TO SERVE AND OBEY

Chapter 3

Aleska is on night duty together with Captain Chris Edgar who is in charge of artillery. He also doubles as a pilot. She is keeping to her section of the tower, patrolling south west of the base camp. Captain Edgar is guarding north east of their camp site. She is wide awake, on edge...pacing about furiously. All because of him. It had taken her more than a year to forget Stone Bretton. And now after one hour in his presence, all the memories came flooding back...She can't stop thinking about him. She should have requested a re-assignment. But that would mean submitting a motivation as to why she wanted to be deployed elsewhere. She sighs silently, thinking she should have opted for the last shift. If she goes to bed she's probably going to lie awake till the sun comes up.

As Aleska patrols, she senses she is not alone. A rush of adrenalin kicks in. She hears a sound behind her, soft almost inaudible. She strains her ear to detect exactly where the sound is coming from. Cautiously her right hand hovers over her Kizlyar knife in its sheath. It's Aleska's weapon of choice for close combat attack. She is able to accurately pierce its spear point to the heart of an opponent. Her left hand curves over the Beretta at her hip. She likes the power of this semi-automatic pistol. She can whip it out, have it firing in less than five seconds. Not that she would fire it tonight.

Back home her fellow ground force comrades prefer the Makarov pistol but she prefers her Beretta's impressive firepower. She only needs one or two bullets at most against any threat even though her pistol boasts a fifteen round magazine. Aleska turns around calmly, comes faces to face with the shadowy figure.  Her hands relax away from her weapons. She narrows her eyes in annoyance.

'You're only up for duty in an hour's' time, Captain McDouall!'

He is disappointed. He had wanted to unpleasantly surprise her. Even though he'd tried to move with stealth, she'd become aware of his presence.

'Couldn't sleep,' he shrugs nonchalantly.

'Captain!'

'Major?'

'The next time, announce yourself,' she warns.

His eyes measure her with an air of defiance. 'Why? Because you are red beret spetsnaz and I should feel intimidated?' He is seemingly unimpressed that she belongs to the elite, and many would regard legendary, deadly and feared Russian Special Forces.

Her ice blue eyes lock with his fiercely. 'The next time, I will eliminate the element of risk, then ask questions.'

McDouall tries to contain his rage. The scowl on his face is visible even though he is standing in the shadow of the broad beamed artificial lights. He does not dare respond to her threat.

'Seeing you're here Captain, you can commence your shift.' She descends the stairs of the portable metal observation tower.

'I still have fifty minutes,' he counters.

'That's an order, Captain,' she does not bother to make eye contact.

Her tone is forceful enough, not inviting any rejoinder.  McDouall glowers in silence as he assumes his shift.

Aleska does not retire to her quarters; instead she opts to visit the communication room. She wonders if Stone is sound asleep. Lucky for him, Commanding Officer and all, he does not get to do guard duty. That is left to the lowly minions below him, including herself. She finds Captain Jane Nicol on duty. Comms officers are on duty twenty four hours. There's always classified communication coming in from Britain at all hours and the unit here is transmitting reports and following all due processes at all hours as well.

'Major!' Jane Nicol hops of her chair in surprise.

Often the Commanding Officer strolls in. Captain McDouall the previous second in command almost never visits the Comms Room.