End The LightCatcher Page 20

  Chapter 17

  Operation Beef

  The first step of End’s plan was a trap. Some ex-prisoners were used as decoys to harass two patrolling guards of Beef’s platoon. They had noted that Beef would send two patrolmen to survey the area. The two patrolmen that day, happened to be Guile Wayne and Ed John. Guile was talking non-stop, and Ed John was sick of him. All of a sudden, they saw the decoys from End’s plan. They pointed their rifles at them at first.

  “If you beg for food, maybe we could consider giving you some.” laughed Guile Wayne.

  “Or maybe we should just shoot them.”

  “Yeah, I haven’t seen anyone stunned for a few days already.”

  “Yeah. Let’s just shoot them for fun.”

  Suddenly, from behind, twenty ex-prisoners outnumbering them ten-to-one, pounced on them. They robbed them of bullets, rations, and clothes. End stopped them short when they started stripping the guards.

  “Hey! Did you enjoy it when you were treated this way?”

  “No.” answered one of the recruits.

  “Then don’t do it to them, unless you believe that this is the right way that a man should be treated.”

  The ex-prisoners stopped. What End said had an effect on them.

  “Now, let’s focus on our plan. I want the sharpest snipers.”

  End began calling out the names of the sharpest snipers. Everybody was amazed as to how he knew who were the best shooters.

  “How did you know who the marksman were in each company?”

  “I can’t shoot for nuts, but I learnt from watching from the best at the Range.”

  “So now, we have two rifles. Two sharpshooters, how are we going to take down the base of Beef?”

  “I am going to surrender of course.” Said End.

  End picked his time. He found a night where the moon was shining, as he walked alone towards Beef’s camp. As Beef’s soldiers saw him approaching, they called out to their leader.

  “Beef, it is End. Should we shoot him?”

  “Hold on. Let me go meet him.”

  The gates were opened as Beef walked out to greet End. Behind him were Patrick and Mickey. Behind End, The Wa Brother held on to Ed John and Guile Wayne. They were tied up, and the brothers had their rifles pointed at them.

  “Oh, this is interesting. What do you want?” asked Beef.

  “I want to trade them for rations.” Said End.

  Beef laughed out loud.

  “My dear End, trading doesn’t work if you are at a disadvantage. After we have made our trade, what makes you think I am going to let you go?”

  “What you are doing is wrong, and the invigilators will stop you.”

  “Oh, they came down and warned me about ill-treating my P.O.Ws. So I set them all free, what’s the big deal. Now End, either you come quietly or I am going to have to put you under the rain until this entire month is through.”

  End looked nervous.

  “All guns are pointed at you End.” Said Beef, “Run along now, and maybe I might let you have some food today.”

  End walked very close. He walked really slowly. Beef started to get impatient. He walked forward to try and grab End by himself.

  “Must I do everything myself?” said Beef.

  “Now.” Whispered End into his communications network. Billy Gin who was up on a tree, scratched his disk once more, and that ear piercing frequency returned. Beef’s men all held on to their ears. Beef staggered to maintain balance. All at once he tried to shout to his riflemen to fire, but they could not hear him. Even Patrick and Mickey were rolling on the floor. Beef steadied himself up and pointed his rifles at End.

  “Lightning Bolt!” commanded End. The Wa brothers dropped their decoy rifles, and used their lightning bolt technology to shut down photon rifles of the opponent. Beef opened fire but nothing happened.

  “What is this?” said Beef.

  “Charge!” shouted End, as his men poured out from all corners of the jungle. Their numbers outnumbered any force that Beef had, and without their rifles being operationally ready, they stood no chance against End’s numbers. Beef was angry. He found a rock and threw it at Billy. He landed inches away from his face.

  “Snipers!” commanded End.

  The snipers fired a shot each at Beef. One of them missed, and the other one got Beef in the buttocks. The bullet stunned Beef, and Beef fell to the ground. His eyes began to close as his world became pure darkness. The last thing he saw was End standing over him.

  “Curse you!” said beef as he became unconscious.

  When he woke up again, he realized that he and his gang had been tied up. End’s troops had been victorious.

  “Listen to me. We are going to share our rations with our enemy.” Said End.

  “This is ridiculous! Why should we?” shouted one of his new found comrades.

  “Did you enjoy getting stunned by the blanks? You enjoy firing at people, but would you enjoy it if someone shot you? Anyone who loses in this training exercise will be kicked out of this course, and I don’t want anyone who had worked so hard to come so far to be kicked out. For me, if I am kicked out of course, I will be sent to the Sphere of Influence, where a fate worst than dying will occur. But even so, I want to risk it all, because without integrity and justice, then what’s the use of all this training? What’s the use of the ILC? We are not killers, we are defenders, defenders of the weak, of everyone, leaving no one out. So we are going to strengthen ourselves, defend ourselves, and practice the correct principles of humanity.”

