Interesting story, I like how you made a clear progression through the scene as the character moves through physically different spaces; it’s a clever way to advance a plot!
The character was a little confusing: you build a picture of him being very stern and regimented and ruthless, and then at the end he ‘cups the colonels face in his hands’ and says he wants to find his ‘dear family’. It feels like a betrayal of the character you’ve built - if you were trying to show a softer side of him it’s too abrupt and underdeveloped.
If you want to build more suspense, one thing you could do is take out redundant words to make your descriptions shorter: for example “straight upright” or “muttered quietly” - if you’re sitting straight we instantly imagine upright, and if you’re muttering we already know it’s quiet.
Otherwise really nice start to what sounds like an interesting story!