"Don't change the subject. You know why I'm angry, right? All these love bites on my neck! I can't go out in public like this!" said Leena with a flushed face. Her beautiful face was as red as boiled shrimp. She was happy that he loved her that much, but she was shy. She glared at his picture on the table in her fury, but he could not see it over the phone.

  "What love bites? I'm confused now. I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about," Kevin replied, pretending to be perplexed. But he knew full well what he did, and he did it on purpose. He left those love marks on her neck to let other men know she was taken, like a dog marking his territory. It seemed that men were also jealous animals in the affairs of love. Kevin might be a great guy, but he was subject to the same passions all men had.

  "Kevin, you know what you did. You left them on my neck, and didn't tell me. Quit joking around!" Fully aware of her husband's trickery, Leena protested loudly. He wasn't going to charm his way out of this one. What was she supposed to believe? That he was stricken with amnesia? Unlikely!

  "I'm wounded that you think I'd do something like that! It's injustice!" Kevin bit his lips to prevent himself from bursting into laughter while he supervised the training exercise. The soldiers under his command were trying their best to climb the mountain, starting from its base, making their way along the rugged trails winding upward along the abrupt slope. The training was harsh. But that was just the first step to select the most excellent Falcon candidates among all the soldiers. More tests were waiting for them, which were much more cruel and

  That soldier was the quickest one, and he outflanked everyone else. That guy might make the Falcon special forces. But he would have to face many other harsh tests and pass all of them with excellent scores before he could make the Falcon team.

  "Yeah, yeah. I will." It would be her first time ever picking Kevin up at the army base. That rare opportunity delighted Leena. Life was never easy on base. They were always busy, and the tasks were rarely simple. Sometimes, they even had to work overtime, working weekends and holidays. Kevin was supposed to spend this Saturday at home. But they wanted him not only Saturday for an emergency mission, but Sunday for special tasks as well. It seemed what the military base employed were not men of blood and flesh, but robots made of iron.

  "So, that's it! I gotta let you go. Bye, Leena!" Kevin hung up the phone and resumed his calm manner. He walked toward the group and joined his men. He looked quite different from the man who had fervently and gently talked to his wife with a brilliant smiling face just now. Now, he was a hardened major general.