"She won't," Hood said.
"How can you be sure?" Coffey asked.
"Because we still have a press department," Hood said. "And while we do, I'll make sure that every paper on earth knows that Secretary-General Chatterjee did nothing while India prepared to launch nuclear missiles at Pakistan. We'll see whose blood the world wants then. Hers or Striker's."
I wouldn't bet the farm on that plan," Coffey warned.
Give me an option," Hood countered.
Coffey and Herbert agreed to have a look at the United Nations charter and brief Hood. Hood agreed to hold off contacting Chatterjee. Herbert left to follow up on the intel reports. Only Liz stayed behind with Hood. Her hands were folded on the table and she was staring hard at them.
"Problem, Liz?" Hood asked.
She looked at him. "You've had some run-ins with Mala Chatterjee."
"True," Hood said. "But forcing her hand or embarrassing her is not on the agenda. I'm only interested in protecting Striker."
"That isn't where I was going with this," she said. "You fought with Chatterjee, you fought with Sharon, and you've shut Ann Farris out." Her expression softened. "She told me about what happened between you."
"Okay," Hood said with a trace of annoyance. "What's your point?"
"I know what you think about psychobabble, Paul, but I want you to make sure you keep all of this on an issues level," Liz said. "You're under a lot of pressure from women. Don't let that frustration get transferred from one woman to another to another."
Hood rose. "I won't. I promise."
"I want to believe that," Liz said. She smiled. "But right now you're pissed at me, too."
Hood stood there. Liz was right. His back was ramrod straight, his mouth was a tight line, and his fingers were curled into fists. He let his shoulders relax. He opened his hands. He looked down.
"Paul, it's my job to watch the people here and point out possible problem spots," Liz said. "That's all I'm doing. I'm not judging you. But you have been under a lot of pressure since the UN situation. You're also tired. All I'm trying to do is keep you the fair, even-handed guy I just saw working things out between Bob Herbert and Lowell Coffey."
Hood smiled slightly. "Thanks, Liz. I don't believe the secretary-general was in danger, but I appreciate the heads-up."
Liz gave him a reassuring pat on the arm and left the room. Hood looked across the room at the crisis clock.
It was still blank. But inside, his own clock was ticking. And the mainspring was wound every bit as tight as Liz had said.
Even so, he reminded himself that he was safe in Washington while Mike Rodgers and Striker were heading into a region where their actions could save or doom millions of lives — including their own.
Next to that, whatever pressure he was feeling was nothing.
Nothing at all.
TWENTY-NINE
Sixty-nine-year-old Minister of Defense John Kabir sat in his white-walled office. The two corridors of the Ministry of Defence offices were part of the cabinet complex housed in the eighty-year-old Parliament House Estate at 36 Gurdwara Rakabganj Road in New Delhi. Outside a wall-length bank of open windows the bright afternoon sun shone down on the extensive lawns, small artificial ponds, and decorative stone fountains. The sounds of traffic were barely audible beyond the high, ornamental red sandstone wall that enclosed the sprawling complex. On the right side of the grounds Kabir could just see the edge of one of the two houses of Parliament, the Lok Sabha, the House of the People. On the other side of this ministry annex was the Rajya Sabha, the Council of States. Unlike the representatives in the Lok Sabha, which were elected by the people, the members of the Rajya Sabha were either chosen by the president or selected by the legislative assemblies of the nation's states.
Minister Kabir loved his nation and its government. But he no longer had patience for it. The system had lost its way.
The white-haired official had just finished reading a secure e-mail dispatch from Major Dev Puri on his army's movements into the mountains. Puri and his people were frontline veterans. They would succeed where the SFF commandos had failed.
Kabir deleted the computer file then sat there reflecting on the crossroads to which he had brought his nation. It would be either the triumph or the downfall of his long career. It was a career that began with his rise through the military to captain by the age of thirty-seven. However, Kabir was frustrated by the weak social and military programs of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. He was particularly upset when India defeated Pakistan in the 1971 war and failed to absolutely solidify their hold on Kashmir by creating a demilitarized zone beyond the line of control. He drew up a plan calling for a "zone of security." He wanted to use the villages on the Pakistani side for routine artillery, gunship, and bombing practice. He wanted to keep them unoccupied. What was the purpose of winning a war if the victor could not maintain security along its borders?
Not only was his plan rejected, but Captain Kabir was reprimanded by the minister of defence. Kabir resigned and wrote a book, What Ails the Irresolute Nation, which became a controversial best-seller. It was followed by A Plan for Our Secure Future. Within three months of the publication of the second book he was asked to become general secretary of the Samyukta Socialist Party. Within three years he was chairman of the national Socialist Party. At the same time he was appointed president of the All India Truckers' Federation. He led a strike in 1974 that crippled the highways and even railroad crossings, where trucks "broke down." That helped to trigger the establishment of Prime Minister Gandhi's "Emergency" in June 1975. That declaration enabled her to suspend civil liberties and incarcerate her foes. Kabir was arrested and held in prison for over a year. That did not stop him from campaigning for reform from his jail cell. Supported by union members and by Russian-backed socialist groups, Kabir was pardoned. The Russians in particular liked Kabir's advocacy of a stronger border presence against China. Kabir drew on his widespread grassroots support to have himself named deputy minister of industry. He used that post to strengthen his support among the working castes while restoring his ties to the military. That led to his appointment as minister of Kashmir affairs and his membership on the Committee on External Affairs. That was where he became good friends with Dilip Sahani. Sahani was the officer in charge of the Special Frontier Force in Kashmir. The men discovered they had the same concerns regarding the threat posed by both Islamic Fundamentalists and the nuclear research being conducted by Pakistan.
Two years ago, high-ranking officers and government officials who respected Kabir's Zone of Security plan got together and pressed the prime minister to name him minister of defence. Kabir asked the national commander of the SFF to come and work for him and then arranged for Dilip Sahani to take over that post. Together, the men plotted in secret. New Delhi was content to build its own nuclear arsenal as a deterrent and collect intelligence to assess the across-the-border threat. Kabir and Sahani were not. They wanted to make certain that Islamabad never had the opportunity to mount the very real threat of a jihad of mass destruction. With the unwitting help of the FKM cell and a young member of the SFF's Civilian Network Operatives, they were on the verge of realizing their dream. If the field commandos had succeeded in their efforts to capture and destroy the FKM, the goal would be just days if not hours away. Now they had to wait.
Major Puri would not fail them. He would close in on the terrorist cell and then kill them in a firefight. The CNO operative who was with them would tell the story as she saw it from the inside. Even if she died in the fight, she would reveal to Major Puri with her dying breath how the FKM attacked the temple and the bus. How the lives of those Hindus were the first sacrifices of the new jihad. The people of India would believe her because in their hearts they knew she was telling the truth. Her grieving grandfather would back up everything that she said. And then the Indian government would respond.