscle layer, otherwise, the injury would have been much more serious.

After confirming that the situation was not critical, Song Heping finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Capturing an enemy is ten times harder than killing one.

He took out an antiseptic wipe to clean the blood around the wound, applied hemostatic gel along the wound before the new blood completely gushed out, and then covered it with a breathable adhesive tape.

After treating the wound, Song Heping felt immensely fatigued.

He was so physically overdrawn that it made him feel drowsy.

However, his reason quickly overcame the sleepiness again.

Now was not the time to rest.

He dressed himself in his equipment and walked over to Willie's side.

Willie was desperately pinching Nielsen's jaw at this time, frantically trying to dig out something from his mouth.

"What are you doing?"

"FUCK! There's poison in his button, likely cyanide, I wasn't paying attention, and he managed to swallow it!"

"Cyanide?!"

This substance is extremely poisonous.

The deadliest cyanide can kill five hundred people with just one gram.

Therefore, it has long been used as a suicide agent by spies.

But it was unexpected to find such a thing on a Special Forces soldier.

Song Heping didn't have time to be surprised and jumped into the ditch to pry Nielsen's mouth open with Willie.

If the cyanide was hidden on a button, it would normally be placed somewhere near the top closest to the neck, where it is easiest to conceal poison and can be bitten even when one's hands and feet are bound.

But it seemed to be too late.

Nielsen's chest was heaving violently, his face turned a strange pallor under the moonlight, and his eyes began to roll back.

This was a typical symptom of cyanide poisoning.

"Too late."

Song Heping let go.

Out here in the wild, once cyanide enters the mouth, even digging it out is futile. The toxin has already seeped into the throat along with the saliva and entered the esophagus; there's no bringing him back.

Willie could only stop.

The two could only stand there and watch as Nielsen twitched desperately like a fish that had accidentally jumped onto the deck.

However, this didn't last long. Nielsen exhaled his last breath, and his body quieted down.

"He's dead."

Willie shook his head in regret.

"Otherwise, I would have found out who ordered them to hunt us down."

Song Heping stood still for a moment, then suddenly remembered something.

"Your camera?"

"Camera?"

Willie snapped out of it and hastily pointed to his tactical pack.

"In my pack, grab it yourself."

Song Heping hurriedly took the camera, snapped several photos of Nielsen, and then walked over to another corpse to capture his face with a burst of clicks.

After photographing this area, he went down to the remaining bodies below the slope and took turns to capture their faces in the camera.

Having obtained the images, he returned to Willie's side and said, "We need to withdraw quickly; we don't know how many more of them there are."

Seeing the anxious Song Heping, Willie suddenly realized he had overlooked something.

Did this small squad have accomplices?

If so, they must have sent out the information before their deaths.

It was no longer advisable to stay here.

The two of them hurriedly packed up their things and began to make a quick retreat.

"Which way should we go now?"

Willie asked Song He for the route.

"If it was someone from our own side who betrayed us, then heading back to Afghan in the original direction is no longer safe,"

"That's right," said Song He, "We can't go west, head north first, towards Peshawar, and keep going along the mountain range border line. We need to cover dozens of kilometers before it's safe to turn west and head back."

Willie said, "You took photos of those people; are you planning to investigate their identities?"

"Of course," replied Song He, "but not now, it's not the time. If we turn on any devices we have, we'll be located, and that will attract trouble."

Willie said, "If there's a mole inside our organization, sending the photos back would be pointless."

Song He replied, "That's your take on it; I don't need it. I have people specialized in intelligence in my own company. I'll send it to them and they'll get me some useful information."

Willie said, "If these people really are Seal Team members, their identities are secret and will be difficult to uncover."

Song He replied, "Don't worry about it, I have my ways. Right now, we need to find a place with a network to send out the photos, and that's the hardest part."

In fact, Song Heping was now suspecting more than just the military being sent to silence them for this issue – he was beginning to suspect the CIA.

When it comes to silencing people, the CIA had even more reason to want to silence him.

In Mexico, they had tried to do it before, by providing Los Zetas Organization with Stinger Missiles through an intermediary to shoot down the helicopter provided for his use.

This time in Afghan, the CIA surely knew.

Afghan is a conflict zone, and it's the perfect place for such an action. The death of a PMC company's owner in a conflict zone would seem like a normal casualty, and no one would suspect any foul play.

Sending out the photos of these people was the most important thing.

But right now, it wasn't possible to use any communication devices we had on us or to transmit through satellite communications. In a forsaken place like Ba Country, finding a network wasn't impossible, but it was certainly very difficult.

Who were these people?

They could be from the military.

Or perhaps not.

But Willie had said these were Seal Team members.

If the identities were verified, there must be someone involved from the military, and they would likely be high-ranking.

Originally, the plan was for Song Heping and Willie to enter the Afghan Border from the west side of Dobagagel Ridge and then reach Rashid Castle in Afghan, where they would call a helicopter for extraction.

Now heading west was definitely out of the question.

If the military were out to silence them, continuing towards Rashid Castle was absolutely unsafe.

Heading north would take them to the Tribal Areas under the federal system, all remote and impoverished regions.

Song Heping's plan was to walk north for four days to reach Wana in the Tribal Areas, and then turn west to make their way back to Afghan.

As both were donned in camouflage, they could only hide in caves during the day and use the advantage of night vision equipment to travel at night, avoiding any contact with living people, as encountering border residents would easily compromise their identities and lead to even more severe consequences.

Four days might not seem long, but marching in such an arid region, the biggest issue was water.

Both carried water bags with them.

However, they had already used half of the water bag's contents, which meant they had to prepare for the worst over the next four days. If they couldn't find a water source during the day, they would have to rely on the remaining half of the water to last the four days.

This was going to be a march to the limits.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by lotustale.com