บท 105: The pebbles in my shoes (2)

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[Lazar's POV]

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If by 'what do you think?' Amandla was asking me if I was considering that what we had planned was feasible, then I couldn't answer her. She seemed to have forgotten that I didn't have the same skill as her which was allowing her to 'see things as a whole' and that therefore, unlike her, I could rely solely on what was before my eyes...

I sighed then made my blade disappear into my inventory, "I prefer not to speculate until Sullyvan gives me a precise assessment of the current situation of the Army." I answered Amandla with an unispired tone while walking in the direction of the soldiers in front of us.

She walked up to me then she also made her weapon disappear, "So... does that mean you're not interested in my opinion?" She asked me with a tone of voice so exaggeratedly vexed that I knew that she was faking it.

Even though her words were devoid of indignation and it was clear that she was just messing with me, I was going to give her an explanation, "Knowing roughly how your 'presence-related' skill works, on the one hand I will obtain approximate informations from you..." I started saying while raising my left hand slightly...

"... and on the other precise numbers from Sullyvan..." I added, raising my right hand to the same elevation as my left hand.

"... and the thing is that I prefer accurate numbers." I concluded while raising my right hand well above my left hand, thus confirming that, as I had said earlier, what Sullyvan could tell me on this subject was more precious to me than what Amandla could.

Just as I was expecting to hear an ironic remark such as 'thank you for your trust', our chat was interrupted...

A young soldier carrying a crate at 25 meters in front of us noticed us, "Identify yourself!" He ordered us in an unassured voice before dropping the crate and taking the dagger he had at his belt out of its sheath.

He was extremely nervous, I could tell just by the way his eyes were twitching uncontrollably, and given what he must have gone through in the last few days it was understandable...

Seeing his reaction, I realized that Amandla and I might have made a mistake by putting our weapons away beforehand since, based on what he knew, he might be wondering if we were a Ganipote and a Garache in human form (and dressed) up to no good...

Some soldiers who had heard what their brother-in-arms had just said, or at least understood that something was going on started approaching, and not wanting another potential misunderstanding, instead of pulling out my weapon to prove that I was human, I used a simpler approach to try to defuse the situation, "My name is Logan Walker." I stated before slowly pulling out my military plates when I saw that at the mention of my name he seemed to have regained some semblance of calm.

Instead of making any comment regarding my answer (although I had noticed that it had caused a subtle positive reaction from him) his dumbfounded gaze shift to Amandla in the expectation no doubt that she too would decline her identity...

Using a commanding tone, she didn't reveal what was asked of her, "Ask Major Sullyvan Dawson to come, he will recognize us." She demanded, which fortunately didn't have any negative effects since the soldier didn't insist and just nodded with a smile before heading somewhere to presumably do what Amandla had suggested.

***

2 minutes later

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Two men including a man in a soldier's uniform and one woman were making their way through the soldiers who were bustling around them like worker ants in an anthill...

One could tell from the hectic gait of the small group that they were in a hurry, and in the glances they were receiving from the soldiers who were taking the liberty of looking away from what they were doing to gaze at them, one could see several forms of emotion ranging from trust, doubt and mistrust.

Suddenly, the source of attention of the soldiers and the small group changed, "LOGAAN!" Shouted at the top of her lungs a strident female voice lost in the crowd of soldiers.

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[Sullyvan's POV]

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'NOT HER, DAMN IT!' I cried out inwardly, knowing full well who had just called out to Logan…

I barely knew this pain in the ass, but it only took me a brief talk with her 30 minutes ago after she appeared here behind the wheel of the truck we had initially left to the woman accompanying Logan for me to realize that she was fucked up in the head since before she thought it would be important to notify me of the fact that there was other people in the back of the truck (with some which weren't far from dehydration), she had given me the message Logan wanted to transmit to me, which I didn't hold against her, but she had also taken the liberty to monopolize my time to ask me, or rather question me about everything I knew about 'her Logan' and the 'blonde bitch permanently glued to him' to use her own words.

Under those circumstances, I would have normally (if one could use this word as a qualificative for this situation) told the civilian who was asking me those kind of things to fuck off (with gentler words than 'fuck off' though) and that's what I tried to do at first, but here it is; she wasn't just a civilian and she had insisted on that point to put pressure on me and get what she wanted.

I was clueless of what kind of influence Andrew Sullyvan had on Buren and the Army in general but with politicians you never know and in the doubt I preferred not to get in her way and notified everyone to do the same as long as she didn't exceed certain limits, which she was about to do…

We couldn't afford to waste time and that's exactly what was going to happen if on top of what we had to do we had to babysit her, so I decided to act.

No matter the consequences, I would handle them; it was about saving a city, not the whims and obsessions of an adult child.

I raised my hand to give a command, but before I did Logan started walking towards the voice, "Let me take care of this, I'll be more efficient." He told me in a tone of voice so cold that I had the impression that he was thinking of killing her.