Chapter 210: Destruction

"We have a traitor in our troop." The soldier said and Ethan looked on. His words did make sense in a way. There were a lot of suspicious events happening in the battalion since the war had started. He had sensed something fishy going on. But never had he witnessed his own troop members shooting their teammates. This definitely was an eye-opener for him. 

Since he had got a tip on this matter, he had to thoroughly investigate it. He had to get to the roots. Based on the suspicions alone, he could not jump to any conclusions. And even if he did, he did not know who were the traitors. He had to have solid proof to take strict action against them. 

"Okay. I'll investigate it thoroughly. You relax and take care."

"Yes sir."

After speaking to him, Ethan left the pavilion and went outside. His subordinate's words had risen another suspicious notion in his mind. 'For a traitor to get inside the army, was anybody from the government or the ministry helping them?'

There was no doubt that a lot of people, who did not actually did not have any interest to fight for their country, had joined the military recently. They were only there to create a distraction. These kinds of people had strong backing from someone who held a very important position and had status and power. It was not that easy to join the military with the plan to sabotage their own team when they were at work without any strong support. If they were caught while executing their plan, then the punishment they would receive was unimaginable.

He could not deduce if anybody he knew in the ministry or the government was actually involved in such a disgusting scheme. He had to inform the President about it. Before that, he had to find out if his team really had a quisling or not. He walked away from the pavilion towards the boundary where his soldiers were engaged in gunfire with their enemy. Though he was their commander, he had stationed some of his subordinates to look over the battle. These subordinates had to report to him and then they would plan an action of attack seeing their enemies' ploy. 

When he walked back, he did not announce his presence. Instead, he hid in the shadows trying to see anyone who acted suspiciously. Seeing Ethan stand there, two of his subordinates came to speak to him. But he shushed them to stay silent and watch with him. At first, he did not find anybody who behaved out of place. After ten minutes of waiting, he found one of the men in a uniform picking up a grenade. But instead of throwing it at his enemy, he threw it right at his squad injuring them in the process.

Ethan and his two second in commands saw this whole act and their eyes blazed in anger. So, his suspicions were true. There were bastards in the army. Now everything fell into place. These people were the reason why he was unable to gain control of the situation. Now that he had found out the root cause of the issue, he had to come up with a master plan to eradicate them completely. He also had to make sure that none of the traitors would find out that he already knew about their presence.

Seeing the man walk away casually as though he was not the one who had thrown the grenade, Ethan clenched his fists in anger. He signaled two of his subordinates to stay silent and follow him. Ethan went to the man who looked like he was actually fighting but in fact, he was just lazing around creating a distraction to his own team. 

Ethan who was being followed by his juniors tapped on his shoulder. The man stood up immediately and saluted him. He was still a rookie soldier. Ethan could see that from the rank on his badge. He signaled him to follow him and the man did as he was asked without any questions. He assumed Ethan to have called him for giving him a special mission and just the thought of it made his eyes shine in glee. He had made up his mind to sabotage all the orders that were given to him. 

Ethan took him to the tent that he used when he would discuss a plan with his comrades. He stood facing his back towards the traitor while one of his juniors closed the tent. Now there were only four of them and nobody else could enter without their permission.

"Who sent you here?' Ethan seethed. His voice was deadly calm. It was as though a volcano was getting ready to erupt, the lava burning away all that stood in its way into ash.

"Pardon?" The man asked, feigning ignorance.

"Are you going to answer on your own or do you want me to make you answer?"

"Sir, I think you are mistaken." The man said, his voice shivering a little. 'Was I found out? No way. I had been careful not to raise any suspicions. He must be talking about something else.'

"Acting, are we? Okay, let me refresh your memory. Why did you throw the grenade at your own squad?" This time Ethan turned slowly and fixed his angry eyes on him.

The man's jaw dropped a little and he started at Ethan flabbergasted. He wondered how he had found out. But that was something he could think about later. Now there something more important to do. He had to save his ass before a bullet was put through his head.

"Sir, I think you are mistaken."

"Is it? Then, let me tell you this. What I am going to do next is not a mistake." Without any more delay, Ethan pulled out his revolver and shot the man right between his eyes. He fell down dead immediately. "Throw this man in the gutter. We don't want him lying with our martyrs. I do not want to disrespect our brave men."

"Yes Sir." The two adjutants saluted and dragged the man's body out of the tent. But while they were doing so, a two-way radio fell off from his shirt. Again the three members looked at each other stunned. Except for the commander or the second in commands, nobody else was allowed to carry a handheld radio. Now that this man had it with him, he must have been using it to eavesdrop on their messages.

Ethan took the radio and checked it. It did not belong to them as it was not the make they were currently using. As he was inspecting it, he heard a voice over the radio.

'Code B: Three down.'

Ethan then realized that this was the radio the traitors used to talk among themselves while they executed their plan. He had to applaud them for their bravery. But they had forgotten that they were just traitors and it was a known fact that no traitor who sold their motherland had ended up good. It was now time for their destruction.