Battlefield Contract Worker

"Okay, we'll try to get Scimitar to contact those two informants. He's from Tuareg, and he doesn't look much different from the Berber merchants there." Lin Rui nodded.

Vitak nodded, "Be sure to contact the informant before taking action. He will provide you with more information."

Two days later, Lin Rui and others came to Algeria.

Algerians are less involved in jihadist groups, as their government security agencies exercise tight control over jihadist groups.

This is not to say that there is no jihadist violence in the country. Localized jihadist activities are still ongoing. The al-Qaeda in the Maghreb attacked a military convoy in Ain Diffra, northern Algeria in July 2015, which shows that up to this point.

But the comprehensive security concept proposed by the Algerians is not just a slogan. Their security forces are vigilant and capable of combat. Algeria, with 39 million inhabitants, has a police force of 209,000 in the General Directorate of National Security, a sharp increase from 90,000 in 2009. By contrast, Morocco, with 33 million inhabitants, has only about 46,000 police officers in similar institutions. Even in France, which has 65 million inhabitants, the national security apparatus has only 143,000 police officers.

And the Algerian government offers incentives to members of the security apparatus to keep them loyal. In 2010, the government increased the lucrative wages of employees at these agencies by 50 percent. Members of the security agency enjoy important benefits, including housing: they were allocated a quota of 30,000 units in 2013. Police officers also get performance bonuses, which can amount to as much as 70 percent of an employee’s salary, additional wages for employees who are transferred to remote areas, and $400 for employees whose children pass the Baccalaureate exam.

The National People's Army and its intelligence arm, the Ministry of Intelligence and Security, provided support to the police and gendarmerie units. Algeria's army has 512,000 active personnel, while Tunisia, with a population of about 11 million, has only 40,500 troops. Algeria has a reserve force of 400,000 people, while Tunisia has only 12,000. In fact, if there is a real fight, Algeria is able to mobilize millions of people even with active duty and reserve forces.

With such power, Algeria has strengthened its borders, sending more troops to guard its borders with Libya, Mali and Niger. By 2014, Algeria had closed all but Tunisian borders, turning it into a military zone only accessible to those with special security clearance. More importantly, the Algerian army has advantages that the Moroccan and Tunisian armies do not have: extremely well-trained and vast experience in counter-terrorism operations.

For these reasons, few would think that the jihadist alliance would develop towards Algeria. In fact, this is also true, even Kuros only dares to act in the border area. Even if he controls the fortified village on the border, he doesn't dare to make a big deal of trouble, but he is just quietly resting his troops.

The village also looked normal, except for a few more militants. Since most of the young people in this village have left their hometowns, in fact there are only some old people left here, and it is not far from the time of abandonment. Algeria had been through a decade of civil war, and no one cared about the militants.

Arab merchants have been very famous in history. Arab merchants are very trustworthy to their own people. If you find yourself unable to do business, you will be willing to introduce other sellers to you. Hope you can do business. They are absolutely professional in their buying and selling behavior, and whether they are successful or not does not affect their emotions at all. Even small traders are the same.

Scimitar is dressed in the clothes of the local Berbers, who are the main force of local hawkers. They usually roam these villages with goods and do all kinds of business. So when the machete appeared here, it didn't attract much attention, and several militants even asked him if he sold cigarettes.

Scimitar carefully took out half a pack of cigarettes, and the militant shook his head, "I want the whole pack."

In Africa, black people generally smoke and are quite fond of smoking, which is probably a big part of their boring life. But unfortunately, ordinary black people can't afford cigarettes, at least not a pack of cigarettes. Therefore, in local shops, cigarettes are rarely sold in packs, and more often they are sold one by one. There are even black people who buy a cigarette together in order to get over the addiction, and then fight for whoever smokes first.

But African Arabs are generally herdsmen, and they are richer than black people. They should not buy cigarettes scattered.

Scimitar took out a pack of cigarettes and handed it to him. The militants took it, gave him a few banknotes, and told him, "You can't enter the village, you can only do business outside."

Scimitar took the banknotes and nodded again and again, like a frightened peddler. He led the donkey cart and wandered around the outside of the village. When no one was paying attention, he drew a mark on the wall at the entrance of the village with stones, and then sat beside the donkey cart and waited.

About half an hour later, two other militants came over. One of them looked at the mark on the wall and walked slowly to the side of the machete, asking him what he was selling.

Scimitar hurriedly asked them to look at the goods on the car. There were a lot of odds and ends in the car. The militant turned it over and pretended to look at the goods, while whispering, "The personnel are in place, when will we act?"

"Tonight, after eight o'clock." Scimitar whispered.

"Then meet at nine o'clock, and the ruins are in the east. When the time comes, we will be on duty and will take you to action." The militants whispered.

"Carl?" Scimitar asked tentatively.

"I'm Jones~www.readwn.com~ He's Carl." The militant whispered, "The security is very strict at night, don't act without authorization before you see us."

"Understood." Scimitar looked into the distance. The armed men who had just bought cigarettes from him were walking over. He immediately gestured and said loudly, "There are no whole packs of cigarettes. They were sold out just now."

Jones turned his head, and another militant came over, smiled and handed him a cigarette, then shrugged, meaning he was too late. Jones and Karl seemed to kick a donkey cart in annoyance, and turned to talk to the militants.

Scimitar took the opportunity to pack up and drove the donkey cart to turn around and leave. After coming to the back of the hillside outside the village, Scimitar reported to Lin Rui about the encounter with the informant.

"About nine o'clock, near the ruins to the east. They will try to meet us, and then lead us to action." Scimitar whispered.

"Why nine o'clock?" Lin Rui frowned, "Didn't you say after eight o'clock?"

"Because at nine o'clock, their two informants are on duty, and they can assist us in our actions." Scimitar whispered.