Page 22 of Into the Gray Zone

I said, “Well, if she’s RAW, I’m not thinking the worst at all. In fact, I’m a little impressed with the thoroughness. We are, after all, just an archeological company from the United States, not a bunch of Muslims from Qatar looking for investments.”

“And if she’s not?”

“Then she’s just a waitress who’s fallen for Knuckles. Or she’s a terrorist.”

Jennifer said nothing. I took her hand again and said, “Look, this is supposed to be a walk in the park, and I’m just trying to keep it that way. Let’s go to the beach and take our stroll.”

She nodded and we went back toward the restaurant, the incandescent lights of the dock beckoning about halfway down. Brett kept up his chatter on the radio, listening to Veep give him directions on the angle of the camera, and we reached the dock, which was really just a thatched-roof gazebo with stairs leading down to the sand and a thin wooden walkway jutting out into the water. A guard was stationed at the entrance, and I thought for a minute he was going to block us from going down.

I said, “Hey, can we go for a moonlight walk?”

He appeared embarrassed, and I realized his English wasn’t good enough to understand what I wanted. I started to say something else, and my earpiece came on again, this time for me.

“Pike, Koko, it’s not your time yet. I’m still working Blood’s camera.”

Jennifer backed away out of earshot of the guard and clicked on, saying, “We’re still up top. What are you talking about?”

One ear listening to the conversation, I said to the guard—more with my arms than my voice—“Can we go walk on the beach?”

The guard smiled and nodded, and I knew he didn’t understand me. The only way to find out was to walk past him to the stairs. If he stopped us, we’d have to come up with another plan to test the cameras. On the net, I heard, “Never mind. I got a group walking by the camera at the north end. Five of them. At first I thought it was you guys.”

So much for the walk on the beach.I smiled again at the guard, said, “Thank you,” and walked to Jennifer. She was looking at me in confusion, saying into the net, “Five guys on the beach? Right now?”

I heard, “Yep. Just went past. You don’t need to check that camera. It’s working fine.”

She said, “Roger that,” and I motioned to her. We began walking back to the chapel, and I said, “We can’t do anything until those guys are gone, so we’ve got some time.”

This trip we went past the chapel to the drainage ditch. It had two wooden bridges that crossed it, one near the chapel and the other closer to the buildings of the hotel. I stopped between them, right near the edge of the canal, and said, “Got any ideas to kill the time?”

She said, “Not really. We could go back to the restaurant and talk to Knuckles.”

I said, “It’s sort of dark right here.”

She said, “Yeah, it is. Let’s go back to the restaurant.”

“I mean, it’sreallydark right here. I can think of better ways to kill the time.”

I saw her face me in confusion, then felt her slap my stomach, saying, “Yeah, it’ll be a cold day in hell before I’m caught in the bushes out here. Save it for tonight.”

I laughed, took her hand, and turned back to the restaurant, saying, “Couldn’t hurt to ask.”

My earpiece came alive, Veep saying, “Pike, Pike, second camera’s feed is fine as well. That group is working on the grate.”

What?

Jennifer looked at me the same way I felt, and I said, “Working it how?”

“They’ve got bolt cutters and they’re cutting the chain.”

What the hell?

I looked back toward the dock a hundred meters away, thinking about jogging to the guard and letting him know that he had some intruders. Veep’s next words shut that idea down.

“They’re through the grate. They’re coming up the cut at a run. Pike, they’ve got weapons. I say again, they have guns.”

Chapter15

The radio call sent a bolt of adrenaline through me, pushing my decision making into overdrive. In a nanosecond I realized that we were about to have a repeat of the 2008 Mumbai attack, and there was no way I could reach the guard at the dock before these guys made it to the hotel grounds. The only way to prevent them from committing a massacre was to stop them from getting out of the cut. It was now my own private Thermopylae, with Jennifer and me acting like the Spartans.

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