Chimera

The three men had been careful not to leave patterns in the snow on the roof, knowing fully well that it could be noticed from a Chinese UAV overhead. Their only protection from the cold was their uniforms, which was designed to be thermally insulating. Along with the gloves, helmet and other equipment around their bodies, it was not unbearable. Even out here in the Himalayas. All Vikram had to do to wake himself up despite his tiredness was to remove one glove from one hand. The biting chill hit him like a hammer and removed all the grogginess from his head.

“What’s it looking like out there?” He asked Sarvanan as he put his glove back on and sat up straight.

“Same as before,” Sarvanan said.

Vikram hummed and looked at his wrist watch.

“How long was I asleep?”

“About an hour,” Sarvanan replied as he opened a small sealed ready-to-eat meal packet. The packet could be chemically heated and he was doing that as he spoke to Vikram.

“Tarun has the optics all set up and pointed north. The IMFS is up and so is the laser designator. I have the comms set up and the majority of our stuff is stashed in the apartment below. The building entrances are booby-trapped except for our escape route. As for the Chinese, Tarun and I spotted a small recon party two kilometers north checking out the roads. They retreated quickly enough after doing their job. Nothing unexpected, so I let you grab a few more minutes of sleep,” Sarvanan concluded.

Vikram did not like that one single bit. He got up with a jerk and went for his binoculars in his backpack next to where he was and turned to Sarvanan:

“You did what? Why the hell didn’t you wake me up during all this?”

Sarvanan was not intimidated by the young lieutenant’s sudden anger.

“You have to trust me on this, Vikram. I have been through enough to know that a tired C-O make mistakes in combat. We need you rested and composed. Besides, nothing unexpected happened; else I would have woken you up. Here, have some hot food. Keep it under cover in case the Chinese have some thermal optics on us from above.”

Vikram scanned the northern approaches to Thimpu from above the meter-high wall and spotted nothing. After several seconds he lowered himself and took the food packet from Sarvanan. He reminded himself that the latter man was older to him and more experienced in combat. Vikram on the other hand was fresh out of training. So while he was the ranking-officer present, Sarvanan tended to look at him as a wet-nosed cadet still in training…

Hell, the Captain probably thinks so too. Why else was he so pleased when I chose Sarvanan and Tarun to be my team out here?

Probably thought I had picked the right babysitters.

Nah. Experience is something I could use and these two have it. So bite the pain, buddy boy. And learn, learn, learn!

He nodded approvingly at the food once he had a bite. It gave him the energy and clearness to think. Plus a bit of Indian food always tasted good.

Even here.

“Movement to the north! Our buddies are back!” Tarun said from his corner as he continued to stare through the tripod mounted IMFS. Vikram and Sarvanan dropped the food packets, picked up their binoculars and moved on their knees to get to the corner where Tarun was.

The view was clear. Snow camouflaged PLA soldiers from the elite Highland Division in their hundreds running across the open terrain towards the outskirts. Their black painted rifles were contrasting with their uniforms and left little doubt.

“The bastards are just running across. They know we have no defenses out here!” Vikram noted sourly.

His job was to observe and report, but it still pained him to see the enemy’s confidence. He turned to Sarvanan:

“Get me the Captain on the comms right now!”

“Yes sir!”

As Sarvanan dashed across the roof on his knees, avoiding standing up for fear of being seen, Vikram turned back to the view of his optics.

“How far out are they?” he asked Tarun.

“My take is about five kilometers, sir!”

“That gives us about an hour before they are on top of us here. Keep an eye on them. Let’s see if command has gotten its ass out of its head for once and can lend some support,” Vikram said as he lowered his binoculars and saw that Sarvanan had the speaker-set for the radio.

“Spear-One on the comms, sir!” he said as Vikram took it.

“What’s the news, Vik?” Pathanya’s voice came through over some background static. Vikram strained to make out the words.

“Not good, sir. The commies are approaching as expected. I am looking at a battalion in depth. They also have some special-forces teams conducting recon for them on the ground. But they haven’t reached the city yet. We figure we have about an hour, tops. Do you have any support at all for us out here?”