Chapter 376: Chapter 39 Episode 16: Congo, Fist of Justice
Sadi’s eyes, which looked kind and even sad, flashed with violent bloodlust. A ek herbivore turned into a predator at once.
Maybe I’m doing sothing horrible to this guy!
Black Mamba’s heart ached. Sadi was from the Maasai tribe. Maasai tribe mbers had excellent physiques, which allowed them to fight against a lion with a spear. Genetically speaking, Sadi was an exceptionally well-built Maasai. He could have been a target of the MK Ultra project team because of that.
There were countless bullet scars on Sadi’s body. He presud it to be the traces obtained when Sadi, a test subject, escaped the experint lab. The Vodou houngan must have found Sadi on the verge of death and turned him into a zombie. Sadi lived without consciousness for decades. Sadi was a strange existence that turned back into a human after 1,000 different hardships. Was it right for him to shove Sadi back into a river of blood?
“Wakil, it’s scary when you look at like that.”
“Hm? Let’s head into the conference room.”
“I don’t like etings where you talk about things I don’t understand. It’s boring. I get rocks in my butt when I sit for too long. I’m going to Emil.”
Sadi didn’t know how to talk around a subject. He was direct when expressing himself. Sotis, Sadi was like a wise man, and sotis, he was like a child.
“You’re going to the equipnt shelter building?”
“Emil said my weapon is arriving today.”
“Really? I suppose they developed liquid tal. Do as you please. I’ll head over once the eting is over. You can’t cause a scene, alright?”
“Don’t worry, wakil. Sadi’s all mature now.”
Sadi took off, fearing that Black Mamba would hold him back. Sadi was particularly obsessed with shovels. Therefore, Black Mamba ordered a shovel instead. At that ti, the type of tal the DGSE Technology Design Division proposed was liquid tal that they were developing.
“I wonder what the strongest shovel in the world would look like,” Black Mamba mumbled as he headed back into the room.
Ariba, Manager of the DGSE’s Middle East/Africa operations, and Plober kisi, Manager of the intelligence agency, explained the progress of the first few operations and the current situation.
“Wait, you think there are around 200 of them who kidnapped the scientists? Is Ntaganda more powerful than we know him to be?”
“No. The Mai-Mai rebels are a gathering of different warlords, like the FROLINAT. Ntaganda’s army, called the God’s Army, has 4,500 mbers. Their location is estimated to be at the midslope of Mount Stanley, a swampy area in the Rwenzori Mountains. In addition, there are 3,500 soldiers led by 10 other warlords. These people are based in Ituri Rainforest and Nyungwe Forest in Rwanda. The kidnapper’s group is a small ard force led by Karungo. Karungo is believed to be a Vodou houngan.”
“Six months have passed since they were kidnapped. Even trained soldiers couldn’t endure the forest’s harsh environnt. Do you have proof that the hostages are alive?”
“Based on circumstantial evidence, most hostages are alive. I have information that those b*stards bought flour and first-aid supplies from a Bantu village on the outskirts of the forest.”
“What about the wrists that those b*stards sent recently?”
“The DNA test results revealed that the wrists belonged to an Asian. There are no Asians among the hostages. We think those b*stards are trying to pressure the governnt. That’s how desperate they are for funds and weapons. They won’t give up easily on those hostages.”
“Those damn assumptions, assumptions! There’s nothing but assumptions. Doesn’t that an you know next to nothing?”
Black Mamba’s words conveyed his frustration.
“I’m frustrated too. The Ituri Rainforest is vast and unexplored. Informants have to fight the forest and the ard force. HUMINT activities face many difficulties too.”
“It seems like the DGSE is past its pri. I won’t discuss the initial response failure since that is a thing of the past. However, with this, I can clearly tell that the follow-up responses are a ss too. Did you guys do nothing but play poker with monkeys in the forest in the last six months?” Black Mamba criticized.
“Ange de la Mort, that’s rather harsh. Informants are dying in the forest even at this mont. While dozens of informants from the intelligence agency are searching Ituri and Rwenzori, they’re nothing but a handful of beans scattered in the front yard. Don’t insult our dead agents,” kisi said out of anger.
Karungo disappeared after fighting the Fist of Justice teams twice, as though he ascended into the sky or dug into the ground. He was about to go crazy himself too.
“You think my words are harsh? kisi, the mouth isn’t open just for you to eat and make excuses. You want to single-handedly find hostages that dozens of informants couldn’t find any traces of? You want to search the forest that is 500 tis the size of Paris without a single piece of information at hand? You want to rescue and lead 22 hostages, who can’t even defend themselves, out of the Devil’s Forest filled with 1,000s of the ard force mbers? You b*stard, do you think I’m so kind of god?”
