Martin never expected that the troublemaker who had come all this way to stir things up for him would turn out to be an African warlord—Omar Muammar Gaddafi—the current ruler of Libya.
He racked his brain but couldn't figure out when or how he had offended the man.
That, however, didn't mean he wouldn't retaliate.
Of course, retaliation required strategy.
He only had five hundred men in Guinea under his command—there was no way he could march into Libya for revenge.
After all, his adversary commanded a legitimate army of a hundred thousand troops.
But Martin recalled that in 2011, Gaddafi's Libya was about to face an assault from the combined forces of England, France, the United States, and other nations.
Eight months later, Gaddafi's government would be overthrown, and the once-formidable African leader would be brutalized before being executed.
Naturally, Martin intended to settle his own grudge, but NATO's offensive could certainly be leveraged to his advantage. Word had it that Gaddafi's underground vault contained over a hundred tons of gold—just the thing to compensate for Martin's losses.
Still, he needed to figure out why this guy was targeting his oil field. If he had to keep dealing with endless harassment, it would become a major headache.
Logically speaking, Libya was an oil-rich country—it wasn't lacking in oil fields. Sending people to steal from his operation didn't seem like a move motivated by profit.
It felt more like pure spite!
It didn't take long for Martin to uncover the reason.
Because Frye had returned.
And he hadn't come back alone—he'd brought two truckloads of prisoners and eight million dollars in cash.
Among the captives were six bodyguards, a leader of the "Komara Gang," and a man with deep-set eyes and dark skin—someone who immediately caught Martin's attention.
The man's features bore the distinctive traits of a Libyan—an Afro-Arab mixed heritage.
Though Libya was a North African country, its dominant ethnic group was the "Libyan Arabs," a Mediterranean European-type people.
Between the 7th and 11th centuries, waves of Arabs migrated to Libya, most of them descending from the Banu Sulaym tribe that arrived in the 11th century.
After settling in Libya, these Arabs intermingled with the indigenous Berbers and also absorbed elements of Phoenician, Jewish, Greek, and Roman ancestry, eventually forming the present-day Libyan ethnic composition.
Martin had Frye dispose of the six bodyguards before taking the Komara Gang leader and the Libyan man into a private room.
About ten minutes later, Martin walked out, speechless.
He turned to Satan, who was waiting outside, and said, "Those captives are useless. Get rid of them. Oh, and split the eight million among yourselves."
Then he headed straight for the car.
Gordon followed in silence.
From the Libyan man, Martin had learned that the one using the Kurds against him wasn't Gaddafi himself, but rather Gaddafi's fifth son—Mutassim-Billah Gaddafi.
As for why Mutassim-Billah Gaddafi had targeted him, it all came down to a diamond mine in Guinea.
Mutassim had set his sights on it, but the mine was now under Martin's control.
So, he attempted to purchase it at an outrageously low price.
Martin's appointed business representative in Guinea had firmly refused the offer.
Mutassim, holding a grudge, decided to retaliate—except he did so by launching an attack thousands of miles away in Iraq.
Was this guy suffering from some kind of mental illness?
Martin frowned, at a loss for words.
Little did he know, the Gaddafi family seemed to have a streak of madness running through its lineage.
Take Gaddafi himself, for example.
In his youth, he was a desert warlord who had led Libya from devastation to prosperity.
But after taking power as Libya's supreme leader, he seemed determined to self-destruct.
On the international stage, he managed to offend all five permanent members of the UN Security Council.
At home, he lost the people's support.
Let's go over a few examples:
On September 15, 2009, Gaddafi swaggered into the UN General Assembly wearing his traditional Arab robe. Prior to that, U.S. President Barack Obama had just finished his speech. The U.S. had a habit of exceeding time limits, and this occasion was no exception—Obama had droned on for a full 35 minutes.
As a staunch anti-American figure, Gaddafi took the stage and immediately turned his fire on the U.S.
He "cordially" referred to Obama as "the son of Africa" and praised him, saying he hoped Obama would remain president of the U.S. forever. Obama, seated below, responded with a polite yet awkward smile.
Gaddafi then lashed out at former President George W. Bush, calling him a butcher who had personally slaughtered Iraq.
In his fervor, he even exposed America's "rescue missions" as mere pretexts for war.
He accused the U.S. of being responsible for global warming and even claimed that viruses were deliberately manufactured by the Americans.
Growing more agitated, he tore up the UN Charter right then and there.
If he had limited himself to bashing the U.S., the other Security Council members might have just sat back and enjoyed the show.
China and Russia might have even found it amusing.
But no.
He didn't stop at America—he proceeded to lambaste the entire UN and every other Security Council member.
From Russia to France, from England to China—he cursed them all.
His speech lasted a staggering 96 minutes, earning him the title of "the fighter jet among ranters."
That first UN appearance also turned out to be his last.
The following year, the Security Council voted to strip Libya of its UN seat.
Gaddafi had also spent years playing both sides between the U.S. and the Soviet Union…
He first gained power in Libya with the help of the U.S. and Britain, then tricked them into withdrawing their troops by swearing he wouldn't infringe on their interests.
Thinking they had secured an ally, the U.S. and Britain even funded Libya's national infrastructure projects.
But as soon as they left, Gaddafi turned on them.
He shut down Western oil operations and even confiscated British assets.
Watching the furious reactions from the U.S. and Britain, Gaddafi was even more delighted.
He immediately cozied up to the Soviet Union.
If he had just maintained loyalty to the Soviets, that would've been one thing.
But no.
In 1976, he contacted the Soviet leader, promising to fly over that evening for a meeting.
The Soviets, eager to welcome him, sent their foreign minister to greet him at the airport and even rehearsed a welcoming ceremony.
But Gaddafi never showed up.
The Soviet officials ended up shivering in the freezing winter night for hours.
It happened again in 1981.
During an official visit to the USSR, Gaddafi was supposed to attend a grand military exercise that had been months in preparation.
On the day of the event, he refused to leave his room, solemnly telling Soviet officials, "Last night, I looked up at the sky and didn't see three stars. That means it's bad luck for me to go out today."
The baffled Soviet officials could only nod along.
Single-handedly, Gaddafi managed to cool relations with the USSR.
And when the Soviet Union collapsed, Russia hoped to inherit its influence in Libya.
But no sooner had the USSR disbanded than Gaddafi pivoted back to the U.S., shaking hands with his former enemy.
Russia, caught off guard, held a grudge ever since.
The most ridiculous part?
Just four years prior, Gaddafi had supported the Irish separatists in bombing a nightclub in West Berlin, killing 229 people—including many U.S. soldiers.
The U.S. was furious and placed him on a kill list.
Two years later, in 1988, a plane over Lockerbie was blown out of the sky, killing everyone on board—including American officials.
The mastermind? A Libyan intelligence officer, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi.
At the time, U.S. President Reagan called Gaddafi a "mad dog."
Yet despite it all, after the USSR collapsed, the U.S. had no choice but to reestablish ties with Libya—because they needed its oil and its strategic position in Africa.