Chimera (72 page)

Tiwari noted the tone and the content of the statement and realized the Russian Foreign Minister had more to say.

“I think given the impact India
and
China have economically, it is in
all
of our interests to see to it that the war did not result in the destruction of economic capacities on
both
sides. India has proven its point to Beijing. We observed the naval battle in the Indian Ocean yesterday. We
also
detected your missile strikes against targets in northern Tibet. We
know
for a fact that Chinese aircraft no longer exert an effective presence over southern Tibet following the loss of their major airbases there. And we know that your fighters are dominating the skies while your ground forces are preparing to push into Tibetan territory. For all practical purposes, China
is
defeated. End this
now
before a clean victory is lost in the ashes of a nuclear fallout!”

“China is
defeated?
” Tiwari noted in genuine surprise. “Bogdanov, you might want to run that assessment by the Chinese because as far as
we
can tell, they are
far
from admitting any such thing. We will continue operations until the Chinese threat to our country from Tibet is neutralized.”

Bogdanov exhaled and nodded his agreement.

“That
is
true. Beijing will not publicly accept defeat or even the projection of coming to the negotiating table if
they
are the ones who have to initiate it. It’s a cultural thing over there,” Bogdanov shrugged. “But
surely
New-Delhi is not in the
same
category? We need your government to be mature about this. The President has asked me to extend the offer of Moscow acting as an intermediary. I understand that New-Delhi and Beijing currently do not have a direct line of communication between them since last week. We can change
that
through this office.”

Tiwari considered that. He was no fool. He knew exactly what the extrapolations were for this war. It could go nuclear at any point from here on. The Indian Army in the east near Sikkim had an entire Corps now preparing to finish off the Chinese presence in the Chumbi valley. There was
no
saying how Beijing would respond to that.

A wounded dragon in the corner could be a very dangerous beast!

“Very well, sir,” Tiwari replied finally. “I will forward your offer to my government for consideration. But I
will
say this: if you plan to talk to Beijing today, make sure they understand that rhetoric on the willingness to use nuclear weapons in their state media will not be tolerated if any such meeting is to occur. Our people will
not
be open for negotiation under a nuclear threat. Beijing would be sadly mistaken if they doubt our resolve to turn the Chinese mainland into radioactive rubble if the situation demands.”

The wounded dragon in the corner could be a dangerous beast, but the elephant’s tusks were no less sharp!

Bogdanov nodded agreement and glanced at Tiwari as the Indian man picked up his file and prepared to leave. He thought he saw something on the corner of the man’s mouth: a smirk that existed for merely a second and then disappeared. Bogdanov thought he saw something there.

Confidence…?   

BEIJING

CHINA

DAY 12 + 1130 HRS

“This makes
no
sense whatsoever, sir.”

“Did you expect any different, Feng?” Wencang said from behind the desk in his office. 

Chen sat on the comfortable sofa lined up along the side of the wall away from the desk. He was looking at the wall covered in Wencang’s citations and pictures from over the years. Chen was in many of those pictures alongside his longtime friend. 

Feng looked at his mentor and saw a neutral face. Chen had always been good at controlling his inner feelings and thoughts. And he would never publicly go against Wencang, regardless of the informality between them when they were alone. But Feng was having a hard time believing what he had been told about the CMC meeting earlier that morning…

“We are scapegoats, Feng. Nothing more,” Wencang continued. “Peng needed somebody to take the fall for what has transpired over the last two weeks. General Jinping and Zhigao were only the first to go. When the Indians snatched the skies over southern Tibet from us, it was only a matter of time for us. The only people in uniform who can still hope to claim any sense of authority with the party now are the ones whose hands are not yet blooded by battle and those that seem to be above any guilt, including Generals Yongju and Liu.”

“Although that seems more and more unlikely as time passes,” Chen said from where he sat, leaning comfortably on the sofa after having loosened his coat buttons.

“Indeed,” Wencang said as he picked up his glass with three fingers of whiskey still glistening gold under the office lighting. He considered drinking it while still in his office and still nominally in command.

Well, time to enjoy the privileges of rank while they last!

He emptied the glass in one gulp and looked around to Chen and Feng’s disapproving eyes. But neither man said a word. He turned to Chen while putting the empty glass back on his desk.

“So Chen, it would interest you to know that Admiral Huaqing is no longer with us in the mortal world. I got the news before you two came in. He was arrested by the chief commissar and taken away for questioning. I guess Peng changed his mind on him after we all left.”

Chen grunted a laugh. He was not surprised by that.

“When is
our
turn?”

“Not yet,” Wencang replied. “The committee still
needs
senior and experienced air-force commanders. Why do you think we are still here? Yongju convinced Peng to change his mind about the two of us. Though I think Liu would have liked nothing better to see us lined up against the wall!” Wencang laughed fatalistically. It made Feng uneasy. Wencang controlled his laughter and then continued:

“We are still no longer allowed inside the committee but
are
still in charge of the people’s air-force. Anyway Feng, what is the status on operation Punitive-Dragon?”

Feng checked his wrist-watch. “It begins within three hours, sir.”

