The plan was clear, and it took about half an hour to make it even better and more precise as they carefully studied every blueprint, every hallway, every cell block, and every possible escape route inside the prison, making sure there were no blind spots, no mistakes, and no places where anyone could survive or escape once the operation started.
After that, the preparations began, and that part took far longer than anyone expected.
They did not have the gas they needed, or more exactly, they did not have the chemicals required to create it, which ant they had to delay the operation and send out another team to collect everything they needed. It took more than an hour for the agents to find the chemicals, load them into vehicles, and transport them back to the prison site.
And even after the chemicals arrived, the work was not over.
The teams still had to figure out how much gas would be needed to fill an entire prison facility, how long it would take to spread through the building, and whether it would even be strong enough to kill everyone inside before people had a chance to escape, hide, or fight back.
They spent more ti testing the mixture, adjusting it, and making sure it was deadly enough.
And when they were done the next problem appeared.
As the prison director had already explained, the electricity inside the facility had been shut down, but the backup generators were not running. Because of that, the ventilation system and the air conditioning were not working, which was bad as the prison had very little natural airflow, which ant the gas could not simply be released outside and expected to drift through the building on its own. There was a serious risk that the gas would leak back out through the wrong vents, spread into the open air, and kill the people operating it before it even reached the prisoners inside.
So they spent even more ti trying to find a solution, studying the ventilation maps and tracing every vent line through the building until soone finally ca up with the answer.
They would pump the gas directly into the ventilation system.
More hours passed as agents were sent out again, this ti to find air pumps strong enough to force the gas through the entire ventilation network of the prison. They needed machines powerful enough to push the gas through every hallway, every cell block, every office, every stairwell, and every room inside the building without leaving any dead zones behind.
When the pumps finally arrived, the teams connected them to the ventilation system and tested them over and over again, checking pressure levels, airflow speed, and how quickly the gas would spread once it entered the building.
By the ti everything was finally ready, hours had passed, but at least they were ready to kill everybody inside.
But of course that was the ti when the main problem popped out of nowhere.
"Who are you two?" Benjamin asked as soon as he heard the shouting and what sounded dangerously close to a fight coming from outside of the tent and the mont he stepped outside, he saw one of his agents trying to hold back a woman while another agent stood in front of a man.
At first glance, Benjamin assud they were family mbers of one of the prisoners, people desperate enough to break through security just to get answers.
But the longer he looked at them, the more they seed far too official for that.
The woman was dressed in a dark coat, holding a folder, while the man beside her carried himself with the confidence of soone who believed he had the authority to walk anywhere he wanted without being stopped.
"We are mbers of the Human Rights Committee!" the woman shouted as she yanked her arm away from the agent gripping her wrist. "And this is outrageous!"
"Outrageous?" Benjamin repeated, staring at her in disbelief. "You trespassed into an active federal operation and assaulted—"
"We are officials sent by the Union, and we have every right to be here!" The man interrupted before Benjamin could finish and the second those words left his mouth, Benjamin already knew this situation was going to beco far more complicated than he had originally expected.
The only type of person that Benjamin hated more than anything were these two.
mbers of a committee that was a fucking joke itself.
A committee that ruled over the execution of several rapists, school shooters, serial killers, molesters and so on because "they are human too."
Though the truth was, Benjamin should have expected sothing like this to happen.
There was already a massive response from the Union because of the earthquake and the destruction. Committees, organizations, inspectors, and observers had been arriving one after another ever since the crisis began, each one wanting access, information, and soone to bla.
Still, Benjamin had never seriously considered that the Human Rights Committee would actually show up here of all places.
That was what made this even worse.
This entire operation had been placed under restriction classification for a reason, which ant only a very small number of people were supposed to know about it in the first place.
And yet sohow, despite all of that, the Human Rights Committee had still shown up.
"Oh really? The HRC? Wow." Benjamin shook his head with a dry laugh. "Well, I do not care and I will not care, so please leave before I put both of you under arrest and another HRC mber has to be sent here to investigate what happened to you two."
"You are threatening Union officials, not the—"
"Lady," Benjamin cut her off before she could finish. "First, we are already under sanctions by the Union." He stepped closer and looked directly into her eyes. "Second, we left the HRC two years ago, just like we left the High Court of the Union, so your little badge and whatever authority you think it gives you ans absolutely nothing here." He did not look away for even a second. "So leave."
"It will be another charge then." The man said.
"Huh?" Benjamin turned toward him.
"There are already six criminal charges against you filed by the High Court, and now this will be the seventh."
He laughed. It was slow, genuine laughter as he stepped toward the man. "Arrest then." Benjamin said, reaching his hands out toward him. "Go ahead. Cuff right now."
Silence fell, and for a brief mont the opportunity was there, the cuff hanging at the man’s side right next to his HRC badge. But that silence didn’t last long.
Every single agent standing around them lowered their hands toward their weapons and one after another, the sound of safeties on guns being switched off broke the silence.
"So? Are you going to arrest ?"
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