51. Operation Mind-messing
Impressed Morrison nods while he admires the huge dogs from the safe side of the fence.
“Chloe Eastwood, you really surprise me constantly. I must say, I haven’t even thought about this. It is brilliant! I just hope you know what you are doing because these animals look extremely dangerous and now you have ten of them. Well, we had no choice but to erect these cages quickly. Ten Boerboel dogs that are trained as a group to sniff out any intruders and detain them! Then our guys with head masks can move in safely and bring these intruders to our quarantine cells. The dogs can’t be infected or carry the virus over to us. We only have to spray an antiseptic solution over their coats and they will be safe. This is absolutely brilliant!”
“At this moment I am also training Jane with the dogs and we are doing well. We spent time with them in the veld trained them. I must show you once the instinct of these dogs to dominate a strange dog by pinning him down on the ground and with his big mouth around his neck, standing over him. I now train these dogs to do the same with human beings. We also systematically bring members of our community to them during the day to familiarize them with our people, but we are going to train them to distrust strangers and to dominate them.
“This evening Jane and I will take them on a night training session through the dense blue gum forest. I must thank you for your cooperation to erect these cages so swiftly and also to pay double the price to obtain them from a neighboring dog breeder. We would not have been able to do this without your help.”
Morrison shakes his head amazed: “Shit! I will have to learn to be very wary of you. You are full of alarming surprises. I just wonder how you manage these monsters so effectively.”
Chloe shows him the whistle that hangs around her neck. “I’ve learned over the years by training my own two bitches with this sheepdog whistle. I perfected the technique with Batista and Buddy. It is now easier to train the eight new younger dogs because they follow my veterans’ examples and in this way follow our instructions. We use these whistles to manage the dogs even over vast distances. Another advantage is that when I blow the whistle, only the dogs can hear it because the frequency is too high for the human ear but the dogs hear it and follow my instructions over vast distances. We and our dogs understand the codes like we are using a special language.”
Morrison again shakes his head amazed and gives her a fist: “Where do you get all your ideas? I am so happy that we can work together in the future.”
“Don’t forget about Jane. She learns very quickly and even helps my husband, Doctor Isaac Horn, with equipping the chemist and she makes me fit with cage fighting techniques. Thanks for organizing the field clinic, theatre and ambulance so quickly. He is very thankful.
~*~*~
Rene answers the knock on the front door and opens it. “Hello Michael, have you settled down alright over there?”
“Yes, Madam, we have. It looks as if you also have everything under control here. Has your electricity been connected already? They have solar panels, wind turbines, the battery bank and also the generators ready so that our community will be prepared when the national electricity network collapses. Also, they transported quite a lot of diesel tanks that will see us through in between the sun and wind power.”
“Yes, Hannes Haasbroek and his team have installed ours already. They are so effective. Difficult to believe everything is in place already. They are planning to start with the high, electrified wire netting right around our basis on Friday and then they will begin with the watchtowers.”
“Where are Kadin and Jack?”
“Come in. We have just had breakfast. They are still at the table in the kitchen. It still feels strange and rather weird, because we bought everything on credit and we are not going to pay it back. I feel a little guilty. It just doesn’t feel right. Just imagine in what mess we will land ourselves if the plague doesn’t come.”
Rene leads Michael through their mobile home to the dining room where Jack and Kadin still are sitting at the table. Kadin smiles surprised: “Michael!”
“Hello, Kadin and Jack, how are you?”
Jack points to a chair opposite them: “Come, sit!”
Michael pulls out a chair and sits down while he shows with his finger in front of his mouth that they mustn’t talk about what he is going to do. He takes out a notebook from his pocket and puts it in front of them. The three of them nod that they understand. He indicates that Rene must come and read with them and standing behind Jack and Kadin, they all start to read. Michael speaks as if he is busy with a normal conversation. “It is Wednesday and everyone is settled. I couldn’t imagine that we would be able to do it so quickly.”
Jack plays along and keeps the conversation going while reading with them. “Yes, this Morrison guy hasn’t got manners, but he is effective. Without him, we wouldn’t have been half as far. It’s regretful that he doesn’t trust us. Why do you think he is so suspicious?”
Reading Michael’s letter they take turns to keep the conversation alive.
“The professor told us he had looked into the future to different scenarios and the best outcome is the one where we ten live and survive in the fort, but it is your choice whether you want to go with us tonight. They are constantly watching us and eavesdropping via our wristbands but Hunter doesn’t carry one and in the meantime arranged with Chloe, Ronnie, and Lyle to help us to get away tonight. We are going to get together in the barn under the pretext of holding a religious meeting and they are going to smuggle us out from there. So, you must decide now whether you go or stay.
