The smoke finally dispersed, moonlight sprinkled on the mountain road in the Eastern Madre Mountains.
White Bear crouched down to bandage the Queen's wounds.
The Queen's cheek was grazed by a stray bullet, leaving behind a three-centimeter long blood trail.
"Suka! I don't know if it will leave a scar!"
"No worries, baby, even if you scar, I'll love you just the same."
"Bugger off! It's not your face that's ruined, of course, you can make light of it!"
"In that case, how about I take a knife and cut myself, you on the left, me on the right..."
"Pfft—"
The Queen was amused to laughter.
"I'm saying, can you two not flaunt your love here? Could you consider our feelings a bit?"
Hunter stood aside, smoking and looking disgusted.
Jiang Feng ran over to report to Song Heping: "Boss, they're all tied up."
"How many casualties do we have?" asked Song Heping.
"Just a few minor injuries on our own team, no one dead; Santini's side suffered heavy casualties, with a total of 23 casualties, including 18 dead and 5 severely injured. Only 6 vehicles are still operational."
"How many captives did we catch?"
"23 captives, 37 dead. There were a few still breathing, but Santini sent them off directly." Jiang Feng glanced towards Santini's direction.
Song Heping frowned slightly, pondered for a moment, and then said, "Have them take two vehicles to send the wounded back first, leave 4 vehicles for us and the rest. By the way, has the bus sent by Shorty arrived?"
"Just contacted Shorty's side, it will arrive in half an hour."
"Good, you arrange it. Remember, don't let the Sinoloa people kill anymore, got it?"
"Got it."
As he finished speaking, a wail could be heard not far away.
Song Heping glanced towards the direction of the wailing and then walked over.
On the grass beside the building, Santini was ferociously kicking Lascano, who was already down on the ground.
The men he brought out tonight were all capable generals from the group, his most elite subordinates.
Forty men came, and more than half were casualties.
The thought alone was heart-wrenching.
"Alright, that's enough."
Song Heping stopped Santini who still seemed eager to continue.
"You're going to kill him, aren't you?"
"Exactly!" said Santini: "If it weren't inconvenient here, I'd put a tire around him and give him a flaming tire treatment!"
In Mexico, drug traffickers like to beat their enemies, then put a tire over them, douse them with gasoline, and burn them to death before hanging the bodies from streetlights.
This was basic protocol in the industry.
"Santini, these people are my prisoners, not yours." Song Heping said authoritatively: "I won't fuss about the wounded ones you killed, but don't touch those alive, leave them to me to deal with."
"Boss Song, according to our rules..."
"My business follows my rules!" Song Heping interrupted Santini who wanted to argue further: "Have you forgotten the priorities?"
Santini's fierce eyes dimmed slightly; in front of Song Heping, he indeed did not have the confidence to argue.
His own boss had to obey him, let alone himself.
"Okay..."
"I know you feel disgruntled and seek revenge, but I have my own way of doing things." Song Heping did not wish to explain to such goons and directly ordered: "Now hurry and send your wounded brothers to the hospital, otherwise they're really going to meet God."
After Santini left with his people, Song Heping looked at Lascano who was struggling to sit up on the ground; his hands and feet were bound, rendering him unable to resist.
Even if he wanted to resist, it would have been futile.
Among the members of the Los Zetas Organization on-site, only he and one of his subordinates were still conscious; the rest lay slumped on the ground like mud.
"What's the matter? You seem very dissatisfied?"
Song Heping spoke mockingly: "Didn't you think you were awesome coming from the Special Forces?"
He looked up at the hillside.
"With such good terrain here, you had so many men, and you had both initiative and advantage, how come you still got caught by me?"
Lascano, his mouth bleeding from the beating, spat a mouthful of bloody sputum on the ground: "I didn't expect you to use anesthetics."
"All's fair in war." Song Heping laughed: "To think you're from the Army Special Forces and you don't even have a high-grade gas mask for a surprise attack, yet you still have the nerve to claim you're from the Army Special Forces?"
These words were akin to an insult.
Lascano lowered his head.