Night had fallen completely.
There was no guessing what Parker was coming to the forward position for, but the answer would soon be revealed.
Gao Fei left his position and walked about twenty meters to the left along the trench, reaching Glaski's team's machine gun position.
In truth, it was just two sections of trench totaling barely fifty meters. There were two machine gun positions on Gao Fei's side, but both currently sat abandoned; they had machine guns and ammunition, but no gunners.
Glaski was now serving as both squad leader and team leader. He had three men under him, but Glaski himself was the only qualified gunner.
As for the right flank of Gao Fei's squad, it was no longer D Company, but an assault detachment led in person by the assault platoon leader.
To see Glaski, Gao Fei only had to walk a little over twenty meters down the trench, rounding just two bends along the way.
"Squad Leader, Squad Leader."
Gao Fei called out twice first, lest his comrade take a potshot at him in the dark.
"Rex? Come on over."
Hearing the reply, Gao Fei made his way to Glaski's side and crawled into his noticeably enlarged dugout. Not only was there room for someone to lie down inside, but Glaski had even carved out two ledge-seats.
He was clearly digging the dugout deeper, making it functional, and even expanding it into a proper living space.
Why go to all that trouble? Pure despair. Knowing he wouldn't be leaving anytime soon, he naturally did whatever he could to make himself a cozier spot to sleep.
"Whoa, nice dugout."
"It's alright. Anyone who knows how to dig a trench or a Dakota fire hole can carve one out. You could do it too if you stopped being lazy."
Noticing Gao Fei's awkward expression, Glaski blurted out, "Wait, you don't know how?"
If Gao Fei had served in the military, he would have known, but a military enthusiast like him had never learned field entrenchment work.
Digging a trench was fine—you just put your back into it and huffed and puffed through the manual labor. But tunneling out a shelter like this actually required technique.
So Gao Fei could only keep quiet, wearing an embarrassed look.
"Fine, I'll help you dig yours tomorrow. Is that why you came over?"
Gao Fei sat down, pulled out his cigarette pack, and drew out the lone remaining cigarette.
Glaski's eyes lit up instantly. He reached out to snatch it, but Gao Fei dodged with the cigarette in hand and hissed, "Don't grab! Half each!"
Glaski still grabbed for it, brazenly insisting, "I get first drag!"
Fine, letting Glaski smoke first wasn't the end of the world.
Glaski lit the cigarette, took a blissful drag, and inhaled deeply into his lungs before exhaling with utter satisfaction. "I knew you had a secret stash, you little bastard."
"It's really gone this time. But there'll be more soon."
"Oh? Resupply is coming?"
"Nope!"
Gao Fei hadn't come just to share a smoke. Lowering his voice, he asked, "Are your men reliable?"
There was serious weight behind those words.
Glaski stared, taken aback. He didn't quite get it—they belonged to the same squad, and with so few survivors left, even though the men currently under his command were the remnants of the other two fireteams, they were certainly reliable enough.
"Yeah, reliable. Don't you know them?"
"Of course I know them, but I don't know their backgrounds. Are there any blabbermouths among them who can't keep their mouths shut?"
"Uh, no. What's going on?"
"Parker's coming in a bit, along with the company commander and the platoon leader. They're all coming to our position. It's definitely good news."
Glaski's eyes widened in surprise. "Are they coming to pay our bounties?"
"Probably. Gather your men—every single one of them—and wait over at my place."
"We don't need to guard the position?"
"No."
"Alright, I'll call them right away."
"Wait, finish the smoke first."
Gao Fei would have loved to enjoy a whole cigarette to himself, but two people sharing it was still better than splitting it among a whole crowd.
Once they finished smoking, the group headed over to Gao Fei's position.
When they reached Gao Fei and his squad's shelter, Parker and the others hadn't arrived yet, so they had to wait a bit longer.
Taking one look at Gao Fei's dugout, Glaski said with disdain, "Typical blue berets. Can't even dig a hole in the ground. Can none of you three dig? It's about to get cold. When the snow starts falling, do you plan to freeze to death?"
