Page 25 of Into the Gray Zone (Pike Logan #19)

Kamal exited the mosque, glancing surreptitiously left and right in a futile attempt to locate Mr.Chin’s men. He knew it

was impossible, as Chin wouldn’t be employing Chinese and the surveillance could be anyone.

He found the team right next to a smoothie stand, just as Mr.Chin had said. They gathered around him, Manjit saying, “So?

What happened?”

“We have a safe house, and he wants us to do another mission. He called it a ‘standoff attack.’ I don’t know any more than

that.”

He felt a vibration on his wrist and raised the watch face. Randeep said, “Where’d you get that watch?”

Kamal ignored him, surprised to see a text message on the watch: Give them their phones and watches. I want to see a heartbeat.

Kamal whipped his head left and right but saw no sign of Mr.Chin. He felt anger at being cornered like a mouse in a barn,

but unslung the backpack.

He started handing out the boxes, two to a man, saying, “These are watches Mr.Chin wants us to wear. The other box is the

phone it’s tethered to. Do not use the phone to do anything but talk to each other. If we need to make any other calls, I

have a separate phone for that.”

Randeep held up the Garmin box and said, “What is all this?”

“According to Mr.Chin, it’s to help us with the mission, but I’m sure it’s to keep track of us, like a GPS tag for someone

just out of prison.”

Manjit said, “And you agreed to this?”

“I had to. What else was I going to do? He told me he had evidence from the botched hit, and that he’d give it to the RAW.

They’d find us in less than a day. It was better to make him think we were still on his side.”

Agam turned on his watch, saw his heartbeat, and said, “Well, honestly, it’s pretty cool. I could never afford this in real

life.”

Randeep pushed him and said, “It’s a set of handcuffs, man! That heartbeat tells him it’s on your wrist, and the watch will

tell him where you are.”

Miffed, Agam said, “Doesn’t mean it’s not cool. If we must do the mission, might as well get something out of it.”

Kamal smiled and said, “I’m glad you think it’s neat, because I want you to figure out how to defeat it. You’re always messing

with such things.”

He nodded, saying, “Just give me a computer.”

“There’s one in the safe house.”

Manjit said, “Where is this safe house, anyway?”

Kamal grimaced and held up his own watch, showing them a breadcrumb trail and an arrow with a distance and heading. He said,

“It’s about six hundred meters away as the bird flies.”

“So we’re going to follow that thing like a fish chasing a lure?”

“I guess so.” Before he could say anything else, his wrist vibrated and another text message came through: I see all four. Good. Now get to the safe house and study the mission. Use the computer to contact me with any concerns. You

have a single day to get ready.

He had to press a button, scrolling down in order to see it all on the watch face, Manjit looking over his shoulder. Manjit said, “He really is tracking us. This is ridiculous.”

Kamal said, “It’s the price of admission. We’ll only do it as long as we want. Agam will figure out how to defeat it. Let’s

go.”

He held his wrist out, took a bearing from the arrow, and began walking, the men following behind him. In short order, Kamal

became frustrated. The watch wasn’t giving turn-by-turn directions. Instead it just showed the arrow pointing unerringly in

one direction, but soon enough they found themselves in a maze of narrow alleys, all selling various goods.

They went through a textile area selling cloth and linens, a stone market, a vegetable and meat section, then entered what

clearly was a tourist area, with the vendors all selling cheap trinkets most likely made in China. They hit one more dead

end, the arrow pointing through a wall as if they could fly over it, and Kamal cursed.

Manjit said, “This is ridiculous. We’re like children out here getting toyed with. Why didn’t he just give us a damn address?”

“I don’t know. He wanted me to use the watch. Wanted me to know it was working.”

Manjit scoffed and said, “Well, it’s not.”

They went down the alley, moving away from the GPS location, found another alley headed at least parallel to the endstate,

and then exited into the sunshine on a two-lane road, this one large enough for vehicles to come and go. Kamal had no idea

where they were, but he could see the arrow showing them the safe house less than seventy meters away.

He followed the bearing, fascinated with the meters ticking down, enjoying the hunt for the safe house despite himself. He

went past another alley going back into the markets, and the distance started getting longer.

He stopped, retraced, then entered the alley, walking down it for about fifty feet before stopping outside of a roll-up metal door with a padlock, a sign above it proclaiming a spice store. The watch told him he was at zero meters.

This must be it.

The spice storefronts left, right, and behind him were all open, the air pungent enough to make Kamal feel like he needed

to sneeze.

The vendors of the other stores looked at the group curiously, but Kamal ignored them, acting as if he belonged. He pulled

out the envelope Mr.Chin had given him and removed a key, putting it in the padlock and holding his breath.

The lock sprung open and he exhaled, raising the roll-up door and entering the safe house. He waited until the men had followed,

flipped an overhead light, and slid the door closed. He turned and saw a narrow storefront no larger than a passageway, the

entire area maybe twenty feet wide and sixty feet long, with empty shelves and cabinets on each side and a wooden ladder at

the rear leading up into darkness.

While his men explored the downstairs he went up the ladder, feeling along the wall until he hit another light switch. It

blazed into existence, revealing four mattresses on the floor and a wooden table with a laptop computer, a MiFi cellular data

device attached to the back.

He went to it and opened the lid, seeing a sign-in screen. He went back to his watch and pulled up the notifications menu,

retrieving the instructions. He typed in the login and password and was met with a screen that had a single document in the

center. He opened it and began reading. As he read, he couldn’t believe what Mr.Chin wanted them to do.

He heard clattering on the ladder and Agam appeared, holding something above his head, saying, “There are four of these downstairs.

What’s that about?”

Kamal looked closer and saw he held a small commercial drone. A folded quadcopter. He returned to the screen, studying the

instructions, and it all became clear.

The rest of the men made it up the ladder, each of them standing around the entrance, looking at him expectantly.

He said, “We’re supposed to attack the day after tomorrow. Thakkar is doing a pre-wedding party. A small group of prestigious

people from around the world. Chin wants us to kill him there with a drone.”

That set them back a bit, Agam saying, “He wants us to fly a drone into him? That won’t kill him. Even if we fly all four

from downstairs. At most, it’ll knock him to the ground. Is Mr.Chin hoping for a heart attack?”

Kamal returned to the screen and said, “According to this, those are for practice. The real one will have explosives.”

Manjit said, “Explosives? Like we’re in Ukraine? Like it’ll hunt him down on camera and kill him?”

Kamal continued to study the screen, absently saying, “Yes. Exactly like that.”

Randeep said, “This is getting out of control. He wants us to flat out assassinate the billionaire on camera?”

Kamal turned from the screen and said, “Yes, he does, but that’s not the worst part.”

“Seriously? What’s the worst part?”

“He wants us to do it on a visit to the Taj Mahal. He’s visiting there the day after tomorrow. Thakkar’s apparently locked

down the locals’ gate and purchased a block of time for him and his entourage to tour the place. There will still be some

foreign tourists there, but no locals. I guess he doesn’t want his entourage mixing with the real world. They’ll be out front

of the Taj, taking pictures during a span of time.”

Manjit said, “You know how I feel about that. I’m not going to kill a bunch of civilians because Mr.Chin said to. I’m not

doing it.”

“The drone is embedded with facial recognition. We fly it above the site, and it’ll go straight to him. It’ll kill him, and

only him.”