Since getting the new job, Ulrich Sandman, a former Stasi agent, has felt more turbulent than ever in recent years.
Ulrich has never met his new employer in person, but everyone knows who he is.
Because there is no direct contact, once there is a problem, for example, if they are arrested for murder and other charges, it will not involve the high-ranking big man. Just like a long time ago, if agent Stacy failed in his mission, he would not get any public recognition from East Germany.
It's routine.
Ulrich Sandman is 43 years old this year. For agents, especially field agents, this age is a little older. When the country that he was loyal to collapsed, Ulrich also considered retiring to find a flat job.
It's a pity that things are never done by people.
First of all, his foundation is not clean.
Even if you want to retreat, it depends on whether the merged German government is willing to let go of itself. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the new German government has never stopped investigating and pursuing the former Stasi members. As a result, a large number of former Stasi members have been arrested, and many others have been forced to flee, assassinated, and many of them have died.
By contrast, Ulrich has been very lucky.
Second, even if he managed to avoid liquidation, it would not be so easy for Ulrich to stabilize.
Because he has a lot of people to support.
Not only her elderly parents, wife and four children, but also her 21-year-old younger sister, who had a good academic record and had no chance before, is about to graduate from Columbia University in the United States. She plans to get a doctorate in the next four years. If he turns to mediocrity at the beginning, even her sister's tuition can't afford it. What's more, she also has self-confidence Children who have grown up.
It's just family.
Ulrich also has six families of his dead comrades in arms to help.
This involves a series of unforgettable past events.
At one time, he worked hard to climb up to the rank of major, which was even ridiculous and sad. He was either addicted to government affairs, or to get more salary subsidies, or to make use of his identity to earn some extra money, just to help more people around him as much as possible.
Therefore, in any case, it is impossible to turn to mediocrity.
Now, except for his younger sister who went to school in the United States, Ulrich's family all live in Australia and have a prosperous and stable life. Even though they understand that their relatives are basically taken hostage, Ulrich doesn't feel wrong.
It's taken for granted.
If the boss behind the scenes doesn't even have a similar defense against them, he will look down on them.
Moreover, as long as he does not betray, nothing will happen. Even if he dies in the mission, Ulrich also believes that his relatives can be taken good care of. After all, the young rich man with trillions of dollars in assets is not short of money, and what he wants is his loyalty.
Once he could be loyal to his country, now Ulrich can be loyal to someone.
Deep down in his heart, Ulrich understood that this was a fair exchange. Even if he sold his life to the other party, because the salary given by the man was so much more than that in East Germany, that he even doubted whether he was worth it. In any case, not only did his family get the best resettlement, he could also help the families of his deceased comrades more generously.
There's nothing wrong.
Now Ulrich Sandman is holding an Australian passport at the public level. Although his name has not changed, under the operation of the westero system, he has basically changed a person and will no longer be entangled by the past.
It's probably a confirmation of his loyalty, and Ulrich is now in charge of five action teams.
After several years of quietly observing, Ulrich understood that for the relatively flat structure of the private intelligence network of the Westeros family, which is not related to each other, this is a very high level and a considerable trust.
Ulrich was a little more fortunate.
In recent years, my team may have killed people, but no one died.
As a result, the deficit will no longer increase.
Moreover, this time, even if someone dies, what needs to be made up for will only be that person, which has nothing to do with him.
In the past, he was equivalent to an officer, who commanded the soldiers to attack. Of course, but he was never used to directing others to die, and he even preferred to die by himself. Maybe I was promoted to the rank of major when I was young, and then I didn't get another promotion for many years. It's also because the senior management of Stacy found out that he was a woman.
This time, Ulrich did the same with his own hands.
It's also an inexplicable task to investigate illegal immigration routes to France from all over the world.
Perhaps it is necessary to follow up the snakehead organization in person, which is quite dangerous, that they are used as a team.
There's nothing wrong with that.
