Chapter 4 - One after one

It was the tall youth who Keith offered the coffee. Without looking around, he entered the room and stood a little behind between Keith and Nathan with his hands folded behind his back, his body slightly apart and straight. Keith, sitting in the chair, looked up at him. Slender yet skinny tall body; Glorious physique; The nose was high; direct. A little hair had fallen on the forehead. His neck-length hair was styled in a messy cut. He was staring straight at Anil.

"Bishop!"

Anil cleared his throat.

"This is Keith Evans. New K10 agent. Start working in partnership with him today. Evans... This is Alestair Tristan Bishop K4 agent. Your duty partner"

Anil said, leaning heavily on the table from the chair he was sitting on.

Keith immediately stood up from his chair with a smile on his face and extended his right hand to the young man and began to introduce himself.

"Hi. How are you ... I'm Keith and ...."

"I DON'T CARE!!!!!"

Before Keith could finish his words, Alex lashed out at Keith with evil eyes.

Keith stopped mid-sentence, anger welling up in his mind.

"Bishop...!!!"

Anil stood up angrily, banging his hands on the table. The table shook under the attack of Anil's hands and the pen container with the American flag on the table shook and about to fell off. Alex was no different from Anil's thunder but was staring at Anil.

"Stop that behavior of yours now! You must know that working here is not the way you want. From today, your partner is Evans."

Anil stretched out his finger and talked non-stop.

"Sir...."

Nathan addressed Anil with a pleading look and voice.

Keith sensed that Nathan didn't want to see his colleague to be scolded.

"I don't need partners! I can work the way I've been working for so long... If there's nothing special, I'll head out!"

said Alex, shaking his head slightly, turned around and went to the door of the room to leave.

"This is my command, Bishop...!!"

Anil shouted again extending his right hand with his index finger.

As Alex opened the door to leave, Stephan came in. Alex left the room without even giving a glance at Stephan, and Stephan looked around the room in confusion. Keith, still standing, saw Nathan with his hand on his forehead and a despairing look on his face.

An agent who doesn't even obey the orders of his boss!!!??

What kind of craziness is this???

How did this unit work for so long with this kind of mental illness??....

Those were the thoughts that came to Keith's mind with displeasure. With fury, Anil kicked the chair behind him with one of his legs. The chair with wheels spun and hit the wall. Anil, who was beyond anger, saw Stephan's face.

"It was you..!!"

Then Anil pointed his index finger towards Stephan.

"You were the one who told the newly coming agent to put in partnership to lesser the egotism of that devil.... Weren't you saying that?"

Anil's handsome face was flushed with anger; The forehead was wrinkled.

"Yes... I was"

Stephan said, slightly relaxed but bemused. He glanced at Nathan sitting in the chair and Keith standing.

" I was??!! ... I was??!.. "

Anil echoed the same, walking to either side of his spot.

"Look now. ..that devil says he can't work with this agent. ! Now you tell me that am I the director of this unit or is he?"

Anil vented his anger by banging his fist on the table.

"After all this time I've had enough taming this devil!! My hair is falling out not because of age, but because that devil is sweeping out my head!"

Anil started showing his head. Keith looked at Anil's head and saw some white hairs dancing among his black hair.

"It would be better if they had sent him to K9 instead of K12!!"

saying that, Anil again started walking quickly. Keith laughed at Anil's words yet immediately controlled his laughter.

Send him to K9...

That's right..

The best place for psychopaths like him...

If he put it in a cage and tame him..

Keith's mind said.

(K9 is the official US Special Operations Police/Military Canine Unit)

"Sir... it hasn't even been 24 hours yet. It's unfair to make predictions about Alex right now."

Stephan was soothing Anil.

"Let's see for a while. Even though you said so, he worked with the others too."

Keith watched with amazement how the young man who had quarreled with Stephan in the common room about an hour and a half ago, was protected by Stephan in front of Anil's accusations.

Isn't this what a team should have?

Standing up for each other no matter what the problem is...

"They also worked with this devil before..! What happened in the end? .. Coleman tried to grab my neck everytime. I have to make excuses for that devil.. Son of Satan!!."

Anil's anger has not subsided.

"People are different sir"

Stephan said jokingly.

"what???!!"

Anil questioned widening his brown eyes.

"Stephan..!"

Nathan slowly ordered Stephan to stop this.

"I mean, sir, only Alex can't be blamed here sir. The rest of the team needs to know and adjust. This is not a high school. We all do the deadliest training we can do... If they say partnership can not continued, without getting used to someone's different behavior, I would say it is their problem too!"

Stephan offered a lengthy explanation.

Keith thought there was some truth in what Stephan said. Among the security forces, the toughest adventurous training took place in the K12 unit. There, the agents must had undergone various tough priming and various situations both physically and mentally. This training must be completed 6 months prior to joining the K12 unit and regularly after joining the unit. Keith realized that if trained K12 agents recoiled at someone else's different behavior, the weakness was not the person with the behavior, but the officer who couldn't adapt to it.

