A SORDID PACT part1

of last night?" he inquired lowering the tone of his voice. "Of course not!"
Marc exclaimed in denial.
Stone Cold was the nickname given to Lieutenant-Colonel Emmanuel
Kamto, the BTAP Commander. A very stern man and a disciplinarian; an
absolutely no-nonsense fellow who believed a soldier had three dutiesto
obey, defend and protect ("ODP" as he often outlined them), and nothing
else. Therefore no default from those objectives was to be tolerated. A
graduate of the illustrious Combined Armed Services Military
Academy (EMIA) who had also been trained at prestigious military schools
abroad like the Military Academy of Cairo, the Israeli Air Force Flight
Academy of Beer Sheva and the Republic of China Military Academy,
he had previously occupied the coveted post of Deputy Head of Security at
the Presidency. Having been appointed a few months prior as Base
Commander, he had brought in several new radical changes which were in
line with 'his' vision and most of which didn't quite match with the modus
operandi of the doyens at the base.
Once the soldiers were done with the singing of the national anthem and the
fanfare which usually follows, Rambo asked two aspirant soldiers to lower
the flag. Then, he dismissed the assembly and turning to Marc, patted him
on the shoulder and lowered his head towards his lips as if to get more
details. "What did he tell you exactly? Does he know what happened
yesterday?" he asked his friend gently. They were panic-stricken because
the previous night, Rambo and some other instructors-Marc included, had
let in a group of hookers into the camp and had arranged with some owners
of local off-licences around for crates of beer to be sneaked in. Of course,
Rambo had made it a habit such that it had almost become a tradition, to
organize 'illegal boogies' at the base on the last Saturday of each month.
This he said was necessary for the serenity of his men, as it helped them "kill
off tension and boost their morale" especially when training became "a real
form of torture" and was thence necessary to turn it into "a game of pleasure"
(in his own words). All previous commanders who had been opposed to the
idea at first, had ended up buying it-they themselves know best why. But
Stone Cold had proven a stark conservative as he formally forbade such
activities, hell-bent on his vision of the 'ideal soldier' and his obsession to
lead by example, making his base "the quintessence of military excellence"
(as he had said in his inaugural speech).
"Rambo, I can assure you that I said nothing to him about our hot night,"
Marc told him raising both his hands. "Believe me, Mac! I do not know
personally why he's calling for you." "If he knows about it, it's not from me,"
he further added. Rambo then looked at the other co-instructors who had