387: Chapter 385: Fire the First Shot 387: Chapter 385: Fire the First Shot After settling into a hotel, Gao Yang called Cui Bo and the others, telling them to prepare for the arrival of a new member, or rather, to assess Tommy to see if he was qualified to be a new member, and also to consider whether they were willing to take on the mission in Colombia.
The next day, Gao Yang and Uriyangko boarded a flight to Djibouti and arrived at 2 p.m.
Not long after arriving in Djibouti, as a flight from Paris to Djibouti landed, Uriyangko quickly received a phone call.
After hanging up, Uriyangko nodded at Gao Yang and said, “The person we’re waiting for has arrived.”
Gao Yang looked at his watch and said, “That was fast?”
Uriyangko nonchalantly said, “It’s not much further from Paris to here than it was for us, his arrival in such a time frame is quite normal.”
Gao Yang smiled and said, “We didn’t set a specific time with Tommy, so we can’t say he’s punctual.
But anyway, I like people who save me time, and Tommy didn’t make us wait for too long.
That scores him quite a few points.
Let’s go, we’ll meet him at the terminal exit.”
Gao Yang and Uriyangko didn’t wait long at the terminal exit.
They didn’t hold a sign or anything conspicuous, but a middle-aged man, walking with the crowd, glanced twice and immediately walked towards them.
The man was about 1.75 meters tall, with graying hair and very thin lips.
The look of his pursed lips conveyed a sense of determination.
His hair made him seem like an old man, but his face didn’t look as old as his hair suggested.
Once he approached Gao Yang and Uriyangko, the man spoke in a deep voice, “Hello, my name is Toja Mikhailovich, Mr.
Zaykhov sent me to find you two.”
Uriyangko nodded and replied, “It seems you’re confident you’ve found the right people.
Yes, we have been waiting for you.
I’m Uriyangko, a friend of your former boss.
This is Ram, who might be your new boss.”
Gao Yang extended his hand to Toja Mikhailovich and said solemnly, “Pleased to meet you, Toja.
You can call me Ram.”
Toja Mikhailovich shook hands with Gao Yang and said, “You can call me Tommy, Mr.
Ram.”
Toja Mikhailovich wore a white shirt with slacks and dirty-looking leather shoes, carrying an old shoulder bag.
With his determined but somewhat dull expression, he looked exactly like an old farmer from Southern Europe.
From the outside, there was nothing extraordinary about Toja Mikhailovich, but Gao Yang didn’t judge people by their appearance and without any unnecessary words, he released Tommy’s hand and immediately said, “Let’s go, we’ll head out now.”
Tommy followed Gao Yang and Uriyangko in silence, speaking not a word the entire way, but it was clear that Tommy was an old soldier.
Tommy walked almost without making a sound and constantly observed his surroundings with small gestures while walking.
After getting into a taxi to the port, Tommy first opened the rear door for Gao Yang and Uriyangko, and then silently took the front passenger seat.
Although he had no gun at his waist, Tommy’s left hand habitually rest at his side, and he kept an eye on the road conditions throughout the trip.
From various details, it was evident that Tommy’s nerves were always tense, not because he was trying to put on a show, but as a subconscious action from repeating the same tasks for a long time.
Looking at Tommy in the front passenger seat, Gao Yang suddenly said, “Tommy, have you ever been a bodyguard?”
Tommy answered in a deep voice, “Not officially.
It’s just a part-time job I’ve had in recent years.”
Curious, Uriyangko asked, “Then what did you do at Zaykhov’s?”
Tommy calmly replied, “A bit of everything.
I started as a temporary weapons tester, later, I served as an armed escort for Mr.
Zaykhov, handling some transport work, and afterward, I often accompanied Mr.
Zaykhov to various events.”
Gao Yang and Uriyangko didn’t ask any more questions.
Upon reaching the port, the three boarded a speedboat and went directly to the Sicilian Prince, a relay ship not far from Djibouti port.
Cui Bo and the others were already waiting on the relay ship.
After bringing Tommy on board, Gao Yang introduced him to everyone on the Sicilian Prince.
After a brief conversation, Tommy said in a deep voice, “Mr.
Ram, I was informed that there would be a test for me today.”
Gao Yang nodded and then looked at Cui Bo, “Are you prepared?”
“All set up.
We’ve prepared a 60mm mortar and a 107mm rocket launcher; the targets are also ready.
See, they’re out there on the sea.”
Gao Yang glanced at the distant sea where he saw a buoy bobbing along with the waves, and further away, it seemed there were more, but too far to see clearly with the naked eye.
Gao Yang had originally planned to test Tommy in Somalia, and incidentally allow Zhou Zhou, nicknamed Three Cannons, to try out Tommy’s skills.
