Electronic Gags (23 page)

“Okay sir,” Campbell bellowed.

Reed returned his phone into his pocket
and laughed. He was a junior member of the National Party’s National Executive
Council and he enjoyed giving orders to Campbell, the party’s deputy
secretary-general. Campbell and his friend Collins always opposed Reed in Cabinet
and in the National Executive Council. Now it was payback time.

Three minutes later, Reed received a
call from Retired Colonel Carter, the head of the prison services.

“Patriot Reed, I understand you need the
details of the prisoners who entered the death games on Wednesday.”

“That’s true, Patriot Carter. I need the
details of the two who are still at large.”

“Do you have pen and paper?”

“Yes, Patriot Carter.”

Reed wrote the details on a piece of
paper and thanked Carter. The word MISSING blinked on the computer’s screen
when he entered Freddie’s ID number. The same happened when he entered Jennifer’s
ID number. Reed sighed and adjusted his spectacles. This wasn’t good. If NASP
started malfunctioning like this, the supreme leader would not give Reed the
Golden Order of Merit.

He opened the detonation dialogue box,
entered Freddie and Jennifer’s ID numbers and clicked on the “detonate” button.
The computer asked for the detonation password. Only President Brandon Ward was
supposed to have the password. Reed was present when Brandon Ward set his
password and he saw the keys the supreme leader used. He entered the detonation
password and the computer displayed the “detonate now” button. He clicked the
button and the computer processed his command for seven seconds before the
words TARGETS NOT FOUND blinked on the screen.

Professor Reed phoned Wallace, the Minister
of Information, and asked him if he was certain that TD Communications, the
state-owned telecommunications monopoly, had installed enough cell towers to
provide cell network to the whole of Brandon Ward Wildlife Refuge. Wallace said
the TD Communications director had assured him that they had put enough cell
towers to cover the whole wildlife refuge.

This was bad news. Reed adjusted his
spectacles. All this pointed to one thing. Something had destroyed the
electronic gags of the two fugitives. What could have done that? In the wildlife
refuge, there were many possibilities. Maybe the fugitives were attacked by
bears. The professor knew that a polar bear’s powerful jaws, which can crush
the skull of its prey, could crush an electronic gag. Perhaps the fugitives themselves
removed the electronic gags from their necks and destroyed them.

Reed dreaded the last possibility. The
fugitives had to be intelligent or to have some experience as electricians or
electronic technicians. The professor studied Jennifer’s file. She had gone to
the police academy just after finishing high school and her school grades were
average. She didn’t look like someone who could remove an electronic gag from
her neck. When the professor looked at Freddie’s file, he knew he had found his
man. Freddie was a scientist and his school grades were exceptional.  When
cornered, someone like Freddie could take the risk to remove his gag. Professor
Reed wanted to make the electronic gag foolproof but President Ward had rushed
him. Had the supreme leader given him enough time, he would have put a network
of fuse wires in the walls of the electronic gag’s casing to make it explode
the moment someone broke its casing.

Professor Reed had to catch Freddie and Jennifer
before they taught others how to remove electronic gags. NASP was Reed’s only
hope of going up the political ladder and he couldn’t let Freddie and Jennifer
sabotage him.
Maybe they skipped out of the country,
Reed thought with
horror.
If that’s the case, they are making noise about electronic gags in
the international press.
For more than ten minutes, the professor searched
the internet for news about Freddie and Jennifer. There was no news about the
fugitives, leaving the professor with no doubt that the two were still in the
Ten Districts of America.

