Lakshmibai Raj - The Echoes of War

[x-gambit.livejournal.com]

Lilandra and Ken Neramani have a meeting in the Prime Minister's office, and a horrible picture of the near future develops in her mind.



“…both blasts would have to have involved military grade explosive materials. Considering the size of the blast and the extremely small space in which the materials were packed, I would say we are looking at an explosive of significant sophistication.” The EOD expert finished, careful to control his body language with military crispness. It wasn’t every day that a Major was asked to brief the Prime Minister, after all.

“Thank you Major Singh. Prime Minister, the police forensics concur with our assessment. Both explosive devices were clearly assembled by a professional with access to modern military explosives and detonators. This may be a terrorist bombing, but it is not a typical IED.” General Charkta followed up, allowing the Major to stand down and exit the briefing. The group in the Prime Minister’s office was a mixture of India’s version of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and several high ranking ministers, including Defense and Internal Affairs. D. Kenneth Neramani rubbed his eyes tiredly and leaned back in his leather desk chair.

Less than thirty-six hours following the earthquake, we have two bombings in New Delhi. Sounds coincidental.”

“Only to an extent, Prime Minister. We’ve believed that Muslim extremists in the Kashmir region have been receiving clandestine military aid over the Pakistani border for years. Considering the UN Forces have supplied more advanced materials into the region without a strong track record of proper oversight, it wouldn’t be much of a stretch to assume that the devices came from one of those military stockpiles.” General Charkta shrugged. “Makes sense that they’d smuggle their best materials down for a strike against the capital, and lie low for the best time to use it.”

“Thanks to the earthquake, there is no way to secure the border in its present form?”

“Unless you’re willing to mobilize the majority of our armed forces to secure it? No. Not if the UN security forces continue to ignore the problem.”

“Thank you, General Charkta. If you could go with Minister Jahloraj, I’d like to see see plans for an immediate mobilization.” Ken Neramani sat looking contemplatively at the crystal structure that decorated his desk, considering his options. As the others filed out, Lilandra Neramani remained on the couch, watching her brother.

“Ken, what is this mobilization plan you’re spinning up? You haven’t let us bring up border security as part of our diplomatic discussions with the Security Council. It will be hard to see this as anything other than a hostile act.” She said reasonably. Her stature in Foreign Relations had been a key factor in his coalition seizing power, and putting him in the office he now occupied.

“I think that being the victim of a major terrorist attack and securing our borders in response will not have the same kind of resistance you believe, Lilandra. After all, we’ve suffered over a million deaths in the last two years from Pakistani terrorism. It would require a motion of extreme callousness to ignore that fact.” He voice was level, almost pleasant.

“Any goodwill we earned over the losses in Srinagar we lost in Sri Lanka. The Red Cross is still accusing us of genocide, and our position with Indonesia and Russia has China very worried. You’ve almost gone out of your way to antagonize the two largest voices on the UN Security Council, and I doubt even Britain will be a vigorous supporter.” Lilandra pointed out reasonably, once again reminding him who the foreign policy expert was. “We’re also starting to get very vague diplomatic enquires about the Guard and their role with the military, Ken. There are some very ugly rumours that they have been involved operationally on intelligence missions and military exercises. What’s going on?”

“The place of the Guard is secure, Lilandra. They do not take orders from our military.” Ken touched the crystal, and it seemed to glow slightly. Obviously a trick of the light, although Lilandra could sense a sort of echo in her mind of something. Was Ken trying to use his powers against her?

“If that’s the case, why the increased training, and the maneuvers in the IO? Ken, I can’t effectively coordinate our foreign policy if you’re not telling me what I need to know. The pact with Russia was negotiated entirely outside of my office, and every time I ask about our mysterious new found oil and gas resources, I get some kind of nonsense about offshore drilling where I know there’s no geological evidence of such fields.” Lilandra stood up from the couch. “From the outside, it looks like we want to start a war, and from inside, well, I don’t know what it is we’re doing to dissuade our allies of that.”

“You were always worried about what outside people would think, Lilandra. You forgot that the most important people are inside our borders. Remember when father would take out the old military maps of North India, and he’d trace the development of the Shiar clan, pointing out the battles and kingdoms and migrations all the way to the present? Remember that he used to say ‘history is the tracing of the audacious’.” Neramani said, touching the crystal. “What is India today? It is how it has been defined by treaties, successful and unsuccessful wars, the application of will against what ‘has always been’ to make something new and old again. Are her natural boundaries as they are now, or are they more, eliminating the threat that has clawed at our borders for ages?”

“What are you suggesting?”

“That our people are tired of being needled by a weaker nation which has spent most of its history as a subject. They kill our people and are told that outsiders will be the ones to make the peace; to make us secure, as if we were a nation of children waiting for the UN nanny. Now, in the midst of our greatest tragedy, they see us struck at the very core of our home. What do they need from us?” Ken said, leaning forward. “Isn’t it time to take our own people’s needs in our own hands?”

“Ken, this is-“ Lilandra caught herself, stopping. “I don’t know if I understand, but you need to tell me what I’m supposed to tell the world.”

“That India is dedicated to the safety of our people, and the sacrifice of the few will not be forgotten by the many.”

Lilandra nodded stiffly, and left silently under his gaze. She had no illusions. Ken was starting a war, and based on his evasive answers, it was necessarily the Pakistani would had started it. Her brother could be ruthless, and she was now sure he was capable of ordering hundreds killed in order to give India the cover it needed to move.

Suddenly alarmed, she reached her office and her desk. The light on her phone was blinking, and she picked it up, her secretary passing along the line. “Hello?”

“Minister Neramani, it’s Signals ma’am. Your two o’clock just canceled.”

“Ah. Thank you.” Lilandra put down the phone. She was not a fool, and had made sure to have a few contacts inside of her brother’s hierarchy, including his internal security. The phone call was a code; the order for her arrest had just been issued by her brother’s office.

She pulled out the bottom drawer on the desk, and grabbed at the package there. It was a Blackberry box, and she tore it open hurriedly. She’d arranged for a totally clean device to be snuck in, the signal non-government and unknown to anyone in the office. Quickly, she tapped out a message, hoping that the money she’d spent for the anonymous line had been enough, and sent it off into the electronic ether, to the private mailbox she’d been given at the conference. Then, she pulled a burnbag from her file folder, dropped the Blackberry and packaging into it, and sent her secretary to drop it into the chute as she returned to her desk and opened a file, presenting the appearance of ignorance about what was heading for her.

She couldn’t avoid being arrested, but she could get the information out. India had tricked everyone, and was about to start a war. And if things went wrong, she had no doubt that her brother would not hesitate to up the ante to get his way. The lives of a billion Indians hung in the balance, and she felt very cold as the doors opened and Daciot walked into her office with a brace of soldiers and a sharp nod.

“Madam Minister, I need to speak with you.”

The door closed softly behind him.