The journey to Victoria port was maximum 45 minutes by transportation.
We had just passed the bridge that connected the river, and we still had 30 minutes of travel left. It was a pickup truck, 4 went up front and the rest of us were placed in the bed of the back of the vehicle.
Rudolf was left in the co-pilot seat, in the back seats were Lucius, Emily and Jesús.
This distribution wasn't as deliberate as I thought, I talked to Caleb, and we agreed that the two teams should spend a little more time together, this of course with a strategic purpose.
It's problematic that, if there were any problems, everyone should be capable of communicating without problem, understanding the orders, judging the situation without problem and helping each other, contributing experience.
Although it didn't seem like it, the group led by Rudolf had peculiar qualities for each case, maybe the only one with less experience was #3, Jesús, whom I only found out his name yesterday.
He was a few months younger than me, 17 years old, he didn't have as much experience as the rest, and for this, I decided that each one spent time with the others, so they could learn from each other; since we will be together for 1 to 2 weeks.
In the bed of the back we were Caleb, Ethan, Marcus Cloe and me.
I was next to the window that separated the back seats with a view to the bed, and as surprising as it was, in front of me was sitting the same girl with whom I had had, let's say peculiar encounters, not to mention it was too much of a coincidence, destiny gave me fear.
Next to her was Ethan, the one that followed after was Caleb, to my right was #2, Marcus.
We had brief conversations, some about the culture of our countries, other, brief questions about what tastes they had, we even talked about weapons and favorite methods.
When they asked me, the only answer I gave them was "You'll find out soon", although they didn't understand, they didn't inquire further on the matter.
Knowing that he was strong was enough to welcome him in Kalika's inner circle, although what Heiss thought was very different from being recruited.
The pickup truck went up and down the trails that were in bad condition, the dead points of the conversation arrived at each uncomfortable pothole the truck hit.
At one point, Marcus decides to open up to the conversation and touch trivial topics to take away the awkward silence.
"And do you have girlfriends?, I mean do the job allow you?, I've heard that Japanese customs about work are very rigorous, so they don't have time to socialize"
'That's going straight to the point', I thought as I looked at him confused, 'is he interested in this idle chatter?', I frowned.
Heiss knew local customs, more prominent professions, many subjects of study at the university level, but idle chatter was a topic that he didn't know and distrusted. In his mind only fit things of square form or predetermined form, however, these forms of communication made him think of abstract forms of interaction.
He liked novels and of course there were ways to express many confusing things with strange or incoherent actions, that he learned in his idle moments of reading.
Despite knowing all that, the topics of love or matrimonial relationships, couples with benefits or the same way of acting before a girlfriend irritated him, because he didn't know how he should proceed in those situations.
Heiss knew pleasure or well the most disgusting form of human decadence, he never identified yearning in something or someone.
As pleasure is taught to a person, well, the district has its ways of acting before what would be an era in which young people would ignite their hormones, it was a way of making everything go to hell.
To resolve it, they decided to make behavior modification tests according to the situation.
They couldn't abuse this method, because they would create humans without souls, more like mindless zombies that didn't have will because they took it from them.
Therefore, they focused on depriving certain decadences that made humans stupid and of little value to society.
Society that would be controlled by the future codices, hence why we were pressured to be conscious without losing our integrity and clarity before lust.
For no one, was it a surprise that it was a success among the apprentices of each district. Each MÁSTER managed to control the lowest instincts of their apprentices, without lowering their efficiency on missions, the cognitive part was protected from possible traumas by the positive and negative controls that the MÁSTERS did.
To give evaluation of those who served and who didn't.
Those who had it worse were those who didn't advance according to the planned plans, as they were tortured physically and mentally in front of those who approved to demonstrate what happened to people who fell before temptation, as some call it.
Heiss turned and closed his eyes to the disturbing memories he once lived.
After some surprised looks from Caleb, he let out a laugh.
"Jajajaja, how do I tell you, the truth is that that stereotype holds for now, since those rules will start to change"
"Change?"
"The Japanese government had many problems increasing the birth rate of Japanese people, one way they tried was to be more lenient with each university exam, allowing a different form of education, encouraging unity from young ages", this time it was Ethan who spoke.
"That's what Ethan said, the university study didn't loosen up, only the approaches to the studies before university were changed. Besides, there was also an incentive to attract Latin American people to come closer to share cultures, or otherwise come to formalize family in this country assuring citizenship papers if everything was authentic; we copied this directly from the Koreans who proposed it first, therefore, the population began to change in their way of being more open with others"
"The culture is maintained, there are no longer as many conservative government prejudices with the idea of keeping Japanese blood pure", Ethan summed it up arguing the key points of what they thought society of lower, middle and upper strata.
"In short, no, we don't have partners, but it's not because of work or belief, it's just that the right girl or boy hasn't come for us yet"
Marcus lowered his gaze while placing his hand on his chin and digesting the information.
Personality #4: "What if you get to be with someone you want?, would you leave the job?"
Again, an awkward silence settled in the small space of the vehicle bed.
"We have debts with lady Kalika, it doesn't matter if we don't get a boyfriend or girlfriend. She is the one who will change the era of times, she should be at the end, and we should only add confidence, so that she can continue walking or running for us"
That answer came from Cloe, with surprise I looked at her intently to see if she had doubts about what she was doing or if she was lying to protect her protector.
I found nothing.
She looked at me and, to my disquiet, I felt again as if I was naked in front of the whole world.
Her gaze was soft, gentle and comforting to my empty eyes.
The others continued with the topic while we looked at each other and touched our feet, which met because of how tight the transportation was.
Unconsciously my personality changed to #13 in a fraction of a second, by the sudden touch of our feet, it stimulated me leaving me on alert.
I went from being calm to wanting to burn everything.
Out of fear.
Cloe for her part wasn't prepared, her iris was pale blue, almost whitish, staring intently at the man she had observed for 2 days, she didn't notice at the beginning, but now she was more sure of knowing the man who saved her, or well, that's what she thought, when the change between personalities happened, her eyes opened in a state of shock.
Something made her shudder, something cold, very cold.
Heiss noticed her reaction, and she that he noticed.
Both looked away, Heiss ashamed of showing himself with fear and by his unconscious but impulsive response.
Cloe for being discovered with her analysis of the other person. That they would look at her with threat because they understood what it was she was doing gave her panic, she had never been through this, and it was a glaring mistake that until now she had not committed.
She controlled people's minds and when she didn't, she psychoanalyzed them to understand them.
But what she had noticed so far was that Heiss was a person who was concerned about his subordinates, somewhat arrogant, although justified by what he could do.
Cheerful and manic sometimes, when he was with his subordinates, it was as if he was missing a screw and despite that he arrived when the situation needed him, mostly psychologically and strategically so far, since she hadn't seen him do actions that had merit, worrying about others without his plans being damaged.
'So why were his dark black eyes…were they so cold, sad…empty?
The rest of the journey they only heard the sounds of nature and the idle chatter of Caleb, Ethan and Marcus.
The plan for the next 3 days was to really rest, not camp like in Junin where it was more of an exploration than rest.
At the same time they would also train, something basic, but he would teach his group how to stay alive.
These talented people could help them in the introduction.
And well I could verify how truly reliable these people really were.