In the past few days, Simon felt that everything was going smoothly.
He had obtained a large amount of evidence of Song Heping's organization's involvement in arms dealing.
Even more, he managed to trace it up the vine, sweeping up Yusuf as well.
Eventually, he concluded that the two were in cahoots, conspiring together, using the resources at their disposal to continuously sell off the military property and resources of Illiguo's new government.
Um...
They were not only dealing in firearms and small cannons, but now they had set their sights on the SA-9 anti-aircraft system.
But of course, this was not enough for Simon.
To kill a snake, strike at its vital part; to kill a man, shoot at the heart.
With the lessons from his last failure in mind, he felt that he must deliver a lethal blow this time, sending Song Heping to enjoy a long vacation in Guantanamo Prison, without giving him any chance at a comeback.
What he didn't know was that these days were going quite well for Song Heping too.
Now, Mohammed and Hazi had become local employees of "Musician" Defense.
Because the SA-9 anti-aircraft systems had been sitting in those remote hiding spots for too long without any interest, they were a bit problematic.
Fortunately, most of the issues were minor, simply small glitches in the circuits.
For Mohammed and his colleague, this kind of task was a piece of cake.
They had been hard at work repairing three sets of SA-9s the past few days, restoring them to operational status, and had even given Song Heping a crash course on how to use the system.
During this time, Song Heping hadn't sought Peter out, nor had Peter asked him to join for breakfast again.
Both were very smart individuals.
They knew that before doing some shady dealings, it was best not to meet.
Seven days had passed when Mohammed finally came to report to Song Heping that the three systems were fully operational.
"Are you a hundred percent sure there's no problem?" Song Heping was still a bit worried, "The ammunition hasn't expired, has it?"
"Absolutely sure, the missiles in the launch tubes are very new; they were meant for a decisive battle against the US Army's aircraft, so very new ammunition was used. In fact, they've just been sitting in the tubes for less than two years; both have been dismantled and inspected, no problem," Mohammed assured him.
"Very good." Song Heping suddenly remembered something and quickly asked, "By the way, the SA-9 launch system... I mean including the chassis of the armored vehicle, what are its width, height, and length?"
Mohammed said, "Its carrier is a BRDM-2 armored vehicle, with a width of 2.35 meters, a length of 5.75 meters, and a height of around 3.5 meters."
"3.5 meters..."
Song Heping frowned.
He was now concerned about transportation.
The ship had already been arranged, a general cargo container ship heading for Amsterdam, passing through the Red Sea on the way.
The ship was registered in Panama and usually conducted a bit of gray area business, providing some "special services" for some clients.
The problem was that getting these three systems onto the ship couldn't be done overtly. For such weapon systems, they had to be placed into specialty containers or transported using special roll-on/roll-off ships.
The most common containers have a standard width of 2.438 meters and lengths ranging from 12 meters to around 3 meters, and using six-meter containers, fitting a regular BRDM-2 wheeled armored vehicle would not be an issue.
But the challenge was the height; there are three standard heights for containers—2896mm, 2591mm, 2438mm.
Meaning, even the tallest standard container is around 2.9 meters high, which is definitely not enough to accommodate the SA-9 missile launch system, which is over three meters tall.
"It seems that ordinary containers simply can't accommodate it."
This gave Song Heping a headache.
"How tall is the container?" Mohammed suddenly asked.
Song Heping said, "The tallest is only about 2.9 meters."
Mohammed said, "That's easy to deal with. You just dismantle the launch tubes and weapon base from the roof, and the original BRDM-2 combat vehicle is only about 2.3 meters tall, easily fitting inside. The removed three weapon launch systems can be placed in another container, and that way, the problem is solved."
His words immediately enlightened Song Heping, and the troublesome issue vanished like smoke.
"That's right!"
He patted Mohammed's arm forcefully and said, "We will do as you suggested, you go back right now and prepare the necessary tools. Tonight, I will come to pick you guys up, bringing the container truck and the crane to the makeshift airfield to load the cargo."
