Chapter 353: Episode 2: The Wind Doesn't Rest

From the military’s point of view, Black Mamba’s presence wasn’t very pleasant. Although Black Mamba had only been deployed to two missions, both produced results equivalent to dozens and 100s of successful missions. The national interests gained by France were incalculable. In a single breath, Black Mamba had raised the image of the country in which the military had failed to achieve in the last 40 years.

The reason why France preserved the Legion Etranger and the Rapid Action Force was that 30 percent of the national wealth was generated offshore. As Black Mamba’s fame rose, the military received more glares from those in power.

Even Germaine acknowledged Black Mamba. Black Mamba’s worth didn’t only lie in his powers. His consulting abilities and power to maneuver a plan according to the situation on the field were what made him the national treasure.

The Ruman plan revealed Black Mamba’s phenomenal destructive power, which blew up Syria’s secret batch of air missiles and biological weapons. The president’s decision to bestow him the nickname of “national treasure” wasn’t an exaggeration at all.

As Black Mamba’s fame rose, Germaine and the other military leaders’ necks grew ragged as though thorns were in their throats. The president and the other representatives seemed to trust Black Mamba more than the military. As the military’s top leader, he felt uncomfortable.

Germaine glared at the cover of the report. It was the only record of France’s best and undefeatable consultant, a man with phenomenal abilities who had helped 500 Syrian refugees escape from their enemy state of Syria.

“Do I need to call the Corn Killer?”

His head wanted Black Mamba’s help, but his heart rejected the thought. Germaine wrapped his hands around his head and agonized. The DGSE had given Black Mamba the call name “Corn Killer” and “Ange de la Mort” to hide his identity. The call name “Corn Killer” was given to him because of the number of FROLINAT guerrillas he had killed, which was comparable to the number of corn grains supplied to Africa by Monsanto. Black Mamba was ruthless enough to burn the DGSE’s main manager, who had given him the nickname “Corn Killer,” to death.

Germaine had only heard of Black Mamba to the point that his ears burned and had never seen him in person. What kind of human was that person who had killed 1,000 others! No, it wasn’t 1,000 people but approximately 5,000 people. He could have killed more people unofficially. The number of deaths in Kaparja Valley and the number of deaths from the dam’s explosion was only an estimation.

Some of Black Mamba’s abilities were confirmed during the Ruman plan. They were his assassination abilities and his god-level sniping, which could shatter skulls from one kilometer away. A sniper with god-level abilities was a nightmare. It meant that no one could avoid him if he decided to kill.

The most vulnerable part of a human’s body was the head. While one could protect their body with a bulletproof vest or guards, the head was always exposed. They couldn’t cover their face with bulletproof glass while wearing a titanium helmet, now, could they? If he could shatter skulls from one kilometer away, no protective gear or guards would help. His body shook with chills.

Wars made heroes. There were many legendary snipers throughout the two world wars. There were two or three snipers who had killed more than 500 people and more than 10 who had killed over 200 people.

There were special female snipers too. During WWII, Maria Ivanovna Morozova of the Soviet Union had killed 192 people and received the title “Hero of the Soviet Union.”

The best female sniper, Lyudmila Pavlichenko, had killed 207 people in 1941 alone and 309 people in total by the following year. She lost her arm during the war in the Crimean Peninsula. The commanders back then guaranteed that she would have killed 1,000 people had she not retired because of the injury. They were all legendary snipers mentioned in Germaine’s lectures at the military academy.

“Still, they can’t compare to Ange de la Mort. He is an assassin before a sniper, the master of close combat. He’s the perfect murder machine who is unprecedented and will never appear again. Black Mamba’s a human born for a holocaust. However, I don’t like him. My children should handle their own revenge,” Germaine mumbled with the report in hand.

If Black Mamba’s dispatched again this time, there was no point in assembling the Rapid Action Force. If a spear’s left unattended after sharpening, it would only rot. It had to be utilized.

When he turned the cover page, a summary of Black Mamba was revealed on the first page. It was the kind of report style that Germaine liked. “One page” was Germaine’s nickname. He demanded that reports be summarized into one page even if it added up to 1,000 pages in actuality. Germaine was the kind of person who believed that even the UN office’s reports, which usually added up to a pickup truck’s worth of pages, could be summarized into one page.

