A Mercenary's War Chapter 36: Broken Rifle

Chapter 36: Broken Rifle

Translated by: kevin1782

Edited by: Isalee

After the Resistance started attacking, those hiding government troops had to return fire; if not, their blockade formation would immediately collapse.

Gao Yang started using rounds to “roll call”. Anyone who dared to show their head would face a merciless onslaught.

The government troops’ battle capabilities were far more superior than Resistance’s militias who weren’t trained properly. But being superior was just relative, they couldn’t even retaliate against Gao Yang’s attack. There was only despair while waiting for the shots one by one.

Psychological pressure from a sniper was overwhelming. The fear of not knowing when a bullet would come flying would break anybody’s mentality down easily. When the government troops realized they didn't have any backup or any way to win, they finally broke down.

A government soldier suddenly raised his hands and stood up. Gao Yang stopped in the nick of time before pulling the trigger. He saw that the soldier was surrendering, but even though he didn’t fire, that soldier was still killed because those militias couldn’t stop in time.

Seeing the soldier who raised his hands fell, Gao Yang couldn’t help but curse angrily. Luckily, those government troops didn’t lose all hope and still tried to surrender. Gao Yang saw that there were more and more men raising both their hands from his scope. Then those Resistance militias entered the building like a swarm of bees.

When Morgan saw Gao Yang, he stood before Gao Yang and was quiet for a moment before saying in a low voice, “You saved me again.”

Gao Yang pointed at Tribo and Grolev, chuckling, “You should thank them. Without those two, I couldn’t have hammered it down myself.”

Morgan shook hands with Tribo and Grolev and thanked them sincerely. But since Tribo couldn’t speak much English, he didn’t talk much with Morgan. For Grolev, after the handshake, he didn’t have any intention to converse also, but he told Bob, “If this mister was the rescue target, then the mission now is complete isn’t it? Thanks for hiring me for a thousand bucks, I just another five hundred left, thank you.”

Seeing Morgan’s puzzled expression, Bob and Gao Yang only remembered now that Grolev wasn’t paid yet.

Not waiting for Bob to speak, Gao Yang automatically drew out five hundred bucks and passed it to Grolev. When he pocketed the money, Gao Yang hesitated before asking, “Where do you plan on going next?”

Grolev’s face was blank before he said, “Where else? Find work to do of course!”

Even without Gao Yang’s explanation, Morgan also understood the situation. His voice sank, “You’re a free mercenary? If so, I plan on hiring you. I’ll pay you ten days in advance and two thousand US dollars per day. I’ll hire you until I get out of here, how’s that?

Grolev stared at Morgan in disbelief and his eyebrows furrowed while replying, “This pay is very high. I don’t have any reason to refuse, but can you tell me the reason behind such a high amount?”

He smiled and replied, “Very simple. You are very capable, and I need people for protection now. As for the high pay, you can take it as my gratitude for your help.”

Grolev nodded and that sealed the deal with Morgan. He stood at the side and stayed quiet.

As for Gao Yang, after he heard Morgan, he asked puzzledly, “ Mr Morgan, is it possible that you aren’t intending to leave right now? ”

Morgan’s face was grim as he nodded. “I can’t leave, at least temporarily. I have to stay until my manager arrives but I have to send Bob away. Gao Yang, you can leave with Bob, and your friend too of course.”

“How are we going to leave?”

“We have to get you guys on the plane before the airport closes. Get to Egypt first and then back to your homes respectively. There will be people supplying us two cars and enough bodyguards, so we just have to get to the airport in time.”

Gao Yang’s greatest wish now was to get home. He had no intention of intervening Morgan’s schedule. Knowing that he was going to go home, the granite in his worrying heart was finally brought to rest on the floor in mid-air.

They waited with Morgan’s group for a couple of minutes when two sedans and three pickup trucks full of people arrived at the building foyer downstairs.

Morgan and Bob were in a sedan with Gao Yang and two other bodyguards while Tribo and Grolev were in the other sedan with a pickup truck at the front. The other two pickups were at the back. The car team hustled towards the airport in a grandiose fashion.

It was already evening. The gunshot sounds in Benghazi did not cease but the frequency of it became more and more intense. There were frequent roadblocks and constructions, but there were no obstructions for Gao Yang and his group all the way there. Even if there were routine checks on their cars, they were let through pretty fast.

The chauffeur was a middle-aged man with a massive beard. Every time he met a roadblock or a similar area, he would stick out his head and scream at those fully armed men for a few moments. After garnering enough cheers, he would then quickly drive the car through. Tribo told Gao Yang that the chauffeur was yelling out sentences like the Freedom Army would definitely triumph, screw Gaddafi, and stuff like that.

