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“He’sstillsomeone to trust. I do. What can you do for us?”

“There’s a van in the parking lot. It has weapons, ammunition, and hand grenades. It also has two cell phones to coordinate. Those are the only two phones you will use to contact us.”

He held out a thumb drive, saying, “There is a map in here for you to follow. Thakkar has taken over the entire Oberoi hotel in Jaipur. The security will be incredibly tight, with guests arriving by helicopter and through the front gate, with the entire staff on hand to facilitate. There is no way to do a frontal assault, but the back of the property has a wooden fence with a simple gate. I’m in charge of the security for the greater perimeter, which means I own this gate. I’ll make sure it’s open. The two other true believers I’ve recruited will be on that gate.”

Manjit said, “How big is this hotel? Is it like a five-story building or what? I get I can drive on the grounds, but we need to hit the actual party.”

“It’s not a hotel like that. It’s big, but there are no buildings over one story. It’s spread out over acres of land, and all the rooms are villas scattered across the grounds. The party will be held by the pool and the ground-level temple. It’s all on the map. You’ll enter the back gate and be driving across a makeshift golf range. You will not have to storm a building. They’ll all be outside, in the open.”

Manjit said, “How will we coordinate the assault? We need to takeThakkar with us. That’s important. We want to cause mayhem, but we need to take Thakkar.”

“Rakesh and I are in charge of his personal security. You attack, and we’ll take him. You do what you’re going to do, and we’ll get him to the van. Once we’re in the van, we exfiltrate, no matter what. The killing must stop, and we need to leave.”

Manjit nodded and said, “We can do that.”

“What are the follow-on steps? How are you going to leverage this? Where are we going to go?”

“Kamal has a plan. We’ll leave Jaipur and go to Mumbai. Kamal has a safe house in the slums. From there, we start talking.”

“The slums? That’s perfect. Thakkar living in the same conditions I grew up in is a just reward. What about the follow-on?”

“Kamal has already set up a website. We were hoping you would be able to give us a conduit to the government, since Thakkar deals with them daily. Maybe someone in the foreign ministry or even the RAW.”

“I can get it, but why? The government isn’t going to tell anyone what you want. They aren’t going to broadcast our demands. They’re going to hunt us.”

“Because we need to both project to the population, which we’ll do through the website, but also let the government know we’re real. They need to know thattheyare the target, not the population. The website will get the press that we need, but it’s the government we want to stick with a knife.”

Jaiden leaned back, reflecting on his words. He looked at his partner, then said, “Okay. We’re in.” He handed Manjit the keys to the van and said, “But one final question.”

“What?”

“What about Mr.Chin? What about the Chinese?”

“He no longer thinks you’re in play. He has his own plan that doesn’t involve you, which we’re going to pretend to execute. By the time he knows we didn’t follow his instructions, it’ll be too late.”

Jaiden slowly nodded, thinking about what he’d said. “You know he’s not going to stop. We’ll have both the RAW and the MSS on us the moment we attack. You’ll no longer be Islamic terrorists, and you have the ability to implicate China in the attack.”

“Mr.Chin won’t find us.”

Jaiden laughed and said, “You clearly haven’t worked for him long. Hewillfind you, and when he does, he will kill you. China is his priority, and he’ll do anything to protect that. You need to remember his reach.”

Jaiden motioned to Rakesh and they both stood up, Rakesh’s milky eye floating over Manjit. The man hadn’t said a word the entire time, and his eye was unsettling.

They turned to go, and Rakesh finally spoke. “You need to understand what Jaiden has just said. When you start on this path, there is no turning back. I believe in this mission. Believe in Khalistan. When this is done, we’ll all be the most hunted men on the planet. If you think about running when it gets hot, I’ll kill you myself.”

Chapter33

Knuckles followed Nadia out of the Jaipur airport baggage claim area, saying, “How are we getting to the hotel?”

She turned to him, now dressed in a traditional Indian sari, sandals on her bare feet, her hair spilling out all over, and bangles on her arms. She looked incredibly sexy, which made him internally take a step back. He had a mission here, something Pike was skeptical about, but Knuckles took seriously. He was Pike’s control with RAW for their actions, even if the RAW component was someone to whom he was attracted. Honestly, he still wasn’t sure if Nadia was playing him for something else, a possibility he’d have to guard against.

She smiled at him and said, “We have a car.”

He smiled back, then thought,Stop it. This is a mission.

Knuckles understood Pike had agreed to this arrangement on purpose, because he was a sadist deep down. Pike knew Knuckles would accomplish the mission, but he also saw the connection between Nadia and him and had decided to leverage it.

It wasn’t the first time Pike had done this, and, while Knuckles was definitely smitten with Nadia, Pike recognized he could separate the difference between a pre-wedding party and an actual mission.