Heaven in Hell

NOT TILL DINNER!

OFFICER ROSHESH VAZA:

I woke up to the chants of 'Cleanliness is next to Godliness' and count of push-ups from our three juniors who were tasked with the clean-up of the warehouse. I check my watch. It is only 0500 hours. Damn, I missed the inspection! Never mind, I'm sure Agent Prescott is going to give us an earful on how it went.

Rushing to get done, I report to Agent Prescott at 0530 hours with a crisp salute, ready to soil whatever part the juniors must have managed to clean up. Sid is already standing in attention. Looks like the party was waiting for me to arrive.

Returning my salute, Agent Prescott speaks, "Kyra, sit rep on the clean-up"

Kyra, with considerable effort to keep her voice steady says, "Sir, we missed two spots under the cafeteria table, one layer of dust on the upper pane of the first floor and one on the cycling equipment in the gym and the second floor is not yet checked. Our barracks had improper bed folds, dust on the edge of our closets, improperly kept clothes and a toothbrush at the wrong place"

I bite my smile at the thought of what Agent Prescott could find on the second floor. I checked there before I rushed downstairs. It would be a nightmare. They already look spent.

Turning towards us, Agent Prescott speaks, "What do you say, Officers- should we let this slide or should we teach them how to clean?"

Nope, I don't want to get in the middle of this. With eyes straight forward, I wait for Sid to answer first. I don't want to contradict him here. As expected, Sid speaks up, "We would take care of this, Agent Prescott. It won't happen again."

No, Sid, it will. You know passing an inspection is impossible. We have never been able to. Why bring the worse out on ourselves? I also answer, "I agree with Officer Siddharth, Agent Prescott"

Smirking, he looks at me and says, "Very well, then. You take care that all the spots are clean. Next inspection is three days later at 0300 hours. Dismissed. Ashwin, follow me to the gym"

Great!

Without a word, I wait for Agent Prescott to leave the room before ordering Arjun to report back within 15 minutes after he has taken a shower in track suit. I wait for Sid to complete his instruction and Arjun to leave the room.

"Come on, Sid, you knew better than to answer that!"

Sid smiles at me, "And what would have been the correct answer?"

I scoff and say, "Definitely couldn't have thrown the juniors under the bus. But what was the need to dive us under the damn bus? He is going to own our asses that night"

Sid pats my back and mutters, "You think too negatively. We won't fail the inspection, chill, Roshesh"

Shaking my head at his naivety, I start my warm-up while waiting for Arjun to show up.

--

ARJUN NANAVATI POV:

Why did I think it was a good idea to join UI? And this team? Oh God, please remind me again, how is this any worse than torture? I mean, I could still end up dead from exhaustion!

"Faster, Arjun. You are 5 seconds too late already."

What? How am I to go any faster than this? Come on, Officer Roshesh, kill me already. Nonetheless, I speak, "Yes, sir" and try to summon up my little left life source to complete this one last round atleast 5 seconds faster.

Since reporting at 0517 hours, I have been running. First, I ran to fill a mug with sweat to earn breakfast. Then, I ran to earn lunch and finally, I'm running to check if I have improved my timings, before we proceed to lunch. If I had ran this much before, I would have successfully evaded people and would never have to join UI.