Free Minds

Chapter 55.

"Shit, I hear footsteps," Tali whispered. "I just finished removing the cameras from the leg brace and put them into my bag. Now will be a good time to think of anything that can get us out of this."

"Rejoin the group for now," Camila replied with a sigh. "Keep your earpiece on just in case we need to speak to you."

   Nobody said a word as shuffling sounds erupted from Tali's end.

   Talise informed us a few seconds later of how she had rejoined the Visitors. She was able to talk to us after using the leg brace as an excuse for being some steps behind the group. As long as her words were limited to short whispers, the rest walking ahead couldn't hear her.

   Rav finally raised his head from his hands to face the laptop and asked Talise. "Zavlon's cameras, where are they?"

"So far I've seen two next to some smoke detectors, one placed on a ceiling light and another at the top of a corner wall." Tali replied in an undertone. "These cameras don't seem like they're going for subtlety."

   Why not though? Subtlety was basically the anthem of the Yunies. Why not use it in relation to something as serious as this?

"Hey, Eugene?" Tali startled us all in the van by suddenly calling out one of the tour guides. "I have a question."

"Yes, Destiny?" His Southern drawl of her fake name, though a little faint, was clear through the laptop speakers.

"How do these cameras around Zavlon ensure the students' safety and well as maintain their right to privacy?" she asked.

"Talise!" I snapped, getting closer to the laptop.

   What was she doing? Attention was the last thing we needed. Especially since our entire plan just went to hell.

   Her reply to me was through gritted teeth, "Beth, I love you, but shut the hell up. I know what I'm doing."

"Now that she mentioned it," An unfamiliar feminine voice, most likely belonging to one of the Visitors, chipped in. "As a Zavlon alumni, I've been around long enough to know that this school has never succumbed to the practice of placing cameras everywhere and invading the privacy of students like public schools do. So why now?"

"Well, currently—" Eugene barely got a word in before being interjected by another Visitor.

"The idea of cameras in schools has always been a controversial matter," A masculine voice wielding a British accent and sightless nasal tone remarked. "What's Zavlon justification for doing so?"

"Sir, it's—"

   A different visitor interrupted Eugene's partner, the other tour guide's answer, with a question that sounded like it was from way too personal perspective.

"And where in the world is Edna?"

"Why was the solo tour cancelled?" Came from another visitor.

   As the feedback we received from Zavlon right here in the van turned to an overflow of questions and murmurs of the Visitors, realisation of what Tali was trying to do hit me.

   My best friend was a genius!

"Talise was trying to ask about the cameras without asking about the cameras," I laughed as I told no one in particular. "She knew doing it directly wouldn't be the smartest thing to do so she made it such that others would do it for her."

"You're forgetting the part where she basically just created chaos with one innocent question," Rav chuckled.

   Talise gave a sheepish apology, stating that that level of intensity was far from her intention. "I just wanted them to fess up about the cameras."