Page 75 of Rising Tiger

She had one flashbang left. Letting her weapon hang, she retrieved the device from her chest rig and noticed the two holes where the bullets had penetrated the nylon plate carrier. One of them had nearly hit the flashbang.

Pulling the pin, she held the device in her left hand while securing the H&K in her right. Then, after ascertaining where the two shooters were via her tablet, she used the toe of her boot to nudge the door open and tossed the flashbang into the apartment.

It exploded with a loud bang and a blinding flash of light. As it did, she kicked the door the rest of the way open and rushed inside.

She double-tapped the man nearest to her and then swung herweapon and double-tapped his accomplice. Both fell to the floor, dead, just as their comrades had out in the hall.

Asha kicked their guns away and then checked each man for a pulse, making sure that they were dead.

Though she had been able to avoid being seen by any of the building’s residents, there was no way that the gunshots had gone unnoticed. The police were likely on their way and would be arriving at any moment.

She radioed Raj an update and told Gupta to get out of the building now, while he still could.

She had just one last thing to do—interrogate the spotter.

Transitioning back through the closet, she entered the other apartment and found the man right where she had left him. Rolling him onto his side, she unsheathed the knife attached to her chest rig and sliced the gag from around his mouth.

“I know you’re G-Company,” she stated. “I want the name of who sent you after me.”

The man shot her an angry glare.

Asha didn’t wait, she couldn’t afford to. Taking the tip of her knife, she placed it against the man’s groin and pushed. She heard the rip of the fabric and then the man’s panicked cry of pain as the blade sliced through flesh.

“Aga Sayed!” he yelled. “It was Aga Sayed!”

CHAPTER 41

“Aga Sayed,” Vijay explained as they drove from Jaipur to New Delhi, “is a vicious, lifelong criminal. He’s into everything. And I meaneverything. The worse something is, the more he’s attracted to it. I’m not surprised that he’s mixed up in all of this.”

“So G-Company provided the assassin and the Kumars provided the motorbike,” Harvath replied. “Who engaged G-Company to kill Ritter?”

“That’s what we’re going to find out,” the ex-cop had replied. “But it isn’t going to be easy. Not by a long shot. Sayed is one of G-Company’s top people and extremely well insulated.”

Changing the subject, Harvath asked, “How is it that you came to give him flying lessons?”

Vijay smiled. “Not my proudest moment. I was a young detective. Eager, filled with righteousness, and very quick—sometimes too quick—to anger.

“My partner and I were working a drugs case. A big one. We had an informant who was providing excellent information. He eventually wanted us to pull him in, to provide him protection. My partner, who was my senior, said no—not until the case was complete, we had dismantled the ring, and had made all of our arrests.

“The informant didn’t like it, but he really didn’t have any choice. He stayed in place and continued to provide us with intelligence. And then one day, he failed to make contact.

“That evening, we went to his house and found his body. He hadbeen beaten to death. There was blood everywhere, but the blood wasn’t all his. Some of it belonged to his family.”

“Jesus,” said Harvath. “They killed his family as well?”

The ex-cop shook his head. “Worse.”

Harvath didn’t want to imagine what could be worse, but knew Vijay was about to tell him and so he remained silent and waited for it.

“Aga Sayed had been sent to deal with our informant,” the man said. “Not just to kill him, but to make him suffer. Before he died, our informant was forced to watch as his wife, then his mother, and finally his baby daughter were raped. Then, and only then, did Sayed’s crew end his misery, along with his life.”

“I would have thrown him off a rooftop, too,” Harvath asserted.

“That’s not the end of the story,” Vijay continued. “It took us a week to track him down. We worked our way up through the sewers of New Delhi and the scum he associated himself with. No matter where we went or what we did, he was always two steps ahead of us. We were working around the clock, but couldn’t catch a break. Then, we did.

“We found out that he was going to be at a gambling parlor to watch and bet on an important football match. That was where we decided we would confront him.”

“Confronthim?” Harvath repeated. “How aboutarresthim?”

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