Chapter 14
Luke shoved my bag into the trunk of the jeep before lifting the back up and locking it into place. My eyes glanced up at the horizon to see just a peek of the sun's light. Yawning, I pulled myself up into the passenger seat. Luke was the only one excited about this damn mission. Then again if we left around noon I probably would too, but it's way too early.
"Ready to head out?" Luke asked.
Stretching my arms above my head gave him the answer he needed. In no time at all we were pulling out of the base and headed towards where ever Luke was taking us. "So would it be alright to ask you what happen last night?"
My fist clenched at the memory. "Nothing happened. I just feel asleep."
"In the boy's bed really. You'll have to do better than that because when Lal hears about it, she's gonna kill you."
Well, he wasn't wrong about that one. "It was an accident. Colonnello was arguing with me and I decided to roll over and ignore him. I guess I fell asleep or something." I explained.
"So the boy saw you were asleep, pulled the covers over you and let you sleep until you woke up?" Luke asked making sure he understood the full story.
"Colonnello's just different alright. I think he's trying to impress me." I said, shrugging my shoulders. I'm a soldier not a school girl.
"Aldina, he likes you. If you keep this up you're going to break his heart and we don't need some soldier in battle thinking about the girl he likes that still hasn't recognized his feelings. Remember what happened to Jiddo?"
"Luke..." I warned, "..you know we're not suppose to talk about him."
"Why, because you took the blame for killing him?" Luke asked.
"No, because Rohas doesn't know the truth, and I don't know about you but I think the worlds better off if he never does." I stated.
Letting my eyes glaze over the landscape, I noticed how quite it was. There were very few birds and besides the roar of the engine and our talking, it was silent. Mentally I kept my guard up, I wouldn't let Luke know that something was wrong until I was positive.
"Jiddo loved you Aldina. You even told him that you'd only go on a date with him after he got out of boot camp. Don't make yourself feel guilty if something happens to Colonnello, and you couldn't keep whatever promise you made, okay. Having Rohas depressed is enough, I don't need you too."
Rolling my eyes I decided to change the subject before he started something else. "How are the kids?"
"They're fine, now stop trying to change the subject. Have you talked to your boys about which martial arts they should do?" Luke asked.
"Lal's already having them taught? Damn, Metello and Emidio aren't even close to ready. Will we be back by the time they have to decided?" I asked fixing myself in the seat.
"No they have to pick by tomorrow. We won't be back for a few more days, but get this. Lal's trying to get some of hers into SAMBO."
"Oh please, SAMBO is completely useless. If anything I hope my boys pick Taekwondo. Then again if Rohas gets to them, he'll take them to the streets and make them learn from getting the hell beat out of them." I stated knowing full well that Rohas would do it.
"What's got you all depressed, kora?" Colonnello asked Rohas, shoving some of his food into his mouth. Rohas sighed and rested his head on his hand.
"Aldina's gone off with Luke and now I'm stuck training Metello and Emidio." He whined.
"It can't be too bad. I've heard that they've gotten much better, kora." Colonnello said.
"Yeah I guess, but it's boring not having Aldina around. Who else is going to sneak me some food, and back me up when I do something stupid." Colonnello snorted at the words of the older man.
"Nice to know that having Lal bruise one of my ribs for you isn't something you count as backing you up, kora." He mumbled.
"You're the one who lied to her." Rohas said waving his finger back and forth in Colonnello's face in a disapproving manner.
"For you!" Colonnello shouted.
Rohas just laughed. "Well if we don't start headed to training Olive is going to find me." He said and stood up.
Colonnello followed after him, walking beside him down the hallway. "Why will Olive start looking for you, kora. It's rare to see her around."
"Since Aldina and Luke are gone, I have to have a babysitter. Of course Lal isn't allowed to so by default of the other trainers, I'm stuck with Olive."
