Chương 52: Chapter Fifty-Two: Entry
"Here we are" Haru says as she drives the tank. "Stanley Prison."
"You're sure this is the right place?" Holly asks.
"I'm sure" Zhang says as he's tied up in the tank, surrounded by the crew. "You'll be able to find Chao in there. Now can you release me?"
"No" Holly says.
"But-" Zhang protests.
"But we told you that we have bigger plans" Siran interrupts. "We never promised we'd let you go for this. Just that we'd try to protect you as much as we can while we're holding you. That was the deal, remember?"
"And if you try to run off, I'll kill you myself" Haru adds.
"Now, where exactly in this prison can we find Master Chao?" Siran asks.
Zhang sighs, then says "Solitary confinement, maximum security block."
"Jesus, maximum security block?" Holly asks. "I thought this whole place was already maximum security as it were. There's a block that's even worse than maximum?"
"It's not worse, per se" Zhang replies. "Just that the people in those cells are left alone without anyone near them. No other prisoners in their cell, no gaurds outside of it. They just use several walls more than fifteen centimeters thick. Each wall opened by a computer... well, you can probably guess the rest."
"Where are those computers?" Holly asks.
"I don't know!" Zhang replies. "I have visited many prisons in my career. I have done inspections and drills, training and even gaurd duty myself in the day. You really expect me to memorize a map of these places? I can't even tell you which cell Chao is in! He's likely been relocated a few times over the past thirty-six years, and-"
"Hold on" Blake says. "Did you just say thirty-six years? What happened? If what he did against president Li Xiaobai was that bad, then why wasn't he just executed."
"It's very complicated." Says Zhang.
"Well, now I'm intrigued" Holly says. "I want to know."
Zhang looks Holly right in the eyes and says "That's not my problem now, is it?"
"Look here, smartass" Holly says, "you're not in a position to deny our demands."
"It's just..." Zhang says. "I can't explain much more about him without you meeting him first."
"Why?" Siran asks.
"Because you need to know what kind of person he is" Zhang says. "What kind of person President Xiaobai is, and what kind of person Ying is..."
"I don't like this" Satomi says.
"Too late to back out now" Holly says. "Do you think we can use Zhang Wei here to bring Chao outside of his cell?"
"Absolutely not!" Zhang says. "First off, even with my level of security clearance, I would still be a target to shoot on sight at the mere mention of the idea of taking Chao out of his cell without a whole pre-planned process for this. When this man gets relocated for security reasons, it's planned like a year ahead of time, and at least half of the prison knows about it and plays a part in it! However, there isn't such a drill going on within the next at least two years. I wouldn't even get past the first door of his cell, let alone the following like... What, ten more doors? That would never work!"
"Then how about you go inside and locate those computers that release him for us?" Holly asks.
"And then what? Open the doors?" Zhang asks.
"Just locate them and I'll tell you what's next" Holly says as she grips Zhang's collar bone and begins go squeeze. Zhang begins to wince in pain and repeatedly say "Ow ow ow" as she squeezes harder and harder. "We still have a use for you. So, do what we say and we won't have to... Improvise a new plan, are we clear?"
"W-were clear!" Zhang says, then winces again as Holly continues to grip his collar bone. "Ow ow ow ow ow!"
"Good" Holly says as she finally let's go of Zhang. "Now go."
"And take this with you" Haru says as she hands him a tiny earpiece. "We'll contact you on this with the next set of instructions."
As Zhang leaves, the team begins to discuss the plan. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Haru asks.
"What is your plan that you made up on the fly?" Blake asks.
"I want him to use the system to locate exactly where in the prison he is. If we can't get in through the front, maybe we can get in through the back."
"But if it's like Zhang says" Mikoto adds, they're most likely to be located within the center of the prison, for maximum coverage of walls and ways to seal them inside. From the sounds of it, they're likely very very dangerous and have to be kept under the tightest of wraps."
"There's also a good chance that he's the only prisoner in max cell block" Holly adds.
"Ohhh, I get it" Haru replies. "Because he mentioned Chao gets shifted around often, they might be using multiple cells to contain him!"
"I don't get it" Satomi replies. "wouldn't that just make it much harder to get to him?"
