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television and turned to face the group.
    “Gentlemen, let’s face the facts. This is, in all probability, a terrorist strike. If we were under a full-up attack, we wouldn’t be here in this mess hall five hours after the fact. The only reason we haven’t been briefed about this is because this has just happened. That said, expect the unexpected, gentlemen. We are the tip of the spear that will be shoved through the bodies of whoever did this insidious attack. So get yourselves in that mode. I want everybody ready with their equipment within the hour! Dismissed! ”
    As the young officers saluted and left the room soberly, and Kamidalla started to do the same, Pathanya grabbed the man by his shoulder, motioning him to stay behind. He waited till the last of the officers had left the room. He then looked his friend in the eye:
    “Regardless of what we tell these boys, Samik, this situation is not going to stay in control. We can take a bet on who’s responsible for this attack but my money is on our Pakistani friends. You can’t just get nuclear weapons anywhere except in Pakistan. The government will figure this out sooner or later, and what happens after is anybody’s guess. God knows what they are thinking at this very moment!”
    Kamidalla nodded in agreement. He then smiled wickedly: “Well, don’t know about you, sir, but this will be my first war! And damn it to hell if I am going to be sitting in Mizoram when the balloon goes up. I am going to go find the old man about this.”
    Pathanya looked at the man neutrally and then nodded. Kamidalla walked out of the room, leaving Pathanya to his thoughts. He sighed as he switched on the television again to see the consistent videos showing the mushroom cloud north of Mumbai.
    Kamidalla’s enthusiasm for getting his feet wet did not seem unnatural to him. He had been the same when he had been tagged to lead his recon team into Bhutan during the war with China. He had even beamed with pride when they had given his team the codename Spear . But he had been younger then, and not so much in years as in experience. His days in Bhutan during the war had tempered his enthusiasm more so than his colleagues here, many of whom had been forced to sit on the Pakistan border during the war, straining at the leash, but unreleased for combat against China. This younger crowd had not yet tasted the horror of modern, high-intensity war against a determined enemy.
    He had both seen and tasted it. And it wasn’t pretty. The fact that only four members of his original team had survived the war was testament to that fact. His enthusiasm for war had died alongside his men in the mountains of Bhutan…
    So what does that mean exactly? An inner voice spoke to him. Time to turn in your spurs and leave? Bullshit. Why the hell did you return, anyway?
    The army’s SOCOM was going to need his services and he knew it. He was one of the experienced combat leaders in their toolkit to be used for whatever this crisis required. For all of Kamidalla’s enthusiasm and competency, he had not been bloodied by war. Pathanya had. Literally… he reminded himself as his thought went to the scars on his leg. It was time to pull himself out of whatever was holding himself back. His face changed from neutrality to one of grim determination as he saw the latest videos showing convoys of army trucks making their way into Mumbai. Their drivers were kitted out with full nuclear-biological-chemical, or NBC , suits. He had prayed to god that he would not have to see such scenes in his lifetime.
    Isn’t that what my men died to prevent?
    He balled his hands into a fist and walked out of the room into the now-bustling corridors, leaving the television running as it was.
     
     
    “T his has Lashkar-e-Taiba’s hands all over it.”
    “That simple?” Basu said as he lit his cigarette and took clicked the lighter off. He looked around at the men in the room as he puffed on his cigarette from behind his desk.