Operation Deep Strike Page 4

  “Maybe I won’t,” the General looked at Armaan with a steely gaze, “but, I can ensure that you won’t lead any future missions if you think of your own requirements as greater than that of the team or the mission. I will give you two choices. Either my mission with the men of my choice, or you can stay in the vehicle and it will take you back to the office and I will tell Baldev to lead the mission.”

  Armaan’s face turned red in anger as General Singh spoke. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. The mission was important to him and that was why he didn’t want newcomers to goof it up. Why couldn’t the General understand that he considered the mission important enough not to leave it to inexperienced soldiers? He couldn’t trust the young whippersnappers to do the job right. As a soldier, the mission was paramount to him, even if the General didn’t understand his side of the story.

  Armaan was one of the most experienced veterans of the DIA’s covert ops team. He had to be on the op. It was up to him to ensure that the mission succeeded despite rookies like Roshan and Hitesh. As the leader, he could control the mission, and ensure they wouldn’t screw up their jobs. The General couldn’t see that Armaan shared the same objective of seeing the operation succeed. He would go on the mission, and keep the new scouts on a tight leash and ensure the mission was accomplished.

  “So what’s your answer?” General Singh had already exited the vehicle and watched him through the window. “Are you coming for the mission, or are you staying here?”

  In response, Armaan sprinted out of the car and violently slammed the door shut.

  The General led the way as they walked through the doors and went up the stairs to a conference room on the first floor. Three men were already waiting for them. At six feet and six inches, Baldev Bakshi was the tallest in the room. Armaan felt relieved by his presence. They had been together on countless ops. His face always had the hint of a smile. It contrasted with the bulging muscles that stretched through his shirt and gave an aura of raw power. He had the strength of a bull and Armaan had witnessed hapless adversaries crumble when they encountered Baldev.

  Armaan flitted his eyes to Roshan Gupta. He was reminded of the debacle in Bangladesh. A wave of resentment flooded through him. He turned away to look at the only stranger in the room and assumed that the unknown person was Hitesh Vohra, the replacement for Namit.

  The introductions were brief and the General came to the point straightaway.

  “Gentlemen, you know why you are here. We are on a covert ops mission. I have given the operation specifics to Armaan, and he will give you the complete details of the mission at the right time. A Globemaster is waiting for you outside. It will take you to Jamnagar. Your eventual destination is a top-secret facility in Pakistan. No missions assigned to us are easy. This won’t be any exception. But I know you will accomplish this through stealth and skill. Any questions?”

  “What’s the mission duration?” Baldev asked.

  “It shouldn’t take more than twenty-four hours.”

  “Will we get schematics of the facility?” Hitesh asked.

  “Yes. Armaan will share the details.” The General waited. When there were no further questions, he continued. “Good luck, boys. This mission is very important, and the directive comes right from the top.” He paused to make sure the significance of his words sunk in with the team members. “I am counting on all of you. I know you will do well.”

  The meeting over, they exited the building and walked out onto the tarmac. A massive Boeing C-17 Globemaster III was waiting for them, its turbofan engines running. The General stood outside and the four of them entered in through the cargo bay door. The co-pilot was waiting for them, a flight manifest in his hand. He looked at them in surprise.

  “Just the four of you?”

  Armaan looked inside the enormous cargo area of the Globemaster. They looked puny compared to the immense empty compartment that could lift a payload of nearly eighty tons and carry even main battle tanks and helicopters inside the monstrous belly of the aircraft. He nodded at the bewildered co-pilot who looked as if he had been expecting four hundred passengers instead of four.

  “Yes, just the four of us.”

  “Wow, you must be pretty important. The plane has been refuelled and is ready for take-off. Wheels up in five minutes.”

  “Thank you.”

  As the cargo bay door closed, Roshan spoke up. “I was raring to get back into active service during my months in convalescence. Excited to be here.”

