What mattered most in war? Perhaps ancient military texts would tell us that favorable timing, terrain, and unity were the most important factors. But in modern warfare, firearms had largely erased the advantages of timing and terrain. As for unity, surely no one still followed the old rule that you should surround an enemy ten times your size and attack when you outnumbered them two to one.
In modern warfare, information came first.
If you could see farther and more clearly than your enemy, and your weapons could strike them more precisely from a distance, that was what mattered.
And sometimes, no amount of information warfare could match the advantage of having a mole among the enemy. Even that paled in comparison to having your mole serve as the enemy's commander.
Yang Rui's team enjoyed this unparalleled advantage during their current operation.
Hank was the commander of the terrorists' operation, but the real Hank had been dead for a long time. His body was rotting in a hidden underground chamber. The Hank inside the terrorist base was actually Eric Seven in disguise.
The two men had been rivals and sworn enemies. They knew each other so well that they understood each other better than they understood themselves. As a result, no one noticed anything wrong with Eric Seven's performance. Even the other soldiers enhanced by the Extremis Virus failed to detect anything amiss.
On Killian's orders, Eric Seven was preparing for the Mandarin's first appearance. For terrorists, the easiest way to become famous was to kill.
Execution videos were a popular way to attract attention.
But the victim had to be shocking enough to make an impact and help someone rise quickly through the ranks of a terrorist organization.
That sort of target was easy to find. The three countries