Page 55 of Into the Gray Zone (Pike Logan #19)

Jennifer and I made our way over to Knuckles’ villa because Kerry had turned it into our makeshift tactical operations center.

He figured the RAW had wired his room for sound before he’d arrived, but they hadn’t had a chance to do so in Knuckles’, so

he got the short end of the stick. I didn’t think they’d had time to do so in our room either, but Kerry wasn’t taking any

chances—which worked out for Jennifer’s and my privacy.

It had been over twenty-four hours since the bodyguard had been killed, and the shooter or shooters had disappeared like smoke.

The bullets had come from outside the compound walls, from more than three hundred meters away, and I found it hard to believe

that some jihadists could have made that shot. I was more convinced than ever that it was the Chinese, and they were cleaning

up loose ends.

We knocked on the door, heard, “Come on in,” and found the room reordered, with Knuckles, Brett, and Veep each working a laptop

at a different table.

I glanced around the room and said, “Where’s Kerry?”

Knuckles turned around and said, “He’s with the RAW and Thakkar right now. Be back soon.”

“I thought the rescheduled Oversight Council meeting was in five minutes. Is that still on?”

“President decided he wanted to attend. It’s been postponed until 1730.”

I looked at my watch, saw it was almost 1700, which meant it was almost 0730 in DC. This was the third time the meeting had

been delayed. Luckily, the first one had been canceled because Kerry wasn’t available due to him getting us out of RAW custody

after the bodyguard had been murdered, but the rescheduled meeting had been delayed twice. Earlier, it was just supposed to

be the principals of the Oversight Council, but I guess POTUS figured he wanted in.

I said, “I’ll bet they delayed the other ones because the Council didn’t want to get out of bed. They keep this up and we’ll

never get authority to do anything.”

I expected concurrence from Knuckles, and was a little surprised he wasn’t losing his temper over the delays, given Nadia’s

predicament. Instead, he said, “Might be better to wait a little bit.”

“Why?”

Brett turned around and said, “I’m on with Creed. He got something out of that phone Jennifer took.”

Now interested, I said, “What? Something we can execute?”

“Not yet. He’s downloaded all the phone data and cross-checked it, creating a data constellation of every phone that handset

has contacted in the last week.”

“What good will that do? We don’t know the terrorist numbers, so we have no idea which one to focus on.”

“Yeah, that’s true, and all of the numbers were Indian, but there was an anomaly: one handset was Chinese.”

“Wait, are you saying it called a Chinese phone number?”

“I wish. No. The IMSI was Indian, but the IMEI was from a Chinese phone.”

He sounded like he was speaking Greek, but it was actually pretty simple. The international mobile subscriber identity—the

IMSI—was basically the phone number of the handset and was used by the telecoms to know how to route calls. That number could

be changed simply by swapping out SIM cards, like one could do to save roaming charges when traveling to a foreign country.

The international mobile equipment identity—or IMEI—was the number permanently assigned to the handset, and it detailed the

make, model, and origin of the equipment. What he was saying was the phone number was Indian—because of an Indian SIM card—but

the handset was Chinese.

That still didn’t give me any great confidence of a breakthrough, since India was right next to China.

I said, “Why does that matter? There are probably millions of Chinese-made phones in this country. Hell, I’ll bet the majority

of phones here are Chinese.”

“Creed’s one step ahead of you. He’s already done the research and he agrees with you, but most of the Chinese phones here

are affordable, bottom-basement knockoffs of iPhones or Galaxy handsets. This one is an expensive handset only sold in China,

and it’s touched the Chinese telecom system. Whoever has that cell phone has talked to China.”

Now that was interesting. I said, “Do we know who he contacted in China?”

“Not specifically, but Creed says that the IMEI serial number of that handset is registered to a Chinese conglomerate that

ostensibly invests in mining interests here in India.”

Jennifer said, “So it could just be a businessman here in India. He’d naturally call China, and he’d naturally be involved

with Riva Thakkar.”