  Armaan cut him off, “Don’t get too excited. We are on a crucial mission. I would appreciate if you don’t botch up anything this time.”

  Roshan hung his head. “Yes sir, I won’t.”

  “Good.” Armaan looked at the others. “I’m in charge now. And don’t you forget that.”

  The others said nothing. Armaan leaned back in his seat, and felt the wheels rumbling under him as the Globemaster raced down the runway and then took off in the afternoon sky.

  A few hours later they landed in Jamnagar AFS in Gujarat. As Armaan stepped off the Globemaster, he surveyed the rows of fighter jet planes that lined up at the side of the runway. The Air Force Station located near the Gulf of Kutch was the westernmost air base in India, not counting Naliya AFS a hundred kilometres northwest. Close to the Pakistan border, the jets could race to Karachi in a few minutes.

  But they wouldn’t be going on a jet.

  Armaan looked around and spotted a chopper pilot waving to them. Next to the pilot was a HAL Dhruv helicopter. The transport for the next leg of their journey. Armaan walked over along with the team and got inside the chopper and it immediately took off.

  “Are we going to Pakistan via a chopper?” Baldev asked.

  Armaan shook his head. He watched as the helicopter traced a route along the Gulf of Kutch and then head for the open waters of the Arabian Sea. The wind whipped a spray of seawater in his face. He felt the tangy taste of saltwater in his mouth. “Look outside, where do you think we are going?”

  Baldev looked at the endless sea that reached up to the horizon. They were going west, instead of north. “Are we going to land on a ship?”

  Armaan smiled for the first time. He could see dark clouds raging in the horizon. A storm was brewing in the west. And they were headed right towards it.

  His lips curled up in a sadistic grin. “Even better. We are going to attempt a near-impossible landing on a sub in the middle of the sea.”

  Chapter 5

  The crew of the diesel-electric attack submarine INS Khanderi were intent in their purpose as Captain Mangesh Khurana gave the order to launch the periscope. They were approaching the target area of the rendezvous. The submarine raised itself to periscope depth and held steady.

  Captain Khurana looked through the periscope. The waves tumbled along the surface of an angry sea. He could picture the swells splashing around and making a loud noise on the surface. No doubt it would be windy as well. His face registered a grim picture. It was going to be a difficult drop.

  It wasn’t everyday that they had a mid-sea drop. He was an experienced sailor, and even then he had only witnessed a handful of these missions. He had received the orders twenty four hours ago to approach the rendezvous point at full speed. Their team had traversed around five hundred nautical miles since yesterday. They had kept their side of the bargain. Now, they just had to wait to collect the ‘package’.

  Khurana twisted the periscope through a complete three-sixty degrees and confirmed there were no ships in the nearby vicinity. It surely wouldn’t do to raise your submarine only to have it crash against a merchant ship, or worse, an enemy ship. He gave the all-clear to the Officer of the Watch.

  “Raise her to surface.”

  As the ship rose, Khurana kept looking through the periscope around the surface. The area that they had selected for the rendezvous wasn’t part of typical marine trade routes and it was perfect for a clandestine meet. The sea was deserted; only the pulsing waves crashed around as the submari
ne broke through to the surface.

  He glanced at his watch. Three minutes to go.

  He nodded at a junior officer. “Open the hatches.”

  The junior officer at the Bridge opened up the hatch. Captain Khurana ascended to the Bridge and peered through the hatch. It was worse than he had expected. A torrential downpour of ice-cold rain lashed across his face. He swiped the rain off his face and gazed across towards the horizon in the east. The rain made it hard to see. A crack of lightning sizzled through the sky illuminating the entire sea for an instant. It illuminated a flying speck in the distance. He heard the faint roar of the HAL Dhruv helicopter as it approached them. The heli swayed laterally as it was buffeted by the strong winds. But the pilot seemed to manage well.

  “That’s our package.”

