Since getting his new job, former Stasi agent Ulrich Sandmann has felt like he's been more turbulent over the years than he has been.

Who the new employer is, never seen.

However, everyone knows it.

Because there was no direct contact, if something went wrong, even if they were arrested for murder, it would not involve the high-ranking man, just as a long, long time ago, if Agent Stasi had failed in his mission, there would have been no public recognition from the GDR.

It's conventional.

Ulrich Sandman is 43 years old this year, which is a bit old for agents, especially field agents, and when the country he once swore allegiance collapsed, Ulrich also considered retiring and finding a dull job. It's a pity that the world is always up to people.

First of all, his foundation is very unclean.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the new German government's investigation and pursuit of former Stasi members has never stopped, so that a large number of former Stasi members have been arrested, and many have been forced to flee, and many have been assassinated and died for unknown reasons.

In comparison, Ulrich has been very lucky.

Secondly, even if he narrowly escaped liquidation, it was not so easy for Ulrich to calm down, or there was always some unwillingness.

Because he has a lot of people to feed.

Not only his elderly parents, wife and four children, but also a sister who is 21 years younger than him, his sister has a good academic performance, she didn't have a chance before, and now, she is about to graduate from Columbia University in the United States, and plans to get a doctorate in the next four years.

And that's just the loved ones.

Ulrich also has six families of deceased comrades in need of help.

An old past that is unbearable.

Once he worked hard to climb up, once reached the rank of major, it was even a little ridiculous and sad, either because he had any official addiction, or in order to get more salary subsidies, and quietly use this heavy identity to earn some shady extra money, just to be able to help as many people around him as possible.

Therefore, it is impossible to turn to the bland in any case.

Now, except for his little sister, Ulrich's family lives in Australia, and his life is rich and stable, even if he understands that his relatives are fundamentally being taken hostage, Ulrich does not feel inappropriate.

And rightfully so.

Moreover, as long as he does not betray, nothing will happen, and even if he dies during the mission, he believes that his loved ones will be well taken care of. After all, the last thing that the young rich man with trillions of dollars in assets lacks is money, and all the other party wants is his loyalty.

Once he could be loyal to his country, now Ulrich can be loyal to a certain person.

In his bones, Ulrich understood that this was a very fair exchange, even if he sold his life to the other party, because the salary given by that person was much more generous than in the East German period, and he could also help the families of those comrades-in-arms more generously.

Nothing bad.

Now Ulrich is already holding an Australian passport at the public level, although the name has not changed, but under the operation of the Westeros system, it is basically equivalent to a different person, and the past is also scattered.

Presumably to confirm his loyalty, Ulrich now has five operational teams in his hands.

After a few years of quiet observation, Ulrich understood that for the relatively flat structure of the Westeros family intelligence team, which was not related to each other, this was already quite a high level and quite trust.

Ulrich was a little lucky.

Over the years, the group he is in charge of may have killed people, but no one died.

Thus the deficit is no longer increased.

Moreover, this time, even if someone dies, it will only be that person who needs to be replaced, and it has nothing to do with him.

He used to be equivalent to an officer, and it was natural for an officer to command his soldiers to charge, but he had never been used to directing others to die, and he even preferred to die himself. Perhaps he was promoted to the rank of major at a young age, and he was not promoted again for many years, because the Stasi higher-ups discovered his kindness as a woman.

This time, Ulrich also took care of the task himself.

It is also a somewhat inexplicable task, investigating smuggling routes around the world to France.

Probably because they need to follow up the smugglers in person, which is quite dangerous, they used their team.

Nothing bad.

Although, Ulrich couldn't figure out what the young rich man wanted to know about this, as in the past few years, they had been given all sorts of seemingly unreasonable assignments, and one of Ulrich's subordinates once laughed and pointed out that the big man might just not want them to be idle.

Perhaps there is such a possibility.

It would be great if it was true, though.

Ulrich would not be so naïve, as two years ago, some of the trivial actions they participated in in southern Italy, which at first seemed unreasonable, however, one night later, a family of the Glorious Society of Southern Italy was uprooted. Ulrich doesn't know how many people were killed in the whole process, but think about it, there must have been a lot.

That night, in the city of Regio, across the sea from Sicily in southern Italy, gunfire broke out in many areas, even making people think that there was a riot.

According to various subsequent signs, Ulrich also found that their behind-the-scenes boss also took advantage of the situation to support a puppet family in Reggio City, and the Danelli family, a subordinate of the Glorious Society headed by Danili, gave some help to their investigation of the smuggling route.

Then came the thousands of kilometers of travel.

Ulrich personally took two other members of his immediate team to a small town on the northern border of Iraq.

There's a smuggler here, and it's responsible for recruiting customers.

After a week of patient waiting, the three Ulrich left Iraq with a group of 129 customers recruited by the smuggler team, entered Turkey at night, and traveled overnight to a small seaside village in south-central Turkey.

Stay dormant for the time being.

It was another three days of waiting, until late at night, when all the stowaways, who were tired from running around, were woken up, hurried to the shore, boarded a freighter, and entered the most difficult part of the voyage.

The 129 smugglers, 93 men and 36 women, were all herded into the lowest cabin, and the smugglers wore face masks all the time, and collected $1,000 in cash from each smuggler after entering the warehouse, half of which was half of it, and the other half was collected after arriving at the destination.

This is a rule of the more formal smuggler team.