Although, Ulrich doesn't understand what the young rich want to know. Just like in the past few years, they have always received various seemingly unreasonable tasks. One of Ulrich's subordinates once pointed out with a smile that the big man probably just didn't want them to be idle.Maybe it is.
But if it's true, that's great.
Ulrich is not so naive. Just like the trivial actions they took part in in southern Italy two years ago, it seemed unreasonable at first. However, one night later, a family of the glory society in southern Italy was uprooted. Ulrich didn't know how many people were killed in the whole process.
There must be a lot.
That night, in Reggio, a city across the sea from Sicily in southern Italy, there were gunshots and explosions in many areas, even making people think that there were riots.
According to the subsequent signs, Ulrich also found that their boss behind the scenes also helped build a puppet family in Reggio city. The Danieli family under the glorious society gave considerable help to their investigation of the smuggling route.
And then there are thousands of kilometers of travel.
The team directly led by Ulrich was full of six people. This time, only two other members were selected. The three first came to a small town on the northern border of Iraq.
There is a snakehead stronghold here, which is responsible for recruiting customers.
After waiting patiently for a week, Ulrich left Iraq together with a group of 129 stowaways recruited by the snakehead team, entered Turkey, and traveled all night to a small village near the sea in south central Turkey.
For a while.
It was another three-day wait until late one night, when all the decadent stowaways, who had been struggling for a long time, were awakened and rushed to a wharf by the sea, boarded a freighter and entered the most difficult sea voyage.
129 stowaways, 93 men and 36 women, were all driven to the bottom cabin after they got on the ship. Members of the snakehead team wore masks throughout the whole process. After entering the warehouse, they collected $1000 in cash from each stowaways, which was only half of the total. The other half was collected after they arrived at the destination.
This is a rule of a more formal snakehead organization.
In other words, it is a rule formed after a long time of running in with stowaways. Because too many stowaways have been murdered and abandoned on the stowaways route, the slightly smarter stowaways will keep half of the funds and pay when they arrive at the destination, and the regular snakehead organization will not force them to ask.
The regular snakehead organization is strange to say.
It's true.
Because there are many irregular and unprofessional snakeheads, and poor stowaways who are cheated and even killed because they don't know the rules.
During the whole process of their mission, Ulrich and his three men made quite ingenious changes in appearance, including a brand new identity. After they got on the ship, they were regarded as the VIPs on the ship because of the arrangement in advance. The members of the snakehead organization only wore masks when they contacted with the stowaways, but they were not very defensive, because they would have a big business with these people in the future Actively give the three people the information they need.
Even taking pictures is OK.
The task of the three people is to take photos. As long as they don't take sensitive information such as people's faces, they are free to do so.
Generally speaking, this is a freighter registered in the Panama islands.
In fact, it is a common practice to register freighters on the Mediterranean Sea in Panama. There are even many freighters registered in Africa or South Asia, which are more popular. In the final analysis, it is convenient to shirk responsibility in case of accidents.
The snakehead organization that the three men followed, to be exact, also took into account the smuggling work. They sent goods from France to Greece, and when they returned, they brought back a number of stowaways, making money on both sides.
The price of each stowaway is $2000, which is also the current market price.
The cost of smuggling in the Mediterranean is basically the same. Those unprofessional snakeheads may be cheaper, and $1000 may be enough. Of course, the scale of smuggling organized by them may be very small, or even some small teams of regular shipping companies may secretly earn extra money and hide a few people in the cabin.
After all, the seaman's work is hard, but the salary is not high.
Even if you smuggle ten or eight at a time, it's a considerable amount of extra money.
As for this regular snakehead organization, it can earn more in the future in addition to the $2000 smuggling fee.
After arriving, there will be another group of people who will arrange work for these stowaways. Then, the stowaways will need to use their work in the next few years to pay another commission in batches. The amount is variable. This time, the public figure is about $8000. In other words, the total cost of these illegal immigrants is $10000.
It seems very high, but these stowaways are actually lucky.
