Page 20 of Into the Gray Zone (Pike Logan #19)

Jennifer took a sip of her frozen daquiri and said, “We’re going to look out of place if we keep drinking virgins.”

Brett pulled the tiny umbrella out of his virgin pina colada and said, “You want to climb after a little juice?”

Jennifer said, “Not particularly, but I figured you’d at least get the real deal, being how this is supposed to be a walk

in the park and all.”

He grinned and said, “There’s nothing that’s a walk in the park. That’s literally not a thing in our line of work.”

She smiled back and said, “You regretting coming with me or something? I could have asked for Veep or Knuckles.”

He took a pull through the straw and said, “I’m regretting having to sit in this bar for an hour, that’s for sure. But I’ll

never regret playing backup for you. If you weren’t here, it would be me climbing, and I hate that shit.”

That brought out a full smile. Outside of Pike, he was the one she felt the closest bond with. On the surface they were an

odd couple—an athletic blonde woman paired alongside a fireplug of muscle with black skin—but anyone looking would see only

the cover of the book, having no idea what was inside the pages.

When Pike had introduced her as an equal to the team, Brett had been the first to accept her, never questioning her sex and focusing only on her abilities. He liked to say it was because they both hated their designate callsigns, but she knew it was more. She wouldn’t admit it to Pike, but Brett understood her at a level different from the rest of the men. The closest before that had been Decoy, but he’d been killed right next to her on an operation. It still haunted her with feelings of guilt. She was constantly second-guessing what she should have done differently, and because of it she had built a wall. Brett had instinctively understood, which conversely made her connect with him. He never tried to penetrate her armor, and never played the man-card, respecting her skills simply for what they were.

She said, “How long should we wait?”

He looked at his watch and said, “At least until it hits twenty-two hundred. We want to attack the lull between people getting

ready to party and people coming home from the party.”

Nadia had shown them the room number on the key she had recovered but hadn’t let them take it. She’d told them that she couldn’t

hide the existence of the key completely, as she was part of the investigation, but she could delay its “discovery.” All she

wanted was for Jennifer and Brett to inventory the room, complete with photographs, but not remove anything. Nadia planned

on comparing what the official investigation found with what they found. If their findings were the same, then her fears about

an insider threat would be unfounded. If they were different, she’d have to deal with it somehow.

Nadia was going to hold the key until the following morning, then make an excuse that it had been overlooked in the initial

confusion. Once the key was introduced, there would be an official race to search the room, so they only had a single night

to get in.

To complicate matters, Kerry Bostwick had checked in to the Hyatt today, which meant the real purpose of their mission had begun. Pike had decided that since the actual meeting wasn’t until tomorrow, he could handle securing the principal with Knuckles and Veep, letting Brett and Jennifer conduct the break-in.

The initial plan had been to simply go into the hotel like they were staying there, then pick the lock. In and out in thirty

minutes. Easy, breezy. They’d reconnoitered the hotel and realized that plan wasn’t going to work.

The Beachcomber Inn wasn’t a resort like the Grand Hyatt, to say the least. A four-story wooden structure a couple of blocks

off of Tito’s Lane, it was painted a garish blue and white, with each room having a wooden balcony complete with carved railings

painted like a circus tent. Surrounded by a fence, there was a single entrance with a tiny lobby mostly taken up by the reception

desk, and nobody was allowed past the desk without a key, apparently because the manager had had enough of people coming to

sell either drugs or their bodies.

As the tourist season hadn’t truly started yet, the hotel was nearly empty, and they’d toyed with simply renting a room and

using that as a lily pad for the break-in, but decided against it, as they didn’t want their names and passports associated

with the blitzkrieg of the investigation that was coming the following day. There’d be no way to explain why they had a room

in the hotel when they were known to be staying at the Grand Hyatt. That coincidence, coupled with the fact that they were

witnesses to the assault, would put GRS squarely in the crosshairs of the investigation, something that most definitely couldn’t

be allowed.

They’d left the hotel, with Jennifer forcing Brett to circle the property, snaking through the narrow alleys that ran up both

sides and taking a circuitous route back to Tito’s Lane. They’d returned to the Hyatt and told Pike their findings, whereupon

he’d just tried to call the whole thing off, saying, “Not our mission, and I’m not spending any more time on it.”

Jennifer had said, “We don’t have to go in from the front door. There are other ways.”

“How?”

“The building is set back from any major roads. Outside of the road that goes by the entrance, there are only little alleys.

Easy to get to the side without being seen.”

“But you still can’t get past the front desk. Who cares who sees you coming to the building?”

“Every room has a balcony, all the way to the top.”

Jennifer had already discussed her plan with Brett, and she knew just by mentioning the balconies, Pike would guess what she

had planned.

He raised his hands and said, “Whoa, whoa, slow down there, Koko. You want to scale the building and break in from the outside?”

“Yeah. Our guy’s room’s on the third floor, with a large balcony like all the others.” She knew Pike wasn’t hesitant because

she was talking about climbing the outside of a building. He understood her skills and had forced her to use them on much

worse structures than this hotel. More so than anyone else on the team, she was a bit of a savant when it came to climbing,

and the balcony ascent would be easy enough. No, Pike’s reticence was from something else.

