PART 1 - The Task

Department of Military Intelligence, Jungi Adda, Kathmandu
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Captain Deepak reached work 15 minutes early that morning. An orderly delivered a cup of tea along with his mail and some files. The pile of papers included a copy of The Rising Nepal and the previous day's Times of India and a new edition of Jane's Defence Weekly. The Times of India was published from Delhi and came in each evening via the afternoon Delhi-Kathmandu flight of Royal Nepal Airline and was made available only the next morning. The latest issue of Janes first came to the General's office, who after exercising his first rights, which usually meant marveling at the new fighter planes the Swedes or French had designed, would send it off to the Colonel's office. The Colonel would then extract his worth of the magazine, and when done, send it over to Deepak's office. By the time it got to Deepak's office, and a lot of the times it never did, it would usually have the markings of a tea-stained cup on the cover or a torn out page in the cover story section. Perhaps the work of the General's war-crazy 7-year old grandson or the Colonel's military hardware fanatic 19-year old boy.

Deepak sifted through the papers in his "IN" folder. There was the daily intelligence report that he had to review by eleven and send to the Colonel. The Colonel had called him in the middle of dinner the previous night. He had been instructed to be at the colonel's office at 0900 hours sharp for a classified briefing. It pertained to an assignment of a serious nature with orders from "up above". As an intelligence officer, his mind was trained to be suspicious. In his business there were no coincidences. What was the Colonel upto he wondered? And how high was the high-up where this was coming from? Why was there a new issue of Janes delivered to him? The Colonel would surely expect, want or perhaps even demand something in return.

Deepak arrived at the Colonels office dot on time. He knocked, was told to enter, saluted, and sat when asked to sit. They were joined moments later by General Tej. It was rare for the General to sit in on such briefings. The General's presence signalled the importance of what he was about to hear.

The General was a man in his late fifties with gray hair, an English moustache with two magnificent curls that pointed upwards, and a thickly-framed pair of glasses. He had a slight paunch but was otherwise in good shape for a man his age. He was also a friend of Deepak's family. That was the only comforting fact in that cold office room. It was a typical cold and foggy Kathmandu winter morning and the Colonel was trying to beat it with an electric-rod heater switched on under his desk.

"You went to school in Nainital, right, Deepak?" the General asked. General Tej usually took a while to come to the point unlike the Colonel who never spoke anything besides the point. How the two could get along Deepak wondered. "Have you heard of a place called Tinker?"

"Yes sir, I have" Deepak nodded. Deepak disliked it when his schooling was brought up. It created resentment in the minds of those who did not attent some of the institutions he was fortunate enough to go to. He was an ace student in school at Sherwood College in Nainital, and later at the Indian Military Academy in Dehradun and Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. In addition to his sharp intellect and handsome physical features, his family connections ran deep in the Royal Palace and the upper echelons of the Army and he was considered a rising star in the field of military intelligence in Nepal.

Tinker, he had come to learn from the history archives, was the 17,800-foot pass in the Nepal-Tibet-India tri-juncture area where Wangdu Gyatsosan, the legendary commander of Chushi Gangdruk, the Khamba resistance movement, was tragically killed by Royal Nepalese Army troops as he was on the verge of escaping into India and safety.

"Good. We have received information that the ISI is active in that area and smuggling in infiltrators and drugs to Tibet and then via Tinker into Nepal and onwards to India. We have received orders to beef up security on our side of the border and establish command posts along the southern ridge begining with a command post at location 193A" the general said pointing to coordinates on a map that was open on the Colonel's desk.

"There will be five posts with radio communication links to a command center and the posts will be operated by the Maha Nath Battalion. Our orders are to do the necessary surveillance and reconnoissance work needed to setup the posts" Colonel Prakash said. Deepak was to lead a five-man team for the purpose and work with a Captain from the Maha Nath Battalion to get the outposts operational.

Deepak was to leave in two weeks time and start his work out of the Army's Far Western Division Headquarters in Dipayal. He was informed all the necessary paper work would be ready by next week and he and the colonel would brief the rest of the team members

"The villagers say Wangdu hid a lot of gold up in the forests near Tinker just before he died" the General added with a gleam in his eyes that seemed to unnerve the Colonel.

"And no one has found his gold till now. But, hah, who believes such folklore!" the general exclaimed much to the relief of Colonel Prakash who had by now resigned himself to the General going off on tangents on virtually every topic he spoke about.

Officer's Mess, RNA Division Headquarters, Dipayal
----------------------------------------------------------------

"There is someone at the gate to see you , sir" one the sentries announced "she says she needs to talk to you about the food depot"

Food depot was the code word for the outpost project.

"Shall I let her in to the waiting room?" the sentry asked. Deepak nodded and told him he would be there in five minutes.

Who could it be? Informants usually would never want to be seen in Army premises. Perhaps someone from Kathmandu?