"Then contact him, I need to talk to him."
Now it seemed there were no better options available.
Getting involved in this Colombia issue was not something Song Heping had wished for.
According to the best plan, Song Heping was not willing to have a direct conflict with the AUC armed forces.
Two million dollars' worth of arms was not a large sum for the current "Musician" Defense, and economically speaking, it could be abandoned.
However, the matter was not merely about the economics.
Reputation was the first concern.
Be it a PMC company or an arms dealer, everyone highly valued their reputation.
Having two million dollars stolen was a loss Song Heping could afford.
But if word got out that the "Musician" Defense was seen as weak and easy to bully, that was something no amount of money could buy back.
Not making a response would mean that in the future, anyone who saw the "Musician" Defense's goods would dare to rob them.
Just like in the jungle, showing weakness does not earn mercy, but fierceness earns respect.
Secondly, from the perspective of internal unity, an intervention in this matter was also necessary.
Although Ivan belonged to the Russian mob, he was also the cook's childhood friend.
If he only cared about the safety of his company members and ignored the cook's feelings, it was hard to say whether the guy might become disgruntled.
Some seemingly minor issues might leave cracks, which once formed could gradually expand, eventually becoming uncontrollable.
They say it's tough being the boss, and the difficulty lies here, having to see the big picture, weighing the pros and cons with an accounting mind to make clear calculations.
If the calculations were not clear, then it was a mess, bound to cause trouble sooner or later.
Song Heping agreed, and naturally, Ferrari immediately took action.
The Dark Web is a newer phenomenon. If the Internet is also a world, then like the real world, it has both a bright and a dark side.
The bright side is what you see on the surface; the dark side is hidden in the shadows and unseen.
The Dark Web is such a thing.
Since the rise of the Internet, people have used the network to conduct some secret transactions.
Gradually, the Dark Web came into existence.
Those active on the Dark Web are like the underworld in the real world.
Through unique encryption technology, everyone hides in this dark underground network, masking their faces, obscuring their IP addresses, then playing their roles.
At noon, the cook came to find Song Heping, informing him of a predictable piece of news.
"Damn, you really called it!"
The cook seemed somewhat relaxed now, not as agitated as before.
"AUC contacted Ivan's wife by phone, they're demanding a ransom."
Song Heping immediately understood why the cook appeared much more at ease, the demand for a ransom meant the person was still alive.
"Are you sure he's still alive?"
This was Song Heping's biggest concern.
If the person was dead, all negotiations would be pointless.
"He should still be alive." The cook turned around to grab a laptop, quickly logging into his email: "Ivan's wife Anna said she had uploaded the video sent by AUC to my email, I'm going to check it now."
Soon, he pulled up the email in his inbox.
Song Heping sat on the side watching the cook hustle and teased, "Look at this, the anti-government armed forces are advancing now, learning to use email for extortion."
The cook quickly downloaded the video and then opened it.
The video lasted only 30 seconds.
Very short.
Apparently, it was shot with a DV and compressed before being uploaded to the internet to send to Anna.
In the video, Ivan sat in a place that looked like a wooden cabin, with a window behind him, perhaps due to the backlight, his face appeared somewhat dim.
Seeing Ivan's face, the cook had already started cursing.
Because his old friend's face had swollen up like a pig's head, his features had plumped up quite a bit, black and blue all over, his hair a mess like a bird's nest, and he was even leaking air when he spoke, Song Heping figured several teeth must have been knocked out.
"It's just about the money..."
Song Heping also couldn't stand to watch anymore.
Why bother?
After stealing the merchandise, the owner comes to ask for it back, and yet they send someone to get beaten into a pig's head.
As the saying goes, even thieves should have their code, but this group of anti-government armed forces in South America seemed like a bunch of ruthless lowlifes.
In the video, Ivan's mouth looked as if he was holding a jujube, his speech muffled and unclear.
