Page 78 of Into the Gray Zone (Pike Logan #19)

The Rock Star bird took off from Mumbai, the interior of the aircraft maxed out with people. We had Mr.Chin bolted to a chair

in the back, blindfolded, with noise-canceling earmuffs over his head—and apparently I now owed the pilots about seven cases

of beer because I’d made them watch him the entire time we’d been gone.

The rest of the space was occupied by my team and Kerry Bostwick, all headed to New Delhi. Kerry wanted to get us out of the

country as soon as possible, before too many questions could be asked. He didn’t even want to delay long enough for Brett

and Veep to get proper medical attention in a civilian hospital, saying that the quickie patchwork they’d received from the

embassy doctor would do until they were under proper Taskforce care, and that requirement was even more reason to get out

sooner rather than later—but first, he had to get Mr.Chin off the plane.

I knew that wasn’t the real reason, but I let it ride because both Brett and Veep were doing fine. No, Kerry was afraid that

the longer we waited, the more chances there were that we’d be prevented from leaving the country, with some opposition government

types trying to get to the bottom of what had happened in Riva Thakkar’s residence.

We’d stayed inside the safe room for twelve hours, only coming out after the frenzy of the assault had died down. I couldn’t get a cell signal inside the room because of the thickness of the walls—which was a glaring deficiency in my mind—and tried the landline next to the bed, but it was dead, somehow cut by the fighting outside. I managed to use the Wi-Fi to contact Kerry Bostwick through FaceTime.

He’d been pulling his hair out for the duration of the assault and at first, when he saw my background, he thought I was calling

him from a hotel room, hostages secured and everything hunky-dory. I could see he was about to jump for joy and I brought

him down to earth, telling him where we were and what the situation was.

I told him we were good for a few days, but he needed to find a way to get us out of there. He contacted the RAW, and when

things had calmed down enough, they entered the building—ostensibly looking for intelligence in the aftermath. Kerry and a

couple of Caucasian analysts came with them, the RAW letting them in as “CIA partners.”

The RAW spread out, taking a look at the damage and collecting “evidence,” and Kerry and his crew came specifically to our

hallway. Once I saw him outside, I opened the door, and we blended in with the other analysts, exiting the building with a

larger group than the CIA had entered with, but who was counting?

I’d asked Annaka and Nadia to stay inside, making them promise to say they’d simply escaped the carnage and made it to the

safe room on their own. Four hours after we’d left, Annaka opened the door and was “discovered” by the RAW.

It was a complete success for the government and the Black Cats. As far as the world knew, they’d not only rescued the American,

Sledge, but had surgically assaulted a twenty-seven-story building, eliminating all the terrorists and saving the two hostages

they held. They were national heroes, and I knew they wouldn’t look too hard to find out if they’d had any help.

If Annaka stuck to her story, we were good.

Nobody on the news talked about the massive carnage the Black Cats had engendered, but I didn’t blame them for what they did.

It turned out that Jaiden had set a trap on the helipad, actually knocking one helicopter out of commission and causing it

to hard-land on the pad. That had fouled up the insertion of the other two, forcing them to fast-rope to the deck while they

were being shot at.

The Black Cats had nine casualties on infil and decided that it was a fight to the death, and then executed. I like to think

I’d have kept my goal of hostage rescue at the front of my mind, but I don’t know if I would have handled the situation any

differently. It would be like landing on Normandy Beach for a hostage rescue and then running into the German buzz saw. Eliminating

the enemy would have been the first thing on my mind too. On the other hand, I was pretty sure that the whole hostage rescue

thing had taken a back seat for the Black Cats from the very beginning.

The true miracle was that those guys had had the presence of mind not to drop grenades next to the explosive charges Jaiden

had placed. In the end, the Black Cats had been trained well enough to recognize the threat and had executed accordingly.

Jaiden had four different key fobs on his body, each to a car in Riva Thakkar’s giant collection, so the bet was that he planned

on taking the elevator to the garage and driving out of the building, but he’d pushed it too long, not leaving before the

Black Cats assaulted. Some thought he intended to be a martyr the entire time, but I figured he had an escape scenario involving

Sledge and the other terrorists in the slum. Our assault there probably short-circuited the overarching plan, but nobody could

prove his endstate one way or the other.

We still had one big problem that extended beyond Sikh nationalism, and he was handcuffed in the back of our aircraft.

Sitting across from Kerry, I said, “Are you going to jam Mr.Chin up China’s ass?”

“Believe it or not, no. China gets a pass on this one.”

Knuckles said, “What? Are you serious? That fucker tried to kill us, and he did it on behalf of the CCP. They tried to assassinate

Riva Thakkar—a CIA asset working for you on an international covert operation.”

“Yeah, but that operation is still in play. Riva is pleased with how this went down, and has doubled down on how much he wants

to invest in the mine. We’ll get what we want out of it, even if that guy is a complete asshole.”

