Bharat Rakshak

Old Threads in Military Scenarios Archive.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

This thread is intended to have a coherent storyline. So, if you would like to contribute, please e-mail me for editorial synchronization - dileepks AT gmail DOT com

A New Beginning

Four years ago, in early 2006, cerain chain of events occured which drastically changed the course of history. Speculations, profesies and scenarios created by great fertile minds were trashed by the master stroke of destiny, once again proving that the future is never written in advance. Relationships between countries and people changed, new technologies blossomed, and new threats and challenges emerged. In the world stage, old players faded away and replaced by new faces. The game that is life on planet earth, however, went on..

<==>

The F-22 Raptor was flying over undulating terrain, with a yellowish brown hue. The altimeter read 100ft, and it was supercruising at mach 1.3. The gnarl of the two P&W F-119 engines filled the ambient. Suddenly a single blip appeared on the screen, with a synthesized voice alerting.

"Bandit at two o' clock. SU-30MKI Flanker, 120 nautical miles"

The pilot slowed down a bit and turned into the target. The target did not change course. He selected an AIM-120 AMRAAM from the starboard bay. Without difficulty, he aligned the blips and shot off the missile. Within a short duration, an orange fireball resulted.

"Hamzaa... Dinnertime!!!" Called Iram, his mother. The eight year old didn't hear it over his VR helmet. He was so absorbed in the new flight simulator his grandfather has gifted him. He liked grand dad, though he often got bored by the stories he told. He is glad that the rush of secret service and FBI people are finally over and grand dad is more relaxed these days.

Hamza slightly startled and turned around to see grand dad himself standing behind him. One thing he hated about grand dad more than his stories is his habit of entering his room without knocking. Complaining doesn't help. Even dad says "That is Pakistani Culture" half jokingly.

Hamza hit pause on the XBOX-580 and removed his VR helmet. This one is kool. It places you right into the action. Much better than the plasma screen based system he had earlier.

"Look grandad, I just killed a SU-30MKI" He said to Grand dad. "Really? On F-16?"

"No, on the raptor". The Grand dad seemed a little less enthusiastic. His country half a world away is still flying F-16s and there is no chance for the morons who lead them to get something like the F-22 Raptor. Let them wait till their new masters build a copy. He thought.

"Your mom is calling you for dinner. Let's go downstairs". And Grand dad and grand son started down the regal staircase. A mix of Pakistani and American fare awaited them on the luxurious carved oak dining table.

<==>

Jon Stewart was still at his best. Though his wit and comedy had cut down after the move to CNN, he is still the most watched newscaster in USA. Fake news, or real news, he was the star of the day. In a business controlled purely by ratings, CNN startled everyone by hiring Jon for an 8:00pm slot of news analysis. And he was giving the same fare to the new administration that he gave to Bush earlier.

"In my favourite segment "Mess-O-Potamia", the secretary of defense has announced plans to move more soldiers to Afghanistan from Iraq in an increased effort to capture Osama Bin Laden. Even though everybody other than this administration are convinced that Bin Laden is dead. This will increase the pressure on Pakistan, our "former" ally in war on terror".

"In an unrelated report, President General Mahmud Yusuf of Pakistan said today that his country will not allow the US military to conduct searches in soverigh Pakistani territory. It is a well known fact that Pakistan no longer controls the tribal areas closer to Afghanistan and a large portion of Baluchistan, and both the US military and the Pakistani military have to treat them as enemy territory now.Even the chinese, the new ally of Pakistan are not able to use the port they built."

Iram silently grabbed the remote and turned off the TV. Grand dad wiped his brow and concentrated o the food in front of him. The late summer sun bathed their mansion in Napa valley in golden rays. Another day in the retired, or more accurately exiled life of the not so old man drew to a close.

To be continued.

Whoever wants to write more..may I make a suggestion to make it a cat and mouse game of Paki Terrorists, ISI network, sleeper cells and Indian response from Intelligence, Police, CTU's.

karan, e-mail me with whatever you can contribute. It need not be actual fiction. Whatever ideas you can come up with.

XBOX-580 + VR gear + Air Combat simulations + Former Allies

Philbert, you want to get inside the plot? E-mail me.

to all detractors - lay off and let the authors enjoy themselves! atleast thank them for taking the time and energy to do something

superb !! a new story !!
carry on saa...rs!!

Prologue

The Indo-US civil Nuclear Co-Operation agreement was touted as a groundbraking event at the time when it was made. But few people realized how that event will alter the course of the history of the subcontinent. In a remarkable deviation from long time hyphenated relationship with India and Pakistan, the USA has openly declared that India and Pakistan are two different countries with different histories. This action led to a sequence of situations that created the current scenario of international affairs in the year 2010.

General Pervez Musharraf, the man who was dubbed as "the most important ally in the war on terror" was dumbstruck by the US behaviour. He was expecting if not equal, but at least some consolatory gestures from George W Bush, but all he got was public humiliation. In a moment of his usual "Tactical Brilliance", he decided to show some guts and openly showed a shift of alliance towards China. At the same time, china, being wary of the new relationship between USA and India, was all the more willing to play along. Musharraf visited China just before the visit by Bush and photographs of him sitting in simulators for the JF-17 and J-10 fighter aircraft are widely published.

This act of defiance did not go well with the USA administration. They have realized that Musharraf and his regime has reached the "diminishing returns" portion of the curve in the war on terror. Osama Bin Laden was still at large, and A. Q. Khan was still not accessible to US interogators. Moreover, the control of Musharraf and his forces on the tribal areas where Bin Laden was supposedly hiding was deteriorating day by day.

In 2007, Musharraf was forced to conduct an election. In what the global media termed as one of the most corrupt and rigged election, Musharraf claimed mandate of the people for another five year term in presidency. By the time the year came to a close, Baluchistan and the tribal areas have moved almost to open civil war. The hold of Pakistani Army on the country was loosing by the day. Even increased terrorist attacks on India and propaganda in the urdu news media failed to make much effect. Pakistan was falling apart at its seams. The people who are really concerned about it was the people who are concerned about its raison d’être, that is, Islam. The ruling elite did not care much about Pakistan itself, as long as they could find a way to fill their coffers. The Islamists o the other hand was concerned about the integrity of Pakistan, and they found an ally in some part of the Pakistani Military who had some patriotism left with them. General Mahmud Yusuf, Musharraf's vice COAS found this as a good opportunity and quickly, but secretly made his moves.

