Читаем Chimera полностью

Thirty minutes later a well shaved Gephel and Ngawang walked into the office of the battalion commander and saluted. Both men were now wearing Indian army combat fatigues with proper rank insignia but no name tags or other identifications. They found Ansari sitting inside on a relatively comfortable chair next to the Colonel’s desk, with the pack of images taken by the team through various optics, printed out. It made Gephel somewhat uncomfortable to see the casualness with which all of this was being handled. He put it down to his own self having a hard time changing gears back to regular army life…

The images in front of them had been taken by the team. They showed the nature of the Chinese supply routes in the region as well as layout and structural strength of the bridges, roads and other assorted infrastructure in southern Tibet.

Gephel noted that Ansari had made notes on several images with special pencils. They couldn’t use pens here of any kind because the ink froze at the brutal arctic temperatures outside.

“So Lef-tenant-Colonel, what’s the tally?” the Colonel asked.

Ansari looked up from his seat to hear Gephel’s response. The latter had a smile on his face.

“Twenty-seven, sir. The ones we counted as confirmed! Twelve of these belonging to a Chinese recon party actually heading towards Kongra-La as we were on our way out,” Gephel stated.

The Colonel did not like that final comment one bit, because his Battalion was the one strung out north of Dokung in charge of the security of Kongra-La. The last thing he needed were Chinese recon teams infiltrating behind his lines or causing mayhem. Ansari was about to say something but the Colonel interjected:

“Lef-tenant-Colonel, was there any additional indication of Chinese interest in the region of Kongra-La?”

Gephel noted that the Colonel kept referring to him as “Lef-tenant-Colonel”. He wondered whether it was because Ansari had not told the Colonel his real name. He shook his head after some thought:

“No sir, not that we could see. But they do have some units out on patrol all along the border. The recon team we ambushed had notes on our unit dispositions and so forth for this sector, though. They had actually infiltrated behind our lines just as we had done behind theirs, roughly through the same route. But all indications from the notes I handed over to you and Ansari show that they probably wanted to know whether we had plans beyond Kongra-La.”

“Just like we want to know about their plans south of it,” Ansari said finally. “And I will agree with the Lef-tenant-Colonel’s assessment on this. They will send recon teams into Sikkim from this sector, and we have to stop them getting intelligence on our dispositions. So now we know that they have in fact been sending teams across. We need more units out here to plug the gaps. Our team broke through the border by crossing the peaks rather than the passes and nearly reached the camp perimeter this morning before we spotted them. If we can do it, the Chinese can do it too. We must work with that assumption.”

The Colonel was hardly enthusiastic about that:

“That means that I have to spread out my men even more to plug these holes rather than keeping them concentrated into a fighting fist. That is a folly I can ill afford, especially against the Chinese. As you say, we need more units. I will forward the estimates up to Brigade. Let’s see what comes off it. In any case, good work.”

The Colonel leaned back into his chair and faced Ansari and gestured him to continue. Ansari nodded and moved on:

“Anyway, coming to the bigger picture. What’s the latest at Gyantse?”

“55TH and 11TH Divisions,” Gephel answered.

“55TH Division, huh?” Ansari pondered.

Yet another familiar unit from the past…

“Yes sir. The Chinese 55TH Division is already concentrated at Gyantse and has units on the way towards the Chumbi valley. We located the divisional headquarters and two brigade headquarters near Gyantse. We didn’t really see any units under 11TH Division, but we have this information based on sources near the Karo-La. That makes three, I believe,” Gephel said for the record.

“Yes it does. Good work on the unit identifications. We have a Chinese brigade concentrating inside the Chumbi opposite Nathu-La. We are already engaged in local operations against them. The Chinese have another brigade heading to join this first one based on the photographs you provided us. That leaves a third brigade still 55TH Division at Gyantse. We can be sure that it will move down as well once 11TH Division comes down to Gyantse from the Karo-La. We have a lot of shit heading our way!” Ansari said and leaned back in his seat.

“And what about us?” Gephel asked.

“You are to stay here and get your team the rest it deserves. Get them cleaned up and have some hot food for a change. Until we handle and terminate the threat from the Chinese forces in Tibet, you are not going anywhere back in,” Ansari stated forcefully.