Genius in Distress

Chapter IX: The Camp

Lt. Castellejos was making this hard for Aia. Yes Aia. Dapat sanayin niya nang tawagin ang sarili sa ganuong pangalan. Anyway, it was her real name’s acronym kaya hindi mahirap para sa kanya ang bagong pangalan.

With Lt. Castellejos’ long strides, Aia was half running as she followed him around. Mabilis lang ba talaga itong maglakad o sadyang pinapahirapan siya nito? She took a glance around; people had been looking her way, uniformed or not. She bowed down her heard to cover her face.  Suddenly, she felt uncomfortable as she was not used to be a subject of attention of a large crowd before.

They first went to the command centre or the war room. “This is where we the military officials conduct military strategies for military operations. It is also the place where we communicate with military in the field during operations and with the other command posts,” explained Lt. Castellejos. According to him doon din daw ang control room for the camp security, there were big monitors for the cctvs around the camp.  

Aia was not allowed to enter the room, so they went next to the military’s barracks. The barracks was the sleeping quarters of the uniformed personnel living inside the camp. It was like a dormitory shared by a whole member of a platoon. The barracks of the Military officials was separates from them.

“Why did you join the military, Lt Castellejos?” Aia asked Lt. Castellejos from nowhere. It just popped up from her mind. Suddenly curious as to why a person like him, with good looks and intelligence chose the field of armed services. “Didn’t you know you are just a pawn in a single game that is played by parties with different interest from yours, and you, risking your life and sanity for them?”

Lt Castellejos stopped on his track and glared at her. “Wrong, Miss Trinidad. “I’m not a pawn. I’m a knight in a game, which is your life, that will protect you from potential harm. I’m a knight in your offense as well as in your defence.”

Aia fell silent. Me and my big mouth!

Why her life suddenly became a chess game?

“And to whatever you mean in your remark, I don’t care about their crap,” he said in a sharp tone as we continued to roam around. “I don’t serve a man. I serve a country.”

So he was a man of principles after all. Good! “What can say about the military being controlled by the government?” Aia just couldn’t stop herself from asking.

She was the quiet type of person but if something caught her interest she’d never stop until it satisfied her. And now that she was living inside a military base might as well start to collect information from them. It could be of good use in the future.

Then she continued, “The Government would say ‘go kill those people right there’, the military would respond ‘yes sir’, ‘go bomb that place over there’, and again, they would say ‘sir yes sir’. It’s bull. Alam niyo bang maraming inosenteng tao ang nadadamay worst ang namamatay? The military should not allow politics or politicians to dictate them. They should let the government fight their own wars instead of hiding behind the armed forces.”

Aia was thankful her father was not one of the bad guys in the government. He was actually one of the few whose after to the welfare of the nation as a whole not to his own personal benefit.

Lt. Castellejos halted and glanced back at her, face was a grim mask. “A matter of opinion Miss Trinidad and yours is irrelevant. Enough of your contradictory remarks in the military, you don’t know a thing how the military works. Now, MOVE!” he said half yelling and began fast walking again.

Did I piss him off? On my first day here? That is bad news!

Inside the camp, there was a covered court gym where few soldiers were playing basketball wearing army shirt and short, a mini-park for the visitors, a clinic, training centre and a cafeteria.