The Chinese didn't really trust Musharraf. They new in their hearts that Musharraf was pro USA inside. So, when Gen Yusuf made his secret move, they were willing to listen. After all, Yusuf claimed support from the Islamists in the country. They detected the sand washing away from under Musharraf's feet. Musharraf was not dumb to sense the recent coldness in the relationship, but he failed to se the undercurrents.

As a last resort to clutch onto power, Musharraf did another 180 degree turn and offered the US army access to search the tribal areas. This was the trigger Gen Yusuf and the chinese waiting for. Musharraf was overthrown in a bloodless coup. As a rare last time favour to his old ally, President George W Bush, sent a helicopter to fly him out to Kabul and onward to stateside. After several months at different secret locations, he was finally allowed to settle down at a palatial mansion among the vineyards of Napa Valley.

In 2008 presidential election, disproving all predictions, Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska won against Sen Hilary Clinton of New York. He ran on a "bring the boys home" campaign that rang well with the american public. Immediately after assuming office, he started the pull out from Iraq, but decided to finish the unfinished business of catching Osama Bin Laden. the force concentration slowly moved into Afghanistan, and a confrontation with Pakistan became all the more a possibility. General Yusuf warned against any violation of the Pakistani border on a daily basis. However, the hold of his army on the tribal areas was nominal. In fact there was de-facto war there and also in Baluchistan. The chinese were also unhappy and consistently shot down every attempt by USA to gain access to the region where Bin Laden was supposedly hiding. They had more reasons to worry. The access to the Gwadar port they built was now cut off by Balochs.

General Musharraf felt that he was not yet ready to let go of what he thought was taken from him. Now he new how the two leaders whom he kicked out of the country felt. He wanted to reapture his position, now as a civilian political figure of Pakistan. Some part of the Pakistani diaspora supported him, and slowly and surely he was making his moves from his new home, half a world away.

In mid 2010, things are coming to a head. President Hagel wanted a solution fast. He need to have it done before he face election in 2012. the chinese wanted their port back, and General Yusuf wanted his place to be secure. The Islamists supporting the General wanted the green flag to fly in Srinagar, if not in the Red Fort. India took a lot of the effects, by means of increased terror attacks and infiltration. The agreement to send Indian troops to Afghanistan didn't help a bit either.

The heat was on..

To be continued.

Hope the background of the story is clear. Now we need people to fill in individual events.

Paging one and all who can write fiction. Please e-mail sign up for the joint project and back channel synchronization.

dileepks at gmail dot com

The Spy Story

Sergio Sanchez straightened up from his crouched position, examining the bunch of rotten grapes in his hand. "This is bad." he thought. Black Rot, the dreaded disease of grapes is a sure killer. He started to look around for more of the affected bunches. He got to alert his boss ASAP, so that the consultant guys can come in and do the needful. He will have a lot of work now, cutting off and disposing affected bunches and spraying medication etc.

Then he heard an engine running on the winding single lane road on the opposite side of the road. He immediately stopped his search and walked up and around the side to check it out. A black Escalade was driving up the road. Sergio took a pair of field glasses from his pocket and tried to see the plates. "This'un is new" he said to himself. It was his job to know all vehicles coming up that road, or at least, all those turned into the driveway of that big house. This job is way better than the old one, scoping out US boarder patrol at Calexico.

Sergio walked down the trail for around 100 feet and crouched behind a row of vines. From that point the front porch of the mansion is visible. The escalade turned into the long driveway and stopped in front of the house. Two south asian men got out and walked up to the front porch. "Doesn't look like relatives", Sergio muttered to himself. He took the cell phone from his pocket and started dialling. "Mr. Vyas, good mornin'" he begun.

Sergio Sanchez really loved working for this man. As luck have it, he met him when he was running his cover job as a handyman in San Diego. That was tough time, working odd jobs during the day and running people across the boarder at night. He was not sure how, but Mr. Mahendra Vyas seemed to specifically choose him from the bunch of illegal freehanders loitering in front of Home Depot. And it was equally surprising he offered him a job in a Napa Valley Vineyard. All he had to do was to keep tabs on the vehicles going into the house on the opposite side of the hill. Time again he was also tasked to check out various places in and around the area and report. He loved this job. It pays well and he no longer had to be scared of the law.

Sergio was expecting the usual "OK" as reply. But this time he was asked to meet Mr. Vyas at a mutually known place in the evening. It seems he has some work to do in the night. Sergio agreed and got back to his job of hunting Black Rot.

<==>

The night was clear and starlit. In contrast to the cities to the south, the sky in Napa was remarkably clear during the nights. The starlight was enough to move around in the night.

The Six foot two well built frame of Sergio Sanchez easily vaulted over the low row of bushes and gained the trail going uphill. This trail brought him on the easterly side of the small hill that house the group of mansions. This area was part of the residential area, and even though it was prime land for growing zinfandel, was left as it is, to be a nice backdrop for the mansions. there were a few trees and bush around, but was kept without clutter for the residents to easily take a stroll or ride.

It took around half an hour for Sergio to find a suitable tree. It should be tall enough, and should have a branch not too high above. And on top of all, it must have the proper view to the target. Finally he found one. He took a rope out of his backpack. Looping it across the branch starting at around 20 feet, he started climbing up. Upon reacing the branch, he settled down at the fork and started unpacking his backpack.

