LASHKAR (30 page)

Back at the command post, Vashisht saw the whole picture developing. He had a bird’s eye view of both of the Pakistani patrols, the two attack helicopters converging on them and the Force 22 officers. He also had the advantage of knowing exactly what was going on whereas the Pakistanis were still struggling to put together the larger picture. ‘Tango for Fox. Head south-west, approximately twelve hundred.’

He gave them a bearing that sent them straight in the direction of the Pakistani patrol from Ranabhana BOP heading their way. When they were about six hundred metres short of the patrol Vashisht transmitted again. ‘You’re now heading straight for the bandits from Romeo Bravo.’

Click. Click
.

‘Tango for Fox, halt now and acknowledge my transmission, but keep it short. The Snakes are close now. Coming up on your port side. ETA five minutes at max.’

‘Reading you loud and clear Tango,’ Sami acknowledged crisply. ‘Port? Don’t you bloody go Navy on me at this time…what the fuck is port side?’

Vashisht laughed as he told him.

‘Roger Tango. I’m getting the drift.’ By now Sami had understood what Vashisht was planning. ‘We are standing by.’

Sami’s subsequent transmissions had given the Pakistanis ample opportunity to home in on him. He knew they would only be able to pick up the transmissions, but not read them since the transmissions were coded.

The coding process was not very simple, but given the modern code cracking technology that was available these days it would not take much time for the messages to be read in the clear. However, the Force 22 officers knew that by the time the message became readable it would also become redundant. That was the problem with most real-time battle intelligence; it was only worth something if it was available immediately. Otherwise it was only good for operational post-mortems and military history books.

‘Tango for Fox. Get ready to rock. Ground bandits at three hundred and Snakes coming up overhead now.’

Click. Click
.

The Pakistanis were tracking the transmissions continuously.

‘Mike One and Two the target is now in area…’

It took another minute for the Pakistani controller to guide the Rangers patrol to the new location. He had to do both separately since the choppers and the Rangers were operating on different channels primarily due to the different types of sets the two were using. In fact, in the heat of the moment no one had remembered to even tell the Rangers that the choppers were also on the way.

Vashisht saw the change in course of both helicopters and also the men on ground. He watched carefully for a few moments, confirming that they had taken the bait.

‘Fox this is Tango. Move now as advised. Guns hot. Radio silence till Chengiz Khan. Chengiz stand by to cover Fox. Over.’

‘Chengiz for Tango and Fox. Roger that.’

Sami did not reply. He just double-clicked the transmit button in confirmation.

Then the four commandos were off.

The Pakistani helicopters took another two minutes to reach the precise area they had been given. During this time the Force 22 officers had withdrawn from the location. Moving rapidly in a short arc they circled the Pakistani patrol that was by now almost at the same spot from where Sami had transmitted the last two signals.

Vikram reconfirmed the bearing and location with his GPS locator. ‘This way, guys!’ he pointed. ‘Tony, all yours…and catch up fast.’

The three men raced away as Tony Ahlawat, who was bringing up the rear, stopped and took up position. He waited till one of the helicopters was almost directly over the Pakistani patrol. It was circling slowly and noisily, scanning the desert with a huge searchlight. He knew that most of the Pakistani patrolmen would be busy following the light with their eyes. The glare would render them totally night blind for a while.

Using the rifle he had retrieved from the jeep he fired two deliberate shots into the helicopter. ‘Got you!’ he hissed triumphantly when he saw the chopper lurch momentarily before steadying itself. That was good enough for him. Shouldering his weapon, he ran after the other three commandos towards the Indian border.

The sound of the two shots was almost completely lost in the roar of the helicopters’ rotors. Most of the Pakistani patrol party was not even aware of the firing. But there was no way the Pakistani pilots could have missed it. The co-pilot took one of the two bullets in the tender-most part of his anatomy. His startled yelp and sudden start as he soiled himself almost caused a total loss of control and sent the helicopter plunging wildly towards the ground. ‘What the hell are you doing?’ the pilot screamed in panic as he wrested back the controls and managed to correct it just in time.

‘I’ve been shot,’ the co-pilot moaned.