Cauchemar de Chad.[1]

Call name: Ange de la Mort (Nickname: Angel of Death, Nightmare of Battlefields, Corn Killer, Kanma…)

Nationality: Honorary French Citizen / South Korean

Family members: None

Division: Legion Etrangere Deuxieme Rep Fourth company, Second platoon / Ministry of Defense

Date of Birth: 12.25.1960

Rank: Major

Title: Special Military Advisor

Type of soldier: Sniper

Specialty: Sniping, Close combat, Concealment, Assassination, Infiltration

Type rank: Special (god-level)

Weapons: Dragunov, Kukri, Whip, Several throwing weapons, and more.

Abilities: 120 hours of concealment, 48 hours of high-speed movement, rapid-fire sniping, and an ancient Oriental martial arts successor…

….

The life of a rather complicated man was summarized on a paper made from wood fibers. The document was off-limits to the Vice Minister of Defense even with security level one. That was the only remaining document on Black Mamba with all the other records destroyed.

If he flipped over to the back page, there were also details on the number of scars Black Mamba had. Of course, it wasn’t the kind of information that Germaine needed. He knew enough with the one-page summary. Having sufficient information that served as a basis for judgment was good.

Germaine lifted another page of the report and read it carefully. That was already the third time.

[09.18.1983. Areva found a uranium mine at the Uganda border in eastern Zaire.

10.01.1984. Areva dispatched the second expedition team to confirm the large uranium mine.

12.18.1984 Matters concerning the dispatch of Areva’s third expedition team

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Goal: Confirmation of reserves, excavation of platform

Expedition team: 17 technicians, five scientists, two groups of 24 11th Airborne Brigade members, and 31 local porters. There were 77 people in total.

Outcome: … 21 engineers were killed but three survived, all 31 local porters were killed, and 22 technicians and scientists went missing. Missing status presumed to be kidnapped.

Kidnapper’s organization: Unknown

Location of kidnapping: Ituri Province, region of Bafwasende… ]

“Damn b*stards, how dare you touch France!”

Germaine slammed the report down on the table. He had already memorized details of the report in his head, so he didn’t have to refer to it.

21 elite engineers were killed. 21 wasn’t a statistical figure. They were soldiers whom he treated like his children. They deserved to live in a shining world. He was angered by the reality of his precious French sons receiving the same treatment as those filthy natives.

That was the reason why he declared that the military would resolve military affairs. Although he couldn’t shove hot blood into those cold bodies, he wanted to keep the revenge clean. He also wanted to crush Bonipas’ face for the pitying look he gave at the National Security Council.

Germaine had pulled out Black Mamba’s report, which was sleeping in the safe, because of Mitterrand’s anger. Even the mention of revenge for the Airborne Brigade was because of Mitterrand’s demand to dispatch forces to Zaire.

“Those damn f***ers of Areva, and that Javere who knows nothing but money!” Germaine complained.

Javere was the chairman of Areva company. The large-scale expedition team’s disappearance after Areva forcibly dispatched them to Zaire’s eastern cave region was the beginning of the problem. Areva, the multinational group specializing in nuclear power and France’s pride, had forcibly put Germaine in a difficult position.

The first nuclear power plant, the Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant, was operated by the Soviet Union in 1954. Since then, the stigma around yellowcake[2] being a nuclear weapon material died down, and it was recognized as a future energy source. The U.S., the Soviet Union, France, and the U.K. fought in Africa to secure uranium.

France’s advance guard was Areva. Areva had searched the entire Congo with the government’s support and found a uranium mine in eastern Congo. After confirming its economical feasibility, Areva immediately sent in a large-scale team of technicians. The French government provided full support to companies searching for strategic materials overseas. Areva company’s third expedition team was accompanied by the 11th Airborne Brigade.

There were two countries in Africa with the name Congo. The Congo River bordering the French Congo was on the left, and to the right was the Belgian Congo. Both Congos gained independence in 1960. The region where Areva searched for uranium was in the Belgian Congo. The Belgian Congo was renamed the “Republic of Zaire” in 1971.

In 1965, Mobutu changed the country’s name on the pretext of securing independence. Changing the country’s name didn’t guarantee independence. It only brought about confusion. If a country could advance by changing its name, Korea’s National Assembly would have become the best in the world.

