Page 60 of Into the Gray Zone (Pike Logan #19)

Jennifer and I sat in our car listening to the engine tick, waiting on an assessment from Brett and Knuckles. Finally, we

heard, “Pike, Koko, this is Blood. It’s not looking good.”

“What do you have?”

“The security here is actual security. If the detector goes off, they use a wand.”

So much for weapons. “Roger all. Get us tickets, we’ll be there shortly.”

I turned to Jennifer and said, “Call Veep and get a fix. Is he still on the island?”

We’d started this Omega operation basically at a sprint, without any serious advanced force work. That had simply consisted

of splitting the team into two vehicles and leaving Veep behind to coordinate with Creed in the rear.

It turned out we couldn’t get real-time mapping of the phone—like any civilian could with Uber or a Domino’s Pizza delivery—but

we could get a fix every time we asked Creed to ping the handset. Veep’s job was to keep track of the little blue icon, pinging it

every once in a while to make sure it hadn’t shifted.

I’d put Knuckles and Brett in one vehicle, taken Jennifer in another, and we’d set up a surveillance box on the hotel, my original plan based on KISS—Keep It Simple, Stupid. Since we didn’t have any time to set up an elaborate operation, I was going to sit out here until he left in a vehicle, then conduct a vehicle interdiction the first chance we got.

Of course, it hadn’t worked out that way. We’d gotten an alert from Creed that the handset was on the move, then spotted a

Chinese guy waiting on the valet. I’d asked for an immediate ping, and the handset geolocated right in front of the hotel.

That’s him.

His car arrived, and we started tracking him, but he began a surveillance detection route right off the bat. Within five minutes

of the follow I knew he was looking for someone stalking him and I called our teams off. We still had his handset, and I decided

to follow him that way.

Honestly, I didn’t have a Plan B. I barely had a Plan A with the vehicle interdiction. Even if we did roll up this guy, we

had no safe house or extraction plan. I’d convinced George Wolffe to let me take him down first, before all of that was solidified.

I told Wolffe I’d secure him in the Rock Star bird, letting the handwringers decide what to do with him later. Whatever they

decided—fly him to our embassy in New Delhi, fly him to some safe house that Kerry Bostwick managed to procure, turn him over

to a JSOC interrogation team—I didn’t really care as long as I had an hour alone with him.

We backed off and let Creed do the work. He pinged the phone every five seconds, and after zigzagging around Jaipur like a

tweaker on meth, the car eventually headed north on a highway called Amer Road. We started to track him in a loose follow

about four miles back and he eventually stopped at some old fort.

I looked at Jennifer, and she was already working on it, saying, “It’s called the Amber Palace. They have a sound and light

show there at this time, first one in English, second one an hour later in Hindi.”

“What the hell? Why’s he going there?”

She shook her head and said, “Maybe he’s just doing tourist things for his cover.”

There was only one way to find out. I redirected the team to the Amber Palace and sent Knuckles and Brett on a recce to check

on the level of security. Brett’s call told me that we were going in unarmed.

I took out my Staccato and shoved it under the seat, saying, “What’s the last ping?”

Jennifer called Veep, then said, “He’s still on the island in the lake.”

“Let’s go.”

We jogged up to the entrance of the complex, meeting Brett and Knuckles, Brett holding our tickets.

Knuckles said, “What’s the plan?”

“Right now, just PID and surveil.”

Brett said, “That’s it? Just identify the guy and follow him around? That’s the whole plan?”

“Well, right up until you guys come up with a better one.”

We went through the entry point metal detector and handed our tickets to a guy at a counter. He said, “The show’s already

started. You should hurry.”

I nodded and we acted like we cared, speed-walking toward the path that led to the island. We took about four steps before

Brett pushed all of us to the shadows of a kiosk, saying, “Cover, cover, cover.”

We immediately ducked our heads and turned away from the street, me saying, “What do you have?”

“Group of four Chinese moving our way.”

I looked at Jennifer and she called back to Veep, then said, “Not him. He’s still on the island.”

I glanced at the group as they moved abreast of us and recognized one of them as a shooter from Agra. I said, “One of those guys is the asshole that tried to kill us.”

Brett flicked a quick glance and said, “Yep. I recognize the guy in front. They must have gotten some replacements for the

ones we took out.”

Jennifer said, “Handset is on the move.”

I glanced at the security point, seeing the guards all facing away and the four Chinese men disappearing into the darkness

of the parking lot. I asked, “Coming this way?”

I was thinking, Maybe we take his ass down right here.

She said, “Unclear. He’s on the path. He’ll either turn left toward the palace or right toward us.”

I said, “If he comes this way we follow him into the parking lot and tune his ass up. Jennifer, you distract him with a question.

Brett, you have security. Make sure those other pipe-hitters don’t come back to interfere. Knuckles, you go low, I’ll go high.

Jennifer, once we engage, haul ass to the vehicle and bring it to us.”

There was no way I’d pull a mission out of my ass like that if it hadn’t been my team. Anybody else and I’d have had them

repeat their individual assignments using a sand table, but I knew my team could flex seamlessly to any contingency.

I asked, “Roger?”

I got an up from the team, and then Jennifer said, “He’s moving left. He’s headed to the palace.”

Shit .

“Okay, looks like we’re going to wait him out. He’s got to leave here sooner or later. We’ll use the same plan when he does.

Let’s get inside the palace.”

We began speed-walking in the darkness, going higher and higher on the hill, the ancient portcullis of the palace ahead. We reached it, entering a large courtyard about a hundred meters across, the area lit up with multicolored lights blinking and shifting, making it look like a Halloween amusement ride.

I said, “Jenn, what’s his status?”

She talked to Veep, and the conversation lasted longer than it should have. She turned to me and said, “He’s turned his phone

off.”

Double shit.

I said, “Okay, let’s find him the hard way. Knuckles, Blood, take left. Koko and I will take right.”