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Monday, January 27, 2014

Skewed Slightly to the Left: Getting to the other side.

[Originally posted at Slacktivist, and the Slacktiverse.]
[By someone who knows nothing about Israeli checkpoints, and also has no idea when Israel became East Germany such that the hard part is getting out, in the real world it's hard to get in, at least as I understand it.]

Cameron looked around at what had been gathered.
The people looked disreputable enough in that "These are respectable clothes, they just got slightly damaged when we looted them from the building we set fire to" kind of way. She was impressed by the number of school buses. They were cheap, she knew that. No one needed a school bus, or a school, these days, and the amount of remodeling necessary to avoid sending half of your passengers into a PTSD episode was absurd. So school buses were for those who couldn't afford much, weren't afraid to show it, and didn't mind the dirty looks everyone who wanted to NEVER THINK ABOUT THE RAPTURE AGAIN were sure to give. Even so, it was a lot of buses. As for the explosives, Cameron had no idea where those came from.
She sighed and said, "Tell me the plan one more time, but this time do it in a way that makes me believe it will actually work."
The smallest member of the group stepped forward, he hadn't uttered a word so far and Cameron had assumed he didn't speak English. When he said, "The plan is simple," in crisp English Cameron kicked herself. Her vocation and her faith both insisted that she test everything. Assumptions were never to be left untested.
The small man continued, "We rely on strategy, subterfuge, faith, and high explosives."
Cameron interrupted, "I've got that, but isn't setting off an explosion at point A to distract the guards from point B the oldest and thus most well prepared for form of distraction."
"Yes, that's the reason for points C and D," the small man said. "They'll anticipate that the events at point A might be a distraction, and investigate it without leaving the checkpoint unguarded. But when C goes off they'll wonder if A might have been a distraction for a crossing there. When they see bus one approaching the hole in the wall they'll be forced to send a larger force to C. Then when we set off D and they see an entire armada of buses--"
"Old school buses don't travel in armadas," Cameron said. "They ride in convoys."
"When they see the buses they'll have no choice but to assume that is the main incursion. And then you and Tison can sneak through at the point they least expect: The checkpoint itself."
Cameron still didn't like the plan, but she pushed that aside and asked, "And we place these explosives how?"
* * *
The preparations had, presumably, all been made, and Cameron and Tsion had been crawling toward the checkpoint under camouflage for an hour.
Cameron wished that she knew what was going on, but trying to get a look was too risky.
She wished Chloe had been here. That wasn't unusual, there were few situations where she didn't wish her wife was in "reach out and touch her" distance. What was different was that she wished Chloe were here because she was sure Chloe could have come up with a better plan than this.
The first explosion went off. It took all of Cameron's self control not to immediately look to see what was going on. Tsion seemed to have no such problems.
The wait for the second explosion was agonizing. At this point Cameron allowed herself to peek. The guards still at the checkpoint seemed to be on high alert, as Cameron has expected. If they couldn't be convinced to leave their posts all of this was pointless. When she heard the first of the empty buses approaching she saw a few guards peel off, but nowhere near enough.
After those guards had gotten some distance the final, and largest bomb went off.
In fact several smaller bombs it was designed to take down a sizable section of the wall, it was meant to appear to be the primary crossing point. Cameron heard the "armada" --the small man had insisted-- of buses immediately come to life and make for the gap in the wall.
When many of the guards attempted to head in that direction they found themselves under fire. The shots were not intended to hit anything, things would go worse if they did, they were intended to make the Israelis think that the opposition wanted to keep them pinned down at the checkpoint and away from the gap in the wall
This had the intended effect, no small miracle in Cameron's mind, of making them choose to abandon the checkpoint to try to stop what they though was a massive breach at the gap.
Cameron and Tsion left their cover and ran to the nearest concrete barricade, which they hid behind. Cameron had made the mistake of assuming once today, she wouldn't again. As far as she was concerned the checkpoint was still manned.
They moved from cover to cover until they were inside the defenses. There were still guards, but to few to have eyes everywhere. It was a bit of a dance to get around them, but nothing too major.
Soon Cameron and Tsion were out the other side and on Egyptian soil.
They disappeared into the night.
* * *
The headlines were about how a massive incursion had been prevented. The Israelis assumed that the buses, of which they stopped every single one, had had drivers who had gotten away, but been otherwise empty and were thus intended to cross the border, pick up people (and perhaps arms) hiding on the other side, and return them to Israel.
Tsion's escape went unnoticed.

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1 comment:

  1. The only real problem with this is scheme that there's nothing for the RTCs to point to afterwards and say "that was clearly a miracle, praise God".

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