The sun's rays shone obliquely on the surface of the Niger River flowing in the desert, and the time was estimated to be around four o'clock.

A few kilometers away from the Niger River, there is a city in the desert, and it is the desert town of Timbuktu!

The historical and cultural city of Timbuktu (Yanbaktu) in the Sahara Desert is a city founded by the ancient Tuareg people, with the Niger River flowing through it since ancient times, and has been the capital of Mali in French West Africa, and is an important economic and cultural exchange town on the African continent!

From ancient times to the present, Arabs, Tuaregs, and blacks with thinning and curly hair have all lived and studied in Timbuktu and lived in harmony.

However, the war in Mali two years ago has disrupted this rhythm again, and the desert town of Timbuktu, known as the pearl of the Sahara Desert, has rarely had quiet and noiseless nights since the Malian government army and the French Foreign Legion joined forces to regain it from the hands of extreme rebel forces.

The runway built into the desert is full of planes taking off and landing day and night, bringing mountains of various materials.

In addition to civilian airliners and various transport planes, a fighter squadron of fighters is also stationed at Timbuktu Airport, often carrying various types of missiles under its wings to streak across the sparsely lit night sky of the city and carry out all kinds of sudden missions.

For all kinds of noise, it doesn't matter to the general public who have not left Timbuktu.

There are still extremist rebel armed members active in the desert near Timbuktu, and ordinary people in the small town are hoping that the missiles carried by the plane can really kill the high-level members of the extremist rebel armed members, so that the extremist rebel armed forces will be wiped out by the government army and the French ** team after they fall apart!

In the desert sand adjacent to the runway of Timbuktu Airport, several men with AK74 assault rifles on their backs, dressed in desert digital training uniforms, and with short hair on top of their heads of different skin colors, can be seen guarding several nearby container houses.

Looking at the airport and the desert separated by a temporary metal mesh, on the opposite side of the metal mesh, several Malian government soldiers with firearms who also stepped on the sand and stirred up dust have approached at a fast speed, and the people on both sides will appear "friendly" talking and talking across the metal mesh, and several government soldiers will leave after chatting a few words, continuing their mission of patrolling the airport fence, such a scene has appeared many times.

After seeing the government soldiers leaving, a tall black man in his thirties said in Arabic with a puzzled expression: "I don't know what mistake Eliza made this time, the instructor hasn't let her out at this time!" ”

"Alfs, you have to be careful, you haven't forgotten the consequences of saying bad things behind the instructor's back last time, brothers, let's help Alfs sober up, last time Alfs said that the instructor had a menopausal attack, isn't that so?"

A white European man next to Alfs had a playful look on his face and spoke Arabic at a rapid pace.

Alfs's expression changed, the last time he was taken the opportunity by the instructor to choke enough, although he knew that the door of the container house with the ventilation window was always closed, Eliza must have done something wrong, the instructor was very scary when he was training, Eliza was still a sniper brought out by the instructor, and the instructor's strictness to Eliza was a must.

In the room of the container house, the natural light is still okay and does not need to be turned on for lighting, Eliza, a European woman in her twenties who is also wearing a training uniform with fair skin and short broken hair, sits on a stool with sweat on her face, and puts an unfolded folding metal table in the container room, using paper and pen to restore the details of this mission as much as possible.

The instructor's request to Eliza was that it should not only be a text file, but also a pen drawing to save it, so that it would look more intuitive.

Eliza knows that there are many benefits of being taken care of by the instructor, but this time she has to draw the faces of two or three people with outstanding abilities with a pen, Eliza feels that it is difficult to complete the instructor's orders, that man feels very weird, and it is really difficult to express his temperament with a pen and paper!

When Eliza buried her head in sketching the man's face with paper and pen, a metal door arranged on the alloy wall in a set of designs was pushed open, and a thirty-year-old black long hair was made into a bun and coiled behind her head, a light-colored short-sleeved undershirt with dark purple trousers, a height of 1.7 meters and a good figure, and a pair of Asian mature women with Danfeng eyes walked up to Eliza.

Seeing Eliza's sweaty face, the Asian mature woman gently tapped her fingers on the metal table, Eliza heard the sound of a slight finger tapping on the table, and immediately stood up and said quickly in Arabic: "Instructor, the requirements are too high, I can't draw that person!" ”

Hearing Eliza say this, the female instructor motioned for Eliza to hand over the written action summary report.

Seeing that there was still a page on the table with a partial man's face drawn, the female instructor picked up the page with an unfinished face, and after a closer look, the pair of Danfeng eyes blinked smartly, put the page with a partially painted face on the table, picked up a brush from the table and brushed a few strokes to add the lines she thought, and quickly sketched a complete man's face!

