Mei Lian stared at the Major, her eyes sharp with a mix of disdain and reluctant acknowledgment.
"You really are the worst of the worst," she muttered, her voice low but clear. "But... you kept your promise. You didn't send me to sleep with the other prisoners." She glanced toward the hammock swaying gently in the corner of the tent, a small mercy in this hell. "At least I still get to sleep in that instead of the dirt."
The Major smirked, his expression unreadable as he searching through his bag. "Well, what did you expect from me?" He straightened, something glinting in his hand before he tucked it away. "I keep my promises. I'm a man of my word." He said it like he keep a honor.
Mei Lian held his gaze, unflinching. But then her eyes flickered to the other figure in the tent the Captain. The same Captain who was supposed to be dead.
Her jaw tightened.
"So," she began, her voice edged with cold fury, "you used a man as bait to catch Carter. Did you know he'd pick that tent, or was it just luck? You switched your Captain out, let one of your own take his place... You didn't just trick Carter you tricked Aman too. You never told him you were using a decoy. You made him believe Carter killed one of your favorites pet." Her fingers curled into fists. "What was the point of all that? Just to push Aman over the edge?"
The Major tilted his head, amusement dancing in his eyes. "Ah, that?" He chuckled, the sound dark and knowing. "Call it... an added effect. I didn't tell Aman because, well" He spread his hands. "At that moment, I was smiling, but I'm sure I looked like I was barely holding back from cutting someone's head off. A little push, you see. Aman needed to believe that if he didn't obey, I'd snap. Better for him to think I was one breath away from exploding over my 'dead' Captain than to question my orders." He shrugged. "In truth? I was perfectly calm. Because my real Captain was alive."
Mei Lian exhaled sharply, shaking her head. She couldn't follow his twisted logic.
The Captain, silent until now, glanced at his reflection in a small, cracked mirror. He ran a finger along his neck, imagining the blade that should have ended him. "I was lucky," he murmured, more to himself than anyone else.
The Major barked a laugh. "Finally, you speak in something comprehensible!" He clapped the Captain on the shoulder, grinning. "You've gotten better with English. Good." Then his expression sobered. "But luck had little to do with it. Our scouts knew Carter was coming for me. If that tent had been empty, he'd have moved to the next one. I just needed... a distraction. A sacrifice to keep him busy."
Mei Lian's eyes flashed. "You're joking." Her voice was a blade. "You're actually insane. You wasted a man's life just to catch someone you knew was coming for you. You had the chance to kill Carter, but you didn't. You wanted him alive. That's why you set up this stupid, twisted plan sacrificing one of your own!"
The Major didn't flinch. "Yes," he said simply. "I did it because it was necessary. I wanted him alive. I wanted to see him in chains, to keep him in my captivity." He sighed, almost wistful. "But it failed. What a shame." Then his gaze sharpened, locking onto Mei Lian. "Though, for someone who's survived this long, you're surprisingly moral. Most people I meet... well, once they've been hurt enough, they stop caring about right and wrong."
Mei Lian frowned. "What do you mean?"
The Major reached for his smoking pipe, fumbling with the tobacco. His Captain stepped forward, striking a match and lighting it for him. The Major took a slow drag before answering.
"There are people who think pain justifies everything. 'I was hurt, so I can hurt others.' They're entertaining to watch killing, betraying, tearing each other apart for scraps. They believe they're exempt from morality." He exhaled smoke, studying Mei Lian through the haze. "They think they're entitled to step off that path just because they've suffered."
Mei Lian crossed her arms. "And what are you suggesting?"
The Major's lips curled. "I'm suggesting most people are entitled, whether they admit it or not. Doesn't matter if they come from the top or the bottom in the end, they all think they're superior in some way." He took another deep pull from the pipe before setting it down. "And then there are people like you. You've faced hell, yet you still hesitate. You think, 'If I don't kill him, he'll kill me.' That's survival, not morality. But it's also a choice. You kill to live, but you don't revel in it."
Mei Lian fell silent. Against her will, his words made a twisted kind of sense.
The Captain watched them both, an observer to this strange exchange.
Mocking laughter finally broke from Mei Lian's lips. "So what does that make you? Do *you* have any morality left?"
The Major's grin was all teeth. "Me? I do my job. And my job requires me to forget about morality. I get medals for it, after all." He leaned back, stretching. "Am I entitled? No. My men do the dirty work. Me? It's not *me* it's my position that makes the choices. The uniform does the thinking."
With that, he stood and walked out of the tent, the Captain following silently behind.
Outside, the Major picked at his teeth with a bored expression. The Captain lingered at his side.
"I wonder if Aman made it yet," the Major mused. "Playing spy... what a joke." He snorted. "KKM didn't want a spy they wanted a saboteur. But Aman would never have agreed to that, so I lied they want from Japan send one of his man our own collaborator other than them. Told him he was gathering intel. Aman was hollow inside he better did that than other plus i have someone under me keep a leverage on him" He smirked. "If that girl knew, she'd be furious."
Mei Lian, still inside the tent, stared at the empty space where they had been.
What is Aman doing right now?
The thought gnawed at her.
There was nothing she could do. No way to intervene. She was stuck here, waiting, while bastards followed the orders of bigger bastards.
She could only hope Aman wouldn't kill again.
But hope was a fragile thing.
And in this world, it rarely lasted.