Page 77 of Into the Gray Zone (Pike Logan #19)

The elevator doors opened and I pushed out Redcoat and Manjit, hoping they’d be recognized and cause everyone to relax. Instead,

I heard a raging firefight happening a few floors above us, sounding like an unruly guest was pounding drums in a hotel room.

I raised my weapon, and all of a sudden the interior of the elevator began to echo like someone was throwing rocks against

the metal, bullets flying into it on full automatic.

I saw both Redcoat and Manjit shredded right in front of my eyes and hit the floor, Knuckles right next to me. There was a

lull in the fire, the guards realizing they’d killed their own, and we started returning fire before they could recover.

I hit one, heard Knuckles on my right shooting, then I saw something floating in the air. It clanged off the back of the elevator

and I shouted, “Grenade!”

We both dove out, rolling left and right, using the wall as cover, and the grenade went off, destroying the elevator.

My first thought was, Need another exfil plan, but it was banished a moment later by fire coming at us from two directions, the room and a stairwell leading to a balcony

on my left.

I started suppressing the stairwell while Knuckles dealt with the few remaining guards in the room. He shouted, “Moving!” and I covered him. He took up a position in the sunken den and began firing at the stairwell, the men now retreating up it, which I thought was a good thing until I saw them fanning out on the mezzanine that looked down into the den.

Shit . That was the worst. They’d line up and start shooting us like fish in a barrel. I ran to Knuckles’ position, calling on

the radio, “Koko, Koko, what’s your status? Where are the hostages?”

She said, “I’m up one level. We’ve got the detonator, I’m with Nadia. Annaka is on the balcony outside.”

The rounds started coming in and I rolled behind a pillar, Knuckles doing the same, both of us trying to squeeze behind a

space that was too small.

I said, “Stay up there. Get to the mezzanine overlooking the den and start suppressing the guys shooting at us. We’re pinned

down.”

Bullets were pinging off the marble and I tried to scootch farther in, hitting something with my hip. I looked down and saw

a package of explosives taped to the pillar.

Jesus Christ. If they hit that we’re all going to die.

I said, “Koko, Koko, need some suppression.”

She said, “I’m here, but I’ve only got a pistol. I’m shooting but they don’t even seem to know.”

I realized her long gun was still on my back. I said, “Are you fucking hitting anything?”

“Pike, it’s a seventy-meter shot.”

Knuckles said, “Fuck this shit. I’m moving.”

He rolled out and took off running to the balcony. The shooting shifted from me to his moving figure, and I rotated around. I started squeezing the trigger like I was at a carnival midway shooting at ro tating ducks, hitting man after man until someone recognized I was a threat.

I saw Jaiden for the first time, standing one row back and screaming. He looked behind him, then at the stairs, and I realized

that the Black Cats were coming down, but I was preventing him from fleeing.

Knuckles took a knee outside on the veranda and started suppressing the mezzanine, shouting, “Move!”

I ran to him, threading the needle of fire and making it outside without getting hit. I took a knee next to him and he said,

“I found Annaka.”

I saw her behind him cowering in fear. I said, “Don’t worry, we’re going to get you out of here.”

She didn’t look like she believed it.

Knuckles said, “How the fuck are we going to do that? The Black Cats are clearing each floor, and from the gunfire, they’re

one floor above us. It sounds like their clearing technique involves hand grenades and plenty of firepower. They aren’t discriminating.”

I looked into the den, seeing the explosives still daisy chained together, and said, “If they do that down here, they’re going

to bring the entire floor down.”

Knuckles said, “We need to get down, now.”

I called Brett, saying, “Blood, Blood, what is the ground force doing?”

“About a platoon went in. I assume they’re clearing from the bottom to the top.”

So trying to get to the bottom using stairs isn’t going to work. I called Veep on my cell and said, “Did you get the Black Cats? Can you tell them I have the hostages? Tell them to back

off?”

“We got through, but I don’t know what good it will do. They aren’t that good at flexing. They have their plan, and they’re

executing.”