  Another lightning struck the sky followed by an ominous roar of thunder. Khurana shook his head. Four soldiers dropping down to his submarine hanging by a thin rope in this weather. Who would be crazy enough to volunteer for this? But he had his orders. He would ensure that the transfer was smooth.

  “All right crew. Let’s get ready to welcome the visitors.”

  Two men went up through the hatch and stood on the sail. They signalled to the helicopter crew using high-powered flashlights.

  A rope ladder was lowered with a weight attached to one end, so that it would keep steady. The ladder swung in a circle around the submarine as the pilot frantically tried to align the rope ladder right over the hatch.

  The waves crashed with a resounding force against the submarine’s hull. The sky was grey and threatened to strike them with another bolt of lightning. Khurana craned his neck through the submarine hatch and looked at the helicopter; it’s silhouette barely visible against the dark sky. It was up to the helicopter pilot now, his submarine was at standstill. Well, as still as it could be under the circumstances.

  “Don’t wait for the pilot to align his helicopter. Just grab the rope if it’s within your reach.” He told the two men on the sail. They both nodded.

  The helicopter lowered itself a few feet more to counter the swing of the rope ladder. It worked. One of the men grabbed the rope and fastened it against the railings. He waved to helicopter crew.

  High above the submarine, the man in the helicopter gave the thumbs-up. A moment later, a figure dressed in black emerged from the door and got ready to get down the ladder. He looked down at the ship and made the slow descent down the treacherously swinging ladder. Both the men on the submarine gripped the ladder to reduce the swing.

  The soldier clung tightly as he made slow but steady steps down the ladder. It took him a few minutes to traverse the length of the ladder and place his feet on the firm steel of the submarine. The crew assisted the soldier down the hatch. The Captain looked up as the second soldier made his way down. A few tense minutes later, he joined his colleague inside the submarine.

  As he approached, Captain Khurana thought his face looked familiar. He looked closely at the second person. He knew the guy.

  The tall soldier took the Khurana’s hand in a firm handshake. “Captain, I’m Armaan Ahmed.”

  Of course, Khurana remembered. Colonel Ahmed, the brave heart of the Kargil war. The man was a legend. Khurana wondered what mission he was onto. He could be sure of only one thing. Whatever, it was, no one could stand between him and his target. He was the perfect guy to rely on for any mission.

  Two down, two to go.

  “Captain?” the sonar technician’s voice interrupted his thoughts. His voice had a tinge of concern on it.

  The Captain turned around. “Yes?”

  “We have an unidentified contact bearing zero-two-three. Range is ten thousand yards away.”

  “Is it moving towards us?” Khurana asked.

  The technician answered the unasked question. “No, not directly towards us, but it’s going to pass three thousand yards from our position. I don’t think it has detected us. We are at standstill, so no propeller noises; though if it gets closer, our profile could be picked up on their sonar.”

  “All right. Keep a track on it. I want to know the moment it changes course or speed.”

  “Yes, Captain.”

  Khurana looked up at the helicopter. The third person was readying himself for the transfer. While he had told Sonar to keep an eye on the unknown contact, the situation made him uneasy. He knew that Naval Command would have let him know if there were some friendlies in the area. For a moment he debated whether to risk it; there was no sub quieter than the Khanderi. The Captain had previously been assigned to the nuclear-powered submarine INS Arihant during its sea trials. Even if the Arihant stopped, the reactor had to keep pumping coolant which gave off an acoustic noise that could alert subs in the vicinity.

  But the INS Khanderi was dead quiet when at a standstill. It ran on air-independent propulsion which meant that it made no noise when the propeller was stopped making it perfect for coastal assignments. Plus the ship could stay underwater for weeks if needed. But the Captain shook off the thoughts. He would observe discretion.

  Their submarine was sitting still in open waters. If the unknown contact, definitely a hostile detected their submarine, they were a sitting duck. One torpedo would be all it would take to sink them. There would be no chance for them to close the hatch, start the engines and get it up to enough speed to get out of torpedo range. He called out to his sonar.