We’d heard he was satisfied that the Black Cats had killed all the terrorists, but Nadia had told us he didn’t even seem to

care that his daughter was alive. I would have really liked to meet him face-to-face, if only to punch it, but that wasn’t

to be.

I said, “But you’d really get what you want if you laid your cards out to India. It would be more than just a rare earth element

mine. We’re always worried about them cozying up to China, since India is in their backyard. This would be one way to ensure

they told China to screw off for years, if not decades.”

Kerry said, “True, but if we did that, we’d have to explain how we caught ol’ Mr.Chin, and that would then involve us explaining

how we were doing our own operations on their soil.”

“So what? We have definite proof they tried to assassinate a Sikh separatist on U.S. soil, and we let that slide in the interests

of being good allies. They’ll do the same. What the hell is POTUS thinking on this one?”

Kerry said, “The president wanted to do what you say. I’m the one who talked him out of it. This is my idea.”

Knuckles said, “Why? It’s like we scored a victory, but you don’t want to use it.”

“No, I do. Mr. Chin is a wealth of knowledge on all MSS operations, including their use of supposed civilian companies to steal intellectual property and conduct intelligence operations all over the world. Right now, the Chinese don’t know we have him. As far as they know, he’s running from them, and I want to keep it that way. If they find out we have him, they’ll try to kill him, but they’ll also start shutting down every cover organization he knows about, shifting tactics. This way, it’s like having the Enigma machine. We can crack the codes, but they don’t know we can do it.”

He went from Knuckles to me, then said, “Trust me, it’s for the best. This time we’re winning the battle in the gray zone.”

Knuckles said, “That’s all above my pay grade. You want to play games with that guy, have at it. Just don’t set him up as

a manager of a Holiday Inn somewhere. If he has to have a job, make sure it sucks.”

Kerry laughed and glanced out the window, saying, “New Delhi coming up. You guys don’t have to worry about it. Your job is

done. I’ll get off with Mr.Chin, and you just fly on back to the United States for some R and R.”

I said, “We were thinking about taking a little vacation here. You know, since we didn’t get to really see any of the sites.

Annaka Thakkar said she’d make it all first class, and there’s no way we’re turning that down.”

Kerry said, “Uh, no. You’re not leaving the aircraft. Sorry. That’s straight from the Oversight Council, and George Wolffe

concurred. He wants your ass home, since you do nothing but get in trouble when he’s not involved.”

The Oversight Council was a little miffed that I’d stretched their Omega authority for Mr. Chin as far as I had, but luckily, I looked like a damn hero, so there wasn’t much they could say. Wolffe, on the other hand, as my direct boss, could say a lot, and he was extremely pissed I’d kept him out of the loop. I knew I was in for an ass-chewing when I got back, but I also knew he’d get over it. He always did.

I said, “But Annaka is going to pay for it all. It won’t be on the Taskforce dime. We’re going to get treated like Sledge,

the rock star.”

Since he’d been freed, Sledge had been making the rounds all over India, being treated like a hero for doing nothing more

than running away. I will say it was helping his Everclear Foundation, so I guess it was for a good cause.

The aircraft touched down and began taxiing to a special hardstand that the RAW used, now detailed to the CIA.

Kerry said, “Sorry, Pike. Orders are orders.”

I saw four SUVs and a cluster of men in suits waiting for us to stop. We did, and they raced on board, slapping a hood over

Mr.Chin, unhooking him from the chair, and then bundling him straight out the door. They put him in the back of a tinted-windowed

SUV, then departed. The entire episode took about four minutes.

I said, “Well, that was quick.”

I turned to Kerry and said, “Now that Mr.Chin is taken care of, are you sure you can’t sweet talk the Oversight Council for

a little Indian R and R?”

He stood up, pulling a briefcase out of the overhead bin and saying, “No chance on that. Enjoy the flight home.”

I saw another vehicle arrive, thinking it was for Kerry, but was surprised when Nadia exited.

I said, “Knuckles, Nadia is here. At least somebody wants to say goodbye properly.”

Kerry looked at me quizzically. “She’s not saying goodbye today.”

I laughed and said, “What, are we supposed to evacuate her with us?”

Kerry scrunched his brow and said, “Well, yeah. Knuckles had me walk through a visa for her.”

Now I was confused. I looked at Knuckles and he held out his hands, saying, “I didn’t figure they’d let us stay. And she wants

a vacation too. She says she can get Annaka to pay for everything, for the whole team, wherever we want to go.”

I glanced at Jennifer, saying, “Did you know about this?”

I saw from her innocent expression that she most certainly did.

Nadia said, “Don’t worry, Pike. I won’t ask for you to break into any hotel rooms this time. Unless I find one with Jennifer

in it.”