Mercenary’s War
Chapter 1387 - 1,369: Super Fast Speed

Chapter 1387: Chapter 1,369: Super Fast Speed

Gao Yang instinctively cast his gaze toward the transport aircraft in the workshop, then frowned and said, "This plane isn’t ready yet!"

A middle-aged man chuckled and then whispered, "Of course not these. The planes that have been maintained and upgraded are in the hangar, and there are a few on the runway as well. What you need to see is this."

After speaking, the middle-aged man tapped on the two high stacks of files on the table.

Gao Yang frowned and said, "What is this?"

"Maintenance records. Each book corresponds to an aircraft—what issues were found during the maintenance, what repairs it underwent, what improvements were made, what equipment was added, and the overall condition of the aircraft. It’s all clearly recorded here. You only need to select the planes you want based on these records, and don’t worry about any falsification, because when these records were made, there was no thought they’d sell these planes someday."

Gao Yang glanced at the middle-aged man in front of him, casually picked up a record book, which was very thick, at least two centimeters thick, flipped through it and saw it was in Ukrainian, then casually handed it to Eileen and said in a deep voice, "Have a look."

Eileen put down her handbag and, holding the record, flipped it open and glanced at it, then immediately nodded and said, "That’s right, it’s maintenance records."

The other party had no intention to introduce himself, so Gao Yang didn’t bother with more words. He directly pointed to the records on the table and whispered, "Among these forty planes, some were made earlier and some later; conditions vary. Please just give me the data on the five newest and best ones."

Another middle-aged man whispered, "These planes were made at different times, but the condition has nothing to do with the production year. You must understand that the condition of planes maintained by Indians is quite poor. I’m curious how they safely flew the planes here without crashing. But now that we have taken over, you can be confident in the condition of all planes that have undergone the full modification; there won’t be any issues."

The middle-aged man who initially spoke with Gao Yang chuckled lightly and said, "I suggest you take the planes produced earlier because the earliest produced planes have more parts replaced by us. A few have had all their engines replaced with new ones since the old engines were no longer usable."

Gao Yang nodded and said, "Makes sense. Please provide me with the data on the aircraft you think are in the best condition currently."

After rifling through the records on the table and pulling out five books, a middle-aged man said, "In total, there are forty aircraft. Thirty are done with maintenance and upgrading, and six are almost complete, sure to be finished in a month. The remaining four might take over two months or even longer."

Gao Yang was still not very fluent in Russian and couldn’t understand Ukrainian, so he pushed the five record books to Eileen, then spread his arms, smiled at the two middle-aged men, and said, "That’s why I insisted on batch purchasing, gentlemen. It seems my insistence was justified."

The two middle-aged men collectively shrugged helplessly. One of them then said, "The planes can be flown away anytime. What about the money?"

Gao Yang took a bag, unzipped it, revealing it full of cash, but didn’t immediately hand it to them. Instead, he smiled and said, "Gentlemen, I have another issue because this deal was rather rushed, so I haven’t had time to find pilots. Without pilots, the planes can’t be flown away, and the deal can’t proceed smoothly. I want to know if you can help me recruit crew members?"

"No problem, we can call in people now, but you’ll have to pay them, and settle on how much to pay. If you agree, we can call them in right now."

Gao Yang snapped his fingers, then laughed, "That’s just it, a pleasant deal."

Gao Yang picked up two bags of money, placed them at the feet of the two men, then straightened up, pointed at the money bags, and said, "Five planes, one million, the money is all here, one million guaranteed not to be short, gentlemen, I assure you that in business dealings, I execute exactly as agreed, and now what I must do is to remind you that there are two types of people you cannot deceive: mercenaries and arms dealers, and I clearly belong to one of those categories. So, I must remind you, if you think there will definitely be no problem, you can take this money now. If you think there may be an issue, tell me now while there’s still time. Even if the deal fails, we’ll still be friends."

The two men exchanged a glance, looked at each other, then nodded in agreement. One of them said solemnly, "We guarantee there won’t be any problems, at least not today. For the next transaction, that’s something to consider when the time comes, isn’t it?"

Gao Yang extended his hand with a smile, "Well said. Any issues with the next deal will be addressed next time. Gentlemen, count the money while we look over the maintenance records."

