Dragon Fire

The Situation Room, The White House, Washington, DC

‘Dixit targeted the Western Hills before he died,’ said Tom Bloodworth. ‘It must have been a 250 kiloton warhead to make the range.’

‘Did it hit?’

‘Yes, but the Chinese bunker is too well dug in. The only casualties are the villagers, fruit orchards and a few army barracks. There’s a strong westerly wind. In nuclear terms the damage is minimal. We’ve just picked up new signals from the bunker, so their backup communications system must have kicked in.’

Hastings sat heavily in a chair, allowing the exhaustion to show for the first time in forty-eight hours. ‘Hari Dixit refused to go for the civilian targets, didn’t he?’

Bloodworth pointed to one of the computer screens. ‘These are the latest satellite pictures from India. This is Delhi.’ He changed the picture. ‘This is Calcutta. Then Bangalore, Madras. It’s going on everywhere.’

Even though ill-defined, the images showed streams of people fleeing the population centres of India. The main roads were too clogged with human life to take cars, carts or even motor-scooters. Vehicles were abandoned, as were possessions which hindered escape. The nuclear holocaust had instilled terror throughout the country.

‘What about China?’ said Hastings.

‘There’s cloud over Chengdu. So we don’t know what’s happening there. Tao has closed down all telecommunications. Even mobile phones. The television is showing a sitcom.’ He brought up an overhead scene. ‘This is Tiananmen Square, Beijing. The signs say it is closed for redecoration. This is the main road south. Traffic moving as normal. It’s the same for Shanghai, Wuhan, Harbin. You name it, the Chinese are controlling it.’

‘They’ve won, haven’t they, Tom?’

‘Won through their own brutality.’

‘Damn right, they have,’ said Hastings. ‘They’ve won because they had nuclear weapons and they used them ruthlessly — just like we did in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.’