The leaves had already stilled, and Song Heping took out his wallet from his pocket, pulled out a stack of bills, removed a paper clip clipped on the bills, and then straightened it into a metal rod.
Morins, watching beside him, had no idea what Song Heping was planning to do, his face filled with confusion.
With the small metal stick in his hand, Song Heping rubbed it against the barrel of the M4A1 in one direction for a while, then gently placed the needle on the leaf floating in the water.
Soon, Morins witnessed a miraculous scene.
The leaf actually began to move.
No.
To be precise, it started to rotate, slowly beginning to turn, and after several seconds, the leaf finally stabilized.
Song Heping stared intently, then looked up into the distance, his gaze sharp as an eagle's.
Then he spread out the map, compared the direction and the terrain, and then pointed to a location on the map.
"We are here now."
"Are you sure?" Morins was entirely confused.
Song Heping packed up the map, affirming confidently, "No mistake."
"Were you just finding our direction?" Morins pointed at the leaf, "With that?"
Song Heping put away the paperclip and turned to Morins, saying, "Yes, there's no sun today, I had to rely on this thing."
"What method is this?"
Morins wanted to inquire further, but Song Heping, not inclined to explain, pointed forward and said, "Let's go, this direction will take us to the camp you mentioned."
After speaking, he started walking in the determined direction.
Morins stayed put momentarily, then seeing Song Heping moving away, he quickly caught up by taking three steps for every two of his own.
It wasn't really surprising that Song Heping didn't explain the reason to him.
After all, the operation was quite complex, and explaining it would be too time-consuming.
He was actually using the magnetic field method.
In the wilderness, determining direction is crucial, but in many special cases losing equipment or accidentally damaging GPS and other positioning devices might happen.
Therefore, Special Soldiers must learn to use the most primitive methods to determine direction in the most challenging circumstances.
With no sun today, Song Heping was forced to adopt this magnetic field method.
This method utilizes the earth's magnetic field principle to find the north-south direction.
One only needs to find a water source, a leaf, and have a metal stick or wire on hand to use the magnetic field method.
The operation is also simple. First, place the leaf on the water, letting it stabilize, then magnetize the metal stick.
The best way to magnetize it is to have a magnet on hand and scrape the metal stick against it, which will give it a slight magnetism in a short amount of time.
Even without a magnet, scraping it on iron can also magnetize, and if neither is available, your head could be an option.
However, obviously, the best choice is to use a magnet.
This method is not necessarily absolutely accurate, as magnetic method is greatly affected by external environmental disturbances, such as iron ore deposits underneath the testing spot, which can impact the stability and accuracy of the magnetic field.
Therefore, Song Heping also used another method for cross verification, which was observing the surrounding plants; the side with lusher leaves indicated the south.
Not only that, even the rocks on the mountains served as speaking compasses, like the moss on rocks.
Since mosses prefer damp, cool places, the side covered with moss indicates the north, while the smoother side indicates the south.
Having assessed all these factors, Song Heping was able to ascertain north and south even on a sunless, overcast day and thus determine all directions.
Just as Song Heping and Morins had determined their direction and set off into the jungle, at the original ELN camp, Colonel Freddie stood in the middle of the camp with a steely expression on his face.
Before him were rows of corpses.
The scene was thick with the stench of blood, numerous flies circling overhead, swooping down when undetected to greedily lap up the fresh blood from the wounds on the bodies.
A lieutenant came running over and saluted Colonel Freddie, "Sir, all counted, a total of 121 bodies and 32 captives, but Morins is not among them, it seems they really escaped into the mountains through the north side of the camp."
"Have all the captives been interrogated?" Freddie's face was as expressionless as rock, "Was Morins really here before?"
Indeed, he had heard the unwelcome news that Morins had escaped, which made it difficult for him to be pleased.
"They have been interrogated." The lieutenant seemed somewhat disheartened, "Before the assault began, Morins was indeed here in the camp. Apparently, there was an important guest expected today, so he had been waiting in the camp."
"Guest…" Freddie frowned deeper, "Do you know who it was?"
"The captives don't know, some say it could be an arms dealer from abroad, seemingly a Chinese." The lieutenant reported truthfully.
