Five minutes earlier.
On the fifth-floor rooftop of the office building on the east side of the Jade Hotel's parking lot.
From this position, one could see the entrance to the hotel and the parking lot.
When the sounds of gunfire and explosions emanated from the Jade Hotel, a two-person assassination team from DGSE immediately reported the situation here back to their command center.
Hearing that there were explosions and gunfire in the Jade Hotel, Remondo finally breathed a sigh of relief.
It seemed the intelligence was not wrong; Song Heping and that mysterious contact had indeed gone to the Jade Hotel.
Now, the five-person team had arrived at the Jade Hotel even earlier and set up an ambush inside, which meant that Song Heping and the contact were most likely in grave danger.
After all, this assassination gang was meticulously chosen; a black glove that DGSE took notice of was certainly not second-rate.
"It looks like we'll have results soon, you keep watching. Also, keep an eye on the assassins' vehicle and execute the cleanup plan when they get in the car to escape."
Remondo certainly wasn't going to let this operation have any risk of leaks.
Even if suspecting the Americans were behind this, DGSE could not choose to have a direct confrontation and expose themselves.
After all, with no direct evidence at the moment, blaming the Americans would only backfire.
Sometimes, even as allies, the Gauls don't trust those Americans.
"Understood, boss."
By the assassination team's side lay an RPG-26 rocket launcher and an SVD sniper rifle— even now, the weapons they used were not French-made, or even related to Europe.
What could be more ideal than pinning the blame on Da Maozi?
And who is more suitable to take the blame than Da Maozi?
No one.
Soon, an agent named Jimmy excitedly whispered, "Look! Someone seems to have come out!"
Another agent named Brook quickly looked up.
A dark figure was seen dashing from the side door of the hotel lobby, shooting across the greenbelt like an arrow, sprinting toward the parking lot.
"Is that the assassin?"
"Seems like it..."
Jimmy followed the running figure with his night-vision binoculars.
"There seems to be another person behind..."
Brook wasn't using binoculars and had a much broader field of vision. He saw another figure emerge not far behind the fleeing man, apparently in hot pursuit.
"Is that so?"
Jimmy slightly shifted his binoculars, moving his field of vision a bit backward.
When he saw the person behind clearly, he exclaimed, "God! That's the target! It's Song Heping!"
Hearing that the target was chasing the assassin, Brook also got startled. He suddenly remembered something, grabbed the SVD sniper rifle beside him, and aimed at Song Heping with the fastest speed.
However, the brief delay, compounded by the effects of the gunfire and explosions, had already turned the hotel into chaos; the parking lot and all around the greenbelts and shaded paths were full of panicked guests scattering.
In the darkness of night, everything seemed so chaotic.
The narrow field of view of the SVD didn't offer a quick opportunity to aim; by the time Brook had roughly located Song Heping, he saw Song Heping chase into the parking lot.
Vehicles were everywhere in the parking lot, all kinds of cars: sedans, SUVs, minibuses...
"They seem to be behind that minibus! Haven't seen them come out!"
Jimmy with the binoculars provided Brook with a rough location.
Brook aimed at the front of the vehicles, waiting for the two to reappear.
He had made up his mind that whoever came out, he would shoot.
Because whether it was an assassin or Song Heping, both had to die!
But after waiting for a while without seeing Song Heping, Brook quickly picked up the RPG-26 rocket launcher next to him.
This device was both lightweight and compact, perfect for attacking vehicle targets.
"What are you going to do!?"
Jimmy asked in astonishment.
Brook said, "I guess they're still behind the car. Better to blow them up with a rocket now rather than wait and risk their escape with the vehicles as cover."
His concern was not without reason.
Around the Jade Hotel, there was a large expanse of tall grass, taller than a person.
Between the parking lot and the weeds, there was only a one-meter-high fence.
Brook judged that Song Heping would never dare to take the main entrance; he would definitely choose to cross through the weeds and disappear into the other side of the city.
Therefore, he decided to seize the opportunity and strike first.
After taking a quick aim, Brook pressed the launch button.