Chapter 13 - Infiltration Begins

"Captain, should we stop the test?"

Lieutenant Nicolau asked uncertainly, knowing that those crazy people would even take out the cadets if they got in the way of their mission.

"...It's not necessary. They will have to stop first to talk to the governor and the general. Even if they are a group of crazy people, they still need to keep a minimum of appearances."

Even though she knew that the members of the justice office would take a while to arrive, a frown lingered on Captain Garcia's face. Frowning at the computer screens again, she slowly closed her eyes and sighed.

Whatever has to be, will be.

****

Alex, after meeting with Ivan, returned to his patrol area. Since there were only three groups of five people per group, the instructors' focus was on quality over quantity. What did this mean? It meant that they would go alone to their designated positions, reporting only when anomalies occurred or at the checkpoints they set every 25 minutes.

Alex felt that this week had been too hard. The morning classes, the warm-up exercises, the military theory that they were taught, the martial arts classes, and especially their group assignments made Alex seriously consider leaving the institute and fleeing to his house.

Haaa... you have to put up with it, Alex. You're not a child anymore.

As he mentally cheered himself up, a small noise brought him out of his thoughts.

"Hmm?"

He saw it. Near the perimeter that belonged to the patrol group, he saw a glow flash near a tree located several meters from him. Alex, of course, was not a military genius; he was a simple cadet who had barely had a week of training. But you didn't have to be the reincarnation of Sun Tzu to know that checking for a strange noise in the middle of the night was not a good idea.

With a quick decision, he slowly lay down on the ground and crouched behind some bushes. Being several meters away, the slightest noise he could make was not heard by the four sergeants who continued advancing and overlooked Alex, who was holding his breath completely still behind a bush.

Shit, that was close.

After what seemed like an eternity, the figures disappeared with quick steps toward the gym. Alex sensed that they were involved in the mission the captain had given them.

Anyway, first I'll go see what that flash from the tree was.

Alex got up in silence and, after walking for a while, approached the source of the flash. There he was surprised by what he saw: a colleague from the patrol team was lying on the ground with a blanket over him. He seemed to be unconscious.

"Hey."

Alex bent down and moved him a little. It seemed like the boy was slowly waking up, but he still didn't open his eyes. He just made a few noises and frowned.

"Hey."

The boy once again made unintelligible noises with his mouth, resembling the noises babies make when they want to imitate their parents' speech.

"Haaa… hey, I'm sorry, but time is of the essence."

Paf!

Alex slapped the poor boy in the face, and as if he had been given an electric shock, the boy opened his eyes in fear. When he saw Alex in the darkness of the night, he became even more scared and was about to scream, but Alex was faster and covered his mouth with his hand and with the other made a gesture of silence.

"Hey, I'm your partner, Cadet Alex, group 2, guard duties."

As if it were a script, Alex presented himself simply. It was something that had been ingrained in him during the last week. Now he felt that it was worth the afternoons of punishment for not memorizing his equipment and tasks.

"Ca-Cadet Robert, team 3, patrol duties."

Alex nodded. He assumed that was so, since this area was on the border of the patrol task. But what surprised him most was the fact that Robert was in an area so far away from his companions, so he decided to ask him what had happened.

"Hey Robert, why were you lying unconscious near the tree… and with a blanket covering only from your waist to your feet?"

When Alex asked the question, Robert, who was sitting up, froze. The blanket that was covering him fell to the floor and Alex could see that his pants and underwear were at the height of his ankles.

"T-this…"

An awkward silence fell between them. Robert looked at Alex with a smile that seemed more like crying and Alex looked at him without any emotion.

"Haaa… this is what happened."

While Robert sighed, he explained everything he remembered: how he was carrying out his patrol duties, how he got the urge to pee, and after embellishing a little, how he bravely fought against three assailants, and how a fourth assailant shot him in the back with a taser.

Alex continued with the same emotionless look. Obviously, he could sense that it was all true, except for the last dubious part in which Robert stated how he had fought and almost defeated the three assailants if it hadn't been for the fourth.

"Are you sure they didn't see you in the distance, with your pants down, urinating next to the tree, looking at the sky, and decided to just shoot and cover you so you wouldn't catch a cold?"

Robert broke out internally in a cold sweat. This bastard was very perceptive. He knew that the trigger for the shot had been his little slip of the tongue, but that was something he would take to the grave...