Chimera (19 page)

Feng had ordered the two KJ-2000s from Korla to patrol further to the north for safety and had ordered the advance of two more batteries of S-300s to the Aksai chin. These were the only aspect of the PLAAF’s regional air defense system that had performed as predicted so far, and were keeping the Indians far to the south. Combined with the data from the KJ-2000s, the S-300s were lethal. 

I guess we still have the 111
TH
Brigade with their J-11s but they will be needed for defending the special mission aircraft and the bombers of the 36
TH
and 26
TH
Divisions.

What we have lost is the offensive air power capability. We will need to replace the 16
TH
Fighter Regiment within the 6
TH
Fighter Division with some other unit from the mainland…

Feng thought as he walked over to the corner and poured himself some tea. It was going to be a long sleepless night for him tonight.

Well, at least I won’t be alone in that…

Feng smiled for a brief second. The disastrous air battle had widespread consequences for both him and the region. Wencang had personally called Zhigao for a direct explanation of what had happened. Chen had announced his plans to come to Kashgar to be briefed personally on exactly what had happened first thing in the morning. Needless to say, Zhigao was not particularly happy at the moment...

“Leh has definitely been shut down. I cannot see how they can operate aircraft from such a heavily damaged airbase,” Zhigao said as he walked into Feng’s office abruptly. Feng got up from his chair behind the desk and put down his cup of tea. Zhigao seemed to ignore him completely and instead handed him some new satellite images. Zhigao continued:

“That will hurt their ability to bring in heavy reinforcements by air when the ground offensive begins tomorrow.”

Feng nodded agreement.

“Yes. In addition the bases at Chushul, Fukche and Daulat-beg-oldi are well under rocket artillery range. The PLA has assured us that they can shut those forward airbases down when their attack begins. And with the Aksai chin skies secured by our S-300 systems, our ground forces should be able to sweep away the Indian defenses and attain their objectives within the week.”

Zhigao accepted Feng’s assessment with a slight nod. He seemed heavily distracted. It was normal under the circumstances. And Zhigao’s situation was not good. After Wencang and Chen had called, he had also been visited by the regional political commissar for an explanation on his actions. And nobody, Generals and Privates included, liked a nasty visit from the country’s political officers. Whether at home, office or even on the streets.

But Feng could only relate with Zhigao on that, not sympathize. He held Zhigao directly responsible for the rash decisions that led to thirty two pilots dead and a major combat force of high-end fighters eliminated during a critical time in war. People in the People’s Republic of China had been shot for far less severe infractions during peacetime, let alone war…

“Feng, I must enquire what you plan to speak to General Chen when he arrives tomorrow morning,” Zhigao said finally. Feng was surprised by the question and thought he detected something in the man’s voice.

Fear?

“I plan to brief General Chen on our progress thus far in this sector,” Feng said neutrally.

“Cut the nonsense! I demand to know what you intend to say about my actions to him?” Zhigao thundered, his voice cracking under the strain. Feng sighed and looked at the papers on the table below before looking back at Zhigao.

“I think you had better pack your bags. Your war is over.”

day 2

MINISTRY OF DEFENSE

NEW DELHI

DAY 2 + 0330 HRS

“So when does team five cross over?” Basu asked the others.

“Well, their last radio contact two days ago put them here...north of the Kongra-La. Now that place is crawling with PLA ever since this mess began. So my guess is that the team will have to go further west and then cross the Sikkim border between Naku-La and Kongra-La. I would say another two or three days.” Lieutenant-Colonel Ansari said as he pointed out the locations on the paper map on Basu’s table with a pencil.

“Your guess?” Basu asked pointedly.

Ansari put down the pencil and walked back to his seat and sat down. He was wearing the field camouflage uniform now that the war had started with China. He was not even sure why he was here when the rest of SOCOM was preparing strike missions against the Chinese in Tibet. 

“Yes. My guess. We don’t micromanage our people. It works best that way. We set up a meeting point on our side of the border and they meet us there. Apart from that and their final destinations, the only people who know the actual paths they will be taking are the actual team members.”

“Okay fine. Point taken. So
where
are we meeting them on this side of the border?” Basu said as he leaned forward from his seat to look over the map. Ansari walked over and jabbed his finger at a location marked:
Dokung
.

“Here.”

“Basu, who do we have up there to meet them?” the other older RAW officer in the room spoke up.

“We have a RAW debriefing team heading there now. They will hold up at the meeting place and debrief the team. SOCOM is also sending a logistics team to resupply the team with whatever they need. We will use the ARC Mi-17 to get the supplies and personnel up there,” Basu said as he continued to look at the location pointed out to him by Ansari.

“The air-force flies Mi-17 resupply flights to the army battalion east of Dokung on a routine basis. It should stay low profile enough I think,” Basu continued.

“How high is this place?”

Ansari fielded that one:

“Around sixteen-thousand feet. I hope your RAW boys are acclimatized to the high altitude because I can assure you they are going to need it. The region around these passes in northern Sikkim is the most inhospitable in the world. You cannot run fifty meters without the wind being knocked out of you. The temperature freezes you up to your bones and you have to walk everywhere you go. And that’s the altitude at which the damn passes are. Our boys in Tibet have to cross altitudes much higher than that to cross over on foot. I don’t know if you noticed, but there is no pass between Naku and Kongra-la. They will have to cross the peaks to be able to come back over to Dokung.”