Knuckles said, “Yeah, okay, we’re trying to get Riva Thakkar to invest in a rare earth element mine here in India, and this Chinese mining guy is talking to Thakkar’s security? The one who tried to kill Thakkar? Not likely.”

I said, “I agree. More likely that company is an MSS front, and this guy is trying to take out Thakkar to prevent the mine.”

Veep, staring at his screen, held up his left hand, the right one still in a sling, and said, “We have a geolocation.”

He turned around and said, “It’s here, in Jaipur.”

That’s it.

I said, “Where?”

“Hang on. Trying to get fidelity. Creed’s building the map.”

We all gathered around the laptop and saw a blue icon on a blank screen, then the map began to draw itself. First a satellite

image from high in space, then zooming in to an overlay of what appeared to be terrain features of streams and hills. Streets

began sprouting like vines, the blue dot remaining steady, until finally shaded squares of buildings appeared, the blue dot

centered over one.

I said, “Where is that?”

Veep moved the cursor over the building, and it said, “Hilton Jaipur.”

I turned to Jennifer and said, “Map that from here.” I went back to Veep, saying, “Is this real time, or historical?”

“It’s historical, but it’s from this morning.”

“Can we get real time?”

Before he could answer, Kerry entered the room, saying, “Man, this is turning into a mess.”

I said, “Did you tell them about our Chinese theory?”

“I tried to, but we have zero proof. I couldn’t very well bring up your actions here as evidence. I mean, I really couldn’t say that Jennifer had been chased by Chinese agents when she was breaking into a ter rorist safe house that we hadn’t told the RAW about, or that you took out two Chinese assassins just before stopping a terrorist attack in Agra that they think is a misfire. That wouldn’t go over very well, and other than that, we have no real proof.”

I said, “Good, because we got something from that phone Jennifer took.”

He rolled his eyes and said, “That phone is going to be an issue.”

“What do you mean?”

“The RAW didn’t trust the local police with anything they found on the bodyguard. Before their interrogation team got on the

ground they ordered the locals to just conduct an inventory and store everything with him, with instructions to bind his hands

in such a way that he couldn’t access any of it.”

I said, “Shit. I was hoping it was incompetence.”

“Nope. The interrogation team arrived, and he was supposed to show up with everything he had on his body the night of the

attack. The interrogation obviously didn’t happen, and when they searched the body, the phone was gone.”

“What do they think happened to it?”

“Right now, they’re blaming the locals for being incompetent, but I’ve got half a mind to throw it in the bushes for them

to find. The last thing I need as the head of the CIA is to be found hiding evidence involving a major terrorist attack from

the RAW. The conspiracy theories and the fracture of our relationship would be massive.”

“Sir, the phone had contact with a handset that’s been on the Chinese telecom system. The bodyguard was talking to someone

who was then talking to China. I’m right on this.”

He said, “All the more reason to somehow get it into RAW hands without our fingerprints all over it. There might be something

on there that we would miss, but the RAW would find.”

Brett said, “Honestly, Pike, we don’t need the phone anymore. Creed’s done what he could.”

I said, “I guess that’s true, but how are you going to get it into their hands? I’m sure they’ve already searched the holding

area he was in. It’s not like you can drop it there now.”

“They have, but I wasn’t kidding about dropping it in a bush. They didn’t search from the holding area to the spot where he

was shot, and I’ve asked to see his cell. The RAW chief thinks it’s a waste of time, but he’s agreed because he thinks I badly

want to find it.”

“When’s that supposed to happen?”

“I told him I had a meeting and I’d come back to the temple after. So probably just before sunset, after the Oversight Council.

Which will be perfect.”

Veep said, “You’re literally going to do a dead drop with some guy walking right next to you?”

Kerry said, “Hey, once upon a time I was a swashbuckling operative. It won’t be an issue. What else did you find about that

phone?”

I looked at the team, then returned to him, saying, “We know the location of that handset. It’s here in Jaipur. I think it’s

the Chinese control for this entire mess.”

“And?”

“And he’s the key to resolving this debacle. If we roll his ass up, we can locate the hostages.”