He took out what looked like a golf tee. He inverted the tee on the branch and using a small electric screwdriver, screwed it onto the branch. Then he took out an irregularly shaped object and screwed it onto the stem of the tee. Once in place, it looked like a bird's nest, snug on the branch. He then took out what looked like an iPod music player. He fumbled with some cables and finally was able to plug it into the "bird's nest". A faint glow came up on the iPod screen, and a faint image of the buildings in front appeared on the screen. Sergio adjusted the bird's nest to bring the proper building into view. His job done, he unplugged the iPod, packed his stuff and climbed down back from the tree. He sat down under the tree to take a brief rest, took out his phone and dialled.

<==>

In a downtown San Francisco apartment, Sanjeev Gupta was awake, browsing the net. Suddenly his cellphone rang, and the familiar number appeared on the display. He answered it and simply said "Yes". He listened for a moment, said "OK" and hung up.

He then brought up a new window on the PC. This appeared like a standard media player. He typed in a string that did not make any sense into the address window. After a minute or so, a window popped up with a few edit boxes. He typed in more strings and hit enter. Then images similar to what appeared on the iPod started showing up on the media player screen. He did a brief test on zoom and pan. Satisfied, he closed the window and sent of an SMS.

<==>

Sergio was glad to learn that he did a good job. He was also happy that his boss has entrusted him with this job. It was good feeling trustworthy. He stood up, put on his backpack and started back down the trail. Quarter way down, he was startled by a noise coming from further down the trail. He decided to take an alternate route back and cut across the bushes to catch another trail. This brought him closer to the mansion, and he ventured closer to the fence and take a look. He didn't see anything there, but an electronic eye inside did see HIM. Sergio turned around, and walked down the trail. He got onto the access road and started walking down towards his residence a quarter mile away on the other side.

He was startled to hear a car coming down the road. He didn't think much of it. Even if he did, there was nowhere to run anyway. The car came closer. Then in a short instant. It stopped right close to Sergio, the rear door slid open, a strong pair of arms pulled him in, and before he could do anything, he heard the click of a gun and the most feared phrase. "FBI, you are under arrest".

To be continued

Spy Story Continued

"Those goddarn b@$*@rd Indians!" gnarled agent Jeff Boger. He has watched the place for the presence of anyone remotely South Asian, but who knew those a$$40les would use a mexican, an illegal one to boot? But he was glad in a way. The poor b@$*@rd readily talked. He seemed to be a new recruit and not too loyal to his employer. He readily handed over the cell phone, iPod and other stuff. He also gave out the name of his handler. One Mahendra Vyas. Jeff knew most of the RAW agents operating in the area, but this one was new. Of course it would be an alias. He got one outgoing call and ont incoming SMS from his number on his cell phone. The iPod had only music files, and some erotic videos.

But what was the Mexican doing there in the night. His story is that he was asked to check out if any visitor is staying in the house. Jeff didn't quite believe it, but what else this illiterate Mexican is good for anyway?

Jeff started to complete his paperwork. He found that San Diego PD had a file on the Mexican, so he was handed over to the US Marshall's office for due processing. Finally he ended up with a cell phone, iPod and a phone number. The phone, it turned out, was from a prepaid mobile service that did not need identification, and was purchased by cash. The name Mahendra Vyas too didn't turn up anything worthwhile.

<==>

Sanjeev Gupta had guessed that Sergio was in trouble, but there was nothing he could do. He already was desperate to find out what is the General upto. He was briefed that he is upto something and his boss wanted him to be on top of that. The only problem is, the Americans are not all co-operating. Hell, not co-operating would be diplomatese. They are being outright hostile these days. Their argument is, the general is retired, he is nothing now, and he is not doing anything. All Sanjeev got to show now is the camera he got installed. He assumed Sergio didn't disclose it, because he is still able to access it over the cell network. But he had no way of even approaching the mansion, thanks to the Americans.

Sanjeev Gupta knew the general uses the web a lot. How he wished to get a peek on his PC. If the Americans were any helpful, he could have got gigabytes of data delivered to his desk, but now he is upto his own tricks. He took a deep breath, closed up his desk and prepared to leave for the day from his desk job. Before he shut down his PC, he just took a casual look around one of his favorite sites. The one run by a bunch of enthusiasts who call themselves Jingoes. A post in the forum caught his eye. "General Yusuf would read this and $hit in his pants". Someone wrote. He got an idea. He sent a brief e-mail to his friend in Australia who is an admin. Within hours the software configuration at a few servers at some unknown locations got modified, and a trap was set.

To be Continued

this is damm gud stuff

Spy Story: Cyberhunt

"BisonBoy e-mail me d_ragu@metamail.com" was the cryptic post made by user Dragu in the SuperHornet thread. BisonBoy frequented that thread, and that was the best place to grab his attention.The expectation didn't fail. Within an hour, Sanjeev got an e-mail from Rajeev Mallar.

Rajeev Mallar was a typical nut case, according to his family and community. He belonged to a wealthy respected Konkani family of Cochin. His father Sudhakar Mallar ran the biggest sanitaryware business in the city, and two brothers are heling their father running the business. But Rajeev, the youngest, was considered the black sheep of the family. He did neither try for higher education, nor joined the family business. Instead he dropped out at second year of his BSc Mathematics and became a full time amateur programmer. His involvement in busting a few high profile cybercrimes didn't really help his standing with the family, but when a multinational company hired him as project leader, even without formal qualifications, everyone was happy. Not many people knew that he turned out to be one of the foremost experts in computer security. Sanjeev met him in the forum, and this is not the first time they corresponded.

Within half an hour, a new sets of e-mail addresses were established and security keys exchanged, an extremely secure correspondence started betwen the two. Sanjeev e-mailed a big list of IP Addresses and access logs, and Rajeev went to work on the earnest. He took one of those "french leaves" and went home early that day.

The IP list and sever logs are carefully examined and the painstaking elimination process begun. It is not a simple task to trace an IP address, but Rajeev had a lot of custom tools he created to help automate a lot of the activities. Still the amount of work needed is phenomenal.As the day came to a close, he had figured out that none of the suspected IPs originate at the expected geographic location.

