Line of Control (24 page)

    "In what way?" Hood asked.

    "If you're suggesting, as I think you are, that Striker try to help the cell get home, it would be in Mr. Friday's interest to stay close to them and make sure they do not succeed."

    "That could work both ways," Herbert said.

    "If Striker goes in after the cell we can also keep an eye on Friday."

    "I want to emphasize here that we have not yet made a final determination on the mission. Colonel," Hood said.

    "But if we do try to help the Pakistanis the key to success is a timely intervention. Bob, you've been in contact with HQ Central Air Command."

    "Yes," Herbert said.

    "We're dealing directly with Air Chief Marshal Chowdhury and his senior aide. I told the ACM that we may want to change the way we insert Striker."

    "You're thinking about an airdrop," August said.

    "Correct," replied Herbert.

    "I asked the ACM for jump gear. He said it will definitely be on the Himalayan Eagles squadron AN-12. But I did not tell him what we may be asking you to do in the region. The good news is, whatever you do will be well shielded. The Indian military continues to be ultra secretive about your involvement. The SFF and the other people behind the Srinagar attacks do not even know that Striker is enroute to the region."

    "What about the Indian officer who is with Mr. Friday?" Colonel August asked.

    "Are we sure we can trust him?" "Well, nothing is guaranteed," Herbert said.

    "But according to Friday, Captain Nazir is not looking forward to the prospect of a nuclear attack. Especially when he and Friday are headed toward Pakistan."

    "I was just thinking about that," August said.

    "Do you think you can include lead-lined long Johns in the Indian requisition form?"

    "Just get behind Mike," Herbert said.

    "Nothing gets past that sumbitch. Not even high-intensity rads."

    There was anxious chuckling about that. The laughter was a good tension breaker.

    "We've got Friday and Nazir enroute by chopper to a town called Jaudar,"

    Herbert said.

    "I know where that is," Colonel August said.

    "It's southeast of the region we were supposed to be investigating."

    "If we decide to move forward with a search and rescue, you'll be hooking up in the mountains north of there," Herbert said.

    "That's where we've pinpointed the cell."

    "Colonel August, if we decide to go ahead with this mission you'll have to jump your people into the Himalayas near the Siachin Glacier, link up with the cell, and get them through the line of control," Hood said.

    "This is an extremely high-risk operation. I need an honest answer. Is Striker up for it?"

    "The stakes are also high," August said.

    "We have to be up for it."

    "Good man," Herbert muttered.

    "Damn good man."

    "People, one thing I have to point out is that the Indians are not going to be your only potential enemies," Liz said.

    "You also have to worry about the psychological state of the Pakistani cell. They're under extreme physical and psychological duress. They may not believe that you're allies. The nature of people in this situation is to trust no one outside the group."

    "Those are very good points and we'll have to talk about them," Hood told her.

    "There's something else we'll have to talk about, Paul," Coffey said.

    "According to your file, the Free Kashmir Militia has acknowledged its involvement with at least part of this attack and with all of the previous attacks in Kashmir.

    Striker will be helping self-professed terrorists. To say that leaves us vulnerable legally is an understatement."

    "That's absolute horse shit," Herbert said.

    "The guys who blew my wife up are still hanging out in a rat hole in Syria somewhere. Terrorists of warring nations don't get extradited.

    And the guys who help terrorists don't even get their names in the papers."

    "That only happens to guerrillas who are sponsored by terrorist nations," Coffey replied.

    "The United States has a different form and level of accountability.

    Even if Striker succeeds in getting the cell to Pakistan, India will be within its rights to demand the extradition of everyone who had a hand in the attack on the bazaar, on the SFF commandos, and in the escape.

    If New Delhi can't get the FKM they will go after Striker."

    "Lowell, India doesn't have any kind of moral high ground here," Herbert said.

    "They're planning a goddamn nuclear strike!"

    "No, a rogue element in the government is apparently planning that,"

    Coffey said.

    "The lawful Indian government will have to disown them and prosecute them as well."

    The attorney rose angrily and got himself a cup of coffee.

    He was a little calmer as he sat back down and took a sip.

    Hood was silent. He looked at Herbert. The intelligence chief did not like Lowell Coffey and his disgust with legal technicalities was well known. Unfortunately, Hood could not afford to ignore what the attorney had just said.

    "Gentlemen?" August said.

    "Go ahead. Colonel," Hood said.

    "We are talking about a possible nuclear conflagration here," August said.

    "The normal rules do not seem to apply.

    I'll poll the team if you'd like, but I'm willing to bet they say the same thing I'm about to. Given the stakes, the down side is worth risking."

    Hood was about to thank him but the words snagged in his throat. Bob Herbert did not have that problem.

    "God bless you. Colonel August," Herbert said loudly as he glared across the table at Coffey.

    "Thank you. Bob," August said.

    "Mr. Coffey? If it's any help. Striker can always pull a Lone Ranger on the Pakistanis."

    "Meaning what. Colonel?" Coffey asked.

    "We can drop them off then ride into the sunset before they can even thank or ID us," August said.

    Herbert smiled. Hood did, too, but inside. His face was frozen by the weight of the decision he would have to make.

    "We'll get back to you later on all of this," Hood said.

    "Colonel, I want to thank you."

    "For what? Doing my job?"

    "For your enthusiasm and courage," Hood said.

    "They raise the bar for all of us."

    "Thank you, sir," August said.

    "Get some rest," Hood said. He clicked off the phone and looked across the table.

    "Bob, I want you to make sure we've got someone at the NRO watching the Pakistani border. If a chopper does come looking for the cell we have to be able to give Striker advance warning. I don't want them to be mistaken for a hostile force and cut down."

    Herbert nodded.

    "Lowell, find me some legal grounds for doing this," Hood went on.

    The attorney shook his head.

    "There isn't anything," Coffey said.

    "At least, nothing that will hold up in an international court."

    "I don't need anything that will work in court," Hood said.

    "I need a reason to keep Striker from being extradited if it comes to that."

    "Like claiming they were on a mission of mercy," Coffey said.

    "Yeah," Herbert interjected.

    "I'll bet we can find some UN peacekeeping status bullshit that would qualify."

    "Without informing the United Nations?" Coffey said.

    "You know, Lowell, Bob may have something," Hood said.

    "The secretary-general has emergency trusteeship powers that allow her to declare a region 'at risk' in the event of an apparent and overwhelming military threat. That gives her the right to send a Security Council team to the region to investigate."

    "I'm missing how that helps us," Coffey said.

    "The team does not have to consist of sitting Security Council personnel," Hood said.

    "Just agents of Security Council nations." "Maybe," Coffey said.

    "But no one will accept the presence of a team consisting solely of Americans."

    "It won't," Hood said.

    "India's a member of the Security Council. And there are Indians out there."

    "Captain Nazir and Nanda Kumar," Herbert said.

    "Her own countrymen."

    "Exactly," Hood replied.

    "Even if she's a hostile observer, at least she's present."

    "Yeah. Since when does the Security Council agree on anything?" Liz pointed out.

    "We may have to bring Secretary-General Chatterjee in on this once Striker is on the ground," Hood said.

    "Then we'll tell her what we know."

    "And what if she refuses to invoke her trusteeship powers?"

    Coffey asked.

    "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 headsup."

    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.

    

    New Delhi, India Thursday, 2:06 p. m.

    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 front line 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?