The closed-door meeting was practically packed but the attendees were talking almost in whispers. They could feel something unusual was going on. They were called upon by special invitation for this past midnight gathering, amused that they were present and some of their comrades were not. One should wonder what would give you the distinction to be invited.Once the Commandant came in, everybody in the room stopped chatting and sat themselves to what must be at hand. Some of them turned their heads around trying to determine if the faces present would collectively give a hint of what they’re about to hear.The Commandant stood in the middle as the chairs for the guests were arranged encircling him. It was staged in a way where the spotlight could only be on him. “Gentlemen, we are gathered here for a purpose I won’t be surprised if you all may find shocking. But things had to be done to save what we have truly fought for from the beginning when we were young, idealist men who
The road ahead was as exciting as it was full of promise – a stretch best spent by pondering how things have unfolded way off expectations. It took a while for Hugh to get back to his consciousness after the shock of being literally shot. The bullet proof he was wearing did its job by luck. If the now-beleaguered Androva strongman took an aim at his head, he’d be a goner and not seated in a comfy backseat beside the hands-down most powerful woman in the land. “I felt glad when you said you couldn’t do it.” Lovelace told a silent, still recovering could-have-been assassin. “As exposed to trigger-happy men as I am, to authorities dispatching enemies by guns and knives, you are a welcome change. If you did kill the Chairman, you’d still see Rachel, but likely that you would have exchanged places by then, she in freedom, you in jail. I’m tired of working around the rules to keep wrongdoers from prison walls.”Hugh contemplated on her statement, “I don’t understand why you
Playing basketball was a skill Jack Soliman only developed out of necessity. By accident he discovered he could put the ball into the hole with more precision than his office buddies who were known to be really playing the sport or at least boastful enough to say they had their chances of getting to the professional level.The twice-a-week routine of playing in the hardcourt with the boss after office hours meant that he and the rest of his co-workers needed to keep themselves in shape. For him it was more than going to the gym and eating the right food to strengthen his body. He had to practice shooting around by his lonesome or playing with his neighbors during weekends.Being in the basketball pool of senior AVP Jerry Diwa was the unwritten prerequisite to secure oneself of a good, lofty standing in the company. Jack was not one to let go of the opportunity as he was given the chance to be one upon the boss’s invitation himself. He was summoned to Boss Jerry’s office and w
Without them the loud ideology of Laude won’t have a muscle. The strength of its meaning couldn’t possess the brute force it necessitates.The battalion of soldiers and police authorities made things happen for a leader whose feeling of hatred was built-in. In the land of Androva, they went by the name Jungle Greens. It’s hard to survive the jungle if you’re not tough enough or if you allow it to eat you up. They were the jungle transformed into humans, trained to withstand storms and snakes, ready to mix it up with townsfolk and city dwellers. Buildings are trees, highways are soil when they come in full force. Their voices were roars.Nicolo was a typical Jungle Green: sturdy, bearded, and bully. It had to be such a combination to convincingly play the part. He just witnessed a comrade ask a teenage bystander to dance like a woman, because his hair was too long and his clothes were too loose for him. The latter did try but the policeman wasn’t satisfied. He placed the barre
So many to meet and a lot of meat, ready-to-eat. Tess Mondragon gracing the occasion to celebrate the launch of a friend’s business was major news to the island town nearest to the capital city of Androva. Residents packed the sprawling old-style mansion of the Villegas couple who were both her batchmates back in high school. Many of the town folks were interested to see her in person as her celebrity grew in the last few years. She had become a key cog in the ruling regime of the whole peninsula. However, she seemed to be a kind of aloof and didn’t want too much public attention. At the event, she gave everyone making eye contact the sweetest smile she could deliver or fake.She stood beside Timmy, wife of Atty. Gary Villegas, who was busy orchestrating the occasion as hundreds, came over to buy limited, cheaply priced meat as a special offer to officially open their meat-supply business.“The people in this town are so happy to see you, my friend,” Timmy said.Tess
She was once a cheerleader back in high school and naturally among the head-turners. But something switched on inside her while in college. So, she went from dancing with pompoms to carrying screaming placards. It was a kind of rebirth for Tess once she became a member of the radical minds in her otherwise conservative university.In effect Tess couldn’t manage to finish her four-year course in Sociology even if that’s a piece of cake for her, being a bookworm of stuff about politics and human behavior herself. She’s also the daughter of an academician married to a military man. Her parents separated when she’s still a toddler.Her problem had nothing to do with academic incompetence. It’s her struggle with basic compliance like attendance and punctuality. She’s too busy filling her head with -isms. Being hated by her professors appeared revolutionary.But all that is water under the bridge as she entered a room with several students anticipating her arrival that morning. It
Marty Mart is the nearest one from the stylish home of a cute couple who may sometimes be mistaken or jocularly taken as a cool uncle-and-niece tandem. Rachel’s not a shopaholic in the strictest sense. But when it’s about buying groceries, she has a tendency to be overexcited. Hugh would marvel looking at her carefully checking what the small words written in a canned corned beef or a hotcake mix say. His job is to push the cart as his wife put in items until it’s full enough to spill over when she’s being careless.“Do you really need to have that many garlic and onions?” he asked, smiling at his pretty wife who seemed to be enjoying being babied.The woman who’d play naughty with him even in the kitchen on evenings after having wine and steaks asked back, “Why do you think you like anything I cook? It’s because I put in lots of these!”That may be the logic behind it. But in truth Rachel tended to buy things in bulk even if it’s not necessary. Thus, more often than not the
Camp Andrea is a place nobody knows but the ones who really saw it for real. While the Androva Empowerment Center is a hub for re-educating citizens in the realm of nationalism, productivity, and straightforwardness, based on rules by a regime under Chairman Laude, this one’s a where-to for those who need to be taught lessons. It’s actually a workplace for people to contribute to the regime’s cause, like stamping a Laudenian emblem for merchandise or sewing uniforms and fashion wears with loud designs supporting the new, empowered Androvan society.The workers here wear uniforms themselves. They come from various age groups, unlike at the Center where most of the students are young and teachable. They grew ten-fold once the Camp began its operations just a year after Chairman Laude was sworn into full power.Tess visits this place every once in a while. She is personally summoned by her boss to check how things are going and assess the effectiveness of the workforce. To Tess