Keith noticed Anil was trying to say something along Stephan's lines therefore Keith immediately interrupted Anil's words;

"True sir.. I also agree with what Stephan said. I believe I can adjust. There were a few people like this in my previous branch. I did not have any problem with their behavior."

A friend of Keith's told him one day that he had a wonderful ability to settle a war down.

Big lie but...

There were people like this in the previous branch...? Haha..

It's nice to see such a madman...

"Yes sir.. I'm sure too. Keith is different from others. I'm sure Keith can adjust to Alex's uniqueness."

It was Nathan who got up from the chair and answered.

Keith observed Anil's anger was disappearing at Keith and Nathan's reactions. Anil pulled his chair, which had hit quietly against the wall, and sat there with a long sigh.

"Sir... if you think about what Stephan said... if Stephan and I can work together with Alex, Keith will surely be able to do it"

Nathan said in a soft voice.

Anil nodded his approval knowing that Nathan wouldn't say something without a reasonable point.

"good"

Long sigh again...

"Then let's do it that way.."

Anil said looking at Keith.

"Start your duties from today. Study the documents well. Once you are oriented, everything will be easy."

Anil said placing his hand on the black box.

"sure sir"

Keith took the black box with a smile on his face. Nathan nodded his head and motioned to Keith and Stephan. Accordingly, all the three said goodbye to Anil and left the room.

"Seriously... I feel like punching that damn brat to fall somewhere on the ground! "

Gritting his teeth, Stephan turned to Nathan and Keith.

"Who? Anil sir?"

Keith asked with widened eyes.

"No...! to that bloody devil in the room next to mine!!"

Keith realized that Stephan was referring to Alex. Keith let out a slight smile.

"Cool down Stephan. let's not talk about it. Now go to your duty. I'll take Keith to the locker room."

Nathan comforted Stephan as he said. Nodding, Stephan entered through the glass door and returned to the common room.

"Will Stephan go and fight with Alex again?"

Keith asked Nathan worriedly.

Nathan smiled slightly from the side of his mouth

"It won't happen, don't worry."

After saying that, Keith started walking. Nathan walked passing the K12 information section. Keith followed him. Opening the wooden gate, they stepped near to the elevator. To the left and right of the elevator are two corridors. Nathan turned left and walked. After several rooms, they came in front of one of the rooms.

"Come in"

Nathan said.

Opening the wooden door and entering, Keith could see a row of tall iron cupboards aka lockers. Keith quickly calculated in his mind. There were twelve iron cupboards. Each cupboard was numbered.

"This is our locker room."

Nathan said pointing to the iron cupboards.

"Your locker is in the corner.. over there"

Nathan said, pointing to Keith's left side. Walking to the left, Keith could see that his unit number, K10, was in the tenth closet in the row of closets. It had an automatic safety lock.

"Use your new ID.. It has all your uniforms and other kits inside it. You can also get your weapons stored there. You have more details in the file Anil gave you."

Nathan turned and walked to the south side of the row of iron cupboards. Keith immediately followed Nathan. Passing the iron cupboards, Keith gave a quick look at Alex's cupboard and followed Nathan back.

At the end of the row of cupboards was another door. Entering the door with Nathan, Keith saw a large, spacious, airy room. The room was flooded with sunlight through the windows. Beds were installed with space throughout the room. It was like a bed on top of another bed. There was an iron ladder attached to the roof to climb up. There were twelve beds and each other's unit numbers were used next to those beds.

Beds were arranged in the shape of the letter U of the English alphabet. Four beds on the right side, four more beds in the middle and four beds on the left. Because of beds were arranged in the shape of letter U, a person in each bed can see the people in other beds.

"This is our rest room. When we are tired from duty, when we have some free time, when we feel sick, we come here..."

Netath sat down on the first seat on the left side. That was his bed. Above that was Theo's bed as K2. Next to it was Stephan's bed as K3 below and Alex's bed as K4 above it. Keith's bed was on the south side. It was the exact opposite of Stephan's bed. Keith's K10 bed was above K9 Colin's bed. Looking up at his bed, Keith realized that his bed was exactly in the opposite direction from Alex's.

In one corner of the room was a medium-sized refrigerator and four more lockers.

"It has something to eat and drink while you are at rest."

Nathan was bit resting on his bed and pointed to the refrigerator.

"Our clothing storage and bathrooms are there."

Nathan pointed to a door in the opposite direction, the direction of Keith's bed. Nathan, who got up from the bed and walked towards it. It was common bathroom area of K12 unit.

"You can put more clothes in this. Put anything you need to wash, towels, shorts, etc. in this wardrobe."

At that time, Nathan showed some other iron cupboards. There were twelve cupboards aka lockers of the same size as the previous iron cupboards. Each unit number was also mentioned there. Beyond that were 7 bathing areas with doors made of half glass and half aluminum and 7 fully enclosed toilets. Keith's heart was filled with joy and excitement.

"Welcome to K12 Unit Keith Evans!".

To be continued

©Diran Athularachchi