His face contorted as he finally came to terms with what had to be done. Instantly, the hope that Hussein would call this off, became irrelevant. He chastised himself for being so defeatist in the face of this decisive jihad against the Indians. Now it didn’t matter. Hussein may call or he may not. Pakistan could now hope to win this war only if it went nuclear. And if it required sacrificing a half abandoned city to make it look like Indians had used nuclear weapons first, then so be it. He could rely on Hussein and the civilian government and even the Indian media to spread the doubt of culpability on New-Delhi. And then the pressure would be on the Indians to put a stop to this madness…
And a nuclear war was one Pakistan could hope to win. Haider was sure of this. It was the only option now standing in between them and yet another humiliating defeat.
No! This defeat had to be staved off. Now!
“Ahh!”
Grewal squinted as the flash of light blossomed over the eastern part of Lahore. It rapidly expanded and enveloped three-quarters of the city. The brightness was intense enough to completely blind and disorient Grewal and Ramesh. Their fighters rocked back and forth as both pilots instinctively jerked their controls.
By the time Grewal had reached for his helmet-mounted visor and snapped it over his eyes, the expanding ball of fire and light had turned into a white mushroom cloud with a base of hellish orange-yellow. It was so intensely bright that the visor didn’t help much. He tried to bring his arm up to shield his eyes…
Grewal knew that a massive shockwave was heading towards them an invisible stone wall. He went for the comms, not realizing that they were of no use “dagger-two! Get the fuck out of here! We are about to…”
The shockwave struck the tiny LCA like a tsunami, despite it being highly dissipated by the time it reached their altitude. But it was enough to knock the aircraft aside like a piece of paper in the wind. The LCA was swept aside and the port wing sections sheared off, causing an uncontrolled roll at a phenomenal rate as it plummeted from the sky.
Inside the cockpit, all possible alarms and warnings were blaring and screeching. Grewal tried some controls and found that they were non-responsive. The engine had flamed out. No hope of relighting it under these conditions. There wasn’t much to do.
It was time to leave.
Grewal pulled himself into his seat as best as he could do under the centrifugal conditions and pulled the ejection handle. The physical forces exerted on his body under such conditions were massive. He was knocked out instantly and everything turned black.
Malhotra leapt up from his seat inside the operations-center as the screen from one of the radar-imaging satellites over Pakistan registered a color-filtration flicker and then a blip appeared over the overlay marked: LAHORE.
A deadpan background voice from a speaker confirmed it: “warning: possible nuclear event registered at the following coordinates…”
Someone muttered a “good god”, but Malhotra was zoned out already. He reached for the phone to call StratForCom operations and confirm what he had just seen…
36
Grewal woke to find his parachute tugging and dragging him with the wind. He tried to get his bearings and then snapped open the harness, causing the parachute to drift away with the dusty winds. He looked around and saw that he was half-immersed into the waters of a filthy lake. Two-dozen meters of drag marks in the mud followed away from his feet along the lake perimeter. His flightsuit was ripped in several places and he had bruises all over. But his sidearm was still nearby. He grabbed it urgently and checked the pistol. It had a full ammo clip and it cocked with the right amount of click. That made him feel a little better, even if it were mostly psychological. A pistol with a single clip wasn’t going to prove much help in the midst of enemy territory if he were found…
And then it hit him. He scampered around a full circle and finally spotted it. The massive mushroom cloud to the east was rising peacefully into the blue skies. The clouds nearby had been parted into a clean circle by the shockwave. The smoke and dust was gradually shifting into the winds, oblivious to the terror unleashed to those it had touched.
Grewal knew he needed a radio to get in touch with friendly forces. He also needed to get away as soon as he could. If his parachute had been spotted descending into this area, the enemy would be out looking to skin him alive.
He picked himself up and staggered towards the shrubs nearby. His mind was running on hyper speed: maybe they might be distracted by the nuke enough to…
The nearby waters of the lake rippled under the impact of rifle bullets and the distinctive whump noises of supersonic rifle rounds passing by told him that his hopes for evasion were already dashed. The distant crackle of rifle fire showed him where the threat was. He saw a several civilians and soldiers approaching him from the other side of the lake. The civilians were armed with what looked like knives and machete-like weapons. The soldiers were advancing towards him and taking shots.
He ran faster than he had in his entire life, despite his injuries. Fear gave him wings. He had no illusion of what would happen if he was caught by this frenzied mob looking for a scapegoat for what had just transpired in Lahore.
It was easier said than done. He was on an open field near the lake and the nearest trees were a hundred meters away up a gentle climb. Maybe if he got into the trees, there was a chance. But run up that slope and he would be easy target practice.
Anything was better than sitting here, however. He was about to make a run for it when a rifle bullet sliced through his thigh and another through his left arm almost simultaneously. He heard the distinctive crushing noise of bullets shattering his thigh bones. A split second later he was smack on the ground and tasting mud. His vision blurred.
He tried to crawl away, but it was no use. He changed his orientation and saw the mob running up to him, frothing in anger, waiting to tear him limb by limb with their knives…
“Like hell!”
He pulled out his pistol and took aim with his right arm and pulled the trigger. The two soldiers closest to him were taken by surprise by what they thought was a dying prey. The lead soldier took two rounds straight in his chest and fell on his back, splattering blood on the civilians behind. The other soldier took one round straight to the cheek, flipped and fell into the water of the lake with a splash. The others ran for cover and took up firing positions.
Grewal knew the end was near. He prepared for the impact of heavy rifle bullets. Horror gripped his soul.
The massive series of whumps caught everyone by surprise. The civilians charging up to Grewal were the first to receive multiple bullet hits. They went down like a sack of coal around Grewal’s prone body. One went down on top of him because of his forward momentum, causing Grewal to moan in pain.
The Pakistani soldiers nearby immediately turned their attention to the other side of the lake. Two of them went down before ever being able to identify their foe in the trees. The flash of gunfire and the rifle rounds slicing through their bodies with wet thumps was music to Grewal’s ears. The Pakistanis returned fire. Branches and leaves fell from that, but the shadows obscured their enemies. In their haste to capture the cornered Indian pilot, they had run across the very same open field that had exposed Grewal. And now they were being hunted, with no place to hide.