The scapegoat was a timid, chubby boy named Albertoā El Paje (the Page). He was not a wolf. He was a mouse who wrote love letters to a girl heād never kissed. El Jaguar forced him to memorize the layout of the office. "You go through the window," he said, pressing a razor blade into Alberto's trembling palm. "You cut the glass. You take the exam. If you scream, we find your letters and read them to the whole battalion."
One morning, during weapons training, a rifle fired a live round. The bullet struck Ricardo AranaāEl Jaguarāin the chest. He died before the ambulance arrived. The report called it a "cleaning accident."
The night was moonless. Alberto climbed the jacaranda tree, his heart a drum of terror. He sliced the window pane, crawled inside, and found the drawer. As he touched the exam papers, a flashlight blazed.
El Jaguar listened from the shadows. "No," he said. "We don't need the key. We need the night guard drunk. And we need a scapegoat." libro la ciudad y los perros
Alberto said nothing. He had learned the first commandment.
The trial was a farce. The cadets closed ranks. The teachers wanted to avoid a scandal. Only Gamboa pushed for the truth. And then, the accident happened.
The Military Academy of Leoncio Prado was not a school. It was a cage of polished boots and shaved heads, perched on the dusty cliffs overlooking Lima. Inside, the boys were not cadets; they were wolves, and the weak were the prey. The scapegoat was a timid, chubby boy named
The true war began with a stolen exam. The Fourth Year cadets had the answers to the chemistry final, guarded in a locked drawer in the Commandantās office. El Esclavo needed them to avoid failing and repeating the yearāa fate worse than death, for his father had promised to send him to a reformatory.
Their ritual was the "circle." Each night, a new recruit was chosen. The victim was dragged to the latrines, stripped of his belt or his rations, and humiliated until he cried. If he told a teacher, they would beat him worse. The unwritten law was simple: silence is the first and last commandment .
The pack hesitated. Then they laughed. This one, they decided, was made of the same rotten wood as them. El Jaguar forced him to memorize the layout of the office
But El Poeta, who had been on the roof that morning, saw the truth. He saw El Esclavo hand the loaded rifle to El Boa. He saw El Boa aim not at a target, but at the back of El Jaguarās head. He saw the premeditated murderābecause El Jaguar was going to confess to Gamboa about the stolen exam.
The circle, he knew, would never end.
Alberto turned his face to the window and closed his eyes.