Author's Notes:

Lots of bible reading this chapter. Damn that Longinus!


The morning came in the form of harsh light glancing into his Spartan living area for almost five months.

But to Longinus, there was no morning sweeter. Another day of doing what he loved doing.

After cleansing himself for the morning he went down to the cafeteria to fill his stomach. There was nothing like a solid meal to breakfast.

"Early again I see, Longinus." The even charming Miss Khati greets him.

"Good morning, as beautiful as ever Miss Khati! God truly looks upon you with favour." Longinus announces loudly to throughtout the cafeteria in the Arsenal, Elina chuckles softly.

"So what will you do today, Longinus?"

"I will tend to new sights, the sheep cannot find their way if they cannot see well!" Out of the mumbo jumbo that was Longinus's usual speaking way, Elina managed to decypter his intentions to inspect the shipment of scopes brought in from Europe using Badala's funds.

Longinus had been rather busy in Switzerland before, not only negotiating with the machinery companies to have the critical weapon producing machines and machines to produce them in turn. He also was made to setup an account in the Swiss bank for ease of further large purchases in future, it was the funds that were used to bring out the machines, pay for the armored vehicles and additional equipment from Tel Aviv.

Samar made an analysis on the effectiveness on the average warfighter and came to several conclusive studies with the asymmetric warfare commission. Broken down into several stages, combat effectiveness, troop survivability and life expectancy.

Those scopes fell into the combat effectiveness category as did rifle upgrades. It wasn't limited to sniping scopes but reflex sights, holographic sights, advance rifle optics, rangfinder built-in binoculars with IR tagging ability and the most expensive of all. Thermal sights.

Being allowed to see your enemy in night as if it were day, locating targets behind bushes and cover from heat signature.

Finishing his meal, he bid Elina a good day as he went towards unpacking the newly arrived boxes. Somehow, they had made it in time before the storm set in and grounded all air activities. Outside was a blizzard, but it was of no concern to him and the other employees once in the warmness of the interior work space.

"Morning Longinus!"

"Another day living the dream, eh?"

"Morning, sir!"

Everyone knew who he was and how critical he was to army supplies and of the operation of the arsenal. He was one of the four leading members that drove the domestic manufacture of weapons and ammunition. The other three were Ajay also known as Badala, Samar the Royal Armorer and Mistress Lau's protégé Maya.

Longinus settled into his work space, his assistance handed him the appropriate documents and manifests of the shipments. And entire warehouse space with heavy security bolts and blast doors made up Longinus's charge. The special weapons inventory, as the name explained contained all the out of ordinary weapons, sometimes crew-served like the Spike missiles that sat in the corner unused for now. It was Longinus's treasure trove and little utopia, it always set off the child in him to see so many guns in one place.

It greatly upset him when one was taken out without his permission. Like a child had been taken from his sanctuary against its will. One such instant was when Alberto handed the other Italian men the codes to his most prized possession that was actually his out of the whole collection of weapons. The launcher he christened LK-1018, after the bible verse Luke 10:18.

"And he said to them, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven." Longinus murmured the verse as he placed his hand upon the lost sheep that hand been returned to him.

-Rejoice for what was lost is now found!- He told himself to cheer himself up. A white pearly smile planted across his face. The assistance of his smiled and left him to himself shaking his head.

Longinus opened the crates and begin accounting for the equipment. Next to the crates were more crates but of a different source. Those contained freshly manufactured body armor, ballistic helmets and other protective accessories that were part of the troop survivability initiative in the procurement triangle lodged by his friend Samar.

The boxes he currently checked were marked Safran Sagem. Inside were thermal scopes called SWORD all neatly packed into their respective boxes. Some destined to be sent to enhance the capabilities of the newly developing Armored Regiment that young Bipin and Anish were assigned to, others went to the Hunter cadres for tracking their enemies, most landed up with Yuma Min's snow guard units patrolling much of the territories that they were so adept to in the blizzard snow as it was in Durgesh. The last ended up in possession of Ajay for use by his PMC group condotierri. The relation he had with the mercenaries was a queer one. Longinus had a long-standing distrust of mercenaries for a long time. Back in his home country, he learnt very early in his warlord career from Tambossa that mercenaries were there for money and only money. Morality was a rare commodity in a mercenary and ill suited for the live threatening work they did without any national backing of their actions, it was purely corporate.