‘Shot?’ The pilot instinctively pulled away from the sudden threat that had emerged from the desert. He banked the helicopter away and aligning it towards the general area, from where he assumed they had been fired upon, cut loose with his machine-guns. With honour duly satisfied, he gave an urgent call to his base.

‘Control, I have taken fire. My co-pilot is hit. I also have possible damage to the bird. Returning to base now.’

‘Mike one where is the fire coming from?’ The agitated Controller asked trying to get a clear picture of what was happening out there.

‘Who the hell knows Control! There are lots of people down there. I need to go now. We’re hit. I don’t have time for this shit.’ He wrinkled his nose as he spoke. The smell of crap was getting stronger. He just couldn’t wait to get out the chopper.

The pilots of the second helicopter heard the entire conversation. They duly noted the threat that had suddenly emerged from the desert sands and arrived on the scene with guns blazing. The desert sands churned madly as hundreds of machine-gun shells blazed out from the twin guns mounted on either side of the chopper.

‘What in God’s name are those idiots doing?’

The Pakistan patrol on the ground was amazed at the sudden hostility and fire that it was drawing from up above. Frantic calls on the radio set to their Company Commander, since they had no means of communicating directly with the helicopters, resulted in more panic and confusion all around.

It took almost twenty minutes before temperatures cooled sufficiently and some semblance of order returned to the area. In those twenty minutes the Rangers fired off enough ammunition to win a small war. Most of it fell harmlessly on to the empty desert. Some whistled past the four commandos racing towards the border. One of the bullets got lucky and nicked Sami’s right ear, taking off the lower lobe.

‘Shit!’ he cursed as he instinctively turned to return the fire, but then he restrained himself. There was no sense giving away their positions by opening fire. That chopper could cause serious problems if it managed to locate them again. Clasping a handkerchief to his ear to stanch the bleeding he resumed running with the others.

The second bullet was a little luckier. It slammed into Tony’s upper thigh felling him to the ground. Katoch was running almost abreast with Tony when he saw him stumble and fall.

‘Man down,’ Katoch hissed urgently bringing the others to a halt. Swiftly he knelt down and checked the wound. The bullet seemed to have missed the bone. Even so the flesh was ripped apart. ‘There is no way in hell he can move with this leg. Here…’ Katoch tossed his weapon to Tiwathia and hoisted Tony onto his back. ‘Man! What the hell have you been eating?’ he said as Tony’s weight settled on him. Then they were off again. Sami led the way as Katoch followed and Tiwathia brought up the rear.

Those twenty minutes of confusion between the Pakistan Rangers and the choppers clattering noisily overhead gave the four Force 22 officers enough time to put over a kilometre between themselves and the Pakistani patrols. The Pakistanis did not know who, how many, or where exactly they were.

‘Whoever it is, has to be heading for the bloody border, you idiots,’ the frantic Company Commander screamed in frustration. ‘Where else do they think they will be going? Stop them! Just head for the border and stop them.’

By now the four commandos had given up all pretence at stealth and were heading hell for leather for Chengiz Khan. They were in superb physical condition, but there was just so much speed that Katoch was able to generate with Tony on his back. Chengiz Khan was still another eighteen hundred metres away.

‘Fox this is Tango. You need to haul ass. The Snakes and the Ground Bandits are barely eight hundred metres away now. One of the ground bandits teams is moving on a direct intercept path.’

‘Are they between us already?’

‘No, but they will be if you guys don’t shake a leg fast.’

‘Roger that Tango.’

The three men reached within themselves and called up every reserve available. ‘Katoch, here let me take him now.’ Tiwathia quickly took Tony on his back and they raced on. Seven hundred metres away Katoch again took on Tony as Tiwathia started to tire and slow down. By now the blood from Sami’s ear had soaked the handkerchief and was starting to seep down his collar.

‘The finish line is close…almost in touching reach.’ Gritting his teeth he ignored the spasms of pain that coursed from his ear to his neck as he ran on. ‘So are the damn Pakis.’

He did not know it but at that precise moment one of the Pakistan Rangers had finished deploying the battlefield surveillance radar and had begun to scan the desert. It took him barely a minute to locate Fox as it raced towards the border. The excited Ranger was on the set and screaming within seconds. Luckily he had no means of communicating directly with the chopper above and his message had to be routed through his Company Commander.

