Electronic Gags

by Kudakwashe Muzira

  She pointed at four men who were surrounding a dead moose.

  “Are they poachers?” Jennifer asked.

  “I wouldn’t call them that,” Freddie said. “They are the natives of District Ten and they have been living in harmony with nature for thousands of years. They rely on moose and caribou for food and sometimes for clothing.” The men were speaking in their mother tongue. Freddie listened to the conversation. “They are Gwich’ins.”

  “You speak their language?”

  “A little. I also speak a bit of Inuit.”

  “I’m impressed.”

  “These men must not see us,” Freddie said. “The police may question them.”

  Freddie and Jennifer crawled under the cover of grass and bushes, past the four men who were busy skinning the carcass.

  Minutes later they came across a big black bear. The bear slapped the ground with its paws and advanced towards them, blowing its nose.

  “I don’t think it will attack,” Freddie said calmly. “It’s making a mock attack to scare us away. Black bears rarely attack people.”

  Jennifer raised the tranquillizer gun. “What if this is the exception?” she said, squinting as she took aim.

  As if it knew about guns, the bear turned and went away. Perhaps he had once been shot or had seen people shooting one of his own.

  Suddenly, rain began to pour down.

  “This is not good,” said the young cop from the police IT department. “I have lost connection with the server.”

  “What?” Sergeant Miller shouted.

  “There is no internet connection. I suspect there is no network coverage here.”

  “That explains why we lost the fugitives,” Sergeant Miller said.

  “Let’s call for reinforcements,” suggested Sergeant Hughes, Miller’s second-in-command, who was eager to go home.

  “No,” Miller said firmly. Calling for reinforcements was surrender. He was leading a squad of fifteen armed cops and he wasn’t going to surrender to two unarmed fugitives. “Let’s look for their tracks. “Akiak, you are the best tracker among us, take the lead.”

  “Yes sir,” Akiak said with zeal. He was an Inuit, a native of District Ten, and had hunted and tracked animals when he was a boy. He scanned the ground for minutes before he said, “They went this way.”

  Akiak slowly led the cops, the cameramen and the reporter to the cave.

  “A cave!” Miller celebrated, cocking his Brandon Ward P100, the American-made version of the Walther P99 semi-automatic pistol. “They must be in there.”

  Guns cocked, the cops entered the cave, followed by the cameramen and the reporter.

  “They sat here,” Akiak said, pointing at ants that were carrying grains of cornflakes.

  When the cave forked into two, the squad split into two groups and walked down the cave till they reached dead ends.

  “Let’s get out,” Sergeant Miller said.

  Miller and his group walked back and found the other group waiting for them at the point where the cave forked into two.

  “They only stayed here for the night,” Miller said. “Let’s follow them.”

  The cops sped out of the cave, the cameramen and reporter in pursuit.

  “Jesus!” Miller said, standing at the mouth of the cave. “It’s raining.”

  “The rain is washing away the fugitives’ tracks,” Akiak lamented.

  “What do we do now?” Miller’s second-in-command asked.

  “Let’s go back to the last point where we had cell network and call for reinforcements.”

  The vegetation thinned as Freddie and Jennifer walked out of the wildlife refuge. The rain kept pounding them, cooling them.

  “Give me the tranquillizer gun,” Freddie said. “I don’t think we will need it anymore.” He shoved the dart gun into the satchel. “It looks like a real gun and it will raise eyebrows when we meet people.”

  Jennifer pointed at cabins that looked like boxes of matches from the distance. “Is that a village?”

  “Yes. It’s a native village. Sometimes wild animals come from the refuge and destroy the villagers’ crops and livestock.”

  “I’m thirsty,” Jennifer said.

  “Me too,” Freddie said, taking water out of the satchel. “I feared I would look sissy if I said it first.”

  “You don’t have to dehydrate yourself to show me how tough you are,” she said, imagining how handsome he would be if he shed fifteen kilos. “You are the toughest guy I have ever met, Freddie.”

