Chimera полностью

Unlike the handful of Phalcon AWACS, the smaller CABS aircraft were almost always being deployed on airbases closer to the frontlines because of a severe shortage of tankers. And Tezpur had been secure for the past ten days. But the surprise Chinese GLCM attack had done a lot of damage. So now there was little choice but to continue with one crew and grab whatever rest they could, when they could…

The aircraft tilted ever so slightly as the flight-crew up front brought the aircraft on a southerly heading to refuel with an Il-78 tanker that had lifted from Kalaikunda. As the aircraft headed out of Bhutanese airspace, the only thing the operators in the cabin could think of was the two hours of sleep, strapped in their seats.

“You better listen to this,” the PM said as he walked into the room along with Ravoof.

“What happened?” Chakri said as he and the NSA put their papers aside and looked up. Chakri removed his reading glasses and put them on the table. The PM looked over to Ravoof and gestured him to speak.

“So,” Ravoof said with quiet deliberation, “I just finished giving our first official press-conference since the Chinese attacks on Tawang this morning. The press is livid. So are the people. The conference went as bad as can be expected. All they wanted to know was how we allowed this to happen and what and when our response was going to be.”

“And? What did you tell them?” Chakri asked.

“What do you think? I told them that the Chinese attack was a brutal murder of civilians and completely unwarranted. Which is true,” Ravoof added his own comment to the answer. “I also told them that India reserves the right to respond but that we cannot comment on ongoing military operations.”

“Good. That’s all we need to tell them at the moment,” Chakri said and then leaned back into his chair, rubbing his forehead with his fingers as he focused on this new problem, having had to change gears from what he and the NSA had been discussing before the PM had barged in.

“Good? That answer might be acceptable to the media but not to me,” the PM said, visibly angered now. “I want to know what we intend to do about this? Where is our response? And when do we expect to see it?”

Chakri looked over to the NSA sitting nearby and got a poker-faced response. The PM caught the look and it angered him even more.

“Don’t you dare give me that! I know both of you think I am not versed with military operations but like it or not, I am the Prime-Minister of this nation! You will tell me everything that is going on at our borders and will involve me in all military decision making processes from now on!”

Chakri sighed and then gestured the PM to take a chair, which he refused. So Chakri continued anyway:

“So here’s how it works. We have the Chinese beaten on the ground and in the air over Tibet. The Chumbi valley for the most part is under our control. The Chinese presence in Bhutan is becoming tenuous as General Potgam and his forces under Joint-Force-Bhutan are continuing their counter-offensives. The Chinese ground offensive in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh has ground to a halt at heavy losses to both sides. And the Navy has begun operations to shut down the Chinese merchant shipping through the Indian Ocean region. There is still the issue of dealing with the Chinese fleet entering the southern Indian Ocean region but Admiral Surakshan has plans to deal with them. So the Chinese are reeling under all this and now intend to use the one advantage they have over us: ballistic-missiles and nuclear weapons. They have a lot more conventional and nuclear armed missiles than us and they will use them if they have to.”

“This attack on Tawang,” Chakri continued, “savage and painful as it may be, is nothing more than the dying lashes of a snake. What they want now is for us to get into a war of missiles. And that’s a war we do not want to get into because unlike that bastard Peng and his cronies in Beijing, we don’t want to see a lot more of what happened in Tawang happening over the rest of the country.”

“This doesn’t help me any,” the PM grumbled. “If we don’t respond then the people of this country are going to hang us. Beijing cannot be allowed to get away with this!”

“And they won’t! But acting rashly is exactly what they want us to do!” the NSA shouted back.

“Besides, what are we going to strike back with?” Chakri asked rhetorically. “The Chinese attacked us with long-range cruise-missiles. We don’t have any in our service. Air-Marshal Bhosale and Air-Marshal Iyer are putting together our response now. But we need to give them time to plan and execute their actions properly and not act out of turn. Bite the pain! Our time to respond has not yet come!”