29

Then it occurred to him. He was dressed like a soldier here and he was even in a mask and no one could tell who her was. He could thus understand why the General looked at him like that.
“General, I am a friend. I have been sent here to come and rescue you,” Richard said and the General didn’t relent. Richard understood because he, too, couldn’t trust just anybody because they said they were ‘a friend’.
“Code?” The General asked.
“Dragon,” Richard answered simply and he finally saw the other man relax and sigh I’m relief.
“Ah! Finally! Took you guys long enough. I almost thought that that motherfucker in the oval forgot bout me. I thought I was dead. They pumped me with so much drugs I don’t even know whether this is me speaking or not,” the general, Jose Maria Luis, said as he made himself comfortable on the small bed.
“What type of drugs?” Richard asked.
“All types. Cocaine, mandrax, heroin and others I can’t even name. I even think I’m hooked now,” the General replied.
“How did you find me and where is this place?” He askes as he massaged his temples.
“It’s a forest in a small village called Aguas Limpias. It took me almost a week of infiltration to know where you were. Now, I am a wanted man by Antonio but by the time he realises the connection, it he ever will, we will be long dead.
Anyway, what was that on that floor? And all prisoners?” Richard asked also making himself comfortable beside the General on the bed.
“They are making super soldiers. All the young strong men and women that people think Antonio kills aren’t killed but brought to die here.
They are taken to the lab where you found me and pumped with chemicals, drugs and DNA from all manners of animals. Some DNA from gorillas, others lions, others jaguars, others snakes, you get it?
They are experimenting and those who survive are put in the tanks you saw. That’s the invitation period and only a few survive. Not all.
After that, they are trained. They are like animal soldiers. There are a few around ten in the upper floors.
They are released to fight with one another and only a few survive that stage too. From what I gathered, they want to release them during the election day and make them kill anyone who will be against Antonio and blame it on animals attack.
I saw one being fed on the dead remains of those who couldn’t survive. They are rearing cannibals,” the General said and they say there quiet each lost in their own thoughts for a while.
“And how did you get there?” Richard asked.
“At first, I came here unconscious because I was poisoned by one of my own. He put sleeping drugs in my drink. I hope he is dead because if not…,” he said and left the threat hanging.
“Anyway, when I came to, I was in a cell here and I didn’t have to think a lot to know what had happened. I had been betrayed and was under Antonio’s goons.
I managed to break out and do my own investigations. Before they found me, I had discovered everything Antonio was doing and all the countries that were supporting him.
Apparently, he is doing all this and making sure there aren’t any interdiction laws in this country. So, any criminal can run here and have a peaceful life.
Anyway, after I was found, they had to shut me up. And the best way of shutting me up was by turning me, if they could. That’s how you found me. They had been trying to brainwash me for several days but I was holding on strong.
Apparently, before one is injected with the DNA of an animal, they have to be willing. Otherwise, the brain would reject it aborting the whole process and leading to death.
Before they discovered that, they had already lost several people. If you didn’t come today, I don’t know for how long I would have held on especially with them pumping all those drugs in me,” the general explained as Richard listens looking like he was already cooking a plan in his mind.
“How many soldiers are there in total? I counted twenty in this floor,” Richard said.
“They are not many. This place is hidden and is very secure and Antonio is the law here. Who do you think could have the guts to infiltrate his ranks? So, I think that’s why they have never been very careful. And by the looks of it, this place has been running for a while.
For all we know, there could be these super things abominations out there already,” the General said and Richard agreed.
From what he and seen too, this place looked like it had been running for more than ten years.
“So, what should we do?” The General asked.
“You look beaten. Why don’t you sleep first?” Richard suggested.
“No. I’m okay. I think it’s the drugs but I can hold on for at least the next twenty four hours,” the General answered.
“My main plan was come, get you and leave. But now we can’t. We can’t leave all those people here. We need to save them and kill those things. We have to make sure we paralyse Antonio and get evidence of the other countries in cahoots with him and tangible evidence of his Human Rights violation.
We have to make sure that he will never rise one we are done with him,” Richard said and the General smiled.
“I’ve always wanted to work with the Dragon and here I am. Like they say, you are the best. Not many would have been able to know where this place was and infiltrate it alone,” the man said and Richard put a finger to his mouth.
He indicated to the general to get under the bed and he did so swiftly with the sleeping bag.
Richard then got to the bed and started moving around like he was having a bad dream. He started talking incoherently in his ‘sleep’ and there was a click as the door opened.
“It’s just this fool talking in his sleep. He must be very sick,” a person said as they entered.
“Should we take him to the doctor?” The other asked.
“No. Let’s get him medicine. The doctors are all busy trying to revive those things. I don’t think they will make it though. It is like they were out of power for several minutes and that reduced their chances of survival,” one said as Richard still continued with his ‘bad dream’.
He rolled out of the bed and he fell with a thud and the two men, one of whom Richard had already recognised as the captain, laughed.
“Jesus! you idiot! You want to break your bones on top of having a flu?” The captain asked with amusement in his voice.
“Oh, sir?” Richard asked as he woke up and stood as he held onto the bed and sat on it.
He sneezed loudly and said, “been having nightmares because of the flu I guess,” he said in between another sneeze.
“Oh, mijo. Take a rest. We will get you medicine,” the captain said and the other soldier patted Richard on the shoulder and the two men walked out.
“That was a close one,” the General said as he peeked from under the bed where he had hidden.
“Stay there until they bring the medicine,” Richard said as he went back to the bed.
“You are a good actor. Who would have thought that the Dragon is such talented?” The General joked as he went under the bed and kept quiet.
After several minutes, the men returned and once again, the captain used his card to open the room. Richard wondered them why the soldiers had cards if the captain could access their rooms. But it made sense though.
At least the knew only two people could open the room just in case: the owner of the room and the captain.
“Jesus, take these. Make sure you take a lot of water too. That’s what’s Doctor Caren has said. Will come see you later with your breakfast,” the soldier said as Richard took the medicine and went to the tap in the bathroom to get water with a tumbler.
He took the drugs by raising his hand halfway just below the nose. After the two were satisfied they left and Richard listened for a while and patted the bed and the General came crawling out.
“How can you just take any medicine given to you? What if it’s poison?” The General asked looking at Richard as if he couldn’t belive that the legendary Dragon could be that naive.
Richard looked at him with a sly smile and then sneezed into his hand.
There were the three pills lying on his palm.
“Do I even want to know how they got to your nose? Never mind. Don’t even explain,” the General said in awe as Richard went to flush the tablets down the toilet.
“I will call home and ask them to send help. If we were to leave here, they might either blow up this place with the prisoners in to get rid of the evidence or run with importance evidence leaving everything else here and we wouldn’t have anyone to arrest.
So, as they are looking for you, let’s buy time to have the extraction group here. Then we can take them down in one blow,” Richard said and continued as he looked at the General, “and if I help you become the president and you run the country the way Antonio did, I will personally come for you.”
“No need to worry. I can’t run a country. All I wanted was get Antonio out and then give the leadership to someone who can. I will be helping from behind the scenes. Like, maybe take over the army and make sure that we bring our dignity back?
Right now our people don’t have any faith in the security forces. They are the one Antonio uses to kill his own and so, yeah. I’m sire you get it,” he said and Richard nodded as he went to his bag to take out his red phone.
The phone that had only one number and dialed.