  He took a swig from his bottle. “Don’t flatter me.”

  “It’s true. Since we entered the wilderness, you proved to be tougher than all self-styled tough guys I know.”

  “I’m not tough,” Freddie said. “I only have a strong will to live.”

  “If that was true, you would have skipped out of the Ten Districts. Instead, you are going back to District One to face the Ward regime.” She squinted. “Hey did you put salt in this water?”

  “Yes, I put just a little to help maintain the salt balance in our bodies and prevent muscle cramps and other effects of salt deficiency.”

  Jennifer eyed him with unconcealed admiration. Not only was he tough but he was also intelligent. She cursed fate for giving her this man when she was in the shadow of death. If the two of them survived, she wanted to continue seeing him.

  “If you keep on looking at me like that, I will start thinking I’m handsome,” he joked.

  “Maybe you are.”

  “Enough talking,” he said. “Let’s get going.”

  They walked with renewed strength and soon came to a railway line.

  Freddie knelt and put his ears on the railway track. “There is a train coming,” he said. “But I can’t tell where it is going. If it is going in the direction of the border it’s your train. If it’s going in the opposite direction it’s mine.”

  They sat down and waited for the train. About twenty minutes later, a goods train appeared, going towards District One.

  Freddie hugged her. “It makes me feel bad to leave such a beautiful girl alone in a place like this.” He gave her the satchel. “There is food and water in the bag.” He handed her the map. “The road is less than three kilometers away. Good luck to you.”

  “Goodbye.”

  He hugged her again. “If they catch me, I will tell them you were eaten by bears.”

  “I will say the same if they catch me.”

  When half of the goods train had passed, Freddie gritted his teeth and sighed before jumped onto an empty coach and pulled his bulky frame in. He didn’t look back because he didn’t want to worsen his pain. He liked Jennifer but he had to go to District One to save Michael.

  * * * * *

  The security chiefs and security ministers rose from their seats when President Brandon Ward, Vice President Butler and Senior Minister Christopher Ward entered the boardroom.

  “Good morning, members of the National Security Committee of the Ten Districts of America,” the supreme leader said as soon as his butt touched his chair.

  “Good morning, Patriot President,” chorused everyone in the room except the supreme leader’s bodyguard.

  “Please sit down, patriots.”

  They all lowered their backsides to their chairs.

  “Director-General Sullivan, can you tell us how NASP is doing?” President Ward asked.

  “Thank you, Patriot President,” the CIB chief said, clasping his hands together. “The program is going on well and we are yet to experience major problems. The only thing of note is that two people simply went off the radar yesterday in the Brandon Ward Wildlife Refuge.” He was glad the president hadn’t invited Professor Reed to the National Security Committee. Today he would respond to questions about NASP and show the president that he could run the program without Reed’s help. “Our investigations revealed that there is no cell network in about fifty square kilometers of the wildlife refuge. If possible, Your Excellence, Ten Districts Communications must install c
ell towers in that part of the bush. There is also low cell tower concentration in some rural areas, which you will find in my report.”

  “Does this area without cellular coverage stretch all the way to the border?” Brandon Ward asked.

  “No, Your Excellence. There is at least fifteen kilometers of cell network between the unconnected area and the border.”

  President Brandon Ward sighed with relief. “It means the fugitives didn’t skip out of the country. I will tell the Minister of Information to tell TD Communications to put cell towers in that part of the refuge.” He yawned. “I will read your report about cell tower coverage in rural areas before I forward it to the Minister of Information.”

  “Thank you, Patriot President,” the director-general said.

  “Anyone who has something to say can now speak.”

  “Thank you, Patriot President,” entered the police commissioner. “The cops chasing the two fugitives have requested for reinforcements.”

  “If they fail to catch the fugitives tomorrow, you can bring in reinforcements, commissioner,” the president said, looking at his young brother. Christopher Ward had betted against the fugitives surviving the next day and the supreme leader didn’t want to give him the upper hand in their latest bet.