“Where are you hiding, Freddie,” the
professor mused. There were people in the Ten Districts who knew Freddie and
Jennifer’s whereabouts. He was going to record everything that the fugitives’
relatives and friends said. Freddie’s file listed his mother and Kyle as his
next of kin. The professor tuned in to the audio from Melissa’s electronic gag
and listened for two minutes. Freddie’s mother was quiet. Silence met the
professor again when tuned in to audio from Kyle’s electronic gag. He couldn’t
blame them for being silent; they had to save airtime. The professor selected Kyle
and Melissa’s accounts and pressed the “capture audio” button. NASP would
record everything Kyle and Melissa said. The professor also selected the
accounts of all of Freddie’s former workmates at the wildlife refuge and
pressed the “capture audio” button. He also did the same with Jennifer’s
mother, brother and former workmates in the Police Special Branch. If they knew
where the fugitives were, they would surely talk about them.  He was going to
copy the recordings into a flash disk at the end of the day and analyze them at
home. The professor opened the list of red words and added the word Freddie and
the word Jennifer. If anyone with an electronic gag said these two words, the
system would alert the CIB.

Pleased with himself, the professor
stood up, cleared his throat and addressed the CIB agents in the NASP computer
hall. “Excuse me, patriots.” He was pleased to note that all the agents in the
hall stopped what they were doing and paid attention to him. “I have temporarily
added two words to the list of red words. The words are Freddie and Jennifer. Freddie
and Jennifer are common names in this country, meaning you will have lots of false
alarms today. If you get anything about two fugitives called Freddie and Jennifer,
who got out of maximum prison on Wednesday, please let me know. Thank you.”

A computer bleeped in the District One
section, the section that monitored traffic from District One.

“Professor, we have a red alert here!”
shouted a young female agent. “Someone just said Jennifer.”

The professor rushed to the young
woman’s computer. She gave him her headphones and he put them on. “It’s not her,”
he said after more than a minute. “Just stay alert… you will get something
about our fugitives.”

“This
is where we will strike,” Freddie told Kyle and Jennifer as they watched the
news on TV.

According the news, on Sunday President Brandon
Ward would be the guest of honor at the Ten Districts Visual Arts Awards
ceremony at the National Conference Centre in Subdistrict Six, in the centre of
District One.

“This is our best chance to kill Ward,” Jennifer
said with excitement.

“Kyle, go to the National Arts Council
offices in Subdistrict Six and buy two first class tickets for the awards
ceremony.”

“Okay man. Give me the money.”

Freddie gave Kyle a hundred lucres.
“Don’t forget to bring the program of the awards ceremony. Also buy today’s
paper. It might have more information.”

Kyle went to his room and put Freddie’s
NAST casing. Looking at himself in the mirror, he covered the hole on the gag’s
casing with his collar. Satisfied with his appearance, he went out. He was
enjoying the whole thing. If this succeeded, he would go down in history as the
teenage hacker who masterminded the downfall of the world’s most powerful
dictator. Freddie had given him the opportunity to use his hacking skills to do
something good.

Freddie pulled Jennifer close to him. “Kyle
is gone. We have the house all to ourselves.”

“What do you suggest?” she asked with a
smile.

“I suggest this.” He kissed her. “And
this.” He caressed her. “And this.” He carried her to their room.

* * * * *

Cassandra
Ward moaned, feigning orgasm. She knew that Brandon Ward would be angry with
himself if he knew he couldn’t satisfy her. She was a good actor and her moans
echoed in his ears, urging him on. The main reason why Brandon made love to
women was to show them his sexual prowess, the pleasure he got from it was just
a bonus. When she screamed and slapped his back, he believed she had come. She
always screamed and slapped his back to indicate orgasm, and she always timed
it before he came. Today she almost mistimed her simulation. He came only four
seconds after her ‘orgasm’ and rolled away from her, panting. She looked at
him, trying to appear as dazed as she could.

“How
was that, darling?” he asked, pleased with himself.

“Dear
Brandon, you take me up mountains of pleasure,” she said, thinking about Paul, Justin
and Travis, the lovers she dumped when the supreme leader chose her. The year
when she went out with the three guys was the highlight of her sexual life. All
three of them were sex maniacs and she enjoyed the headache of trying to make
time for each one of them. She didn’t hesitate to dump them when Brandon Ward
chose her. No amount of sex could equal being the first lady of the Ten
Districts of America, the world’s most powerful country. Brandon Ward had never
satisfied her in bed and she knew he would never satisfy her unless he took an
overdose of Viagra. Loss of sexual pleasure was the price she was paying for
the privilege to be the wife of the most powerful man on Earth. Fortunately for
her, she loved shopping more than sex and as Brandon Ward’s wife she was never
short of money. She loved Brandon Ward more than she had loved any other man.
She loved his power and his wealth.