His counterpart, Solomon Khoo used to own them before he expended them. They fell into Ajay's grasps and in a string of events they joined hands at the airport where they earned one another's respect. Mainly that of former 1st Captain Samson De Costa and his unit's fellow paratroopers that were discharged with him for insubordination and assault of a superior officer.

Ajay treated them with respect and they did in kind, they were an odd bunch. Perhaps it was wrong to categorize them as mercenaries but a private force of Ajay's. Now they were initiating some sort of mix unit that gathered men and now women into the assorted unit they were building for the coming battles with the Golden Path and its returned messiah-like presence of Mohan Ghale.

He too had approached Ajay about his thoughts on his father. But the young man merely smiled and commended him on a good job so far. It was a sensitive topic and one that even he a religious man could not answer but give the same vague reply.

"God works in mysterious ways." How he hated to use God to suit his own lack of understanding of certain elements. It wasn't fair to him or to God, those crazed ranters should all shove it!

Longinus sighed. He had come a long way from whence he started in Kyrat with the humble mission to retrieve the Blood Diamonds from his country. Which Ajay and King Min had given him bit for bit in their possession and when they found them. It was quite surprising to him to see Pagan hand him diamonds that he would have preferred to keep. It reminded him of-

"Luke 19:1-10…"

When Jesus stayed at the house of Zacchaeus, the tax collector. The man that declared all his riches back to whom they belonged and was accepted into the house of god. Pagan reminded him of that tax collector, Zacchaeus. So it gave him comfort to work with the man known for his past cruelty.

But questions still lingered regarding his purpose and that of Ajay Ghale's. On the day he met him, Ajay Ghale came to him for help. He spoke with great finest in oration. But there was one part that Longinus had trouble accepting even till today.

That God had actually communicated to him through Ajay Ghale. He knew his history and purpose in Kyrat that only god would know, his history was as the former warlord was not known by anyone save for the Jackal. Did that make Ajay an apostle of God? Ajay's actions showed that he was far from the category of an apostle. He even heralds the name demon amongst the more auspicious folk, that was hard to attain unless you had done terrible or wicked things that exceed that of the human limits.

In every epic of Ajay's military career was a bloodbath, the victims of it were exclusively the golden path and several of the American Marines he subjugated with clever words and promises. Yes, Ajay Ghale thoroughly earned his right to be called the son of the demon god. And this was what troubled Longinus for a long time. There had been moments which he was gracious and generous, kind even to children. But he obviously enjoyed killing that was clear in his eyes, Longinus had been involved in less than moral slaughters in his country before and knew the color in a man's eyes that were painted in gore. Ajay had such eyes, and his was died in thick blood ruby-red. How many did he kill even before arriving to Kyrat, Longinus wasn't sure. Thousands? Tens of thousands? There was barely any hesitation in his eyes at any given time.

"Hey, friend." Longinus looked up to find his new best friend sitting next to him by the office chair.

"Samar, my friend! What can I do for you?"

"Your assistant said you looked a little troubled today. That's rare even for you!" Samar explained chuckling.

"Shouldn't you be working on that project with your younglings?"

"Nah! They can handle themselves without me supervising. If not they'll never grow."

"…."

"So, I've come to hear you out. Let's have it then."

Longinus thought about what he wanted to say first.

"(Sigh)… Life."

"Life? Aren't you living the dream job like me?"

"I am! I should be content in that, but…."

"But?"

"Would you hear a confession, friend?"

"Hang on for a minute." Samar disappeared out he corridor and came back a few minutes later with a bottle of brandy from his office.

"Ten-year-old brandy, now we're ready!" Longinus couldn't help but smile wryly as Samar handed him a shot that had a generous amount in it.

"But first, here's to a long-standing friendship!"

"Here! here!"

(Cling) They drank several glasses till Longinus was ready to start.

Longinus poured out much of his history he was willing to share and his fateful encounter with Ajay the apostle of God. Out of Longinus's expectations, Samar seemed unfazed by it all and only nodded once he explained finish a small saga of his.

Samar took another drink from the glass of brandy with no sign of him getting tipsy.

"You probably started thinking about this because that kid's father popped out of nowhere, right? Then you wondered if which path would he take, the gruesome monster that murders his father while still calling himself a good person or would he do the rational thing nad spare his father."

"Ahahaha! You read me like a book, friend!" Longinus laughed awkwardly.

"Let me tell you about a certain event that happened just about the time the Arsenal went up in flames."

"That! How could I forget it, I hope those Marines have repented! Humph!"

"Right, back to topic."

