Page 61 of Into the Gray Zone (Pike Logan #19)

Knuckles and Brett reached the far side of the courtyard, threading through the crowds but not seeing their prey. Knuckles

called on the net, “Moving into the left building.”

Pike came back, saying, “Same here. Entering right building.”

Knuckles and Brett continued on, searching the individual rooms for a Chinese hiding in the sparse collection of tourists.

Brett touched Knuckles’ elbow and pointed. “Stairs. You want to stay down and I’ll go up?”

Knuckles said, “Yeah,” then called Pike, saying, “Splitting low/high over here. No jackpot.”

He heard, “Roger. Doing the same on the right.”

He moved deeper into the building, finding a maze of hallways and rooms, some large, others tiny. He checked each one, coming

up empty. He reached the far wall, a stone facade with cutouts for windows, and saw another courtyard beyond it, this one

smaller and ringed with more buildings.

He said, “Blood, Blood, at the far side. Status?”

“Almost there. Stand by. When I reach it, I’ll find some stairs to get back down. Got one more room to check out on the lake

side.”

Knuckles waited, then heard, “Jackpot. I say again, jackpot. He’s in a room with some sort of wooden contraption talking to another guy.”

Knuckles said, “On the way. Give me a lock-on.”

“Get to the second floor and move to the lake. You’ll find me.”

Knuckles did so, saw Brett standing in a hallway, the changing illumination of the light show flashing into the space like

he was in a cheap music video. He jogged to Brett and said, “Where?”

Brett pointed, and Knuckles saw two Chinese men talking at the top of a narrow stairwell. Next to it was some ancient wooden

apparatus, a wheel with two ropes attached to it dropping into a shaft.

Knuckles said, “Pike, we have him. Don’t bother coming up. Not enough room. If he leaves here, he’s going down.”

Pike said, “Roger that. On the ground floor of your building, standing by.”

Knuckles kept his eyes on the men, seeing that the target was apparently arguing over something, his phone in his hand. The

other man was pointing down the stairs, causing the target to shake his head. Ultimately, the target agreed and began going

down. The other man waited until he was in front of him and then followed.

Knuckles said, “Target is going down, but he now has a trailer with him.”

“Roger all. We’ll pick him up when he exits. If he still has the trailer, I’ll make the call on the assault.”

Knuckles turned to Brett and said, “Let’s get a little closer.”

They walked quietly to the small room, and Knuckles moved to the stairwell, straining his ears. He heard the footsteps going

down, and it seemed like a lot longer than just a single flight. He heard Brett hiss, saw him standing at the pit with the

ropes going down it, and went to him.

Brett pointed at a plaque on the wall and said, “This is some sort of water system for the palace. It goes all the way down to the lake.”

Knuckles glanced into the pit, smelling the overpowering stench of ammonia. The middle part of the shaft was cloaked in darkness,

but the very bottom was illuminated and he could see it was about three stories down. Deeper than the ground floor. He saw

an undulation in the dim glow, like the walls were moving, and whispered, “What’s that?”

“Bats. The shaft is full of bats.”

Knuckles caught movement at the bottom and focused on the lighted area. A figure came into the illumination. He whispered,

“Someone’s down there. Keep eyes on. I’m calling Pike.”

He stepped out of the room, going back to the hallway, and clicked on the net, saying, “Pike, he’s not coming to you. He’s

in some type of water shaft that goes below the ground floor.”

“What’s he doing?”

“I don’t know, but if I were to guess, it’s a personal meet. There’s a man at the bottom of the shaft that I think is waiting

on him.”

Knuckles heard nothing for a moment, and knew Pike was deciding if the meeting was important enough to intervene. He finally

came back. “Wait for them to finish and we’ll stick with the plan.”

Knuckles heard Brett hiss. “Get over here! He’s getting his ass kicked.”

Knuckles ran over to the shaft and stared down it, seeing their target in a rear naked choke, his flailing arms causing shadows

to flicker on the walls.

What the hell?

“Pike, Pike, the target is being eliminated. I say again, the target is being eliminated.”

“What? Say again?”

“He’s being killed right now by two goons.”

“Stop it. Interdict the assault.”

Knuckles heard the words but knew there was not enough time .

The hold the target was in would render him unconscious in seconds, but if held longer than that, it would kill him fairly

quickly. He would more than likely be dead by the time they could make it three floors down the narrow stairwell.

He saw the ropes in front of him, wondering if they were new for the exhibit or from the sixteenth century. Brett saw his

focus and said, “Oh, no. Not doing it.”

Knuckles ripped off his jacket and said, “Oh, yes you are.”

He reached out, grabbed one of the ropes, and pulled on it. It held, for whatever good that proved. He wrapped his jacket

around his hands, took a grip on the rope, and leaned out into the pit. The line held his weight. He looked at Brett and said,

“Get your ass in here,” and began sliding down the rope, using his feet and hands as friction points to slow his descent.

He entered the darkness and felt an explosion around him, a horde of bats bursting out of the shaft, slapping into his body

in a frantic effort to escape. He tucked his head, pursed his lips, and kept streaking to the bottom. He reentered the light

and saw he was right above the fight, one man directly below him, the other still holding the target.

He let go, dropping straight down onto the first man, slamming his shoulders and driving him into the ground. He rolled upright

just as Brett hit the ground next to him. Knuckles turned to the man he’d landed on and punched him in the head to ensure

he was out of the fight, then turned to the other one. The second man flung the target away and went into a fighting stance

against Brett. The target dropped to his knees holding his throat.

Brett brought up his fists and the second man began doing something out of a kung fu movie, becoming a whirlwind of kicks and punches. Brett blocked two, caught the man with a jab, and then was hit in the shoulder with a roundhouse kick, the blow knocking him to the ground. The man turned to Knuckles, hissing and screaming like he was in a Bruce Lee movie. He attacked and Knuckles backed up, letting the flurry hit nothing but air.

He ended the routine with a spinning back kick and Knuckles batted it aside, then dove into the man, wrapping his arms around

the man’s waist. He lifted him off the ground and slammed him back down with his weight behind it. The man continued to fight

like a wildcat, catching Knuckles with two elbows to the head that nearly rendered him unconscious.

Knuckles tied up his arms and tucked his head into his chest, knowing he didn’t have to win the fight alone. Brett reentered

the brawl, wrapping his arms around the man’s neck just like the man had done to the target and began squeezing like a python.

In seconds, the man was unconscious.

Breathing heavily, Brett let go, saying, “I have done some stupid shit before, but that is probably a record. What were you

going to do if the rope snapped?”

Knuckles rolled off, checked his forehead for blood from the elbow blows, and said, “I’d have just entered the fight a little

more dynamically.”

He looked around the room and saw the target was gone. He immediately got on the net, saying, “Pike, Pike, target is on the

loose. He’s gone back up.”

Pike didn’t respond. Knuckles ran to the stairwell, taking them two at a time and saying, “Pike, Pike, are you on the net?”

He got nothing. He kept driving his legs up the stairs and reached the ground level, Brett right behind him. He tried again,

saying, “Pike, Koko, Pike, Koko, come back.”

They jogged across the courtyard, looking left and right, then stopped, Knuckles saying, “Where the hell did they go?”

Jennifer came on the net, saying, “Knuckles, this is Koko. We have jackpot.”

Knuckles looked at Brett and said, “Say again?”

“We’re in the parking lot. We have the target. Pike says no thanks to you.”