The female instructor put the complete portrait of the man's face in Eliza's hand, and saw Eliza's sign language very surely, the man's face she wanted to draw was this honorable face, and the female instructor reluctantly smiled on her face and said in Arabic: "Eliza, you can go back and rest, tell Alfs and the rest of the people, just write a report and hand it in."

After Eliza looked at the female instructor who had tucked the full portrait into a few pages of the operation report, Eliza turned and opened the metal door and left the container house.

Alfs and the others, who were guarding near the container house, quickly found Eliza and asked if there was any abuse by the female instructor who was called a mercenary nightmare?

Eliza only said that the instructor asked everyone to submit a report, and Eliza did not say a word about the content of the conversation with the female instructor

In a research institute located underground somewhere in China, the confidential telephone in the director's office rang, and an old man with glasses pushed open the door of the director's office, walked quickly to the desk and picked up the telephone receiver.

When I heard that the confidential line was used, the content involved in the call turned out to be that it had been confirmed that Song Xiaoshuang was still alive, and he was still in the West African desert thousands of miles away at this time!

Professor Liu, a thin old man, suddenly seemed to have drunk sorghum wine, his face was flushed, and he found that the microphone on the other end of the special line had hung up on its own, Professor Liu put down the microphone in his hand, shook his head, and the person who already knew that the call was coming to him wanted to know what was going on with Song Xiaoshuang more than himself, and it was already very good to call a confidential call to report it to himself!

There are not only one or two people who know that Song Xiaoshuang is still alive, and many stalled projects and plans are waiting for Song Xiaoshuang to return to China and start immediately, and there are already anxious people who have transferred to Mali, West Africa.

For a while, there was an undercurrent, but Song Xiaoshuang didn't know anything, because he didn't feel an unknown danger approaching, at least for now.

In a small food black market in Timbuktu, Song Xiaoshuang, who had already changed into a brand new robe, followed a few Arabs who had gone to the black market to buy food to the black market, and walked slowly around the courtyard where a lot of various foods were placed, but did not buy any food, which made the black market vendors very suspicious of Song Xiaoshuang's motives.

As long as it is confirmed that Song Xiaoshuang came to the black market to cause stumbling blockades, several black market thugs will clean up Song Xiaoshuang wearing robes from the black market.

Sima Yuru, who was also standing up and wearing a robe next to Song Xiaoshuang, wrinkled his forehead and thought to himself: Song Xiaoshuang still wants to find canned chicken with snail sauce here, the possibility is not impossible, but obviously Song Xiaoshuang is far from coming, and he is targeted by thugs on the black market, and once he gets stiff, he will attract the attention of others!

In order not to make things stiff, Sima Yuru bought two boxes of compressed biscuits and a box of ordinary canned braised pork separately, and then paid for it and asked the black market store to deliver it somewhere, and then he and Song Xiaoshuang left the food black market, and no one stopped them.

Sima Yuru, as a dormant agent, once activated, the superior will put a sum of money into her special bank account, although it has long been estimated that the small amount of money is not very much, but when the card is paid on the black market, Song Xiaoshuang noticed that even Sima Yuru herself does not know how much money will suddenly be added to the account.

When he saw that the four zeros were preceded by the number 1, Song Xiaoshuang couldn't help but sigh that agents are really not a job that ordinary people can do, and $10,000 is the necessary evacuation fund for Sima Yuru and these agents before they return to China.

When Song Xiaoshuang returned to the simple hostel arranged by Air France and the Malian government, the owner of the hostel, who knew a little Chinese, told Song Xiaoshuang that several staff members claiming to be XXX military contractors had just come to him and told Song Xiaoshuang that if he wanted to leave Mali and return to China as soon as possible, he could go to them, and the location was in the desert sand container house outside the airport.

Sima Yuru sensitively found that when the innkeeper stated the message, he was talking about at least two women, and there were indeed female mercenaries in that private military contractor, but the mercenaries obviously did not have the possibility of getting even one ticket from the Malian government army and the French army!

In advance, the Malian government army had told the passengers who had escaped after the forced landing on the passenger plane that because of the fighting with the extremist rebel forces, there were no flights from Timbuktu for several days, and the airport facilities were vacated for the fighters who came from the transfer field, and if they wanted to leave Timbuktu and return home, they had to go to the capital to find a way.

Sima Yuru is not optimistic about what military contractor's wrists will be through, war is about attrition is logistics, could it be that military contractor still has its own fighter jets, let one or two people leave Mali?