Chapter 18 - Ruthless General

To continue the daily calling, his mother would have to contact him through the cell phone of his father. Sometimes he would pretend not to hear his father calling him to talk to his mother. He was giving them chances to talk even for a while. As a matter of fact, eavesdropping had become his habit.

"How are you? Be more cautious in your work for your son. He needs you."

Whenever he heard these words from his father talking with his mother, he became overwhelmed with joy. Oftentimes, he would look upward and murmured.

"God, let my mom love my dad. I implore you to let her forget being a man."

"Mom? Are you still there? We love you very much, mommy. You do believe us, don't you?" These were Joshclar's words whenever he and his mother were talking on the mobile phone of his father.

Life of Joshua and Joshclar in the 7th City went on smoothly in contrast with the mazy life of Richclar in the Capital City because of the nature of her work.

One late evening, when she was on her way home, her driver alerted her.

"Sir, a black car seemed to be tailing us." Then, he concurrently make an abrupt right turn and increased the speed of the car.

"There's the car. Try to make a left turn to see if it will remain behind us, speed up a little bit more and make a sudden stop to see the number of its passenger. Press the alert mode to call our backups."

Her driver did her instruction. The driver of the black car tailing them had his car produced a screeching sound with his uncertain stoppage with his car's bumper dented the back part of the car they were riding. He was in his disconcerted mode, knowing that he was close to a fatal accident, he did not notice that the passengers of the car he was tailing were no longer inside it. He panicked more when several gun shots were heard in the vicinity that almost made his ear drum burst. If his eardrum had almost burst, the four wheels of his car had really burst. As he was about to open the driver's car door, his passenger grabbed him by encircling his waist with his strong arms and pulled him outside. When he was successfully dragged out of the car, a gun point at his temple was unnoticed by General Cardo Dimagiba and her bodyguard driver. The general's piercing eyes staring at the man who made his driver his hostage were immovable. It never winked or half closed even for a bit. The hostage cowered more in terror as his hostage taker walked backward further from those who gave his car flat tires. The hostage eyes were imploringly pleading the two gun shooters to save him.

"Give me the key of your car or this man would die!" The hostage taker ordered.

The driver answered confidently. "The key is in the car. Are you sure you can drive it away from us?"

The hostage taker clearly understood what he said. He changed his mind by dragging his hostage furthest from them hiding from a lamp post and pushed his hostage whose face heavily hit the ground with an upward ass and knees nailed on the ground. Immediately, the hostage taker ran followed by both the general and her escort while shouting her order to her men who had just arrived to handcuff the hostage. The chasing continued until the felon was able to hide from a concrete fence while the general and her escort were in an open area. A gun shot hit the escort's abdomen so he fell down. Alerted by it, the general quickly run toward a nearby lamp post to hide, still a gun shot hit her right leg below her knees and another bullet hit her left arm. Still, she did not stagger but remained calm that she was able to stay behind the lamp post while her eyes were still focused toward the felon who thought he had already defeated his opponents because he hit them, so, he stood up behind the fence to run and get away from that place. Unaware of the general's plan that, that was what the the latter was waiting for... Her bullet hit the felon's forehead and died on the spot.

Two ambulance vehicles speedily brought the escort and the general to a nearby hospital while the medics gave them first aid.

The investigation turned out that the felon was high on drug who was ordering the driver to hit the car where the general and her escort or bodyguard driver were riding.

The general did not bother to inform his son about her encounter with the felon. But her failure to call him that night made the boy uneasy and disconcerted. So, he requested from his father to make the initiative in calling his mother only to find out that it was unattended or unreachable. They slept quite depressed as they missed listening to her melodious voice.

In the morning, it was already their habit to switch on the television for the morning news. There and then, they learned about the confinement of Richclar because of a gun wound due to the encounter against the felon last night. They flew going to the capital city as quickly as they can and headed to the hospital where she was confined for treatment.

"Mom, you're hurt. Why did you not call us?" Her son complained.

"My darling baby! Why are you here? You will miss some of your lessons." Richclar reminded him.

"He's good in coping up. You switched off your cell phone last night." Joshua informed her.

"I left it in the car. One of my men had just given it to me a little while ago." She replied without looking at his eyes.

Richclar was in a patient's dress with bandaged left arm and leg. Upon her arrival at the hospital last night, a surgeon removed the bullets from her arm and leg. Her escort and her were fortunate enough that the gun the felon used was not a high calibre. It was only a home made gun that failed to blow up the escort's abdomen and her left arm and leg.

"Dad kindly feed my mom. Mom, please let daddy feed you." Joshclar's request was so appealing that none of these two parents would like to dishearten him.

The feeding was witnessed by their son who seemed to be nonchalant but was happily cheering inside his heart and mind. To create a more indubitable atmosphere, he also joined his father in feeding his mother. This was the scenario when her five men arrived who turned their back toward the door to leave and said.

"I think, this is not the room of our boss." Man one said.

"Is your boss General Cardo Dimagiba?" Joshua asked.

"Yes!" Man two answered.

"Then this is her room." Joshua confirmed

"My mommy is General Cardo Dimagiba." Joshclar informed them.

As another of her men would refute the information from Joshclar, an order from their boss was given to them.

"No gossip mongering from today and onward about me and my real identity today.Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir!" The five men automatically formed in line and snappily hand saluted while giving an affirmative reply.

"Have you gone to lieutenant Dimayuga's room? How is he?" The general asked them.

"We have gone there and he was still asleep. Like you, his family is taking care of him.

" By the way, bear with these fruits we brought you, sir." One of her men said.

"Thanks." Joshua answered for his son's mother while taking the fruits.

"Sir, can you share us your technique as a sharp shooter?" his men requested.

"Just keep on practicing." She said.

"You were already wounded when you hit him to death, Sir."

"I gave him a chance to give up, instead, he assaulted first and hit us."

"Gentlemen, I'll leave you with my wife and my son as I am going to request for her discharge. And... by the way, I suggest that one of you may get from your office a leave form." Joshua instructed them.

Listening to his instruction, she looked at him intently but no word came out from her mouth. She had to give in to this man's wishes for her Joshclar's sake. She's going to escape from him again anyway. But... wait... Can she still do it? What about her son? Tch... Tch.. Tch... These were her voiceless plan that she doubtfully hope for another successful escape

In a wheel chair, she requested to visit Lieutenant Dimayuga before leaving, telling him to get well soon. And they went to a bus terminal where Joshua's friend booked them to a Sluggish Girl type of a bus, where the passengers can lie down comfortably. Joshua's friend waited for them to hand down the four tickets he paid for them while Joshclar's nanny had some travelling bags of clothes she was dragging.