Page 105 of Into the Gray Zone

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.”

Chapter61

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 façade 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.”

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