Page 73 of Into the Gray Zone

Mr.Chin thought,Good luck with that. Then,A single terrorist?

Kamal and the others must have escaped. He woke his tablet and flicked to the Garmin tracking application, wanting to see where the other three had fled.

The screen showed no information at all, simply saying,Connection lost.

He furrowed his eyes, closed the application, checked the cell connectivity, then booted it up again. The same screen appeared. All four ofthe watches were no longer transmitting, meaning the persons wearing them were dead, or they’d been shut down intentionally.

No more than thirty minutes ago, all four were at the Agra Fort, each transmitting a pulse rate and location, and now all four were gone?

He heard the television say Thakkar’s name and returned to the news report. The anchor was now saying that government sources had confirmed that Riva Thakkar’s visit to the Taj Mahal was purely coincidental, and that he was not specifically targeted, as the incident occurred a full ten minutes after the billionaire had left the grounds.

What?That made absolutely no sense.

The reporter continued, saying authorities believed the terrorist had no knowledge of Thakkar’s visit and was forced to wait until after he left for his attack, convinced he intended to kill more people than Thakkar’s group provided.

What on earth is going on?

Chapter44

Kamal and his men stood in the back of the downstairs lounge, every student staying in the hostel now crowded around a single flat-screen television, listening to a report of a terrorist attack in Agra.

When the story was over the group split up, all chattering nervously. Kamal led his men back to their room, not saying a word. Once the door closed, Kamal spoke in a whisper, saying, “Agam’s dead.”

Manjit said, “What do you think happened?”

“I don’t know. Maybe the drone was faulty. Maybe he turned it on, and it exploded. There’s no way to tell.”

Randeep said, “Do we continue?”

Kamal looked at both of them, seeing the loss of Agam had driven a stake in the heart of their will. The loss of Sidak in Goa had been a motivator, but for some reason, unlike for him, Agam’s death was having the opposite effect on his men.

He said, “Yes, of course we continue. I spoke to Agam before I came here. He knew the risks and was willing to accept them.”

“Butweput him on that path.”

And Kamal saw the issue. Manjit and Randeep blamed Mr.Chin for Sidak’s death, but blamed themselves for Agam. He had to put that to rest.

“That’s not true. What happened at Agra would have happened whether we had come here or not. If the drone was faulty, it would have blown up whether we were trying to kill Thakkar for Mr. Chin or whether we were using it to further our goals.”

He saw his words held weight, and understood they wanted to believe him. He decided to focus on the mission. He looked at his watch and said, “We have about nine hours until the attack. Instead of sitting here mourning Agam, I want to take the van to that abandoned building next to the Oberoi. Get it parked inside the garage and start familiarizing ourselves with the weapons and gear. Fit the body armor, load the magazines, double-check the grenades, that sort of thing.”

He stood up and Randeep said, “Wait, wait. I understand what you’re saying about Agam’s death, but there’s more to it than just him getting killed. Agam failed in his mission. He didn’t hit the Taj Mahal, and you said that was necessary for us to be able to escape from here.”

“No, that’s not true. What I said was we needed a diversion large enough to draw away national assets. I only want to deal with local police when we escape, without any national police or the RAW coordinating efforts. We have a long drive to Mumbai, and we won’t make it with a coordinated response. Agam accomplished that. The Agra Fort is close enough to the Taj Mahal, and his death was enough to cause what we needed.”

“How do you know? Howcanwe know?”

Kamal scoffed and said, “Did you not see what I just saw? It was a local news station here in Jaipur talking about an explosion ‘near the Taj Mahal.’ Every station in this country is going to be talking about that, which means the pressure to solve it will be enormous. Every police and intelligence agency in the country will be descending on Agra, if only to show they’re trying. Do you think an explosion at an old fort in Goa would generate that? No, Agam’s mission worked.”

Manjit said, “What if it worked too well? What if theydosolve it and somehow attach us to Agam? His death might have given them the clues to find us before those ten hours are up.”

“That won’t happen. If anything, they’ll unravel Mr.Chin’s involvement, but the true hunters will be focused on Agam and Agra. They won’t be looking for us.”

***

I hung up the phone and turned to Brett, saying, “Veep’s going to be fine. Kerry’s got him patched up through an embassy doc.”

“What’s the damage?”

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