Chapter 116: The Afghan Gun
Translated by: kevin1782
Edited by: Isalee
Ulyanko was really agitated, but Grolev just shook his head. “That’s an exaggeration, that’s really an exaggeration. There can’t be so many of them. I think there were only two or even three hundred perhaps. Definitely not more than a thousand, that’s an overstatement.”
Ulyanko laughed heartily while he patted Grolev on the shoulder. He said, “Why are you being humble, Executioner of Sierra Leone, The Crazy Big Dog of Trident? I believe you massacred no less than a thousand people in Sierra Leone.”
The muscles on Grolev’s face twitched a bit, and he shook his head. “Don’t mention whatever happened in Sierra Leone, there’s nothing worth bragging about.”
Ulyanko shrugged, “Fine, it’s not you who should have a guilty conscience. You were just following orders. Also, everyone was absolutely crazed, weren’t they? At least you didn’t fire at the women and children, as for me… Forget it, let’s not talk about this and continue on with our business.”
Ulyanko was still smiling, but Gao Yang could tell that he was forcing his smile. However, when Ulyanko took out a sniper rifle, Gao Yang could digress no further in terms of trying to peek into other people’s minds.
Ulyanko took out a large gun from a cabinet. The sniper rifle that was placed alone in the cabinet showed that he really cared about it.
“Look, a brand new TAC-50 with a top-notch scope. Take note that the scope comes with night vision. Every accessory is included, including the cleaning kit and one hundred and twenty-six bullets. Sirs, this gun will cost you just thirty-five thousand US dollars.”
Gao Yang took over the gun. It was very heavy. After rebalancing his load, he shouted at Tribo who was still outside. “Hare, come over and have a look.”
Gao Yang had no love for high caliber sniper rifle. He lost interest in using the rifle just from the weight. Even though he did not want to bring a high caliber sniper rifle to battle, he was interested in studying and tinkering with it. He inspected the entire gun and spotted a line of text written on the butt of the rifle.
“Stevenson, Canadian Royal 22nd Regiment, May God be with you, 2011.1.14”
After seeing the words on the butt, Gao Yang asked Ulyanko, “What’s the meaning of this? This gun really came from Afghanistan?”
Ulyanko shrugged, “That’s right, this gun came from Afghanistan. One of my friends bought this from an Afghan for ten AK-47 rifles and resold it to me in South Africa. Obviously, whoever wrote it down didn’t get the blessings from God and was killed by Afghans. I felt that leaving that line would leave a better testimony to the origin of the gun, so I didn’t erase it.”
“All the way to Libya from Afghanistan, that’s a long way. Just curious, how much did you buy this for?”
“Trade secret, nothing to reveal. You only need to know that buying it for thirty-five thousand dollars is a steal.”
Just then, Tribo already run into the cargo hold. Upon spotting the gun that Gao Yang was holding, his eyes seemed to shine a little, and he grabbed the gun from Gao Yang. He then caressed the gun and immediately said, “Yang, buy it, you must buy it.”
Gao Yang nodded, “It’s a good gun indeed, and since it’s from the Canadian Armed Forces, the quality will be trustworthy. Thirty-five thousand is inexpensive, but we have no use for it at the moment.”
“Then let’s reserve it first. We must not let anybody else buy it.”
Gao Yang said to Ulyanko, “We have decided to buy it, and we’ll go with your price. The only request is that you have to tell me how much you bought this for. I am just really curious, so rest assured that even if you didn’t spend a single cent on the rifle, I will still pay the same price you offered.”
Ulyanko hesitated a bit before saying, “Alright, a fair trade. I spent six and a half thousand on this gun. I wanted to sell this in Libya for fifty thousand, but no one could afford it. Considering that we are friends, I decided to sell it cheap to you.”
Gao Yang smiled, “Although the price was flipped by multiple times, your price is still fair indeed. We will buy it, but we can only reserve it. You know we can’t use it for now, but we will definitely pay up.”
Ulyanko shrugged, “Considering the fact that you are very straightforward and we have an agreement as well, I will charge you five thousand for the rest of the guns, including the ammunition and accessories. Five night vision goggles will cost you five thousand as well. I bought those, so I’ll let them go cheap for you. Together with the deposit for the sniper rifle, that will only cost you an additional fifteen thousand in total.”
Gao Yang was satisfied with Ulyanko’s pricing even if he knew that Ulyanko had bought the goods at extremely low prices. He could not possibly ask Ulyanko to sell at buying price, no one would do this sort of business. Ulyanko was already very sincere and Gao Yang wanted to maintain this partnership where they were sincere with each other.
Gao Yang and company had just a sufficient amount of money for the payment. After the purchase, the five people only had a total of no more than five hundred US dollars. They did not have to worry about money though since money was pretty useless to them and they would be earning more soon enough.
After paying up, Grolev took two bullet belts outside and tried firing his new machine gun. He also taught Fly how to change belts in the meantime.
Of the two belts, one contained normal bullets and the other alternated between five normal bullets and one tracer round. Both belts fired smoothly without a hitch.
Upon confirming that there were no problems at all, Grolev carried five belts containing a hundred rounds each by himself. One belt of hundred rounds together with the box weighed around four kilograms. Five belts would add up to twenty kilograms. Grolev wore the largest backpack with no secondary weapon and he basically reserved all the space for machine gun ammunition. Even then, he could only bring around five hundred rounds because the machine gun alone weighed nine kilograms. That brought his total load to almost forty kilograms.
Actually, an M60 could be single-handedly operated with no problems, but with someone to help with loading bullets and changing the barrels, the firing rate would definitely increase. The key though was that besides assuming the role of an assistant gunner, there were really no other roles for the rookie, Fly.
Fly carried three belts of a hundred rounds each and a spare barrel on top of the MP5 as his weapon with five clips. Together with his non-combat load, his total load was close to thirty kilograms. Gao Yang and company were afraid that he would not be able to bear such a load without much training. Fortunately, with the help of a good backpack, Fly felt that he would have no issues carrying his load.
After neatly donning everything, Gao Yang and company could hop onto the battlefield at any moment. Of course, before they went to war, they had to remember to tear off their advertisement taglines off their backpacks and outfits. Most importantly, they had to tear the wordings off the helmet or else they would be great sniper targets.
Ulyanko clapped after everything was settled and declared, “They are still recruiting mercenaries at Aziziyah Camp, but remember to be careful. It’s not very safe there either. I will get someone to send you over. Alright mates, don’t forget to promote your friend, Ulyanko, who serviced you tirelessly and sincerely. Farewell, mates, wish you luck.”