But of course, the target could have used an anonymiser proxy. There are proxy servers available located at a number of countries and regions, and a number of them are free, so anyone can use them. Tracing an IP Address beyond a proxy is practically impossible. His search has hit a brick wall. Drastic steps are needed. He sent another e-mail to Sanjeev, explaining a wild idea.

<==>

Edvin Mendez started sweating profusely. The Australian summer suddenly seemed blazing up. The task he was asked to pull off was tremendous. He knew Sanjeev Gupta personally. They had shared many a drink and many a stroll at Golden Gate Park. Even after his moving to Sidney, they used to catch up with each other whenever he visit San Francisco. However, this is the first time Sanjeev asked him for anything related to his RAW deal. Edvin was glad that he is in a position to help, but to be asked to shut down the whole website and make a new database seemed crazy. Sanjeev had to finally explain who the target was, and that information helped Edvin to get that last bit of determination.

He corresponded with his colleagues, the admins, all around the globe, and all of them went to work immediately. The databases are backed up and the scripts and widgets provided by Rajeev are integrated. The famous site went down without notice and when it came back, there was chaos. More than 20 thousand active members received shocking news of massive database corruption, needing sign up and verification of their account. Most cursed themselves and went about the business of signing up again and activating their accounts over e-mail. Only this time, the activation DID not have a code entry, but the user had to click a button. It was illegal, but in spy world, there is nothing that is illegal.

Within a couple of days, several gigabytes of data got accumulated from most of the users. Now the task of sifting through them began.After a couple more painstaking days, another list of IP Addresses, this time with extra information, went to Rajeev Mallar.

Finally he was able to locate a couple of IP Addresses. then with pleasure he saw the traceroute entry:

11 219 ms 217 ms 219 ms dist1-local03.napa.bellco.net [68.231.97.23]
12 219 ms 217 ms 217 ms adsl-38-234-85-254.dsl.napa.bellco.net [71.146.95.254]

He e-mailed Sanjeev, called his cell number, and hung up after three rings. It would be 2:00am Pacific Std Time now.

To be Continued

cyber espionage NICE!!! I wish i could write up stuff like this

Excellent Stuff....In synch with the New India .........

Spy Story: Cyberhunt

Bellco was a small time ISP of northern california, offering DSL services taking advantage of a federal law requiring telephone companies to provide DSL access openly to competitors. To avoid the logistics problems associated with sharing the same lines for voice with one provider and data with another provider, SBC, who owns the line system, outsourced the last mile operations to Blue Standard Inc., a Vietnamese owned subcontractor. The access co-location system was managed by them locally at the line aggregation centres spread across the region. Bellco has colocation of access at the main line aggregation center at downtown Napa. The non-descript building stood in a typical business zone.

Ivan Lam, the operations manager was among the racks when the phone rang. After the latest reorganization, he was manager, maintenance co-ordinator, technician and a lot other. He was not happy. He just had a couple of guys to help with maintenance, but they could only do low level work. He hated his phone ringing. It only brought trouble. "Oh $hit! It was that Bellco guys again", he thought. This time they got another guy talking. The name was not familiar. Those Indian names are crazy anyway. They had a router problem a few weeks ago, and it seems it crept up again. He hated those guys. Their equipment sucked, but he coul'nt find a good reason to kick them out of his centre. The better part is, they pay!

The guy on phone reported a problem with their DSLAM. Some customers are loosing connection randomly it seems. They would be bringing up the Juniper guys to look at the DSLAM. "You got any slots before noon tomorrow?". Ivan agreed to give them a slot next day 10:30 for half an hour. It seems they may need to swap out a port module. Shouldn't take too much time. That is, assuming they don't need software upgrade. Anyway, half an hour is all they are going to get, because the whole SBC crowd is going to be here at 11.

The next day, sharply at 10:30, the Bellco team of two showed up. Ivan has never met the Bellco guy for sure. The Juniper guy's face looked familiar, but Ivan see a lot of service people everyday. He didn't really care. All he wanted was to remind them to finish the job in half an hour and get the hell out of there. He took them to the Bellco rack, and left. The guys hooked up a console cable and started working fecerishly.

Within 20 minutes, instead of a new Port module, a new software was loaded on the DSLAM/Switch, with the exact datestamp and version id as the previous one. But an alert user would have figured out that the hash signature is different. But no one really looks at them anyway.

From that point on, a copy of whatever the good general sent or received over the internet went to a server somewhere out there on the web. Sanjeev Gupta now have the access he needed. But he still would have to crack the encryption system used by the General.

End Cyberhunt

It is good and different - but when do we see some other type of military action like covert strikes and low key special ops

Shankar ,
Where will you be posting your scenarios ?

I would love to read a new scenario by shankar or one co-written by shankar and dileep

That would be when you write one

My original post seems to be lost with admin. My proposal was to co ordinate back channel to sync plot points and individuals to write parts of the story. That way we will have a coherent storyline, and maybe even good enough to publish as a book.

I am not a good writer, and I lack domain knowledge with military stuff. So, without contribution from you Shankarji, and gurus like Singha, Daulat, YIP etc, this venture will fail. I solicited e-mails and till now, NOT ONE e-mail was received.

I have figured out a plot line that I as a reader might "tolerate", and I am open to any alternate plots too. My interest here is to have a coherent storyline that does justice to the keywords of the title, ie "Possible", "Indian" and "Military".

The offer to co-author would be open till either I myself finish all the parts, or I abandon the project out of boredom/lack of time or the admin overlords kicks it into dustbin.