After grumbling for a bit, Glaski showed his loyalty and added, "We'll come help you dig tomorrow, you bunch of idiots."
The moment the words left his mouth, a voice called from a distance behind them: "Who's an idiot? Heads up ahead, we're coming through."
Along with the voices, several men walked over.
All familiar faces: Parker, the company commander, the platoon leader, and of course the orderly assigned to protect Parker.
Parker stepped into the middle of the group. Glancing around at everyone, he declared in high spirits, "I'm here to solve your problems. It's been a long time since you received the rewards you're owed, but now, we have a new way to make money."
Parker's words caused a stir among the men.
Parker continued, "We wait right here. In a little while, someone will be crossing over from the enemy's side. The reason I had you all gathered was because I was worried you might open fire and hit one of our own by mistake."
Glaski looked utterly astonished. Though Gao Fei had anticipated something like this, he was still considerably shocked.
Was what he had imagined earlier really coming true?
Parker glanced at the company commander. The commander spoke in a low voice, "He's right. This benefits all of us. You need to understand how important secrecy is. If anyone shoots their mouth off or leaks our secret, you can weigh the consequences yourselves. I won't say more."
What was going to happen? Why all the secrecy and cloak-and-dagger?
Parker checked his watch, then began scanning outside the trench repeatedly. He raised a handheld thermal optic to peer out. A few minutes later, he suddenly said, "He's here! Right on time."
Gao Fei was standing right beside Parker. As soon as Parker announced the arrival, he handed the thermal optic over to Gao Fei.
Gao Fei spotted a silhouette about two hundred meters out, hunched over, head down, marching steadily in their direction.
Someone actually dared to leave the safety of a trench and walk straight across open, coverless ground—and after traversing the entire battlefield, not a single soul had fired at him?
It was almost unbelievable.
Nobody spoke. Everyone was on edge.
After a few more minutes, the approaching figure halted about twenty meters from the trench and blew a soft whistle.
Parker raised his voice, shouting, "Come on over! Right here! Welcome!"
"Coming over."
The visitor moved again, walked to the edge of the trench, and slid right down inside. He instinctively dusted off the dirt on his clothes and smiled. "Hello, everyone."
Gao Fei stared in surprise, because this newcomer also had black hair and yellowish skin—an East Asian face.
He wasn't wearing camouflage fatigues or combat boots either, but an ordinary tracksuit, carrying a black backpack, and sporting running shoes.
Gao Fei stared at him, and the man stared right back at Gao Fei. Both raised a hand and said simultaneously, "Chinese?"
"Yeah, Chinese."
The two switched to Mandarin. Highly excited, Gao Fei asked eagerly, "I really never expected to run into you here! Brother, where are you from?"
"Where do you think I'm from?"
The guy was slippery. His Mandarin had a rather heavy accent that sounded somewhat southern Fujianese, yet certain words carried a northeastern flavor. It was hard to pin down.
This was no time for trading hometowns. Parker was already beside them, asking impatiently, "Are you Max's man?"
"I used to do business with Max, but he's dead. Now I've taken over his business. You can call me Jeffte Li."
After saying that, Jeffte Li didn't forget to turn his head toward Gao Fei and add, "You can call me Li Jie. Jie as in nimble."
Li Jie switched effortlessly between Russian and English, before addressing Gao Fei in Chinese.
Gao Fei replied without hesitation, "I'm Gao Fei."
Li Jie stepped forward to shake hands with Parker and said with utmost confidence, "Hello, Parker. I've heard so much about you, so when I got your call, I agreed to work together without hesitation."
Now it was Parker's turn to be puzzled. He looked Li Jie up and down, then glanced at Gao Fei, and asked in bewilderment, "So you're the one who contacted me about the deal?"
"Yes, exactly."
Parker frowned in thought for a moment. "Did you bring what I asked for?"
"Brought it. One M1911, a box of ammo, four magazines, four packs of cigarettes, and two bottles of booze."
