Page 45 of Into the Gray Zone (Pike Logan #19)

We went back to our room and along the way I called Knuckles, letting him know the state of play.

When he answered, I said, “So, you getting a lot of work done?”

He said, “Well... that depends on what you call ‘work.’”

I laughed and said, “What did Nadia say about our actions here?” I’d spoken to him just before talking to Jennifer earlier,

letting him know that we might need some help from Nadia. It turned out we were okay, but I’d given her a secret squirrel

update through Knuckles to see if she was hearing something different from the RAW, which would bolster her theory that they

were somehow involved.

He said, “The official word on the street is a lone wolf that was killed by his own bomb, but she’s being told it’s a conspiracy,

and that someone had killed the man with a gun. It’s not being hidden from her.”

“So there’s no cover-up inside the RAW?”

“Well, there’s no cover-up, but that may be because someone else saw the body first and it was too late to deny it. I will say they think it’s Muslim terrorists. They haven’t backed off of that, and they aren’t looking at China.”

“Bullshit. They aren’t Muslim. Well, they might be Muslim, but they aren’t doing this for Islam. The Taj Mahal is an Islamic shrine. Why would they choose to attack that instead of some Hindu temple? It makes no sense.”

“Because it’s a symbol of Indian power? Because it’s the number one tourist destination in the entire country?”

He had a point, but I wouldn’t let it go. “Fanatics don’t think that way. They want to attack what they despise, not what

they revere. The Muslims in this country all know it was a Muslim who built that place. They wouldn’t attack it even if it

was the number one tourist destination.”

“So what are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking those assholes from the safe house are still on the loose, and I think China’s lost control of them. Tell Nadia

that, because we’re leaving here tonight.”

“Wait, what?”

“Look, we had a gunfight today we barely survived, Veep’s arm is in a sling, and we had no sanction for any of it. Brett and

I stopped a damn terrorist attack today against the state of India, and while I don’t know what it was about, I don’t really

care at this point. One free terrorist prevention per month is all I’m authorized, and we’re now fresh out.”

“Okay, okay, I get it. I understand. What else do you want me to tell Nadia?”

“You mean about us leaving, or my thoughts on the attack?”

“On the attack, you ass. I’m pretty sure I don’t need to explain us leaving.”

I paused, collecting my thoughts. He said, “Pike?”

I said, “Nadia needs to get the RAW to start looking at China. They’re running amok around here, and they’re the thread. They’re

doing this for something other than just trouble. They could pay Pakistan for that, but they’re here, on the ground. Which

means it’s something directly important to them. I thought it was Thakkar, but now I’m not so sure.”

“Pike, Nadia’s going to say all those guys had Pakistani ISI ties.”

“That’s bullshit Chinese disinformation. She needs them to start looking at people motivated by money, not Islam.”

I heard nothing to that and said, “You still there?”

He said, “You and I think exactly alike. I said that to her earlier today. I’m just glad to hear you say it, because I think you’re right.”

“Well, get her ass on the thread. I don’t think the RAW is corrupt, but I do think China’s trying to bite them in the ass, and they’re using guys they’ve lost control of. There’s going to be another

attack, somewhere, for something we haven’t figured out, but it isn’t driven by Islam.”

“I will, I will. She’s getting ready for the big party right now. We’re supposed to leave in an hour. You wouldn’t believe

this place. It is out of control. There are peacocks all over the grounds, they have rose petals at our door, and we have

our own butler. It’s insane, but I’ll give her our evaluation and then head to the airport to meet you in Agra.”

I said, “What are you wearing right now?”

“Some weird-ass Indian man-dress with leggings. Everyone has to wear it. I look pretty good in it, but I’ll change before

I see you, I promise. I wouldn’t want to get Jennifer all hot and bothered.”

I chuckled and said, “I’d never be so cruel. Enjoy your time with Nadia. She seems nice, and you’ll never get to see an Indian

pre-wedding party like that ever . Take a commercial flight home when it’s done, but I’m taking the team tonight.”

I could almost see the smile on his face. He said, “You got it. Sorry I wasn’t there for the gunfight.”

I said, “You didn’t miss much. I had Veep take the bullet instead of you.”

Brett and I reached our room and I called Jennifer to find out her status. She told me she was at the airport and would be

here in about an hour. She also said she had Veep with her, and asked if we had enough space. I looked at Brett and mouthed,

“We need another room.”

He shook his head and said, “There are no rooms. It’s here or nowhere.”

I went back to the phone and said, “We have plenty of space. Veep’s going to sleep with Brett, and you’ll sleep with me.”

Brett snapped his head to me and said, “No way am I sleeping with some guy who has to lie on his back and groan all night

every time I move. I’ll sleep with Jennifer. You’re sleeping with Veep.”

I looked at him and mouthed, “Shut it.”

Into the phone I said, “Just get down here, we’ll figure it out.”

Jennifer said, “I’d better have a bed when I get there.”

I started to reply when Brett said, “Creed’s responded.”

I said, “Gotta go. Call when you’re in the air.”

I hung up without another word, turned to Brett, and said, “What did he find?”

Brett was going through the tablet, saying, “Absolutely nothing, apparently. The phone was never used for a call, texts, or

email. Never used to surf the web. It apparently did nothing but control the drone.”

