Country F, in a remote town on an island.
In a small restaurant, three F citizens in grey sweaters sat around a table.
“What time is it?” The man with darker skin glanced at the door and asked his companions in a low voice.
The person being asked looked at his watch. “It’s already 1.”
The chubby man that didn’t speak inhaled deeply and anxiously pulled on his collar.
“Santos, do you think that person will come?”
“I don’t know, I don’t trust the Han,” Santos said emotionlessly.
The chubby guy moved his fat lips, didn’t comment on Santo’s words and just leaned on the chair. As to why they would appear here, it had to do with a phone call they received last night.
The people who sat here were all top officials of MNLF. Although most of the force of MNLF was stationed on MLL Island, their headquarter was on a small island next to MLL Island.
Santos was just about to doze off when an unknown number reached his phone. After careful deliberation, he cautiously picked up the phone. But when it went through, the person on the other side didn’t introduce themselves and directly said he wanted to provide weapons for MNLF.
From the accent, the person on the phone should be Han.
To the olive branch extended by the Han, Santos was somewhat cautious. In Country F, 1% of the Han controlled over 60% of the economy. No one liked to be around their wealthy neighbors.
But that person’s offer was too hard to reject.
It was enough weapons to equip an army.
What shocked him, even more, was that the person said the weapons were transferred into the country already.
With the weapons, MNLF’s shortage of arms would be significantly alleviated. He could quickly build a force of 7000 from his supporters and increase the strength of the guerrillas substantially.
But what made Santos cautious was that it was a Han that made the offer, and the Han knew all the details about him, he even stated the hotel room he stayed in.
Of course, to prevent his phone number from being tracked, Jiang Chen didn’t state which hotel in which city.
Cold sweat rolled off his forehead. Due to the heated internal conflict, Santos finally agreed to his request to meet. The police didn’t come to his door; it at least explained that the person on the phone didn’t have any hostility.
Therefore, this scene happening now occurred.
After he secretively deployed soldiers around the restaurant, Santos and his two close officials sat in the restaurant. They sat in the private room the person arranged, ordered two dishes, and carefully waited for the other person to come.
But it was already the time they had arranged.
“He fooled us,” the chubby guy said.
Santos closed his eyes and deliberated for a moment. “Wait ten more minutes. If no one comes, we’ll leave.”
But just as he finished his sentence, someone knocked on the door.
The person with the watch instinctively moved to his waist, seeing Santos shack his head, he put his hands back on the table again.
“Please come in,” Santos spoke to the door.
The door opened, but it was a ten-year-old boy that came in.
Seeing the people in the room all look at him in surprise, the boy timidly brought out the tablet.
“Someone asked me to bring this here.”
“Where is that person?” Santos gazed with deadliness into the boy’s eyes.
With a frightened expression on the boy’s face, the boy shook his head fiercely. His hands holding the tablet trembled uncontrollably with words rapidly spitting out. “I don’t know, he had a mask on. He gave me 10 USD and asked me to bring this here.”
Then the boy carefully placed the tablet on the sofa beside the door and he quickly ran out.
Without regard to the boy, Santos signaled the chubby guy to bring the tablet over.
And then, the phone rang again.
Seeing the caller, Santos picked up and said with a low but menacing voice, “What tricks are you playing with me?”
Without wasting a word, Jiang Chen directly said.
“There is a map on the tablet, the password is 1234, you can try to open it.”
Though frowning, Santos still followed the instruction and opened the map.
“And then?”
“There are eight armories in total. They are hidden in the rural area at the southern area of the country,” Jiang Chen said with eyes narrowed.
“Where are the armories?” Santos asked briskly.
“You notice the checkboxes beside the map? For every mission you complete, I’ll provide you with a password, every time you input a password, you can unlock the location of the ‘treasure.'”
[What the fu*k does that mean?]
Santos took a moment to process this while he cursed in his mind. “What’s the purpose of you doing this?”
“I’m providing you with firearms and cash to support your cause, not as a chip in negotiation with the government force. I want to see you separate MLL island from the country’s territory. Do you understand what I mean?”
With his eyes lighting up, Santos attempted to convince him.
“I promise I will bring Moro people to independence, you can absolutely trust me!”
“Haha, the most worthless thing in the world is trust, especially to two strangers.” Jiang Chen smiled.
“Then why should we trust you?” Santos said with gloom in his voice.
“So I decided to pay first.” Jiang Chen shrugged. “The first password, ad2ge#[email protected]… After you input the password, you will unlock the location of an armory, and also a mission brief. Complete it. After I confirm it on the news, I will tell you the next password.”
“That’s all I have to say, good luck.”
“Wait!” Seeing that the person was about to hang up, Santos who just inputted the password wanted to stop him, but only silence followed.
After stuffing his phone into his pocket, Santos looked on the tablet with gloominess on his face.
“Boss, what do we do?” The chubby guy asked in a low voice.
Santos looked speechlessly at the red dot located in Ludink town. He was silent. Then he said.
“Kard, take people to the location on the map.”
“Yes.” The man with the watch stood up and memorized the location on the map in his head.
Santos closed his eyes and sunk into the chair.
He didn’t like the feeling of being manipulated. But the generous offer was irresistible. If Jiang Chen provided all the arms to him at once, he would indeed choose the safer option. For example, first, form a force, and prepare for a year before he launched an attack.
Not long after, his phone rang.
He picked up with Kard’s tense voice.
“Boss, we found it.”
“How much stuff is inside,” Santos said in an urgent tone.
Kard’s throat felt dry, “There are bulletproof vests, night vision goggles, and even C4s. We also found 2000 rifles, 40 boxes of rifle ammo, 10 RPG 7 with 100 rounds… and five mortars, also with 100 rounds. As well as five million USD in cash.”
Firearms! Five million USD!
Santos sat up abruptly. The hand holding the phone shook violently. “Immediately arrange people to transport it to our gathering spot.”
“Understood!” Kard nodded.
Kard was his confidant, he trusted his loyalty.
He hung up the phone and ignored the question on the chubby guy’s face. He scanned the mission brief on the tablet.
<Target: City PJ. Destroy the police station, power station, government building, and kill at least 80 government forces.>
Santos licked his dry lips. He felt his heart beat faster.
If he followed it, it would be the biggest attack planned by MNLF since 2013. And with the firearms and cash support, MNLF could easily conduct this attack.
But then, there would be no backing out.
A trace of hesitation crossed his eyes, but it was quickly replaced by fervent. He made up his mind.
It was time for a major headline.