"That's what makes it easier, if we take this opportunity correctly" Haru says. "There's a lot of space in the prison reserved just for him. They refuse to allow anyone or anything near him in contemplation of him using any means to escape. That means we'd have that much room to move without being detected. With enough luck, we could even make a direct route outside without them even knowing we've been here at all."
"Still though" Tanya adds, "that sounds like wishful thinking. Even for a special forces operator like yourself. This place is huge! The walls are really thick too! It's not like we can just burst open a hole in the wall!"
"You wanna bet?" Siran asks.
"I like the willingness and enthusiasm" Holly says, "but no. We're not tunneling through the prison. We're not sneaking out either. You're all putting a lot of thought into this and I like that, but it's a more simple matter than this. We only need to get in without being detected. If they find us before we get to him, they will have the advantage of not only homefield, but also they could use several mechanisms and tactics to blocks us off. But when we have him, the best they can do is block our exit. We'll have the man we want, end of story. Getting out can, from then on, be what they call free game. Meaning, use what ever means are necessary. The reason getting out isn't as important as getting in is, if this man is really as dangerous as they treat him to be, there must be a very good reason. With that in mind, as long as the first half of the journey is made before we're found out, the rest should in retrospect be easier."
"I see, I see" Satomi says. "So you want Chao to break us out after we break in?"
"Well, that would certainly help" Haru says, "but that might not be possible. He's likely defenseless right about now. He probably can't fight. No charms or weapons of any kind. In this situation, it wouldn't be hard to imagine that they remove tattoos as well, with whatever means necessary. The man will not be able to just stand and fight. At the same time though, we don't need him to. Remember what we mentioned before The Six Guns got back together? About a hostage situation?"
"About emergency extraction?" Mikoto asks. "I remember."
"Good" Haru says. "Going in while being detected is an absolute no-go. If they see you coming, they can execute the hostage, wound them permanently, and so on. But if you already have the hostage, as long as you can protect them, leaving while being detected is acceptable if necessary. This would be the same case."
"That's right" Holly says. "We just don't want them to make this harder than it needs to be. With that in mind, trying to overthink on our end will also make it harder than it needs to be. Without knowing the full layout of the land, I'm afraid it's optimal for us to worry about infiltration while temporarily disregarding exfiltration. If we try to plan too much, the slightest touch out of plan will cause us to trip."
"And that is why we teach flexibility in our unit" Haru adds.
"Then how do we get in quietly?" Siran asks.
"Once we know the location, go in from the opposite side of the maximum security block" Holly says. "The thinner the amount of walls between Chao and the outside world, the more guards will be present. However, the same could also be said about the opposite side. But since there's more space, there will be more room to move. That fine line is where we will walk. The only thing we have to worry about is the first entry point."
"Which will be?" Siran asks.
"This is the hard part" Holly says. "We will need to confirm whether someone is near the area. We can do that with a powerful debuff field. That's where Siran comes in. I want you to cast one, but only for an instant to detect people in the vicinity. Don't leave it up longer than a blink of time. We don't want them catching on. At that moment, when nobody is around, I'll cast a sound barrier as we have the rest of you blow a hole in the ceiling or wall, depending on our entry location. Then we'll try to either fix the hole or just use illusion magic to make it look normal. Whichever is more viable under the circumstance."
"I like the plan" Siran says.
"You're a freaking genius!" Blake shouts.
"I know" Holly says without much enthusiasm. "I'm aware."
"Hey, I got the location" Zhang says over the headset.
"Ah!" Haru says as she sits up and presses a button on her headset. "Give me all the details you can get, then leave normally. Don't arouse any suspicion."
"Hey, Felicia?" Zia asks in this tiny house in the countryside just outside of Pilloa. "You said you and your husband were from America... what brought you all the way out here?"
Felicia lets out an elongated sigh, then says "Henry and I came here to... Well, run away."
"As tough as you are?" Zia asks.