Zaire had a land area of 2,344,858 square kilometers, which was 23 times the size of Korea. The land was vast, and resources were abundant. There was plenty of gold, tin, oil, iron ore, bauxite, cobalt, copper, diamonds, uranium, and more. Zaire was a treasure trove of resources. Western nations drooled over the abundant underground resources of the newly independent nation, Zaire.

While treasures had no fault, the owner of the said treasures would be at fault if they didn’t have the power to protect them. Zaire couldn’t protect the abundant resources due to unstable political conditions. Zaire’s capital, Kinshasa, was reliant on the western regions. Their administrative power didn’t reach the eastern jungle.

Uganda and Rwanda openly ate away their underground resources along the border. Western nations such as the U.S., Belgium, France, and Germany, as well as the Soviet Union and China, fought to eat out of Zaire’s stupidity.

Areva company, which maintained France’s nuclear power and energy businesses, dipped their toe in it too. With the French government’s support, Areva managed to secure rights to search and develop uranium all over Zaire in 1978.

In 1983, the Areva expedition discovered a large uranium vein in Ituri, a region bordering Uganda. The Beni region, where the vein was located, belonged to the Ituri Rainforest region, west of the infamous Rwenzori Mountains.

Areva dispatched another expedition team to check the reserves and excavate the platform. The team consisted of 22 technicians and scientists, 24 French military airborne members to guard them, and 31 local laborers from the Bantu tribe of Beni, making it a total of 77 people.

The number 77 was a number decided by the chairman of Areva. The DGSE had suggested a large-scale guard force equivalent to the size of a company, but Javere insisted on a lucky number. If Javere truly wished for the project’s success and the safety of his expedition teams, he would have increased the number of guards instead of relying on a lucky number.

The traffic situation in Zaire, located deep inside of Africa, was terrible. The country was huge and the road networks were sub-par. They had no choice but to work around the situation by giving up land transportation and traveling by air. There was nothing new about that since the traffic situation in all parts of Africa was in disorder.

The journey of the Areva expedition team was not easy either. There was an airfield runway north of Lake Tanganyika in Bukavu, Sud-Kivu Province. They flew on a private plane from Orléans to Bukavu airfield.

They traveled 380 kilometers from the airfield to Beni on four-wheel drives. However, the problem was the 136-kilometer course from Beni to the banks of the Lindi River where the uranium vein was located. That section belonged to the infamous Ituri Rainforest. They couldn’t travel on the four-wheel drives due to the dense forest and swamps scattered throughout. They had to travel purely on foot.

Areva had failed to recognize the dangers of the Ituri region, northeast of Zaire. They had relied too much on the reputation of the 11th Airborne Brigade. Perhaps, they had also placed too much faith in their sponsor and backer, France.

Congo (Zaire) was a country where civil wars—both small-scale and large-scale—commenced and concluded the day. In particular, the northeast of Lake Tanganyika—bordering the three countries of Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi—was a mess.

The area was a red zone where smugglers, human hunters, poachers, and rebel guerrillas were rampant. No country in Europe allowed its citizens to travel the area. Areva had recklessly organized large-scale expeditions in an area where armed conflicts never ceased.

On the fifth day, when 77 members of the expedition team entered the Ituri Rainforest from Beni, they were attacked by an unidentified armed group. All of the airborne soldiers and local laborers were killed. The Airborne Brigade members died during the engagement, and the local laborers were killed because they weren’t worth any money. Meanwhile, 22 French technicians and scientists went missing.

Five days after the incident, three surviving soldiers returned to Beni. They were sent to the French Embassy in Kinshasa. It was revealed that the area where they were kidnapped was in the Bafwasende region, near the Okapi Forest in the Great Ituri Rainforest and far from the Lindi River.

France began to boil upon their return. Areva and the government were placed on the cutting board for negligent risk assessment. The 11th Airborne Brigade received the blame for their failed mission and was thrown in s*** water.

The three Airborne Brigade members, who fled after giving up their honor, were also criticized. The s*** water naturally fell on Germaine. The French press was known for its biting satire. The military was portrayed as a toothless tiger and a hippo that ate the national budget, while Germaine was portrayed as a male lion bitten by a hyena. Germaine was compelled to regain the honor of the military.

All of that had taken place around the same time Mu Ssang buried the gang members in Wol Song San before returning to the temple.

[1] Nightmare of Chad.

[2] Yellowcake is a type of uranium concentrate powder obtained from leach solutions, an intermediate step in the processing of uranium ores.

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