Border Ghosts III

Wang Qiang said no more and raised a hand.

The nineteen soldiers behind him sprang into action.

Silently melting into the darkness beyond the outpost.

They moved toward Observation Point No. 3.

Squad Leader Li and Zhao Xiaohu quickly changed into camouflage suits and checked their gear.

The two followed Wang Qiang out of the outpost. The freezing wind struck their faces, yet their hearts burned hot.

"Squad Leader," Zhao Xiaohu whispered, his voice trembling with excitement.

"What unit are they? They seem... incredible."

"Don't ask." Squad Leader Li stared at the nearly invisible figures ahead.

"We only need to know one thing—someone's going to have a bad night tonight."

They climbed up to Observation Point No. 3, a concealed position formed by natural rock.

It offered a perfect view over the entire disputed valley and several of White Elephant's forward outposts.

Wang Qiang and his team were already there.

Squad Leader Li saw the Thunder Squad members making their final preparations.

Checking the tension on their crossbows and adjusting the positions of their short blades.

Others took unfamiliar special equipment from their packs.

What shocked Squad Leader Li most was that two team members walked straight to the edge of the cliff.

It was an almost vertical eighty-meter precipice.

Then... they simply... went down.

No ropes, no pitons. Their hands and feet seemed to cling to the rock itself.

They moved as lightly as geckos, vanishing into the darkness within a few breaths.

"This..." Zhao Xiaohu's eyes widened.

Wang Qiang seemed to notice their shock. He turned and said softly,

"No need to be surprised. It's new equipment. Time is tight. The operation begins."

He made a gesture, and the remaining seventeen members split into four groups.

They silently vanished into the shadows of the valley.

Squad Leader Li and Zhao Xiaohu lay prone at the observation point, watching through high-powered night-vision goggles.

They saw those dark figures moving through boulders and brush at incredible speed.

And they made almost no sound. Sometimes, steep slopes or ravines clearly lay before them.

Yet they crossed them directly, landing without even stirring dust.

"Squad Leader... are they even human?" Zhao Xiaohu muttered.

Squad Leader Li did not answer. He only stared fixedly through the night-vision goggles.

The first target was a temporary observation post White Elephant had set up in the middle of the valley.

Two soldiers were there, dozing behind a crude shelter with rifles in their arms.

Two Thunder Squad members appeared like ghosts on either side of the shelter.

Squad Leader Li had not even seen how they approached.

One second, only White Elephant soldiers had been there. The next, dark figures appeared.

The bodies of the two White Elephant soldiers, their necks snapped, went limp and were gently lowered to the ground.

The dark figures did something to them, then quickly left and continued toward the main outpost.

"Did... did they take care of them?" Zhao Xiaohu swallowed.

"Not yet." Squad Leader Li's voice was hoarse.

He saw another group of Thunder Squad members had already slipped around to the rear of White Elephant's main outpost.

A diesel generator rumbled there.

One member took out a small device from his pack and stuck it to the generator's casing.

Seconds later, the generator's roar gradually weakened before finally stopping.

The lights inside the outpost flickered, then went out.

"The power's out!"

"What happened?"

"Did the generator break?"

A burst of frantic shouting came from the White Elephant outpost.

The door was shoved open, and two soldiers came out cursing as they went to inspect the generator.

Then they suddenly froze.

Because five figures slowly emerged from the darkness before them.

Dressed entirely in black, their faces painted with camouflage grease, only their eyes reflected a faint glimmer in the dark, like wolves in the wilderness.

"You... who are you..." one White Elephant soldier stammered, fumbling to raise his rifle.

But he did not complete the motion.

One of the dark figures moved, so fast it left an afterimage.

The White Elephant soldier only felt his wrist go numb before his rifle was knocked from his hand.

The next second, his neck was lightly pressed. His vision went dark, and he lost consciousness.

The other soldier tried to shout, but the moment he opened his mouth, a hand covered it.

At the same time, searing pain shot through the back of his neck, and he too collapsed limply.

The entire process took less than three seconds and made no sound.

The dark figures dragged the two dead soldiers over and propped them beside the generator.

They arranged them as if they had drunkenly fallen asleep. Then one of them took out a spray can.

He sprayed it a few times at the entrance to the outpost.

Squad Leader Li saw the spray appear an eerie fluorescent green through the night-vision goggles.

It formed several clear numbers:

1962...

After spraying them, the dark figures disappeared into the shadows like a receding tide.

The people inside the outpost had not yet realized what had happened outside.

Babul's voice came from within, heavy with drunken irritation.

"Why's the power out? Shahrukh! Hamid! Have you two useless idiots fixed it yet?"

