Devin pointed at the screen. “According to the photo tag, that’s Marlene Lee.”
The woman he indicated was half turned away from the camera, and mostly blocked from view by the others. But there was enough detail to see she was Asian, not Caucasian like the woman on the video call.
“All right. At least we know the woman’s not Marlene Lee,” Chloe said.
“Doesn’t tell us if she’s Celeste Johnson, though,” Devin said.
“No, it doesn’t,” Ash said. “But I’m willing to bet it’s her. Do we have a location on Ms. Johnson?”
Devin checked the database and shook his head. “It says here that she is probably located at one of the Project’s facilities on the East Coast, but it doesn’t say which one.”
“Van Assen said New York,” Mya said.
“That might be as close to a confirmation as we can get,” Chloe said.
Ash leaned back, thinking.
After he’s gone, we’ll go after the next set of leaders and the next and the next. Each time we succeed, the Project becomes more unbalanced.
Matt’s words, said after he’d told Ash and Chloe he was going after Principal Director Perez. A keep-knocking-them-down-until-they-stay-down strategy. It was as sound a plan as the Resistance could hope for.
“Maybe there’s someone who can pinpoint where Director Johnson is for sure,” Ash said. “We can look into that in a bit. In the meantime, we do know where Mahajan is. NB551 in Jaipur.” He looked around. “Do we have anyone near there?”
He was greeted with blank faces.
“We don’t handle that,” Caleb said. “Operations would know, or the comm center.”
Ash looked around at all the equipment. “I assume you can connect me from here.”
Twenty seconds later, he was talking to Crystal.
“The closest people we have are in Thailand and Singapore,” she said, her voice coming out of the speaker on Caleb’s computer. “But they’re pretty tied up.”
“There’s no one in India?”
“We had three teams there. But two had to be diverted to help out in southern China, and the third’s been sent to deal with a sizable group of survivors in Sri Lanka.”
Ash pressed his lips together, annoyed.
“I’m open to suggestions,” he said.
“I would have to check on statuses, but I might be able to free up someone in a few days.”
Ash didn’t like the delay, but it was better than not sending anyone at all. “All right. See what you—”
Mya said, “What about Sanjay’s people?”
Ash looked over at her.
“I mean, they’re in India already,” she said. “I don’t know how far Jaipur is from where they are, but they’ve got to be able to get there sooner than a few days, right?”
She had a point.
“Can someone tell me how far it is?”
“Checking,” Devin said. “Um, it’s not exactly close. Seven hundred thirty-five miles or thereabouts. Maybe sixteen hours of driving?”
As Mya said, still sooner than a few days.
“Can we get Sanjay on the phone?” Ash asked Crystal.
“Actually,” Caleb said, “we can do it from here. If he’s not at the Mumbai survival station yet, he should be soon.”
“Get him on the line.”
17
A loud ring jerked Arjun awake. He blinked and looked around, surprised to find he was sitting in the communications room chair. He had meant to stretch out on the blanket he’d spread on the floor, but he seemed to have fallen asleep right there at the desk. No wonder, though. It had been a long night.
A ring again, off to his left. As he twisted to see where it was coming from, he winced. His less-than-optimal sleeping posture had left a kink in his neck. As he rubbed the sore muscle, there was another ring.
The sat phone.
Answering it, he said, “This is Arjun.”
“It’s Crystal,” the woman said. “Has Sanjay arrived yet?”
“Uh, I am not sure. I have not seen him yet. Give me a moment and I will check. If he is here, I will have him call you.”
“Thank you. As soon as possible.”
Arjun made the journey down from the rooftop room into the main building, and hunted around until he heard voices coming from the dining hall on the ground floor. There he found Darshana, Sanjay, Kusum, and Prabal drinking tea.
“Ah,” Sanjay said. “You are awake.”
“Awake? I was…working,” Arjun said. “I was not asleep.”
“So you have mastered the art of working with your eyes closed?” Darshana said, an eyebrow raised.
Apparently someone had paid him a visit while he napped. “Okay, okay,” he said. “Perhaps I was asleep for a little while.”
Sanjay smiled. “You should not worry. You have to sleep sometime, my friend. Come, have some tea.”
“Actually, Sanjay, I have—” Arjun stopped as he accidentally turned his head a millimeter the wrong way, sending a shockwave of pain down his neck.
Darshana stood up. “Are you all right?”
He held up a hand. “I am fine. Just a muscle pull.”
“May I suggest you use a bed next time you want to sleep?” Kusum said.
There were smiles all around and a few chuckles.
Arjun glared at all of them before allowing himself a small grin. “I would laugh with you, but it would hurt too much.” He pulled the sat phone out of his back pocket. “Sanjay, the Americans would like to talk to you.”
“About what?” Sanjay asked as he took the phone.
“I did not ask.”
Sanjay pressed the preset they’d assigned to the Americans’ number, then put the call on speaker so his friends could all hear.
The voice that answered belonged to the woman named Crystal.
“I understand you are looking for me,” Sanjay said.
“Oh, Sanjay. Great. Hold on.”
The line went silence for well over a minute before a new voice said, “Sanjay, it’s Daniel Ash.”
“Hello, Captain Ash,” Sanjay said.
“Good morning, I guess. It is morning there?”
“Yes. It is.”
There was a pause. “First, I want to thank you and your friends. What you’ve found there and helped us gain access to is vitally important. We’ve already learned quite a bit.”
“I am pleased to hear that.”
“There’s something we’ve discovered that…well, we could use your help on.”
“Of course. We are not technicians, but we will do what we can.”
“This actually has nothing to do with the equipment or anything there in Mumbai.”
Sanjay exchanged a surprised look with his friends.
“Then what does it have to do with?” he asked.
“Something that involves a trip.” Ash told them about the intercepted message and learning about a potential Project Eden leader working out of Jaipur. “What we would like — if you’re willing, of course — is for one or two of your people to go there and quietly survey the area so we can determine if there’s a way to exploit the situation.”
“You want us to find this Director Mahajan?”
“We haven’t been able to obtain a picture of him yet. Besides, he’s likely to stay inside the base, out of sight. You might, however, have the opportunity to spot the man whose conversation we overheard. He’s lower level, so he might venture outside on occasion. From the information we have here, the base is located within blocks of the Jaipur survival station. Unfortunately, we don’t have the exact coordinates of the base. But there will likely be some back and forth between the two facilities, so if you spot this guy at the station, he should be able to lead you to the base. He’s Caucasian, and I couldn’t tell for sure from the video, but think he’s about five ten, maybe six feet.” Ash’s voice became muffled as he asked a question to someone on his end. When he came back on, he said, “That’s a hundred eighty or a hundred eighty-two centimeters, or thereabouts. We’re all but positive he’s Dutch. I’ll have someone grab an image from the video and send it to you.”