"It would be worse, kora." Colonnello said pushing the door opened. Stepping outside he was greeted by a slight chill of October air. Shoving his hands into his pockets, they walked over to the other two boys, who had already finished their laps.
"I see you've already finished your warm-ups." Rohas said.
"Yeah" Emidio said, looking like he was about to freeze to death.
"You aren't good with the cold either huh, kora." Colonnello laughed.
"I'm not a big fan of anything lower than 75 degrees." He said.
"So what did Aldina leave for us to do?" Metello asked completely fine with the weather. Rohas looked up trying to remember what he suppose to do, but he couldn't think of anything.
"I can't think of it, so we'll have to do whatever I feel like doing...so to the weight room." Rohas cheered, turning around and leaving the others in the dust.
They all sighed and started heading towards the weight room. "Has Aldina talked to you guys about picking a martial art, kora?" Colonnello asked.
The two shook their heads, ignoring the fact that the man had called their trainer by her given name. "No, put we've heard something about it. Which one are you doing?" Metello asked.
"Lal's forcing me to do SAMBO, kora."
"That sounds painful, I think we're going to head into Taekwondo. Besides I took it for about a year when I was younger." Emidio said.
"At least you have a choice. I know nothing about SAMBO, I wanted to take Karate or something." Colonnello complained.
"You guys hurry up!" Rohas shouted standing by the doors of the weight room.
"Aren't you suppose to be training with Lal today?" Metello asked.
"No, she canceled it for some reason. That's why Rohas is dragging me everywhere, kora." Colonnello explained.
Rohas took days getting use to educating people in the art of basic knowledge. Colonnello went back to training with Lal while at the same time along with other students was forced to start taking their martial art classes. Emidio and Metello along with Lino had joined Taekwondo. Nobody had seen Tizio in forever and just assumed he was dead or something.
"Alright is everything set up?" Rohas asked looking down at his clipboard.
People were running back and forth, packing small weapons and special equipment for their departure in the back of the trucks and jeeps. Lieutenant just grunted bringing his cigarette to his lips. "How the hell does Aldina do all this damn stuff?" Rohas asked himself, checking things off the listen as they went.
"Because she doesn't." was all the man next to him said.
"Colonnello do we have everything?" Colonnello turned towards the older male and nodded giving him a thumbs up.
"Everything's ready to go, kora."
Rohas turned to Lieutenant and gave him the clipboard. "You'll take care of everything while I'm gone?"
Grabbing the object from his hands, Lieutenant just shrugged. "Might as well, but you're going to be in a lot of trouble when Aldina and Luke find out about this."
"Please I'm only going to the other division. Besides Markovitch will be there so it's not like I'm sneaking out or anything."
Seeing as Rohas wasn't going to listen to him, Lieutenant waved him off and left to do his own work that Aldina had left him. "Alright everyone hop in or we'll be late!" Rohas shouted to all the trainee's and hopped into the driver seat of one of the trucks.
People got into the jeeps or sat in the bed of the trucks. Colonnello slid in next to Rohas as he started the car. "So if you don't mind me asking. Where are we going, kora?"
A smile slowly graced Rohas's lips. "Well I've been thinking how no one has met the other part of COMSUBIN. So we, my dear friend, are going on a road trip."
"To visit people, kora?"
"Did Aldina every tell you about a person named Markovitch?"
Colonnello scratched his head trying to think. "Probably, is it one of the people who babysit you, kora."
Rohas glared at the blonde before looking back at the road. "Yeah something like that. He controls the other part of COMSUBIN. Aldina had Lal put him in charge and since then we've had more communication than ever. He's very smart as you'll see when you met him."
"So if we're going to meet this guy. Why did we bring all this stuff, kora?" Colonnello asked.
"The base is about an hour and a half from us, but if we drive an extra half an hour there is a small training area. That's where I told Markovitch to meet us, don't think you're getting out of training that easy, Colonnello."
"Yeah cause who doesn't love training, kora."