The Resistance

Chapter-4

The control room got its first moment of serious work when a soldier started assaulting a businessman after retrieving something from his briefcase. The soldier's plate revealed that he was A-37.

He had a conversation with the commander. Then Sobriek 'O Neil's rough voice resonated in the room. He explained the situation and requested a closer observation of the last minutes of camera footage.

By then the leader was already thinking of the possibilities. Of course, this could be a distraction for some other devious plan or it could be what it looked like-a civilian smuggling a bomb into the complex. He considered the former was more plausible. The leader decided to take no chances. So he wanted to rewind one of the cameras towards the briefcase and the other would be there surveilling them.

Then he slumped into the chair and started thinking if he had missed anything in the plan. Then he waited for them to rewind the footage. He decided to rewind the left camera first because it had a better view over the briefcase.

He set its time to 5 minutes. Then he zoomed in on the briefcase and started staring as though his life depended on it which proved to be true later the night. After what seemed like an eternity, he finally saw some movement. A boot stepped in front of the briefcase. He reduced the zoom to see whose foot it was. He had an instinct that he was going to discover something but at that moment, the other screen was engulfed in flames.

Then the footage cracked and it blacked out. The leader immediately forwarded the footage of the first screen only to find a blacked out screen after a fiery explosion. The leader was absolutely shocked and stunned. He couldn't believe what was going on. Neither did he understand. He didn't waste much time on useless lamenting and decided that there was still a chance.

He immediately rewinded both the camera's footages. The explosion was of the grenade. He could tell it from the colour of the fire. First, the soldiers were questioning the businessman. A-37 was talking with the commander. Then suddenly an explosion occurred. He couldn't see from where it started because as soon as it exploded a fiery ball of fire rose up and illuminated the landscape so brightly that the video blurred. The cameras were a very old model- a Zicom-1810 which takes around 10 seconds to adjust to a sudden increase in brightness. Thus the footage blurred and the screen blacked out immediately. The leader adjusted the timer to 1/10th of a second. Then he could make out a small crack in the glass before it blacked out.

He concluded that it was hit by the titanium shards. The grenade was used for low range hits. So it had a blast radius of about 8-10 metres, but the titanium shards that flew out would travel with a high velocity and could fly up to 100 metres. But it was highly unlikely for them to strike both the cameras.

He immediately contacted Sobriek through the microphone. "Sobriek do you copy? What in the world is going? There has been an explosion, for god's sake!!" He got a reply "Sir! I don't know how it happened. I am improvising right now. I will let you know as soon as possible."

The leader then thought of scrutinizing the footage before the fight. He moved to the other screen which gave footage from camera in the IMAX hall as that's where the spy exited from. He rewinded the footage. He found A-37 coming out of a restroom. He had a conversation with two soldiers. Then one of the soldiers exited. He recognized the soldier talking to A-37 as Spy- Shaun by his plate on the breast pocket. They both surveyed the stalls looking for anything out of ordinary. Then Shaun and A-37 shook hands. Shaun went towards the aisle while A-37 went to back to the restroom. The leader was quaking with nervousness as Shaun walked towards the aisle. In that angle he couldn't see if he had all four grandes strapped. He moved outside the range of the camera. The leader swore.

Then he rewinded the blacked out cameras of the aisle which covered little part of the glass wall but sufficient. But even this proved to be futile as the precise spot where Shaun was entering seemed to be covered by a poster of a movie. But just as he came out the leader noticed his belt. To his horror the belt had only 4 grenades. He felt anger surge through him. What the hell?! My spy, one of my most trusted men has defied me?! Just what in the world is going on?! , he thought. He also realized that the boot covering the briefcase was Shaun's. Then he set the timer to x2 and briefly saw A-37 come out of the restroom, stroll towards the aisle, find the bomb in the briefcase. He stopped the footage.

The leader was utterly confused. He did not care about the noise around him. The shouting of the team commanders as they tried to solve the mystery by barking orders in the microphone. He sighed.

Then the leader moved to the laptop screen displaying the location of the soldiers as transmitted by the trackers. The surroundings were in a fiery red colour while the soldiers were represented by dark crimson dots.

He checked the dots on the aisle. There were 6 dots there including Sobriek. He saw many dots from the shopping complex and jungle fun running towards the aisle. The leader himself set his microphones switch to "all" and shouted "All floor-3 soldiers in the arcade and shopping complex please stay in your positions. Don't move towards the explosion. Repeat- Do not move towards the explosion. Only two soldiers from the Nike store will go and investigate the blast." The last thing he wanted was to make a major distraction successful.

The leader tried contacting Sobriek again. But there was no response.

Suddenly he saw a movement in the dots. A-37 was sprinting towards the arcade.What now? He nudged David Birmingham, the team commander of floor-3 who was engrossed in tape reviewing and said him to look at the dot escaping from the aisle.

The leader yelled into his microphone, "A-37 stop right now. I repeat stop right now. Or else the consequences will be huge."

Then he looked back into the fiery landscape only to find that a crimson dot labelled A-37 had run into the mirror maze. He yelled into the microphone "All soldiers. We have an emergency- a rebellion. The rebels have just run across the aisle to the jungle fun into the mirror maze. I believe you may have seen them. This is what you will do- Two of you will guard the entrance. Three of you will go inside and stop him. I want you to shoot his leg. YOU WILL NOT KILL HIM." He had a feeling that he was forgetting something.

Then it it him. He told the second floor team commander to send three soldiers to cover fire exit 12-A.

All exits covered. There was an emergency exit in the mirror maze in case of fire which had an entry in the second floor too.

He then switched off the microphone and massaged his temples with his hands.This is getting way out of control here.

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Hey guys, I have noticed that there has been a spike in views lately. Thank you guys for that. I also thank you guys for adding the book to your lists. Next chapter will come out lately, so stay tuned for updates.