E-Mail me: dileepks@gmail.com

dont do that -it is a diferent approach and shall definitely join in your storyline as some opening appears .If you try to synchronise back channel the story looses the charm .You have to just give a lead like a miltary situation developing and then i am sure all of us will contribute to make your story as interesting as possible each of us doing our bit . This story to will become a BR story nothing mine or yours and that way it will sparkle .CARRY ON .this till date has been the most popular thread and lets keep it that way.

shankar will u not be completing the afrian senario.Perhaps as many have suggested before how about starting a new tread and continuing from where u left of there

African war is over and indians have come back home -but for them is not alife of comfort and ease because a new kind of situation was developing in the northern austarlia - indonessian border region . And naturally in times crisis we have to help ut the australian forces in meeting the possible invasion of northern teritories by indonessian irregulars . few days wait please

Spy Story: Vices and Virtues

Agent Jeff Boger could not relax, even after three Sam Adams. That is one more than his usual fare at this joint. He didn't want those dumbass SFPD or CHP to pull him over and make an FBI Vs Local police scandal, so he got to mind what he have. But the issue of the Indian handler of the Mexican was troubling him. It is his job to keep tabs on them, and he don't know who the hell was that. He thought his briefings contained files every Indian who is even remotely related to that bunch of nerds called RAW.He need to figure it out who set the Mexican up and figure out his next move. All he got is a phone and an untraceable cell number. It has been a couple of weeks, and he had not made any headway yet.

But he have worked with worse. He made a mental "I know that I can do it" routine, paid the tab and started to leave. He hated going back to his home. After his last GF broke up, he was not in any kind of relationship. He didn't have time, and if he had, Karen wouldn't have left him. He got into his car. Hesitated for a moment and then dialled a number that is used by guys in his situation. He then pulled out, merged into the traffic and vanished into the evening.

<==>

In another part of the city, Sanjeev Gupta was also under a similar predicament. He finally got information about Sergio Sanchez. He was in the San Diego county jail. An Indian lawyer who introduced himself belonging to the Spanish American Welfare League visited Sergio in the Jail and had a chat. The Jail authorities did not know Sergio was involved in a spy case in Napa, so they didn't really care who visited him. That evening Sanjeev got a complete account of what happened that night when Sergio was captured. Now, that is troubling information. He was under the impression that the secret service is guarding the General. How the hell FBI came into the picture, and how the hell they came out in the middle of the night to get Sergio. The Secret Service's style is always defensive. They wouldn't allow you to show your head anywhere near their quarry, but they wouldn't come at you beyone the perimeter they set. Now, if FBI is involved and they came after you outside, that means the General is not sitting idle there and the Americans know about it. Sanjeev knew that the whole $hitpot of information would be there with the agent who is responsible. He wanted to know who it is, and try to spook him.

And the night closed in on the city by the bay, with two men who wanted to know who the other was. A strong breeze from the ocean came over the hills and spread over to the east bay. The lights on the Golden gate bridge made a garland in the darkness. The night life of San Francisco began. In the night, Virtues slept and Vices started their prowl.

To be continued

Spy Story: Vices and Virtues

The USA is a crazy country when it comes to laws and liability. This is the country where someone buys hot coffee, drives off with it, spills it on the lap, gets scalded and then sues the fastfood company for millions. This is also the country where a law enforcement officer forgetting to read the rights of the suspect voiding an otherwise strong case. On one side you have history of people spending years in prison, or even executed, and then proved innocent by DNA tests. On the other side confirmed criminals getting away because of silly legal lapse, or even because they are celebrities.

Sanjeev Gupta was thinking again about Sergio and his arrest. He wondered if the FBI guys did the paperwork properly. He immediately made a phone call to Los Angeles.

That day, the San Diego County District Attorney's office got a visitor. It was the same Lawyer who met Sergio and now he claimed to represent Sergio on behalf of the Spanish American Welfare League. The DA informed him that Sergio is held on felony assault and battery charges in the local jurisdiction, and he can be released if the bail is paid. But the lawyer seemed to be not too keen on that. What he wanted to know is how Sergio was arrested. He didn't make it a secret that what he really wanted to know is whether his "Miranda Rights", as the rights read out by the arresting officer is known, were served correctly. The DA confirmed that the arrest was recorded by sheriff Gonzales of Napa county, and he was delevered to San Diego county by the US Marshall's office at San Francisco. The lawyer thanked the DA and left. Napa is a long way away. He will have to catch a flight the next day.

The Sheriff's office at Napa was not enthusiastic at all, but with a lawyer, you never show that. It took a lot of time to get the records, but the lawyer waited patiently.

"Yes, the guy was arrested here by Deputy Linh, the clerk said. "No, Deputy Linh is not available here right now" She answered with indifference. The meeting being over, the lawyer left. But even before he walked into the corridor, he took his phone and called the public information line of the Sheriff's office. Within minutes, he got the contact information for Deputy David Linh and also an appointment to meet him next day. He left the place and prepared for a nice evening at beautiful Napa, courtesy of Government of India, though the payment comes under different heads. He synced up with Sanjeev. Sanjeev politely declined his invitation to drive up to Napa. He had a lot of things to do.

Deputy David Linh was a pleasant easygoing guy. He had no clue about what was the nature of the case he handled. He was really confused why this lawyer want to specifically know the circumstances of this arrest. But being a law enforcement officer, he was supposed to either give correct information, or do not disclose what is not required. In fact he was not aware of the nature how Sergio ended up with the FBI guys. He also didn't know it involved international spying. Once the lawyer mentioned Miranda Rights violation, he got scared. He was not sure if the FBI guys were supposed to do that, or him, as the arresting officer. He then did what he could think of doing that moment.

Within half an hour, Sanjeev Gupta got all the information about Jeff Boger and his friends. That enabled him to get through the burocracy of his department and obtain access to the files on Boger. It contained a lot of information, including his frequenting the "HayBarn", or even his noctrunal adventures. Finally Sanjeev is in business.

In a weeks time Jeff Boger met a smart sexy woman by name Elina Perez at the HayBarn. She was with a man with a number of tattoos and piercings, but Jeff noticed that her hazel eyes kept coming back to him. She was in a cutoff jeans and tank tops that barely contained herself, and he could see that she herself had piercings at locations not normally visible. He liked plump women with piercings. He smiled and nodded an acknowledgement to her glance.

Next day, she was alone there, and that didn't look accidental. The chemistry seemed to be good, and the conversation, pleasant. She worked as a hairdresser and masseuse at the Bear Creek spa at Half Moon bay, and lived alone at San Mateo.

And at least she proved to be a good masseuse soon after.

