Chapter 130: Final Ace
Just like before, when I concocted our plans to assault the town of Buenavista in Boac, I waited for the scouts to return with their report before finalizing our battle plan for Torrijos.
I sat in the conference room of the presidencia, along with the officers and cadets. The lamps above flickered gently, casting long shadows across the table. The mood was heavy with fatigue.
Señor Alcántara had managed to return before sundown, and with him was Capitan Roque. The latter was understandably overjoyed when he learned that his son had not only survived the battle but had performed admirably in the assault. As I had ordered, Roque had brought with him a hundred recruits—half of the newly trained batch of 200 from Boac.
Also seated among the audience were Teniente Medina and Sargento Ortega. I had requested the Cazadores to join us in tomorrow’s planned attack, owing to their prior knowledge of the terrain and defenses around Torrijos. They had agreed without hesitation.
Despite their earlier imprisonment by Guzman—done without my authorization—they showed no bitterness. If anything, they carried themselves with a sort of heavy remorse. All throughout the day, especially when we were digging up the corpses, they had remained quiet and solemn—heartbroken, guilty, and ashamed.
After all, they had been there. They had watched it all unfold and done nothing.
The noble thing would have been to intervene—to risk their lives to help the victims. At the very least, they should have dared abandoning the Pulajanes. But noble men were ever rare. More often than not, it is human nature to preserve one’s own skin.
The rest of the long table was filled with familiar faces—the officers and cadets of my main force. None of them had had a proper rest. I had thought today would be uneventful, a day to catch our breath. But like the days before, it had turned out to be another exhausting stretch of work. The men were either slouched in their seats, dozing off, yawning with reddened eyes, or gazing into nothingness.
I pitied the soldiers even more. Few had gotten more than a few hours of sleep. They had worked twice as hard as the officers, most of it spent clearing debris, assisting the wounded, or burying the dead. Yesternight, their rest had been disrupted by Sadiwa’s surprise attack. Tonight, it would be cut short again for another assault at dawn.
Torrijos would likely be a harder town to take. The terrain was more rugged, with narrow approaches and uneven roads, and I expect desperate defenders.
Perhaps I should delay the attack by another day. I wasn’t sure if waiting one more day would make any real difference. If I were to lead them back into hell, then the least I could do was allow them a little rest.