"Yeah, well" Felicia responds, "we were in a... well, a terrible business. We needed a way to run away. I figured, migrating to a country who recently lost it's government and doesn't necessarily need documentation to know I moved here would be a great way to drop off the radar... so, after The Six Guns took out the Mages, we saw an opportunity and moved here about twenty years ago." Felicia takes out some old papers and flips through a few of them. Most of these were newspapers from over twenty years ago, right around the ending of the war. "Those crazy bastards really went and made a mess..."
"The Six Guns..." Zia says. "For some reason, that kind of rings a bell. It sounds... familiar. Do you know what that is?"
"They're a group of uncanny outlaws who made a big mess in this country" Felicia replies as she looks through the papers.
"Do you hate them?" Zia asks.
"My goodness no" Felicia replies. "It was their mess that allowed Henry and I to relocate and hide!"
"What was your job before" Zia asks.
Felicia thinks for a moment, then takes a deep breath. "I won't lie to you, Zia" she says. "You're too nice for that. My husband and I both used to work in the FBI in America. We worked directly with the president back then under his defense cabinet... but..."
"But?" Zia asks.
"But, we found out something we should've never learned" Felicia adds. "Sometimes just knowing is enough to get you in bad trouble. The wrong kind of people we worked with caught onto us knowing about their little... operation. It was kill or be killed. We had to run far and fast. We didn't have a single chance to tell the world what was happening back then..." Felicia sighs again, then says "and I have regretted not trying to ever since. We could've saved this country of yet another war. But instead, we chose to hide and kept our mouths shut so we wouldn't be hunted like dogs."
"What was it that you learned?" Zia asks.
"There was once a mage who went by the name of Garreth Hood" Felicia says. "He used to be one of our top field operators in the FBI. He was directly assigned to become a mage by the president at that time. President Michael Carter. Carter was a cynical person with a silver tongue. People thought he was sweet, but he was really twisted behind closed doors. At that time, he worked with two people in the FBI to set up an operation to gain more control over The Mages Guild. Though, their operation flopped at the end. The two Carter worked with was Garreth Hood and Denzel Freeman. Garreth Hood was to take over as a mage, and Freeman took over as secretary of defense. They then used Hood to recruit a mentally unstable man as the head of The Mages Guild, James Markwood. They eventually fell onto a path of being power hungry, and the entire guild lost their senses. Then, The Six Guns came in and stopped them from ravaging the world. That's how Carter's operation had failed. However, now Denzel Freeman is the president of the United States currently. With the recent involvement in Omnia, it looks like he's bypassing the need to control The Mages Guild and is going straight for this entire country! The man is crazy. He and the rest of the higher ups in the FBI are terrifying people! Henry and I did our best to hide, but sometimes I wish we tried to stand up, even if it would've lead to our deaths."
"Hey, don't say that" Zia says. "You saved my life. You and your husband keep taking care of me, and nursing me back to health. You're a good person."
"After the shit I've done to people when I was an FBI operative?" Felicia asks. "I wouldn't go as far as to say good person, but maybe a conscious person."
"Well, I think... It's just up to what you do from here on" Zia says. "Like me, I can't remember my past or who I am yet, but I'll keep moving forward. You may have your memories, but they won't necessarily dictate your future. Just try pushing forward while being... conscious as you put it."
"Positivity like that can be contagious, you know?" Felicia asks. "Anyways, speaking of pasts, don't keep trying too hard to remember everything. If your amnesia wears off, it'll have to come slowly. If you force it, it may cause more damage, or even put you back in a coma from shock or otherwise. You were out for a couple months when we took you in. Just be careful."
"Thanks, Felicia" Zia says as she lays back down. "Oh, and... if you ever get a chance to meet one of those Six Guns people you mentioned... give them my thanks too. Because the mess they made, they helped you come here. Since you're here, you saved my life too. So, I guess in some way, they should take responsibility for it too. Besides, from the sound of it, they don't sound like too bad of people, if they ended up helping in some way, right?"
"Right..." Felicia says as she places her old papers down on the table and looks over at Zia, who now has her eyes closed. Felicia smiles and looks back down at the papers. At the top of the stack of papers was a wanted poster for The Six Guns, with Zia's face on it. "I'll let them know when I see one" Felicia says to Zia. "Just don't push yourself too hard. I'll definitely tell one of them thanks for the both of us someday."
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