Page 27 of Into the Gray Zone (Pike Logan #19)

The upper room of the safe house was becoming cloyingly hot in the midday sun. That, and hearing the method of attack, did

nothing to calm Manjit. He grew agitated, saying, “Facial recognition for an assassination? And how does that help us? How

does that help the Sikh? I’m willing to kill for a cause, but I’m done with this killing for China.”

Kamal turned from the screen and said, “I am too. Are you really committed to helping the Sikh? If it comes to killing innocents,

can you do it?”

“What’s that mean?”

“It means I’ve seen what Chin wants, and it gives us an opportunity. We can pretend to do what he wishes, but accomplish much

more. I need to know if you’re willing.”

Kamal paused and looked at the rest of the men, saying, “I need to know if all of you are willing. We can strike a blow against

the government for what they’ve done to us in the past, but it’s not without sacrifice. Some innocents will die, but only

because they support the regime Thakkar represents. If they come to his daughter’s wedding, then they come supporting him,

and he’s the devil that props up the government we hate.”

He looked at each in turn, knowing he held the mettle to continue, but unsure of them. He said, “I want a commitment, right now, before we continue.”

Manjit said, “What is this? You want me to promise to kill innocent people, for China?”

Kamal grew cold, remembering his past. Remembering the arrest that had destroyed his life. Remembering what had brought him

to this point.

Feeling the fury.

He said, “No. We’re not going to kill Thakkar at the Taj Mahal. I’m not doing anything for China.”

He turned back to Manjit and said, “Do you remember the jail? Do you remember crying to me after your interrogations? Do you

remember asking why they were so cruel, when you’d done nothing wrong?”

Taken aback, Manjit looked left and right at the other men, having never told them of the trials he’d faced, or the way he’d

dealt with the pain. Something he was embarrassed about.

Subdued, he said, “Yes, I remember. I haven’t forgotten what you did for me there.”

“Well, it’s time we took that anger to the enemy. Revenge for Sidak. Revenge for all of them. In the end, we’re done because we were stupid enough to take the pay of Mr.Chin, but we can make that right. Make

it pure. We’re probably dead either way on this. If we do what he wants, Chin will kill us afterwards. If we do it wrong and

fail, he’ll still have us killed. He can’t allow us to live either way.”

He tapped the screen and said, “The answer is right here, and I say we do it wrong. Bring his ass down with us while shining

a light on the Sikh travesty.”

The room went quiet, nobody saying a word about the true threats being spilled out loud. Each man had continued looking only at the five-meter target, first for the money, but now for survival. None of them wanted to hear the truth: that they were dead no matter what they did.

Manjit said, “How is killing Thakkar going to shine a light on our travails?”

“Because we’re not going to kill him.” Kamal pointed at the screen again and said, “Mr.Chin gave us his complete itinerary.

He’s going to the Taj in two days with a limited group of people, but he’s attending a pre-wedding celebration in Jaipur with

hundreds of people from all over the world.”

He turned to them and said, “We’re going to invade that party, and use China’s bullshit on the Taj Mahal to camouflage it.

We’re going to attack those rich bastards at their own ceremony and take what they value most, all in the name of Khalistan.”

He stood up and his voice grew stronger, saying, “Are you with me? Are you willing to avenge what you’ve been through? Or

has all this talk about Khalistan been just talk ?”

His men shuffled from foot to foot, shocked at his words, and he realized they were just now coming to grips with the danger

they were in.

He whispered, “You’re already dead. Each and every one of you, because of Mr.Chin. If we do what I say, we might live to

see Khalistan.”

The silence hung in the air, and Kamal thought he had lost. Then Manjit surprised him, saying, “What do you think we can do?

We have these watches, and we’re all being tracked. What can we do?”

Kamal smiled and said, “I’ve been thinking about this for a while, ever since Gaza made the world stage. We can do a lot.

We might die, but at least our deaths will be for our people and not China.”

He turned to Agam and said, “You need to figure out how to spoof these watches. They’re tied to a phone, which means it’s

all software. We need to break ourselves from that. But you can’t do it until after we’re supposed to attack at the Taj Mahal.”

Manjit said, “Why? Why not just do it now?”

“Because that asshole Chin has given us the method of attack. If we break from these watches now, he’ll know and come hunting

us.”

Agam said, “None of these drones have any explosives. And where is the facial recognition?”

Kamal gave a half-hearted laugh and said, “These four are for practice. He wants us to go to a field and practice killing

the guy, driving the drones into the ground.”

He took the quadcopter from Agam’s hand and said, “He’s pretty good, I’ll give him that. The real drone is hidden in the Agra

Fort, right next to the Taj Mahal, and the waypoint for it is in our watches. That’s how we’ll find it. Just like we found

the safe house.”

Manjit said, “So what do we do? How do we alter that?”

“We show him we’re going to do the attack. One man goes there for the mission, letting him know we’re doing it by the heartbeat

and location on the watch, but we don’t do the kill. We launch the drone after Thakkar’s gone, but before our real attack.”

“How’s that going to do anything?”

“Because we’re all going to Jaipur. To the big party. We’re going to attack that celebration and seize Thakkar, killing anyone

who stands in our way.”

Manjit said, “Wait, wait, I’ve told you before, I’m not going to do that. Even if we could.”

Kamal grew incensed and advanced on him, saying, “Is that what Sidak would utter? As he was hanging on a rope? I’m sick of

your bullshit. This is the way. Hamas and the Palestinian fight in Israel has shown it.”

Manjit recoiled, saying, “You want to associate yourself with those murderers? You hold them in high esteem? You want me to become them ?”

Kamal poked him with a finger and said, “Yes, that’s exactly what I want. You can’t win this war playing by the establishment’s rules. Yes, the Hamas attack was horrible. Abominable.

But what happened after it? Israel attacked with overwhelming force, and then the world changed.”

He turned to the rest of the men and said, “Now everyone talks about the Palestinians. Hamas murdered more than a thousand people, and nobody cares. All they care about is the plight

of the Palestinian people. The highest institutions of learning in the United States started protesting. All because Hamas

did an attack. Nobody cared about the murders. You don’t see that happening with the Rohingya in Myanmar. They get slaughtered

wholesale, and nobody cares. Terrorism works , and we’re going to use it here.”

Manjit said nothing, and Kamal softened his tone, saying, “I’m not talking about raping people, like Hamas did. I’m not saying

we need to go totally crazy, just that an attack on a wedding party for an Indian billionaire will hold weight, just like

it did for Israel. India will take notice. And so will the world.”

Manjit sighed and looked at the other men. He went back to Kamal and said, “When does death become a thing that advances our

purposes? If we’ve gone that far, we’ve left the principles of being a Sikh. Yes, Chin can kill us, but killing in exchange?

Why do I wear a dastaar? To kill?”

Kamal saw he was losing Manjit—and in so doing, losing the rest of the men. He said, “The dastaar doesn’t define you. You’re

not even wearing it now. What defines you is what you do to advance the purpose of the cloth. Wear it after this and you can

do so in pride. Wear it if you quit, and you’ll only do it in shame.”

He could see Manjit was on the edge, and he drove home the knife. “Sidak wore the dastaar every day of his life, striving

for a better one. You can give his family that.”

Manjit looked at the floor for a moment, then looked up, saying, “I’m in. But we don’t kill anyone unless they’re part of the state.”

Kamal nodded, then said, “Do you consider Thakkar and his family part of the state?”

“Yes, I do.”