Page 11 of Into the Gray Zone (Pike Logan #19)

I followed Jennifer into the Hyatt Club—a private area for high rollers and a little perk courtesy of Grolier Recovery Services

reservation. Apparently Jennifer had been accumulating points. Either that, or the CIA was getting points off of us.

We checked in with our room number, proving we belonged, and then stepped down to the lounge area. They had a table set up

with a bunch of fancy hors d’oeuvres, complete with little ceramic spoons holding individual sushi pieces, but that wasn’t

what I was looking for.

We wound through the area, Jennifer scanning for a section big enough for the team, and me scanning for the bar. I saw it

in the corner, an oak cabinet set into the wall with self-service bottles. Perfect .

Jennifer found a couch opposite two chairs in the corner, right next to the plate glass windows overlooking the ocean, the

sun starting to set on the horizon. The view was spectacular, with lush gardens, thick grass, and palm trees spreading out

to the seawall, interrupted only by gravel paths threaded throughout. It looked like a photograph created by AI instead of

the real world. I had to admit, after my initial complaining, this trip was turning out pretty good. I let her sit, then said,

“Pirate drink?”

She smiled and said, “I guess it’s after hours. Sure.”

I left her, saw Brett and Veep come through the door, and pointed to her location. They nodded and went that way. I began to make a couple of rum and cokes but was stopped by one of the hostesses, a strikingly pretty Indian woman. She said, “Let me, please,” with a charming accent.

Her beauty left me at a loss for words for a second. Ordinarily, I’d push such a request away, because I definitely knew what

I liked and didn’t need someone to do my own work, but in this case I backed off, saying, “Sure, I’d like—”

She said, “Two Bacardi and cokes, highball glasses, with a twist of lime?”

Now confused, because that’s exactly what I wanted, I stuttered and she laughed, a little melody floating out. Knuckles appeared

behind her, saying, “I’ll have a bourbon if he can’t talk.”

She said, “Of course. He’s just like you said: a stoic American.”

I looked at Knuckles, and he smiled, saying, “I met her working the pool service today. Nadia, this is Pike. Pike, this is

Nadia. Treat him well, because he’s my boss.”

She let out her tinkling laugh again and said, “Of course. Take your seats. I’ll bring the drinks.”

We walked away, and I said, “What the hell, man? I was only kidding about using some honeypot operation for information.”

He said, “It’s not like that. We struck up a conversation and sort of clicked. She’s pretty cool, and she’s also switched

on to the entire flow around this place.”

“So you gave her my name? What else did you give her?”

“That just came about because I told her my name was Knuckles. She didn’t believe me, so I told her my boss was named Pike.

It’s not a big deal.”

“She knew what I drink, for God’s sake. How deep did this conversation go?”

“Just enough to solidify our cover. She knows why we’re here by the cover. That’s all.”

We reached the table, and Brett said, “So you met Knuckles’ latest conquest.”

I sat down on the couch next to Jennifer, giving Knuckles one of the chairs, and said, “Yeah, I did. That didn’t take long.”

Jennifer said, “To meet her? I see she’s very pretty.”

I felt my face start to flush, and said, “What? No. Not that. It didn’t take long for Knuckles to get to work. That’s all

I meant.”

She let out a little smirk, showing me she still had the ability to penetrate my armor, and like clockwork, I got aggravated.

I said, “Enough of this shit. What do we have?”

She squinted her eyes and pushed her knee into mine, letting me know that she was kidding and that I was being an ass. Which

I was, but it was her fault.

Knuckles said, “Well, she’s not a conquest yet—and probably won’t ever be—but she’s a wealth of information. Everyone on the

staff here is on pins and needles because of the billionaire mining guy’s visit. He’s ostensibly here to check out a location

for a pre-wedding party, but we know that’s shit. The good news is there’s no indication that Bostwick or the RAW are having

a meeting. The staff all think the security upgrades are for the rich dude. The bad news is Nadia knows his visit here is

fake.”

“How?”

“Believe it or not, she’s friends with the daughter who’s getting married. They’ve already settled on party locations in the

upstate. Jaipur and Agra. She knows he’s not here for a recce.”

“Does she know why he’s here for real? That could be a compromise.”

“We didn’t get that far. I didn’t want to push it.”

I nodded and said, “How is a hostess at a resort in Goa friends with a billionaire’s daughter from Mumbai? That doesn’t make any sense.”

He raised his hands and said, “How would I know? That’s just what she said.”

Which set a little tick in the back of my brain. Something to explore later. I said, “When’s he getting here?”

