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“Are we having any luck focusing them on the rescue instead of search and destroy?”

“Hang on. Kerry’s back.”

He passed the phone and I heard, “Pike, sorry about not getting back to you sooner about the extradition of the Chinese, but you’re going to have to babysit a little longer. I haven’t had time to sort it out.”

I said, “Sir, the Chinese—Mr.Chin—talked. My theory was right on the money. The MSS hired these guys to kill Thakkar to stop or slow the rare earth element mine. They lost control of them and now they’re tying up loose ends to protect the CCP. Chin was one of the targets because of his fuckup, along with the bodyguard and now the terrorists.”

“Well, good luck on them beating the Black Cats to the inside of Thakkar’s residence. There’s only room for three helicopters on the roof.”

“He had intelligence about the location of one of the terrorists, and it’s not at Thakkar’s residence.” I then gave him a rundown of what I knew and what I was doing, ending with, “I think this needs to be checked out.”

“Meaning you?”

“Well, of course meaning me. Look, who else is going to do it? The government is preoccupied with Thakkar’s residence. You give this intel to them and they’re going to flood the slum with uniforms and whistles blowing. The guy will get away for sure. The Oversight Council said that the residence assault was no longer a Taskforce issue but that we could pursue the Chinese angle. Thisisthe Chinese angle.”

“You know I’m going to have to take this to the Oversight Council. In fact, why are you calling me instead of George Wolffe? I’m a member of the Council, not your chain of command.”

“Because you’re on the ground and he’s in DC. Trust me, if you tell me no, I’m going straight to him like a kid playing mommy off daddy. We don’t have time to wait for the Council to deliberate. Mr.Chin told me there’s a Chinese team hunting this same intel to eliminate the threat of CCP exposure, and I need to beat them to the punch. With the time zone difference between here and DC, you won’t be able to get any kind of decision out of them until midnight at the earliest. By then I’ll have him in the bag.”

“Those are the rules we play by.”

“What’s the assault timeline?”

“They’re looking at going in at dawn tomorrow.”

“Well, there you go. Waiting on the Oversight Council for a decision is asking for no decision, because once that assault goes down, he’s gone for good.”

“It’s not a given at this point. We’re still pushing for more fidelity on the intelligence to facilitate a rescue, and the fact that they have an American hostage is the only thing holding the Black Cats back.”

“I heard we had proof of life for both the women, what about him? Is he there?”

“Yes, and no. Yes, we have a video of him for proof of life, but no consensus as to whether he’s in the building.”

“Huh? I thought Thakkar was vetting all these videos?”

“This one was a little different. Both of the women were done live, over FaceTime, using Thakkar’s Wi-Fi node and in a setting he definitely confirmed. His was sent over Thakkar’s Wi-Fi, but it was a recorded video, and it was from the exercise room.”

“So? Is ithisexercise room?”

“He can’t say. Apparently, he’s never used it. He says it could be his, but can’t positively say it is. There was nothing in the video that he could confirm.”

“Veep said you had snipers ID the floor the hostages are on. Did they see Sledge at any time?”

“No. Only the two females, but they can’t see the exercise room, and according to the terrorist, Sledge was sent there because he was being unruly. At this point we don’t know if it’s bullshit or not.”

“Veep also said Nadia tried to warn us about explosives in the building?”

“Yeah, I tend to believe the RAW on this and that she was giving us a hint, but we don’t know if that’s bullshit or not either.”

“Give me Omega authority for my intel, and maybe I can solve both problems.”

“Pike, I can’t give you Omega authority.”

“Let me rephrase that: I have Omega authority from the Oversight Council for the Chinese option. Give me cover with the Oversight Council if I have to go apeshit to continue exploring the Chinese option.”

I heard him laugh, then he said, “Okay, Pike, I’ll cover your ass. But don’t go apeshit if you can avoid it.”

“Only if you promise not to go apeshit on an assault before I can execute.”