Story - Camp Life [Part 6]

[Author's note: You know, life is weird sometimes. Before, I would struggle to make story parts for weeks on end...but now? The time between Part 4 and 5 was four days and the time between Part 5 and Part 6 (this part) is only one day. One! I wish my stupid brain would make sense sometime 🤣. Oh, the two chibi soldiers saying "sus" wasn't intended, but it surprised me so and got a good laugh, so I'm keeping it and sharing it with you all. Sometimes AI does funny things.] Hardev appears to have been correct in his assessment in the previous part. Sure enough, at the tree-line on the cliff side he was pointing at, there is indeed a scouting team looking over the camp. They are James Connolly and Lucia Scala-Robusta, a sniper/spotter team, under the employ of General Lekshana Jiang. Connolly speaks with a light Irish accent (he's lost some of it while working under General Jiang) while Lucia still maintains her strong Mediterranean accent, to the point where she pronounces his shortened first name “Jim” with a stronger E sound, like “Jeem.” The two indeed are looking over the camp, at the General's request. The two are engaged in a conversation, which is already in progress. “Jim, is Hardev pointing in our location???” Connolly sighs and tries to hide his irritation. “*sigh* It sure looks that way, Lucia. Gah, I wish he would stop doing that! We're supposed to be observing the camp WITH SECRECY! You know he only gets away with this because he's the General's brother. I keep telling him that he can't acknowledge our presence, let along our position!” Connolly is clearly irked by Hardev's lack of secrecy. Lucia turns her head and talks to Connolly, hoping to ease his irritation. “Oh, come now Jim. You know Hardev means no harm...besides, he's only speaking with Rodriguez. You know Rodriguez, he's a sweet man.” “Yeah, but what about others that are nearby?” Lucia looks down at the camp and scans the area. “What, you mean that group of children running by? Oh no, KID SPIES!!! Scramble the fighter jets, Jimmy!!! 🤣🤣🤣” Connolly grunts and rolls his eyes while Lucia teasingly laughs at her own joke. “Come now, Jim. Do you see any adults down there, within ear shot of either Hardev or Rodriguez? I don't think we have anything to worry about.” Connolly sighs and relents. “Yeah, you're probably right...” Lucia looks more to Connolly and sees that maybe it isn't Hardev that is troubling him. “Say Jim, is something else bothering you? “Heh, nothing gets past you, Lucia. Yeah, I'm bothered that we haven't heard back from our unit yet. We took digital photos of those newcomers to the camp and uploaded them using the satellite-linked laptop we have back at our staging area. Usually, it takes two to five minutes to have them identify subject(s) and give us a reply...it's been forty minutes since we sent those images and received the automated notification that the unit received the data we sent.” Lucia nods along, following Connolly's concerns. “I've been doing this scouting thing for some years now, and they always get back to you quickly, even if the response is 'We're still looking into this, stay alert and continue on with your tasks.' I've only seen delays like this once, and it was a big deal.” This revelation piques Lucia's Interest. “A big deal? How so?” “Two years ago, before you joined, our team was called in to find a high-value, person-of-interest. I believe she was a Europan art dealer, vacationing in one of faction leader Busemann's luxury lakeside resorts. Well, as we were surveying the area, one of our spotters found a different, and much more valuable high-value target. The guy was a former Russo-Confederate national turned international arms dealer. Command was positively surprised by this and had to quickly decide how to proceed. It got big, too. Central Command got involved and called in an Investigator, and a high level one at that! You heard of that guy Callenbeau? That big-shot detective that defected from the Federal Union? Turns our Command contacted Central Command and they wanted us to focus on the arms dealer and let the art dealer go for now. They said Callenbeau was the lead investigator on the case being made against the arms dealer and they were flying him out immediately.” “So Jim, you think the lack of updates are somehow related to those three we took pictures of, and they might be important enough that Central Command is now involved? Ugh, that can't be good...” “Yeah, Lucia. At this point, I'm just hoping the lack of updates are tied to some kind of equipment failure...” The two continue surveying the camp, hoping to take the uncertainty regarding the lack of communication from Command off their minds.