  The commandos surrounding Arnold on top of the tree were bedazzled. Arnold smiled. He was very proud of End.

  “I am going to negotiate a peace with all the other remaining companies. We will share all our limited rations, and we won’t fight. We will all complete this course together. I have not let you down, will you lend me your trust and faith one more time?” said End.

  There was a great howl of approval. End knew he had the support, what was to come was far more difficult, and that was to live up to his promise.

  “What is this Recruit End doing? If he succeeds in this, then what’s the use of our exercise. There will be no conflict and no way I can assess them for their vocations. I’ll never get home for dinner this way…”

  Arnold punched him, and he fell down from the tree and into a bush. He then looked at the rest of the invigilators inviting the next person who didn’t know when to shut up to try his patience.

  End’s plan would take a lot to pull off. The Wa brothers lightened the load by using the remaining packs of VFR 100s on Beef and his gang. That was the easy part. The hardest part was always going to be convincing the other companies that peace was the better solution.

  The first few negotiations did not fare too well, and some fighting resulted. But End stayed true to his ideal. He kept his defenses strong, and tried negotiations with other platoons first.

  “Stop kidding yourself. It will never work,” mumbled Beef, trying everything to discouraged End. But End tried harder. Though his numbers were fewer at first, they were more united, because the ones that fought alongside End understood and believed in End’s vision of sharing and peace. The other companies who didn’t do that found themselves fighting internally because they never made any sacrifice for others. Soon companies spilt back into platoons, and the platoons that had their dispute split down into sections of three. End’s team was growing larger by the number, as the recruits sick of the fighting, joined End’s ranks. End’s army was gaining numbers.

  Power gained only remained as such, under constant maintenance. End maintained his relationship with the other leaders of companies by fasting on as many days as he could, so that others may have more food. The leaders who trusted him, followed. During the nights, End changed the entire concept of the LFC. He encouraged the recruits to use their VF for other activities that could serve the community. This instruction sparked a flood of never seen before talent. Recruits showed their true hi
dden abilities by cooking, cleaning and recreational activities all using the VF. Some invented new sports like light darts, where people created a dart out of light and threw them on a board. Some learnt to control the temperature of a fire created by the light from their VF, and improvised to make better dishes out of the available bland tasting combat rations. It was as if the entire community which had always existed, suddenly came alive. Everyone was happy.

  Word of this concept spread, End found new allies. Soon, because of the sheer size of his company they outnumbered that of other smaller sized groups, and everybody joined him. The food continued to be rationed, but there wasn’t anymore fighting. Fighting ended a week before the scheduled end of the exercise.

  “They have passed their test. They should be allowed to return to their bunk now.” Said Arnold as the commandos had another meeting with him.

  “But it’s not time yet. It’s not yet a full month.”

  “But the objectives have been met.”

  “What objectives? They were supposed to fight, and we were supposed to find out what vocations best suited them. It’s all a mess now!” said the invigilator who got punched by Arnold.

  “Yeah. It’s our directive to let the exercise pan out.”

  “Sometimes, the directives are really stupid!” said Arnold.

  “No. What’s really stupid is that End managed to make our training exercise a camping trip.” Said another invigilator. Arnold sometimes could not comprehend the stupidity of the system. But at least all was at peace, and if they wanted to allow the recruits to have a week’s break, so be it.

  And so one week before the end of this outfield training exercise, End had successfully ended the war between platoons. It could be considered a success because no one was hungry to the point of quitting, and if there were, they would be encouraged by other friends to keep going. The photon rifles lay in a improvised rifle rack. They went unused for the final week.

  Night fell. It was still a full week before the end of the LFC. Having united all of the recruits, End instructed for Beef to be untied, though he still maintained that his VF would not to be returned to him. The hungry Beef stuffed as much food as he was given. He came into End’s tent to see him and saw the state that End was in. End was a little too famished as he had been fasting a little too much.

  “I was wrong. I just came to apologize for the way I behaved.” Said Beef.

  End watched Beef apologize. There were many things you could accuse End of being, but the one thing you could not accuse him of, was being gullible. From the corner of his eye, there was a tear. It was a happy tear from End’s eyes. You could also say it was a tear of experience. He wasn’t crying, he just felt so happy that his eyes got a little wet. He was happy because at this juncture, he had gained more experience in life to know two things. One was that the recruits were safe, and that his plan had saved unnecessary violence. Two, was that Beef was lying.

  “I am sincerely sorry for everything,” continued Beef.

  End’s understanding of Beef was far more advanced than the tricks that Beef could pull. End felt the happiness in the realization that he was now wiser, and perhaps with this wisdom he could help others.

  “I want nothing, I am just sorry.”

