Quantam Siege

Brijesh Singh

Description

This is the endgame. The terror group Lashkar has directly threatened the prime minister of India with 'never before' consequences, if referendum is not declared in Kashmir immediately. The UN Security Council has called for an emergency session scheduled to meet within two days to discuss the Kashmir crisis. Rudra Pratap Singh and his team at the Anti-Terror Cell face their toughest challenge yet. Millions of innocent lives are at stake while India readies itself for a war, the terrorists' threat is about to actualize, and time is running out. Will they be able to neutralize the threat, trace the perpetrators and avert a war? Set in the heart of a metropolis, this diabolical thriller will consume you in its labyrinthine madness.

Informations

• Publié par: Penguin Books Ltd
• Date de parution: 15 juin 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9789351186984
• Langue: English

Extrait

BRIJESH SINGH


Quantum Seige



Contents

About the Author
Something in the Air
Call from Black Hole
Schrödinger’s Cat
The Roll of Dice
Help from Hexagram
Mole in the Hole
Doctor, Doctor
Nowhere to Go
Touch Me Not
The Blue Djinn
Wink Murder
Apocalypse Awaits
Acknowledgements
Follow Penguin
Copyright



PENGUIN BOOKS AND BLUE SALT
QUANTUM SEIGE
Brijesh Singh is an IPS officer, currently serving in Mumbai. An engineer, he also holds master’s degrees in psychology and public administration. Deeply interested in Indology and philosophy, and extremely passionate about computers, he holds technology patents too. He indulges in photography, classical music and poetry. He has two wonderful daughters, Pritha and Arya; his wife, Anjali, has been his greatest strength.



