Chimera (3 page)

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...

“You mean Chinese citizens or Tibetans?”

“I am afraid I do not know the statistics.” Jiang replied simply.

Aren’t you predictable
...Ravoof thought with an inward smile before finally turning away from the windows to face his guest:

“Of course”

He opened a file and removed a piece of paper from it and handed it to Jiang across the table:

“That is the statement that the Government of India has released as of fifteen minutes ago and which the prime-minister will reiterate during his scheduled press conference from Washington DC. It asks for both sides to break off the cycle of violence that has been spiraling out of control in Tibet for the last few weeks. This is the gist of the page long statement you find in front of you. The prime-minister wanted me to give you a personal assurance of help should Beijing need a mediator to intervene on behalf of both sides.”

Ravoof leaned back in his chair while Jiang grew significantly more uncomfortable in his own.

“I will pass this offer back to Beijing, but I would also like to remind you and your government that the situation in Tibet is an internal affair, not an international one. While we thank India for taking a mature stand in these troubled times, I feel obliged to remind you that the resolution of an internal affair does not require international mediation, similar to your situation in Kashmir.” Jiang replied in an almost unnoticeably sterner tone than before. It did not escape his Indian host though.

“The two situations are somewhat different, Mr. Ambassador. I would not advise such a simple comparison. Further, there are historical issues to consider. We have the Tibetan government-in-exile still on our soil.”

“You mean the rebel leaders. India would better serve both India’s and China’s interests by first removing such outlaw encampments from Indian soil before offering help to others. It is very well known that with the deterioration in health of the Dalai Lama over the last few months, his demise cannot be ruled out. And a replacement will be chosen and it will be one from Tibet. At that point the existence of the current ‘government-in-exile’ will be nothing more than a rebel encampment. The Indian government stands to do good here if it were to recognize this and begin taking steps to prevent any…disruption that these outlaws may then cause from Indian soil. As perhaps is already happening as we speak. ”

The Indian Foreign Minister now leaned forward:

“Mr. Ambassador, these may be troubled times for your government, but it is highly advisable for you to avoid accusing other countries with outrageous and, I if do say so myself, naive claims. We know what your state-run media has begun to spew out over the past few weeks and please don’t waste my time with denials. You know better than that. The Dalai-Lama is under the weather. He is not dead nor is he close to being so, all rumors not-withstanding. And assuming the worst possible outcome, should he indeed pass away, may I remind you that a very large portion of the Tibetan population resides in India now rather than your so-called Tibet Autonomous Regions? Perhaps the future Dalai Lama may come from within his people in this country. Has your government considered this? Or is that too hard to even consider in Beijing? If that were to happen, the Tibetan government-in-exile will stay here unhindered.

“And as far as the attacks over the last few months in Tibet by so-called Tibetan dissidents are concerned, perhaps it may have more to do with a renewed round of genocidal activities being undertaken by your armies there rather than the Dalai Lama’s ailments or any other supposed theories that Beijing is attempting to come up with.

“Further, the prime-minister has gone to great lengths to make statements of support at a time when the emotions of our own citizens are high and when such statements tend to weaken his position within his own people. Keep pushing this government and you will find a far colder atmosphere in New-Delhi than what you might have prepared for. Don’t make the situation worse for both of us. I would much rather have you over for tea than not,” and with that both sides had drawn an unseen line across the table that separated them. Jiang absorbed the blow, but recovered his composure quickly:

“I am sorry for my emotional comments. But as you said it, these are difficult times. I will pass back your government’s offer for mediations back to my government.”

Ambassador Jiang glanced at the paper in his hands. A few seconds later he finally spoke again:

“There is one other matter that my government thought you might need to know. There was an attack six days ago on a civilian convoy that cost the lives of more than three dozen civilians. The attack took place on the section of the highway just north of the border in Ladakh.” The Ambassador stared back into the eyes of the host who returned the favor:

“And I express my sympathies for the loss of lives, Ambassador. But apart from the geographical proximity to the Line of Actual control, what makes the attack different from all the others so far across Tibet?”

“Just that the close proximity of the attack near the border warranted a mention. It seems the Tibetan rebels have begun attacking civilian targets closer and closer to the border with India ever since our security forces began pushing them out of the cities,” Jiang concluded with a straight poker face that he was known for. Fifteen minutes later he left, and the Indian foreign-minister returned back to his office and sat back down in his chair before staring out of the windows again.