“Nico only wants to warn you because many things can go wrong. You’ll have to take grave risks; so think it over carefully. Nico trusts Major Hunter because of the dangerous operations they had completed successfully during the bush war. You must consider the following before you decide: Hunter will have to bluff the colonel successfully and will have to get us to the national road before the colonel realize that we are not on the farm anymore because they will then deploy foot soldiers to block our way immediately. Nico will then have to get us around roadblocks to PE. Although the professor will need us in the future and probably will open up the entrance for us to get in when we arrive, it is not guaranteed because he is beholden to the occult. The greatest risk is that moment we arrive in front of the 666 wall because it will be touch and go. We will not be sure whether he will open and we will have to wait because Morrison’s soldiers will block our way to the smallholding. However, the soldiers will have to be flown back in time to the farm before the plague comes. That means we will have to wait until the last moment before we can move into the fort. If the professor doesn’t open up, we are lost. Okay, you’ve been warned. Think about it carefully before you decide.”
In the meantime, Rene has remarked: “Yes, I wonder why the colonel is so paranoid. We are here; all of us. They can just as well remove the wrist bands; we are going nowhere, but they will probably do it on Friday evening after the plague has arrived and our community is trapped here.”
Michael takes a turn: “I am here really to invite you to join the group in the barn at eight-o’-clock for a spiritual meeting. Our eight who are part of the ordeal from the beginning, will gather there and I am going to beseech Krishna to protect our community during the difficult times that lie ahead. Are you coming?”
Jack nods while he indicates himself but shakes his head from side to side when he points at Rene and Kadin.
Kadin frowns heavily and viciously shakes her head from side to side: “Yes, Michael, we are definitely going to see you there, right Father and Mother?”
Rene looks at Jack and with a circling hand indicates all three of them and nods: “Are we going, my husband?”
Jack reminisces for a while and then he nods confidently: “Sure, Michael, we will see you tonight at eight.”
~*~*~
Kadin and Billy clutch their hands tightly while the group of eight stand and sing in a circle holding hands. The honey rose incense that Michael is burning, takes Kadin’s thoughts way back to the time she and Billy went to the Krishna temple looking for an answer on the Sanskrit scribbled in the booklet. Michael sings and hits the little triangle and clumsily they repeat after him just as they did in the temple and he indicates that they must just stand and hold hands while he moves to the backside of the barn. He knocks softly on the storeroom’s door while keeping the rhythm on his triangle and keep on singing and then he comes back to his group.
The door is unlocked from the inside and Kadin’s eyes widen in surprise when she sees Ronnie and Chloe entering. They now hear a little background noise and Kadin peeps over Nico’s head and sees the electric rolling door of the barn is opening. A little cool breeze sweeps over them from the woods that starts just outside the storeroom’s rolling door. Chloe walks to the door while a delivery van reverses into the barn and is left idling. She opens the sliding door of the delivery van and to their surprise comes back with one of the Boerboel. Kadin thinks it makes sense now that Jane came and fetched them separately to meet the dogs and familiarize them with them. The dog looks so calm and obedient and follows Chloe closely and then sits down behind them, very alert. It is really a strange moment with this monstrous dog sitting and watching the group in a circle holding hands and repeating the chants after Michael.
Now Ronnie comes forward with a cutter that looks like a type of garden shear with arms that can pull out and they open the circle for him. He goes to Kadin and lifts her arm with the wrist band and winks at her. Kadin smiles and holds her arm out for him and he turns her palm upward and pulls out the extensions of the cutter. Chloe now brings the dog close to Ronnie in the centre of the singing group and takes off the dog’s collar and holds it ready for Ronnie. Ronnie slips the sharp cutting blades in position and cuts Kadin’s wrist band loose. While keeping the band still in position on her wrist, he passes the cutter to Chloe, takes cable ties out of his pocket and slips one beneath her wristband. He now takes the dog’s collar and fastens it to Kadin’s wristband before he quickly removes it and put it around the dog’s neck and secures the wristband to the collar with even more cable ties. He then pulls the dog’s collar tight. Chloe takes the dog back to the delivery van and brings another one. And so, one by one, the wristbands become collars around the necks of the dogs while the group keeps on singing with Michael.
As soon as the last dog was done, Chloe shuts the door of the delivery van and it moves outside. Ronnie hands over the cutter to Chloe and also vanishes through the open rolling door. They now stop singing and Chloe leads them to the storeroom and locks the door behind them.