Black Mamba, whose frustration went through the roof, shouted. His resonance waves, which activated automatically, shook kisi’s brain.
Ugh! kisi groaned.
His sight darkened, and his stomach churned as though he had just fallen off a cliff. His heart was beating irregularly, and sour bile crawled up his throat.
Ah, he’s the devil.
kisi blad himself for forgetting who the person before him was. The images of the DGSE employees who were done in by him flashed before his eyes. Black Mamba was not only the devil to his enemies but to the DGSE too. Miguel burned to his death in white phosphorus, while Manager Valvoue and Landre beca disabled after getting beaten up.
Manager Claude, a KGB mole who was caught by Black Mamba, committed suicide. He was filling in Manager Claude’s position. Even Ariba, who was beaten up by Black Mamba once, developed a phobia. The killer of the DGSE employees, Black Mamba—the managers’ faces turned pale just by hearing his na. How could he forget such a fact! kisi’s face darkened.
“Not god, but the devil.”
Bonipas interrupted with a single sentence. He was listening in. There was a saying that old rats could brew poison. kisi would have experienced a panic attack had Black Mamba continued to unleash his wrath on him. Bonipas turned the mood around instantly.
“Leave that and describe the Ituri Rainforest in detail. I’m not Argos but Eraser.”
Black Mamba didn’t care about the number of kidnappers. Whether it was 100 or 1,000, there’s nothing he couldn’t do if he decided to wipe them out. What bothered him was his unfamiliarity with the forest. He experienced how deadly an unfamiliar environnt could be in the Sahel and the underground world. The problem wasn’t the people involved but the environnt.
“Hoo…” kisi let out a deep sigh.
The symptoms of tingling skin and stuffy chest disappeared.
I should avoid him!
kisi glanced at Black Mamba, who was sitting perfectly still as though nothing had happened. He realized why his friends were more scared of him than superbugs.
“Trees that are several ters tall cover the sky while stumps, thorny bushes, and parasitic plants are intertwined, all of which obstruct the view. It’s hard to breathe, so of course, intelligence activities can’t progress. Compasses don’t work there either.”
“Why?”
“You lose your sense of direction when you plunge into the endless sea of green. Since there are too many magnetite outcrops, the compass can’t do its job.”
“Magnetite outcrops… I’m envious. Describe my route of infiltration.”
“You’ll be crossing Mt. Mutumba through Lake Kivu. That region is filled with cliffs, swamps, predators, and all kinds of poisonous insects. All kinds of human trash are floating around like poachers, smugglers, and guerrillas. 20 GIGN strike team mbers and Airborne Regint mbers lost their lives in Mutumba. Once you pass Mt. Mutumba and enter Ishango, you will see a flat plateau. Enter Beni from Ishango. If you take the wrong road and enter the Rwenzori Mountains from the east, you will get into trouble. There is no map there. The infiltration route may change according to local information.”
Black Mamba’s face grew stiff the longer kisi explained. He experienced nature’s wrath and terror so many tis at the bridge village. If Korea’s natural environnt was an obedient high-schooler, Africa’s environnt was a street gangster.
“What a ss. Well, I do understand since it’s an area where aerial reconnaissance is impossible.”
“There is no way. To be honest, it’s an impossible plan even if we deploy divisions. We can’t find those b*stards since they’re hiding in the forest, and we can’t guarantee the hostages’ safety either. We have no choice but to rely on your abilities, advisor.”
“You’re not expecting to search around with nothing planned, are you?”
“The area available for aerial reconnaissance adds up to less than one percent. The Ntaganda allied forces are believed to be eting near Bunia and Irumu, west of Lake Albert. We think they hold irregular etings. The terrorists, who we assud to be Congo rebels led by Karungo, were killed there. You should be able to find traces if you start from Bunia to Mambasa.”
“Huh, another assumption! This is madness.” Black Mamba sighed again.
It was more than forcing soone to find a needle in a haystack. While he’d heard from Colonel Juan, the actual situation turned out to be worse than he expected.
“Sorry. I’ll keep you posted on the locations.”
Even kisi, who was doing the briefing, found himself in a difficult position. It was pathetic that he could only provide assumptions to Black Mamba, who was about to jump into hell.
“Is there any particular predator that I should be cautious of?”
“The leopard and black mamba are fatal creatures that hide and attack. There are hippos, alligators, and unknown poisonous creatures in the swamps. There are creatures unknown to the world too. According to the survivors’ reports, they were attacked by a large bird of at least two ters tall.”