  Chapter 7

  Jennifer threw the satchel onto the goods train and jumped onto the train four carriages behind Freddie. She climbed from one carriage to the next till she reached Freddie’s carriage. He jumped when she touched him. His fear turned to joy when he saw her. He had been thinking about her, regretting his decision to leave her behind.

  “Welcome aboard, baby.” He put an arm round her. “Truly speaking, I didn’t like the idea of leaving you behind.”

  “I won’t let you dump me so easily after all we went through together,” she said, leaning against him.

  The rain intensified and they huddled together for warmth.

  “Next time we travel by train, we go first class,” Freddie said, caressing her neck.

  “This train is slow,” she complained. “How long will it take us to reach District One?”

  “By road it’s less than six hours. This train will take us at least ten hours.”

  “Where do we go when we arrive in District One? To the maximum security prison?”

  “I am not planning to go back to the maximum security prison. We will go and hide in my cousin’s house in Subdistrict Four and plan our next move.”

  Jennifer sighed with relief.

  After twenty-five minutes it stopped raining, or the train came out of the rainy area. It took the goods train almost eleven hours to get to District One. It was getting dark when they jumped out of the train.

  “We have no money for a taxi,” Freddie said. “We will walk to my cousin’s house.”

  “How far is it?”

  “Not very far.”

  In just over thirty minutes, they were at Grandma Nicole’s house. Freddie took Jennifer to the basement.

  Kyle jumped when he saw Freddie. “You are alive!” he hugged him. “Aunt Melissa will be thrilled to see you.”

  “I don’t want mom to see me right now,” Freddie said, pushing Kyle away. “This is my friend, Jennifer.”

  “Nice to know you, Jennifer.” Kyle smiled. “You are way too beautiful to be my cousin’s friend. I’m Kyle.”

  “Glad to meet you, Kyle.”

  “Did they release you from jail?”

  Freddie walked past his cousin. “Let’s sit down and I will tell you everything.”

  Freddie told Kyle everything that happened from the day the CIB arrested him.

  “So you removed your NASTs,” Kyle said with wonder “Take off the casings of the NASTs so that I can believe you.”

  Freddie and Jennifer pulled the casings from their necks.

  “Freddie, you have brains after all. I used to think that you were only good at studying the dung of animals in your wildlife refuge.” Kyle looked at Jennifer. “He isn’t the only one who has brains in the family. I finished Super Death Race. Do you guys want to check it out?”

  “We will play the game later, Kyle. Right now we are involved in a real death race and we need your help.” Freddie stood up. “Let me remove your NAST so that we can discuss business without worrying about eavesdroppers. I need some insulated electrical wires―no, don’t worry about the wires, I have some in my satchel.”

  “Please remove this thing from me.”

  Freddie took out his Leatherman from his satchel and cut into the casing of Kyle’s electronic gag. He removed the gag from his cousin in less than fifteen minutes.

  “Wow!” Kyle said, enjoying fresh air on his neck for the first time in many weeks. He scratched his neck. “Sometimes my neck itched and the NAST made it difficult for me to scratch. Thanks, Freddie. You are one clever fat guy.”

  “Enough about my talents and my weight,” Freddie said. “We have serious business to talk about. Take your thing where it won’t hear your voice. Be careful not to break any of the wires.”

  Kyle carried his electronic gag to his room and returned to the basement with a jar of orange juice and two glasses.

  “This is the last of Grandma Nicole’s Orange drink,” Kyle said, filling the glasses.

  “Thanks man,” Freddie said. “But you could have done better. We are hungry and we need a good meal.”

  “My sentiments exactly,” said Jennifer, between sips of the juice.

  “I’m not a good cook,” Kyle said. “But I’m sure the lady can cook. If her cooking is as good as her looks, then we shall feast tonight.”

  Jennifer smiled. “Looks are deceiving, but I will do my best.”

  “We will cook after we discuss what we came here for,” Freddie said.

  “Before we start our discussion, I want to say something that I have been dying to say for quite some time,” Kyle said, putting a hand on his neck. “President Brandon Ward is an asshole! Wooo! It feels good to speak freely again.”

