With Sernechevich’s consent, the *Cristo* immediately lifted anchor and sailed towards Europa Island, finally stopping in shallow waters less than a quarter mile from the beach.

The rest of the operation became much simpler. Guided by large searchlights, the three inflatable boats shuttled back and forth between the beach and the ship, quickly transporting everyone left on the island aboard. After retrieving the inflatable boats, the *Cristo* promptly turned and left French territorial waters, heading towards Mozambique.

Following a night of rest, preparations were underway in earnest.

Early in the morning, the African soldiers were summoned to a corner of the cargo hold, where the weapons unloaded the previous night were stacked. Mark pried open a wooden crate of rifles in front of them.

Semler glanced inside, where ten slender, light-blue plastic bags were neatly arranged. These vacuum-sealed bags resembled supermarket food packaging but contained dark, black rifles instead of burdock roots or pickled radishes.

The German nodded, saying, “Good thing these are vacuum-packed. That’ll save us some work.”

“Yeah,” Mark replied, cutting open a bag and pulling out a rifle to examine. Although he hadn’t used the SS1 before, he was very familiar with the FNC. He carefully inspected the gun from every angle, then skillfully pushed out the pins to open the receiver, extracting the recoil spring and bolt carrier to examine each component under the light.

After confirming there was no excess grease in the receiver, he had Semler distribute the rifles and maintenance kits to the men and began teaching them how to operate and maintain the weapon.

Each rifle was disassembled, cleaned thoroughly from the inside out until every part gleamed, and then given a light coating of gun oil. By the end of the morning, the African soldiers had learned how to disassemble and maintain the rifles.

Once the rifles were cleaned, they needed to be zeroed. To avoid interference from the sea wind, Mark and Semler set up three twenty-five-yard firing lanes in the ship’s hold. The targets consisted of stacked empty wooden crates filled with rags and foam, with target paper attached to the outside.

Stolen novel; please report.

Mark opened a container and took out a box of .223-caliber rifle rounds. Packaged in military-grade cases, the rounds were individually sealed in nylon bags. Using a knife, he cut open the bag and spilled several ten-round boxes onto the floor. A group of Africans gathered, loading magazines as they crouched around the ammunition.

To improve shooting stability, they dismantled several crates to build three firing platforms, placing a cushion on each to reduce vibration during shooting.

Though the soldiers weren’t familiar with zeroing rifles, it was a relatively simple process. Semler had them lie prone in groups of three before the shooting platforms, resting the rifles on cushions. They fired three-round groups, and then Mark would inspect the target and adjust the sights based on the distance between the bullet holes and the bullseye.

Using targets specifically designed for zeroing, they could calculate the distance between the point of impact and the bullseye by referencing the grid printed on the paper. Semler would then instruct them on how much to adjust. Despite this setup, zeroing all the rifles and machine guns took over three hours.

Meanwhile, Deng Shiyang kept busy as well. Jansen, the engineer he knew, had carefully studied the structure and operation of the AF64 trigger fuse and devised a safe and efficient way to modify it.

The modification process was unbelievably simple. In front of Deng Shiyang, Jansen took less than two minutes to modify one fuse, using only a two-inch strip of tape.

He applied the tape to the outside of the fuse, covering the ejection port of the safety pin. Then he folded the end of the tape back on itself for easy removal. After that, he pulled out the safety pin and tapped the bottom of the fuse firmly. With the restraining pin now held by the tape, the user could simply remove the tape before throwing, allowing the safety pin to pop out and disarm the fuse.

Deng Shiyang and Jansen spent the entire morning modifying 180 fuses, then used the afternoon after lunch to load the shells into fifteen launching boxes.

Mark’s launching box was a wooden crate with four hooks, with a depth two inches greater than the length of the mortar shells, ensuring the fuses wouldn’t touch the ground even if the crate was flipped upside down. Inside, the thin metal partition divided it into twelve equal sections, each just the right size for a vertical 81mm mortar shell.

The two men carefully loaded the mortars, each tied with a fishing line, into the launching box, threading the line through small holes in the bottom of the crate and securing it tightly. To prevent accidents, the mortar shells were left unfused—the fuses would only be installed just before boarding the plane.