Page 18 of Into the Gray Zone

I said, “Okay, down to business. What did we find?”

Brett said, “The front access is pretty secure. It’s a long winding drive up to a circular turnaround, with a single entrance coupled with a metal detector and guards. Nobody’s armed, but if you were coming in that way, you aren’t guaranteed successful exfil. It wouldn’t be my choice.”

Veep said, “But there are plenty of infiltration areas on foot. The area is huge, with plenty of ways to get inside without going through the front. If the mission is kill instead of capture, it could be done.”

Knuckles said, “Nothing on the restaurant side of the house. There are four, but only one of them is good for an assault because it has a patio leading to the outside, but the others are like Veep said—no goodfor exfil. If someone wants to use them to ambush, they could do so, but they aren’t getting away without a running gunfight. The only one that’s a true risk is the pool bungalow restaurant. It’s open three hundred and sixty degrees.”

I said, “Cameras?”

“Got two facing the ocean on the north and south side of the property, right on the ocean, and one at an entrance to a maintenance section at the north end. It’s full of plants and sheds, but it’s a channelized access, as the fence runs east and west beyond it.”

“Could you get in, just as a tourist?”

“Yeah, I did. No issues.”

I nodded and said, “Well, that’s about what we found. The shore side is wide open, but you’d be hard pressed to infiltrate using that with the guard force on the water. We counted three separate posts, all inside the grounds, but looking out at the ocean. None of the guards are paying any attention, but theyarethere. The one area of concern is a drainage cut that winds straight into the grounds. It’s deep enough that you could walk down it hunched over and get inside past the guards without being seen.”

Knuckles said, “I saw that as well. Want another camera on it?”

“Can’t hurt, if you have one to spare, but this is looking like an easy day.”

Brett said, “So itisgoing to be a walk in the park. Perfect. Tomorrow, let’s go get our jihad on at the crash site and come back here for some pool time.”

By “crash site,” he meant our cover stop at the archeological location we’d ostensibly come here to service, mainly because the old church looked like someone from heaven had crashed a huge bus into it in the past.

I said, “Yeah, this is panning out to be easy enough. Everyone get some sleep tonight and we’ll head out to the church in the morning. The only thing that concerns me is that the enemy knows everything that we do, and they were here conducting a reconnaissance. If they’re coming, they’ll exploit any gap we’ve found, and probably ones we haven’t.”

Chapter12

Using one hand to steady himself in the shallow wooden boat, his other holding an old set of binoculars, Kamal said, “Varsha, you want to look at anything else?”

In front of him at the bow, Varsha said, “No. I didn’t need to come out here in the first place.”

Kamal wasn’t surprised by the answer. A large, hairy man with dark skin and a bulbous head, Varsha was one of two men Mr.Chin had provided, and true to Mr.Chin’s word, both of them were more muscle than brains. They rarely talked and offered nothing to advance the planning, but both had a brooding aura of violence around them. Kamal suspected that they were into the drug trade, especially after seeing the ease with which they’d moved around the town of Baga after nightfall. As if they’d been there before and had no fear of any of the dark alleys outside the neon lights of Tito’s Lane.

Kamal was convinced they could execute whatever linear task he gave them, but they couldn’t act on their own or deal with any unforeseen complications. They were muscle, pure and simple, and Kamal would need to remember that.

Kamal turned to the rear of the boat, saying, “Manjit, you?”

Working the outboard motor, Manjit said, “I’d really like to see how close we can get to the resort dock before those guards react.”

“Me too, but the risk is not worth the reward. No need to get them nervous before we attack. Tonight is probably going to be the night.”

Last night Mr.Chin had brought over the two muscle heads and told them that the billionaire had eaten dinner on the outside patio restaurant near the pool. The good news was they’d cleared out everyone else from the restaurant, claiming it was reserved for a private party, so there was little worry about harming innocent bystanders, something Manjit was adamant about. The bad news was they didn’t know if the billionaire would eat there again.

Manjit said, “I know, but what if I can’t get in? What if they’re alert enough to start shooting at me? What are you going to do?”

“Don’t worry about that. For one, the guards aren’t armed. For another, they’ll be focused on the inside once we attack. They won’t be looking for you because we’re going to be the biggest diversion on the planet,” Kamal said.

“You hope. I don’t like a plan based on hope.”

“Well, you’re getting the easy part. I’m not sure we can get through the grate to the drainage cut. That’ll be the end of it if we can’t.”

The Grand Hyatt resort fronted about four hundred meters of shore, the hotel buildings set back about a hundred meters away from the water, separated by expansive grounds full of paths, palm trees, and landscaping. The small rocky beach abutted a five-foot seawall that rose to the grass above, and while there wasn’t a fence, there were abundant shrubs and flowers to prevent a guest from falling over. The only route to the beach was a set of stairs from the dock about halfway down the seawall—the same dock Manjit wanted to approach. Just beyond it to the south was the drainage cut they were planning to use for infiltration. The one with the grate.

They had found a larger beach just north of the hotel grounds with plenty of small sailboats, kayaks, and windsurfers on the shore. Originally, Kamal had planned to land the boat there, leave Manjit behind, and skulk down the seawall for the mission, returning the same way—hopefully with the billionaire in tow. After finding the dock at the resort, Kamal had decided to split the mission: drop off at the beach, then call Manjit forward to the dock, escaping from there instead of trying to run back down the sand with a prisoner who would likely be fighting them the whole way. Worst case, they might be carrying him unconscious.

Manjit said, “What are you going to do if you can’t get through the grate?”

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