Samir truly wanted to find his own worth, but Sholokhov truly could not be bothered to listen.
The main thing was that this really was not the time. The battle had only just ended. They did not know how many enemies there were, nor whether the neighboring positions had already fallen. Fighting could break out again at any moment, and there was no time to keep listening to Samir blow his own trumpet.
A few words of praise for Samir would suffice. With the light provided by the flare, Sholokhov quickly swept his gaze over the battlefield once more, then felt they could not simply wait like this.
“You two go finish them off. You don’t go. You stay on watch with me.”
“Go finish them off” was directed at Glasky and Samir. “You don’t go” was said to Gao Fei.
It would be a joke if someone like Gao Fei, the firepower core of an entire position, went to finish off the enemy and got dragged into mutual destruction.
Afraid that Samir, as a newcomer, did not know what mattered, Sholokhov said to him, “Don’t touch the bodies that are too far away. Clean up the ones in the trench. Prioritize searching for night-vision equipment.”
After saying that, Sholokhov suddenly thought of something and shouted, “See if there are any phones.”
Gao Fei glanced at Sholokhov. He knew very well that Sholokhov was thinking of finding him a phone.
Now this was cleaning up the battlefield—looting the bodies, seeing if anything good could be found on the enemy corpses.
There was just no point hoping for phones. This had been a night raid, a small-scale infiltration. The enemy should have known there was a high chance they would not return once they came, so they were unlikely to have phones on them.
Nor would they have cash.
But they ought to have night-vision equipment. Otherwise, the enemy would not have been able to creep over so easily.
Sholokhov had said to ignore the bodies farther away, but Glasky still went to the opposite side of the position, put another round into all three men in front of the position, then dragged the corpses straight into the trench to search them slowly.
The items were brought over bit by bit. First came combat equipment, then valuables, but the so-called valuables were also combat gear. No one was stupid enough to carry their personal possessions while carrying out such an especially dangerous mission.
There were four head-mounted night-vision devices in total. One had been shot to pieces, leaving three. Three radios, one GPS. The rifles were all AK-74s, but one AK-74 had been modified with Picatinny rails, and a scope had been mounted on it.
There were no pistols. In this kind of trench warfare, very few people chose to carry pistols. They would rather bring two extra rifle magazines.
Nor were there any machine guns. After all, this had been a night raid; bringing a machine gun would have been completely useless.
“We’ve collected everything. Quite a few good things. The ones who came were Ukrainian elites.”
Glasky looked very excited. He leaned in beside Gao Fei and Sholokhov and said, “Everyone was wearing a watch. Ricks, you don’t have a watch. Pick one for yourself.”
Not knowing the time was truly uncomfortable, but this time there were watches—eight of them.
Samir took out the things he had collected. He had taken three watches. Then he called softly to Gao Fei and tossed something toward him.
Gao Fei caught it and saw that it was a lighter, the most ordinary kind of wheel lighter, though it was a Bic lighter that sold for several dollars abroad.
Good. Now he had fire for smoking.
Sholokhov looked at the pile of things gathered beside him, then said without hesitation, “Pick a watch.”
Gao Fei was not familiar with watches. He knew very little about watch brands, but he recognized Casio, and among this pile of watches there had to be eight Casios.
There did not seem to be any valuable brands. Even if there were, Gao Fei would have been too embarrassed to take one.
Gao Fei reached out to take a black Casio, but just as he extended his hand, Sholokhov scooped up a watch with a black nylon strap and said, “This one is for you.”
Gao Fei caught it, then discovered that it was a Marathon general-purpose military watch.
The Marathon military watch looked very simple, even simpler than several Casios in front of Gao Fei, but Marathon watches were military watches issued by the U.S. military, while Casio watches were bought by soldiers themselves.
It was not that Casios were not useful, but cheap Casios cost two or three hundred, and the most expensive were only around a thousand or so. So the Marathon was obviously rarer and more expensive. Besides, Marathon was a military-spec watch no matter what, so of course Gao Fei wanted the Marathon.
The watch was quite light, and it looked at least ninety percent new. With one glance at the time, he finally no longer needed to ask others what time it was.
Although the watch came with a soul ring, Gao Fei did not care.
Seven of the eight watches were Casios, and only one was a Marathon. Then there was some significance to who had been wearing this watch.
“Who was wearing this watch?”
Glasky pointed at the rifle placed to one side. “The guy with that rifle.”
“An American?”
“No, he had dog tags.”
Sholokhov and Glasky exchanged questions and answers, and Sholokhov looked somewhat disappointed. He waved his hand at Gao Fei and said, “A pity. If it had been an American, the bounty would have been bigger.”
Gao Fei asked curiously, “How do you tell if someone is American? If he has dog tags, he’s Ukrainian, and if he doesn’t, he’s American? Then wouldn’t it be enough to rip off the dog tags?”
“Ukrainian soldiers all have dog tags, while Americans won’t have Ukrainian dog tags. It’s no use ripping off the tags. You need evidence proving he’s American. But if he has dog tags, then there’s no need to look for evidence.”
“How much is the reward for one American? What kind of evidence counts?”
“Uh, one American is worth two thousand. Lots of things can serve as evidence, as long as they’re convincing. The most direct is identification. Some soldiers also carry action cameras, and some post videos online and so on. There are people who specifically keep records of that sort. If you kill an internet celebrity, the bounty is even higher.”
