Electronic Gags

by Kudakwashe Muzira

  The supreme leader walked out of the lounge, shadowed by his bodyguard. He went out of the First Building’s eastern wing, which was the first family’s living quarters, and entered the western wing, which had his office and a conference hall.

  “Good afternoon, Your Excellence,” Lopez, his secretary greeted him when he entered his office.

  “Afternoon Patriot Lopez. Show me tomorrow’s program.”

  “Yes, Your Excellence,” Lopez said, bowing his head. “This week hasn’t been busy, Your Excellence. The main thing on tomorrow’s program is the National Security Committee and your official opening of the school for the disabled.

  * * * * *

  Danielle Wright looked at herself in the mirror. The blouse and skirt fitted her perfectly. It would have been a beautiful outfit if it didn’t have Brandon Ward’s face dotted all over it. This was the first time she willingly put on National Party regalia. Every citizen had the ruling party’s regalia and was obliged to wear it at the party’s rallies. When the National Party held a rally in an area, the Youth Brigade, the party’s militia, closed all shops and forced everyone to attend the rally. Danielle had attended many rallies and chanted National Party slogans to protect herself.

  She looked at her neck and put her hands on her electronic gag. She was going to use the electronic gag, the symbol of the regime’s oppression, to kill President Ward and hopefully free the country from the evil regime. She believed that news of Brandon Ward’s death would encourage people to take to the streets.

  She frowned when she remembered how she celebrated when Brandon Ward came into power. The majority of Americans celebrated when Brandon Ward ousted the Democrat government in a bloodless coup. People were tired of the lies and false promises of the successive Democrat and Republican governments and saw Brandon Ward as a savior. The previous regimes were a bunch of crooks and hypocrites, but they didn’t kill American citizens; they did their killings elsewhere. The Ward regime didn’t send drones, fighter jets or soldiers to kill foreigners; it was content with killing its own citizens.

  Brandon Ward, I shall be waiting for you at the school for the disabled, she thought with a wry smile.

  She took off the outfit and went to the garage. She opened her toolbox and took out a pair of pliers, the tool she wanted to use in the assassination of the world’s most powerful man.

  Chapter 6

  “I am beginning to believe we can make it,” Jennifer said as they ate cornflakes. “It’s possible, Freddie. We can hide in this cave for seven days and earn our freedom.”

  “I’m not waiting for seven days,” Freddie said. “I’m fighting the supreme leader. I have to save my friend.”

  “Are you crazy? Brandon Ward is the world’s most powerful man. Nobody can touch him.”

  “Then I will die trying.”

  “First let’s survive for a week and earn our freedom. Then you can try to assassinate Ward and get yourself killed.”

  “Jennifer, you seem like a clever girl. Do you really think that the supreme leader will give us amnesty if we survive for seven days?”

  “That’s our only hope. We have no choice but to take his word.”

  “We are rebels. Ward won’t give us amnesty. This is just a game to him. It’s a drill to teach his cops to track fugitives with his new tracking system. Besides, the cops chasing us can still track us without NASP. Seven days is a long time. If they have good trackers in their team, they will find us.”

  “So what do you suggest?”

  “I have a plan.”

  “What plan?”

  “First, let’s finish our dinner and rest a little.”

  Sergeant Miller was more frightened than the fugitives he was chasing. He knew that the supreme leader himself was watching the chase live. He knew Commissioner Hunt and Chief Inspector Coleman were also monitoring the chase. If his team took long to catch the fugitives, it would reflect badly on him as a leader. Chief Inspector Coleman’s voice rang in Miller’s ears over and over again. “Don’t let me down, Miller. The supreme leader will be watching you live on Skype.”

  Now the fugitives had disappeared. Without the tracking system, it could take days for Miller and his team to catch the fugitives in the wilderness. It was getting dark. He had no choice but to camp for the night. Mosquitoes swarmed over them, singing bloodthirsty tunes. Miller wished he had brought mosquito repellent or a mosquito net.

  “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 c
ircuit. 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 tha
t 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.

  “The night is so dark,” Jennifer said. “It’s like we are still in the cave.”

  “Technically it’s no longer night. It’s astronomical twilight. For most people it’s night but for astronomers this is the time they can easily make some of their observations. Nautical and civil twilight will follow and then day.”

  “Are you trying to impress me with your wisdom again?” Jennifer smiled. “You want to know something? It’s working.”

  Day found them when they had covered a distance of fifteen kilometers.

  “If we maintain this pace, we will be in the road in four hours,” Freddie said. “Here there is cell network. If the police are relying on NASP, they won’t look for us here. Let’s mai―”

  “Get down,” Jennifer whispered.

  “What!” Michael said, dropping to the wet ground.