Chimera

“Colonel,” Potgam interjected on the verge of frustration, “my only concern at this point is to get the 11TH Para Battalion into Thimpu before the Chinese get there. Send the 9TH Para to Major-General Dhillon in eastern Bhutan. He can use all the reinforcements he can get. Eastern army is already sending a brigade from IV Corps to him to beef up their left flank. But he could still use the special-forces capability. And keep the incoming 12TH Para Battalion on security duties around Paru airport and west from there where Fernandez is deployed. Especially that battery.

“I am particularly concerned about security to Fernandez’s unit. His is the only heavy precision arty we have south of Thimpu and the Chinese know it. If I was in their position I would be sending out my own special-forces teams to find and destroy that battery and remove any interference with my plans. We can’t let that happen. Tell the 12TH Para commander that I want that arty and that airport at Paru secured.”

Potgam saw the Colonel nodding and making notes. He sighed and turned to the lone unit marker pinned on top of Thimpu on the map.

Pathanya’s boys. It must be pretty lonely up there…

Potgam turned back to the Colonel:

“And what’s the E-T-A on the 11TH Para getting up to Thimpu? Pathanya’s boys have held out as much as we could possibly expect them to. They have been pushed all the way to Thimpu’s outskirts. We have to get some backup up there to them, damn it!”

The Colonel walked up to the board and stood alongside Potgam and pointed a finger at Paru airport.

“Sir, 11TH Para is arriving at Paru as we speak. I have requisitioned the last two surviving air-force Mi-26s to assist in the movement of deployed forces from the airport here,” the Colonel slid his finger across the map to the north and tapped where it said Thimpu, “to here at Thimpu. What we need from Captain Pathanya is for him to secure the Dechencholing palace helipads. He has already been informed of this task.”

“Good. We really don’t have much time before the Chinese march on the capital,” Potgam said as he glanced at the red unit markers north of the single blue marker on Thimpu…

“We really are out of time. See if you can push everybody to move faster than they are,” Potgam ordered.

“Sir!”

The Colonel saluted and ran out of the room, leaving the door open behind him. Potgam checked his watch. He then picked up his cap from the table and left the room. As he walked past the snow covered lawns outside glistening in the morning sunlight, he could hear the distant rumble of artillery from the Chumbi valley.

If I was the Chinese brigade commander north of Thimpu, I would be assaulting the city right about now…

Damn the Chinese attack on Paru! They have brought us to the verge of losing all of Bhutan north of this valley!

But if they think they have won, they are out of their fucking minds.

Warlord is not so easily defeated.

NORTHERN OUTSKIRTS OF THIMPU

BHUTAN

DAY 7 + 1220 HRS

“Time to wake up, Vik,” a distant yet familiar voice said.

Already? What the hell. I just got to sleep. Five more minutes. Come on, I haven’t had proper sleep in two days. Just five more minutes?

A distant crashing explosion rumbled through and Vikram’s eyes opened with a jerk, still red from the exhaustion of combat. The sudden brightness of the day caused him to squint even as his arms reached for his assault-rifle nearby. His sudden motion was caught by his two colleagues.

“Easy there, Vik!” Sarvanan said. “No danger! That was off to the west in the Chumbi.”

Sarvanan lowered his binoculars and slid under the protection of the open, meter-high walls on the roof. Vikram looked around and realized after several seconds where he was and what he was doing. He sighed and then lay back on the bare floor again, staring at the clear blue morning sky above. He heard the crunch of the fresh snow under his rifle as he put it down. It reminded him of his childhood in Himachal Pradesh from a few years before. But as much as he was tempted to play in it, he couldn’t.

Not now at any rate.