There was no response.

"Damn it..." Babul cursed as he staggered outside with a bottle in hand.

Then he saw his two companions "sleeping" against the generator.

And the fluorescent numbers at the door.

He froze.

The bottle slipped from his hand, smashed against a rock, and shattered.

"W-what..." He rubbed his eyes, but the words were still glowing.

At that moment, the others in the outpost came outside as well.

The tall, skinny man, the older soldier, and two others.

They all saw the line of numbers and stepped forward to examine their fallen companions.

They discovered that the men had stopped breathing.

"Enemy attack!!"

"Stay alert! Stay alert!"

"Quick! The radio! Call for support!"

The older soldier remained relatively calm. He rushed to the radio and cranked the hand-powered generator with all his strength.

Then he pressed the transmit button. "Headquarters! Headquarters! This is River Valley Outpost No. 7!

We are under attack! We have casualties!

Repeat, we are under attack! Enemy identity unknown, enemy location unknown..."

His voice abruptly stopped.

Because in the darkness before him, a dark figure stood there at some unknown moment, silently watching him.

The older soldier felt as if his blood had frozen.

He wanted to shout, wanted to fire, but his body would not obey him.

The dark figure raised a hand and pointed at the radio handset in his grasp.

The older soldier looked down and discovered that the handset cable... had somehow been cut.

Then the dark figure took a step back, melted into the darkness, and vanished.

As though it had never been there.

"G-ghost... a ghost..." The tall, skinny man broke down. Screaming, he fired wildly in that direction.

The gunshots echoed through the silent valley, piercingly sharp.

But there was no response, only the wind.

Trembling, Babul pointed at the fluorescent numbers at the entrance.

"It's... it's Rabbit... They must have come for revenge..."

"Impossible!" the older soldier roared.

"How could Rabbit get in?! How could they sneak in without a sound?!

We have sentries outside! We have minefields!"

As if in answer to his question—

"BOOM!!!"

In the distance, a supply depot White Elephant had established upstream in the valley.

Suddenly exploded, sending a burst of fire soaring into the night, glaringly bright.

Then, in another direction, every tire on a White Elephant patrol vehicle was punctured.

Farther away, at one of White Elephant's concealed artillery observation posts.

Every lens on the observation equipment had been coated with an opaque substance.

Beside them, fluorescent powder had been used to draw a huge middle finger.

In the entire valley, within a mere twenty minutes, seven of White Elephant's forward positions.

Patrols and observation posts alike had all been wiped out.

Numerous personnel had died, and all their equipment had either been destroyed or sprayed with the number 1962.

The few survivors would remember only those ghostly figures in the darkness.

At last, the Thunder Squad led by Wang Qiang regrouped at their designated rendezvous point.

Twenty men, not one missing.

Wang Qiang checked the time: 03:47.

He pressed his earpiece and said quietly, "Thunderbolt reporting. Mission complete.

All targets cleared. No exposure. Withdrawing as planned."

At the observation point, Squad Leader Li and Zhao Xiaohu were trembling all over—not from fear, but excitement.

They had watched with their own eyes as those arrogant White Elephant soldiers.

Were cleared away one by one like lambs awaiting slaughter.

And every one of White Elephant's forward positions had been marked with the humiliating number 1962.

Not a single trace had been left that could prove the attackers' identities.

Only those glowing numbers, those humiliating graffiti.

Etched deep terror into the minds of every White Elephant soldier.

"Squad Leader..." Zhao Xiaohu choked up. "This... this is what we should be doing!"

Squad Leader Li gave his shoulder a heavy pat, his own eyes moist.

"Come on, let's go back. What happened tonight stays buried inside us.

But remember—our country has never forgotten us, and it has never feared anyone."

They quietly retreated to the outpost.

In the distance, inside White Elephant's valley outpost.

The surviving Babul crouched in a corner with his head in his hands, trembling from head to toe.

The tall, skinny man was still babbling nonsense.

The older soldier stared at the severed radio cable, then at the glowing numbers at the entrance, his face deathly pale.

From tonight onward, this valley... no longer belonged to them.

Something they could neither understand nor resist, something they could not even describe.

Had drawn a boundary here.

Tonight's experience would haunt White Elephant's border troops like a nightmare for many years.

Meanwhile, at Rabbit Outpost a kilometer away, the lights were warm.

Squad Leader Li poured every soldier a cup of hot water. He said nothing, only raised his cup.

Everyone silently raised their cups and drained them in one gulp.

The water was scalding, but their hearts burned hotter.

Tonight, the winds of the plateau were still bitterly cold.

But some things had already changed.