Chapter 134: The Master Deceiver

They spent the night at the hotel.

Throughout the day, Qin Yang and the others had been observing Kano’s military deployments from outside. It was only underground, near the Azalias royal palace, that they finally discovered the whereabouts of the three hostages. Besides them, more than thirty other people were being held there, including foreigners and African civilians. Judging by their clothing, many appeared to be embassy officials. Azalias clearly had no intention of handing them over for nothing. What reassured Qin Yang was that the three Chinese hostages had evidently not been subjected to severe abuse. Apart from their disheveled clothes and pale faces, they seemed unharmed.

The intelligence they had received was remarkably accurate.

Thirteen hours later, a group of men in all kinds of clothing checked into the hotel. Some wore tattered camouflage uniforms, while others were dressed in robes that concealed their faces. Yet anyone who was not blind could tell where these men came from: they were the bastards who had been constantly harassing China’s borders.

After arriving, the men repeatedly inspected the premises. Seeing that Qin Yang and the others were also Middle Easterners, they paid them no attention.

The leader of this terrorist group was a veteran terrorist named Zaka. He had spent more than thirty years in the world of terror. Though already in his forties or fifties, he still believed himself vastly superior to the younger men. After the organization’s previous disastrous failure, which had cost it hundreds of fighters, Zaka had volunteered to come to Africa. His mission was to take away the three Chinese hostages and cooperate with Azalias’s armed forces in searching for the remaining fifty-odd captives. By doing so, he intended to secure a powerful threat against China in the next holy war.

He had already made up his mind. Once the hostages were in his hands, he would kill more than ten of them first, just to show China what he was capable of. After that, he would threaten to execute one hostage every day unless China made certain concessions. With pressure from both international public opinion and forces within China, Zaka was absolutely confident that the next holy war would proceed smoothly.

After arranging for his fighters to rest, Zaka hurried to the Azalias royal palace. He was impatient to take the three hostages away. Although they were being held securely in Kano, he would not feel at ease until they were in his own hands.

The remaining terrorist fighters stayed in their rooms and rarely ventured outside, which gave Qin Yang and the others extremely favorable conditions for action.

Late at night, when Qin Yang estimated that Zaka had already fallen asleep in the arms of Azalias, he leaped from his bed and summoned Yang Guang, Xie Chengyang, and the others. Based on the information they had gathered earlier, they quietly made their way to the balcony, then nimbly jumped onto the balcony of the adjoining room. They carefully opened the window and slipped inside like nocturnal cats, without making the slightest sound. Each of them now carried a small knife—the kind left behind after a meal.

There happened to be five terrorists in the room. Since they were staying in a luxury suite, their standing within the group was probably not low. One was asleep on the living-room sofa. Qin Yang signaled Xu Lai to deal with him, while he and Zhao Wu moved together. Yang Guang and Xie Chengyang slipped into another room.

The two sleeping men clearly had no idea that the reaper was silently approaching. These old hands had all survived battlefields and should have been highly alert to any movement around them. But they believed Kano was absolutely safe, and had evidently overestimated the intelligence of the hound, Leosel. Qin Yang and the others were veterans as well, so the four men died without a sound or struggle.

“Bring them back to our room.” Qin Yang hoisted one of the bodies onto his shoulder. “Be careful. Don’t let anything go wrong.”

One after another, they jumped back across the balconies. Qin Yang and the others then lifted the mattresses and stuffed the five bodies into the compartments beneath the beds. Once the mattresses were put back in place, there was almost no sign that corpses were hidden underneath—unless, of course, a hotel attendant happened to notice the stench of decay.

The five men changed into the dead terrorists’ clothes. Qin Yang was especially pleased that the men had habitually kept their faces covered. After applying some crude makeup, they had little fear of being recognized.

He spent nearly four hundred soul points absorbing the men’s memories. Qin Yang did not dare underestimate this operation, so he drew out part of the spiritual energy stored within the Yin-Yang Jade Pendant. Fortunately, after more than a month, his reserves had risen to a thousand points. Added to the three hundred or so he had left from before, that meant he still had nine hundred soul points even after spending four hundred.

He quickly explained the five men’s identities to Zhao Wu and the others.

“Where did you get all this information?” Yang Guang asked in astonishment. “With their detailed identities, we’ll have a much easier time infiltrating the group.”

“I coaxed it out of them when we split up this evening,” Qin Yang said, casually inventing an excuse. “This is a small unit, and I’m the squad leader. You’re not very familiar with their language, so stay quiet whenever possible. I’ll handle the communication. You have the whole night to familiarize yourselves with their emergency code words. As for me, I’m going to sleep.”

With that, he climbed into bed and went to sleep.

Yang Guang and the others exchanged bewildered looks.

“Actually, I’d really like to know how many foreign languages Major Qin speaks,” Xie Chengyang said suspiciously.

The three men looked at one another, then smiled bitterly and shook their heads.

“We don’t know either,” Zhu Wu said. “When I asked how he understood the languages of the Middle East, he said he taught himself while he was in Black Prison. I’d also like to know how the hell he learned the Nigerien language. He said he taught himself that too, but I never once saw him studying.”

“Nonsense. He spends fourteen out of every twenty-four hours in his bedroom. He claims he’s researching medicine, but who knows what he’s actually learning?” Yang Guang said indifferently. “His ability to learn is frightening. You’ve experienced it yourself. Didn’t he completely empty out everything you knew in just three or four days? As for this information, don’t forget how good he is at deceiving people. Back in Black Prison, who among us hadn’t been fooled by him at least once? Even Uncle Wei Boyang was tricked into running from Xining to Yanjing and then to the Northeast. When he finally came back, all he had brought with him was a little contraband—he had accomplished nothing. Five or six major generals and two lieutenant generals from the General Staff were all manipulated by him until he had leverage over every one of them. Getting a few details out of these terrorists is hardly difficult for him.”

“My God.” Hearing about Qin Yang’s exploits, Xie Chengyang could not help shivering.

He even toyed with generals. The man was far too formidable. Then Xie Chengyang suddenly wondered whether Qin Yang had fooled him in the past as well.

“All right, enough nonsense. Let’s familiarize ourselves with these files,” Xu Lai said. “We don’t have much time. If anything goes wrong tomorrow and they become suspicious, we’ll be in trouble. I don’t want an entire city’s army surrounding us and taking us down.”

“Surrounding you? With that puny frame of yours, you don’t even qualify as seasoning.”