To be continued

Oh my God! Dileep, you should quit whatever you do for a day job and start writing novels for a living. You have talent by the truckload!

Actually, I had written some more on the vices and virtues chapter, but that can appear only in the print edition . Can't post here.

Spy Story: Vices and Virtues

Elina Perez was born in the suburbs of Tijuana, Mexico. Her father Jose Perez was murdered in a gang violence when she was only ten. Jose, despite being a good father who took care of the family, was involved in the drug trade. When he was alive, Maria, her mother, and Alberto, her younger brother had a good life compared to the local living standards. After his death, Maria had to work as a carrier of the stuff, and even little Elina had to pitch in sometimes. Their hope was with Alberto. They wanted him to study well, and later migrate to the USA, and settle down there. Maria and Elina did everything to take good care of Alberto,but fate had other intentions.

When Elina was eighteen and Alberto, sixteen, he started to get involved in drugs himself. Maria and Elina did everything they could, but the pull of easy money and use of drugs was too strong for the young man. Alberto stopped coming home, and started living with his buddies of the drug racket. The last thing they heard of him was when the police busted their operation, and arrested everyone. Maria who already suffered from heart disease, couldn't take it well, and she died of heart attack, leaving the pretty young Elina to fend for herself.

Some known member of the drug racket convinced Elina to be involved in a trade better than drugs. That is herself. That brought her closer to a gang that took people across the border to USA. And one night, stuffed behind the rear seat of a car, she arrived in San Diego. She was barely twenty, and the American dream gleamed in her hazel eyes. She got employment in a massage centre, that employed women like her. For the uneducated girl, with practically no english capability, that was the best the place had to offer. The massage centres, though under different ownerships, rotated the girls quite often, so Elina moved around Southern California quite a bit.

Her life turned around when she met a man who ran an underground business of selling fake green cards in Los Angeles. She was working at a place in downtown that time, and his place was close by. They met at a local bar often, and within a short while, they were going steady. Elina dropped out of the massage trade and got trained as a hairdresser instead. Life was looking good for poor Elina, but it took only six months to see the real colours of the man she was with. He was a heavy drinker, and started physically abusing Elina a lot. She took it for a while, but finally one day in the deep of night, hit him back badly on the back of the head and left him unconscious on the floor. She moved into a friend's place that night. Scared to death for the revenge of the man, she took a train out to San Jose the next morning. With her two trades in demand, she had no difficulty fitting in.

There she met a liquor store owner of Indian origin. The store was close to the apartment complex, and she used to use the laundromat next door. While the laundry is being done, she used to drop into the store and buy some chips or hot dogs and strike up a conversation. She found a good listener and a sympathizer in the man in his fourties. For the first time in her life, she met someone who did not think of using her trades. She talked about her life, the difficulties she faced, the everyday problems she face. He listened with empathy. They became good friends.

One day the liquor store owner told Elina that he got a job opportunity for her which is better than she is doing now. On his directions, she drove over to San Francisco, and met this energetic young man introduced himself as Mahendra Vyas. He was a likeable personality, and the liquor store owner had told her that she can trust Mahendra like himself. The job offer he had was strange. She was to work as a hairdresser at a spa in Half Moon bay as a regular job. She also would need to work with people suggested by him. In short, she is being asked to be a spy. For the job, she would get the regular wafes from the spa, and also a salary in cash from him, and the sum was good enough for her to accept immediately. She moved into a cheap apartment in San Mateo, and started her work.

Elina had many advantages of being a spy. She was smart, sexy and very attractive. She knew her trade well, and had very satisfied customers. Though she was very intelligent, she had the remarkable ability to behave dumb, which is very much needed for her trade.

And that, on top of all, became the achilles heel for Jeff Boger.

To be continued

PAGING SINGHA!! PAGING SINGHA!!!

e-mail me dileepks@gmail.com

Spy Story: Vices and Virtues

It is not really possible to describe how exactly Elina Perez performed in her assignment. It would suffice to say that she was remarkably successful, and was able to provide Sanjeev Gupta with a lot of information on Jeff's current assignments, which included dealing with the General. But the information mainly dealt with the visitors he has and the activities around the house. That did not make much progress with Sanjeev's investigation. However, he got information on a couple of regular visitors who, according to Boger, were South Asian. That obviously meant Pakistanis. As a matter of routine, he decided to tag them a run a trail. That was given to one of his deputies.

After a couple of months, the utility of Elina's relationship with Jeff Boger hit the diminishing returns. USing her feminine knack to find fault, she craftily broke up with him, and resumed her regular day job.

Spy Story: Vices and Virtues Concludes.

Spy Story: Tower of Arabs

Sandhya Patel was busy at the first class lounge of Emirates Airlines at San Francisco International Airport. Check in was in progress for the San Francisco-Dubai non stop flight that started an year ago. The lounge still retained the freshness of a recently opened facility. A few passengers are already there, comfortable in the plush sofas and chairs with Italian leather. Most were business men, with the exception of one hollywood starlet. Plates of hors d'oeuvres prepared by the Emirates signature chef Tony Castelli were laid out is a very pleasing fashion, and some of the passengers were paying due attention to the creations of the world reknowned chef.

A new passenger came in, with the assured steps and the precision gait of a professional soldier. Sandhya turned to him, greeted with the pleasantest manner.Then she felt that the face looks familiar. Maybe a frequent flier, she thought. The tickets were promptly handed over to her. Then she realized who it was. Almost anyone who followed world news in the early years of the century would recognize the name. A quick smile of recognition passed through her face, and the General nodded an acknowledgement.

With the check in formalities over, and the bellboy was sent with the luggage tags, the General settled down into one of the chairs. He looked a little bit tense, and he did not consider the inviting fare of snacks. Sandhya exited the room through the service door behind her desk, moved a few feet down the corridor and dialled a number.

"Hey Sanjeev, guess who is flying to Dubai today?", and after a couple of wrong guesses and teases, she gave out the name. "Your friend His Mushness himself!"

