In the dim night, a huge camp lies on the north bank of the Amazon River, like a jungle panther ready to devour anyone at any time.
Heavily armed soldiers passing by from time to time, and dazzling searchlights constantly sweeping from every corner, announced to everyone that the guards here were tight and inviolable.
After a noisy day, most of the soldiers in the camp had already fallen asleep. As the defensive commander of the exercise, Duarte was having trouble sleeping.
As a veteran who had participated in the European War, this was the first time he received such an order for an exercise.
The adjutant next to him was also confused.
"Sir! You said that this naval special tactics research team, a team of about fifty people, is brazenly planning to raid our headquarters. Is this possible?"
Duarte looked through the small window of the tent at the dark night outside. He seemed a little uneasy. After hearing the adjutant's question, he rubbed his brows helplessly and said:
"I don't understand what they want to do! I have a military camp with 2,500 people garrisoned. What effect can fifty of them have if they rush in?
But I don’t know why, but I always feel uneasy. "
When the adjutant looked at Duarte, he looked completely new and confident:
"Sir, don't worry! Since the content of the exercise has made it clear that we will defend against their attack, and we also know that they are coming to raid our camp, we only need to set up an ambush and wait for them to come.
Haven't you already quietly arranged your manpower outside the camp?
As long as they take action, they will be discovered by us soon. Once we discover their whereabouts, I don't believe that a team of fifty people can escape from the siege of 2,500 of us.
Besides, our mission is only to hold on to the camp.
I really can't imagine the possibility of us failing. "
But Duarte was not as optimistic as his adjutant.
“It’s precisely because we both feel it’s impossible that I feel weird!”
At this time, the adjutant seemed to have suddenly thought of something and said:
"Sir, do you think they are preparing to rush directly into our camp with strong firepower?
】
The last time Fernando de Noronha landed in the islands, wasn't there a brand-new assault rifle that was tested? "
Duarte shook his head and said in denial:
"It's impossible. Assault rifles are just rifles. They are not like the emergence of heavy machine guns that can completely change the way war is fought.
No matter how fast their assault rifles fire, can they still be faster than the many light and heavy machine guns in our military camps? "
"Yes! Then what is the significance of this exercise?"
Duarte couldn't give an answer to the adjutant's question. He could only sit in the field tent and think secretly, holding a drawing pencil in his hand and rubbing it back and forth. Even Cheng Guangwaliang, who was rubbing the tip of his pencil, didn't notice it at all.
The camp was quiet for five minutes, and neither of them came up with any useful clues.
Finally, Duarte looked at the night outside the window, stood up helplessly and said:
"I'll go check around the camp again and make sure that all the light and dark posts are in normal condition. You can go and notify the other battalion commanders so that everyone can be ready for battle at any time."
When the adjutant heard this, he quickly stood up and saluted:
"Yes, sir!"
After saying that, he turned around and left.
Duarte also picked up the helmet on the table, opened the tent and walked out. Accompanied by the guards, he walked around the huge camp and made sure that nothing was missed before he returned to his tent to rest.
Time passed slowly, and the clock came to four o'clock in the morning unknowingly. In some hidden corners in the northwest corner of the military camp, several black figures suddenly appeared silently behind several sentries, and only a few short sounds were heard. A muffled hum sounded, and everything quickly returned to calm.
A soldier on guard duty felt his mouth being covered by a strong hand, a cold touch on his neck, and a deep voice sounded in his ear:
"Tom, you were killed, please follow the drill rules."
This voice was very familiar to Tom. It was his former squad leader, Rez Vazquez, and he knew that the other person had been selected into this naval special tactics research group.
But what puzzled him was that as a sentinel in this direction, he was very sure that he had been watching very seriously, without even blinking an eyelid.
There was absolutely no figure of the other party where he was standing, but why did he suddenly appear behind him? This puzzled him.
He understood that he was out of this exercise, so he was obedient and didn't make any sound.
But he was very curious about how Rez Vazquez appeared behind him. Through the faint moonlight, Tom saw a group of moving bushes that were quickly blending into the dark night.
If the warning that had just sounded in his ears and the cold touch on his neck hadn't been so real, he would have almost thought that he was hallucinating something.
A group of shrubs actually came to life. If I remembered correctly, this group of shrubs was already beside me when I took over the sentry post.
This reminded him of some unscientific and scary legends from his hometown, and his body shivered for no reason.
Rez Vazquez had no time to consider Tom's feelings. At this moment, he was quickly and covertly approaching the camp surrounded by barbed wire.
In less than five minutes, he arrived at the predetermined location. He raised his wrist and looked at his watch to make sure the time was just right. He gently made a sound similar to a jungle frog's call with his mouth.
Soon, several responses came from around him, and the corner of his mouth twitched slightly, knowing that everyone was in place.
He raised his head and glanced at the distance between the searchlights and the situation on the tall barbed wire fence. He took out a small wire cutter from his back and clicked it. In less than ten strokes, he made a gap in the barbed wire fence that could allow one person to pass through.
