Electronic Gags (17 page)

“Guys,
let’s rest,” he ordered. “We will continue the hunt tomorrow.”

“I
have rested enough,” Freddie said. “It’s time to carry out my plan.”

“What
is this great plan of yours, Mr Genius?”

“We
must take off our NASTs,” Freddie said calmly.

“Are
you out of your mind? The NASTs will explode and kill us. Did we come all the
way here to commit suicide?”

“We
will be careful,” he assured. “The NASTs will explode if we break any of the
wires of their circuits. We will remove the trackers without breaking any of their
circuits.”

“How?”

“I
will explain after the exercise.”

“If
you want to blow yourself up, blow yourself up. I won’t join you.”

“Jennifer,
trust me. This is our only chance. Go to the cave’s mouth and stay there whilst
I remove my NAST. If you hear an explosion, it means I’m dead.”

“Don’t
do this, Freddie,” she begged.

“We
are out of time. We only have five hours of night here in August and we have to
take off our NASTs and continue with our escape while it is still dark.”

“Are
you sure you can do this?”

“Jennifer,
go to the cave’s mouth,” he ordered.  “Maybe the cave will collapse if my NAST
explodes.”

She
hugged him and before she knew what she was doing, she kissed him. “Wish you
good luck, Freddie.”

“The
kiss has increased my desire to live,” he said. “I will do my best to survive
so that I can get more of them kisses.”

“This
isn’t funny, Freddie,” she snapped. “This is a matter of life and death.”

“It’s
nice to know you will miss me if I die,” he teased.

“Of
course I will miss you. How do you think I will survive in the jungle alone?”

“Go
to the cave’s mouth.” His heart raced and sweat freely poured out of his sweat
glands. He had never been so scared and he tried to ease his fear by teasing
her. “Don’t worry honey, daddy will be fine. Go out and play while daddy fixes
this little problem.”

“Freddie, please be careful,” she said,
holding his hand.

“Don’t worry.” He tried to smile. “Daddy
will be fine.”

When she had gone, he searched his
satchel for his Leatherman and his electronic gag’s charger. His hands
trembling, he held the Leatherman and cut off the charger’s cable. With his
teeth, he peeled off the cable’s insulation, exposing a red cable and a yellow
cable. Then he took the mirror out of the satchel and placed it on the cave’s
wall, high enough for him to see his face whilst standing. He breathed heavily,
gathering courage, and stood in front of the mirror. With the saw of his
Leatherman, he slowly cut into the electronic gag’s casing, at the side of his
neck, where the electroshock belt joined the gag’s main section. He was more
worried about cutting the wires inside the gag than he was worried about
cutting himself. If he cut himself, his blood would clot and bleeding would
stop in minutes, but if he broke any of the wires inside the electronic gag,
the device would explode and kill him. After what seemed like an eternity, he
managed to cut through the wall of the electronic gag’s casing. He forced the
flat screwdriver of his Leatherman into the cut and twisted it with all his
might. To his relief, the wall cracked to make a hole of about four square
centimeters, exposing four wires that came out of the main section to feed the
electroshock belt round his neck. One wire was white, one green, one brown and
the other red. To remove the electronic gag, he had to lengthen these wires so
that he could pull the gag over his head, and he had to do so without breaking
a circuit. He halved the two wires he obtained from the charger to make four wires
of about fifty centimeters, which he wanted to use as jumpers. After wiping
away the sweat that was about to flow into his eyes, he wrapped the Leatherman’s
handle with plastic to protect himself from electric shock. Trying his best to
steady his hands, he separated the white wire from the other wires connected to
the electroshock belt, opened the sharpest knife of his Leatherman and cut off
the wire’s insulation on two points. He took one of the four wires from the
charger and joined its ends to the two naked points on the white wire. Greeting
his teeth, he opened the Leatherman’s pliers, cut the white wire between the
two naked points and closed his eyes, fearing the worst. Nothing happened. He
had lengthened the white wire by fifty centimeters without breaking a circuit!
One down, three wires to go. He insulated the naked points with insulation tape
and rested for a minute before he worked on the second wire. By the time he
finished with the fourth wire, his T-shirt and underpants were soaked with
sweat.

“Are you alright, Freddie?” Jennifer
shouted.

“I’m almost done. Wait a moment.”

He still had to completely cut through
the electronic gag’s casing, which he did with excitement, cutting his neck in
the process. He wiped sweat from his brow before he pulled the electronic gag
over his head and triumphantly walked to Jennifer.

She looked at him with joy and relief.
Her mouth gaped when she saw the electronic gag in his hand.  Now she knew she
loved him. While she waited for him near the cave’s mouth, dreading to hear the
explosion that would take his life, she realized how much she needed him, how
much she loved him.

“You took it off!”

“Yeah,” he said, caressing his neck. “I
never liked wearing ties and this was a cumbersome bow tie.”

“Freddie, you are a genius!”

“Now daddy will remove the big bow tie
from your neck, honey.”

She hugged him, love, joy and relief
fighting for space in her heart.

“Sit down,” he ordered.

She sat down and Freddie started cutting
into her NAST’s casing. She didn’t dread the NAST’s bomb. She now believed in Freddie.
It took him less than twenty minutes to take off her gag.

“How does it feel?” he asked, holding the
gag.

“It feels like you took a ton off my
neck,” she said, hugging him.

 They sat down, Freddie holding Jennifer
in his arms.

“I think we must detonate the NASTs,” he
said.

“Why?” Jennifer asked without alarm. She
now trusted his judgment.