Sanjeev was surprised. How come he didn't know that? With all the snooping he does!!

He thanked his friend on the phone, hung up and called another one half the world away.

To be continued

Spy Story: Tower of Arabs

In 1994 Dubai began construction of what they called the first "Seven Star Hotel" in the world. It was built on an artificial island 280 metres away from the beach in the gulf. It was built to resemble the sail of a Dhow boat. On top of the hotel; on one side is a large helipad, and extending from the other side of the hotel over the ocean is a restaurant called Al Muntaha (Arabic meaning Highest or Ultimate) supported by cantilever. A remarkable element of its architecture is the outer beachward wall of the atrium, which is made of a woven, Teflon-coated fiberglass cloth.

It was named Burj Al-Arab (Tower of Arabs) and opened its doors in 1999 for business. It immediately became a huge attraction. It is a suite hotel, comprising of 202 duplex suites. It became the host to a huge number of world leaders and celebrities thereafter.

The General was very happy that a helicopter ride was arranged for him by his hosts, to land directly on top of the Burj. He was received by an aide of the host and escorted to the waiting chopper. After landing on the helipad that is on top of the Burj, he was escorted to his suite.

The General was rather nervous. He was going to meet the very person who tried to kill him, and later got deposed and exiled by him. He tried to convince himself that in his new domain of politics, there are no permanent friends or enemies. The need of the day is for the erstwile sworn enemies to work together for a common goal. Hell, the two major political parties are now working together, and he got to join in as the third one to ensure his place.

The high level summit meeting between the General, the plump bald man from Punjab and the slim fair lady from Sind happened after months of negotiations and planning by the facilitators, mainly rich businessmen of Pakistani origin. They only one common goal, that is to get rid of General Yusuf from power. For almost the entire history of Pakistan before 2008, the country is run by the interests of the rich businessmen, including those in the army. Now General Yusuf has broken out of it, and brought an alignment with the radical Islam. The rich no longer could hog everything in Pakistan. And that made a number of enemies for Gen Yusuf. And obviously brought a number of people united against him, which was not even dreamed of before that.

The meeting happened under closed doors, even without any aides present. The room was thouroughly sanitized for evesdropping devices. No one will ever know what transpired there, ever.

The only fact the snoopers could figure out was that the three persons who ruled Pakistan earlier had an important meeting.

To be continued

Spy Story: Tower of Arabs

Raja Muhammad Zafar-ul-Haq was the chairman of Pakistan Muslim League for a long time. He was considered a coattail hanger of Nawaz Sharif. Born in Rawalpindi in 1935, he became a very successful lawyer before getting close to Gen Zia-ul-haq. He was appointed a federal minister from 1981-85. In 1985, he lost the election to the national assembly, but was made ambassador to Egypt, and later an advisor to the dictator. He came into limelight when Nawas Sharif made him Federal Minister of Religious Affairs and Minorities. After Nawas Sharif was kicked out of the country by Musharraf, Zafar-ul-Haq became the local leader and spokesperson for the PML(N) party.

Zafar-ul-Haq was exiled by General Yusuf as part of his purge operations removing all major political figures in Pakistan. He found a safe haven in Dubai, where his extended family had business operations. From there, he started to work with the other exiled politicians and Pakistani businessmen to bring the various interests together to fight back General Yusuf's government in Pakistan.

Even though he faithfully followed the leader, and now is the chairman of the party, which is the de-jure No 2 position, Zafar-ul-Haq knew that he will be brushed aside for Shahbaz Sharif, the brother of Nawas. The coup by General Yusuf came as kind of a blessing in disguise. If Zafar can pull of a good deal, that will ensure a good position for himself. He being much older than Nawas and Shahbaz, he wanted a good position while they are around. He didn't want to whither away, while the brothers ran the show. With his natural instincts and insights as a lawyer, he began stitching together an alliance that looked impossible initially. He need to bring together two political parties who fought each other bitterly for a long time, and a dictator who kicked the leaders out of the country. But in the face of a common enemy and also a fatal threat to their own aspirations, the parties involved started to come together.

The meeting at the Burj Al-Arab was the culmination of Zafar-ul-Haq's efforts. Most dificult was to get General Musharraf over from USA. He was not at full liberty to travel, and it took some time for him to work with the US State department to get the advance parol and other paperwork. The othet two didn't have much problems. They used to visit Dubai quite often and had business interests in the city.

After all his efforts, Nawaz Sharif managed to piss off his trusted deputy yet again. He was happy about the outcome of the meeting, but he had no intention to share it with Zafar. All he said was. "Pervez said he will get Mahmud removed in a military action". All Zafar could gather from his leader after that was that Nawaz seemed to believe Musharraf's plan, whatever that was.

Nawas should know!. Long time ago, he worked closely with the General, brought him up, and suffered the brunt of the ex-commando's capabilities.

He definitely knew!
Tower of Arabs concludes.

Last call to Singha to join the project. It is time to write a thriller part that only you can do justice to. If you don't contact me in 24 hours, be prepared to face the consequences, that would be, to read the crap I am going to write.

e-mail me dileepks@gmail.com

What is Caesar's

India's involvement in Afghanistan was a little bit controversial from the beginning. After the fall of Taliban, India was one of the first countries to render help to the nation. President Karsai visited India soon after he came into power, and India has promised to help out to rebuild the troubled nation. Even a couple of Air India Airbuses were donated to kickstart the Afghan national airline, Ariana.

As a strategic move, to reduce landlocked Afghanistan's dependence on Pakistan for sea access, India offered to build a highway between the town of Delaram on the Kandahar-Herat highway to the city of Zaranj near the Afghan-Iran border. This will provide sea access to the south and southwest parts of Afghanistan, which had the only sea access over the khyber pass and through Pakistan. This will also increase the trade opportunities to India. On top of all, India would get a strategic foothold on the other side of Pakistan. Pakistan, which enjoyed monopoly over the sea access, had abused its position terribly. Containers destined for Afghanistan were delebrately delayed in the name of customs clearance, and the merchandise were pilfered and sold openly in the markets of Peshawar. Even the matrerial for US military didn't escape the abuse. It was also reported that 21 tonnes of newly minted Afghani coins were also stolen. President Karzai has raised the issue with then President Musharraf, but the situation did not improve much.