"An attack on home soil, a major operation in smoke, the casualties sustained and sabateurs on the loose, armed and dangerous. The people shaken by the attack in need of assuring words. Yet where was Ajay at this critical period?"

Longinus also wondered that, though he never asked.

"Miss Maya had sustained a life-threatening illness, a rare toxin that required an even rarer herb to detoxify it. And it so happened that the Royal Dispensary had run dry."

"Oh no! So what happened?"

"The Physician told him of its whereabouts, a mountain on the top of the Himalayas. On the peak of one lay that flower that bloomed only there. Time was short, he had only two days to retrieve the plant and return for it to take effect. He got into a fight with Major Roka on going alone and went up with her. Apparently, Ajay seemed to know the peak but there was something else about that mountain."

"What was it?"

"Who goes up into the snowy mountains with .50 cal rifles with explosive rounds, grenade launchers and a shotgun with incendiary shot!" Samar said exasperatively and took another drink.

"Indeed." Longinus found it strange.

"He did mention something about running into some inhabitants."

"He did?"

"Yeah, inhabitants that requires that kind of firepower to take on. Those must be some fanatical bastards, then again they live in sub zero temperatures."

Longinus was aware of Ajay's prowess in combat, but for him to insist on going alone and being heavily equipped. The must be some fearsome monsters out there that he wanted no one to know about.

"So did he find the plant?"

"He did. Her Royal Highness sent a Snow guard unit to pick him up, seeing that Miss Maya's her protégé there's no way she wouldn't be concerned."

"That's good."

"But there was something perculiar."

"What was?"

"Two things. One was that he came back with serious cuts and stratches and I know he ain't a clumsy climber. The second weird instance was Major Roka's return behaviour."

Major Roka? He thought.

"Usually, she'd stick herself around that boy. You know what inflatuated she is with him. And yet that day I saw her stand a distance from him and it wasn't just that time but many other instances. Of course, there was some thing that happened up on that mountain, it had to be so unbelieveable she was forced to keep mum about it!"

Samar got excited in his conclusion of Saras's behaviour.

"So what was the whole point of telling you this might you ask. What was the whole point of the expedition to the mountains?"

"To retrieve that plant?"

"Precisely, and that's what he did. But obviously, something made it almost impossible for them to take it back. Something got in their way, and what did he do? He forced his way out and returned without mumbling a single complaint. Probably that day, Major Roka distanced herself because she was feeling inadequate for him. It's the one thing that can't be measured by us and the one thing that mades his enemies and allies respect and fear him at the same time."

-What? What was it?-

"His willpower. Not his inhuman strength nor quick and precise strategies but his indomitable willpower. Humph! Perhaps that was what Lady Ishwari named him for, an indomitable (Ajay) willpower." Samar smiled wryly as he recalled the memories of the kind and wise mother of Ajay and Lakshmana bless her soul.

"But if it were just willpower it wouldn't mean anything. His willpower is defined by his determination to bring Kyrat out of Civil war and into peace and freedom. But he knows for certain that there is a price to all of that. But so far from my observation, the only ones paying for it his royal highness and him."

They were paying a hefty price and burden, yet no one was aware of it not even Samar or Yuma. They were doing something like he was, atoning for past sins but they were giving everything. What was he doing? Sitting around enjoying his time while he worried about others morality and not his own. Longinus felt might ashamed of himself that his face fell.

-I am a sinner, a sin because I look down upon my fellow man without checking myself first.-

Samar gave him a pat on the back.

"You've also been on quite a steep ride yourself. Going around hunting for lost diamonds piece by piece, that ain't easy. That might take several lifetimes, so colour me impress. You really deserve respect, Longinus."

"I…. I guess I do."

"There we go!" He handed Longinus another glass.

"One day, when you finally forgive yourself for past transgressions. Whether you found all the diamonds or not. Come back to Kyrat so I may call you by your real name."

Samar drank his glass and placed it next to the bottle before heading out.

"You can have the bottle, think of it as my Christmas present to you."

"….Prosper….."

"Mmmm?"

He murmured to him and repeated once more.

"The name my parents gave to that ruffian, Prosper… So that he would always be prosperous… and share with other….. his prosperity…." Longinus broke down weeping in a cradle of his hands. Longinus wept a lifetime of guilt away before his only true friend.

Samar left his friend to pour out his sorrows. But he was glad.

The day that his friend Prosper would share a drink with him wasn't too far away.


Author's thoughts:

Don't deny that the coincidence exists between Longinus and Prosper Kouassi. The only question is, how far was FC2 from FC4?