The Eye of Shiva

CHAPTER 59

Ijay's helicopter set down on a broad, flat area where the launchers would stage in time of war. A helicopter with army markings was parked to one side. Rao had radioed ahead. General Chatterjee was expecting him.

The entrance to the tunnel was a thirty foot square opening carved into the side of a mountain. The complex was located in a forest of evergreens and surrounded by high, snow-capped peaks. A road to the site continued past the tunnel to an ancient Hindu temple set a mile away on a green hillside. The temple was in ruins, destroyed centuries before by one of the Muslim rulers.

For Rao, the ruins were one more reminder of how Islam desecrated everything he held sacred. He shook out two more of Krivi's pills and swallowed them. He felt full of energy, light, invincible.

The steel doors to the tunnel stood open. Waiting just inside was the first of six mobile transporters. The camouflaged, phallic shape of an Agni III ICBM lay flat along the trailer, waiting to be raised into position. The missile was about forty feet long and six feet around. The nose cone tapered to a rounded point and was painted black. The body of the missile was white. The Indian flag was painted on the side.

Agni III had been designed to provide long range counter-strike capability. It was powered by a two stage, solid fuel rocket that drove it to a speed of over 5km a second. Guidance was provided by a sophisticated inertial navigation system. The twenty kiloton warhead was roughly the size of the bombs that had destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was set to detonate five kilometers above ground.

An air burst was more destructive than a conventional impact explosion. Everything within one mile of the hypocenter would be completely destroyed. The blast wave would travel outward at nearly the speed of sound. A mile away from the center it would have enough power to hurl a fifty ton railway car from it's tracks and crush it. Two miles out, the damage would still be severe. Anyone left alive in that two mile radius would receive a lethal dose of radiation.

Islamabad had a crowded population of around two million people. One missile would obliterate the city. Hundreds of thousands of people would die in the initial blast. The radiation would leave the ground poisoned for many years.

The tunnel complex was guarded by a detachment of twenty-four men under the command of a lieutenant. The officer approached and saluted. Four sentries in battle dress and wearing maroon berets stood by the tunnel entrance, armed with assault rifles.

"Secretary Rao? The general is expecting you. May I see some identification, sir?"

Rao showed his RAW credentials.

"Follow me, sir."

Rao glanced at Ijay. They had already determined what they were going to do. They followed their escort into the tunnel.