I hung up and said, “I guess our best bet is to stay out here on the balcony.”

Knuckles said, “If they hit those explosives with a grenade, it won’t matter. We’re all going down.”

I muttered, “What I wouldn’t give for a good holocaust cloak.”

Knuckles chuckled at the Princess Bride reference and said, “I’d rather have an armored room at this point.”

The shoot-out on the mezzanine was growing more intense, Jaiden’s men now firing at oncoming Black Cats, grenades going off

and men screaming.

Annaka said, “I have an armored room. A safe room.”

I looked at her in amazement and said, “Where? Where is it?”

“One level up, down a hallway from the mezzanine.”

Deflated, I said, “Where everyone’s shooting?”

“No. The other side.”

I saw Jaiden crawl over the mezzanine railing and hang, dropping to the floor. He hit awkwardly and began limping to the elevator.

He saw it and just stood for a moment, shocked. He turned to the left and hobbled out of sight.

I called Jennifer, saying, “Koko, Koko, you still on the second-floor mezzanine off the den?”

“Yeah, but we backed off down a hallway. What’s the plan?”

“We’re coming to you. Hold what you have.”

I turned to Knuckles and said, “Put her between us.”

He did, and I said to Jennifer, “Koko, we’re coming up your stairwell. Don’t shoot us.”

“Roger all. Standing by.”

I turned to Annaka and said, “Get between us and put your hand on my shoulder.”

She did and I said to Knuckles, “Ready?”

“Yeah.”

I entered the den at a run, seeing the security guards backing down the stairs on the other side of the room, firing up. I ignored them, running to the left stairwell. A grenade went off on the other side, the concussion slapping into me, and I felt the hand leave my shoulder. I turned around, saw Knuckles hoisting Annaka to her feet, and we began running again. I reached the stairwell and made it to the top, finding Jennifer and Nadia crouched in a hallway.

I said, “Annaka, where do we go?”

She took the lead, running down the hallway until she reached the end, the skyline of Mumbai spilling out from a plate glass

window. I turned a circle, seeing nothing but an alcove with art, no other hallways or doors. I said, “Where is it?”

She ran to a vase on a pedestal and picked it up, revealing a keypad. She punched in a sequence of numbers and a section of

the wall separated, moving back seven inches and then sliding to the right. Behind it was what looked like a single-room apartment.

We ran inside and she punched another sequence on a wall keypad, and the door slid shut. I exhaled and said, “How safe is

this place?”

“That door is armored, and we have our own power generator, water, and food. We can stay in here for days.”

She ran to a bank of monitors and began turning them on, then typed on a keyboard until she had the cameras in the den. The

battle was still raging, but it appeared that the Black Cats were simply using firepower because they could.

Knuckles said, “I hope they see those explosives before someone tosses a grenade in the living room.”

Jennifer pointed at the upper-left monitor and said, “There’s Jaiden.”

Knuckles pointed to a lower monitor and said, “The Black Cats are chasing him.”

Annaka ran to the keypad and hit some buttons, saying, “I’m locking out the other keypad.”

We watched Jaiden run down our hallway, jumping from monitor to monitor, until he was in the alcove. He ripped up the pedestal and punched the buttons, but nothing happened. He ran to the wall and pushed, staring into the camera he knew was there, shouting in a frenzy we couldn’t hear. Four men appeared in the hallway, each dressed head to toe in combat gear. He went to his knees, his hands in the air. The lead man put his barrel between Jaiden’s eyes and squeezed the trigger.

Nobody said anything for a moment, watching the Black Cats mill about. Eventually, they left, leaving behind Jaiden’s broken

body.

Knuckles said, “Should we let them know we’re in here?”

I sat on the bed, running my hands through my hair, the adrenaline seeping out and the exhaustion starting to set in. I said,

“No. Let them finish clearing. Let them calm down a bit.”

He said, “That could take a while.” He turned to Annaka and said, “I don’t suppose you stocked this place with any beer, did

you?”