Fenix
Page 38
The doors to the room opened and Haider looked up from his seat behind the plain desk. He saw some faces he had now gotten used to seeing daily. He also saw one face that he had not seen in person. But he knew who this new person was.
“I believe you know who I am?” Ravoof asked as he took the seat opposite from Haider. Colonel Ansari continued to stand behind Ravoof, but crossed his arms. Haider leaned back in his chair and tried to cross his arms, but was prevented from doing so by the shackles holding him down.
“Dr. Ravoof,” Haider said calmly. “A pleasure to meet you, even under these circumstances. I would shake your hand, but,” he pulled his arms up to show Ravoof his shackles. “What brings you to the little cell that Colonel Ansari here and his RAW colleagues have so generously arranged for me?”
Ravoof stared Haider in the eyes and showed no emotion. Here was the man responsible for one-hundred-fifteen million deaths in the Indian subcontinent. The vast majority of them civilians. And a good percentage of that number being Pakistani civilians. And yet this man continued to sit here calmly awaiting his impending trial as though it were an inevitable nuisance. Was it because he hoped to reach the land promised to those who waged jihad in the name of Allah? Or was it some level of psychopathy that a normal, rational man like Ravoof could never hope to understand?
“Why did you do it?” Ravoof said finally. “All these millions of dead people on both sides. Your nation destroyed to its very foundation. And for what?”
Haider’s smile disappeared. He looked Ravoof in the eyes: “because it was our job.”
“You job?” Ravoof shook his head in disbelief. “What the hell are you talking about? Murdering so many innocent people was your job? Your mandate?”
“Yes it was,” Haider added. “I had been tasked by my nation to bring yours to its knees. And while I admit the cost on our side proved to be a lot higher than what we bargained for in our planning, it did achieve its core objective. Your nation has been brought to its knees to a point now that the Chinese can just step in and finish the job.”
Ansari put his arms on the desk and leaned forward: “you lost your entire nation to try to achieve this objective! You failed, Haider. It is that simple.”
“I don’t see it that way at all.” Haider responded and then leaned back in his seat. “Let’s just agree to disagree.”
Ravoof got up from his seat.
“The psychologists are correct,” Ravoof said to Ansari. “He is quite clearly a psychopath beyond redemption.” He then turned to Haider: “enjoy your trial.”
“You hang me,” Haider said calmly, “and you will only make me a martyr for my people. The nation of Pakistan will rise again. Like the mythical phoenix. This isn’t over.”
“Maybe,” Ansari nodded. “But it is certainly over for you.”
“You know,” Haider said as Ravoof was about to walk out of the door, “there was only one thing that went wrong in our plans, now that I think about it.”
“And what was that?” Ravoof asked, turning around.
Haider sighed and looked Ravoof in the eye: “you people weren’t supposed to respond.”
***
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr. Vivek Ahuja is the author of several historical articles on the Indo-China border and is contributor to Force Magazine in India. He has written extensively about the historical underpinnings of the Sino-Indian border dispute, the Sino-Indian border war of 1962 and its impact on India and China. He is also author of technical articles on the mathematical modeling and simulations of combat systems, land-warfare and wartime logistics.
He received his Doctorate from Auburn University in Aerospace Engineering and currently resides in Austin, Texas in the USA.