“Tomorrow. Two days before Bostwick. I guess he’s either really checking out the place for a party or just wanting to relax

for a few days on the Indian government dime.”

Nadia showed up with our drinks, setting ours on the table but handing Knuckles his bourbon straight to his hand, saying,

“Are you enjoying the stay?”

I had to admit, she was definitely a damn hammer. She’d give Jennifer a run for her money any day. Not that I’d say that out

loud.

Knuckles said, “Best ever. Sorry, everyone, this is Nadia. Nadia, this is everyone.”

She smiled, a radiant shine that would captivate every single American male under the age of ninety, and said, “So, do any

of you have names that don’t resemble a fish or a part of the hand?”

Jennifer smiled and said, “Not specifically. In our line of work, everyone gets a nickname.”

Nadia scrunched her eyes and said, “Archeological work makes you have nicknames?”

Jennifer glanced at me, clearly wondering if she’d said too much, then said, “It’s more of a company thing than an archeological

thing.”

Nadia nodded, then said, “What’s yours?”

Jennifer took a breath and said, “It’s a company thing.”

Nadia waited, and finally Jennifer relented. “It’s Koko.”

Jennifer absolutely hated her callsign, and having to say it out loud to a woman who was genuinely interested must have driven a spike into her self-esteem.

Nadia looked confused, turning to Knuckles. He said, “It’s the talking gorilla. The one that died a couple of years ago.”

If possible, she looked even more confused. She went back to Jennifer and said, “Your nickname is from a gorilla?”

Jennifer said, “It’s complicated. I don’t like it either.”

That caused all of us to laugh, and it clearly made Nadia uncomfortable, thinking we were making fun of her because she was

a woman. Which absolutely wasn’t the case. She just didn’t get it.

More sharply than was probably allowed by the Hyatt staff, she said, “If you want anything else, let me know,” and then stalked

off.

Knuckles said, “Was that necessary? Jesus. She now thinks I’m a Neanderthal.”

Jennifer chuckled and said, “Sorry about that, but honestly, it’s your fault. You gave me the damn callsign, and now you can

live with the repercussions.”

Knuckles said, “Touché, I guess.”

I said, “Okay, down to business. What did we find?”

Brett said, “The front access is pretty secure. It’s a long winding drive up to a circular turnaround, with a single entrance

coupled with a metal detector and guards. Nobody’s armed, but if you were coming in that way, you aren’t guaranteed successful

exfil. It wouldn’t be my choice.”

Veep said, “But there are plenty of infiltration areas on foot. The area is huge, with plenty of ways to get inside without

going through the front. If the mission is kill instead of capture, it could be done.”

Knuckles said, “Nothing on the restaurant side of the house. There are four, but only one of them is good for an assault because it has a patio leading to the outside, but the others are like Veep said—no good for exfil. If someone wants to use them to ambush, they could do so, but they aren’t getting away without a running gunfight. The only one that’s a true risk is the pool bungalow restaurant. It’s open three hundred and sixty degrees.”

I said, “Cameras?”

“Got two facing the ocean on the north and south side of the property, right on the ocean, and one at an entrance to a maintenance

section at the north end. It’s full of plants and sheds, but it’s a channelized access, as the fence runs east and west beyond

it.”

“Could you get in, just as a tourist?”

“Yeah, I did. No issues.”

I nodded and said, “Well, that’s about what we found. The shore side is wide open, but you’d be hard pressed to infiltrate

using that with the guard force on the water. We counted three separate posts, all inside the grounds, but looking out at

the ocean. None of the guards are paying any attention, but they are there. The one area of concern is a drainage cut that winds straight into the grounds. It’s deep enough that you could walk

down it hunched over and get inside past the guards without being seen.”

Knuckles said, “I saw that as well. Want another camera on it?”

“Can’t hurt, if you have one to spare, but this is looking like an easy day.”

Brett said, “So it is going to be a walk in the park. Perfect. Tomorrow, let’s go get our jihad on at the crash site and come back here for some

pool time.”

By “crash site,” he meant our cover stop at the archeological location we’d ostensibly come here to service, mainly because

the old church looked like someone from heaven had crashed a huge bus into it in the past.

I said, “Yeah, this is panning out to be easy enough. Everyone get some sleep tonight and we’ll head out to the church in the morning. The only thing that concerns me is that the enemy knows everything that we do, and they were here conducting a reconnaissance. If they’re coming, they’ll exploit any gap we’ve found, and probably ones we haven’t.”