“But not anymore?” Ansari smiled.
“Not anymore! So what do you have for me?”
“Something to make your hair stand on its end!” Ansari said with a crooked smile as both men walked into the deserted mess room and headed outside into the rocky garden. The garden was at the base of the snow-covered mountains that bracketed the airfield. Ansari took a half hour to explain his plans to Gephel. And Gephel nodded silently as he absorbed the whole intent of the plans…
“…Naturally, we cannot be go on this ourselves.” Ansari concluded. Gephel raised an eyebrow: “And why not?”
Ansari shook his head: “No chance. Humping over these mountains here is a young man’s game. That leaves us old geese out. I want your expertise from the Pathfinder missions but you are to go nowhere near the field!”
“Fine.” Gephel relented and then looked at the majestic Himalayas around them. “Can you get anybody from SOCOM for this operation?”
“Give me a name and I will have him deputed. The powers-that-lord-over-us have given me broad authority to acquire whoever we need… within limits of course!” Ansari focused on Gephel. “Why? Who did you have in mind?”
“There is this young major I met over at Vairengte who is teaching special-forces officers on high-altitude special-warfare tactics with his Bhutanese wartime experiences. You will know him. The guy led his team into combat against the Chinese Highland Division forces north of Thimpu during the initial phases of the Bhutanese theater. His small force worked with Warlord and his commanders to hold the reds off until the Paras could secure Thimpu.”
“Oh, I think I know this guy,” Ansari tried to recollect his memorized information on SOCOM personnel. “Didn’t his team get chewed up over there? Himself included?”
“Do you blame him?” Gephel asked. “A nuclear explosion will do that to a man, you know. He got chopped up and barely walked out of Bhutan with a severe leg wound. Only three others from his team survived. But he’s recovered now. I met the boy before I headed over here. He’s perfect for what we need. Grab him before some other task-force does!”
Ansari nodded with a smile, more so at the ease with which Gephel had accepted his task without actually saying it. And also because he realized that has special-warfare team had already begun to grow.
The plan was not theoretical anymore.
Pathanya thanked the young air-force officer who had dropped him off on the tarmac near the parked aircraft. He grabbed his rucksack from the back of the Gypsy and returned the salute of the driver. The latter accelerated away, moments later. It was already dark at Chandigarh. The last shades of red and orange sunlight were making the western skies look ablaze. He looked around as he saw the airfield abuzz with vehicles, aircraft, soldiers and cargo. The air was alive with military noises.
But down on this side of the tarmac, the activity was more subdued. He saw the two, large C-130J transport aircraft parked a few dozen meters away. Men in green flight-suits were milling about. A fuel bowser was parked nearby and a large pipe was trailing from its side as it headed above into the wing of one of the nearer C-130Js. Pathanya could see the rear ramp of the aircraft lowered and about a dozen men with similar rucksacks standing nearby.
As he walked towards the aircraft, Pathanya saw the pilots in the cockpit adjusting their helmet mounted night-vision goggles. The greenish glow from these optics reflected around their eyes as they settled into the darkened cockpit. It was then that Pathanya noticed that while the night had crept in, the airbase had not lit up as it did under normal circumstances. Lighting was being kept to a minimum. It would do no good for people in the pay of the Pakistanis to keep visual tabs on the happenings of this base, considering the base’s strategic value as one of the lifeline nodes to Ladakh and Kashmir.
“Major Pathanya,” one of the men near the ramp said, “glad you could make it to this party!” The group as a whole turned to face Pathanya and revealed that they had been consulting with small flashlights on the maps held by one of the men. This man then folded the map and stepped forward. Pathanya saw the man was wearing the shoulder ranks of a colonel and dressed as a Paratrooper down to the beret. Pathanya instantly dropped his rucksack on the tarmac and saluted.
“At ease, Pathanya.” Ansari put his left hand out. Pathanya saw the hand and shook it.
“Sir, apologies for my delay!” Pathanya said with sincerity that Ansari recognized. He understood. Logistics were a nightmare for the entire Indian military at the moment, and nobody was exempt from it. No matter how important their task.
“Understood, major.” Ansari said flatly and looked at the chaos on the rest of the tarmac. “Nobody expected to fight a winter war in the Himalayas. Despite the China war, we have yet to bring up our logistics in the mountains to acceptable levels. We are always caught flat footed, aren’t we?” Ansari shook his head and turned to Pathanya: “Well, we will make do. Hopefully we won’t have to go back into Tibet this time around!” He winked and then turned to the rest of the men as Pathanya picked up his rucksack from the tarmac and followed, still not entirely sure why he was here or what the hell he was supposed to be doing.
“Sir,” the group of men turned to see the pilot of the aircraft walk towards them in the cabin, “we are cleared to go in ten minutes! Suggest you get your men and equipment on board right away!”
Ansari nodded and stepped on board the cargo ramp before turning to the men: “Gentlemen, let’s go. This war will not wait for us!”
As the others stepped on board and walked into the large cargo cabin, Pathanya took stock of the equipment that had been loaded inside already. This included a large contingent of small arms, explosives, communications equipment and a number of other Paratroopers and soldiers already sitting further up the cabin, keeping their own company aside from Ansari’s boys. They looked up to see the dozen men boarding the aircraft from the rear and taking their seats but otherwise continued with their work. He saw one familiar face in there. Captain Kamidalla smiled and waved at him from his seat further up the cabin. Pathanya smiled and nodded in response. He hadn’t see Kamidalla since they had all moved on from Vairengte to different wartime assignments handed to them individually. He hadn’t expected to see Kamidalla here. But it was a pleasant surprise. But the details would have to wait for now.
Pathanya took his seat on the side of the cabin alongside the other men and finally saw in the dim red lights of the cabin the ranks of those men. A couple of Captains, including Kamidalla, three lieutenants and the rest were senior non-coms. Pathanya huffed in amusement as he added up the symptoms to diagnose the disease. Ansari heard the suppressed huff. He sat down next to Pathanya just as the ramp was raised by the loadmaster. The noise of the rotating propellers was now audible inside.
“You approve, major?” Ansari removed his beret and ran his hand through the balding white hair, ruffling them.
“Sir, I am not even sure what I would be approving!”
“But you approve?” Ansari pushed. Pathanya chuckled.
“Yes, sir.”
“Good.” Ansari said in conclusion.
Pathanya placed his rucksack on the floor between his feet. “I was told by my commanding officer to report for an immediate flight to Chandigarh and to report to you. They didn’t even tell me where I was supposed to find you in Chandigarh. I had all of three hours to prepare and have been traveling all day since.”
“Well,” Ansari replied, “Join the club, Pathanya. If you think you had a strange day, you should step into my boots for the past week. But to put your curiosity aside, I should mention that you weren’t just picked out of a hat. I am in charge of putting together a very delicate operation and I needed men well versed with the craft, especially in the high mountains. Your experience in Bhutan was mentioned to me by one of my senior officers. Incidentally, you have met the man. Anyway, he told me where you were, I called your CO and here you are.”