Chapter 804: The Story of Ling and Heng (67)
Li Nanheng continued speaking into his headphones.
It was connected to the bases’ command center and the other helicopters. Whenever new orders were issued from the base, he needed to make quick judgment of the situation and give his commands to the members in the other helicopters.
At this moment, everyone’s expressions were stern and composed; no one paid any attention to each other’s statuses as drillmasters or newbies.
On a rare occasion, Feng Ling found that there was actually nothing she could do to help.
She sat in the rear end of the helicopter with her back straight as she listened attentively to Li Nanheng’s words.
The wind rushed past her ears with an incessant whistling noise, pus.h.i.+ng against her short hair. She raised her hand to touch her hair and thought to herself that short hair was indeed the most appropriate. On a helicopter like this, having long hair would definitely affect her movement and vision.
As she sat in the rear end of the helicopter, Feng Ling’s ears were filled with the noise from the propellers. She needed to tilt her body forward and use quite some effort in order to catch all of the orders Li Nanheng was issuing into his headphones.
Han Jin and Qiao Fei who sat in front of her were all wearing the headsets and could communicate freely through the noise.
Nanheng saw that they were approaching their destination and glanced backward at Feng Ling who was sitting at the other end. He turned and instructed something to Qiao Fei. Qiao Fei then turned back to Feng Ling and pointed at his own headset to demand: “Put on your headphones!”
Feng Ling has never partic.i.p.ated in a mission like this and had a.s.sumed that there was a limited supply of headsets on this helicopter. When she heard Qiao Fei’s words, she turned back and searched through her seat. After a moment, she found a pair of headsets hung behind her seat and tugged it over to put it on.
Finally, the loud noise from the propeller was blocked by the soundproof headset and her world fell silent.
All that was left was the indistinct crackling of electric current through the headset.
“We are in the midst of communicating with the members from the command center. Currently, Mr. Ted’s family of three has already been moved from their original location. They have been forcefully brought onto a large, private cruise s.h.i.+p leaning close to our mission destination. The cruise has already begun moving. We will require a group of men to surround the cruise and take down the enemies, and another group of men to board the s.h.i.+p to rescue them. Otherwise, it is possible that Mr. Ted and his family may be killed on the boat. Members on helicopter number 5, please report your location right now.”
Han Jin’s voice came through her headset.
“The rescue team has received your information. The US military has already arranged for a rescue s.h.i.+p near the mission destination. However, they have not approached for fear of alarming the enemy. We will immediately arrange for the s.h.i.+p to head to the destination ASAP. We are situated behind helicopter number 1 at 7 o’clock. The estimated landing time would be slower than helicopter number 1 by three minutes.”
The person in charge of the rescue team answered from the helicopter at the back.
Indeed, after putting on her headphones, she was able to hear everything clearly.
Although Han Jin was typically a stern drillmaster in Team One, privately, he was especially approachable.
Feng Ling had already left Team One for quite some time. After staying in the sniper team for so long, this was her first time hearing Han Jin’s grave tone in a while.
“Helicopter 7, report your progress on tracking the surrounding signals.” After a minute of silence, Nanheng’s voice came through her headset.
Feng Ling’s breath paused slightly. She raised her heat to watch the man seated in the copilot seat.
Li Nanheng appeared composed; his gaze was fixed ahead. He operated the position tracker the base had specially installed onto the helicopter as he listened to the replies from helicopter number 7. He then spoke with a firm tone: “Mission target is within our sights. Helicopter number 5, head toward the sea and provide rescue. Helicopters number 7 and 8, stay in your positions and wait for orders. Everyone else, remain at 7 meters radius away from the target, at 3:30 o’clock position, 10 meters height.”
The terrorists below them had already sensed the approach of danger and s.h.i.+fted Mayor Ted and his family onto the sea. Even from this distance, they could see the large, white, private cruise s.h.i.+p that was moving away from them.
Seven helicopters directly headed for the most dangerous locations covered in explosives. As they descended, the rescue team in helicopter number 5 headed for the cruise s.h.i.+p.
From afar, they suddenly noticed a large amount of black smoke emitting from the cruise; it slowly moved upward. Gradually, indistinct flames became visible to them.
Initially, they could only see a white cruise s.h.i.+p. By the time the helicopter descended to a fixed distance, the flames were prominent and they could see the situation beneath clearly.
Mr. Ted had a family of three; there was even a three-year old who was clueless of the situation. After days of abduction, in the midst of being s.h.i.+fted away, these terrorists planned to escape by jumping off the cruise and leaving them to die in the fire on the cruise just like this?
Looking in that direction, Nanheng abruptly raised his hand and indicated for the helicopter to stop on the other side. After descending onto the ground, he plucked off his headphones and turned to look at Feng Ling: “In the base, you and Qiao Fei are the most adept in water. If that family of three has any problems, it’s unlucky that the rescue team alone will be insufficient to bring them away. They have a child with them; we need someone to personally bring them away. You and Qiao Fei will go cooperate with the rescue team on the sea. Leave everything else here to me.”
“But Boss, there are so many terrorists waiting to ambush here. We didn’t send too many people out with us. If you send Feng Ling and I therE…” Qiao Fei furrowed his brows.
“Time is tight. I don’t have any to waste on your rubbish. Just listen to my orders,” Nanheng replied mildly. “Our priority is to rescue Mr. Ted’s family. Don’t forget who he is related to. The terrorists outside are secondary right now. With so many people here, we won’t lack for the two of you. Move off now.”
Feng Ling had heard about the buried landmines and ambush hidden at the mission destination last night in that conference room. Although everyone deployed for this mission were the elites from their base, but with this level of danger and the number of members that were sent away, she also felt that it was better for her to remain in the frontline to provide support, rather than leaving for the cruise.
She plucked off her headset to speak up, but Qiao Fei had already stood up to open the cabin door. At the same time, he spoke to her: “Boss’s words are absolute. In any urgent, crucial situation, it is necessary to follow Boss’s arrangements. Feng Ling, follow me down.”
Feng Ling faltered. She turned to look at Nanheng, but the man had already tossed two life jackets at her. He spoke coldly: “I know you’re good with water and won’t need these. Put them on anyway in case of any trouble.”
Feng Ling did not say anything. She picked up the life jackets and after seeing that Qiao Fei had already jumped off, she followed suit and landed on the ground. Less than two minutes later, after Qiao Fei and her backed away, the helicopter ascended once more and directly headed for the mission destination.
“Let’s go. It’s important to save the victims. Don’t delay anything. If anything happens to Mr. Ted’s family, the president will definitely speak up. If any countries are pulled into this trouble, our base’s reputation will definitely be affected. Boss is very rational; the priorities of the mission have to be kept. We need to cooperate with him.”