Even so, almost immediately the hunters changed course and began to close in on the Force 22 commandos. The commandos only got wind of this when the first volley of shots rang out. Racing through the desert the commandos felt the whiplash of hot lead whine past them. None of the shots were aimed, but all of them were lethal enough in any case. Carrying Tony on his back as he ran, Katoch felt one of them hit his right arm. He stumbled as it slashed past. It must have been a graze since he did not feel any pain. Tossing up a silent prayer he raced on towards the border and the safety of Chengiz Khan.

At Chengiz Khan, the same group of people who had seen them off, now awaited the return of the four commandos. This time however there were more combat dress uniforms to be seen than labourers’ attire; the need and time for pretence was fast receding. Also in evidence were a lot of automatic weapons. The thunder of gunfire and the roar of the choppers were clearly audible to them all.

‘Chengiz this is Tango. Fox is blown. They are heading your way…bandits close behind.’ The Krishnas overhead were watching everything unblinkingly. They saw the hunters alter course and knew the curtain was coming down fast. The slim window of opportunity had begun to close.

‘Roger that Tango. We’re hot now and ready to move in.’

‘No Chengiz. Don’t cross the IB till we confirm. Instead just buzz the bird and get it away from Fox. It is almost on their backs right now. In fact if it hadn’t been for the darkness they’d be toast by now.’

‘Chengiz this is Tiger.’ Watching from afar, Anbu cut in smoothly. ‘You are cleared to cross the IB. Do whatever it takes but get Fox back.’

The Chengiz team leader assimilated the input.

‘This is serious shit, man. Nobody crosses the IB lightly…especially not armed men.’
He shrugged.
‘Thank God, we have a serious dude backing the play.’

‘Roger Tiger, leave it to me. Fox is coming back in one piece.’

‘Team One, get ready to move.’ Tossing the radio handset to the operator the Chengiz leader raced out of the tent. ‘Team Two stand by for fire support. Move,
move….’

There was a flurry of activity as men raced out cocking their weapons. The Chengiz team leader grabbed the Igla-1S MANPAD missile and ran to the top of the nearest dune.

The Soviet made Igla-1S is an excellent surface to air missile with all aspect capability. It also has IFF capability to ensure friendly aircraft are not fired upon. The officer aligned the Igla-1S towards the Pakistani chopper hovering a little over a kilometre away. At that range and in such conditions it was a sitting duck.

‘I have movement there.’ The Indian soldier manning the battlefield surveillance radar at Chengiz pointed out. ‘About seven hundred metres now and closing. There are three in front and about ten behind. There are another ten angling in from the right…about five hundred metres away.’

‘Three? Only three men? We have four men out there.’ The officer paused and turned towards him. ‘Ajit!’ He called out to the Team Two leader. ‘Get your guys ready.’ He turned back to the Igla and zeroed in on the Pakistani helicopter. At that moment it was the most potent threat on their horizon. ‘I have to neutralize the bastard. Another minute or two and our boys will be done for.’

A silent beam shot out from the Igla’s IFF system as it queried the helicopter.

‘Friend or foe? Identify yourself.’ The beam seemed to ask.

‘Shit!’ The Pakistani chopper pilot breathed as his systems bleeped a warning. ‘We’re being tracked…. These bloody Indians! What the fuck is wrong with them…how far are we from the border?’ Then deciding that he didn’t want to wait and find out he whirled the bird around and, dropping height, headed northwards. ‘Control this is Mike Two. What the hell is happening here? We are being hit upon with a missile track. Is there something going on that we haven’t been told?’

‘Mike Two what are you talking about? Stay low and pull back a little. Let me check this out.’ The Controller immediately got on to the hotline to check with his boss what they needed to do next.

The Pakistan Rangers on ground saw the chopper pull away and move homewards. That confused the already perplexed men.

‘What’s going on here? Where is that joker going?’

‘Wait…let me check.’ The patrol leader was not an exceptionally bright man. He was also not at the age where one could expect any major surges of initiative from him. His tired patrol clustered around him as he got on to the horn with the Company Commander. They were all fed up of chasing ghosts in the desert.