When he didn’t immediately answer, she said, “Pike, it’s a cakewalk. Brett can pull security, I climb to his room, do the

inventory, then get back down. Like thirty minutes max.”

He said, “Look, I get that you can do it, but we have a mission here. This is Nadia’s problem, not ours. Let’s focus on the

meeting tomorrow and let the RAW find the terrorists. We stopped the assault, and that’s good enough for me.”

“What if she’s right? What if it wasn’t a random LeT terrorist attack? What if it was something more? Something to do with

the meeting tomorrow?”

She saw the wheels spinning in his head and waited. Pike finally looked at Brett and said, “You’re good with this? You think it’s worth it?”

“Yeah, I looked at the building. Jennifer could do that handcuffed, and I’m bored sitting around this place.”

Pike smiled at that, turning back to Jennifer and saying, “And you?”

A little defensive, she said, “And me, what?”

“You never volunteer for anything. In fact, you’re always telling me to stop when I want to stretch things. We have absolutely no sanction

from the Oversight Council here for this, and you know it.”

She grew a little miffed and said, “Since when do you care about that?”

He laughed and said, “Since when do you not ?”

She started to retort but he held up his hands in surrender, saying, “Go, go. Get your climbing jihad on. Far be it from me

to squash your initiative.”

Six hours later, she was sitting with Brett in a seedy beach bar with neon lights and watery daiquiris.

Brett glanced around the room and said, “I don’t know why anyone calls Tito’s Lane the hot spot for nightlife. Looks more

like Tijuana. You’d have to be living on spare change to party here.”

Jennifer smiled and said, “I agree. I doubt nice Indian girls are coming here on spring break.”

“Is that from the looks you keep getting?”

She said, “Well, I am the only female in this place.”

“And I’m the only black guy. Looks like we’ll be remembered here.”

The waitress came over and Brett asked for the check. Jennifer waited until she’d left, then said, “You want to leave? It’s

still too early.”

He took the check, dropped a pack of rupees on the table, and said, “I don’t like the stares. Let’s go find a donkey show.”

She stood up and followed him out of the bar, saying, “Donkey show? What are you talking about?”

He exited onto the street, laughing. He said, “You don’t want to know,” and he turned left down Tito’s Lane, toward the hotel alley.

She followed him, saying, “This place looks a heck of a lot better at night, I’ll say that. Can’t see the scars.”

Brett glanced down the street, seeing bar after bar interspersed with tattoo parlors and tobacco shops, all lit up with colored

string lights or neon, the music from each establishment competing for attention. Most of the bars were only half full, if

that, the patrons all locals, not a foreigner among them. The people at each followed them with their eyes as they went past.

He saw the continued stares and said, “This town must not get crowded until the monsoon season’s over. It’s like they’ve never

seen a foreigner.”

They passed a booth with what looked like a large aquarium about waist height, the water full of minnows. Brett did a double

take, seeing a local man and woman sitting on a bench, their pants legs rolled up and their legs in the water.

He said, “What on earth are they doing?”

Jennifer looked closer and said, “Believe it or not, it’s a pedicure place. The fish are eating the dead skin off their feet.”

“You’re shitting me.”

She chuckled and said, “Nope. It’s supposed to exfoliate the skin. Maybe we can do that to kill some time.”

He shook his head and said, “No damn way.” He looked at his watch and said, “No time to kill anyway, let’s go get this over

with.”

Jennifer felt her adrenaline rise at the words, knowing what was coming. Brett saw her take a breath and said, “We can always

go back. This isn’t our mission.”

She said, “No, no, I want to do it.”

They turned into a narrow alley, a trickle of water running down the dirt surface. Unconsciously, Brett cleared his shirt away from the Staccato he held in an appendix holster.

He said, “Why is that?”

She said, “Because I think Nadia’s right. Something wasn’t kosher about that assault. It made no sense to attack that place

with so few people and silenced weapons.”

She looked at him and said, “You don’t want to do it?”

She was afraid of the answer. She needed his confidence in both the purpose and the execution of the mission. She trusted

his judgment and was searching to see if she was making a bad choice.

“No, no. I’m game, it’s just that Pike was right—you are the person who always wants the T’s crossed and the I’s dotted. The Oversight Council would shit a brick if they knew we

were out here. Bostwick alone would have a coronary.”

She’d actually thought about her decision after her conversation with Pike, and honestly didn’t have an answer. She knew she’d

chastised Pike for doing things outside the scope of their orders on multiple occasions, and this time she was the one initiating the break, but she sort of liked it.

She realized her time in the Taskforce had changed her view on the inherent infallibility of the chain of command. That, and

like Knuckles always said, she was starting to enjoy the high adventure.

She said, “I don’t know. Just seems like the right thing to do. It’s not like we’re out here running an Omega operation and

putting someone’s head on a spike. We’re just helping a terrorist investigation.”

He chuckled and said, “Pike’s rubbing off on you. That’s what’s happening.”

She said, “Well, hopefully it’s working both ways.”