Mercenary's War

He went to the company headquarters and met with the mid-level managers who were already waiting in the conference room; it didn’t take very long.

Solar System Company now had around a hundred people, not counting those hired to go fight; if you included the field personnel, Solar System Company had four to five hundred people by now.

Keeping about a hundred people at headquarters was a bit much, but Solar System Company wasn’t in it for short-term deals; it was aiming to grow bigger and stronger. With the fighting in Saudi Arabia getting intense, there was a lot to do on Solar System Company’s side, so the headquarters was expanding quickly as well.

In the conference room, Gao Yang showed his face and gave a brief speech to the dozen or so mid-level managers, using the script Karima had prepared for him in advance.

In terms of understanding the company, he was far inferior to Abdul and Karima, and he basically had no idea what the headquarters was busy with now; if Karima hadn’t prompted him, he really wouldn’t have known what to say.

"We’ve rented a piece of land as a training site, about 1,600 hectares, near a small town called Woodworth in Louisiana. It’s a bit far from here, but land lease prices in Texas are too high."

In Gao Yang’s office, Gao Yang sat behind his desk while Karima reported on the company’s recent developments.

Even though he was in his own office, Gao Yang still felt a bit on edge, because he couldn’t help thinking about what had happened here before.

Forcing himself to focus on business, Gao Yang said in a low voice, "1,600 hectares, that’s pretty big."

"Yes, but the lease price is manageable—three hundred thousand dollars a year. We signed a ten-year lease. The site has swamps, woodland, and a small lake, and there are buildings that can house two hundred people. Most of them are temporary structures, but they’ll definitely last through the ten-year lease term."

Gao Yang nodded and said, "Okay, not bad."

Karima went on calmly, "We’ve already sent more than two hundred field personnel to Saudi Arabia. Based on Abdul’s assessment, we’re likely to get new business in the near future. If we recruit on the fly it’ll be too late, so the field personnel we’re recruiting will be sent to the training camp in Louisiana for short-term training, so that once we receive new orders we can deploy enough field personnel at any time."

"How’s the recruitment of field personnel going?"

"We’ve recruited one hundred and ten people so far, and fifty more are scheduled for interviews today."

"How are we conducting the recruitment of field personnel?"

"We have professional headhunters. They’re spread out nationwide looking for suitable veterans. If they find suitable candidates, they send them invitations. Quite a few employees also apply on their own after hearing about us. As long as they meet our requirements and don’t have serious violent tendencies or criminal records, we bring them into the company. The fifty people today are all applicants who signed up on our recruitment website. They’ve already passed the preliminary screening; if they pass the interviews today, they’ll be sent to the training camp in Louisiana."

"Is the recruitment going smoothly?"

"Very smoothly. Our commission is much higher than other companies’, and we provide insurance. Although our requirements are also high, and this is deployment to fight in Saudi Arabia rather than ordinary security work, it’s still very popular."

Solar System Company’s business in Saudi Arabia was essentially semi-mercenary in nature, not a standard security assignment; but as long as the money was good enough, there had never been a shortage of people willing to risk their lives.

Gao Yang checked his watch and said, "What time do the interviews start today?"

"In ten minutes."

"Let’s go take a look."

Gao Yang stood up. Although he cared about recruiting new people, it wasn’t appropriate for him to meet them directly. Still, he decided to go have a look, simply because staying in the office made him feel uneasy.

The truth was, Gao Yang was afraid something would happen here again—something that shouldn’t happen.

Karima led the way, and Gao Yang followed her to a hall in the company headquarters.

The hall was already filled with people sitting down. Some wore civilian clothes, but some had come in full uniform, carrying large backpacks. Once they passed screening, they’d be quickly sent to the training base, so they’d simply brought their personal combat gear with them.

Most of them were young, lounging casually on their chairs. Though most hadn’t known each other before, they were about to be thrown together in the same unit. These people, all with military experience, had already started getting acquainted.

The three people conducting the interviews were also all ex-military; two of them had been poached from other PMC companies. They were experienced and knew what kind of people they needed.

After watching from outside the window for a moment, Gao Yang suddenly said, "There are a few guys from Special Forces in there. Last row, the one with the baseball cap, see him? Four in total—they’re together."

Karima looked twice and said, "How can you tell?"

"Hard to explain to you, but I can spot it at a glance. And these guys have seen real combat. They’re very proud, so they don’t want to sit around chatting like the others. They look down on everyone else."

"You can tell that too? If they’re together, why aren’t they talking to each other?"

"They’ve been together too long and are too in sync; there’s nothing to talk about."

Gao Yang grinned proudly, pleased with his own eye for people, while Karima just smiled and then gestured. "Come this way, the interviewers’ room is over here. If you’re not planning to do the interviews yourself, you can sit in and listen."

As long as he wasn’t alone with anyone, it was fine. Skirting around the soldiers, Gao Yang and Karima went into a room. After exchanging a few words with the three interviewers, he and Karima sat off in a corner, like two assistants.

The interviews started quickly. The main person in charge, a man in his forties, took out a list and smiled. "We have a few from Special Forces this time. Let’s start with them. First one, Karl Stemonsen."

Someone went out and called the name, and then a man in a baseball cap walked into the room and sat down in the chair opposite the three interviewers.

Karima smiled and glanced at Gao Yang. Sure enough, the man in the baseball cap was from Special Forces.

"Please introduce yourself."

"Karl Stemonsen, thirty-five, male."

"Your file doesn’t say which unit you were from. Please explain in detail, especially your rank, position, and your specialized combat skills."

"Classified. I’m not telling you."

"Uh, all right, we’ll skip that for now. Why are you joining our company? Any particular reason?"

"No particular reason. Just the better pay."

Karl Stemonsen looked a bit down and out. His clothes were somewhat dirty, his stubble was long, and the baseball cap he wore was grimy as well, but his eyes were razor sharp.

This was what Karima observed, but she couldn’t see what made Karl Stemonsen look like Special Forces.

Karima turned her head to look at Gao Yang, curious how exactly he had spotted it. But just as she turned, she noticed that although Gao Yang’s face was calm, his eyes were fixed on his own feet.

Karima felt a flicker of doubt, and at that moment, Gao Yang suddenly reached out and grabbed her right hand.

Karima’s hand hurt, because Gao Yang was squeezing with tremendous force.

She almost cried out in pain, but she bit down hard on her lip.

Gao Yang’s face was still calm, his expression normal, his gaze normal, his body language normal—aside from the hand he had stretched out to grasp Karima’s.

Everything looked normal, but Karima knew Gao Yang was anything but. She realized it in an instant: Gao Yang was very nervous—extremely nervous, to the point of being afraid.

What was Gao Yang afraid of?

Karima had no way of knowing why Gao Yang was terrified, but she knew that all she needed to do was act normal. She shifted her right hand slightly, to let Gao Yang know he was already losing control, unable to restrain the strength in his grip.

Karima knew Gao Yang would never normally squeeze her hand this hard, as if he were about to crush her fingers.

Gao Yang knew he was afraid, and he knew where the fear came from. The moment that Karl Stemonsen opened his mouth, his nerves had tightened. When he remembered where he’d heard Karl’s voice before, fear kicked in—because he’d heard this man’s voice in Ukraine.

Karl Stemonsen’s voice—Gao Yang didn’t dare forget it.

Because that was the voice of the commander of the Hell Three-headed Dog.