“I think the explosion only has enough
power to kill the bearer of the NAST and if I am right, the tracker’s casing
will survive the explosion.”

“What do you need the casing for?”

“We can put the casings on our necks and
pretend we still have NASTs. The people we will meet outside the refuge will
raise eyebrows if they see us without NASTs.”

“Won’t the cops hear the explosion?
Won’t the explosion make the cave fall in?”

“I think the explosion only has enough
power to kill the bearer of the NAST. Trust me baby, we will be safe.”

“Do your thing. I have every reason to
trust you.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

He took out the rope from the satchel.
“We will use this.”

“You brought all the equipment you
needed,” Jennifer said with admiration. “You had all this planned, didn’t you?”

“I started formulating the plan when I
was selected for the death games.”

He secured the electronic gags with
rocks and tied the rope to the wires he had tampered with.

“Let’s go,” he ordered.

She walked towards the cave’s mouth and
he followed her, unwinding the rope. When they were a safe distance away, he
tugged the rope, breaking the wires of the electronic gags. The consequent
explosions were weak. They were mere pops.

“You were right again,” Jennifer said,
putting an arm round his waist.

They walked back to the electronic gags.
As Freddie had guessed, the gags’ casings survived the explosions.

“A NAST releases a bullet strong enough
to kill the NAST’s bearer,” Jennifer said, pointing at the small bullet
embedded in the casing of her electronic gag.

“Now that the NASTs have exploded, we
can take out the trackers from the casings,” Freddie said, taking out his
Leatherman. He reaped out all the circuits of the electronic gag’s casing.
“What do you think?” he asked, putting the empty casing on his neck.

“It will do,” she said. “You just have
to cover that crack with your collar.”

He reaped out the contents of the other
casing and asked Jennifer to put it on.

“You sound like you are asking me to put
on an expensive necklace,” she teased as she put on the casing.

“This is more precious than jewelry,” Freddie
said. “It might save your life.”

“Now what?”

“Now we crush all the circuits and
trackers.” He took a stone and destroyed the circuits before he put the debris
in the satchel.

“Why are you putting the rubbish in the
bag?” she asked.

“We will dump it in a safe place. The
police might find this cave, and they will know we tampered with our trackers
if they see this.”

“Are you always this clever or you are
just trying to impress me?” she said, leaning against him.

“I’m trying to impress you. The question
is... is it working?”

“What do you think?” she said, putting
her arms round him.

“Let’s rest, for a while.”

“Yes
sir!”

“The police chasing my team disappeared
at the same point where my team disappeared,” Brandon Ward happily told his
brother. “There is no cellular network in that part of the wildlife refuge and
D5574 knew it.”

“He won the game for you,” Christopher Ward
said, monitoring his team. “The police are closing in on my team.” He squinted.
“Jesus! My team has stopped.” He put on his headphones and listened to his
players. “Something is wrong. I can’t hear my team.”

“Maybe they have car problems.”

“They were speaking to each other
throughout the chase. Why are they suddenly quiet?”

“Perhaps they don’t want us to hear what
they are plotting.”

“I don’t think so. Something is wrong.”

The police commissioner phoned six minutes
later.

“Your Excellence, Patriot Brandon Ward,
two of the fugitives died in a car crash. Their car collided head-on with a
truck and they both died on the spot.”

“Thank you commissioner,” Brandon Ward
said with joy. “I won! Christopher, your team died in a car crash.”

“I knew something was wrong.
Congratulations, big brother.”

“We can bet on my team now,” Brandon Ward
said. “I say my team will survive for two days.”

“I
say they won’t! Game on!”

Freddie woke Jennifer. “Let’s get going.
The police will be looking for our tracks when daylight comes.”

“Where are we going?” she asked, rubbing
her eyes.

Freddie lighted his torch and took out
the map of the wildlife refuge. “We are here. We go in this direction till we
get back to the main road. Hopefully we will find transport.”

“Transport to where?”

“To District One.”

“Freddie, we can’t go back to District
One. We are not far from the border. Let’s escape to Canada.”

“If you want to go to Canada, go,” Freddie
said. “I’m going back to District One to free my friends.”

“Freddie, you can’t smuggle your friends
out of the Ten Districts Maximum Security Prison. It’s impossible.”

“I have to do something. We will
separate when we get out of the wildlife refuge.”

She looked at him, loving him for his
bravery and hating him for his foolishness. She couldn’t understand him. He had
risked his life removing their electronic gags and now that they could escape
out of the country undetected by the government’s tracking system, he wanted to
go back to District One to get himself killed.

“Okay, let’s go,” she said, praying he
would change his mind.

Freddie switched on his torch.

“What the fuck are you doing? Our
hunters may see the torchlight.”

“It depends on which hunters you are
talking about,” Freddie said. “If the police see the torchlight, it’s bad news,
but if wild animals see the torchlight, it’s good news.”

“Don’t speak in riddles.”

“We need the torchlight to scare wild
animals from our path,” Freddie said. “We don’t want to bump into a hungry bear
or come between a bear and its cubs. Let’s hope and pray the police won’t see
the light.”

Without knowing it, Jennifer took Freddie’s
hand and squeezed it. Freddie squeezed back.

“You are a better shot than me,” he
said. “Hold the tranquillizer gun and I will hold the torch. The gun is loaded.
It’s easy to use. You just pull the trigger like a real gun.”

They walked as fast as they could, Freddie
directing the torchlight ahead. The light attracted mosquitoes, which hovered
round them like bees at a hive, but thanks to the repellent, the insects kept
their distance.