Starting Out as an American Military Contractor

In 2016, Syria, Rumaylan. Captain Harrison's entire outfit: one tent, a dirt runway just over seven hundred meters long, and a freshly awarded contract to renovate the base. Three months earlier, he had been a rising star in the 1st Infantry Division. A senator's son had misfired an artillery shell, killing three soldiers, and Harrison had taken the blame. The night he got the contract, he suffered a heart attack and died. When he opened his eyes again, it was Yang Jingxing who woke up, with a war contractor System strapped to him that settled accounts by the week: do the work, get the gear. He sold his farm and house, scraped together 5.85 million, and called in a few former comrades who had also been driven into a corner by life. Together, they set up camp in the desert. They drilled wells, repaired runways, laid communications networks, and took on jobs that couldn't see the light of day. C-130s shuttled between Erbil and Rumaylan as his intelligence network slowly spread outward. The man in Washington who had ruined his career was still climbing the ladder. No rush. The books had to be settled one account at a time.