Free Chimera by Vivek Ahuja Page B

stream. The survivors began to take cover as their leader rallied them. But their situation was hopeless. The Chinese had been caught by a coherent force on high ground overlooking their position and possessing initiative. Another few seconds and three other Chinese soldiers were lying motionless on the ground, their uniforms pooling with darkened blood stains. Krishnan spotted the Chinese officer through his rifle optics as the latter was on the radio calling for support. Krishnan switched to single round mode and dispatched a carefully aimed shot into the Chinese officer whose body collapsed when the bullet penetrated his forehead. He was dead before he hit the ground. With their leader gone, the remaining Chinese soldiers broke cover and ran back to the north.
    Krishnan was keeping an eye out for danger, and sure enough he detected the danger coming:
    “Incoming fire! Take cover!”
    The first mortar shell slammed into the rocks several meters away from the Indian soldiers and threw rock and gravel into the air as another Chinese unit attempted to cover the retreat of the survivors of the ambushed patrol with mortar fire. Several more rounds slammed into the rocks on the hilltop and sent the Indian soldiers scrambling for cover. And then the shelling stopped almost as soon as it had begun. As the dust and smoke settled, Krishnan pulled out his binoculars and spotted the handful of survivors of the Chinese patrol rushing back to the north, splashing water as they waded their way through the icy waters of the stream. He could also see the dozen odd dead bodies of the main body of the Chinese patrol on the banks of the same stream near the ambush site.
    Krishnan stood up and dusted off his uniform and signaled the others to follow him as the group made their way down the slope to the stream to investigate what remained of the battle as the sounds of friendly Dhruv helicopters became audible from the south...
     
     
    NEW DELHI
    INDIA
    JUNE 09, 1430 HRS
    “Planes shooting at each other, patrols engaging each other, artillery shelling, dead and wounded soldiers on both sides. The list goes on,” Chakri threw the file back on the table and it slid towards the military officers sitting across the table. He leaned back into his chair and sighed.
    “Where does that leave us? More to the point, where is it taking us?”
    “To a conflict we cannot afford,” The Prime-Minister said flatly from another chair before any of the military commanders could speak. The service chiefs were clearly uncomfortable at the statement. They thought they could afford the war, but not the policy of appeasement the country’s Prime-Minister was currently offering the Chinese.
    Chakri understood the concerns as he watched the military commanders silently waiting for someone to ask for their opinion in all this. With the current Prime-Minister this kind of situation wasn’t new. But the problem in Tibet was severe. By now it had been turned by the Chinese into one large military base as they attempted to extinguish the flames of a Tibetan revolution. But all of that had been hidden from the Indian Prime-Minister just because it was a the consolidated opinion of those involved that he had neither the stomach for it nor the strength to do what had to be done for India’s sake. And for India, a weakened China was beneficial. Plus the casualty lists on the Chinese side were always a bonus as far as men like Chakri were concerned.
    The problem was that over the past few months the Chinese had steadily built up their military presence in Tibet while the Indian side was being held back by the Prime-Minister whose driving philosophy was now clear to Chakri and the Indian military commanders:
    Peace at any price…
    There were now more than three hundred thousand Chinese soldiers inside Tibet and rapidly increasing. And these were the acclimatized and battle-hardened ones, having fought the rebels for months now. It didn’t even begin to account for the