Page 35 of Into the Gray Zone (Pike Logan #19)
Mr.Chin took a sip of coffee at a table, remaining mute, waiting for the last man to come back from the breakfast buffet,
the New Delhi Imperial Hotel providing a selection for any diet. He returned and took a seat next to the three other men.
They were all younger than Mr.Chin—probably twenty-five or thirty—but Chin knew that they had spent an inordinate amount
of time in selection and training to be anointed a member of a Ministry of State Security Condor team. They were the highest-skilled
men the Chinese Communist Party had to offer.
When the final man sat down, Mr.Chin handed the leader a folder with the passport photos he’d gleaned in Goa and said, “Your
target is in this hotel. I honestly don’t know if they’re working against the CCP, but if they are, you’ll eliminate the threat.”
The leader said, “Lethal action? Here in India?”
“Yes, but only if they indicate they’re attempting to thwart our plans. If they are just conducting tourist activities, then
let them be. If they go to Agra, take them out.”
“Agra is the location of the Taj Mahal. That’s literally the biggest tourist destination in India.”
“I know. The key will be if they ignore that ‘biggest tourist destination’ and go to the Agra Red Fort. I have an operation there this morning, and if this man goes there, it’s a red line. Take them out.”
“What are our parameters? We don’t blend in very well here. When you say ‘Take them out,’ what do you mean? If we do an overt
direct action here, we’ll have to leave the continent, and it took a long time to get us in place under cover.”
“I understand, and so does your commander. This is how important the action is. It isn’t about India. It’s about competing
with the United States for technological superiority. You eliminate them, and then you flee the continent. We’ll deal with
the loss of the team here in India later, but this is precisely why you were created.”
***
Agam woke up a little disoriented, not sure where he was. He shook his head and remembered. He was in a small house in Agra,
and he had a mission. He rolled over and saw Kamal packing his backpack.
Kamal glanced at him and said, “I guess your phone hack worked.”
Agam sat up and said, “Why do you say that?”
“Mr.Chin called me on the contact phone this morning. He only wanted to know if we were good. He doesn’t suspect anything.”
Agam nodded and said, “But he will after midday. One of his minions is planting the drone with the explosives at ten thirty,
and I’m supposed to launch it when Thakkar’s party is taking pictures in front of the Taj Mahal. He’ll know that didn’t happen
by noon, as there will be no news stories.”
Kamal smiled and said, “I have the phone. I’ll handle that, and I’m looking forward to his panic.”
He zipped up his backpack and said, “I have to go. It’s a four-hour drive to Jaipur. Are you good?”
The question held more than it seemed. Agam knew he was asking if he could kill.
“Yes. I’m good. I’ll get the drone and use it, don’t worry.”
Kamal nodded and said, “It has to be a big enough attack to cause the state to freak out. I want every police officer from
a hundred miles to collapse on the Taj.”
“I’ll do it. Trust me. How did Manjit’s meeting go?”
“Apparently pretty well. He has the entire plan for the attack, and there are now four insiders. Two who will let us through
a back gate, and the two that I knew from home who are now Thakkar’s primary security. Manjit has weapons and explosives and
a van now. It’s going to work.”
He stood up and said, “When you’re done, when the attack is over, ditch the phone and the watch and disappear.”
Agam nodded and said, “I’m going north. Up to the Kashmir. I’ll call you from there.”
Kamal hugged him, squeezing harder than he intended, the path they were on now set. Agam said, “Good luck. I’ll see you in
Khalistan.”
Kamal smiled and said, “I will like that.” He turned without another word and left the room. For the first time, Agam wondered
if he’d ever see him again.
He sat on the bed and stared at his own backpack. He looked at his Garmin watch and saw he had a little over four hours before
he had to be in the fort. Time that would slowly leak out like blood from a wound, continuing to drain no matter how much
pressure he used to stop it.
Resigned, he stood up and shouldered his pack.
***
I gave the valet my ticket and waited on our SUV to arrive, tapping my feet and feeling the press of time. Behind me, Brett
was talking to Knuckles on the phone, trying to get some limited response at the Agra Fort but obviously having no luck. Veep
was working a Taskforce GPS, which had satellite imagery instead of Garmin or Google Streetview roads, trying to pinpoint
the exact location of the grid. Jennifer was working to find us a hotel in the area and coordinating for the Rock Star bird
to be on strip alert.
I’d debated flying to Agra with the Rock Star bird, but it was close enough that I’d decided not to introduce the signature
of a private aircraft into the area. If what I thought was about to happen came true, and I missed stopping it, I’d rather
be leaving on a dusty highway instead of boarding a private plane at the Agra Airport with all the history and documentation
that entailed. Better to get them sitting in the cockpit ready to pick us up wherever we ended up.
The SUV pulled into the drive and we loaded up, Brett behind the wheel and me in the passenger seat. Veep leaned over and
showed me what he’d found.
“The grid is on the northern edge of the fort, next to the river. Doing a little research on the place, there are catacombs
and tunnels that run the length of the fort at that location, along with walkways on the walls that surround the fort, so
our problem is that the GPS grid is a 2D fixed focal point. It doesn’t show locations in three dimensions.”
I said, “Meaning what? The grid is useless?”
“No, no, not at all. Just that we can go to the grid on the surface of the fort, and the meeting could be below us, in a catacomb,
or above us, on a wall. When we get to the location, the GPS is going to say ‘arrived,’ but it doesn’t know if the meeting
is below or above us.”
I turned to Jennifer and said, “Get me a map of that fort. Start looking at it from a place that you’d like to meet.”
She pulled out a tablet and started doing the research, and I glanced out the window as we exited the hotel grounds, seeing another SUV loading up, all of them young Asian men.
Which, if I wasn’t so worried about finding the terrorists, would have been an indicator that we weren’t the only ones on
the hunt.