Everyone was stunned.
No one had expected a woman to suddenly appear in the middle of the desert at night.
What's more, a woman with a gun.
After a moment of stupor, Song Heping suddenly remembered a term he had discussed with Antonov earlier—Bedouin.
Looking around, he saw gun-wielding Bedouins appearing at every window and entrance of the buildings.
Turbans, Arabic robes, and ankle bindings.
Typical desert long-distance travel attire.
A wise man doesn't fight when the odds are against him.
Song Heping had no choice but to comply, slowly getting down on the ground.
But Major Yager did not follow suit.
"Are you from the smuggling syndicate?"
He had also recognized the identities of these people.
"We are Mossad agents. These people are our targets. If you help us, there will be a very generous reward."
Tempting them with profit.
Yager seemed to have immediately found a way to persuade these Bedouins.
It wasn't surprising he had such confidence.
Bedouin smuggling syndicates have been active from North Africa to the Sinai Peninsula and Eastern regions for years.
They work for money, and can transport anything for people.
This is one of their few ways of making a living.
Because they don't have a country of their own, and their unique way of life, they don't even have nationality.
They wander in the desert or around, with camels and sheep as their only companions. Occasionally, they take some cashmere products or handmade rugs to nearby towns to trade with locals for money, and then unhesitatingly return to the desert.
What others see as a hellish tropical desert, they see as similar to a grassland.
A Bedouin with a camel dares to travel alone in the desert, crossing hundreds of miles without fear of dying of thirst or hunger in the yellow sand.
Their understanding and knowledge of the desert are beyond ordinary people's imagination.
However, they all share a common characteristic—poverty.
So Bedouin tribes or small groups engage in some gray industries.
For instance, smuggling, or joining some armed organization as mercenaries when they grow up.
An important business is smuggling blood diamonds from Africa to the Daishe Bird Country, where they are handed over to diamond dealers for processing.
Yager was not unfounded in asking this woman, who seemed to be the group leader, to help him kill Song Heping. After all, many Bedouin smuggling syndicates, due to business relations, would give some face to the people of the Daishe Bird Country, not to mention Mossad.
"Reward?"
The veiled woman let out a cold laugh.
"Like the reward you give to the people of Balistan?"
This statement pierced Yager like a needle in his soft spot, this was an unmentionable history, a dark part that the people of the Daishe Bird Country always avoided or self-deceived.
"What do you mean?"
Yager looked at the smugglers around him and said contemptuously, "Are you planning to oppose us, to be our enemy? You should know offending us brings you no benefit!"
Those words were not incorrect.
Bedouin smuggling syndicates often need to enter the borders of the Daishe Bird Country to deliver goods.
Killing a Mossad agent means they can no longer take orders here, which is indeed a loss for them.
The atmosphere became tense.
The air seemed to solidify.
Everyone could hear each other's breathing.
The female leader did not immediately respond.
Yager felt he had these Bedouins under control, so he again used his authoritative tone as a Mossad major and said, "These people are on Mossad's kill list. If you let them go, you become accomplices and will also be listed on our black kill order. Think about the consequences!"
The threat grew stronger.
After a long silence, the female leader asked word by word:
"Are you threatening me?"
Yager said, "Don't forget who you are. Don't cross us..."
Bam—
Before he finished, the female leader raised her gun and shot him without warning.
She was holding a Lee-Enfield rifle, an old piece of World War II equipment.