Brandon
Ward looked at the ceiling with contentment. He had every reason to be
contented. He was sixty-three years old and he could still make a twenty-five-year-old
woman scream with orgasmic pleasure. He was the ruler of the Ten Districts of
America and was commander-in-chief of the world’s strongest military. Yes, Brandon
Ward had every reason to be contented.

When
he was a cadet at the United States Military Academy at West Point, Brandon
never thought he would one day become president. Upon finishing his training at
The Point, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the army at the age of
twenty-one. When the First Gulf War erupted, Brandon was deployed to the front
in Operation Desert Storm. His father and grandfather were decorated war
veterans and Brandon vowed to make them proud.

He
was part of a company that was trapped behind enemy lines for two days. They
couldn’t get aerial support because the burning oil fields in the terrain made
visibility impossible for aircraft. Captain Phillip Cook, the commander of the
company called his lieutenants to his tent for a briefing. The officers were in
the captain’s tent for only two minutes when they were hit by Iraq shells. The
captain and three lieutenants died on the spot, leaving Brandon Ward and an
injured lieutenant. Lieutenant Brandon Ward assumed command of the company and
showed bravery, tactical acumen and discipline during the two days that his
company was behind enemy lines. Brandon Ward’s company managed to cut through
the enemy lines, creating a corridor that the allied forces used in the final
thrust of the four-day ground war. General Norman Schwarzkopf, US commander of
Operation Desert Storm was so impressed with Brandon Ward’s heroics that he
made him commander of the company throughout the Gulf War.

After
the war, President George Bush Senior awarded Brandon Ward with a medal of
honor and promoted him to Lieutenant Colonel. Brandon should have been happy,
but he wasn’t. When he came home from the war, he learnt that his cousin,
Robert Ward, had died in the war. Robert had gone to the US Military Academy
together with Brandon and was deployed to the Gulf a day after Brandon Ward. He
was one of the war’s first US casualties. Brandon’s family didn’t tell him
about his cousin’s death because they didn’t want to upset him.

Brandon
Ward was shattered. Born three days apart, Brandon and Robert Ward had been
very close. They resembled each other so much that their family called them
‘the twins.’ As he grieved over the loss of his cousin, Brandon asked himself
why the government had deployed them to the Gulf.

Brandon
Ward’s hatred of the US government soared when he became ill three months after
his return from the Gulf. He felt tired but no matter how much he rested, his
tiredness didn’t ebb away. It was like something was sucking his strength. He
began to suffer from chronic headaches that were accompanied by dizziness. Then
he suffered from joint pain, skin rush and indigestion. He believed that this
was a result of the Gulf war.  He was either a victim of Saddam Hussein’s
nuclear and chemical warfare or he was suffering from inhalation of polluted
air from the burning Kuwait oil fields.

He
tried to seek the help of the Defense Department’s Veterans Administration but
it was to no avail. The pentagon believed that the Gulf Syndrome didn’t exist.
They believed that the Gulf War veterans were trying to extort compensation
from the government. Brandon suffered in silence. The politicians and the
generals had used soldiers and discarded them like used condoms. Brandon
watched with rage as the president and the commanders of Operation Desert Storm
were hero-worshipped. The Gulf War commander, General Norman Schwarzkopf, even
got himself the nickname Stormin.

The
foot soldiers were ponies and like chess players who pack their chesspieces
after a game, the president and his commanders forgot about the soldiers after
the war. Brandon Ward’s anger kept him going. He didn’t retire from the army,
believing that the best way to fight the system was from within. His hope rose
when he discovered that he was not alone. There were many Gulf War veterans
suffering like him and many worse than him. A big number suffered brain cancer,
multiple sclerosis and loss of muscular control.