Chapter 14 - Infiltration

Alex stared at Robert, who looked away as if he felt guilty. He knew Robert was hiding something, but seeing the embarrassed look, Alex decided that whatever Robert was hiding, it would be better not to know.

"Well… I believe you."

Alex nodded at Robert and told him unconvincingly that he believed him, to which Robert responded with a look of disbelief.

"Hey… you could try to pretend better."

****

"Sergeant, I think I heard noises near the tree where we immobilized the cadet."

Volkov stopped and looked into the distance with his night vision goggles. To avoid making it too difficult for the cadets, the goggles did not have a built-in zoom, causing Volkov to only see a flash of light moving near the tree.

"There don't seem to be any problems... it's probably just small spasms in the cadet due to the taser."

Volkov turned around again. The mission Captain García had given them was to infiltrate and steal the package guarded by the cadets. Even so, they had their limitations: they could not use excessive force. This was obvious—having 16-year-old cadets face fully-fledged soldiers was completely unbalanced. They also couldn't be detected. If detected, the cadets had 10 seconds to press an alarm button located next to the package they had to protect in the gym.

"Okay, let's get back to work, gentlemen."

Making forward gestures with the index and middle fingers of his right hand, the four sergeants set off once again, ignoring the fact that the cadet they had just neutralized, along with another cadet, had just run through another area to the gym.

****

"Captain García, this is Sergeant Volkov. We are entering the second perimeter and preparing to separate."

García had set aside the issue of the justice office and was now looking at the cameras that the sergeants were wearing, along with the lieutenants. A slight frown lingered on her face. She was quite disappointed with the cadets. Even so, there wasn't much she could do; they only had a week of training. If anyone from the old world had heard her thoughts, they would have probably run to strangle the captain.

Anyone else would have praised the children, noting the progress they had made in what could only be called hellish training in just two weeks. The lieutenants looked at each other with awkward smiles, knowing that the captain was under a lot of pressure. Even now, with all of humanity unified, there were still dissenting voices about women in military positions.

"Haaa… lieutenants, we need to increase the training for the cadets. It seems they've been slacking off."

Shit, what an evil woman. Even the king of the underworld would be surprised to hear your words...

"Yes, captain, we'll take care of it!"

Of course, Abatino and Nicolau were not stupid. The children would suffer equally in the lunar academy if they had her as a tutor, so why defend a lost cause?

****

"Come on, Robert, we need to get to headquarters as soon as possible."

Alex and Robert, who had joined up and were running to 'headquarters', decided to flank the four sergeants. This decision was unanimous after they debated their course of action. Alex's reason was that the sergeants had 'neutralizing weapons' and above all, they had no chance of confronting them even if they didn't have them.

Robert's reason was the fear and lingering pain from the taser shot. So, in a few seconds, they came to the same conclusion without any problem.

"Huf, huf, huf, shit. We've had the same training. How come you're less tired than me?"

Without stopping for a moment, Alex looked back and glanced at Robert briefly.

"It could be because you're fatter than me."

Robert stood still for a moment with a face of disbelief.

Should I just ignore what I heard or hit him and regain my honor? While Robert debated between these two options, Alex spoke once again as he continued running.

"And also due to the taser shot. In the end, the muscular nervous system intervenes and produces contractions, making you feel tired…"

Robert decided that it was quite problematic to get into a fight with Alex, so he simply put on a reluctant face and continued running in the direction of the gym or one of their teammates.

****

Shit, where is Alex? He should be here by now.

Ivan, who had returned to his checkpoint to meet Alex, was confused when he didn't see him. He knew his friend could be a little introverted, sometimes even bordering on asocial, but punctuality was something Alex never lacked.

While Ivan retreated toward the gym, slowly thinking about what could have gone wrong, the four sergeants neutralized, this time without tasing, one of their companions who was doing guard patrol in the back of their 'headquarters.'