The two men took one bag each and began counting money, while Eileen quickly flipped through the maintenance records. When the men finished counting, Eileen also nodded at Gao Yang, saying softly, "No problem. These five planes have almost all critical parts replaced, and the engines are all new. According to the conclusion of these records, the condition is quite good."

One of the middle-aged men stood up, smiled, and said, "I told you, when the planes were brought in, by our standards, they couldn’t take off. But someone paid, so of course we had to do a good job fixing them up. Oh, you probably didn’t look closely; these planes have had performance upgrades. I won’t go into details; let’s just say they’ve had quite a few new components replaced."

Gao Yang nodded, then smiled, "Very good. When can the crew members arrive?"

"Anytime, they can come today. I can call them now."

Gao Yang pondered for a moment, then said in a deep voice, "If I want to fly the planes away later today, say after dark, can I do that? Or tomorrow, the day after, in any case, I need a bit more time to arrange."

"No problem, just don’t delay too long."

Gao Yang nodded, then suddenly pointed at Selin, saying solemnly, "Then, I’ll leave first. When I confirm when to fly the planes away, please have Selin notify you, and then I’ll meet the crew members you’ve found. Can I? I don’t think the time will take too long."

The two men seemed a little troubled, but while they were looking at Selin, Gao Yang smiled and said, "Please don’t worry about Mr. Selin’s safety. Do I have any reason to harm him? I just feel it’s more convenient to have him with me."

Selin gave a nod and said solemnly, "Peter is right; it’s more convenient for me to be with him. There’s nothing to worry about."

Both men nodded, then one of them said, "Alright, you confirm the time you’ll fly the planes away, also confirm when to meet the crew members, and have Selin notify me. The two of us won’t appear again; just fly the planes directly."

Selin waved his hand and said, "I’ll go with Peter first. We’ll talk about our business later. Goodbye."

Gao Yang said to Eileen, "Let’s go."

Eileen hugged the five aircraft record books, and she and Gao Yang left the workshop and returned to the car, quickly announcing the end of the transaction.

As the car started, Gao Yang turned his head and smiled at Selin sitting beside him, "Now, you can consider how to take your money."

Selin seemed shocked by Gao Yang’s words and said very surprised, "What? You chose to delay flying the planes away just so I could conveniently take my money?"

Gao Yang couldn’t help but laugh, repeatedly waving his hand, "No, you’re overthinking it; I just had some things to confirm beforehand."

After he finished speaking, Gao Yang made a gesture with his hands, smiled, "Of course, making it convenient for you to take your money is also a part of it. You’re now working for me, or more accurately, you’re my main collaborator. So I have an obligation to consider things from your perspective. Uh, once we’re out of the factory area, you can take your money and leave. Just hurry a bit, as your time may be limited."

Selin nodded and said solemnly, "Thank you."

Gao Yang smiled, "You’re welcome. Do you have a car?"

"Yes, oh no, I don’t. My car is inside the factory, not convenient to drive out."

"I can lend you one. Return it when we meet next time. Alright, let’s stop here, give Mr. Selin his money, and also give him a car."

Watching Selin put the money in the car, and before he drove away, Gao Yang waved goodbye to him, closed the car window, and immediately picked up the phone and dialed out.

When Little Donnie answered the phone, Gao Yang urgently said, "I just closed a deal; it’s a big one. Now we have five An-32s that need a place to park. Buddy, do we have a place?"

"You really bought the Indian planes? Oh, buddy, Berbera hasn’t been taken over yet; we have no place to park these planes. Are you crazy? Why did you rush to buy them?"

Gao Yang said irritably, "F**k! Do you think I wanted to? The situation in Ukraine just changed suddenly; Donetsk declared independence, and the fight is about to start; many people are getting anxious. If it could be delayed, I certainly wouldn’t have rushed to buy the planes. But now the problem is that not buying them might cause us to lose this bargain opportunity."

Holding his head, Gao Yang was quite helpless and said, "Now the progress is forced ahead. The Somalia side must hurry. Buddy, how many people have been sent over there to Somalia? Why hasn’t Berbera been taken yet? According to the plan, Berbera should be ours by now."

"There are over forty people now, too few, not enough to decisively affect the situation."

Gao Yang pondered for a moment, then exhaled helplessly, "Waiting for Berbera to be taken over is out of the question. Forget it. I’ll talk to Maide; we need to think up a new solution immediately." (To be continued. If you like this work, feel free to visit Qidian (qidian.com) and vote for recommendations and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read at m.qidian.com.)