Lucas turned off the radio and started processing the information.
'Previously, even if I were to have finished my special forces training, I would have been incapable of finishing this job and at worse would have died trying. After all, I'm not like the iconic commandos in those nineties action movies.'
Taking a look out of the window of the living room he continued his thoughts:
'I will have to do this in a fast and efficient way. Unfortunately I don't have an image of the town nor any support but maybe it's better that way since I don't trust that Jack Schneider at all. Not from the beginning and now even less with that suspicious second objective.
However, this also a chance to test what I got from this unstable opportunity that used my life as a gambling stake.
I'm in the blind but the terrorists won't expect me just after an attack. I will first scout the town, do the job and disappear after taking my money.'
He started to get excited by the end but testing himself was not the main reason why he accepted the job. With the path he was embarking on, he might not be there to take care of his parents or even keep regular contact with them but with the money he will be paid, he will be able to make some arrangements to ensure their comfort and by the way ease his mind.
Taking a deep breath and calming himself, he struck his head out of his hiding place to take stock of his surroundings and look for an optimal entry point to start scouting.
Right now, he was on the north side of the town and no matter how small it was, it was still too big for just fifty people so, they should be scattered around as patrols with more around the center and fewer in the periphery.
'Thus, the best way to go about it is to start with the extermination, circle toward the center and pray for the hostage. But, if she is still alive and in captivity, it should stay that way till they really start despairing and use her as an Ace in the hole to turn things around so, no worry for now.'
After adjusting his attire, he started moving, going from building to building, some more dilapidated than the others, using them as cover and observing the sentries or possible sentry posts.
After going inward for about one hundred meters, he saw a machine gun barrel poking out of a window on the second floor of a better preserved house.
Observing the vicinity, he spotted another sentry on the roof of a building not far away and, judging from their positions, those two sentries had a view on each other. This caused him to suspect a new parameter that might complicate his mission.
Continuing his scouting, he discovered another terrorist patrolling the streets, with a companion of his on a rooftop not far, which meant that he would mostly stay in the latter's sight safe for when he turned some corners.
This caused Lucas to frown and go into thoughts:
'This mostly confirms my suspicions and going forward I doubt the situation will change.
They tried to establish a net and even if they certainly can't cover the whole town, they will know if something happens to one of the sentries sooner and become alert.'
Once again looking at the sentries and their posts, his eyes suddenly flashed.
'This will certainly make stealthy actions short-lived but at the same time, it makes spotting the guard posts easier. It will make my scouting easier and less time consuming and I just need to plan around their arrangements.'
Following that logic, he optimized his scouting. He took an hour to tour the town without really going to the center, only observing it from afar with a spy-glass since he found his first assumption to have been right: there were more guards in the center and the net for surveillance was also tighter.
Even if he did not manage to pinpoint the relative position of all the terrorists, he discovered more than a dozen positions and, with some surely having more than one guard to man them, he could be said to have confirmed more than half of the targets in this ruined town.
And what's more:
'Just with this scouting, I can conclude the observations I made earlier in the desert. I weight less and move faster, allowing to change hiding place fast enough to minimize risks of being spotted.
And, I'm really at home in the desert. When I concentrated and was tense due to the situation, I felt like I became one with the desert, blending with it and becoming it. When I moved, I was even like the wind of the desert. There was no incongruity making it easier to be stealthy and undiscovered.'
Those caused him to sport an involuntary feral grin, becoming more and more certain of the incredibility of the opportunity he got.
'Now I just need to do everything I can to grasp it tightly. I wonder what will the balance the old man asked me to pursue bring me. I can't wait to see.'
After fantasizing a little longer about his future, he focused back on the present and started carefully moving toward the target he selected as his first.
Since he could not kill them all stealthily, he will just be the ghost that will haunt this town.