Clark and Sonia both activated their camouflage devices, perfectly disguising themselves as regular citizens of the Mocan republic. They needed it, as being in the shadows was to their favor. Clark’s advice was that they should disguise themselves as siblings, but Sonia insisted on them disguising themselves as a pair of lovers. She reasoned that it would be more convincing for young youths like them. After much argument, he eventually relented before finally following her suggestion. He was no match for a woman like her, in terms of argument prowess. Looking at the decision from the bright side, it was not too bad. He consoled his ego with this, as they quickly located a boutique in the nearest town. He got dressed in a pair of ripped blue jean trousers and a red polo t-shirt. With his short trimmed dark hair and the young vibe that he was exuding, the dress code made him look like a youngster going on a date with his girlfriend. Unlike him, Sonia got herself dressed in a pair of tight jean trousers and a polo t-shirt of the same color as the one he got. She rounded the dress code up by getting herself a pink cape. Their dresses complimented each other, which would better reinforce their notion of being young lovers. After some quick questioning around, they discovered that this town was called Danal. And to their relief, the town was fairly close to the state’s capital, Vegas city. On knowing this, they located their way to the nearest garage park without delay. They quickly boarded a public transport vehicle on getting there, that was going to the capital. As they both entered the public bus, they drew a lot of stares and attention as it was very rare to see a pair of lovers this young, in this era. They were both still just 18 years old. In this golden age where there are already life-prolonging medications, a lot of people settle down to enter relationships and get married only when they are between 30-50 years of age. It’s not an unseen sight to see such young lovers, but it was fairly rare, hence the attention. A lot of people in the vehicle admired their young love, while others looked weirdly at them. They didn’t mind though, because this was their goal. If people were already looking at them with such expressions, it meant that their disguise was perfect. They planned on behaving like a pair of young and mischievous honey birds, who are from huge backgrounds in the state. With that cover, they would have more room to operate freely. Unlike the Spartan republic where soldier respect is followed to the paper and paramount, here in the Mocan republic, being from huge backgrounds doesn’t necessarily mean being from a military background. In the Mocan republic, the people from huge backgrounds are more from non-military-focused families and organizations. A lot of Mocans that are businessmen and do other professions are big men as they can use their money to groom a huge number of soldiers under their families and organizations. They are the ones who ruled the republic. In the Spartan republic, soldiers are priceless, but people here have a different ideology. But despite this contradicting ideology, high-grade soldiers are still indispensable and priceless as this is the age of exotics and technology, not the age of businessmen. If you refuse to expand your territory to get more exotics and build up your military force, your neighboring countries will do just that and swallow up your territory. After about 10 minutes of unobstructed driving, the public bus finally arrived at the capital of Madara State, Vegas City. Vegas City was one of the most developed cities in the Mocan republic, due to the state’s proximity to the federal capital territory. Most of the concentrated resources in Freeborn spill here, whenever a spill occurs. “Clark, this place is full of people. It is much more crowded than we estimated”. Sonia muttered softly to him while extending her hands outwards to hold his hand after they alighted from the bus. This gesture from her made Clark cringe a bit, as he reflexively tried to take away his hand. He reacted fast and was able to quickly suppress the urge, after exerting much effort. He did not want to look weird or funny to her, and the people moving about around them. He inwardly chanted one of his favorite catchphrases to calm himself down. “Aal iiz well, Aal iiz well”. Surprisingly, this phrase was able to mysteriously calm him down. Despite his still uneasy mind, he agreed with her as the security of this city was sturdier and tighter than they expected.At the public park where the bus stopped, security personnel patrolled diligently, which prompted them to act more cautiously. For the whole day, they didn’t do any significant thing as they spent the whole time trying to integrate into the city. They casually asked around to know basic information about the city. As this mission was very important, the Spartan government provided all the soldiers with 100,000 credits each. Spartan currency has almost the same value as Mocan currency, so they were given 100,000 Spartan credits approximately if converted. With this, they could be more flexible and react to most situations that they would encounter. Sonia bought a bunch of other identical high-end trending clothes for both of them, to make them look the part as children of influential