Chapter 92: Transnational Joint Operation

Even the U.S. government handled its own elite troops with such caution. Black Fox was only a contractor under their agreement, so there was no chance they would leave matters to chance with her.

As for Xing Xiaolong...

Strictly speaking, he still did not count as a PMC. At best, he was only one of Black Fox’s men.

The U.S. government knew nothing of Xing Xiaolong’s background. The only reason it allowed him to join the top-priority arrest operation was out of trust in Black Fox, as a courtesy, and because it meant no additional pay or commission had to be handed over.

That was why they chose to look the other way.

Otherwise, with Xing Xiaolong’s resume, no special-forces background, no training at a renowned security or counterterrorism academy, no international certifications such as IBA, he would have been rejected at the very first stage of the contract application.

To put it bluntly, he would not even have been qualified to be watched.

After hearing Black Fox’s detailed explanation, Xing Xiaolong’s understanding of the PMC world deepened yet again, and his desire to improve himself grew even more urgent.

If he wanted respect and recognition from others, he first had to make sure he was strong enough.

That was the most basic rule of survival.

The more deeply Xing Xiaolong came to understand this dangerous profession, the more profoundly he felt its truth.

With this new shift in mindset, even though he still felt a little uneasy about the U.S. government sending people to keep an eye on him, once he thought about the hidden dealings behind it all, and about his own half-baked abilities, he no longer resisted it so much.

Still, to be honest, deep down, if this arrest of Mukhtar Wushou went smoothly, then given the traffickers’ habit of keeping piles of cash and gold at home, there would surely be plenty of gold and banknotes there.

If no one were watching him, Xing Xiaolong really could not guarantee he would be able to restrain himself when the time came.

After all, he was desperately short of money.

And as the greatest pillar of his survival, he urgently needed one million dollars to upgrade and unlock his arsenal. With that invisible recharge window, stealing money was almost too simple and too easy.

He could just grab it and stuff it into the recharge card. If no one were watching, he could walk off with tens of millions in his hands in the blink of an eye.

When the need was so urgent and the temptation so convenient, who could possibly resist it?

Of course, Xing Xiaolong was only thinking about it.

For an arrest operation of this scale, there was no way they would let him act alone, let alone the fact that Xing Xiaolong himself did not dare to act alone.

In Dadaab, the world’s largest refugee camp, there were more than one hundred thousand members of the drug-trafficking underworld.

Going in alone would leave not even a shred behind.

...

The joining of CIA agent Bill Lipschutz was only the first unexpected development in the operation to bring Jahad back.

The second development that followed was even more infuriating than a “fully intelligent surveillance camera” falling from the sky.

At Black Fox’s request, Chief Superintendent Kipsiler submitted the application for Jahad’s cooperation in the investigation. With the Kenyan Foreign Ministry coordinating, he personally contacted the Ethiopian police and spent the entire night arranging the procedures for the cross-border transfer of a prisoner to assist in the investigation.

But although the matter was settled, it differed greatly from the original plan.

Every country has things it is deeply wary of, and above all else, armed personnel from another country entering its territory.

Because of that, the standard international procedure for transferring prisoners is for the country holding the prisoner to escort him to the other side’s territory, or to the border, where the handover is completed.

Even when two countries have an extradition treaty and the receiving country’s police are allowed to cross the border to retrieve a suspect on their own initiative, they still are not permitted to carry weapons.

Only international police officers with a particularly special status are allowed to enter another country armed.

But this time, the Ethiopian police added an extra condition that completely broke with convention.

Ethiopia agreed to hand Jahad over to the Kenyan police by way of a prisoner exchange, so that he could assist in the investigation of the increasingly rampant drug-trafficking cases.

At the same time, they also stated, with evident helplessness, that because this was a secret cooperation between the two countries and could not be exposed to the media, they could not dispatch border troops to carry Jahad to the Kenyan-Ethiopian border in a joint operation.

And with the meager police force they had along the border, they simply could not complete the transfer of the suspect on their own.

Although the Ethiopian police did not explain why they were unable to complete the transfer alone, both countries shared borders with part of the Black Triangle, so it was obvious to everyone that they were wary of the traffickers and the gangs.

Police being afraid of drug traffickers and gangsters sounded absurd.

But here, it was the reality.

The failure of the Liboyi rescue operation had already cost them the only informant with reliable intelligence. Chief Superintendent Kipsiler did not want this last ray of “hope” to meet with an accident on the road and die in transit.

So after detailed consultations, the police of both countries settled on a joint escort arrangement.

Kenya would send out an elite escort unit and permit them to carry all standard police weapons, while the Ethiopian police would likewise dispatch a special operations team. The two forces would meet at the border and form a joint convoy.

They would act in coordination, with the Ethiopian side leading the way, while each side retained command over its own personnel.

First, the prisoner from the Kenyan side would be taken to Dilla as the exchange party, then Jahad would be transferred into the convoy, and the joint escort would return along the same route to the border.

Only after entering Kenyan territory would the entire operation be considered truly complete.

According to the request Black Fox had made the day before, she only needed to take the special operations squad to the border between the two countries and bring Jahad back to complete the mission with ease.

But after this adjustment, what had once been a simple handover had turned into a dangerous cross-border joint escort.

The difficulty of the task had increased at least tenfold.

Even knowing full well that crossing the Black Triangle and traveling the only cross-border road between the two countries to bring back a major drug lord would be extremely dangerous, with the convoy liable to face armed attacks from traffickers at any moment, there was no room left to retreat.

However difficult it became, they could only force their way through.

As the person in charge of the entire “Top Capture Plan,” Black Fox knew very well how dangerous this trip was. Her decision would directly determine whether Xing Xiaolong and the others could avoid danger and return safely.

From Xing Xiaolong’s perspective, his lack of real combat experience left him completely at a loss.

Experience.

Experience.

A total lack of experience.

That was Xing Xiaolong’s biggest headache right now, and the area where he most urgently needed to grow.

Fortunately, Black Fox truly deserved her reputation as a lone-wolf PMC who had roamed the battlefield for years and was still as fierce and vigorous as ever; her ability to respond on the spot was beyond question.

She locked herself in the small meeting room. An hour later, when she came out, that familiar confidence had returned to her eyes.