  “Has the contact changed its bearings?”

  “No, Captain,” the sonar technician said. “It will pass by us in around twenty-five minutes.”

  There was no getting around it. Things would become too tight if they stayed around. He had to make a decision in the next five minutes. As he wondered what to do, he realized the decision was straightforward; safety reigned paramount. All the lives on the submarine were his responsibility; and he wouldn’t risk it.

  “Colonel Ahmed, we will have to abort the drop.”

  Armaan straightened to his full six feet three inches and frowned darkly. “Why?”

  “There is an enemy submarine in the vicinity. We will have to move out quickly.” Khurana didn’t like the idea of aborting the mission, but there was no way they could get the drop completed before the other submarine was onto them. He hoped that Armaan would understand the situation.

  “No way, Captain. Not without my men.” Armaan replied.

  Khurana’s ears perked in disbelief. He had never been given such a curt reply in all the years he had captained the ship. An angry tinge of red shaded his cheeks.

  “Colonel, I don’t think you understood the gravity of the situation. We are moving into a potential hostile situation. We have to abandon the drop.”

  “The other two men will take around ten minutes to come into the submarine. I recommend we wait until then.”

  “But by then the enemy submarine will be right upon us. We will be detected the moment we start our engines.”

  “We should risk it. I cannot accomplish my mission without my full team.”

  Khurana found the man impossible. He snorted in anger “Listen here. On this submarine, I give the orders.”

  “Yes, and your orders were to assist me with the drop. Our mission cannot be compromised under any circumstances.”

  Khurana shook his head in exasperation. “But wouldn’t your mission be compromised if our submarine is torpedoed?”

  Armaan stopped. “Yes, it will. What do we do then? My men are still up there.”

  “We move out of here to our backup rendezvous point. And then complete the drop.”

  Armaan looked up through the hatch for a long moment. “Give the order.”

  Khurana relayed the orders and it was communicated to the helicopter crew. Five minutes later the hatch was closed and they were back in the depths moving towards the backup rendezvous point. He still kept an eye on the unknown contact. They were moving away from the contact, and its speed and direction hadn’t changed. He breathed a sigh of relief. They hadn’t been detected.

&
nbsp; He watched Armaan who was pacing back and forth in the cramped space, clenching his fists and muttering to himself. Armaan glanced at his watch and asked Khurana, “How much time do we have?”

  “It will take another twenty minutes to get to the secondary rendezvous point.”

  Armaan simply grunted and resumed his pacing. Khurana saw the eyes of the crew on the impatient ‘guest’ and knew he was a bad influence on their well-disciplined team. The quicker he could get Armaan to his destination, the easier it would be for him. I wouldn’t miss him. He may be a legend, but the fame has gone to his head.

  Half an hour later, they reached the secondary point. The submarine surfaced again and the hatch was lifted open. It was raining heavily as the helicopter appeared overhead. A thundering boom echoed in the horizon. The rope ladder was lowered for the second time, but the weather had worsened, and the ladder couldn’t be controlled. It was swinging in maddening circles around the submarine, just outside the reach of the frustrated submarine crew.

  As the crew kept trying, Khurana watched the impatient Armaan resume the pacing that he momentarily stopped while the submarine had ascended to the surface. The muttering increased with every passing minute that the rain-soaked ladder stayed out of the hands of the hapless crew.

  “What are those nincompoops doing? We don’t have all day while they play catch.”

  Khurana was about to say something when the Comms Technician said. “Sir, the pilot has said that he is low on fuel. If he can’t drop the two others in the next ten minutes, he will have no option but to return to base.”

  “Tell him we understand the situation. We acknowledge –”

  “Oh no, you don’t.” Armaan interrupted in a harsh voice. “Tell him I want my men down here immediately. The pilot can crash in the Arabian Sea for all I care.”

  Khurana gave a hard stare at Armaan and then turned to the Comms Technician. “Tell him we acknowledge the situation.”