Dragon Fire

Operational Directorate, South Block, Delhi, India

‘They’ve launched from Tibet,’ said Unni Khrishnan. ‘We should head for the bunker.’

‘No,’ said Hari Dixit. ‘If the people of Delhi are to die in a nuclear attack, this captain is going to stay on the bridge.’

‘President Gorbunov calling from Moscow,’ said Khrishnan’s aide de camp.

‘Tao has called a ceasefire,’ began Gorbunov.

‘He’s just launched,’ said Dixit.

‘Six minutes to impact,’ said Unni Khrishnan.

‘You have my word that China will carry out no more attacks.’

‘Can they destroy the missile, mid-flight?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Listen, Vlad, within five minutes we could be vapourized. I don’t regard it as a ceasefire. It’s the act of high cynicism.’

‘Agni ready for launch, Prime Minister,’ said Unni Khrishnan.

Hari Dixit cut the line to Moscow: ‘Go ahead,’ he said.

Ground zero was between the North Block and the South Block. The fireball swept through the elegant buildings of pink Rajasthan sandstone, which collapsed into molten rubble incinerating everyone inside. The magnificent architectural buildings of Indian democracy were destroyed within seconds of the blast; India Gate, the Parliament Building, the National Archives, the Supreme Court, then further out with temperatures still almost a million degrees, the path of destruction hitting Connaught Place, Janpath, and other landmarks of India’s heritage. The glass walls on the newer buildings shattered immediately, with people and furniture instantaneously hurled outside. Then, like in Bombay, the firestorms reached the flimsier structures, the more densely crowded parts of the city, where people died in their tens of thousands.

Even ten miles away in places like Vasant, Vihar and Janakpuri, everyone outside was struck with severe burns and houses spontaneously caught light, causing unstoppable fires to rage through the slums killing those inside. Within the three kilometre radius of ground zero, nothing survived. The men in charge of the government of India were dead. The institutions which ran the country were out of action.