1
Something in the Air

It all began with the defection of Iranian General Kemal Shahbazi. On a cold night in January 2007, dressed as the assistant to a truck driver, he slipped into Turkey at the Gurbulak crossing from Bazargan in Iran. For a man of his station, it was a class act. He felt uncomfortable in the dirty clothes he was wearing and the cheap cigarettes he kept smoking as part of his disguise. It further increased his distaste for the state of things. He was convincing enough and the border guards didn’t find anything amiss.
The CIA had planned his defection for months. Ten members of his family had already left Tehran, ostensibly for a vacation. Bahram Farrahi, a ‘human rights activist’, had played a substantial role in the operation. From Germany, he coordinated the defection, arranging for separate entry of the general and his wife into Turkey. He executed the plan flawlessly. The CIA was pleased with their asset.
A liberal, Shahbazi fell out with the more fundamentalist elements in the new government at Tehran elected in 2005. He had risen to become a deputy minister in the earlier regime. Here, his future looked bleak. The West had seen him squirming, and opportunity came knocking, at the right time. He was bitter and hurt and his pride mangled.
Once he had crossed the border into Turkey, he continued travelling through the towns of Karakose, Erzurum and Erzincan by the E88 highway till he reached the province of Sivas. It was almost dinner time and he had been travelling continuously for 750 kilometres. He was hungry, yet not exhausted, when he finally reached the Pasabey Hotel near the railway station.
Once safely in Turkey, he was quickly moved to a new destination and given a new identity. For Iran, he had disappeared into thin air. Turkey was in a tizzy over the episode. They were upset that whosoever had executed this operation was probably an ally, and yet had failed to take them into confidence. Iran retaliated by seizing fifteen British soldiers whom they wanted to trade for the defector. It was too late.
Shahbazi proved to be a goldmine of information, even beyond the expectations of his handlers. His varied experience as head of Revolutionary Guards in Lebanon in his early thirties; as head of Iranian Military Intelligence in the 1990s and his close ties with the Hezbollah, proved to be a treasure trove that the West hadn’t even dreamt of.
He was debriefed extensively by various agencies; he made them all happy with first-hand accounts of top-secret missions, prospective plans, stages of development and deployment of various weapons, and location of strategic assets. The Russians and Chinese had got wind of the treachery of this Iranian general; they were on his lookout too. The Americans moved him out of Turkey and then from one US city to another, from Texas to California, and Denver to Detroit.
Today, he and his family lead a luxurious life reaping the fruits of his apostasy.
february 2007, london
A top Syrian official has arrived at a hotel in London, booking it under an alias. Mossad has detected the online booking and has decoded the alias. It has sent hard-core men from the Kidon (assassination) and Nege v (break-in) divisions. A separate team has been deputed to track him from Heathrow Airport.
He is identified immediately on arrival and trailed by the Kidon. Meanwhile, the Negev men enter his room when he goes shopping and find his laptop on. They install a monitoring software on it which relays information to obscure servers maintained by Mossad. The contents of his hard disk get uploaded and every email, message and VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) communication is copied and stored. A team of analysts and cyber-forensic experts are constantly decoding the stream of information pouring in.
The material from the laptop includes several photographs, blueprints and names. There are a lot of Iranian and North Korean references in them along with photographs of an eminent Pyongyang arms expert.
wednesday, 7 march 2007, tel aviv
The prime minister of Israel, Baden Menahem, has just returned from Palmachim Air Force station. He was there to witness the trials of the Eltan-Heron super-drone. After reading an Intelligence report, he has cut short his programme. He has hurriedly summoned the chiefs of Army, Air Force and Mossad at his residence.
The look on his face tells it all. He informs them that Iran, Syria and North Korea have formed an evil nexus. Something very sinister has been cooking. It is an existential crisis for the country—they have to act decisively and fast.
The prime minister swears them to secrecy; no one ever comes to know what transpires among them.
july 2007
There is a suspicious explosion at a Syrian arms depot, killing seventeen Syrians and eight Iranians. Jane’s Defence Weekly reports that the explosion happened when Syrian Army personnel were trying to fit a Scud missile with a chemical weapon warhead. There is an indication of a link to Pyongyang, North Korea. The Mossad chief is again summoned by Prime Minister Menahem. It’s time for action.
friday, 17 august 2007
It is a pitch-dark night. Five Israeli helicopters are flying low over the Euphrates River, deep into Syrian territory. The normally azure waters are looking like black tar, but for the ripples caused by the rotor blades. The choppers ascend a little while crossing the suspension bridge across the river. Within fifteen minutes, they are in the desert, now flying very low. They hover over the sand at a few hundred metres from the Syrian Al-Kibar military installation. Men slither down ropes hurriedly. They are followed by equipment, which is dropped with extreme care. They swiftly move towards the large concrete building situated in the midst of nowhere.
As they are taking samples of the sand, a convoy of Syrian military patrol is seen approaching, firing warning shots. The operation is quickly aborted; the big birds quickly haul the personnel and equipment to fly away at great speed.
wednesday, 5 september 2007 (israeli date,
elul 22)
Shortly before 11 p.m., all ten of the F-15 pilots in the squadron at the Ramat David Air Base in Israel are preparing for an emergency exercise. The orders seem routine, they fly north-westwards over Yagur, Nesher and the port city of Haifa, heading for the Mediterranean Sea towards Cyprus. Midway, three of the ‘Raam’ (thunder) F-15s get orders to turn back. Seven of them suddenly change direction and head east–north-eastwards into the Syrian borders. An ELINT aircraft has joined them. They fly very low to avoid detection, manoeuvring in a right echelon formation. Flying for more than twenty minutes, they have avoided detection by Syrian radars using a combination of terrain-masking and Advanced Airborne Network Attack Systems.
The Syrians have Tor-M1 (SA-15) and Pechora-2A (S-125/SA-3) surface-to-air missiles, but not one is fired. The Israelis precision bomb the Syrian radar site at Tall al-Abuad, completely destroying it. In no time, they are at the Al-Kibar military complex in the Deir ez-Zor desert.
AGM-65 Maverick missiles and 500-pound bombs are used in a surgical way to completely obliterate the structure. In all, seventeen tonnes of explosives are used, with the prime minister himself supervising the operations live from the IDF headquarters (nicknamed The Pit) in Tel Aviv. At 12.53 a.m., the pilots radio back ‘Arizona’, signalling that the target has been completely destroyed.
thursday, 6 september 2007, damascus
Brigadier General Abdel Badi has been summoned to the Presidential Palace on Mount Mezzeh. President Hashem Qabbani-II is furious; when the general comes out of the meeting, he has a dead look on his face; later, a press release is issued.
‘Israel bombed an empty military complex under construction in the Deir ez-Zor desert. We condemn the transgression of our borders.’
CNN reports the incident, stating that there are nine North Koreans amongst the deceased.
Initially, there is no reaction from Israel. Two days later, the prime minister issues a statement: ‘We applaud the unusual courage shown by the Israeli Defence Forces, but we cannot reveal anything further.’
The din dies, time flies.
tuesday, 15 march 2011, syria
Arab Spring hits Syria; demonstrators take to the streets demanding the ouster of President Qabbani-II. It begins after children are arrested in the Izra district for drawing graffiti on walls. A wave of violence sweeps across the country. The Army is split into two, right down the middle. A group of soldiers establish their headquarters in Turkey and provide an umbrella organization for all anti-government forces. General Abdel Badi, an astute strategist, renounces his uniform and escapes to Iran. The game is not over for him just yet.
monday, 2 may 2011, pakistan
Osama bin Laden is killed at his secret hideout by the United States’ Navy SEAL Team Six in Abbottabad, P