Page 76 of Into the Gray Zone

“I will, I will. She’s getting ready for the big party right now. We’re supposed to leave in an hour. You wouldn’t believe this place. It is out of control. There are peacocks all over the grounds, they have rose petals at our door, and we have our own butler. It’s insane, but I’ll give her our evaluation and then head to the airport to meet you in Agra.”

I said, “What are you wearing right now?”

“Some weird-ass Indian man-dress with leggings. Everyone has to wear it. I look pretty good in it, but I’ll change before I see you, I promise. I wouldn’t want to get Jennifer all hot and bothered.”

I chuckled and said, “I’d never be so cruel. Enjoy your time with Nadia. She seems nice, and you’ll never get to see an Indian pre-wedding party like thatever. Take a commercial flight home when it’s done, but I’m taking the team tonight.”

I could almost see the smile on his face. He said, “You got it. Sorry I wasn’t there for the gunfight.”

I said, “You didn’t miss much. I had Veep take the bullet instead of you.”

Brett and I reached our room and I called Jennifer to find out her status. She told me she was at the airport and would be here in about an hour. She also said she had Veep with her, and asked if we had enough space. I looked at Brett and mouthed, “We need another room.”

He shook his head and said, “There are no rooms. It’s here or nowhere.”

I went back to the phone and said, “We have plenty of space. Veep’s going to sleep with Brett, and you’ll sleep with me.”

Brett snapped his head to me and said, “No way am I sleeping with some guy who has to lie on his back and groan all night every time I move. I’ll sleep with Jennifer. You’re sleeping with Veep.”

I looked at him and mouthed, “Shut it.”

Into the phone I said, “Just get down here, we’ll figure it out.”

Jennifer said, “I’d better have a bed when I get there.”

I started to reply when Brett said, “Creed’s responded.”

I said, “Gotta go. Call when you’re in the air.”

I hung up without another word, turned to Brett, and said, “What did he find?”

Brett was going through the tablet, saying, “Absolutely nothing, apparently. The phone was never used for a call, texts, or email. Never used to surf the web. It apparently did nothing but control the drone.”

I said, “It tookthatlong to get us nothing?”

He said, “Wait, wait. Here’s something. There was a Garmin watch attached to it. And some gobbledygook about spoofing.”

I said, “Enough of this shit,” and dialed my phone to DC. I looked at my watch and saw it was now sevenp.m., did some quick math, and realized Creed had been working all night for nothing. It was nine thirty in the morning his time, and I hoped to catch him there.

I heard the switchboard answer, did a dance of bona fides with the woman on the phone to prove who I was, and then was connected to the network operations center. A man answered, and I said, “Get me Creed.”

There was a pause, then: “He’s not in yet. He’ll be here later.”

Which was a mistake on his part, as I knew Creed had been thereall night. The NOC wasn’t waiting on him to arrive. Creed was likely waving his arms, telling the man on the phone to say that so he could leave.

I said, “Tell him it’s Pike, and put his ass on the phone.”

A second later I heard, “Pike, I did like you asked—outside of any orders from George Wolffe, I might add. There was nothing on that phone. It’s like it was opened and never used for anything other than a Garmin watch and a Mavic drone.”

I said, “That’s what I want to ask you about. You said something about spoofing. What did you mean?”

“Apparently, the phone was tied into a Garmin watch—specifically an Instinct 2X Tactical—and it transmitted all sorts of data to an application.”

“Yeah, so?”

“That’s what I said: ‘Yeah, so what?’ I can tell you wherever that watch went, which isn’t that big of a deal, because I could do that with the phone alone, but this phone had been modified. There were four watches that sent it data, and someone modified the app to appear as if all four watches were with this phone.”

“You’re speaking Egyptian. Can you tell me what that means?”

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