Kaman wasn't used to the effects of the monocular night vision device, but he couldn't bear to discard such advanced equipment. He flipped up the night vision, looked at Qiao Jia with his dim eyes, and said, "Those men are seasoned veterans. There are twelve of them in total. I've only seen this kind of equipment on white mercenaries. If they really want to pursue us, running won't help.
"There are two black mambas under that bush. If they flip the bag, they'll get a surprise."
Kaman then oriented himself, pointed to a distant hill, and said, "That's a good hiding spot. Boss, your marksmanship is accurate. If they catch up, fire a few shots from there, then immediately run east. After about a kilometer, you'll find a pond. I'll ambush them from behind. We'll regroup near the pond."
Qiao Jia was surprised and asked, "Why didn't the black mambas attack us?"
Kaman was momentarily stunned, not understanding why his boss was focused on that…
After a brief silence, he pulled out a small burlap bag from his pocket and handed it to Qiao Jia, saying, "This is an herbal remedy to ward off snakes and insects. A shaman taught me this. Carrying it while walking on the grasslands prevents snake and insect attacks."
Kaman then pointed to a distant bush and said, "You go there. I'll find a spot nearby."
Oddly enough, after intense physical activity, Qiao Jia felt more at ease. He handed Kaman a radio, helped him put on the earpiece, and said softly, "Thank you. You saved my life!
"There are twelve of them. I've already taken down one, so there are eleven left. Do you think I can take them all out?"
Kaman, puzzled, looked at Qiao Jia and said, "We don't need to take that risk. I can stall them and then pick them off slowly in the grasslands."
Qiao Jia shook his head, saying, "No, we were betrayed. It was likely that Siluk guy. At first, he tried to provoke us into a fight with that Italian arms dealer, but when he saw I wasn't interested, he informed the Italian.
"This guy must have misunderstood my identity and is trying to use me to stir up trouble! We don't have time to delay. We must take them down here. If someone contacts the peacekeeping forces, more people could get involved because of me.
"These peacekeepers have it hard enough in this damned place as it is! I love money, but I won't drag my countrymen into this mess…"
Kaman listened, remained silent for a long time, then said, "If we stay and fight, it will be extremely dangerous. Those men aren't amateurs. My ambush can take out maybe two or three of them, but then I'll have to retreat into the grasslands. It will take me at least ten minutes to circle around and find you.
"As soon as you fire, you'll expose your position. Can you hold out for ten minutes?"
Qiao Jia rubbed his dry fingers and nodded, saying, "I can. And you don't need to come find me. Just stay near them. If they try to escape, you handle them.
"So our problem now is how to lure them here?"
Seeing the serious expression on Qiao Jia's face, Kaman hesitated, then nodded and said, "You're the boss, but if you die, I'm going to run."
Qiao Jia took out the six kilograms of gold he had received today, stuffed it into Kaman's bag, then patted him on the arm and said, "If I die, please kill that Siluk guy who betrayed me.
"If I survive, a third of this will be your bonus, and our contract will continue."
Kaman paused, his expression strange, and asked, "Is it really worth taking such a risk just to avoid troubling the peacekeepers?"
Qiao Jia shook his head, saying, "Is it worth it for those young men to risk their lives in this hellhole?
"There are some things that are hard to explain to you. I don't have any special identity; I'm in a line of work where I could lose my head. I'm a bad guy, but bad guys shouldn't drag good people down with them."
Kaman nodded and said, "You're right. Those blue-helmeted guys are good people. If they mobilize in large numbers, the rebels will definitely make trouble."
Kaman patted his backpack and said, "I think you're a good boss. I just want to get my share.
"You go wait in the bushes. I'll figure out how to get them into the best position for you to shoot."
Without giving Qiao Jia a chance to argue, Kaman slipped into the knee-high grass like a ghost. The wind on the grasslands rustled the vegetation, completely covering the sound of Kaman's movements.
Qiao Jia was now very glad he had hired this old man. After completely losing track of Kaman, he sprinted for five minutes, finally reaching the hill Kaman had pointed out, and hid in a bush.
The advantage of the hill was its excellent view. The ten-meter-high mound allowed Qiao Jia to see up to 800–900 meters. As long as he could withstand the fear of flying bullets, this was the ideal shooting spot.
The first thing Qiao Jia noticed upon reaching the hill was a dead tree about 40 centimeters in diameter. He used all his strength to move it to the edge of the hill, creating a makeshift position. Then he pulled out his SVD and propped his HK416 against the dead tree.
He needed greater range. The short-barreled, silenced HK416 had already achieved its theoretical limit of accuracy, but due to the limitations of its bullets and barrel length, as well as the constraints of the quick-flip 4x scope, its effective range was only 400–450 meters.
Beyond that distance, bullet trajectory would drop and drift due to loss of velocity and wind drift. It's not that the gun couldn't kill at that range, but Qiao Jia hadn't yet fully adapted to this shooting style.
His guns were too precise, so he didn't have the shooting sense honed by regular soldiers using standard rifles and bullets.
After all, when you've adjusted your firearm's sights to hit targets within 400 meters, most people wouldn't bother thinking about bullet trajectory and would instead focus on improving their shooting accuracy and speed.
Obviously, the SVD with its electromagnetic accelerated barrel was more suited to his current needs.
Actually, Qiao Jia's HK416 wasn't incapable of longer-range shooting. If he wanted, he could adjust the barrel length and change the bullet load to accurately hit targets 600–800 meters away. But doing so would defeat the purpose of an assault rifle.
The idea of a multi-purpose weapon is inherently flawed; it's designed for targets within 300 meters, or even 200 meters.
The full suite of optics and quick-flip 4x scope had already extended Qiao Jia's accurate shooting range to 400 meters.
To pursue a longer range with a high-powered scope would mean losing the ability to quickly search and shoot targets at 200–300 meters, which was unnecessary for him.
Because he was only used to straight-line trajectories and crisp, decisive shooting, if he needed range, he would simply switch guns.