Chimera

And then another, after which the flashes became almost continuous. The shockwaves followed up along the ground and the thundering noise reached their ears. The original white flash was followed by large orange-yellow balls of fire rising into the sky one behind the other along a stretch of the road occupied by the enemy vehicle convoy only seconds ago. The clean painted military vehicles were now, burning pyres and hulks. Just as soon as the fireballs emerged, they also vanished, leaving behind a drifting cloud of smoke and dust, and five fiercely burning vehicles…

The debris had been thrown all around. To Gephel’s amazement, a crewmember from the leading armored-personnel-carrier at the front of the convoy stumbled out, obviously hurt, and fell on the ground next to his vehicle. As his attackers watched from long distance, the injured survivor began to drag himself away from the burning hulk of his APC and move back along the road, hoping to meet friendly forces up on the road to the north. That the nearest friendly forces were at least a dozen kilometers away was not a concern to the desperate soldier.

It was almost sad, Gephel thought. Almost.

He picked up his rifle and fitted the magnification scope. Raising it up and tugging it into his chest, he took aim. It took him a couple seconds to adjust his sights for the wind and the ballistic drop. He was about to depress the trigger when his target collapsed on the road and stopped moving. Gephel lowered his rifle and looked at the small dark speck lying on the gravel filled plains, backlit by the flames of the burning vehicles. He then removed the scope and tucked it away. His team began to pack up and prepared to move out. Nobody spoke a word. There was no time. A lot of people had probably seen the explosion in the surrounding hills. This was now an unhealthy place to be.

As the team members switched on their low-light goggles, stowed their gear on their backs and pulled their rifles up, a UHF call came through from Ngawang’s team.

“Pathfinder-Two to — One. The fires are burning as planned. Next one’s by the playbook, right?”

“Right, — Two. Catch up with you boys later. Good Luck. Out.”

This was where the two teams were to separate out and move towards different targets in separate areas. Gephel signaled his ‘Point’ man to move out with a silent wave of his arm. His comms-specialist had a question for his CO:

“Where to now, Sir?”

Gephel smiled back. He felt like it. They had had a good night. The fact that they had just terminated the lives of several dozen enemy troops in the convoy was already in the past and no longer a concern.

They should have stayed where they belonged. Out here, only their deaths await them. We will take them out, if it has to be one at a time.

Perhaps my death awaits as well.

So be it.

In any case, they now had a very long walk ahead of them. It was time for their re-supply drop-off. They were going to need those supplies seeing as they had used up a lot of explosives tonight. Gephel recovered from his reverie and looked back at the camouflage-painted face of the captain standing before him.

“The job’s not over, boy. To the pick-up point. We have some replenishing to do.”

The moonlight was a problem, but they had no choice. As the team began their long walk to the south, they disappeared within the long, dark shadows of the hills surrounding the Aksai Chin. The team left five burning military vehicles on the road, otherwise known as the Chinese National Highway-219.

NEW DELHI

MARCH 29, 0950 HRS

“So what can you tell me about the Lhasa situation?” Dr. Abdul Ravoof, the Indian foreign-minister, asked as he lifted his cup of tea.

“Tense.”

The Chinese ambassador Jiang replied before reaching for his cup. His eyes did not move up to match those of his host. A few seconds of silence in the room reminded Jiang that more was required from him. His eyes finally caught up.

“Martial law is still in place. It is for the public’s own security. There have been no more attacks in the city. Lhasa is locked down. The rebels continue to attack civilians elsewhere. Civilian casualties have been high,” Jiang said and sipped his tea. Ravoof finally removed his stare from his guest and instead stared out of the windows at the green grass being watered by the sprinklers. The blue sky and a bright sun above completed the serene view.

The same as over Tibet… He reminded himself as he recollected the minute details from the NSA meeting the previous night.

Rebels attacking civilians my ass. This guy speaks outrageous lies without blinking. But I suppose one needs to be dead inside for doing this job…