Chapter 86 Chapter 86

Puller stood in front of the cracked mirror in the Annie's motel bathroom.He was dressed in camouflage with stripes of black and gray painted on his face.M11 pistols are loaded and loaded in chest and back holsters. The MP5 submachine gun was also loaded, and the firing mode was set to burst fire.He also put another four full magazines in the magazine pocket of his trousers.Puller had to bend down to get a fuller view of the silver-plated mirror behind him. Mirrors are hard to find on the open battlefields of the Middle East.Puller had a hasty invention of coating the back of a piece of broken glass with something gooey to capture the image of light reflecting itself.Some of his soldiers found it odd that he groomed himself against shards of glass every time he went to battle.Pooler didn't care what they thought.He had a reason for doing it, the only reason.

If he were to die in battle, he hoped to leave the world with the image of a soldier who died for a cause worth fighting for.In Iraq and Afghanistan, the purpose of the fighting could not have been clearer.Mainly to fight for the comrades around him, to keep them alive.And then there's the honor of the group he's a member of, the U.S. Army broadly, and the Rangers more specifically.The third is for his country.Maybe some civilians will think that his ideas are not quite right, and reverse the order of what is more important.But Puller sees it more clearly.For him, the most important thing is those comrades in military uniform standing in the queue, who regard the hail of bullets as a daily routine.

Puller finished checking his military appearance, turned off the lights, and locked the door.This may be the last time the door is locked.He walked over to the car and double-checked his gear, making sure everything was in place, including what Cole had found at his request.After the car started, he couldn't help but think of the scene when he first came to Drake.It was only a few days ago, but it feels like months.The unbearable heat is the same at this moment.Puller felt the heat and sweat building up inside his camouflage. He glanced at the business room of the hotel, and thought of the old lady who had stayed in this hut for countless years.From flared skirts, super pompadours, and presumably far more than Drake's dreams, to his death more than sixty years later after exhausting all the energy in his life.He had only met the old woman twice, and he didn't even know her last name.For some reason, however, Pooler would always remember Louisa, if nothing more than not being able to save her life was enough.Puller is hoping he'll have better luck this time and be able to save the lives of other Drakes.

Puller had been on the phone for several hours just now, and communicated with some high-level figures in the military separately.His request to above was unusual.In the military, when you make an unusual request, there is always a refusal that awaits you.But Puller persisted in his plea without compromise, and the other side's intransigence grew harder and harder. So Puller put forward categorically: we must do it according to his ideas.This resoluteness was paired with a perfectly logical corollary he articulated: if many people died as a result of the military's failure to take appropriate measures, Puller would never be the only one to ruin his career .

This finally caught the attention of someone in the seat of command, and Puller's plan was now implemented. Puller was driving strictly at the prescribed speed, keeping his eyes on the road ahead.After many switchbacks, Puller parked the car at the appointed spot and waited for Cole's headlights to emerge from the darkness.His clock ticked eleven-twenty, and Pooler wondered if Cole had changed his mind.Just then, Cole's light blue pickup truck pulled up to his car.Cole stepped out the door, pulled out a large coil of phone cable on a plastic reel in the trunk, and patted Puller's car trunk again.Puller opened the lid and Cole put the reel of telephone cable inside.She then sat in the passenger seat of the Malibu.

Cole was wearing a leather jacket over a black T-shirt, dark jeans and boots.Puller saw the King Cobra revolver in her holster.He looked down to see that Cole still had a spare pistol in the holster above his ankle. "What caliber?" Puller asked. ".38, loaded." Cole opened her jacket a little more, and Puller saw a sharp knife stuck in a leather sheath inside."It's for emergencies as a last resort," she said. Puller nodded appreciatively. Cole looked at him and said, "It seems that you are ready to fight." "I'm really ready to fight."

"Did you really think there was anyone in there?" "I can't take chances, I have to prepare for all possibilities." "I can't believe that just because my brother told Dickie Strauss about the alleyway, it started a chain of events like this." "It is for this reason that we must enter the fort by another road." "Otherwise, we may encounter an ambush." "That's right." They arrived at the place.Five hundred meters away on the east side of the fortress. Puller took out the backpack from the car and put it on his shoulders, which was full of all kinds of equipment.He reached his arm through the scroll and slung the spool of telephone cable over his other shoulder.Then he held up another body armor.

"Put it on. You'll have to tighten the tether and try to make it fit. I guess you're still too big for that, but it's better than putting your flesh and blood against what's coming out of their guns, Still much stronger." "Is it heavy?" "It's still much lighter than if I had to carry your body back." "Thanks, I see. What do you do?" "I've already put it on." He helped Cole put on the body armor, checked back and forth, and reached out to make some adjustments.Then they went into the jungle.Puller made his way through the dense forest with confidence and ease, identifying passable trails among the dense trees.If Cole hadn't been following him, he could hardly be sure where he should take a step.

She whispered, "I've lived in this place all my life, and I can get lost here in ten seconds." Puller came to the wall of the fort, walked north along the wall to the end of it, and walked west again.He glanced at the luminous hands, two minutes ahead of schedule.On the battlefield, there are times when preemption can be just as harmful as delay.He slowed down a little. When they finally reached the edge of the jungle, Pooler moved forward in a crouch, and Cole followed suit.They stopped suddenly. Straight ahead is the fire station. Puller pointed to its right side. "Telephone cables go in there. There are sockets in the offices on the second floor."

Cole had a flash of thought. "The passage from the fire station to the fort is not in those drawings." "That's right," said Puller, "it's not in the drawings." "Why not?" "There's a good reason. They don't want people to know about this secret passage." He stood up. "Are you ready? It's time." Cole stood up.Her legs started to shake a little, but they stabilized.She swallowed hard and said, "Let's go."