Child Congolese soldiers were being paid by the Germans to spy on us.

That’s how they were getting away with their little smuggling operation without anyone batting an eyelid. No one suspected a kid, unless you were trained to suspect everybody - including the baby in a woman's pushchair.

Morality always came between a soldier and their mission, unless you were Sigma, of course, he knew how to get the job done without that particular human dilemma.

But my morality and ability of being an efficient agent was being brought into testing here, and I didn’t like that one bit.

Sigma discovered the child soldier and German informant rouse by noticing a small population of beggars hanging around the docks during the night. They were mostly made up of children, and they didn't travel anywhere further than the ports of Kinshasa - Congo’s capital.

Sigma told me the kids would come every night, setting up camp on a spot on a path where old ladies would pass by to feed the stray cats every morning.

The children weren't keen beggars, and they didn't play with the cats either. That's how Sigma figured their attention must have been focused elsewhere.

Also, he told me that on the night I last spoke with him, he spotted a white female speaking to one of the children and paying them for information about the boats, like when they'd arrive and leave.

What was more interesting is that Sigma also caught the children calling one of their boys: Captain.

I'm sure there's a bunch of make-believe games I could make up on the spot to explain why some street urchins would call the one of their own a captain. Kids liked to play, right?

But whether or not they were conscripted Kadogos disguised as beggars, or a self serving militia were the least of our problems. We had to get rid of them, the matter of how was the problem here. A soldier of any regard was best to eliminate, that way their chain of command wouldn't be notified if any changes happened in the area they were stationed at.

A part of me really wished those kids were innocent beggars, just wrapped up in this mess hoping to pocket some extra change. But Sigma didn't believe that one bit, even when I tried to convince him during the talk we has this morning ...

We couldn't eliminate children, right?

Sigma told me to keep this information between him and myself, leaving out the rest of our agents stationed along the Congo river track. Why Sigma insisted on keeping this a secret? I wondered that myself and trusted him to know what he was doing.

Sigma supposedly did not want to cause panic amongst the other agents. He explained that he wanted to avoid anyone else getting all touchy-feely about the child soldiers the same way I did. I did get a little hysterical, this was a delicate matter after all.

Which is why I excused myself from the Shinkolobwe mines for a day or two, informing the Dutch engineers that I would be personally attending a meeting in Kinshasa. No one had any protests to my short noticed departure, they all probably wanted me gone in the first place.

It took me nearly a day to reach Kinshasa, and an hour for Sigma to locate me with only a vague description of how I was going to reach the port. Funny thing is, we didn’t meet like two normal comrades, you know ... like how they do in the movies.

Good old-fashioned eye to eye contact, followed by a firm handshake which signified our allegiance, as you do.

What I got instead was an ambush, next to what could only be described as a body slam. It was my mistake thinking it would be smart to go lurking about in the night in search for children running around playing soldier with dangerous Germans. I obviously forgot about the dangerous American operative nearby in the dark, ready to make anything and anyone submit if moved the wrong way.

From my view on the floor, Sigma's head came into my view, he was leaning over me. “You’re Lenore Lukstein aren’t you? You should really keep your guard up next time,” Sigma stretched out his gloved hand to me, we were under a street light, and he looked absolutely divine in the halo of light above him from my angle below on the ground.

I might have hit my head too hard on the way down but ... no soldier should have looked this good, and he hadn't even apologised to me for his little stunt!

With his hand innocently suspended in the air above, I marvelled over it for a quick comfortable second, then reached for it before it got too awkward. This was one of those moments that made me think about Michelangelo's paintings and their interpretations of religion.

I thought specifically about the piece of art described as the 'Creation of Adam' in this moment. And I was Adam, reaching out to touch God's hand.

That’s when I knew I was done for, Sigma had a special place in my mind reserved just for him, his image materialising inside my mind palace, solid and existing. No more myths, the legend was real.

So much for being an incorruptible soldier, sorry Kraken.

Sigma gripped my hand tightly, yanking me up to stand upright. It was warm, just as I imagined. He helped me up, and I stumbled to my feet. We were at the port, right by the water. The ships were docked at the bay and the Congo river never looked so beautiful in the moonlight.

I knew I would never forget our first meeting.