Mercenary’s War

Gao Yang walked to the ward door, and when he opened it, he stopped and stared at Nate, who was tied to the hospital bed.

Nate looked to be in great pain, but he didn’t make a sound, so Gao Yang didn’t stay; he walked out of the ward and closed the door behind him.

After a few steps, Gao Yang let out a long breath. With that relieved exhale, his ramrod-straight body suddenly slumped, and as he wrapped his arms around his chest and slapped himself randomly, he blurted out in a rush, "Curtis! Curtis! Thank god, thank god..."

Joseph walked up to Gao Yang’s side, his face incredulous as he said, "Boss, are you really crazy? Swearing at him is one thing, but you actually slapped Nate? Are you out of your mind?"

Gao Yang said irritably, "You think I wanted to? You didn’t go in, you don’t know how pissed that guy was, he was literally fainting with rage! If I didn’t slap him, didn’t crush that insane fire of his, the conversation wouldn’t have gone anywhere. Let him reflect? Reflect my ass, it’d be a miracle if he didn’t die from anger."

Joseph said quietly, "I still think using an even angrier stance to suppress Nate’s anger isn’t really appropriate."

Gao Yang dismissed it: "I already said, Nate’s the type with a square head, the whole thing’s just a block of wood. I go in all grins and apologies and tell him it was all for his own good? Pah! Useless. If apologies worked, why would we need guns? You have to smash him with a pile of lofty principles, look down on him with an even tougher attitude, force him to think, make him feel he’s in the wrong—that’s the best way to solve this. Man, those square-headed Krauts, I’m telling you, I’ve got them figured out."

Joseph murmured, "Will it work? You’re really not afraid that Angel’s people will just shoot us?"

Gao Yang took a deep breath and said under his breath, "To be on the safe side, we have to collect all their guns. Otherwise, once this is done we just bolt. Angel’s people come check on Nate, know something went down, and can’t find the two of us anywhere—what, they’re going to run all the way to Yemen just to screw with me?"

Joseph said uncertainly, "Who knows. You just about pissed Nate to death—if he ever gets the chance, he’ll definitely skin you alive."

Gao Yang gave Joseph a sidelong glance. "That’s what you think?"

Joseph whispered, "If I were Nate, I’d absolutely skin you alive."

Gao Yang muttered to himself, "If even you’re thinking that, then this won’t do. This time I really did go a bit overboard."

"Not a bit overboard—way overboard."

Gao Yang nodded. "I didn’t plan on it, but since even you, as a bystander, want to skin me, I’ll just have to up the stakes for him again. Seriously, I really didn’t want to go this far."

"What else are you going to do? Boss, come on, don’t go too far. Even I can’t bear it anymore. I mean, I’m Jewish, I’d love to see all the Germans dead, especially someone like Nate, but I still have some compassion. You’re being too ruthless, aren’t you?"

Gao Yang shook his head and whispered, "No. When he loses hope, I’ll give him hope again. Just hope isn’t enough, so I’ll add a bit of pressure. Pressure is motivation. The greater the ability, the greater the responsibility. I’ll just load more responsibility onto his shoulders. I’ll lie to him, that’s all."

Joseph stared at him in shock. "Lie... lie to him?"

"Yeah. A lie repeated One thousand times becomes the truth—classic German quote. We’ve already lied this far, a bit more won’t make a difference. Just wait and see, I’ll make Nate end up having to thank me."

Joseph couldn’t help running his eyes up and down Gao Yang twice, then said softly, "Pah! You..."

"Ram!"

Just then, Nate’s shout came from inside the ward.

Gao Yang checked his watch, while Joseph said in surprise, "That fast? It hasn’t even been five minutes."

"Ram! Get over here, Ram!"

Gao Yang said softly, "Just watch."

Straightening his posture again, Gao Yang walked to the ward door, opened it, stepped up to Nate’s bed, and said with a stern face, "You’ve thought it through?"

Nate’s face was pale, his eyes unfocused, but he didn’t look quite so furious anymore.

He looked Gao Yang up and down a few times, then finally said slowly, "Angel is just a Mercenary Group, just a bunch of lunatics who know nothing but how to fight, who fight for the sake of fighting—an outfit that exists only for combat. Angel isn’t as great as you make it sound. ’Army soul’, ’seeds’, that’s kind of laughable. The soul of a nation and its army is not something a mercenary group can carry."

Gao Yang was laughing on the inside, but his face stayed dead serious.

"Nate, you’ve really let me down!"

After slowly repeating his disappointment in Nate, Gao Yang said very solemnly, "You must think these are my words. And yeah, I’m the one saying them. But let me tell you, Nate, this isn’t what I want to say—because the one most disappointed in you isn’t me."

Nate said in a low voice, "What do you mean?"

Gao Yang cleared his throat, then suddenly said, "I asked Eileen’s father to step in. Thought maybe he could still save you guys. For reasons you know, he can’t come, and he can’t call you or leave any written record. So, the German Army Inspector General asked me to bring you a message."

Nate’s expression grew serious, and he said in a deep voice, "Go ahead."

"Nate, you’ve disappointed me. As a soldier, you shouldn’t be crushed by the defeat right in front of you. As long as you’re still alive, you have to keep fighting. Dying is easy. Living on, fighting as the seed of an army—that’s hard.

Our army is very peculiar. An army that’s been castrated can’t be called a real army. We don’t want to start another world war, but as a country, we still need a real army. And in that army, there has to be at least some men who can truly be called soldiers.

Taking ’soldier’ as just a job to muddle through life with—that’s the reality in Germany, and we’re powerless to change it. But to make a few men who still have blood in their veins fight with the bearing of real soldiers—that’s your duty.

A tiny seed can grow into a towering tree. A small number of people can also influence a whole country. Even if you can’t be that seed, even if you never live to see the day it becomes a tree, then at least be a mirror. Let the men of Germany take a look in it and see what a real soldier looks like, and what he should be."

When he finished, Gao Yang stood straight and gave Nate a salute.

Lowering his hand, Gao Yang looked at Nate and said in a low voice, "Those words weren’t mine, and that salute wasn’t from me to you. You should understand what I mean. But you’ll never get proof, ever. Believe it or not—that’s up to you."

Nate’s eyes were still clouded, but they were slowly becoming firm.

Gao Yang suddenly bent over to unbuckle the belt tying Nate down, and at the same time said slowly, "I deliberately chose Armor-Piercing Rounds instead of Explosive Bullets for the two shots I put in you. You know my gunmanship, so the two shots in your legs won’t be that big a problem. You’ll be recovered in at most two months. You’re in Kiev now, and your people are all here too. They can still keep fighting, or go die with you. If you have any doubts, or want to talk to someone first, I’ll be waiting. Nate, that’s all I have to say. What you do next is up to you."

Once he’d undone the belt securing Nate, Nate didn’t move. Gao Yang stepped to the side and said in a deep voice, "I’m leaving. Your people will come in to see you. That’s it. I’ll be waiting for your choice. Goodbye."

Gao Yang turned to go, when he heard Nate slowly say from behind him, "Ram, thank you..."

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