“And we appreciate their effort, Ansari. But it is time to get them out,” the unnamed RAW man said from the comfort of the sofa. Ansari walked over, sat down in his chair, leaned back and faced the two RAW men in the room:

“Can I ask you something?”

The two intelligence officers looked at each other.

“Ask away,” Basu said finally.

“What the hell did this whole program achieve over the last year?” Ansari said and then noticed the quizzical looks on the faces of the two RAW covert operations specialists, so he continued:

“I mean we trained and let loose highly motivated Tibetans as part of teams into Tibet to kill Chinese soldiers. And they did. Very successfully, I might add. The cover of the Tibetan revolt was particularly effective in disguising their actions. And so now hundreds of Chinese soldiers are dead because of us and we have deep Intel on Chinese military capabilities, combat tactics, equipment, radio frequencies and the list goes on. We made the Chinese lose their grip on southern Tibet. And some would argue that we gave the Tibetan people some hope. And yet here we are today, fighting a war with communist China again, more than fifty years after the last one.”

“Your point, Colonel?” the older RAW man retorted.

“Did we start this war?” Ansari blurted it out.

“Colonel, everything you said is true. All of it. And everything we learnt about how the Chinese fight, their equipment and tactics are being used against them at this very moment to defeat them in battle. If our actions precipitated this war and also gave us the knowledge with which to defeat the Chinese then isn’t that what we proposed to do when we started this business more than two years ago?” Basu said finally.

Ansari sighed and leaned back in his seat. The other old RAW officer leaned forward in his seat as he faced Ansari:

“You see Colonel, Beijing will give up Tibet but they will not let their major cities be nuked. Tibet will not be worth it to them. And once we defeat them on the borders, they will have no choice. Granted that this event transpired quicker than we had anticipated with the Dalai Lama’s failing health and the possibility of his replacement coming up sooner than expected. But life does not always give us everything. We improvised and adapted. Now we have to ensure that we defeat the Chinese at the battlefields and reclaim the honor we lost fifty two years ago.”

“We are playing with the destiny of nations here. I hope you two understand that,” Ansari said as he swallowed the lump in his throat.

Part of him wondered why he was so terrified now that the Chinese had started shooting back as opposed to when they were getting a beating handed to them by Gephel and his teams. The old RAW officer leaned back into his chair and smiled.

“Welcome to the big league, Colonel.”

DAULAT BEG OLDI AIRSTRIP

NORTHERN LADAKH

DAY 2 + 0530 HRS

The port engine rotors sprang to life and started rotating as puffs of smoke left the exhausts. The ground handler standing in front of the aircraft and visible to the flight-crew began moving his right hand index finger in a circle to inform the pilots to start the starboard engine. Moments later the second engine sprang to life and the noise started picking up. The pilot and the co-pilot of the An-32 looked from either sides of their cockpit to see the propellers rotating at idle RPM. The ground-crewmen gave the thumbs-up to indicate a trouble free startup of the two engines before saluting off and moving away. The aircraft now began rolling towards the end of the runway to conduct an immediate takeoff.

The aircraft cabin was mostly empty except for the three wounded Jawans lying on stretchers with attending medics. The An-32 was conducting a flight in the darkness mostly because of the extreme nature of the requirement. The pilots were wearing night-vision goggles inside the cockpit and the runway was marked with infrared strobes that would be shut down and removed afterwards lest they be used by the Chinese for target identification and bracketing.

The Chinese were very much within artillery range of the airstrip where the An-32 was now attempting its take-off. Down to the east, along the Chip-Chap River, the enemy was within sight of Indian troops. With the Chinese forces poised to launch their attacks, the atmosphere on the ground was tense.

As the An-32 conducted a turnabout to align itself with the runway, the two pilots looked instinctively to the side of the cockpit towards the east where the dark peaks were silhouetted against the starlit night sky. They could not see anything. But they had been told by the local army personnel that there was at least one Division, if not more, worth of Chinese troops in that area…

Waiting to strike.

A few minutes later Brigadier Adesara and his staff officers watched the last An-32              to leave DBO lift off the dirt strip into the darkness of the night. Minutes later all strobe lights were switched off just as the first hint of reddish skies began to appear over the eastern ridgelines. Daylight was approaching.

The radio crackled to life: “Movement on Hill-two-four-three!”

NAGPUR AIRBASE

CENTRAL INDIA

DAY 2 + 0600 HRS

Small puffs of smoke flew sideways as the large undercarriage tires of the B-737 Boeing Business Jet touched the concrete runway. As the aircraft carrying the Indian high command rolled down the runway, the escorting Mirage-2000 fighters streaked overhead and banked away in the early morning skies. All five aircraft had been airborne for hours now, and could have stayed aloft longer. But unlike the American version of the VC-25 Airborne-Command-Post which was capable of aerial refueling and therefore potentially unlimited flight, the Indian counterpart was based around a smaller airframe and was not equipped accordingly. It
did
share similar defensive mechanisms and all the communication equipment required for long endurance C3I operations. A war could be run from the aircraft for stretches of time, but not on a near continuous basis.

Nagpur airbase was far enough south that it was considered safe from a renewed round of Chinese cruise-missile attacks. Besides, the airbase was deep enough inside Indian Territory that any enemy missile would have to penetrate large tracts of Indian airspace and defenses, and so the possibility of a cruise-missile breaking through was very low...