Li Jie set down his backpack and unzipped it without taking anything out, simply stating calmly, "The M1911 with ammo and magazines is two thousand dollars. The cigarettes and liquor are gifts from me—free of charge."
Parker pondered, then asked, "Do you have enough clout? Can you clear all the channels?"
"I'm already standing here, aren't I? Doesn't that prove it? And I brought cash. I settle in cash."
With that, Li Jie added proudly, "Mr. Parker, you're well known, and I'm just a small fry who recently got into the game. But you have to understand: around here, I'm the only one willing to take this kind of risk for such pocket change."
Parker waved a hand. "Fine. Welcome aboard. I'm sure our cooperation will be very pleasant. Now, give me your prices."
Without hesitation, Li Jie recited, "AK74, two hundred and fifty dollars each. AR-L and HK417 are six hundred each. M4A3 depends on condition—five hundred for good ones. As for other guns, we can price them separately."
He was here to buy guns?
Were guns worth anything out here?
Parker asked curiously, "What about ammo?"
"I don't take ammo. I don't have plans to deal in ammo for now."
Parker spread his hands, then turned to the stunned men around him. "You heard him. Bring out your stash. Remember, you can sell him captured guns you don't need, but don't go selling your own weapons."
Gao Fei spoke up immediately: "Two-fifty for an AK?"
Li Jie glanced at Gao Fei and answered without missing a beat, "Two-sixty for yours."
"..."
Two-fifty was an insult in Chinese, so Li Jie had to give Gao Fei a different rate.
"Make them all two-sixty."
"Can't do it. No change."
Fair point. Gao Fei could only nod in agreement.
The most common AK74s were also the cheapest, but Gao Fei and his group had over a dozen ARs on hand right now, plus a few M4s.
"We have nine ARs and seven M4A3s."
"Nine times six is fifty-four hundred, seven times five is thirty-five hundred—eight thousand nine hundred total. But I came alone today; there's no way I can carry that many rifles. Tell you what: I'll take five ARs first for three thousand dollars."
Li Jie squatted down, pulled a thick roll of bills from his backpack, peeled off three stacks, stood up, and moved to hand the cash to Parker.
Parker shook his head and motioned for Gao Fei to take the money.
Gao Fei took the cash, then turned to Glaski. "Go get the guns. All the money from selling the captured weapons here gets split equally. That's the rule from now on."
Glaski didn't hesitate for a second. "Hurry, bring the guns over!"
Five ARs were laid down in front of Li Jie. Squatting, he inspected each rifle one by one. Once he confirmed they were all in good shape, he told Parker, "Excellent. This is our first transaction, and I hope every deal going forward will be this smooth."
Parker pointed at Gao Fei. "I won't be showing up here in the future. You'd better find a few helpers as soon as you can. There are enough guns on the frontline to keep you busy buying for a while, but if you want to do bigger business, you need to expand your capacity as soon as possible."
Li Jie was alone. Carrying five rifles was already heavy, and walking a long distance with them meant he couldn't scale this business on his own.
Without hesitation, Li Jie asked, "Then who pays for the pistol?"
Parker replied instantly, "They'll pay for the pistol. Offset it against the guns. They owe me this. Now you can give me the pistol."
"Then I'll collect that payment on my next trip."
Li Jie didn't object. He just said casually, "I'll make a few more runs tonight. Alright, gentlemen, in the future you can buy cigarettes and liquor from me—booze is two hundred dollars a bottle, cigarettes are a hundred dollars a pack. Naturally, you can trade guns for them, depending on what you need. These items here are a welcoming gift from me, so please keep them. I'll be back shortly. See you soon."
As Li Jie turned to leave, Gao Fei couldn't help asking, "Brother, are you from Fujian? Or eastern Guangdong? Your accent sounds like it."
Li Jie turned back with a smile and nodded at Gao Fei. "Spot on. Your ear is pretty sharp. See you in a bit."
Chapter 83