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“If you eliminate them, can you return to the primary mission of Riva Thakkar? Blame the death on the same group? It would be a shame to waste the crisis they created. It gives us great cover to execute the mission.”

Mr.Chin considered, then said, “That’s certainly within the realm of the possible, and I agree with the reasoning. Waiting to reset and trying to kill him later will be much harder from a deniability perspective. Easier to use what they’ve done to blame them up front. First we need to eliminate the threat to us, though.”

The chief popped another grape into his mouth and said, “Why did they do this? Where did you go wrong? The cover you built was for them to be Muslim terrorists, and they actually became terrorists. What did we miss? What do they want?”

“I honestly don’t know. They were just a bunch of kids with computer skills. I have no idea why they did what they did. It makes no sense to me.”

The chief gazed at him for a moment, then said, “It makes sense to them, and we’re going to find out why soon. How on earth did you miss this?”

“I can’t explain it. I’ve worked with Thakkar’s security for years, but I hired these guys recently. I used them because of their contacts, not because of their skills. I even had to train them.”

The chief laughed at that, saying, “You trained them well.”

Mr.Chin knew he was on treacherous ground, despite the chuckles. The chief acted like he didn’t mind, but Mr.Chin understood that he was dangerously close to being eliminated himself. Loose ends were loose ends, be they Indian or Chinese. The chief, after all, had his own bosses to answer to.

The chief took a sip of water, then said, “You can have the Condorteam for the first problem, and I’ll talk to the command about the second, but you failed to mention the third one.”

Mr.Chin said, “Third one? What’s that?”

“The Americans. The team you were adamant about eliminating because they were interfering with the mission. What about them?”

Mr.Chin shook his head and said, “I don’t think they’re in play anymore. Thakkar’s alive, and they did their job. They don’t care about the daughter.”

Chapter53

I heard a knock on the door and opened it, letting in Kerry Bostwick. He was carrying a laptop and looking a little harried.

He said, “Oversight Council meeting in a couple of hours. The president is attending. Where’s the ethernet port?”

Knuckles led him to a desk and he plugged in the laptop, then went through a bazillion different protocols to ensure he was encrypted. I said, “I guess you didn’t get to fly home today like you planned.”

He chuckled and said, “You guessed right. The people who took the hostages are Sikh separatists. They just put out a manifesto on the web.”

Knuckles said, “Sikh separatists? That’s who took them? Not some ISIS offshoot?”

“Nope, but they want what every crazy ISIS guy does. They want their own homeland. They’re demanding the government free a bunch of Sikh prisoners and grant them land and autonomy. But first they want an actual government official to read the manifesto on the air—from a government building.”

Knuckles said, “That’ll never happen.”

Kerry said, “No shit. Absolute nonstarter.”

I said, “This makes no sense. What’s that got to do with China? What’s their play here?”

“I don’t know, but it is what it is, and now we’re about to find out if we have a mission here.”

I said, “We both know we have a mission. The only question is whether they approve it or not.”

Kerry looked at Knuckles pacing the room and lowered his voice, saying, “Pike, I can’t vouch for a mission here. Thakkar is alive and well, and he’s willing to continue our arrangement. The rest of this is just collateral damage.”

I looked at him like he’d sprung a horn out of his head. I said, “Are you serious here? They took the daughter. They slaughtered a slew of people.”

“I hear you, but this is an Indian problem, not a U.S. one. They’re not going to let us in on this, and I don’t blame them. Riva Thakkar is on a blood hunt. Even he doesn’t care about his own daughter.”

“What’s that mean?”

“I just left a meeting with him and the RAW. He wants the men who did this dead. He feels like he has egg all over his face and he’s pissed. The government is listening to him, because they have a Hindu majority and fear the Sikhs. They want blood as well. Sikh separatism has a long history here. Thakkar’s a power broker, and whoever took them is going to pay. Probably anyone near them is going to pay whether they’re guilty or not.”

Knuckles spoke up, saying, “So they’re going to use a sledgehammer when we could be the scalpel?”