“What if there’s no evidence?”
“If there’s no evidence, then even if you killed him, it’s useless.”
Gao Fei nodded. He thought for a moment, then said again, “You said there’ll be a bounty for tonight’s battle?”
“Yes. Judging from what we captured, the enemy was definitely elite, and we held the position. In that case, the bounty should be between one and two thousand.”
“Eight men might not even be worth one American? That’s way too ridiculous.”
Sholokhov shrugged and said, “If you killed eight new recruits, there wouldn’t even be a reward.”
Gao Fei sighed and said, “Why bother? Sigh, forget it. It’s not bad that there’s still money to take tonight.”
“Mm, there’s a problem.”
Sholokhov seemed somewhat hesitant. After pondering for a moment, he finally said, “Strictly speaking, captured equipment has to be turned in. We need this equipment to prove that the enemy who launched the night raid was elite. Only then will there be a bounty.”
“Oh?”
“If we take these things out, then out of four night-vision devices, it would already be good if we could keep one. Then there are the radios and the GPS. If we hand these in, they definitely won’t leave them for us.”
Gao Fei frowned and said, “That doesn’t seem quite right. We’re the ones who fought the battle. Shouldn’t this equipment be issued to us first?”
“This equipment is in short supply. The whole company lacks it. Strictly speaking, it’s enough for our position to keep one night-vision device. That way, the rest can be distributed to other comrades.”
At this point, Sholokhov began to grow angry. He said viciously, “Our squad was issued only one night-vision device. We voluntarily gave it to the position in the middle, so they could watch over their own position and ours at the same time. If enemies approached, they could notify us in time. But you saw what happened tonight. Those bastards!”
Gao Fei thought for a moment and said, “I think we should keep these things. They’re all for saving our lives. What do you think?”
Sholokhov smiled, then said in a low voice, “You can’t buy these things for two thousand euros. So of course we’re keeping them. We’ll hand in the weapons we can’t use, and keep everything we can use and carry on us. Speaking of which…”
Sholokhov picked up the only rifle with a scope. He brought his eye behind the scope and took a look, then said, “This rifle is yours.”
Gao Fei naturally would not decline. He picked it up and glanced at it, recognizing it as the brand Pulsar, though he did not know the specific model.
Inside the scope was a vast white image. There was a crosshair on the screen, with modes and numbers on the screen beside it. This was a thermal imaging sight.
He put the rifle down, removed the magazine first, then pulled the charging handle to clear the chamber. After pulling the trigger to confirm no round would be fired, Gao Fei raised the rifle and looked toward Glasky.
He could see Glasky clearly—a human-shaped outline. His face and hands were bright white, the slightly cooler areas beside them were red, while the areas covered by body armor were still white. Overall, the image was clear, though he did not know how it would perform at longer distances.
There was one trouble with thermal imaging sights: they could not be used during the day.
It did not matter if it could not be used in the daytime. At worst, he would carry two rifles in the future—one for daytime and one for nighttime. But he definitely would not throw away the rifle with the thermal sight.
Putting the rifle down, Gao Fei said without hesitation, “I’ll use this rifle.”
Sholokhov picked up a bloodstained helmet, looked at it, then put it down and casually picked up another. “Pick a helmet and switch yours. Mm, you’re lucky.”
Sholokhov stared at the top of Gao Fei’s head. Only then did Gao Fei remember that his helmet seemed to have been hit during the battle, so he immediately took it off and at once saw a mark.
The bullet had not penetrated the helmet. Instead, it had grazed past the edge. If it had been just a little more centered, that bullet would have gone through the helmet and blown apart his head.
He had been five millimeters away from death—at most one centimeter. The helmet would definitely have been penetrated.
The helmets used by the Russian and Ukrainian armies were exactly the same. There was only a band in national flag colors wrapped around the helmet. Swapping one out was simple enough.
Gao Fei recognized the model of the night-vision device: the famous AN/PVS-14, an American product. However, it was something from more than twenty years ago. Now the Americans were sending large quantities of them to Ukraine for use, which could also be considered clearing out old stock.
But the AN/PVS-14 was indeed not bad. Though it was an ancient piece of gear, its performance was certainly sufficient.
Gao Fei put the helmet on his head and tried it. As for such a good thing, never mind playing with one—this was the first time he had even seen one.
Then Gao Fei discovered that the night-vision device made the helmet tip forward. That was one thing. The fatal problem was that after he looked around in a circle, he felt his eyes were dazzled. When he tried turning his head again, he discovered it was not eye strain but dizziness.
Gao Fei took off the helmet, scratched his head with his hand, and said in a low voice, “I get dizzy wearing it.”
“Uh, that’s troublesome. Not everyone can adapt to it.”
Gao Fei sighed regretfully, then said helplessly, “You guys use the night-vision devices. I’ll use the thermal sight on this rifle. That way each of us has nighttime vision. There’s just one problem: this thermal sight can’t be charged.”
Sholokhov nodded and said in a deep voice, “From now on, you don’t have to stand watch at night. The three of us will take turns on watch. Use the battery sparingly. Later, we’ll see if we can find a charger. No matter what, right now, we’re the best-equipped combat group in E Company.”