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On the other side, the crowd had figured out that the soldiers were Indians and were now jostling to get in and get ahead in line to leave Bhutan. The aviation Major and the Para-CO watched from inside the glass entrance door.

“We only have about thirty minutes to organize and take those who we can, out of here. Warlord does not want to spend a second more than he has to dealing with civvies,” the pilot said.

“When do the first convoys get here?”

“Within the hour. First Mi-26 lands here in about forty minutes with more paratroopers to secure the airport. The air-force has deployed some air-cover above us. That should keep you guys safe,” the pilot added.

OVER BHUTAN

DAY 6 + 1450 HRS

The Chinese satellite went over Bhutan, taking high definition imagery of everything that was happening in the small Himalayan kingdom. One of several areas heavily focused on by the satellite included Thimpu, Paru and Haa-Dzong. When those images processed in Beijing and given to Colonel-General Wencang by the PLA commander, a call went from his office to Lieutenant-General Chen at Kashgar…

PARU AIRPORT

BHUTAN

DAY 6 + 1530 HRS

The Mi-26 is a heavy lifting helicopter. But it lifts even more when it pretends as if it were a transport aircraft. When it makes a rolling lift-off as opposed to a hover, it can carry a heavier payload. Only the American CH-53 helicopter comes close, and even that isn’t very close at all…

The runway at Paru was very crucial to Lieutenant-General Potgam and Joint-Force-Bhutan as a logistical heart. Bhutan is critically short of flat terrain suited for use as helipads or airstrips. Getting stuff into Bhutan by air was a nightmare. Thimpu had some helipads and to the east near Lhuntse, where Major-General Dhillon was assessing and stabilizing the battered RBA, there were a couple of landing areas to be had. But Paru had a fully functioning airport with a concrete runway and hangers.

And it was valuable as hell right now.

It was also to be his AFARP for Fernandez and the Hotel-Six battery. Haa-Dzong would continue to be JFB command center, since it was already set up for handling this task and also because it had its own secure operations center.

The other major problem was firepower. Potgam only had small paratrooper and special-forces detachments at the moment, not counting Fernandez and his unit or the Searcher-II UAV squadron. He had already deployed most of these units on various critical missions such as reconnaissance and protection of assets.

The ten-man special-forces team under Captain Pathanya was already deployed north of Thimpu overlooking the approaches into the city. The other detachment of paratroopers was now at Paru airport, defending the weak perimeter from Chinese special-forces teams also known to be operating in Bhutan right now. In fact, Haa-Dzong was vulnerable as well with only the handful of remaining paratroopers deployed around the golf-course. He desperately needed more men on the ground…

“Heavy-Hauler-One is inbound on finals!”

Squadron-Leader Saxena lowered his binoculars and walked out on the ledge of the control tower. His other two colleagues from the air-force forward-air-control team were manning the radios and other equipment inside. Three An-32s were already approaching from Baghdogra airbase, ferrying more Paras.

“Roger that!” Saxena said as he spotted the heavy bird approaching from the east.

He turned around and saw the two-man sniper team lying prone on their stomach on the roof of the tower. They had set up their long-barrelled Dragunov sniper rifles and were aiming north, past the runway perimeter. They were expecting danger, and that made Saxena concerned. He was not exactly trained to fight off a Chinese special-forces team. He looked at his own Tavor assault-rifle lying on top of the equipment dashboards inside.

“You really ought to see this. Not too many sights like this around!” he shouted to the two snipers on the roof above. They didn’t look away from their scopes but the observer dismissed the offer.

“What’s the big deal, sir? We jump out of perfectly good airplanes for no reason on a daily basis! I think we have seen our fair share of these birds.”

“Yeah? Well watch this!” Saxena said just as the Mi-26 descended on a rolling approach past the control tower.

The massive blades and the huge downwash swept up a massive dirt and dead grass maelstrom slashing through the tower building. It was enough to make Saxena hold on the rails and had the two snipers grasping the digital camo blankets they had laid over themselves. The Mi-26 thumped down on the runway and its engines groaned as the pilots struggled to slow it down.

“Oh shit! What the hell was that!” the sniper shouted as both men attempted to grasp what had happened. Saxena and his colleagues were laughing at their expense. A few seconds later Saxena responded:

“That, my friend, was air-force power! Get used to it: there’s going to be a lot more in the next few hours!”