As a fellow expert gunner, Zhou Zhou could discern Tommy’s true strength and knew what would be the ultimate test for him.
However, due to the tight schedule and the possibility that they might have to depart for Colombia very soon, they had to simplify the test.
As for Gao Yang and the others, who were amateurs, they could only set up a few simple targets to see if Tommy could hit them accurately.
Gao Yang waved his hand and, without even taking the time to enter the cabin, went straight to the rear deck.
On the rear deck, a 60mm mortar and a 107mm rocket launcher were placed, with a pile of munitions next to them, but both weapons were in non-combat condition.
Cui Bo pointed at the two weapons and said in Chinese, “The guns were borrowed from the Skull Gang, and Three Cannons specially picked out two of the best guns for us.
The ammunition has also been selected carefully; basically, both guns and shells are the best available.
If the shots aren’t accurate, it’s definitely not because of the guns or the shells.
Also, ten targets have been set up, filled with paint.
As long as they are hit within a radius of five meters, they will burst, emitting smoke and dyeing the Red Sea red.
The closest target is at eight hundred meters, and the farthest is four thousand five hundred meters, which is for the rocket launcher.”
Gao Yang nodded his head and said to Tommy, “Here we have two guns, which are your specialty.
There are ten targets, and you won’t get a chance to test fire.
Whether you can stay and whether you get the salary you want depends on your performance now.”
Tommy nodded, took out a heavily worn telescope from his shoulder bag, looked through it for less than a minute, then put the telescope back into his bag, and quickly began to assemble the mortar from its disassembled state into combat readiness.
After assembling the mortar, Tommy, without saying a word, loaded two mortar rounds with fuse, then looked up briefly, didn’t even glance at the sighting device on the gun, quickly adjusted the position of the barrel with his right hand, and promptly loaded a mortar round into the barrel.
With a soft “bang,” about two seconds passed before the nearest target suddenly exploded on the sea surface, followed by a cloud of red mist drifting up, and after the water column raised by the exploding shell fell down, the sea surface quickly turned a shade of orange-red.
When an expert makes a move, one knows if they have it or not.
Gao Yang and the others didn’t quite understand how to use the guns, but roughly aiming and hitting an eight-hundred-meter target with one shot was a very good and powerful result.
Everyone nodded their heads, and Glolov particularly gave Gao Yang a thumbs up with a smile on his face, clearly impressed by Tommy’s first shot that had touched everyone’s hearts.
However, after firing just one round, Tommy stepped away from the mortar and began to load rocket after rocket into the 107mm rocket launcher.
At this point, Cui Bo could not help but interject, “Hey, Tommy, we prepared a lot of mortar shells for you, so you can fire more rounds.”
Tommy nodded and replied, “Understood, please wait.”
After loading the rocket rounds, Tommy, still without looking at the range of the targets, made some adjustments to the rocket launcher.
He then turned back to Gao Yang and the others and said, “The accuracy of the rocket launcher is very low, so I want to know if you want to see my single-shot accuracy, or if you prefer to see the destructive power against the targets?”
Rocket launchers have never been synonymous with precision, relying on wide-area fire coverage to achieve lethality.
But since the test was meant to challenge Tommy’s ability, they picked the more difficult task.
“I want to see the accuracy of single shots.”
After hearing Gao Yang’s response, Tommy nodded, then fired the first rocket.
The first rocket Tommy fired at the farthest target was slightly off, but after the explosion, a wisp of commendatory red mist could still be seen over the distant sea.
The first shot was more or less a hit.
Though the rocket didn’t directly strike the target, it was still within the lethal range of the rocket.
Tommy seemed dissatisfied with his performance, but after merely shaking his head, he adjusted the rocket launcher and fired a second rocket; the closer target was hit again, creating a large patch of red mist that drifted with the wind.
Tommy fired six rockets.
Although the distances were getting shorter, the accuracy did not necessarily improve with the reduced distance, but this was due to the nature of the rocket launcher, not Tommy’s lack of precision.
Four rockets fell within the lethal range, one hit the target directly, and one completely missed.
All in all, Tommy’s performance was quite good.
There were still three targets left on the sea, mostly around one thousand meters, and Tommy finally stopped using the rocket launcher.
He turned around and quickly disassembled the bipod of the mortar, then took the barrel off the baseplate.
After placing the barrel on the ground beside him, Tommy began to attach fuses to the mortar rounds again.
Gao Yang, completely puzzled, asked, “Tommy, why have you dismantled the mortar?
What are you trying to do?”
Tommy looked at Gao Yang, expressionless, and replied, “Sir, the targets you’ve set are too simple.
I want to add some difficulty for myself.” (To be continued.
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