people. Spending money lavishly was one of the better ways to show that they were spoiled brats from huge backgrounds. The day was not completely fruitless to them, as they gathered information about where the willful children from huge backgrounds in the state normally visited. As the day was drawing to an end, things went better than expected as they found out that the son of a minister of the Mocan government was celebrating his birthday in 3 days. They needed no reminder nor prompting, they both tacitly agreed to go to the birthday celebration. They booked a luxurious hotel to spend the night, after a whole day of eye service and observation. After settling down in the hotel, Clark finally reported back to Captain Briggs on their discoveries for the day. The Captain maintained a 24 hours stable network connection always with all the soldiers. After finishing this most important routine, they finally slept peacefully. … The next day, after waking up, Clark felt a little weirded out. “If I’m correct, it’s been more than 4 months already since I last had a dream. Hmmm, it seems that I’m lacking inspiration here in this cursed country”. He forgot about everything else and rational thinking, as he conveniently pinned the whole blame on him being in the Mocan republic. Today, they were better equipped with information on what exactly to do and where to go. So they went to a party in a small joint gathering, where most of the rich children frequented. They had a great day and a great time, they encountered no serious problems, and most especially, they finally made their first rich friends. It was a blonde-haired boy with handsome features named Frank Rinklin. Clark befriended him after getting to know him and engaging in discussions and joint activities for most of the day. Noticing this, Sonia naturally befriended the boy’s dark-skinned girlfriend. After making their new friends, they chatted a bit and enjoyed themselves for the rest of the day. Clark knew that they did a good job from this alone, as they got home feeling happy. Coincidentally, Frank Rinklin’s father was a close friend to the governor of the state, which was a great boon to their mission progress. As their mission progressed, Sonia also tried progressing her private mission but Clark repeatedly rejected her, using polite words every time. Today, after getting home, she took advantage of their happy mood from their achievement to start again. “Sonia, I’m sorry for behaving like this, but I think we’re just too young for this. To be sincere, you’re beautiful. I mean it, but I can’t be your boyfriend”. Clark spoke back in a polite tone, while cautiously searching her face for any mood swings. Seeing none, he heaved a sigh of relief before he continued with his point. I’ve never talked to a girl so elaborately like this, you’re the only one. That proves that I take you differently from the rest. If it was 5 years from now, then that would be a different case”. “Clark, you mean you’ll be my boyfriend 5 years from now?” Sonia suddenly raised her voice, asking in an excited tone as she calmly twisted the hapless boy’s choice of words to her favor. “Cough, cough…, no, Sonia, that’s not what I meant. I meant that I’ll consider it if it is 5 years from now”. Clark replied awkwardly amid coughs, as he tried without much result to maintain the serious expression on his face. Sonia completely ignored his last sentence. She skipped cheerfully to the bathroom while speaking out again in a finalizing tone. “Clark, remember, in 5 years you’ll be my boyfriend”. Clark didn’t know why he was smiling, but he used smiles to express his helplessness, before shaking his head. As she washed up in the bathroom, he finally transferred their daily mission progress information to Captain Briggs. The Captain repeatedly praised him for their effort, before encouraging him to continue with the good work.He felt happy and fulfilled on hearing this. The praise felt like sweet music to his ears, calming his vengeful heart. He was finally contributing to the downfall of the Mocan republic, being praised for it was the cream on top of the cherry. That night, as he slept, he finally had a dream, but it was not a good one. He dreamt of himself being captured together with Sonia, by the Mocan military forces. Their squad fought hard tenaciously, but his teammates broke ranks as soon as their Captain was caught by the Mocan soldiers. After being ganged up on by 3 Mocan Captains, Captain Briggs could no longer hold on. 12 of his squadmates escaped immediately, leaving the remaining 8 of them to be captured by the opposition without them putting up much resistance. Despite these setbacks and their unknown fate, Captain Briggs was still satisfied as they succeeded in killing the governor of Madara state. Though he was satisfied, their situation was not looking good as they were scheduled to be publicly executed in 3 days. On the day of their execution, the Captain spearheaded an escape plan that he secretly formulated. After a long-drawn-out battle of attrition, they successfully escaped but 5 of their comrades died. Clark was also shot on the neck, as he blocked a bullet aimed at Sonia. He woke up with sweat all over his body, he felt goosebumps all over on recalling the bloody dream. He couldn’t sleep again because of the nightmare.