The coarse aluminum foil lining of the thermal blanket scratched against Song Heping's cheek, the highland's cold wind like countless icy whips lashing at the limbs barely wrapped by the blanket.
He pressed tightly into the recess in the cold, rugged rock wall, his body curled to the extreme, making himself look like a lifeless stone.
Overhead, the relentless MQ-9 "Grim Reaper" drone plowed through the high altitude again and again.
The shadow of death cast by its enormous wingspan weighed heavily on every nerve of Song Heping.
Perhaps the altitude was too high, or maybe the operator far away in the Nevada drone control center thought the target had already spotted them and deliberately hidden, or perhaps there was nothing here that could threaten the drone's safety, so the operator started to boldly decrease altitude, performing a plowing scan of the area.
