The feeling of being on a publicly funded mission is different.
If Song Heping had to use his own company's money for the expenses of this operation, he would definitely feel the pinch.
But now that the Persians are footing the bill, it's time to enjoy.
The city of Trebizond has a very long history, established in the 8th century BC. From 1204 to 1461, it was the capital of the Empire of Trebizond under the Komnenos Dynasty, later annexed by the Osman Empire, which also met its demise, becoming a northern coastal city of modern Turkey.
As it was once an important town on the Ancient Silk Road, merchants from Europe and Asia converged here, and continuous exchanges of populations brought about genetic improvements, so the city was once known to the world for its wealth and beautiful women.
Today, without the glorious Osman Empire, its wealth can't compare to that of its heyday, but the beautiful women remain.
After packing up his things, Song Heping came out of his room and saw Hunter, White Bear, and Grey Wolf huddled together in front of a window, pointing and whispering below, occasionally chuckling softly, sometimes with a lewd expression.
"What the hell are you guys doing?"
Song Heping walked quietly to his comrades' side and looked down following their gaze.
From the excellent vantage point of the fifth floor, he could see a number of lightly dressed women on the street below, each with irresistible, heaving busts and irresistible, perky behinds.
Clearly, these weren't local women.
They looked like European or Slavic vacationers.
"Damn, so many beauties!"
White Bear gestured towards the women below with his mouth and laughed even more lasciviously than Ximen Qing.
Song Heping couldn't help but say, "Do you want me to call the Queen now and let her share your joy?"
"No, no, no!"
Mention of Yuliy, and White Bear immediately chickened out.
Song Heping said, "Stop looking at women here, if you want one, go find it for yourself back in Baghdad."
Baghdad these days has it all.
Even brothels, as long as you can pay, there's no woman you can't find.
Reluctantly, the men finally moved away from the window.
Song Heping told White Bear and Grey Wolf, "You two go and check the surroundings of our residence, make an emergency plan."
"Do we really need to be that serious here? Nobody knows we're here."
White Bear felt Song Heping was making a fuss over nothing.
An emergency plan includes defense and evacuation, examining the environment, and assessing security.
For mercenaries, this was nothing new.
But this mission to Turkey was secret, nobody knew about it.
Even less likely that they would be tracked or targeted.
So White Bear thought it was quite superfluous.
"Just go when I tell you to go."
Song Heping didn't want to argue with White Bear here.
To the thick-skinned Russian, it's like telling him that drinking too much could kill him, yet he would still drink pure alcohol when craving booze.
Dealing with people of this nationality, being direct is best, no need to fuss about face issues. Now he was the boss, and White Bear had to listen.
Sure enough, White Bear took well to Song Heping's decisiveness.
"Alright, alright, I'll go."
He nodded with his huge head and went downstairs with Grey Wolf.
"Hunter."
Song Heping motioned to him.
"What's up, boss?" Hunter asked.
Song Heping said, "Set up a sniper point here on the fifth floor, an observation post. We're going to observe for some time."
Hunter replied, "Okay, I'm on it."
Song Heping said, "Then I'll leave this to you. After getting the equipment tonight, start taking turns on watch, keeping an eye on Hassan's villa."
As he spoke, he patted Hunter on the shoulder and then went downstairs.
Hunter looked around, first pulling all the curtains shut.
Then he dragged a desk over and pushed it in front of the window, opened a slit of the curtains, laid a mat on the desk, and then climbed up to simulate a sniper's aiming position before adjusting the position of the desk again.
Soon, he came down from the desk and arranged a chair and a small coffee table in front of another window in the same direction, positioning them next to the window, sat in the chair, and opened a crack in the curtain in front of him to look out.
From this angle, with the advantage of height, one could clearly see Hassan's entire villa.
But since the distance was about 200 meters, equipment would be necessary to see more clearly.
Having made these arrangements, Hunter checked the surveillance angle again and left the fifth floor only when he was satisfied.
When he came down to the first floor, White Bear and Grey Wolf had also returned.
"Checked everything, there's a back gate in the backyard, and a small door on the left that can serve as alternative escape routes."
White Bear reported his findings.
"The surrounding buildings are all shorter than ours, not much threat to us, and the villa next to us seems to have not been rented out yet, probably empty. I didn't see any cars or people in the yard."
After listening, Song Heping pointed upstairs, "Set up a zipline on the rooftop, secure our end first, got it?"
White Bear didn't understand, looking confused.
Hunter got it, "You mean grappling hooks?"
Song Heping nodded, then turned to Oma, "Do you have any climbing gear in your weapons cache?"
Oma nodded, "We have climbing ropes, but no hooks..."
Song Heping instructed Hunter, "You find something useful in the house to make a hook. I saw the rooftop of the four-story villa next door has a rail; in an emergency, we could slide over from there, it's just over ten meters away."
Hunter nodded, "Okay, I'll take care of it once we get the ropes tonight."
After everything was settled, they made themselves some food in the first-floor kitchen and waited for darkness before getting in the car and following Oma to their secret weapons cache.
