Chimera

“I gave the Indians what they were begging for,” Wencang replied as he fished into his pockets for a smoke using the cheap cigarettes he always had handy on him. It was a habit he had picked up from his years out at Korla all those years ago. He lit one up and turned to Feng:

“Get in touch with the Foreign-Minister and inform him that we are evacuating and moving to the N-C–C. I want him to call me to get a draft of a message I want sent to the Indians via Bogdanov. And this time let’s be more careful with the evacuation for all our sakes! We can’t afford any more carelessness like this morning! Go!”

“Sir!” Feng saluted and walked out. Wencang turned to Chen:

“Liu had a good idea in taking out the Indian satellite before the launches. Let’s see if we can’t blind them permanently this time before Typhoon wipes their miserable little existence from this planet!”

“You want to do this?” Chen asked calmly as Wencang took a long puff of the cigarette and released the smoke into the room.

“I did not bring them here,” Wencang replied, “but they forced my hand. Theirs is not the only country that has to worry about saving face! Our people will hang us, you and me, from this ceiling here if we sued for peace now. That opportunity is long gone.”

“But they struck us with only two warheads.” Chen continued. “Surely that is a message? Otherwise why just two warheads? They must know what will follow? And we launched the first strike here! They had to respond and they chose two far away airbases! Why?”

“You give them credit for intelligence,” Wencang replied. “I don’t!”

“Their actions thus far have indeed been intelligent, Wencang. Think about it! You and I know more about their intelligent military operations against us than anybody else in Beijing!”

Wencang thought about that as his cigarette smoke filled the room…

MOSCOW

DAY 15 + 1530 HRS

“So they got our message?” Ambassador Tiwari asked as he took the paper from Bogdanov.

“They did,” was the short answer to that question from the Russian Minister. “And they responded with this.” Bogdanov nodded to the paper in Tiwari’s hand as the latter removed his reading glasses and then glanced over the details quickly.

“They have to be joking!” Tiwari said with surprise.

“Indeed,” Bogdanov said with a grunt. “Going by the rhetoric that General Chen laid out for their state media two hours ago, I thought we might have been too late! The president ordered full readiness on our part in case Beijing began lashing out on other parties in the region as well.”

Tiwari grimaced as he folded that paper and put it back on the table between the two men.

“Don’t bet your money yet!” he replied to Bogdanov. “We are not out of the woods. We want to know what they have in mind before we commit to anything at this point!”

“Just get them to start talking, Tiwari!” Bogdanov stressed emphatically. “If they are talking, they are not lobbing nuclear warheads at each other. That is all there is to it at this point!”

“I agree.” Tiwari nodded.

“And if we are lucky,” Bogdanov continued, “we might all make it out of this mess in one piece…”

JUNWEI KONGJUN

BEIJING

DAY 15 + 1830 HRS

“You sure it will work?” Chen asked.

“It has to,” Wencang said as he leaned for the phone and pressed the speaker. He waited while the prearranged process took place from the foreign ministry office. It would take a minute.

“You know,” Chen said as he took his seat on one of the other chairs around the big conference table in the room, “as much as I am responsible in convincing you to put Typhoon on hold, I fear very much that our people will never accept this.”

“They will have little choice on the matter,” Wencang replied plainly as he waited for the connection process to complete. “My worry is the Indians. Let’s just hope they are as smart as you make them out to be and take what is on offer without holding for more.”

The call went through a few seconds later. Wencang sat straighter in his chair and looked to the phone on the center of the table.

“This is General Wencang, commander of Chinese military forces and acting President for the People’s Republic of China. I have Lieutenant-General Chen from the People’s-Liberation-Army-Air-Force and other representatives from the Chinese government and military here with me.”

“General, this is the Prime-Minister of the Republic of India. And I have my cabinet and military commanders on this end,” the PM said. He noted that Wencang was fluent in English. That would make this conversation go easier and leave little for misinterpretation.