“Radio, call off the remaining members of Pelishar Squadron. Instruct them to join up with the support squadron coming up from the south and come under that squadron leader’s command.” He sounded resigned, almost defeated, and the room was quiet as they tried to ignore the bitter sound of their general’s waning tone.

He gathered himself, then said, “Bring up Missile Control, quadrant 7.”

The operator nodded, typing into his console to raise Missile Control on the main screen. The border with Afghanistan was dotted with small, mobile anti-air missile outposts designed to intercept any incursion from their neighbor. There weren’t nearly as many as there were along Pakistan’s contested border with India or their closely watched border with Iran, but as the big main screen changed to an aerial view of the northwestern border with Afghanistan, a series of red dots showing their current anti-air deployments appeared. On top of this view, the operator overlaid the path of the rogue F-16 and the remaining objects falling down into the atmosphere, and the general quietly praised the sergeant’s efficiency once more.

So, he thought, we have a rogue F-16 with three kills tracking to intercept a series of objects that seem to be blowing up all by themselves. And based on the reports of the squadron, before all hell broke loose, we may have some kind of stealthed plane out there too. What the hell did it all mean? The rugged old Pakistani stared in consternation at the screen and tried to analyze it all. If there was a stealth plane out there, that meant the Americans, but what the hell would they be doing here? And the pilots had also reported seeing the blue streak of a jet-propelled rocket approaching the last explosion.

He shook his head. He was a veteran of countless military clashes with Indian forces in Kashmir, the long and arduous Russian occupation of his neighbor Afghanistan, and of course the more recent and equally bitter conflict that had almost laid waste to every country from here to Jerusalem. But this was something new. It was something outside his extensive experience, and he was at a loss. And at this point, with three more men dead to add to the sea of dead and dying from the insurgent attack on the base, he was at a point where he almost didn’t care.

With the resignation of a man without options, he raised his voice and gave his next order, “I want all anti-air crews along that border line put on missile-ready status. They are to lock on to any object in range and shoot to kill. Bring our remaining forces onto a patrol run along the outside range of the anti-air platforms missiles and then issue the command.”

He turned to his aide and saw the normally placid man’s harried expression.