They are thinking something and its taking them in the wrong directions...

But what the hell is it that they are thinking?

HILLS OVERLOOKING THE VILLAGE OF SHIQUANHE

SOUTHWESTERN TIBET

MAY 15, 1830 HRS

The noise from random bursts of gunfire was still echoing in the hills. The sun had begun to lower under the western peaks amidst a darkening orange and red sky. And the rebels had taken a beating from PLA forces after a botched ambush had turned into a drawn out fire-fight. It had left dozens killed in the outskirts of the once pristine village. The battles had shifted now into the hills outside the village as the rebels attempted to retreat to the east, across the river that cut the village along a northeast-southwest axis. Buildings west of the river were nothing more than smoldering remains and PLA troops were everywhere, initiating movements across the river to push the rebels out from the rest of the village.

“There they go,” Gephel noted neutrally without removing his eyes from the binoculars.

“There’s a lesson in here somewhere,” Major Ngawang replied as he crept up in deliberate slow motion alongside the Lieutenant-Colonel. Both men now lay behind the rock cover at the top of a ridgeline west of the valley below. Gephel grunted his disgust at the outcome of the battle between the Tibetan rebels and the PLA.

“Absolute idiots! When will they learn what force composition is all about? You don’t engage an entire PLA battalion in conventional combat, damn it. Not when you are outnumbered ten to one!”

“In broad daylight too,” Ngawang said as he lowered his optics and looked around, seeing the rest of the combined team deployed behind them on security within the rocks and boulders. “They aren’t going to last too long with such poor tactics. At this rate this revolt will be over before it ever started. Of course, that’s where we come in,” Ngawang noted with a smile.

Gephel smiled but did not take his eyes away from the binoculars. Looking at the smoke rising into the pink colored evening skies above, he wondered about the symbolism of it all. It had started with similar symbolism several months ago…

Tibet was burning with the fires of a fledgling rebellion over the last several months. What had started as yet another season of silent protest through strikes and the few odd incidents of self-immolations had been exacerbated with rumors of the worsening condition of the Dalai Lama accelerated by his old age. The regional Chinese leaders had not helped the situation by reiterating Beijing’s stand that the future Tibetan leader would be selected by Chinese party officials, putting aside the age old traditions of the Tibetan people and their culture. And hence had started a renewed phase of struggle by the Tibetan people to free themselves from the stranglehold of Beijing that attempted to choke and snuff them out of existence.

The problem was that the Tibetan people were not equipped to fight the Chinese armed forces in Tibet on their own terms. Weapons and equipment were barely available and mostly obsolete. So much of that had been smuggled across the Himalayas by Tibetan rebels staging from India. This had not pleased the party leaders in Beijing very much and the relationship with New-Delhi was strained. The New-China-News-Agency, or NCNA, was blasting anti-India and anti-Tibetan vitriolic daily over the airwaves across China. And the Dalai-Lama’s condition did not allow him to urge for peace within his people. Beijing saw this as conditional approval on his part to the rebels and their actions. The rebels saw it the same way. The rebellion had become stronger as a result, and now the PLA was cracking down as well. The PLA had rushed massive reinforcements to the Tibet Autonomous Region, or TAR, a as it was called. And the result was that the Tibetan rebels were on the verge of being defeated…

Of course, New-Delhi was not entirely blind to the plight of the Tibetans. And while the government could hardly provoke war with China for their cause, they were willing to look the other way as the Tibetans began gathering covert support across their population in India for manpower and finances. The threshold that had not been crossed was with regard to supplying the Tibetans with arms. At least, not visibly anyway…

There were many in the corridors of power in the Indian capital who wished to see China brought to its knees over this affair. 1962 had not been forgotten. Neither had the scars gone away. But the question remained: how to proceed? Arming the Tibetans was a start, but to what end? Unless the Indian government went on a massive arming initiative, the rebellion would sputter and spark but would die a cold death in the end. As it had in 1959. The average Tibetan rebel, despite his martial heritage and build, was not trained for the intricacies of modern combat. And unlike 1959, when the PLA had been little more than a people’s army, the current army was a mature and modern force. So what else could be done? After several meetings between senior officials in the Indian foreign intelligence agency and the secretive strategic operations cell of the Department of Defense within the Ministry of Defense, it had been decided that China would be made to bleed as much as possible while the rebellion lasted. They would be forced into a situation where their control over Tibet would seem tenuous and perhaps force them into more compromising terms with India.