After driving through the city, they arrived at a house on the outskirts.
Oma brought a phone, and someone came out of the house to open the gate, allowing the vehicle to enter the yard and drive directly into the garage.
The man closed the gate and led them to a door next to the garage, unlocking it before pushing open the iron door.
Inside was a weapon storage space of about one hundred square meters.
The walls were covered with all kinds of firearms.
However, most of them were AK series weapons, with models ranging from the AKM to the somewhat newer AK74. There was a much richer variety of handguns, from Tokarev Pistols to Glocks, from HK's USP to SIG Sauer's P226.
Perhaps assault rifles were relatively difficult to smuggle, whereas handguns were comparatively simple to deal with.
Another wall had shelves displaying tactical vests and similar items.
Song Heping walked over to take a look.
There was only one model, and he turned over the label inside to read—modułowe oporządzenie sił specjalnych MOSS 25.
The text at the front was not English, and Song Heping did not recognize it.
But he understood the line of English at the end.
This was a tactical vest called "MOSS 25."
From the design, it seemed to be a standard product, with a front-and-back, two-piece structure and some modular capabilities. However, the sides appeared to offer very little protection, almost none at all.
But that was not important anymore, as side protection is always the weakest part of any tactical vest. Unless one wore a heavy-duty bulletproof vest, it was impossible to install Bullet-Proof Plates on the sides.
He ran his hand over the material of the vest, and Song Heping felt that even without the Bullet-Proof Plates, this tactical vest appeared to provide a certain level of defense capability on its own.
The soft bulletproof lining inside could probably withstand a standard handgun's 9mm warhead.
If one needed to enhance bulletproof capabilities, the only option was to add plates.
"Wow!"
White Bear suddenly let out a whistle.
Song Heping turned his head to see the fellow cradling a PKM Light Machine Gun as if it were an assault rifle, simulating a standing shooting stance.
Sigh...
Big guys like him always loved the heavy firepower.
They were usually strong enough to handle the intense recoil, making a machine gun shoot with the stability of an assault rifle.
For people like White Bear, the choice of weapon was all about firepower.
With firepower, everything else was negotiable.
Whether there were any scopes or such didn't matter.
Didn't matter at all...
Just go for an aggressive suppression.
Song Heping chose a Glock 17 and an AK74 assault rifle with a custom rail and full set of sights.
Grey Wolf, being an assault trooper, picked the same as Song Heping.
The one who had the hardest time choosing was Hunter.
During his service abroad and later as a mercenary, he used NATO standard equipment, but here the only sniper rifle available was one model—the SVD Sniper Rifle.
Queen Julia liked this rifle and treasured it as a prized possession.
But Hunter was quite unfamiliar with it.
Song Heping asked him, "Is it easy to handle?"
"I'm not quite used to the reticle in the scope..."
The so-called reticle was actually the crosshair inside the scope; it's that cross-shaped thing from the sniper's point of view in the movies.
However, the SVD used a PSO-1 reticle, which was not a cross but rather a set of arrows with a range-finding line, forming a complete reticle.
Soviet-style equipment, like most of their scopes, tended to have a similar design. This was their tradition and was also known as "Soviet flavor."
As for the NATO standard sniper rifles Hunter was used to, the variety of reticles included everything from common cross reticles to Mil-Dot reticles, available in a multitude of models and types. But none of them had reticles like those of the Russians.
Suddenly, Song Heping noticed a row of bottles on a shelf, each with Persian labels affixed to them.
Not looking like emergency medicines, he asked Oma, "What are these?"
"Various special drugs."
Oma picked up one of the bottles.
"For example, this one contains nerve poison; just a tiny bit can cause death."
He said, picking up another bottle.
"This is also a nerve poison, but it's contact-based. For instance, if you smear it on gloves and then touch it to parts of skin that absorb easily, like the face, eyelids, or lips, it will quickly..."
At this, Oma chuckled and made a passing away gesture.
"And this one..."
He picked up another bottle.
"This is a nice thing, anesthetic. Just put a few drops on a towel and cover someone's face, and as they breathe it in, they will quickly lose consciousness—excellent for kidnapping targets. By the way, do you want a bit?"
Oma offered to Song Heping sincerely, like a dedicated salesman pitching his products.
He actually managed to amuse Song Heping.
So he said with a smile, "Sure, give me a small bottle. It could come in handy."
"What's this?"
Song Heping picked up a bottle filled with white pills and asked Oma.
"This is really medicine," Oma said. "These are stimulant tablets with special ingredients, designed to combat fatigue during missions. I suggest you take a few pills with you. Take one, and you won't need sleep and will stay alert for 48 hours."
Song Heping sneered, "There must be side effects, right?"
Oma replied, "There's definitely a little, but you're not going to eat them like candy long-term, right?"
Song Heping had seen these things during his time in the Special Forces, though he had only taken effervescent tablets then, and their effects weren't quite as frightening.
Sometimes, too potent a drug is not a good thing, often bringing even stronger side effects.
"Alright, give us two pills each, just in case."