  End already understood that Beef wanted his VF back, and would probably be planning to mess things up one last time for End. As much as End hated the nonsense that was spouting from Beef’s mouth, he felt a strong magnetism for him to edge closer to Beef. End heard something, something like a faint voice. It was as if Beef’s soul was trying to tell him something, and so he edged forward to listen.

  “What are you doing?” asked Beef.

  End came nearer, closed his eyes and reached out a hand. With his palm directed at Beef, he felt almost as if he could hear the symphony of Beef’s soul. Memories of what Amadeus once said were coming back now. Beef’s soul sounded like rock music. There was a blinding white light in End’s eyes as End peered inside the emotional memory of Beef.

  Inside this memory, End saw that Beef was the son of a powerful businessman who lorded over a weak geeky man with glasses. Beef as a kid watched on with glee each time his father would bully the geek daily. Beef grew up believing that he would one day inherit his father’s wealth.

  But on January 1st 3013, Beef woke up in the morning in a different house. It was a much more modest house. To his horror, he saw that his father had become a butler to the house. He himself was to be enlisted into the ILC the very next day. Beef didn’t understand any of this. It felt like waking up in someone else’s life. It was a nightmare, and there was no way he could ever come out of it. This strange experience was something of a personal secret that he told no one. He strongly felt that someone must have played with time, or interrupted the normal sequence of events to have caused a butterfly effect or something. He couldn’t explain any of it.

  End exited Beef’s memories.

  “That’s why you asked about time travel.” Said End.

  “What are you talking about?”

  Beef’s eye enlarged. He was dumbfounded. A man’s true fears are his last line of defense and Beef suddenly felt the fear of becoming an open book to End. Beef stumbled to get up.

  “Beef, wait. I know because I feel it from your emotions. Your emotions registered those memories and I know that for the longest time no one ever believed you.”

  Beef stopped. It was true.

  “No one gave you half a chance when you told them that you believed that some kind of strange time displacement has changed your destiny forever. I believe you.”

  Beef calmed himself down and looked into End’s eyes. There was something strange about End he thought. Beef’s heartbeat slowed as he relaxed and felt a relief. “I believe you” were the only words he needed in this universe. Through his eyes he said “Thank you” to End, and he thought his lips followed. But his lips didn’t, and being tough guy he didn’t insist upon them to. He nodded ever so slightly and left the tent. End understood.

  That night, End could not sleep. After he was able to read into Beef’s soul like that, it was as if something had changed inside him. A melody kept playing in his head. It was that song from Amadeus, the Dies Irae. Little by little, he drifted away in his sleep. That song became a visual, and for a vague second he saw the Grand battle of Dark Monday.

  Colonel King dodging enemy fire with fancy dance moves. Amon had grabbed one of the enemy’s photon rifles and was firing it back at the enemy. Colonel Eastwood caught hold of one of the Light Grenades and tossed it back at the enemy. Colonel Brown was commanding a tank. Snakeskin was sneaking up from behind some enemies and disabling them. There was one more soldier’s face that could not been seen clearly. Amadeus was trying to fend off some enemies. Colonel Chuck was standing there firing his machine gun thinking he was bullet proof only to discover he was not and running for cover.

  He woke up suddenly. It was the rustling of the grass. It wasn’t the rustling of the grass that woke him up, but the sound it made, when some people were trying carefully not to rustle them, and hence landed with lighter footsteps. He opened his eyes and saw some commandoes cloaked in their invisible camouflage standing before him.

  “Impressive. You heard us.” Said their leader, “My name is Apex. Here, drink.”

  Apex tossed him an energy drink. End drank it. He found that his body was re-hydrating itself in double quick time. In a matter of five minutes, he had returned to his usual state of strength.

  “We have been watching you and we are very impressed. I have personally spoken with Arnold about you. I understand you are under a different contract, a kind of military sentence where you are basically bonded to the ILC but with no privileges of a normal citizen. The only way to break that contract, and give you back your citizenship, is for a unit to select you.”

  Apex smiled.

  “We are extending an invitation for you to join us, the Commandos of Light.”

  End smiled.

&n
bsp; “You will undergo special training immediately, but you will have your rights to return to the city on your non-working days.”

  End could not believe his ears. He was speechless and it was a dumb time to be speechless.

  “So, yes or no? We haven’t got all day.”

  “It would be an honor.” He said.

  “Samurai! Pick him up , and let’s get to the Canoe!” commanded Apex. A younger commando came forth and turned off his cloaking device. As he picked End up, he removed his hood.

  It was Akira.

  End was surprised to see him.

  “You’re alright.” Smiled End as he hugged him. Akira pushed him aside.

  “Don’t do that.” Said Akira. He maintained his ice-cold disposition and told End to stand down or he might attack. End saw through the icy exterior of Akira, and was happy that he was alright.

  “You can look forward to your weekend back in the city, but right now, you have to focus, for your training starts now!” said Apex.