When Daniel's eyes opened again, he found familiar faces staring at him. In front of him was the face of Chief Bogart and around him were soldiers of his army unit. But one person was missing - Mike.
"Wh-Where is Mike?" Daniel croaked.
Bogart's face however told everything.
"So, what happened there? All I remember is some people attacking us with tranquilizer darts and then me sending a message through my radio." Daniel said.
"Well, after I got this message, I suspected instantly that something was wrong. So, I immediately dashed to the backside of the base, gathering as many soldiers as I can on the way and when I reached there, I found you being carried by a person. Far ahead, I could see Mike too being carried away in the same way. You were closer to us than Mike, so we managed to shoot down the one carrying you but Mike was very far away from us. We tried to chase that person carrying him, but they both soon disappeared." Bogart replied with disappointment.
"Who were these people? Did you try to find out where Mike was possibly being taken?"
"It's a gone case. There was no doubt as to what happened to Mike. The Keukans took him away. Now, finding him is of no use. He's probably
already brainwashed now and serving Keukans." Bogart replied.
"But...." Daniel's voice faltered. He didn't know what else to speak. But it was hard for him to accept that Mike was gone when he knew that Mike was still out there somewhere.
"Anyway," Bogart said, trying to get Daniel's mind off Mike, "Remember that Eagle Force? Well, before coming to pick you up, they gave me a call. I told them what happened to you and they said that they'll come pick you up at 8:00 AM now and it's already 7:00 AM."
Daniel, slowly got up from his bed and made his way to the bathroom leaving behind a confused Bogart. The way he got up from his bed suddenly, without speaking anything was a bit of strange behavior from Daniel's side.
When Daniel was inside the bathroom, he closed the door of the bathroom tightly so that the noises won't reach outside. Once the door to the bathroom was shut, he kicked on the wall of the bathroom and then punched on the mirror. Daniel then took deep breaths, trying to calm himself (and prevent himself from breaking anything else).
"Okay" he said to himself and then splashed his face with water. He got out of the bathroom and then went once again to the gym where many soldiers were doing their morning workout already. Bogart too was in the gym, on the treadmill. He looked around for the punching bag but every punching bag had a soldier punching it.
Thus, he decided to start with the treadmill and luckily the treadmill next to Bogart was empty.
"Oh, there you are." Bogart said as soon as he saw Daniel on the treadmill next to him.
"Yeah, I was just, you know, making sure that I was all fit before my test." Daniel replied in a hoarse tone.
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"By the way, are you okay about this whole thing? I mean, suddenly you just got up from the bed without speaking anything."
"The sadness for Mike is replaced by an increased anger on Keukans. I want revenge now. For my father and Mike." Daniel replied, increasing the speed of his running on the treadmill.
Daniel quietly exercised on the treadmill for a few minutes but then suddenly spotted a punching bag empty.
He immediately turned off the machine and went for the punching bag.
He caught hold of it to stop it from swinging and then let out his whole anger on the punching bag delivering heavy blows to it. He punched it vigorously, as if the punching bag was the root of all his problems.
He didn't stop until he was completely bathed in sweat and by the time he stopped, it was already 7:45 AM. But, the fire burning inside him was down, at least for now. He knew that it could permanently extinguish only when every last of the Keukans would be killed.
Daniel went for a quick shower and by the time he was ready, Bogart came with the news that they have arrived.
When Daniel came out of the army camp, he saw a black chopper in front of him. It bore the symbol of an eagle. Its black metal body was shining brightly in the bright sunshine and it was fully equipped with missiles.
A 6 feet tall man came out of the helicopter. He wore a black suit and light blue aviators. He had a brown skin and a pointy nose which along with his lumped face gave him a scary and ugly look.
He shook hands with Daniel and said "I was given the responsibility to safely escort you
to our headquarters."
"I see." Daniel replied, entering the helicopter.
Daniel and the man seated themselves facing each other. And once they were comfortably seated, the blades of the helicopter started rotating and then it took off.
"So, do you personally go and pick up everyone who is selected for the test?" Daniel asked.
"Yes, we do, there's no other way, unfortunately. The location of our headquarters is a top secret. We cannot even let those like you who are selected for the test know our location. And that's why...." the man produced a blindfold.
"I'm afraid I'll have to blindfold you."
"Uh.... okay." Daniel was amazed by the level of security they had.
He allowed the man to blindfold himself and once he was blindfolded, he sat quietly, eagerly waiting for the destination to arrive because Daniel wasn't feeling comfortable wearing the blindfold at all.
The journey lasted for 2 hours and by the ending, Daniel felt sure that his brain was about to rot due to boredom.
However, they finally landed at the helipad of the headquarters and then Daniel was led out of the helicopter, still in blindfold. It was removed only when he was finally inside the building of the headquarters.
The headquarters were brightly lit and after seeing nothing but darkness for so long, it took time for him to adjust his eyes to the bright light.
The headquarters were the very definition of plain and simple. Daniel found himself in a long corridor with nothing but white walls and a few signs like 'No Smoking', 'Fire Exit to the left' etc.
The man who had bought Daniel walked ahead of him, turning back every once in a while to ensure that Daniel was still following.
Daniel was led to a hall where a lot of people were present. There was stage in front of him with a white screen placed on the wall and on the left wall was a huge symbol of an Eagle.
"So, that ends my job." the man disappeared somewhere between the crowds.
After waiting patiently for 10 minutes, a man in royal blue suit arrived at stage. The man had a grey beard on his white face which gave him the look of a senior.
"Good morning to every brave soldier present here." the man began, "I am Kent Lin, and I am the head of Mission Eagle. Before we get started with our test, let us first understand the gravity of this situation, though I am pretty sure that everyone here does.
The screen of a man wearing a scarf and a hat appeared on the screen.
"This is the head of Keukans. No one knows his actual name or face. He was obsessed with spreading his Keuka ideology across the entire world. According to it, one man will rule the whole world so that no corner of this world will be undeveloped. Seems like a good idea, but the way he spread this ideology proves that if this Keuka system gets imposed on the whole world and this man becomes the leader, all that will be there is pain and riot." Kent announced.
Then, there was an image of a man being captured by a Keukan. At this, Daniel's heartbeat stopped for a while. It reminded him again of Mike.
"They started capturing people, brainwashing them and then recruiting them to their army. In the first year, 2020 only, 100,000 people were captured. And now, as of 2025, these cases have increased so much that we have lost count of it. Many parts of the world are now in their clutches due to biological warfare and France, where it all had started is now completely under control of Keukans."
The next image was that of an eagle.
"And this is where we come in. All the governments together had come up with this idea. They together had invested huge sums of money and resources on us. And that's why we cannot afford to lose. If this Eagle Force fails, all the money and resources will be wasted and that would be a huge loss. This will weaken us even more. I am afraid that if this mission fails without making much change, it would probably be our final defeat. This is why, only the best of the best will get to be a part of this force. Two candidates out of our team of five have been already chosen and the other three can be anyone from you all. Good luck for the test."