Chapter 20 - Return to City K

December 26, City K Army Base.

Stepping out of the vehicle with driven by his newly appointed adjunct Warrant Officer George Wang, Matthew Rong paused to see how much this army base had changed since his initial training. Some buildings had disappeared, and new ones had been constructed but overall it had not changed his feeling about the base. It felt like home and he was glad to be back.

"Warrant Officer Wang, where are my base quarters?"

"Please come this way sir. Apparently, your personal belongings arrived last night and were delivered to your quarters."

"Thank you. Once I have arrived can you please organise some basic food supplies for me along with assistance to unpack my belongings. I need to report to the Base Commander and Senior General on base. My deployment here was only decided two days ago, and I have matters to discuss with them."

"Sir, the base commander has been called to the capital and left a message that he will meet you on his return. General Man if the officer in charge of the General Troops and will be in his office. I can show you the way, after I take care of those matters you requested sir."

Nodding his head, Matthew followed his Adjunct to his new on base headquarters. He knew he needed have on base quarters, but as he wanted to spend as much time as he could with Phillip he would generally reside at his Villa as it was only a few minutes away from the family villa where Phillip lived.

Matthew took his phone from his pocket and called his Villa, and his Butler Adam Yang answered. "Rong Villa, Butler speaking."

"Uncle Adam, it is me"

"Second Young Master, how can I help you. We were disappointed that you were not able to come back for Christmas"

"Uncle Adam, I need you to properly open up the Villa for me."

"But Sir, I understood from the first young master that you had been assigned to the other side of the country."

"Orders change Uncle Adam, but I do not want you to tell anyone until I come back to the Villa. Phillip deserves to know firstly."

"I will Second Young Master. When do you expect that to happen?"

"Tomorrow, but I will arrange before I arrive a number of personal items to be delivered by someone appointed by my adjunct. I need you also to arrange for appropriate suits and the like to be obtained from my favourite stores but delivery can wait a few days if necessary."

"Yes, second young master."

With that Matthew ended the call. It would be good to have off base accommodation that was his and his alone, not something in an apartment complex.

As he placed his phone back in his pocket Warrant Officer Wang returned and said, "Sir, General Man is able to see you now. I will show you the way and come back here to supervise the unpacking of your belongings."

Matthew nodded, and followed Warrant Officer Wang into the main administrative building to General Man's office. When Matthew knocked on the door he was immediately instructed to enter, and two majors were sitting in the office. Snapping a salute, Matthew said "General Man, Colonel Rong reporting."

Turning to the two majors, General Man said "Gentleman, I need to speak to Colonel Rong privately. I will call you when I am free."

Both officers stood, snapped salutes and exited the room shutting the door behind them. Being security conscious, Matthew reached into a pocket and drew out a small jamming device and placed it on General Man's desk, before speaking "General Man, thank you for seeing me on such short notice."

"General Rong, I know your true rank and understand, not only my orders but your orders. Now sit."

"Thank you, Sir."

"It is Edward, Matthew when we are alone. I see that you are highly conscious of security presently."

"Until we figure out if there is someone passing intelligence to the Devil, I am going to be over cautious."

"That is fine, we will talk more about your orders and what you are going to do, once you formally start. You have seen your on-base accommodation. They are satisfactory?"

"I have and it is satisfactory. But you know my family situation?"

"No one totally filled me in, but I suspect the base commander knows."

"More than likely. My family own JL International. I have a Villa near the family villa where my brother Phillip lives. As he is in another cancer battle my intention is that I will spend as much time there as I can so I can be with my brother in case he does not survive this fight."

"I know your brother well from various society functions I have attended with my wife. So, his cancer is back?"

"It is. I suspect that information was passed on and when the most recent disaster hit the previous head of special forces it made my deployment here an easy decision. My family connections to the city and background make it more difficult for someone to try and set me up meaning that we should be able to get to the bottom of the issues with the special forces based here."

"Just make sure Matthew you keep me updated with your plans, as I do not want someone trying to split up senior officers on base."

"Will do sir. How about we meet in a week, as that will allow me to start to have an idea as to what I want to do as a starting point."

"Have your assistant on Monday contact my staff and we will set the meeting. Hopefully the Base Commander will be back, and he can attend as well." After pausing General Man added "Now get out of here and get yourself sorted both here and at your off-base home. When you formally start, you will be very busy."

Nodding, Matthew turned and left his office and was quickly escorted back to his on-base accommodations, where he helped finish unpacking his items, sorting into a few of boxes those items that would go to his villa.