Chloe explains: “Those dogs are big enough so that their pulse rate equals those of humans and the guy who monitors the wristbands will be bluffed by believing you still wear the stuff. Hunter will now try to bluff them even further by leading them astray because they will be thinking that you are driving away in the delivery van. Ronnie will come and call us when it is safe to leave here and then I am going to take you in the opposite direction through the woods that starts right here behind the barn to an opening in the farm’s fence up to a kombi that Lyle hid for you in the bushes near the national road. I am going to take you there and then return with Hunter and keep them busy with our dogs and eventually, Jane will return the dogs to their cages.
“Nico and Francois will take you to Port Elizabeth, but for now we must be quiet and wait because they will come and check there is no one in the barn. Earlier they sniffed around here before your gathering and the storeroom was locked and hopefully, they will take it for granted that this cannot be a hiding place and will follow the signals from the wristbands. Ronnie will also come and have a look and pretend that he also wants to know why the delivery van departed so quickly. He will try to divert their attention and try to bluff them and hopefully, they will then depart and he will give us the sign that the coast is clear to enter the woods. Thus; from now on, no sound, please. If you want to sneeze at the wrong moment, just lift the tip of your nose, inhale deeply through your nostrils and the sneeze will disappear.”
Hunter guns the van from the back of the barn over the yard and past the farmhouse. He is thankful that the rolling door at the backside hugs the dense blue gum woods because this gives him a chance to break free. Jane has hidden herself with binoculars and watches the barn, while he and Chloe prepared the dogs and the delivery truck in the woods. Hunter surmises that the task team has put too much trust in the wristbands and he is thankful that there was no need to get rid of a sentinel as well.
Hunter drives like hell out of the yard and into the dirt road that leads from the farm to the main road. He glimpses and sees two men coming out of the mobile headquarters of the task team. They jump into a jeep that they use to drive all around the farm. Hunter is quite happy with his lead because he vanishes around the corner by the time the jeep starts to move.
Heinrich’s voice comes urgently over Morrison‘s radio in his room which Chloe provides for him in the farmhouse.
“Colonel. Come in! You were right, they tried to bluff us with that religious rubbish and is now busy chasing down the farm road! Marco and Alex are chasing after them with the jeep. Haasbroek is on his way to the civilian helicopter with our pilot. Will you come soon to the control room, Colonel?”
Morrison shakes his head. “The Fuckers! I suspected that they had something up their sleeves. Do we still have pulses or had they removed the wristbands?”
“Each of them still shows a pulse. They are all in one vehicle that chases down in the direction of the national road.”
“What? Strangely, they didn’t try to remove the bands. In any case, what will they achieve by this? I am quickly going to contact our foot soldiers to ascertain there is no one in the barn, as they did before the so-called religious meeting. Just keep the jeep and chopper up to date with their position. I just don’t understand how these people can even think that they can flee with the wristbands. Something is wrong.”
“Maybe they are just desperate, Colonel, and they don’t know that you can easily remove the wristbands with a strong cutter other than with the ankle bands of the traditional house arrest system. I think we should rather have used the ankle system. It is very difficult to remove them.”
“The wristband is not that cumbersome and inconvenient and Haasbroek convinced me it would be better for we are going a bit far on infringing on their human rights. He ensured me that we will immediately be alarmed when they try to take them off and we will have time to catch them easily. I hope he was right. Are you sure they still wear them?”
“For sure, Colonel. They are all together in that van. Each pulse is still registering in compliance with that of a human being and they all still show up on the monitor. I don’t think there is a way in which they could copy it. Animals have a very quick pulse rate. I assume they are going to get some distance away from here and split up to jeopardize our effort to catch them. We must catch them before they split up, but I‘m sure we will catch them even before they leave the farm. We have enough foot soldiers to cut them off before they reach the highway.”
“Good, I’m quickly sending the foot soldiers to make sure the barn is empty before we will deploy them with those South African Casspirs. Take over command in the meantime. I will be there shortly.”
Hunter brakes steadily and reduces his speed to turn off into a ninety-degree bush path and then he switches all lights off. He lowers his night vision system and follows the bush path in the dark deeper into the dense blue gum forest. He looks into the mirror and sees the lights and then the jeep that rushes by and past the bush path. His plan worked! The guys are going to travel quite a bit before they will be redirected via helicopter and their headquarters to this part of the woods where he is now travelling with the dogs. He is going to drive just far enough and will release the dogs and then the next phase of Operation Mind-messing will seriously kick in!