Page 62 of Into the Gray Zone

He had conflicting emotions, torn by the pressure of the mission. On the one hand he wanted the attack to be done immediately, the adrenaline coursing through his veins making it hard to breathe. On the other, he wanted the seconds to quit ticking by. Quit drawing him to the moment when he had to act. At nine thirty, he decided to go in, getting in the line with the rest of the locals.

He had his bag searched, went through the metal detector, and was inside the fort, the crowd breaking from the linear entrance line and spreading out. Agam breathed a sigh of relief, moving into a large courtyard with a huge bowl that appeared to be carved out of a single block of stone.

He went to it, seeing two men, both with chipmunks in their hands. One of them reached out to hand him one, but he knew better. All they wanted was an unsuspecting Westerner to take the rodent, and thereby earn a tip. He waved them off.

He sat outside the bowl and looked at his watch. He clicked the navigate function, pulled up “Saved Locations,” and picked the only one in it. The screen came up and he saw an MGRS grid. He went to his phone and pulled up WhatsApp, checking a message he’d sent himself.

When he’d read the instructions for the location of the drone, it had involved a lot of different things, but the one aspect that was concrete was the grid. He’d copied and pasted the grid in the instructions and sent it to himself. Now he wanted to see if the grid on the computer in the safe house was the same as the one on his watch.

He compared the two and saw they were the same, giving him confidence. He hit “Navigate” and waited for the GPS to lock on.

The instructions had told him there were catacombs underneath the castle, including a set of gallows that were used to execute unfaithful concubines. The drone would be in the well below the gallows.

Like the quest to find the safe house, the GPS watch would point unerringly to the location, but he would have to find his way.

The watch vibrated, and he saw he had a GPS lock. He walked to the interior of the fort, following the watch and ignoring the various attractions scattered about the grounds. He passed through the clusters of crowds taking pictures and reading plaques, and reached the far wall, right on the Yamuna River. Off in the distance, he could see theTaj Mahal. He looked to his right and saw a tower with tourists coming and going. He went to it and found why it was an attraction: the Taj was framed in one of the open windows of the tower, the grounds spilling out around the monument.

He could see the crowds at the Taj and, in that moment, he realized it would be his attack point.

He studied the grounds of the monument, not staring at the Taj itself but to see if he could recognize faces of the tourists there from this distance. He could not, and was relieved. Whoever he killed would still be a mystery to him.

He left the watchtower, bumping into a child with her parents. He mumbled an apology and walked back the way he’d come, following the watch. When it vibrated, telling him he’d arrived, he began looking for a small marker engraved with the history of the catacombs.

He found it and scanned to the left in accordance with his instructions, seeing an iron door behind a small barricade. He crossed the barricade and found the door closed by a padlock, preventing entry. He looked left and right, saw he was alone, and pulled the lock. Just as Mr.Chin had said in the instructions, it popped free. He swung the iron door, wincing as it groaned open, and saw a narrow set of stairs leading down.

He entered rapidly, closing the door behind him, the clang reverberating on the stone. He began walking down the stairs, the small bit of light from the sun coming through the door cracks rapidly disappearing, leaving him feeling his way in the darkness. Halfway down, he remembered the flashlight on Mr.Chin’s watch. He double-clicked the upper button and a beam stabbed out in the darkness, lighting the way.

He continued down until he reached a tunnel dimly lit by slits in the castle walls. He looked at his watch to get a bearing, and it told him he needed a GPS fix.

He shook his head, incredulous that Mr. Chin had given him a grid based on a GPS watch that had to have a view of the sky to work. He was a little embarrassed that he himself didn’t realize this plan wouldn’t work.

Maybe Mr.Chin isn’t as good as he seems to think he is.

The thought brought Agam both confidence because of what Kamal intended, and trepidation because if Mr.Chin was that stupid about using the watch, maybe the drone wasn’t even here.

He went to the first slit in the wall, the light spilling in from a sliver of open air about ten inches long and five inches tall. He stuck his hand out, letting the watch see the sky. He felt the watch vibrate and pulled it inside, seeing he had about a hundred meters to the location.

He returned to walking down the tunnel, using the watch’s built-in flashlight to see, and reached another slit. He looked at the watch, saw it no longer had a fix, and stuck his hand out again.

He felt the vibration, pulled his hand in, and saw he was within thirty feet of the grid. He continued on in the darkness, entering an open area, feeling the space open up around him beyond what the small watch flashlight could show.

He advanced forward, using the light on his wrist to show the way. He saw an ancient gallows, a macabre remnant of the punishment for the concubines who had lived here during the time of the Mughals. He sidled up to the edge of a pit, seeing a glint of something in the darkness. He bent down and reached a hand into the hole, searching by feel alone, and his hand brushed a box. He stuck his other hand in and managed to get the box out of the hole.

He set it on the ground and used the light from the Garmin watch to study it. It was for a DJI Mavic drone, just like he’d tested. He carefully opened the box and saw the device, only this one had some type of metal harness on the bottom. He shined the light back in the holeand saw a small backpack. He pulled it out, opened it up, and found a canister about the size of a quart bottle with a mating connection for the harness on the bottom of the drone.

The explosives.

He removed the drone, then the controller underneath it. He mounted his phone into the controller and set the drone on the ground, running a test sequence. The drone’s four lights above each propeller blinked red and green, the four blades spinning and stopping while the drone talked to the phone. The lights went from green and red to white, and it ceased to move. It was synced to the controller.

He picked up the drone, seated the explosives to the bottom, and was complete. All that was needed now was to launch it.

Chapter37

We reached the city of Agra in record time, having little traffic to deal with. I wasn’t sure how India monitored speeding, but I bet it wasn’t with police cars and radar guns like you’d find in the United States, so I’d told Brett to punch it.

We left the highway at just over three hours and crossed into the city of Agra proper, now bogged down by the insanity of Indian traffic, which included donkey carts. Veep said, “Next right, next right,” and I looked at my watch, seeing it was now past ten in the morning.

“We’ve got less than thirty minutes. Get us to the fort. Veep and I will get out. You guys find a place to park and follow.”

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