"So the Chinese are behind this?" Markande asked. Vansh knew that Markande had about as much knowledge about Chinese tactics as him. He had, after all, been in one of the first battalions to be posted in Siachen.
Vansh nodded. "That appears to be the case."
"The QBU is a reputed rifle... it could be used by anyone," said a man who had introduced himself as Special Agent Krishna Sehgal. He would be working with Vansh and Kabir on the case.
Vansh shook his head. "The Indian army does not use the QBU and Norinco only prepared it for the People's Liberation Army. It is almost as suspicious as finding a Kashtan SMG in the US."
"But Russia is across an ocean from the US. It is comparatively a hundred times easier to bring a QBU in India than it is to bring a Kashtan in the US. We share a border with them," Krishna said sceptically.
"All well and good, but we can't rule out Chinese involvement," Vansh said firmly.
Krishna tried to say something but Markande raised his hand and the man stopped. "You do know the implications of this, don't you, Vansh?" Markande asked. To Vansh's abilities to read faces and voices, he could realise the slight undertone of fear in the man's voice.
Vansh nodded grimly. "It can be considered an act of war."
"Yes," Kabir said. "If it the gun been used. Right now we need to figure out who the other shooter was. Which bullet was it?"
"7.62 mm. Probably from an FM MAG. It's used by the army." Krishna replied.
The men sat in silence for a few minutes. It took Vansh barely five minutes to join the dots. A Chinese sniper and a Belgian machine gun. Chinese for India. Belgian for German. "They were two different shooters," Vansh said suddenly.
"We already figured that out, Vansh. Two guns, thus two shooters. Sniper for shooting, machine gun for cover. Machine gun misfires, PM gets lucky and lives."
"No. Two shooters affiliated to two different organisations. The Belgian gun for the German PM and the Chinese for Indian PM," Vansh said.
"That's an awfully big coincidence, don't you think? Two separate countries decide to kill their enemies at the same point at the same time?" Kabir said. "And also, Germany and Belgium are allies. No way the Belgians decide to kill the Germans."
"The Convention," Markande said quietly.
Vansh nodded. "The Germans did not support Belgium. In fact, they vetoed their proposal."
The Belgians had proposed that the EU start giving 17% of their funds for the cause. Germany had decided to veto the idea and not provide more than 4%. The Belgians, embarrassed like a banished dog, had backed off, but the tension had escalated between the countries, which shared 133 km/ 83 miles of land border.
"We are caught between an international imbroglio, which is not good, because we are not even a part of it!" Markande said.
Markande's computer beeped to notify a new email. He swirled on his chair and opened the mail. His face visibly whitened as he read. "The Germans have sent a preliminary report of the bombing. They found the shards of the bomb all around the airport, as expected, but the report shows that the car had gone through a bomb test as expected from a machine bomb detector and a pack of German Shepherds. Neither machine nor animal reacted. The Germans now believe that the Jaipuri shawl the Indian PM had gifted him. Luckily, thanks to our diplomatic relations with them, the Germans have sent all the details along with samples of the wreckage to us. It'll arrive by tomorrow," Markande said, visibly distraught.
"I think you were wrong, sir. We seem to be a very important part of this imbroglio. We seem to be the target," Kabir said.