Fortunately, Song Heping had recently picked up quite a bit of Russian, thanks to being surrounded by Russians, and had made significant progress in speaking, managing everyday conversations with no major issues.
"...I'm still alive, still fine... They're now demanding a five million US dollar ransom, to be personally delivered to Colombia within a week..."
After watching the whole video segment, Song Heping said, "They also want the cash delivered to Colombia?"
Leaning in to catch the excitement, Ferrari said, "They're afraid a bank transfer will get traced and their accounts frozen, and they don't want to give up the transaction fees for money laundering. Isn't it better for you to just bring the cash to them? Many drug lords in South America do the same—after all, the Americans have labeled them as terrorist organizations. They probably have surveillance on them in the banking system. When you deliver the cash to their turf, isn't it entirely up to them?"
"The money isn't really the problem." Song Heping said, "It's just unclear whether this AUC group follows any code of honor. From what I see, this bunch is greedy and ruthless, absolutely unprincipled. If there isn't a safe transaction method, the delivery might even end up with the carrier being killed."
"Tsk!" Ferrari said, "It's not that there's no safe way to handle the transaction. Have you forgotten the details in the intelligence report from last night?"
Only then did Song Heping remember the DEA intelligence report he had read the night before.
It included a report that listed some cases of kidnappings and hostage-taking for ransom by the AUC over recent years.
"Middleman!"
He remembered.
But recalling this, he and Ferrari snickered together.
Because the intelligence data showed that those who had successfully paid the ransom and retrieved the kidnapped persons all went through a middleman.
In several successful hostage recovery cases, the role of middleman was incredibly played by members of the government army.
This was also one of the pieces of evidence that the DEA used to deduce that the AUC was backed by the government army.
It was indeed a case of soldiers and bandits being kin.
"I'll go!"
The cook volunteered himself eagerly.
Song Heping gave him a look: "What's the rush for?"
The cook said, "We've seen the person, and the price has been set. If it can be resolved sooner, then the better. The video suggests that we first go to Colombia, where they will contact us for the next steps, likely involving the military's middleman to pass the ransom."
Song Heping said, "We need to drag this out."
"Drag it out?" The cook's eyes widened, surprised: "Dragging it out? You want someone to die!"
Song Heping said, "Have Anna contact them and tell them we saw the video. Ask if they can reduce the ransom amount a bit, because we don't have that much money to spare. We need to bargain, got it? Also, tell them since the last video doesn't show when it was filmed, they need to take a new video with the local newspaper of the day to prove the hostage is still alive; otherwise, there will absolutely be no ransom transaction."
The cook froze: "With how things stand now, you still want to haggle!? Could AUC get pissed off and just shoot Ivan?"
Song Heping said, "You give the money too readily, do you believe they'd ever let the person return safely?"
The cook said, "Suka! I have never kidnapped anyone, how would I have experience? Have you kidnapped someone?"
Song Heping, frustrated, pointed to his head: "Never seen pork nor watched pigs run? Don't you have a brain?"
"I think you should stop arguing." Ferrari said from the side. "Cook, just do as Song says. I think he's right. Five million US dollars—it's not five million yen. If you accept it too easily, they'll think you can afford even more, and the price will go up, which could get tricky. AUC really has no bottom line."
The cook murmured, "If I catch them, I'll make sure they taste the luxury package in our Far East prisons!"
Finishing his grumble, he took out his phone to contact Anna.
"Song, I've got in touch with Chen," Ferrari whispered.
"You got in touch?" Song Heping hadn't expected such a quick progress: "What did he say?"
"He wants to meet you in person," Ferrari said, spreading his hands in slight resignation: "He wants a face-to-face talk."
"A face-to-face talk?" Song Heping was somewhat surprised: "Is that also part of his rules?"
Ferrari shook his head: "Haven't heard of it before."
Suddenly, Song Heping felt a hint of alertness: "Where does he want to meet?"
"Istanbul," Ferrari said: "Over there in Turkey."