“Good. It will go ahead
as
planned,” Wencang ordered

“Yes sir. Although I
am
a bit concerned about the new forces. They are as yet inexperienced against the Indian combat pilots,” Feng replied. 

“You think they cannot do the job, Feng?” Chen asked.

“They
can
do the job, General,” Feng said calmly. “I know the commander of the Regiment who’s leading the operation. Rest assured, he
will
get the job done. I am worried about casualties, though.”

“Nothing can be done about that, Feng. And you know it!” Wencang concluded unilaterally. “Besides, tell our men that they are going after the Indians who facilitated the brutal attack on Golmud.
That
will get their blood flowing!”

“Yes sir, I have already made sure of that. The men
are
motivated,” Feng said confidently. He had in fact had the same idea as what Wencang had just proposed. What’s more, it was true.

“Very well. Consider yourself dismissed, Senior-Colonel,” Wencang said. “Oh, and tell the pilots that the commander of the air-force has full confidence in their abilities!”

Feng saluted and walked out of the office, leaving the two Generals sitting inside. Once the door was closed, Wencang leaned back in his leather chair.

“He’s a good field commander, Chen,” Wencang noted as he stared at the roof. “I would have put his name for promotion above the other untested commanders for replacing you as commander of the unified-MRAF in case the both of us are…what’s the word for it?” 

“Deposed?”  Chen offered. Wencang laughed.

“I will take it. Yes, when both of us are
deposed
. But as it stands, my recommendation now might actually doom that man rather than help him. He might find himself alongside the same brick wall as us!”

“Let his operational record speak for itself,” Chen suggested. “If Punitive-Dragon succeeds, it will be all the feathers in his cap he will need to survive this war.”  

“Indeed,” Wencang agreed. He leaned forward from his chair and rubbed his eyes with both hands. Perhaps the tiredness of two weeks of war was catching up with him, he thought. Or maybe it was the whiskey. Either way, his own mortality was flashing before his eyes as he wondered his fate and that of his colleague sitting across the room.

“Chen,
how
did we get here?
What
went wrong with our plans? What
more
could we have done to ensure victory instead of this sinking quagmire towards nuclear war?” Wencang muttered. Chen did not respond because the question was rhetorical and self-reflective. “My friend, did we do our duty towards the people of China?”

To that Chen
did
reply: “Yes. We did.”

NEW-DELHI

INDIA

DAY 12 + 1400 HRS

“You think it will send the message?” the PM asked. The voice of Air-Marshal Iyer came through on the phone a few seconds later:

“Yes sir, I think it will. If the rumblings we keep hearing are true then this is an effective counter-force response.”

“But I want to make clear that we
suspect
this might happen. We really don’t know for sure, do we?” the PM continued. Chakri stared in silence across the conference table. After a second he leaned towards the phone:

“Iyer, I want to emphasize that what the Prime-Minister stated
is
true. We
expect
a Chinese ballistic-missile attack in response to our own. And we
expect
them to restrain it to conventional warheads only. But we can never be sure what’s happening over there in Beijing. We want to be prepared, of course, but not appear overly aggressive and provoke a preemptive strike. Do you get what we are trying to say?”

“I understand sir,” Iyer replied and continued: “but I want to add that the fact that Chinese nuclear missile forces
are
already deployed in northern Tibet and it is not really something they are attempting to hide. They
know
that we know they have nuclear-tipped missiles deployed there. Now we do have eyes over them via our long-range aerial drones that I requested the air-force to transfer over to us for now. But even so, if they launch first, we will have
minimal
response time to launch a counter-force attack. That is,
if
we are not fully deployed as well.”

“But we
are
deployed, aren’t we? I mean our missiles are?” the PM asked in confusion.

“Yes sir, the land-based ballistic-missiles are,” Iyer responded calmly. “That part is correct. But I want to get our triad deployed right away to ensure that Beijing knows that nuclear-cards are off the table. That said, I don’t think it will be considered escalatory in any sense of the word.”

“But you are not
sure!
” the PM retorted.

“Negative,” Iyer replied after taking a deep breath which was audible on the other end. “I cannot
physically
go inside the C-M-C meetings in Beijing. I can only
guess
at their plans and thought processes based on visible
and
actionable intel.” Chakri noted a hint of irritation in Iyer’s voice. He looked up at the PM and saw that he had detected the same…

“Air-Marshal Iyer,” the PM replied, “I want to emphasize that we are
not
trying to second-guess your authority on this matter. But you will have to forgive me for being dense. I do have an additional question. Please indulge me if you would.”

“Of course, sir”

“What are the chances that if we take this step, we won’t actually give the Chinese the pretense they need to go nuclear?”

“Sir, it
is
possible that they might consider this action on our part as escalatory,” Iyer offered. “I can see how they might use that against us. But that said we know
exactly
what the flyover schedules of their satellites are. We
know
they are keeping a close watch on our missile groups. We have to remove the very idea of the feasibility of a decapitating pre-emptive nuclear strike from their minds. Once their satellites see that our nuclear forces are also deployed and in the field, they will lose that thought.”

The PM looked at Chakri who nodded agreement.

“Very well, Air-Marshal. I concur with your assessment. Go ahead as planned. Keep us informed.”