Or it is a rule formed after a long run-in with smugglers, because there have been too many bad incidents of smugglers being murdered and abandoned on the smuggling route, therefore, the slightly smarter smugglers will keep half of the funds, and the regular smuggler team will not forcibly ask for it.

The regular team of snakeheads is a bit odd to say.

But it's a fact.

Because there are many informal and unprofessional smugglers, as well as poor smugglers who don't know the rules and are deceived and even killed.

After getting on the ship, because they had arranged in advance, they were the VIPs on the ship, and the members of the smuggler team only wore masks when they came into contact with the stowaways, but they did not hide anything from them, and they took the initiative to give the three of them the information they needed.

Even taking pictures is no problem.

The task of the three of them needs to be taken care of by the photos, because this human snake team has a very close relationship with the Italian Glory Society, and after the above special explanation, as long as they do not take sensitive information such as the faces of the people, they are also left to the three of them.

In general, this is a freighter registered in the Panamanian Islands.

The place of registration of cargo ships on the Mediterranean Sea is Panama, in fact, it is also a common practice, and there are even many registered in the more unpopular Africa or South Asia, in the final analysis, it is convenient to shirk responsibility in the event of an accident.

This team of smugglers, to be precise, also comes with smugglers.

From Europe to North Africa, send a trip to smuggle goods, and then bring back a group of smugglers, making money on both sides.

The cost of smuggling is $2,000 per person, which is the current market price.

The cost of smuggling in the sea is basically the same, and those unprofessional smugglers will ask for less, maybe 1,000 US dollars, of course, the scale of the smuggling they organize will be very small, and it may even be that some small teams within the entire shipping company use regular sailing to secretly make extra money, and quietly hide a few people in the cabin.

After all, although the work of a seafarer is hard, the pay is not high.

Even if there are ten or eight smuggled people at a time, it is enough for some people to get an extra income.

And this regular team of snakeheads, in addition to the $2,000 smuggling fee, can earn more.

Upon arrival, another group of people will be assigned jobs for these stowaways, and then they will have to pay an additional fee for the next few years, which varies in amount, this time, to the public figure of about $8,000.

That is, the overall cost is $10,000.

However, these stowaways are actually lucky.

Because after paying $10,000, everything can be settled quite well, unlike some amateur teams and some hot-headed smugglers who think they can make a good life as long as they get to the other side, which often ends up very miserable.

Of course, there is no agreement.

It's just that for the next few years these people would be tightly controlled by an entire organization, almost equivalent to cheap labor, or, to be more precise, slaves.

Therefore, if it is said that it is 8000 dollars, everyone knows that this figure will only be more.

In any case, for these stowaways, as long as they can get overseas and settle down, it is probably worth the extra effort.

Ulrich knows that these people are Kurds living on the border with Iraq, and that the Kurds in the Middle East are like the gypsies of Europe, and their living conditions are even worse, and even the most basic lives are difficult to guarantee, especially since the economic situation in Iraq, which has been severely sanctioned in recent years, has deteriorated, and the situation of the Kurds has become worse.

"Actually, this is not a very good route," on the deck in the night, Ulrich and the captain who claimed to be named Renaud were smoking cigarettes together, because they were very good at contacting people, the smuggler team might be curious about Ulrich and a few people, but they were not too wary, but at this time they talked a little eloquently: "Since the end of the Cold War, smuggling has been the hottest business in recent years, but, whether it is the Middle East or France, one is not the best starting point, the other is not the best destination, John, do you know why?" ”

Publicly, Ulrich naturally does not use his real name, he is now called John.

Shaking his head, Ulrich asked, "Why?"

Captain Renault said: "Here in the Middle East, you must know very well that because they are not too qualified cheap laborers, therefore, the smuggling of these people often outweighs the losses. ”

Ulrich smiled and asked, "Then why are you still doing it?"

Captain Renault's eyes flashed with some essence, and he smiled: "Because we can guarantee that when they arrive at their destination, they can't do whatever they want, and if someone is lazy, the leather whip must be very useful." For others, there is no guarantee of this. Saying this, without waiting for Ulrich to ask again, Captain Renault added: "As for France, because it has been a right-wing government for many years, the crackdown on illegal immigrants is very strict, so it is very difficult to smuggle people." ”

Speaking of this, Captain Renault changed a cigarette, lit it and took a deep breath, and said: "The best smuggling route now is actually from Eastern Europe to Western Europe, because of the similar skin color, it is easier for Eastern Europeans to integrate into Western Europe, and, unlike the in Africa and these in the Middle East, Eastern Europeans are more capable, so that the governments of some countries such as Germany almost acquiesce to the illegal immigrants from Eastern Europe quietly entering their countries, because these countries lack cheap labor." In addition, heh, in fact, there is Asia, but this line is too far away, very difficult to do, but, maybe you also know, Asians are very hardworking, if it is not for the lack of access, I actually want to be Asian. ”

Ulrich smiled and chatted with Captain Renault for a while, and when it was time for dinner, everyone went into the cabin to dine.

Then there is the delivery of food to the smugglers in the bottom warehouse.

This is actually a job that many people don't like to do.

Naturally, Ulrich offered to help, carrying a plastic bucket of rice with him to the bottom barn, and as soon as he entered, a strange smell of mixing came to his face.

The members of the smuggler organization responsible for distributing food and fresh water tapped the bucket in their hands and signaled these ghost-like smugglers at the bottom to come and receive food, not that they didn't want to leave directly, but that once they did, maybe someone would starve to death.

These are all labor, and the smuggler organization is not like someone who is interested in it, of course, they have to do it themselves.