Seeing that the Resistance already had a lot of control over Benghazi, Gao Yang was even more relaxed for the rest of the trip. He finally had the mood to chat with Tribo.

“Hare, how did you make it here?”

“I came the year that crash happened. After graduation, I found a job and was then sent to Libya to build a house. After a little over a year, I resigned but didn’t go back. Then I became a chef.”

Hare was a few years younger than Gao Yang. Gao Yang became acquainted with Tribo when he got into a vocational high school after junior high school. Hare studied electrical engineering and electronics and worked in the construction sector where he applied his knowledge, so Gao Yang was unsure of how he had become a hotel chef. 

“Hare, if I remember correctly, you majored in EEE right? Did you change to culinary arts? How were you able to become a chef at a hotel?”

“Nope. When I was working, my pay was only five grand a month and was boring as hell. In addition, the food on the work site wasn’t edible. After I became familiar with the environment and people, I came out to explore and saw a Chinese hotel. I then wanted to improve my life and then guess what? The dogs don’t even eat food from that place and yet they still dared to promote themselves as a Chinese hotel! Furious, I paid to borrow their kitchen and cooked a bowl of noodles. I made some extra and gosh, the boss said that my food was delectable beyond anything else. Then, I went there frequently to make food for myself. After becoming acquainted with the boss, he invited me to be the head chef there, and the starting pay was higher than my last job. What was more important was that he could get guns! I couldn’t resist and resigned from my old job to become his chef.”

Gao Yang patted Hare’s shoulders and bawled in laughter, “Not bad little dude. It’s not obvious that you have awesome culinary skills!”

“My foot, ha! My poor culinary skills only amount to basic Chinese food like steamed buns or Chinese pancakes. If I sold my food in the mainland, even a small store could leave me bankrupt! But here? He-he, it’s just about fooling those foreigners. You know what I mean? Ha!”

Gao Yang was speechless; he didn’t know what to say. He saw Tribo’s gloomy and depressed face and thought that he was thinking about his boss who was beaten to death. He consoled him by saying,  “It’s okay, don’t think too much about these events. Nobody could do anything about it, my condolences and commiserations, man.”

Tribo heaved a sigh and caressed the gun resting horizontally on his legs and said, “Yeah, I thought I was a genius at first, and that we were just playing realistic fake gun models so they wouldn’t see my cleverness. But I finally know what a real pro is like. Brother Gao Yang, teach me if you’re free man. Look at your marksmanship and then look at mine. It really hurts my self-esteem.”

Gao Yang finally knew why Hare’s face was so gloomy and down. He had it all wrong.

Tribo had aspired to become a sniper, but in his first ever battle, his performance was only mediocre. He could hit a stationary target within three hundred meters with his Dragunov, but for moving targets, he felt helpless. His performance, however, was enough to shock and surprise Gao Yang.

In comparison to  Gao Yang, Hare hadn’t even touched a real gun before going overseas. His shooting experience only came from the Dragunov he bought after arriving in Libya. Although he had shot a thousand rounds, it was still too few. A good marksman was made through multiple rounds. Without firing ten thousand or more shots, wanting to become a sniper was practically a joke.

Gao Yang still had Grolev. The reason he could exhibit such skill and superb flexibility with the gun in hand was due to countless hours of practice. A good marksman indeed needed talent, but also long hours of practice. They needed both, not just either of them.

Marksmanship required shaping and training. Although inexperienced, Tribo understood a sniper’s insight. Hare mastered all the skills a sniper needed: range-finding, wind-speed, and ballistic charts. Tribo knew all of these skills and was very familiar with them. If not for China’s situation which forbade him from getting a real sniper rifle, he would have become a top sniper.

At first, Tribo fired three times and hit two government soldiers, but the third man started shifting to a better hiding spot and Tribo couldn’t kill him. It was because the target had already moved before he could aim and lock on. It would be a waste even if he had fired.

Gao Yang didn’t know what to say. He took the gun off Hare’s legs. After one look, a thought suddenly surfaced in his mind. He immediately took out the magazine and made sure that the chamber was clear of rounds. He inspected the muzzle of the gun.

After inspecting the chamber, he put down the rifle and he unloaded a round from the magazine to inspect it. After that, he sighed and said, “Hare, it’s actually not bad that you could even land some shots using this broken rifle. This shitty rifle’s f*cking chamber line is almost ground flat. You still treasure it? Your old man’s 98K which is a few decades old is still ten thousand times better than your broken rifle. ”

Chapter end