pointer that had been smuggled in by a laundry supplier. While he waited, he relished the irony that it was Tyler Locke’s own sister who had unwittingly set into motion the events that would lead to his escape from prison.
As with any escape attempt, there were dozens of potential roadblocks and mistakes that could ruin the most carefully laid plans, any one of which would result in capture or death. Zim would get only one shot at this, but he was able to breathe easier knowing the first hurdle had been cleared. With a fall of several minutes from the plane’s fifteen-thousand-foot altitude, the drop had to commence before the fight even started. If that hadn’t occurred on time, the guards would have noticed the parachute long before it hit the ground.
Even so, Zim expected a quick response once it landed, so it was critical to open the package before anyone could stop him.
Between the rioting prisoners, the crowd egging them on, and the guards yelling at them to break it up, it was nearly impossible to hear the nearest tower guard shout a warning about the parachute. Zim was attuned to hear such an out-of-context word, so he caught it right away and knew he had little time left.
Zim raised two fingers and pointed, the signal for the second part of the plan to go into motion. Another Aryan Knight triggered a small explosive device made from a bottle and a small amount of smuggled chemicals. It wasn’t much more than a pop, but the sudden noise and puff of smoke were enough to draw the eyes of the guards away from the parachute.
In coming up with this idea, Zim had his financial benefactor research other prison escape methods, none of which ended up being adaptable for this enormous facility. Tunneling out would have taken years and could have been discovered many times over the course of the digging. One escapee from Everglades Maximum Security Prison got away when his mother and friends rammed a Mack truck through three fences and an iron gate, but he and his accomplices were caught soon after. And prisoners had escaped numerous times by helicopter, but it was a risky bet because choppers could be heard coming from a mile away, and some of the escapes had been foiled not by the guards but by other prisoners rushing the helicopter and overloading it, preventing it from taking off. For his plan, Zim had to raise the bar.
The silent parachute wasn’t seen until the last seconds. Zim was counting on the guards thinking it was a wayward skydiver from a local club before they discerned that the object hanging from the cords wasn’t a person. That’s all the confusion Zim needed before the true contents of the package were revealed.
The five-foot-tall pack landed with a thump next to Zim, exposing it for only a moment before the parachute covered it. Zim rushed over to the pack and dived under the parachute. He’d been expecting it to be kited while he snapped open the pack, but the windless day gave him a little bit of extra serendipity. The blue cloak would keep the guards in the tower from seeing what he was doing.
Zim unclasped the metal latches on either side, and the hard plastic covering fell away, revealing the pack’s contents: a stacked quartet of quadcopters identical to the ones used in the Eiffel Tower attack. All he had to do was hit the button to launch each copter and then tag its target with the laser pointer. The autonomous robotic copters would use the infrared sensors to mark the target, store the location in memory, and guide themselves there.
Zim threw the parachute clear. He could feel hundreds of pairs of eyes on him. The melee had stopped, the participants mesmerized by the sight of Zim emerging from underneath the billowing chute. A few of them looked up at the sound of the approaching helicopter, but most of them kept their eyes on Zim.
He pointed the laser and clicked twice, then tapped the pack’s GO button. With the target locked in, the top quadcopter whirred to life, its
As with any escape attempt, there were dozens of potential roadblocks and mistakes that could ruin the most carefully laid plans, any one of which would result in capture or death. Zim would get only one shot at this, but he was able to breathe easier knowing the first hurdle had been cleared. With a fall of several minutes from the plane’s fifteen-thousand-foot altitude, the drop had to commence before the fight even started. If that hadn’t occurred on time, the guards would have noticed the parachute long before it hit the ground.
Even so, Zim expected a quick response once it landed, so it was critical to open the package before anyone could stop him.
Between the rioting prisoners, the crowd egging them on, and the guards yelling at them to break it up, it was nearly impossible to hear the nearest tower guard shout a warning about the parachute. Zim was attuned to hear such an out-of-context word, so he caught it right away and knew he had little time left.
Zim raised two fingers and pointed, the signal for the second part of the plan to go into motion. Another Aryan Knight triggered a small explosive device made from a bottle and a small amount of smuggled chemicals. It wasn’t much more than a pop, but the sudden noise and puff of smoke were enough to draw the eyes of the guards away from the parachute.
In coming up with this idea, Zim had his financial benefactor research other prison escape methods, none of which ended up being adaptable for this enormous facility. Tunneling out would have taken years and could have been discovered many times over the course of the digging. One escapee from Everglades Maximum Security Prison got away when his mother and friends rammed a Mack truck through three fences and an iron gate, but he and his accomplices were caught soon after. And prisoners had escaped numerous times by helicopter, but it was a risky bet because choppers could be heard coming from a mile away, and some of the escapes had been foiled not by the guards but by other prisoners rushing the helicopter and overloading it, preventing it from taking off. For his plan, Zim had to raise the bar.
The silent parachute wasn’t seen until the last seconds. Zim was counting on the guards thinking it was a wayward skydiver from a local club before they discerned that the object hanging from the cords wasn’t a person. That’s all the confusion Zim needed before the true contents of the package were revealed.
The five-foot-tall pack landed with a thump next to Zim, exposing it for only a moment before the parachute covered it. Zim rushed over to the pack and dived under the parachute. He’d been expecting it to be kited while he snapped open the pack, but the windless day gave him a little bit of extra serendipity. The blue cloak would keep the guards in the tower from seeing what he was doing.
Zim unclasped the metal latches on either side, and the hard plastic covering fell away, revealing the pack’s contents: a stacked quartet of quadcopters identical to the ones used in the Eiffel Tower attack. All he had to do was hit the button to launch each copter and then tag its target with the laser pointer. The autonomous robotic copters would use the infrared sensors to mark the target, store the location in memory, and guide themselves there.
Zim threw the parachute clear. He could feel hundreds of pairs of eyes on him. The melee had stopped, the participants mesmerized by the sight of Zim emerging from underneath the billowing chute. A few of them looked up at the sound of the approaching helicopter, but most of them kept their eyes on Zim.
He pointed the laser and clicked twice, then tapped the pack’s GO button. With the target locked in, the top quadcopter whirred to life, its
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