Because after paying $10000, everything can be properly settled, unlike some amateur snakeheads who leave people ashore and ignore them. It's good that some stowaways have gone to the other side. If some stowaways think that they can have a good life when they arrive at the other side, their fate is often very miserable.
Of course, there is no binding agreement.
However, these people will be closely controlled by the snakehead organization in the next few years, which is almost equivalent to cheap labor, or, in another word, slaves.In the western developed countries, ordinary citizens are often reluctant to do some dirty, tired and low paid jobs, so they need these cheap workers, which are almost slaves. Of course, there are also regular legal workers. In fact, there are more illegal workers, and they are almost acquiesced by the authorities, because the authorities not only do not need to provide any welfare for these people, but also can do their best as mules and horses.
If someone makes trouble, it's easier to deport.
Therefore, it seems that the subsequent $8000 is only two or three months' salary for ordinary western citizens. For these stowaways, it may take several years to repay them. Moreover, because they are controlled by the snakehead organization, which says it is $8000, the snakehead organization may not know how much they get.
In any case, for these illegal immigrants, as long as they can arrive in Western Europe and settle down, it is probably worth the effort.
For example, on this ship at this time, Ulrich knew that all the stowaways in Dicang were Kurds in northern Iraq, and the Kurds in the Middle East were like Gypsies in Europe. Moreover, their living conditions were even worse, and even their most basic lives were difficult to be guaranteed. Especially, the economic situation in Iraq, which had been severely punished in recent years, deteriorated, and the situation of Kurds changed It's worse.
"In fact, it's not a very good route." on the deck in the night, Ulrich and the captain, who claimed to be Renault, smoked together. Because of the above explanation, the snakehead team on the ship might be curious about Ulrich, but they didn't have much vigilance. On the contrary, they talked with some Eloquence: "since the end of the cold war, smuggling in recent years has been a very difficult problem Hot business, but, the Middle East and France, one is not the best starting point, one is not the best destination, John, do you know why? "
John is the pseudonym for Ulrich's operation. Shaking his head, Ulrich asked, "why?
Captain Renault said: "in the Middle East, you must be very clear. Because of religious habits, they are not very qualified workers. Smuggling these people is often not worth the loss."
Ulrich asked, "then why do you still do it?"
Captain Renault flashed some shrewdness in his eyes and said with a smile, "because we can guarantee that they can't do whatever they want when they arrive at their destination. If someone is lazy, the whip must be very useful." So, without waiting for Ulrich to ask, Captain Renault said: "as for France, because it has been the right wing ruling over the years, the crackdown on illegal immigrants is very strict, and it is very difficult to smuggle."
Speaking of this, Captain Renault changed a cigarette, lit it, took a deep breath, and then said: "the best smuggling route is actually from Eastern Europe to Western Europe. Because of the similar skin color, Eastern Europeans are more likely to integrate into Western Europe. Moreover, unlike African niggers and Middle East, Eastern Europeans are more capable, so that the governments of Germany and other countries almost acquiesce in Eastern Europe Many illegal immigrants sneak into their countries because they lack cheap labor. In addition, ah, in fact, there is Asia, but this line is too far away to do. However, as you may know, Asians are very hardworking. If there is no way, I would like to do this line in Asia. "
Ulrich laughed, wrote down these things in silence, talked with Captain Renault for a while, and at dinner time, everyone went into the cabin to have dinner together.
Then it was to deliver meals to the stowaways at the bottom of the warehouse.
It's a job that many people don't like to do. Ulrich and two of his entourage offer to help. Snakeheads love it.
Six or seven people came to the bottom of the cabin with plastic buckets filled with rice and fresh water. As soon as they entered, a disgusting mixed smell came to their faces.
The members of snakehead, who are responsible for distributing food and fresh water, knock on the buckets in their hands and huddle in the dark cabin. Many sneakers like ghosts come up to collect food. They don't want to put down their food and leave directly. It's just that if they do, some people may not get food, or even die of hunger and thirst.
These are all cheap workers who can continue to provide profits for the organization in the future. The snakehead team on board doesn't want anyone to die, so they can only do it by themselves.