I said, “It took that long to get us nothing?”

He said, “Wait, wait. Here’s something. There was a Garmin watch attached to it. And some gobbledygook about spoofing.”

I said, “Enough of this shit,” and dialed my phone to DC. I looked at my watch and saw it was now seven p.m. , did some quick math, and realized Creed had been working all night for nothing. It was nine thirty in the morning his time,

and I hoped to catch him there.

I heard the switchboard answer, did a dance of bona fides with the woman on the phone to prove who I was, and then was connected

to the network operations center. A man answered, and I said, “Get me Creed.”

There was a pause, then: “He’s not in yet. He’ll be here later.”

Which was a mistake on his part, as I knew Creed had been there all night. The NOC wasn’t waiting on him to arrive. Creed was likely waving his arms, telling the man on the phone to say that so he could leave.

I said, “Tell him it’s Pike, and put his ass on the phone.”

A second later I heard, “Pike, I did like you asked—outside of any orders from George Wolffe, I might add. There was nothing

on that phone. It’s like it was opened and never used for anything other than a Garmin watch and a Mavic drone.”

I said, “That’s what I want to ask you about. You said something about spoofing. What did you mean?”

“Apparently, the phone was tied into a Garmin watch—specifically an Instinct 2X Tactical—and it transmitted all sorts of data

to an application.”

“Yeah, so?”

“That’s what I said: ‘Yeah, so what?’ I can tell you wherever that watch went, which isn’t that big of a deal, because I could

do that with the phone alone, but this phone had been modified. There were four watches that sent it data, and someone modified

the app to appear as if all four watches were with this phone.”

“You’re speaking Egyptian. Can you tell me what that means?”

“It means that wherever those other watches were, they were transmitting from their phone to this phone, and this phone was

recording them as all being in the same place. That’s all. I know, I get it. It’s nothing. That’s what I was trying to say.”

“Wait, are you saying someone was trying to hide their location through this phone?”

“No. Their own phones would still have the data from their watches. If you found their phone, you’d see where they’d been.

They weren’t hiding anything.”

“Then why do it?”

“I don’t know, Pike. That’s why I said it was nothing. I’m not sure why they did it.”

“But this phone was transmitting that data?”

“Yeah, like they all were. If you had access to the phone, you got the data.”

“Wait, slow down. You said that the other Garmin watches, tied to other phones, were sending their data to this phone?”

“Yeah. That’s what I meant by ‘spoofing.’ Why?”

“Can you show me where the other watches are located? Can you give me a history of their movements from this phone?”

“Yeah... I think so. The phone recorded it all.”

“Get me that, right now. Send it to the tablet.”

I hung up and turned to Brett. He said, “What was that all about?”

I said, “We just found the other terrorists. I think the Chinese were tracking them, and they found a way to get around it.

He’s sending the data to us right now, and when we get it, we send it to Knuckles for Nadia to sort out.”

We gathered around the tablet display and I saw Creed halfway around the world working a cursor on the screen. It was like

magic. He punched one button, highlighted something else, and the phone lit up, pulsing. The cursor kept working, and four

icons appeared on the screen, along with a ton of breadcrumb trails tied to numbers, so much that the screen was overridden

with them.

Brett said, “What the hell is that?”

I called Creed back and said, “We’ve got a mish-mash of shit over here. I can’t see anything.”

He said, “That’s the complete picture for the last forty-eight hours.”

“But there’s not even a map, just a bunch of dots and numbers.”

“The dots are the trail the GPS recorded. The numbers are the lat-long.”

I gritted my teeth and said, “That’s no fucking help, Creed. I need this on a map, so I can see.”

“So you don’t want to know the actual grid?”

“I will after I see a map.”

He huffed and said, “Hang on.”

Five minutes later, the screen cleared, showing a map of India, the dots and icons tiny in the center. He came on the phone

and said, “Now?”

“Yeah, I have the whole continent, but the icons are microscopic.”

“So zoom in. You want me to do that too?”

I felt a little embarrassed and picked up the tablet, putting the phone on speaker. I hit the plus button on the map, and

it started closing in on the trail. It showed all four moving from Delhi to Agra, then two to Jaipur, followed by a third,

with one remaining behind.

Jaipur? That’s not good.

I said, “Can I separate this by last known grid for each? No trails?”

He said, “Hang on.”

The screen cleared, showing a single icon in Agra, and three in Jaipur. I hit zoom on Agra and it came down to earth right

above the palace in the Agra Fort. It was the terrorist we’d killed today, his last recorded grid being where he’d died and

the time of death.

I looked at the last recorded time for the other three and saw it was about thirty minutes earlier. So they’d all ceased transmitting

about the same time. Weird. Like they knew that guy was going to be dead soon and no longer needed his phone.

I zoomed in on their location, getting down to the granular level. They were all together, right outside the Oberoi Rajvilas

Resort.

Holy shit.

I said, “Get Knuckles back on the line, right now.”

Brett heard the steel in my voice and said, “What, why?”

I tossed the tablet to him while dialing Jennifer with my own phone, saying, “Those fuckers are outside the wedding party.

They’re trying to kill Thakkar after all.”