The Border Roads Organization, the para miliraty organization that builds and maintains the roads in the border regions, were tasked to build the 280 km long road. Iran will build the road between the port of Chabahar and the border crossing near Zaranj. Since Pakistan would not allow the passage of materials, a lot of equipment and materials were either airlifted or trasnported through Iran over land. The Indian engineers and workmen fought the elements of the desert and inched through progress, bringing hope to the troubled nation that is Afghanistan.

But not everyone were happy about it. The remnants of Taliban, with support of Pakistan, was hostile about the project right from the beginning. things took a bad turn when an Indian staff of BRO was abducted and later murdered without even asking ransom. Attacks and ambushes became routine, and India had no other way than to deploy forces to protect the road building crew. In 2006, the Indo Tibetan Border Police units were started deploying in Afghanistan, to protect the road building. As the work progressed, the deployment also had to be increased, because the responsibility to protect and police the roads that are built was also with India. Obviously Afghanistan did not have the forces necessary for that purpose.

Then everything changed with the change of guard in Pakistan. General Yusuf was openly hostile to both Afghanistan and Pakistan. He officially closed all transit to Afghanistan through Pakistan. That action didn not matter much, because the khyber pass is now controlled by the tribal warlords and is no longer a feasible commercial route. That brought tremendous pressure on the Delaram-Zaranj highway, and that became the lifeline of the country. That also meant the Taliban found it to be a lucrative target for ambush and attacks.

In 2009, India also took up developing the Kandahar-Herat and Herat-Chaghcharan roads into modern expressways. There was also plans to build the road from Kandahar to the border with Pakistan at Chaman, to join a highway to Quetta when there is a friendly regime in Balochistan. These actions really annoyed General Yusuf, but he has already got entangled in the wars at Balochistan and Waziristan. The remnants of Taliban were still strong, and as the American forces were re deployed into northern Afghanistan, the Taliban started moving southward to the less defended region.

Now India got into a tight spot. President Hagel of USA made it clear that if India want to participate in the economy of Afghanistan, she also should take care of the security situation. He in fact advised India to assume security responsibilities of the south and southwestern areas. He wanted concentrate in the north, get OBL and get out. Then he quoted Bible, Mark 12:17, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."

And after long deleberations and among strong opposition and protests of the Left, the soft spoken Prime Minister of India set his foot down, and the first deployment of Indian Armed forces landed at the newly constructed Delaram Base.

Then the cat and mouse game and fighting with one hand tied in the back began.

To be continued

Dileep you should seriously consider of writing some novel.
I am sure booker prize will not too far from you.

BORDER ROADS WORKS CAMP NO 24 B - 24 KMS FROM KANDAHAR
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Ranjit kadam looked at the just finished strip of black toppped 4 lane highway streching into the distance and then abruptly termianting int he dusty dunes . He could see the motely group of contarctors labours working tirelessly to make an expressway in midst of nowhere to make the dream of modern democratic afganistan become a reality .

The heat was brutally oppressive and the he could see the dried stain of salty sweat on the back of all the workers mostly from punjab and peshwar who have joined the road construction gang for a few hundred rupees more than what they could possible earn back home . They were all veterns of middle east and have worked mostly in the huge construction sites of oman and dubai .The weak have been ruthlessly sorted out as mre than 90 percent of the raw recriuts cannot stand the rigours of dessert road making and few develop the art of surviving the harsh landscape and demands of their work .

But none of them where really prepared for what is to come in next few minutes . The only security the camp had was a lone ak-46 wielding sentry
standing in front of the cash office to deter any impromptu looting by the rough working group . He was a CRPF jawan as bored with his duty as the workers before him were making the seemingly endless road .

The toyota pick could be seen comming up fast over the just completed strech of road yet to be opened to public but in these parts fo afganstan those nicities mean very little thought ranjit as he watched the dusty pick up come to astop right in front of his office . Six strapping afgans jumped out of the toyota even before the vehicle has come to acomplete stop and rushed into his office the aks at high port . The crpf jawan acted quickly and managed to lower the gun and loose of a few rounds of quickly aimed shots before the intruders cut him down with a full volley of thier own .Even before the jawans twitching body became still they shot open the strong box containing the site money and grabbed whatever they could including the small tv ,a colour computer monitor the water cooled and then turned thier attention on the workers in the distance who have stopped work and rushing down the unfinished piece of asphalt towards the camp . there were almost 50 strong and mad workers in that group and they were not in good mood.

The leader of the intruder group quitely ordered his men in pasthu and they went prone in classic military densive strike position as each cocked thier kalishnikovs for action and then aimed deliberately for killing chest shots . The cracker like burst of aks on full auto soon filled the air and a wave of incomming road working gang went down splashing madly on thier own blood . The rest stood still unable to comprehend what is happening and wanted to break off run but the taliban will not give him that chance the second volley of automatic fire rang out and then the third .No more was required but still the talibans in thier black turban went to each dead body and made sure no one will talk with a clean shot thru the temple .

It was a good hunt according to talban commander for the border road group it was the biggest calamity that can fall on them for trying to improve the lots of people who they thought are thier friends . The concept changed quickly but with a terrible price . As the sole surviving clerk radioed for help before he too was discovered and his head hacked off with a razor edged u shaped sword ,a signature weapon of the talibans.

Dileep,

Splendid work.

I Enjoyed this part. U got the touch.

"Look grandad, I just killed a SU-30MKI" He said to Grand dad. "Really? On F-16?"

"No, on the raptor". The Grand dad seemed a little less enthusiastic. His country half a world away is still flying F-16s and there is no chance for the morons who lead them to get something like the F-22 Raptor. Let them wait till their new masters build a copy. He thought.

Dileep good show.. I have got long way to go to get to the scenarios... keep it up.. i hope i would have time to read from the begining.