  “Kyle, I want you to hack into the CIB computer network that controls NASTs,” Freddie said. “Can you do that?”

  Kyle’s eyes bulged. “I have never done something that big. Most of my hacking has been small-time... getting free memberships into blogs, accessing movie sites... The thought of hacking the government’s computers crossed my mind many times but I chickened out. I wanted to get into the CIB’s computers and steal airtime for my NAST but I chickened out when I thought about the firing squad.”

  “But can you do it?”

  “It’s possible,” Kyle said. “But it’s very difficult because this is a GSM network. If it was a Wi-Fi network, I woud hack it in no time. What do you hope to achieve by hacking CIB computers?”

  “I don’t know exactly,” Freddie said. “I want to find loopholes to use to fight the regime. I want to free Michael.”

  “I’m in,” Kyle said. “You managed to remove the government’s trackers and that shows that the system can be beaten. Michael is like a big brother to me... I will do anything to save him.”

  “I knew you would say that,” Freddie said. “Let’s get started.”

  “I’m starving,” Jennifer said. “Can we cook first?”

  “Kyle, do you have some food in the kitchen?”

  “Yes Freddie. There is plenty of food in the fridge. Most of it is from Grandma Nicole’s time, but I think it will do for two hungry people from the jungle.”

  “Let’s show Jennifer to the kitchen.”

  Freddie and his cousin led Jennifer to the kitchen. The room was a total mess. Grandma Nicole’s death seemed like ages ago. The only trace of the old woman was her picture. Fruit flies hovered over the dirty dishes that filled the sink. The floor was littered with bread crumbs. Spiders had spun webs in all corners of the room, lying in wait for the abundant fruit flies.

  “Grandma Nicole must be turning in her grave,” Freddie said as he looked at the mess.

  “Here is some rice and I think there is some chicken, fish and bacon in t
he freezer,” Kyle said.

  “Make the best of what you find in here,” Freddie told Jennifer. “Kyle and I are going back to the basement.”

  “You got yourself a beautiful girl,” Kyle said when they were in the basement. “Tiffany’s heart will break into mince meat when she sees you with her.”

  “Tiffany and I are history. She made her choice.” Freddie walked to Kyle’s computer. “So what’s the strategy?”

  “NASTs are connected to the CIB server by TD Communications’ cellular network.” Kyle explained. “NASTs are like subscribers and the CIB is like the service provider.”

  “Nonsense! What service are they providing us?”

  “It’s just an analogy, Freddie. We are going to try sniffing.”

  “Kyle, I’m not a geek,” Freddie protested. “What’s sniffing?”

  “Sniffing is more like eavesdropping on a network. We will try to intercept network packets from the CIB computers to my NAST and network packets from my NAST to the CIB computers.”

  “And if we manage to do that?”

  “It’s a long process.” Kyle felt as if he was explaining calculus to an illiterate. “I don’t know how to explain it in layman’s terms. Our aim is to crack the encryption used to encipher packets transmitted between the CIB computers and the NAST. And this is not easy because GSM and GPRS networks generally have strong encryption.”

  “And if we crack the encryption we are in the CIB computers?”

  “Cracking the encryption will give us valuable information about our target. After cracking the encryption we have to do a lot before we can get into the CIB computers. We also have to hide our true identity by what we call spoofing.” When he said what we call, he sounded as if he was one of the founding fathers of hacking. “After that we do what we call active scanning, which―”

  “Thanks for the lecture.” Freddie winced. “Just do your thing. I have heard enough hacker’s jargon for a day. I hope we succeed for Michael’s sake.”

  “I can’t guarantee anything.” He bit his lip. “The network belongs to the government and the government sometimes mismanages its parastatals. I hope someone in the CIB or in TD Communications failed to do his job.” He clasped his hands together. “NASP is a new program and that is in our favor. Maybe the CIB hasn’t finished scanning the system for loopholes. There is only one way to tell.”