Chimera

And that could prove lethal for both sides.

“Did New-Delhi have anything to do with arming and assisting the Tibetans as the Chinese claim?” Bogdanov asked neutrally. He half-expected a rebuttal, and got the same.

“Is the Kremlin seriously going to push forward Beijing’s made-up casus belli as an argument point to push India into a corner?” Tiwari asked with surprise. Bogdanov sensed the slyness of the answer and smiled internally.

“Beijing is going to believe whatever they want to believe. Matters on the ground, however, will not wait for them,” Tiwari replied.

“Tiwari,” Bogdanov replied with a neutral face, “it is our assessment that New-Delhi is becoming increasingly aggressive in dealing with Beijing and that the momentum of the war has shifted in favor of India. But bear in mind that Beijing knows this as well. If you push them too hard into the corner, they will become desperate. Your passion for retribution against Beijing aside, I think the use of nuclear weapons concerns us all, don’t you think?”

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.