Freddie slightly raised his eyebrows, looking at the lieutenant, "Chinese?"
The lieutenant nodded, "Yes, that's what they said. I personally verified several people's statements, all consistent, but they are unclear about the specific identity."
Such a result was expected.
Freddie knew well that ordinary soldiers in the camp were unlikely to know the identity of important guests.
"Where are the bodies of our men?"
Lieutenant Colonel Freddie asked.
"Over there," the Lieutenant pointed to the north side of the camp.
Lieutenant Colonel Freddie remained silent and walked directly towards the north side of the camp.
Several accompanying officers and AGLAN team members hurried to follow.
Soon, the group reached the north side of the camp, where several AGLAN team members were gathered around six bodies. Seeing Freddie approaching, they stepped aside.
Freddie walked up to the first body, lifted the plastic tarp used as a rain cover, and revealed a young face beneath it.
He could recognize that this was a soldier from the first company of AGLAN.
He checked each one and confirmed they were all his men.
The last body was Rash's.
"Two people did this?" Freddie's breathing was heavy, obviously, his emotions were fluctuating.
Five rigorously trained AGLAN team members couldn't stop two people.
Especially since the first company had just received jungle warfare training from the US military's Seventh Special Operations Group less than a week ago.
This time, using the first company as the main attack force was for this reason. They had painstakingly honed a sharp knife, wanting to test its edge, but unexpectedly, the first blow created a notch on the blade.
"Does Morins have such strong combat capabilities?"
The officers nearby looked at each other, and finally, the Lieutenant answered, "Maybe it's not that Morins is strong, but rather... his guest..."
Freddie stood up, his gaze extending towards the mountainous area in the distance.
"Immediately issue my command, bring over the other two companies of AGLAN, and contact Special Operations Command. Tell them we need enough helicopter support, to dispatch at least ten helicopters here within an hour, and they must be delivered to various key positions within three hours. If I'm not wrong, they are heading northwest, into the Tbilisi Mountain Range. I remember there are ELN people there, we absolutely can't let them enter the mountains. Contact the Air Force, I need to speak with their boss."
"Yes, I'll do it right away."
After the Lieutenant had left, Lieutenant Colonel Freddie's gaze fell back on the bodies.
The fatal injuries were mostly in the head and there were also shots in the back.
One of the bodies appeared to have been shot in the back, indicating that the enemy had reached behind them without their team members realizing.
A chill inexplicably surged up from his spine, and Freddie's goosebumps suddenly appeared.
He hastily took out his phone and dialed a number.
"Is this Colonel James?"
A robust baritone came from the other end of the phone, "Freddie, how come you have time to call me? I heard you started deploying yesterday for a secret operation. I thought we wouldn't see each other before you left."
"I am executing an important operation, but have encountered some trouble. I hope to get your help. Can you dispatch an ODA team over?"
"Trouble?" Colonel James spoke with a teasing tone, "You're not surrounded by drug traffickers needing me to rescue you, are you?"
"No," Freddie said, "Colonel, our operation was quite successful, but two men got away. I need your help in Arauca Province, I will send a plane to pick you up."
"Two people?" Colonel James sounded somewhat unhappy, "You can't handle two people? We aren't kindergarten nannies, and we aren't obligated to clean up your mess."
"Cabala is dead."
"What?"
"And Duke."
"..."
There was silence from the other end of the phone.
Because these two were among the most outstanding trainees that James had previously trained at the assault school for the Colombian Mountain Special Forces.
"A total of five men, all from the first company," Freddie continued, "probably taken down by one person."
"One person?"
Colonel James sounded very shocked at the other end of the phone.
"Are you sure?"
"Of course."
"Alright, send a plane to pick me up immediately, and I will bring my team over. But it will take some time since I need approval from my superiors to join your operation."
"Can you get the authorization?"
"It shouldn't be a problem. We are already doing joint training, so that can be the pretext for our combined operation."
"Good, see you later, then."
After hanging up, having received a firm response, Lieutenant Colonel Freddie finally breathed a sigh of relief.
With an American ODA Special Forces team assisting, capturing Morins this time should be straightforward.