Chapter 8: Living and Dying Together: One, Two, Three, Tracking the Bare-robed Man
I told Faceless to return to the Bogda tribe immediately. I found myself making a big mistake by ignoring the power of the media all the time. I know that after the attack on these mercenary companies, the Bogda manifesto has been turned over the Internet and linked. As a result, the Bogda tribe will be found by various media outlets. Then there was a flood of journalists. The secrets of the Bogda will no longer exist, and those reporters will dig up all the things that have happened in the Bogda for a thousand years with the pen of a flower. I know that if such a situation happens, it will be another form of disaster for the Bogda tribe. I must not let that happen.
After I return to the Bogda tribe without a face, I will immediately close the passage between the tribe and the outside world, and never allow any outsiders to enter the Bogda tribe.
I told Aya that I had sensed the bare-robed man's intentions. He was rushing to his next target, which was the mercenary base of the primeval forests of the Almasun Valley. He will destroy that place before us. Now, we have to get there as fast as we can. Then we ambushed the bare-robed man in that place.
Aya didn't say much, and went with all my might to South America. I found the location of this mercenary base in the primeval forest of the Amazon River basin according to the directions and coordinates provided in the information obtained by Faceless. But as they swept through the depths of this primeval forest, a muffled explosion was heard in the distance. Then a fire rose into the sky. We immediately realized that something was wrong, and by the time we arrived at the mercenary's base, it was already in flames. Although we hurried and hurried, we ended up being one step too late. Everything in the base was gone, and there was no trace of the bare-robed man. Aya and I split up and searched the primeval forest, but found no trace of the light-robed man. Finally, I concentrated all my energy, and I vaguely felt that the bare-robed man was skimming across the sea like the wind.
I realized that the Lightrobes were rushing to the last mercenary base we were going to take revenge on. That is the place in Afghanistan, where war has been raging for nearly 50 years. I didn't have time to think about it, so I pulled Aya and chased after her.
Aya and I found the location of this mercenary base in the wilderness as quickly as we could, following the directions and coordinates provided in the information brought by Faceless.
This mercenary base is in the region of northern Afghanistan known as the "Fields of the Wind". In addition to the location and floor plan of this mercenary base, the information brought by Faceless also has an assessment of strength. Including their organizational structure, armament, proficient methods of warfare, the composition of the main combat personnel. There is also a list of all shareholders, their addresses, social backgrounds, and details of family members. There is also a detailed description of the area. The introduction said that this is a dangerous zone in the eyes of the world, and armed people are everywhere, but they are ordinary people. The introduction said that these people were supposed to live peacefully here, but then something happened. Because two people fight, the elders will intervene to mediate. But while the mediation meeting was underway, a group of armed men suddenly rushed in, believing that they were holding a meeting against them, so they opened fire, killing everyone present. After the incident, the mercenary base entered the area, calling on the remaining local men and the surrounding young adults to take up guns, making it an armed area that outsiders could not enter. The people here are trained at home from an early age, and after joining the mercenary base, they receive special training from the mercenary base. Included in the materials brought by Faceless was a manual for training at the mercenary base. The handbook is written in both Pashto and English. In terms of operations, the manual begins with this definition: "A military organization must meet the following three elements, otherwise it cannot be established: 1. Organizational leaders and think tanks; 2. Soldiers (individual members); 3. Clear strategy. The handbook also describes how to track targets and evade pursuit, with one article specifying "how to monitor a house and specific targets," including how to see how many cars and people are around the house, how to keep the house safe, and how to get in and out of the house. At the same time, members are trained in investigation, confidentiality, camouflage, etc. The manual states that the tasks of the mercenary al-Qaeda military organization are: to gather information about the enemy, to kidnap enemy personnel, to assassinate enemy personnel, to rescue brothers captured by the enemy, and so on. At the leadership level of mercenary bases, there is detailed training content for commanders, such as requiring commanders to divide combat funds into two parts, one part for investment to obtain stable returns, and the other part for strict custody, such as never using them if they do not go to war. The information that Faceless brought gave Aya and I a comprehensive understanding of this mercenary base.
After Aya and I entered this wasteland known as the "Field of the Wind". When I raised my eyes, I saw a brownish and yellow wasteland, and the endless wasteland undulated, gradually connecting to the sky. The so-called road here is nothing more than a rut made by a car, and after a gust of wind, it may not be found again. The scenery around you feels an indescribable desolation. Aya and I stood on a high place, not a single pedestrian or a moving vehicle, only a whirlwind forming ahead. From a distance, an air mass appears not high above the ground, and then it gradually rises, spiraling upwards like a column, and then slowly spreads around until it disappears into the air. One by one, they came and went.
I think the wilderness is rough, but the other side of the roughness is grim. The wasteland is empty, but behind the emptiness is desolation. The wasteland is silent, but silence is not silence. Many times, the wasteland only stays in the illusion of art and people's imagination, and walking through the wasteland is just a form, a witness. So, the wasteland always seems to be eternal, and the wasteland seems to be forever in the wilderness. Perhaps, expectation is just a delusion after all, and the wasteland may never escape the fate of the wasteland and loneliness. But in my eyes, although life in the wasteland is weak, I have never given up on perseverance. I can hear the rhythmic sounds of these lives, or fierce and unrestrained, or moaning, or helpless, or cathartic, but they never stop like a long river. The law of the universe is that nothing is set in stone.
Standing on a high place, Aya first discovered the location of the base. Between the hills, there is a house of similar color to the wilderness. Outside the house, there were heavily armed men walking around.
I let out a long breath and finally arrived here before the bare-robed man.