A Feint to the East, a Strike to the West
A figure flashed past Lai'en. He quickly caught sight of the fleeing figure and locked onto him, recognizing him at once. It was Wilk.
Luring the tiger away from the mountain? Or a feint to the east and a strike to the west?
Wilk's figure darted into a dark alley. Lai'en pulled the six-eye night-vision goggles down from his helmet and over his eyes, changed magazines, and quickly pursued him.
"Target one has appeared. I'm going after him. Hill, stay where you are and watch out for a sneak attack from target two." Lai'en's gaze was cold and stern, fixed on the figure that had flashed past.
Wilk moved nimbly and seemed to be leading Lai'en into a trap. Lai'en was oblivious and simply hurried after him. The best hunters often appeared as prey, and it remained to be seen who would win!
Both men had given away their positions, but relying on their familiarity with each other's fighting styles, they continued to probe and keep each other in check. Neither fired the first shot.
Hill received his orders and quickly readied himself, slowly fading into the cover of a corner. The mechanical click of his submachine gun's magazine change was crisp and clean. He raised his gun and surveyed his surroundings warily, a confident smile tugging at his lips.
If the little kitty dared to sneak up on him, he would make sure she never got away. Then the exercise would end early, and he could go home and sleep.
Come to think of it, once the exercise was over, they still had to go back to information technology class, right?
The night was like a heavy curtain, concealing every danger within it. After waiting a long time, Hill still hadn't seen Song Zhi appear within range. Presumably, she was hiding in a corner nearby.
Making his thermal imager his sharpest weapon, Hill gently pressed the drone's start button. Its propellers emitted a faint hum, barely perceptible in the silent night.
As he controlled it, the image on the screen gradually grew clearer, and every suspicious heat source was marked. Hill narrowed his eyes and assessed them in light of the terrain and wind direction, carefully analyzing the blinking points of light in search of a flaw.
A faint signal fluctuation caught his attention. It didn't look like interference from the natural environment, but more like a decoy someone had deliberately created.
It was a self-heating device from the combat supplies.
Heh! The little kitty really was cunning. She knew to use a self-heating device to lull the enemy into complacency.
Hill sneered and muttered, "You think you can fool me with a little trick like that? You're a little too confident."
Hill pressed a button. The drone dropped a few grenades, then swiftly changed direction.
The suspicious signal was cleared.
The shadow of a distant tree seemed a little unusual. The heat behind its trunk was slightly higher than in the surrounding area. Although it was extremely well concealed, it couldn't hide from professional equipment.
Hill didn't act rashly. Instead, he patiently waited for the best opportunity. A true hunter never rushed to pull the trigger, but delivered a fatal blow when the prey let its guard down.
Under Hill's control, the drone slowly flew toward the tree. As soon as it approached the bushes, it caught sight of a corner of camouflage clothing that hadn't been hidden.
"Little kitty, did you do a bad job hiding? Or did you let me find you on purpose? What little trick are you playing now?"
Hill steered the drone around the back of the tree, and Song Zhi's grimy little face appeared on the screen. She was dusty and dirty from head to toe, like a little wildcat wandering the streets, with only her eyes exceptionally bright. She looked at the drone, then at Hill through its camera, and suddenly grinned.
The smile made Hill's breath catch. His brown eyes fixed on Song Zhi, and the taunt he'd been about to make turned into, "Are you okay? Do you need medical assistance?"
Song Zhi shook her head. "Thank you, but no." Then she pulled an electromagnetic gun from behind her and aimed it at the drone in front of her.
When Hill saw the electromagnetic gun in Song Zhi's hand, he immediately cried out, "Little kitty, don't do anything rash! Don't damage-"
Before he could finish, Song Zhi fired.
The electromagnetic interference severed the drone's connection to the controller in Hill's hands, and it fell from the air. The screen of Hill's tablet went black before filling with static.
"Fuck!"
That little wildcat didn't play fair!
Furious, Hill threw down the controller and ran after Song Zhi.
Song Zhi had fled the scene as soon as she fired. By the time Hill arrived, she was long gone, and only the drone she had shot down remained on the ground.
The drone was damaged, so the thermal imager couldn't be used tonight. Hill reported the situation to Lai'en over the radio. "Target two used an electromagnetic gun to damage the drone. The thermal imager is unusable. Over!"
"Copy! Pursue at full speed." Lai'en's voice came through the radio earpiece, still low and even. He didn't seem surprised by the news.
"Woo-hoo! Did you fall for a beauty trap? You actually let Song smash your baby. Soldier, where's your gun?" Lu Yu's gleeful voice came through the earpiece, followed by laughter that was a little grating.
"Heh! Don't get happy too soon. I bet you won't have the heart to shoot her either, Mr. Sharpshooter." Hill fired back, then adjusted his equipment and set off in pursuit.
Lu Yu didn't respond. Instead, Kelante cut in. "Is the little one all right? Does she need medical assistance?"
"She's just fine! She looks just like a little wildcat. A bath when she gets back will clean her right up." Hill ground his back teeth together and immediately cut off the radio communication.
The radio fell silent again.
Song Zhi hurried back to the hiding place along the route she remembered. In her haste to escape, she took a tumble, scraping the skin off her palm on the rough ground. It stung fiercely, but she had no time to tend to the wound. She quickly scrambled up and kept running.
The hiding place was a deep pit, with a hole dug into its wall large enough for a person to hide in. She sat inside the hole and waited for Wilk.
Wilk was responsible for luring Lai'en away, while Song Zhi took the opportunity to destroy their thermal-imaging search device. They intended to force their way through Zone A under cover of darkness, but Hill's thermal imager would pinpoint them, so they had to risk destroying his equipment.
Before leaving, Wilk had instructed her to return to their camp and wait after completing her task, and not to act on her own. He also said that if he hadn't returned after two hours, he would do everything he could to cause a destructive commotion and draw their fire away, allowing Song Zhi to slip into Zone B amid the chaos. But after that, she would have to rely on herself for the rest of the journey and the mission.
Time passed slowly, and the sky gradually grew darker, yet Wilk still hadn't returned. Song Zhi was frantic with worry but could do nothing except wait anxiously.
An hour and thirty minutes had passed since they separated, and Song Zhi grew more anxious the longer she waited. Just as she was beside herself with worry, she heard a series of extremely light footsteps outside. The footsteps were steady and seemed deliberately muffled as they slowly approached her hiding place.
It wasn't Wilk!
Song Zhi huddled in the hole, clutching her gun, her heart pounding. If it wasn't Wilk, who could it be?
She also heard a round being chambered. The footsteps stopped abruptly above the pit, then started again a little while later. The way they kept fading and returning was torture, leaving Song Zhi's terrified heart in her throat. She closed her eyes, made gestures of prayer to all the gods, and silently prayed that she wouldn't be discovered.
But hopes were grand and reality was harsh, even carrying the bitter cruelty of fate's mockery. She had been discovered.
She raised her head and opened her eyes, following the tactical boots in front of her upward. Hill was crouching above the pit, staring at her with a sinister look. Their eyes met, and he gave her an utterly mischievous smile. "Who are you waiting for, little wildcat?"