After the searchlight left, he looked at the direction of the patrol, confirmed it was safe, made a low insect sound, took off his camouflage, quickly passed through the gap, and held on to the barbed wire to facilitate the passage of the soldiers behind him.
Soon everyone filed in silently. Rez Vazquez restored the barbed wire fence very responsibly and quickly stood up. He lined up neatly with everyone and joined the patrol.
But no one noticed that there was an extra team in the patrol.
I checked the password with other patrol teams in a decent manner and found nothing out of the ordinary.
However, the patrol route of this patrol team did not seem to be fixed. They approached the core area of the camp step by step, until they passed by a large tent, and the patrol team quietly disappeared into the camp.
About ten minutes later, fierce gunfire suddenly rang out outside the east gate of the camp, and the entire military camp was instantly awakened.
Duarte, who felt that he had just fallen asleep, sat up from the camp bed, quickly put on his clothes, took out a pistol from under the pillow, put it in the holster on his waist, and rushed out of the camp.
Glancing at the direction of the firefight, the tense expression on his face finally relaxed. All fear comes from the unknown. As long as the battle starts, he will no longer worry.
But what he didn't notice was that the guard standing guard at the door of his tent was missing.
Of course, he couldn't care about these trivial matters at this moment, and hurriedly walked towards a large tent in the camp, where his exercise headquarters was located.
Disheveled officers were constantly coming in and out of the big tent, and the radio and walkie-talkie equipment inside had already started working.
Duarte had just opened the curtain and walked into the command center when he saw an officer quickly walking up to him, standing at attention and saluting:
"Sir, the enemy launched an attack from the east gate, and the firepower was very fierce. Our company on guard at the perimeter has already exchanged fire with the opponent. Just now, the frontline company commander has asked us for help."
Hearing this, Duarte nodded calmly and said:
"Is he useless for asking for help so quickly? Order him to hold on to his position, and he is absolutely not allowed to take a step back without an order. At the same time, let the companies on alert in other directions pay attention to the enemy's movements and be careful of the enemy's attacks from the east to the west."
When the officer heard this, he quickly stood at attention and saluted:
"Yes, sir!"
The officer did not leave immediately after receiving the order. Instead, he looked suspiciously at Duarte's neck through the light in the tent. There seemed to be a large black stain on Duarte's neck.
Lieutenant Colonel Duarte noticed the officer's strange expression and said dissatisfied:
"What are you still doing here? Go and deliver the order."
The officer heard this and said with some confusion:
"Sir, your neck..."
Duarte was stunned when he heard this, stretched out his hand to touch it, and felt an unusual stickiness. He opened his palm and looked at it under the light, thinking something bad in his heart.
At this moment, several dull "bang bang" sounds suddenly came from all corners of the entire headquarters, and then the entire headquarters was engulfed in thick smoke.
Before the officers understood what was going on, they were choked by the smoke and fled the headquarters one after another.
At this time, the special team led by Rez Vazquez took advantage of the chaos at the headquarters and directly followed the soldiers in the military camp towards the east gate of the camp where the exchange of fire was taking place.
After running out of the military camp, everyone turned around again and disappeared into the vast night.
The exchange of fire outside the east gate also lasted for less than half an hour, and then stopped suddenly. It was not discovered until the defensive company, which had been suppressed, rushed out of the trench and touched the enemy's attack position.
The enemy has disappeared.
When the company commander outside the east gate reported the situation here to the headquarters, he was told that the exercise had ended, the headquarters had been destroyed by the enemy, and all the commanders, including the commander Lieutenant Colonel Duarte, had been wiped out by the enemy.
This not only confused the company commander, but also Duarte, who was standing outside the headquarters and watching the headquarters being engulfed in colored smoke, was a little confused.
This was completely different from the confrontation he had expected. Looking at the black stickiness on his hands, he realized that he had been beheaded by the enemy long before he was awakened by the sound of crossfire.
And he didn't even know what was going on.
It wasn't until he was informed by the director that the corpses that could move freely again crawled out from all hidden corners that he had a rough guess.
"Are you saying that someone wiped your neck from behind before you understood what was going on?"
Duarte asked in disbelief as he looked at the two guards who were supposed to be standing guard outside his tent.
The two guards were considered veterans. Their faces were red at the moment. They unconsciously touched the black marks on their necks and lowered their heads in shame.
Duarte's face turned livid when he saw this, and his eyes swept over the faces of the people around him, but he did not see any soldiers from the special tactics research team.
This was really hard for him to accept, and he said in a calm voice:
"Does anyone know where they are now?"
When everyone heard this, they all shook their heads in confusion.
At this moment, Duarte lowered his head with a dejected expression, and said quietly in a voice that could be heard by everyone:
"That is to say, our command post was taken over, and I, the commander, was killed, but we didn't even touch the shadow of the enemy. Is that right?"
Everyone in the entire headquarters was silent, and no one dared to answer Duarte's question directly.
In fact, Duarte knew what the answer was without asking! But he really couldn't accept this result.
