The Dust Will Never Settle (36 page)

Ontong reloaded swiftly, now in a rush to get it over with and get clear. He had no idea what had happened to Boucher but didn’t wish to tarry a second longer than he had to.

Moving quickly to his left, he brought the security post at the hotel exit gate into his gun sight. He steadied himself and fired again. But in his hurry to finish and get away, he forgot that the Maruti van behind him had been on his left when he had fired the first time. When he had moved left to acquire the second target, he had strayed too far. The van was now directly behind him, just metres away.

He’d made a small mistake, but a fatal one.

The furiously flaming back blast of the rocket launcher caught the van head-on. Ontong had reversed the van before he’d parked it so he could take the weapon out of the luggage compartment and bring it into use instantly. The back blast caused the fuel tank to explode, decimating the van. Flaming shards of metal sliced out in every direction, scything through everything in their way. Including Ontong.

Ontong’s second rocket destroyed the security post at the hotel’s exit gate. Another monitor in front of Mohite went blank as its camera too succumbed. However, a peripheral view of the carnage at both gates was visible from the feed of the cameras mounted in the porch. He could see that both posts were in serious trouble.

Jolted, Mohite grabbed his radio and screamed, ‘We are under attack. Both gates are down. All seventh-floor security personnel and reserve guards, move down and reinforce the lobby!’ His voice was shrill. ‘They must not get through. Seal everything off !’

He kept shouting instructions into the radio as he ran. Accompanied by the three men held in reserve in the control room, he ran for the elevator and pressed the button to the lobby. As the elevator doors opened, he grabbed both the elevator guards and hauled them inside.

In response to his orders, the guards at the stairwells on both ends of the floor also grabbed their weapons and headed down.

Silence fell upon the now unguarded seventh floor.

Yet another mistake had been made.
This
was a cardinal one.

In Chance’s room, Ruby was hurrying past Jennifer’s body when an idea struck her. She grabbed the baseball cap Jennifer had been wearing. Her fingers immediately felt its sticky wetness. The touch of blood sickened her. She fought off the nausea, but could not keep her eyes away from Jennifer’s face. She saw blood all over it.

Then Ontong’s first rocket exploded. She stiffened and began to pull off Jennifer’s flak jacket. Some blood had seeped into its collar. But this time Ruby’s face stayed expressionless as she quickly wiped it clean on Jennifer’s shirt.

She was wrong. I am right. Wasn’t that reason enough for me to have pulled the trigger? Of course it was. That is all there is to it… nothing to fret about.

The sound of the second rocket explosion goaded her into action.

Slipping on Jennifer’s jacket, Ruby raced to the door. The ping of the elevator closing greeted her. She peered out.

The floor was empty. Even the elevator guards had vanished. Not believing her luck, she ran out, the red master access card in one hand and a pistol in the other. She’d have to move fast if she wanted to exploit the opportunity Boucher and Ontong had provided.

‘
Just as a precaution… not that we are expecting any trouble… but just in case of some emergency we have also secured the top two floors of Samrat hotel and duplicated all the same arrangements there.
’ Mohite’s briefing to the home minister echoed in her head as she used the access card to open Ravinder’s room and slipped inside.

The bank of monitors was what she needed so that she would know as soon as they began to evacuate and which route they would take. It had to be either of the two staircases or the elevator, though that was less likely – one elevator would not hold all the delegates and the security team would be reluctant to split them.

So far, things were working out… better than she had hoped.

They are wrong. I am right
… the words now played like a litany in her head. One by one, she began to switch on the monitors.

Waiting impatiently for the elevator to reach the eighth floor, Ravinder, Chance and Peled caught Mohite’s transmission loud and clear.

Anger exploded through Ravinder.

That fucking idiot! He’s done it again.
Instead of waiting for the attackers to come to them, he had started reacting to a still unclear threat.
How could he even dream of abandoning the control room? That fucking…

Cursing under his breath, Ravinder reached for his radio set and began to speak when he realized that Mohite was still talking. Realizing that he would not be able to transmit until Mohite released the transmit button, and itching to get to the control room, Ravinder decided to take the stairs. The floors needed to be resecured, no matter the cost. And he needed to keep an eye on the top two floors of the hotel, which was why the control room needed to be manned by a senior officer at all times. His every instinct was screaming at him that the security breach had already taken place, that the rocket attacks on the gates were not the real threat.

They have to be diversions. So where is the real attack coming from?

He suddenly wished he could check on Ruby’s whereabouts, but now was not the time.

We need to draw out the attackers.
‘Activate Plan Bravo!’ he yelled at Chance and Peled. Chance and Peled ran to the conference hall and herded the delegates to a conference room at the other end of the corridor. Peled took position outside the door. Chance ran down the corridor to activate the second part of the plan. The decoys were ready and waiting.

The first set of monitors that Ruby switched on showed the confusion in the hotel lobby. The second set remained black. Ruby did not know it, but these were the ones that had been connected to the cameras installed at the hotel gates.

Next, the monitors connected to the cameras on the seventh floor flickered to life.

Ruby was surprised to find both stairwells empty.
Where are the guards? Is this some trick?

Her mind ferreted forward to spot a trap. She was activating the next monitor when she saw Ravinder rush out from the stairwell on the left and charge towards the control room.

Then the eighth floor monitors came alive, flickering a bit before the picture stabilized. Chance hove into view. Weapon in hand, he was in the lead. Behind him was a ragged line of men in a variety of outfits. Bringing up the rear was one of the Palestinian PSOs. Ruby saw the two ex-SEALs travelling with the Saudi Arabian prince running up to join them. They took position at the head and tail of the column and headed for the staircase closest to the conference hall.

Bingo!

She began to study the deployment of the security personnel and to freeze them in her head. She also took note of their firepower, a formidable array of Uzis, Glocks, Magnums and Brownings. She evaluated her options and made her decision.

From the rear, that’s where I’ll attack. I just need to take out the guards and two or three of the delegates.

She stopped to study the stairs, especially the landings. She needed a place to hide, for just one moment.

In the control room, Ravinder too was studying the secure zone. His attention, however, was not on the party moving behind Chance. He was searching for some other movement.
Any
other movement.

‘Come out, come out… wherever you are…’ he muttered aloud. ‘Whoever you are…’

That reminded him. He needed to find out where Ruby was. His eyes continued to track the monitors as he reached for his mobile. ‘Where is Ruby?’ he asked when the surveillance team leader answered.

‘In the hotel, sir. Haven’t you met her yet? She went up with Mr Thakur and Mohite sir.’

Ravinder went still. He couldn’t breathe. Suspecting was one thing. Having it confirmed was another. All this while, he had hoped that Ruby would not be involved in something so heinous. Now there was no doubt.

Why, Ruby? Why?

His head began to spin.

Not now. Right now you have a duty to perform
. A quote from the
Bhagavad Gita
echoed in his mind:

And do thy duty, even if it be humble, Rather than another’s, even if it be great.

To die in one’s duty is life.

To live in another’s is death. ‘I know you well, Ravinder. I know you will always do the right thing. Just trust your instincts. It will all work out in the end,’ Simran’s words returned to him.

He no longer knew how this could end well, but he was determined to take charge.

On the monitors he began to scour the seventh floor. It lay still and silent. But he knew she was out there somewhere, waiting for the right moment to strike.

‘Ruby, come out, come out…’ He barely noticed his lips move. ‘Come out, come out… wherever you are…’

His ears did not hear his words.

His eyes remained riveted to the monitors.

His hands held a gun.

Their childhood game of hide-and-seek had turned deadly.