In the afternoon, work proceeded in an orderly manner, with everyone contacting their respective liaisons.


    Mark dialed the phone number listed on the ship brokerage website and reached the head of FEMAS Ocean Shipping Company. He introduced himself as a second-hand ship broker, recently commissioned by a shipping company to look for a 5,000-ton container ship.


    He first asked a few questions about the “Cristo” and then requested the seller to prepare the ship’s registration documents, as he would soon travel to Antwerp to negotiate the purchase in person.


    Keith dialed the number Harrowby had given him and reached a man named Allen Baker. This guy was a broker in aviation equipment, and he had clearly gotten wind of the situation beforehand, as he immediately sent over an email listing the number and models of SkyLink South Africa’s aircraft.


    The company owned two Mi-17C medium utility helicopters and three MD-500D light helicopters, as well as several Beechcraft small fixed-wing aircraft. Considering range and payload factors, the MD-500s were quickly ruled out, leaving the two Mi-17s as the only viable options.


    Later, Keith called Baker again, expressing interest in purchasing the two Mi-17s. He promised a $50,000 commission, regardless of the deal''s value, and requested that Baker quickly arrange a meeting with a SkyLink representative.


    Deng Shiyang also called "Leon Butterworth Import and Export Trade Consulting Co." in Cape Town and got through to Johan Schlink himself.


    It was clear that Schlink was a very cautious man, and he held considerable suspicion toward new clients in an initial transaction. Although Deng Shiyang tried to probe several times during their conversation, the arms dealer remained tight-lipped about his "business," only agreeing to a meeting in Cape Town the following week.


    Du Preez and Semler returned by dinnertime, having spent the entire day in Pietermaritzburg handling the necessary paperwork for the credit card application and obtaining expedited business visas at the Angolan consulate.


    That evening, Harrowby informed them during the routine call that the ￡20,000 had been transferred to Josh Deylek’s Standard Bank account in South Africa.


    Deng Shiyang logged into the online bank and transferred ￡4,000 each into Semler’s and Mark’s accounts. He then spent ￡2,000 to book flights for the two of them to Luanda and Antwerp.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.


    In less than half an hour, half of the newly received ￡20,000 was gone. He split the remaining amount in two, keeping ￡5,000 for himself and transferring the rest into Keith’s account.


    On the seventh day after arriving in Durban, the credit cards were delivered to the villa as scheduled. By this time, Mark and Semler had already left South Africa, and the remaining team members decided to go their separate ways. Keith and Du Preez would head to Pretoria to meet Allen Baker, while Deng Shiyang would travel to Cape Town to meet Johan Schlink, the intermediary for the weapons deal.


    Due to considerations of national security and politics, the military-industrial complex, supported by governments, had long become an integral part of most countries'' industrial systems. Coupled with the influence of the international arms race, nations were compelled to invest vast resources in updating their weaponry. Although no government wished to embroil their country in war, they had to maintain and develop their military industries.


    In peacetime, the large stockpiles of weapons and ammunition accumulated could not be consumed unless a war broke out. The simplest and most expedient solution was to spark conflicts in other countries, thus marketing the surplus weapons to them. Driven by huge political and economic interests, the arms trade quickly became a highly lucrative industry, second only to the drug trade, with governments naturally participating.


    Contrary to the "noble" purposes touted by official media, the major exporting nations rarely cared about how their weapons would be used. They didn’t consider whether buyers intended to defend against foreign invasions or to maintain authoritarian regimes. Especially during the Cold War, when the East and West blocs were competing for overseas influence, socialist countries like the Soviet Union, China, and Cuba, who believed in “power coming from the barrel of a gun,” sent massive aid to the Third World under the banner of "exporting revolution." Weapons exports also became a key means of political expansion and hegemonic ambition.


    Arms dealers were a product of the market competition between nations. These companies or individuals didn’t have their own arms factories, but they had deep political connections. They acted as intermediaries in transactions, connecting buyers and manufacturers while profiting from the deals. After years of power struggles between global powers, this industry gradually matured and became systematized. Under market economy principles, Eastern countries developed state-backed organizations like Norinco and Poly Group, while Western counterparts included international arms barons like Pierre Falcone and Viktor Bout. The former, protected by the US and UK, smuggled billions of dollars'' worth of weapons into Angola, at one point influencing the outcome of the civil war; the latter is the real-life inspiration for Yuri Orlov, the protagonist of the film *Lord of War*.


    In the murky arms market, there were individuals operating in the legal gray area. These people survived in the cracks between legitimate arms dealers, representing clients who couldn’t obtain government sales permits and whose ventures weren’t supported by communist regimes, negotiating with arms manufacturers and collecting commissions in the process.


    Johan Schlink was one of them.


    Notes:


    Beechcraft: An American aircraft manufacturer, primarily producing propeller-driven civilian planes.