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He looked at his hand, seeing the blood start to run free, and Jennifer went to him with a towel, wrapping it and saying, “Knuckles, this isn’t helping. Let’s work the problem.”

He looked at me and said, “You know how these guys are. They aren’t going to negotiate.”

I said, “What makes you so sure they’re Islamic? I don’t think they are.”

Now interested, the question tamping down the pain he was feeling, he said, “You don’t think they’re crazy Muslims?”

“I don’t know for sure, but I know for a fact that China was paying them. They might be Muslim, or they might be something else, but either way, China’s behind it. I think they lost control of the plot they’d planned, but that’s where we need to focus. We find their handler, and we find them.”

Chapter52

Mr.Chin returned to his table with a plate full of Western food. He’d ignored the Indian offers, as they tore his guts apart, and stuck his nose up at the pathetic attempts at Chinese dishes. He sat down, trying to appear nonchalant to the other man at the table, but it was difficult. Mr.Chin was sure he would be blamed for what had happened at the Oberoi. And maybe that was warranted.

The man across the table was the Ministry of State Security’s chief in India, and he was not pleased. Mr.Chin said, “I hope your room was pleasant.”

They were both staying at the Hilton in Jaipur. Him, because he was coordinating with the remnants of the Condor team for damage control. The chief because the damage control had grown exponentially.

The chief said, “My room is fine. I didn’t come here to see the sights. Where do we stand?”

Mr.Chin said, “They massacred over a dozen people, but Thakkar is still alive. Presumably, so is the mining deal.”

The chief said, “You understand what that means, right? The mining deal Thakkar is involved in is a game changer. We cannot allow it to continue.”

Mr. Chin took a sip of water and said, “How is it a game changer? I have never understood why this was so important.”

The chief said, “Artificial intelligence is the new form of combat, and it relies on rare earth elements. We own the monopoly of them right now, but we won’t forever. We need to prevent that loss for as long as possible before we go after Taiwan. If India becomes a player, we’ll lose. They won’t side with us. They’ll side with the West.”

Mr.Chin let his words settle before bringing up the rotting corpse in the room. “Okay, sir, I understand that stopping India from extracting rare earth elements is paramount to our global reach, but we now have significant exposure. Do you want to continue the mission of preventing the deal, or do you want me to cauterize the wound?”

“What do you mean?”

Mr.Chin took a deep breath, let it out, then said, “The men I hired from Riva Thakkar’s security know what I am. I’ve used them for multiple different operations—much smaller than this, but still, they know I’m not a Chinese businessman. From what I can glean, one of the security men was captured during the operation. He’s still alive and in the hands of the government.”

The chief looked at him with his dead black eyes and Mr.Chin continued, “I can get rid of him, but if I do, I’ll burn any ability to continue. It’ll be too risky to kill both him and Thakkar.”

The chief nodded, thinking. Then said, “How much does this man know?”

“He knows enough to compromise me. And he’ll do so under intense pressure, which I’m sure he’s about to experience. The CCP will be in the glare of the spotlight, which means cutting off the mine deal will be a nonstarter.”

The chief reached across the table and plucked a grape from Mr. Chin’splate and popped it into his mouth. He said, “You have disappointed me on this one. It should not have been so hard.”

Mr.Chin held up his hands and said, “It wasn’t me. The men I hired went crazy. I couldn’t predict that. I thought they were in it for the money, but it was more than that. I can still clean it up, with the Condor team.”

“The last time you used them, two of them were killed. You want to try again?”

“The men they went against were the American intelligence team I’ve been warning about since we started this. I can’t be blamed for that. I told you people that they were skilled.”

“And yet you got my men killed. We’ve barely managed to escape scrutiny on that hit. Actually, the debacle here has helped the situation. What would have been a front-page news story is now just a couple of deaths in a parking lot. Thanks to your hired men conducting a Hamas-type attack. Paid for by the Chinese Communist Party.”

“We didn’t pay for this. I had no idea they were going to do what they did. They were in it for the money, right up until they weren’t.”

“So we have two problems. One is the man the government has in custody. The other is the idiots you paid out in the wild. They have Riva Thakkar’s daughter, and the entire country is watching. How do you propose solving this?”

“Give me the Condor team. I’ve seen the location where Riva’s security man is being held. I can kill him with a rifle shot.”

“And the second problem?”

“I don’t know yet. But I know where they are. They tricked me earlier, but they outsmarted themselves. One of them is still wearing the watch I gave him. They used the kill switch, but his didn’t set for some reason. When he rebooted the watch, the malware started functioning again. He thinks it’s not transmitting, but it is.”