"Alright, boss, I'll go back and get ready right away."
Mohammed turned to leave but was called back by Song Heping from behind.
"Wait a minute, mention to your family tonight that you might need to go on a business trip for a while, it could be half a month, maybe a month, but rest assured, the company will provide a very generous travel allowance."
"No problem, boss!"
Mohammed left cheerfully.
Having been at the company for a few days, he found that most of the local employees were former members of the government army. They all told him that the company offered very good benefits and didn't discriminate, especially regarding business trips, which had very generous subsidies and commissions depending on the difficulty and danger involved.
Right now, what Mohammed needed most was money.
No wonder he was overjoyed.
People aren't afraid of hard work; as long as they're paid well, they are even willing to risk their lives.
After Mohammed left, Song Heping made a call to Yusuf to inform him that the goods would be loaded tonight and mentioned that he had asked Ferrari to transfer $900,000 to his account a day early, inquiring if he had seen the money in his account.
As the call was about to end, Song Heping intentionally added, "Yusuf, you can't keep that money all to yourself, you still have to share what should be shared. We have an old saying in China, 'It's hard to get fat on your own,' you know?"
Yusuf denied it over and over again on the other end of the phone: "I absolutely did not keep it all to myself, how could I dare to do that, do you think I look like someone who would do that?"
He then lowered his voice and started to whisper about whom he had split the money with, which relationships he had smoothed over, including how difficult the procedures were that he managed to get done, and so on...
Indeed, from loading the goods to getting them to the port, and then departing from the country, there was a strict set of procedures involving many departments.
Hearing this, Song Heping smiled with satisfaction and said, "That's right, if you don't understand the value of sharing, no one will save you when trouble comes."
After finishing this warning remark, he hung up the phone.
Then, he sat in the chair of his office and fell into deep thought.
Song Heping was almost certain that something was bound to happen tonight.
If Simon wasn't out of his mind, upon seeing him transport away the SA-9 missile systems tonight, he would surely order his GRS team to take action and apprehend him.
Song Heping was also confident that Simon, a CIA officer, wouldn't use the military Special Forces against him.
The reason was simple: having recently secured such a large military contract, anyone with eyes could see that "Musician" Defense had close ties with the military. So, to take him down, Simon would definitely not cooperate with the military to request the deployment of forces like Seal or Delta out of fear of leaking information.
But what Song Heping wanted was for the CIA to act on its own, to make their own decisions without informing anyone else.
As long as Simon acted alone, this play would surely achieve its best effect.
"Ferrari!"
Song Heping picked up the office phone.
"Come to my office."
Soon after, Ferrari arrived.
When he walked in, Song Heping gave him a look to signal him to close the door properly.
Ferrari did as indicated and then sat down opposite Song Heping.
With just one glance, Ferrari understood what was going on.
"A play tonight?"
"Mm," Song Heping rubbed his face forcefully and ground his teeth as he said, "Tonight the risk could be quite high, and I'm betting on it, so there are some things I have to tell you in advance."
"You tell me, and I'll do it."
Ferrari usually had a sharp tongue, but he never hesitated at crucial moments.
Song Heping said, "If I'm not shot, I will definitely signal you when something happens. If the CIA blocks the signal, you just need to drive the car to the side of Highway 11 before 9 o'clock tonight. If the convoy hasn't passed there by 10:30, you should know something has happened to me. Once you know something's wrong, do you know what to do?"
"I know, everything will be taken care of, don't worry," Ferrari said with a solemn face, knowing that Song Heping was right.
Although it was predicted that the CIA would definitely make a move against them tonight, no one knew exactly how they would do it, whether they would execute them on the spot or capture them alive.
Song Heping guessed that they would try to capture him alive.
Because he believed that Simon's keen interest in this matter was not just about killing him.
Alive, he was more valuable.