“A bird that is two ters tall? Do ostriches live in the forest too?” Black Mamba sounded like Sha Wujing.
“It could be a mutated ostrich. According to a survivor’s testimony, it had muscular legs like a horse’s legs and a large beak shaped like an ax. The monster of a bird jumped out of the bushes and attacked the rescue team. A porter who was stabbed on the back with the bird’s beak suffered from a broken spine, and a GIGN mber who received a kick of the bird’s foot died from a ripped stomach.”
“What the heck, is there a Cenozoic Era niche in the Ituri Rainforest?”
Black Mamba’s expression showed his disbelief. Although nothing said that creatures from the Cenozoic Era couldn’t exist when dinosaurs from the sozoic Era were still alive, it was still an absurd story.
“That could be true. The intelligence agency thinks it’s the tyrant Gastornis that road the forest 40,000,000 years ago.”
“This is getting more chaotic. The locals and poisonous insects are also a problem.”
“Right. The locals are hostile. They treat foreigners as invaders and send poison arrows flying without warning. While the Pygmy tribe uses paralyzing poison, the Black people use deadly poisons. The blue poison frogs, which live in the swamps of Ituri, are far more deadly than the golden poison frogs of South Arica. The Black people apply poison extracted from the blue poison frog’s skin to arrows and spears. Once in contact with the poison, one imdiately grew weak and couldn’t last more than a day. You should also look out for cannibals. The cannibals, who try to eat the Pygmy tribe, roam silently like snakes. The rebels led by Ntaganda are especially known to enjoy the at of white n. Most of the Fist of Justice team mbers were killed or devoured by those poison arrows.”
“What a ss. Arrows flying around in the dark are scarier than guns.”
“Poisonous insects will be your biggest problem once you enter the forest. There are so many species that I can’t even ntion them all. The insects you should watch out for are horse fly larvae, army ants, wasps, tarantulas, tree leeches, candelas, malaria mosquitoes-”
“Never mind that, everything’s a dangerous b*stard,” Black Mamba interrupted.
Even Philip, who was listening in, shook his head. There was no point in wiping out the Mai-Mai rebels if the hostages weren’t rescued. Even though Black Mamba was undefeatable, could he rescue 22 defenseless hostages with the worst enemy against him? He was suddenly doubtful of the success of the Fist of Justice operation.
“Special Military Advisor, the Deuxie Rep will provide you with as many people and equipnt as you need. Just say the word.”
Black Mamba took a mont to consider Philip’s worriso offer before shaking his head. The best weapon against primitive threats was the human body and will. Still, he couldn’t use support firearms or long-range weapons because the forest itself was invisible and an obstacle. The Fist of Justice operation was bound to fail. Close combat and assassination using topography to his advantage were the basic tactics.
“Thanks, but there’s no need. I don’t want to babysit.”
The Ituri Rainforest was a dangerous place for him too. Utilizing dinsional sight, resonance waves, and Rule of Sight was more effective than the attention of 1,000s of jungle expedition mbers. Bringing anybody else other than Sadi would only bring about more sacrifices.
“Is there a guide ready?”
“He’s waiting at the Bukavu Airfield.”
“This isn’t going to turn out like the Ruman plan, right?” Black Mamba criticized.
Blood drained from Ariba and kisi’s faces. There was a rumor circulating in the DGSE that going against the devil was better than being on the receiving end of Black Mamba’s grudge. Major Geofrey, who Black Mamba had threatened, committed suicide in fear.
Even Bonipas, who made mistakes before, flinched. He made a big mistake by assigning Zaitun as his guide in Kaparja, not knowing that he was a double agent from the CIA. He was still alive because Black Mamba received generous amounts of gifts.
“I’ll put my neck on the line,” Manager of Operations Ariba replied, gritting his teeth.
“Make sure you take good care of your neck.”
Ariba trembled at the cold reply.
“I’m sorry I can’t give you more information. If you tell the weapons that you need, I’ll prepare them to the best of my abilities,” kisi said as though he was ready to offer his liver.
“I only need my personalized equipnt and the usual ones. Ariba, is the whip ready?”
“Ah, that monstrous thing. The Technology Design Division had a hard ti trying to et their client’s requirents.”
Ariba placed an aluminum handbag on the table and opened it. There was a large whip with a dark sheen coiled around like a snake.
“Its production ti is six weeks, and 5,000,000 francs went into it. There hasn’t been a more expensive personal weapon in the history of humankind. It’s a reward and gift for your efforts in protecting France’s honor in the darkest places, advisor,” Bonipas boasted with a proud expression on his face.
“It’s well made. The best gift.”
“You should give this beauty a na.”
“Rakshasa!”
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