In his two decade career with the army, Pasha regularly conducted many interviews. However, all he recruited were officers for whom general intelligence, courage and fitness were the parameters of evaluation. For the first time, he would be recruiting a technical person, for the biggest mission of his career. Only thing clear to him was that the candidate must be physically fit to endure an expedition to Kilik. All four contenders were in their late thirties and three of them were fit enough, at least to be transported by air. He was not concerned about their return.

Confused about how to choose his candidate, he planned a common meeting with all the aspirants. He put them under surveillance for the last two weeks and got their histories documented. He studied each file five times and memorised their lives, including those incidents they themselves might have forgotten. Level of preparation decides winner of the war. As an army man, all he knew was this. And his experience was evidence that this simple principle was applicable universally to all situations and systems.

He was ready. And all four aspirants thought they were ready. Pasha wanted to select one of them for the job, despite the fact that each one of them was yearning with equal vigour.

They all met in a room with an oval table. The table was neither long nor short. He placed himself at the head and directed his stenographer to occupy the other end to record the discussion so that he could analyse later. He selected old and trusted stenographer for the job. He may need to kill the stenographer after the interview notes were prepared. He felt sorry for the necessity to kill a person who used only pencil to live with. Participants of the discussion were placed two on each side, and positioned in a square. All four were anxious.

Pasha opened the discussion. Without any formal greetings, he came to the point directly. “One critical mission is being planned that involves nuclear technology. As experts in the field, one of you would be given charge of executing the plan. It is felt that in addition to the expertise in the field, he should be a dynamic person with greater ability and agility to handle fluid situations. That is precisely the reason why your superiors were not considered. Moreover, owing to secrecy, none in your organisation was informed. Also only one of you will be chosen, and there can be no team formation. The selected one shall execute the plan in entirety in full secrecy. I hope you all understand the situation. If you want to exclude yourself, for any reason, you may do so now. But, not after being chosen. And believe me, this would be your chance to get etched in the annals of history of our country. But, as with all such crucial plans, risk factor is substantial. If you prefer, we’ll continue our discussion. If you are seated for the next five seconds, you are going to be part of the discussion.”

He waited. Silence reigned in the room for a while and no one moved.

“So, we are going to have a talk now. The strategy being engineered involves nuclear devices. You all have worked since the days of Qadar. So, I presume you all could make an estimate of the material and time needed to assemble and detonate a device. Can you make it?” Pasha posed a query to the panel of experts.

Ahmed immediately put forth a query, “What should be the power of the bomb?” Others nodded at Pasha in agreement with him. Pasha smiled, “Forgive me. My knowledge is limited in this field - I mean, in any field other than military affairs. Umm... how shall I put this? Let me see. Say I have to take out a land equal to Europe, what would I need?” he spread his hands and grinned, indicating his response was over. Rizwan bent his head and sat in silence. He knew this variety; those who don’t even know what they want. It was typical. Persons change, but characters do not. As he expected, the other three experts were puzzled. Land mass equal to the size of Europe? They didn’t even recall the size of Europe. How much depth of land was to be taken out? How much would that land weigh, including mountains, rivers, buildings and people? From the way Pasha answered the first question, they were confident that he could not give any useful inputs that would be needed for a proper technical answer.

Rizwan pulled out a sheet of paper, brought out his pen, and started writing something. The other three stared at him and then at each other. Pasha sat back in his seat, folded his arms, and observed. Finally Ahmed spoke, “I need some time to calculate the energy needed. I need information about area and composition of the land, how deep should be ripped off and where the bomb would be placed, etc.” He looked at others as if he was seeking their acceptance. They again nodded. After all, they all were known to each other for many years and worked together in solving many a thing.

Pasha looked at them silently. He decided to keep watch while they agitated and churned themselves. All he had to do was wait till they settle the issue amongst themselves with one clear winner.