"We've been invaded, we've been invaded, we've been invaded!" he shouted.
Within seconds, distant noises of people could be heard. If his ears weren't so keen, he wouldn't have been able to hear them approaching. Jason smiled and went to sit on the sofa, confident that his men were coming at that moment. Three men entered, dressed in black, although their faces were uncovered. One had a pistol in his hand, the second wielded a large white knife, and the third carried nothing. They were all surprised to see their fellow man lying on the ground and a stranger sitting as if he belonged there.
One of them had American roots, while the other two were black. Jason looked at them each in turn with great emphasis and attention; their postures showed that they were not ordinary people.
"How did you manage to find out that we are here?" one of the men asked, turning to look at his two companions.
"Check if you all have your IDs in your pockets," Jason said, standing up from where he was sitting.
The question startled the men, making them look at each other. Each of them felt their pockets to see if they had their IDs. Two of them found theirs, but one couldn't find his ID. He remained stunned, wondering how the man knew that one of them didn't have their ID. They had no answers. When he raised his eyes and looked at Jason, he saw him twirling the ID in his hand.
"Well, this is the major negligence you've made, and it's going to cost you your lives. So, bring me that girl, and I'll leave now; I'll leave you as I found you," he said, addressing the man with the ID labelled DH Triple, not X no 0012.
After speaking, Jason's demeanour changed drastically as he clenched his fists. What surprised and puzzled them was how he had acquired that ID; how did he find out where they were when the ID had secret numbers and letters that an ordinary person couldn't interpret?
"How is it possible for an ordinary person like you to access this information?" the man without the ID in his hand asked Jason. A question that led him to give them explanations that startled and frightened them all.
"On that day after you successfully abducted the lawyer, Yasinta from her home, the mistake you made was losing this ID. DH Triple, not X no 0012. These numbers and letters are very important in the security of certain information or items and are not used by just anyone, only specific people for specific tasks," Jason explained,
"DH stands for Diffie Hellman security or algorithm. It's like a key exchange protocol that allows two people or entities to communicate using public sources to generate a secret without broadcasting it over the internet. This enables people to communicate without signalling to anyone who is not involved," Jason continued.
"This is used by people who conduct their affairs or have secret conversations because it's a very secure way to keep people's secrets. That's why I didn't have much trouble knowing that you are people who handle very confidential matters when needed to do something or complete a task," he added.
"The word 'Triple' means that there are three of you. But it's not 'X' because in mathematics, 'X' is assigned to a value for an unknown number. But for you, it's not 'X' because you are known. Lastly, there's the number 0012, which indicates that you are three among the twelve secret people. I didn't guess these explanations; they're precise calculations that even if you tell them to a layman, they might find them amusing, thinking they're decorations.
But I've had many questions in my head since my military days about what's happening and why there seems to be such a mixture of people like this. It's incredibly strange," Jason concluded, not only astonishing but also exhausting them.
The problem wasn't just that he had reached that point, but also how he managed to deliver those explanations so skillfully without any mistakes in letters or numbers.
"That alone didn't tell you we were here," one of the three men snapped, clearly breathing heavily and speaking with frustration. As he asked the question, Jason turned to him, as he had been watching the man who had lost his ID all along, and calmly replied.
"In these ID tags, everyone's identification is linked to their DNA. I believe it's for your security, and even if one of you decides to betray the others and run away from this plan, it will be discovered where they are for confidentiality. But that's what has allowed me to quickly locate you. So don't waste time wondering how I knew because the DNA of one of you has shown me where you are, and that's just routine work. You shouldn't be so surprised by my explanation, science has come a long way, making life much easier.“
They might have known or not that things could get difficult like this, but they knew such things were possible in today's world. One thing that surprised them all, was that none of the three knew that their ID tags had been made using their blood. It wasn't their fault as they were simply given the tags and didn't know how they were made. It was the first time they were hearing this information. Now, they needed to first confront the person who was there, and if they got another chance, they would question their leaders about why things were going this way.
"Okay. So, who do you think you are, demanding this woman like that?" the man without an ID tag on his wrist exploded with anger.
"I'm someone to be feared, but she is a saviour to many. What she needed to reveal should have been made public. And if she has the truth and you still want to hide it, what's your purpose? That's why I need that woman, so she can continue with the patriotism she started, and I will protect her here from now on," he concluded.
Now, they had nothing more to say but to stare at each other like hungry lions in the jungle when they saw a gazelle pass by in front of them with grace, in such moments, one must apply the theory of Darwinism (survival of the fittest).
Hunger was not a stranger to any of them, so even hunger couldn't weaken them. One of the men, the one whose ID tag Jason had on his wrist, raised his hand. He was furious with the man after seeing how careless he had been to the extent of losing his ID tag and having no information about it. His soul was burning with anger.
His arrival greeting was met with a shifting of two steps back by Jason. The man let out a calm sigh, no longer laughing after realizing his miscalculation, overwhelmed by the man standing before him. He threatened to move but then stopped, and that's when Jason entered his system after threatening to go to the other side and then standing his ground. He felt his chest burning with the blows that hit him. The man had no weakness anywhere in his body, and he realized this after those blows landed perfectly.
He groaned with a low, intensely painful voice. As he looked at his opponent in front of him, he seemed like a hungry lion in the desert, and he was the prey for the day. He turned to look at the others, who had no chance of intervening in all that had happened as one of them had him under control. Now, he had no choice but to use his abilities to free himself. He may have made a mistake the first time by thinking he had fallen into the hands of ordinary people when their abilities seemed to match his.
He forcefully moved towards the man, threatening a right punch, and the man responded with a left. That's when Jason moved his hand, touching the ground before unleashing a powerful kick. The kick landed on the left side of the man's neck, causing him to limp several meters before sitting down to catch his breath. Jason might have felt victorious at that moment, but he had forgotten that he was risking his life.
When Jason stood up to celebrate, he wasn't given time to revel in his victory as he faced three barrages of two kicks and one punch that pushed him against the wall, causing him intense pain in his chest and stomach, making him cough up blood. His anger surged when he saw the man sitting down to rest. What took him out of those thoughts was realizing that his two companions, one of whom had a knife in his hand and the other a pistol, had intervened in the fight after seeing their comrade sitting down.
He looked to the other side and realized that even his knife and ID tag were on the ground and not in his hand anymore. The men laughed mockingly and high-fived each other for the impending victory. The man in front of them wasn't as intimidating as they had initially thought; it was all just a bluff. Perhaps if they had known better, everyone would have armed themselves much earlier to find their own path to survival.