The Resistance

Chapter-6

"I have won round one." The words seemed to resonate in the entire room. I had a smile when I said it to Rachel. Rachel on the other hand was utterly confused. She also had tears in her eyes. She must have endured a lot.

I continued, "You see Rachel, I plotted a rather risky plan. It was a gamble but that didn't stop me. And thank goodness it worked out."

"Jason!" she flung her arms around me and did not leave for a ten seconds. I was totally taken by surprise and trust me, I don't like sudden surprises. I guess I blushed furiously and I was glad that she had her eyes closed. "What in the heaven's name did you plan?!" she asked after she released me.

I smiled and said, "Look, Rachel, I can't tell you all the facts, but I promise you that I will tell you once it's all over. First tell me what happened to the others."

Suddenly Rachel's face dimmed. She was on the verge of breaking down. She said, "They were taken to the other floors. Jason, I was so scared when they started attacking. They just came out of nowhere, it seemed and they shot at the ceiling. They ordered us to sit down. A couple of men were so scared that they threw themselves on the soldiers who immediately, without hesitation, gunned them down. Then they grabbed some people and violently pulled them away. I....I..." she broke down.

I tried to comfort her. I said, "Okay, Rach. Listen, I have a plan. We can save George, Lucy, Mike. I need you to tell me where they went. The floors above or below?"

"Jason...Jason, they hit George. They hit him...then he was taken upstairs. I think I saw them take Lucy down. I couldn't see Mike in the commotion. I was so scared-" She broke down again.

"We'll get them, Rach. Don't worry. We'll all get out safe and sound in a while. Now I believe I owe you an explanation." I smiled. I couldn't help it. The plan had gone perfectly.

"Yeah, you better tell me mister or you are going to be in big trouble."

"We are already in big trouble" We laughed. I didn't know how we could laugh in such a situation but it felt natural. I began to tell her the story. I couldn't help but think about my experience. The tension and nervousness I felt...I left so many clues out there that I was sure someone would catch them sooner or later and realize that the rebellion isn't over yet. I recapped everything that happened:

After the incident in the men's restroom, I swapped clothes with the soldier. He was almost as tall as me so it wasn't a problem. I realized that there were codenames given to each soldier, so the information must be in their database. So I refrained from doing anything reckless. This soldier's code name was A-37.

I went out there and formulated the plan according to the surroundings. Two cameras in the hall which cover a very little part of the aisle. But I noticed the numbers 1810 scrawled on the camera. The logo was unmistakably Zicom. As far as I knew a Zicom-1810 was a pretty old camera. I assumed they didn't waste much money on security because it was unlikely for robbers to be active in a mall where hundreds of people are present throughout the day (and night).

I figured that the maximum range of these cameras was near the glass wall. So those cameras wouldn't be able to record what was going on beyond the glass. Next obstacle was the two cameras mounted on either end of the aisle. They couldn't catch what was going on in the exit, because at that spot a poster of a movie covered the glass wall.

I had to disable the two cameras, for which I required a distraction so that I wouldn't be caught on tape. Then my eyes fell on the grenades. They were strapped to one of the soldier's belt to whom I was talking to earlier. Then I noticed that the glass wall was actually ballistic glass. There were two separate sheets of glass with a highly flexible polymer between them to reduce the impact of the blow as well as to prevent the glass from breaking apart. Then I noticed the open briefcase near the entrance. Immediately a plan formulated in my brain. It would require some luck but the bottom line was that it had to be done.