"Boss, this deal is a losing business!"
Sitting in the off-road vehicle, White Bear looked out of the window and kept nagging Song Heping with this sentence.
At this moment, the convoy of "Musician" Defense Company had already passed Tikrit and was heading toward Shergar.
The atmosphere had become unusually tense since they entered Tikrit.
The US Army had only caught Sadam from a farm in Tikrit the day before yesterday, after he had been missing for several months.
Today, the attacks and resistance here had become intense.
To prevent a major incident, the coalition forces had deployed heavy troops in this area.
Every four to five kilometers along the road, there was a roadside checkpoint.
The soldiers parked their armored vehicles by the roadside and even placed tanks along the road, forming armored positions, ready to fire on any militants that might appear.
This time, Song Heping had brought a platoon of troops to the Shergar water station construction site, including two infantry squads and one 120mm mortar squad.
To go from the northern oil fields to Sherbut, they had to take the southbound highway, which was marked as Highway 3 on the military maps provided by the US Army.
Following Highway 3 for about 100 kilometers, they would turn westward at Tikrit, entering Highway 2 that crosses east-west through Illiguo, and then head toward Mosul for about 60 kilometers to reach Sherbut.
However, the situation seemed to get worse the closer they got.
The convoy had already experienced three stops due to firefights ahead.
This indicated that the local war situation was not optimistic.
Currently, most areas to the east and south of Illiguo were completely under coalition control, with occasional sporadic armed attacks and IED roadside bomb incidents, but in most cities to the north and west, such as Tikrit, Mosul, Elbil, and the like, the situation was much worse.
Because this area bordered Siria, Turkey, and Persia, there were a large number of armed organizations, along with remnants of Sadam's former government army Suicide Squad, the coalition, even with advanced weapons and numerical superiority, could not fully control the situation.
White Bear's meaning was obvious.
To use an entire platoon of troops to protect a water station in a highly dangerous and remote town, for a mere monthly payment of fifty thousand US dollars, just didn't make sense.
Song Heping couldn't be bothered to explain the reasons behind it to White Bear.
White Bear was a good soldier, but his mind was not suited for considering overly complicated issues; explaining them to him was simply too taxing.
"White Bear, quit your chatter and keep an eye on our surroundings!"
He bluntly told White Bear to shut up with a single sentence.
It was already dark now, seven o'clock in the evening.
Nightfall began to set in.
This place was very unsafe after dark.
Song Heping had no choice but to remind the driver, Samir, "Speed up a bit."
"Alright, boss."
Samir nodded and pressed harder on the accelerator.
Although the road here was not easy to navigate, Song Heping still asked him to speed up—mainly out of concern for roadside bombs.
Roadside bombs were nearly impossible to defend against; the only way to prevent them was to conduct reconnaissance on the sections of road in advance. Otherwise, even if you were driving an Abrams tank in front, it would be useless. Those makeshift bombs made of several 155 artillery shells could turn even a main battle tank into scrap metal.
The only thing they could do now was to speed up.
With greater speed, the operator of the remote control would have a harder time timing the explosion accurately, reducing the chances of hitting the convoy.
Three trucks and one off-road vehicle raced toward Sherbut like lightning.
Today, Song Heping was lucky.
They hadn't encountered any attacks on the road from Tikrit east to Sherbut.
At eight o'clock in the evening, the convoy arrived at its destination, a small hill about twenty kilometers outside of Sherbut.
Less than three hundred meters north of the small hill was the Tigris River.
The south was home to three villages, each said to be populated by around a thousand people.
"We've arrived, everybody out!"
Song Heping, accompanied by White Bear, Hunter, and Disaster Star, got off first.
After surveying the area and confirming there was no danger, they allowed the truck to enter the yard of the water station to start unloading.
"Samir, have people establish outposts nearby, and send someone to check if there's electricity in that building. If there is, restore it."
"Sure, boss."
Song Heping had a structural map of the water station in his possession.
The entire yard housed water supply facilities on one side, including a filtration pool and two water pump houses, which were connected to the Tigris River below by four large pipes that drew water here for filtration and then pumped it towards the few villages to the south and a nearby town.
"Let's go and check out the water pump houses."
Song Heping led White Bear and the others towards the water pump houses.
It wasn't until they passed the outer walls of the compound that they noticed it was riddled with bullet holes and pockmarks.
Clearly, fierce firefights had taken place here.