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Thakkar looked at him in fury, but did as he was told. The air grew still, the screaming and chaos from the party behind him overshadowing his ability to hear Jaiden, still on the loose. Knuckles took a deep breath and held it, listening, but all he heard was the patio going berserk.

He hoisted Thakkar to his feet and said, “We need to get back inside, now.”

Thakkar pointed at the security man he’d knocked unconscious and said, “Kill him, right now.”

Knuckles said, “I don’t roll that way. Let’s go.”

Chapter48

Kamal reached the back of the building and took a knee, letting Manjit and Randeep gather around him. He said, “From here, it’s game on. Randeep and I will lead. We’ll toss a hand grenade from the darkness, and when they go off, we’ll storm the patio. Shoot long and loud. Hit whoever you can, but I’m not looking for a body count. The entire point is to cause panic, allowing Jaiden and Rakesh to pull out Thakkar.”

Randeep said, “Do we go in? Do you want us to assault, or just shoot and run?”

“Once the grenades go off, we go in. Just carve a path through the crowd with your gun, go to the northern room, and then out the side door. We’ll run from there back to the van and meet Jaiden.”

Kamal looked from Randeep to Manjit and said, “Are we good? Ready?”

They both nodded. He said, “Let’s go,” and he turned the corner of the building, running up the path that snaked along its side.

He dodged around a tall shrub and ran smack into a man and woman in a heated embrace, knocking them to the ground. The man shouted and Kamal shot him twice in the chest. The woman leapt to her feet and began running, letting out a vociferous shriek that split the night air.

Kamal shot her in the back, causing her body to tumble to the ground. He hissed, “We lost surprise! Get out the grenades!”

He dropped his AK-47 on its sling and frantically ripped at the Velcro of a pouch while running forward. He reached the light of the patio with the grenade in his hand, saw partygoers staring into the darkness from the woman’s scream, and pulled the pin.

He waited until Randeep reached him, then lobbed the grenade into the crowd, the overhead string lights making the spoon gleam as it flew off.

He stumbled back, unsure how big a blast the grenade would cause. Randeep tossed his own grenade and followed. They both dove on the ground in fear as the first one went off, smacking their ears with a thunderclap like a lightning bolt that had hit next to them.

Kamal slapped his hands over his ears and the second one exploded, the overpressure racing past him. He stood up, raised his weapon, and charged forward onto the patio. He reached the light and was astounded at the carnage. Torn bodies were lying all about as if a giant axe had swept through the crowd, some completely ripped open and dead, others groaning from various wounds.

He stumbled to a stop, shocked at what he’d wrought, fixated on the carnage. He was brought out of his trance by Randeep firing into the crowd inside the building.

Kamal raised his weapon and began shooting as well, blindly spraying the brick walls and windows. He began moving to the northern room, the chaos swirling around him, guests running to escape. He reached the stone arch, paused until Randeep and Manjit were behind him, and swung his weapon up, entering.

He took one step and felt like he’d been hit in the chest with a baseball bat. He collapsed on the ground, the wind knocked out ofhim, seeing one of Thakkar’s uniformed security in the room with a pistol out.

Manjit unleashed a string of automatic fire, cutting the man down. Just then, two more security guards, both Caucasian and in suits, began shooting.

Randeep grabbed Kamal’s vest and began dragging him out of the line of fire, through the carnage the grenade had caused, Manjit suppressing the bodyguards by wildly shooting until his weapon locked open on an empty magazine.

They reached the edge of the patio, the overhead lights illuminating Kamal. Randeep said, “Oh shit, Kamal’s been hit! He’s bleeding all over the place.”

Kamal took a breath and rolled to his knee, rubbing his chest. He said, “That’s not my blood. You dragged me through it. I was hit in the vest.”

He stood up unsteadily and said, “We need to go.”

The security men came to the archway and Randeep fired at them, causing them to jump back inside. Kamal started jogging the way they’d come, gaining strength with each step. Soon he was running flat out to the van, Randeep and Manjit two steps behind.

They reached it, finding only Jaiden. Kamal said, “Where’s Thakkar? Where’s Rakesh?”

Jaiden said, “We had trouble. Rakesh is captured or dead. Thakkar escaped.”

“What? You don’t have Thakkar?”

Jaiden spit out, “No! I told you, we had trouble. Some American broke up the extraction. We need to get the hell out of here. Who has the keys?”

Manjit said, “I do.”