Line of Control - Tom Clancy [77]
"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.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE.
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?
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