The Bankster (Ravi Subramanian) (35 page)

‘And she had a twelve-hour free Wi-Fi deal with Café Coffee Day,’ Hemant continued, ‘Remember? Malvika just told us how she and her mother laughed about how excited Harshita was about the twelve-hour free Wi-Fi. So the twelve-hour connection would have been active when they passed through Café Coffee Day. The iPhone would have reconnected and in an instant uploaded everything to iCloud, which would have sync-ed to the iPad the next time Malvika connected it to the Internet.’

‘Indrani,’ said Karan, ‘I think you should bring Vikram in. I’m at loss to see how we will question him. But it’s very clear now. His involvement as a deal swinger is what has caused this for all of us. It’s clear—the Union of Jews Foundation in some way or the other was responsible for the killing of Harshita. Raymond got to know and that’s why he is also dead. Now we all know this. Before anything happens to us, we need to make sure that this is in safe hands.’

‘I am not sure how to take this forward. Should we speak to Vikram first? Or should we first speak to HR, involve the regional office and then involve the cops?’

When Indrani said this, Karan got thinking.

‘If we strongly believe that Vikram is the cause for all this, and we now have enough reasons to do so, I think we should only speak to him, but only after covering ourselves. We should not let him know that we know about this unless we have adequate protection. However, I am sure of one thing. I don’t think we can keep it among ourselves now. It’s gotten too big. We will have to inform everyone about this breach.’

‘I think you’re right Karan. We don’t have time.’ Indrani turned to Jacqueline, ‘Can you call Vikram and tell him to be around and that I want to meet him. Karan in the interim, either you head down and brief Tanuja, or call her here.’

‘I will head down and speak to Tanuja about it. Will be back in ten minutes. It will be a bit embarrassing if Vikram lands up while we’re briefing her.’

‘Sounds good.’ Indrani turned to Hemant, ‘Let’s talk to Internal Security and use them to call the cops. Ask Francis to come and see me.’ Indrani wanted to make sure that the Head of Internal Security was around when they spoke to Vikram. It was now getting far too big for the three novices to handle. And now they had enough evidence to question Vikram on his involvement.

Karan in the interim, walked out to meet Tanuja. As he opened the door of the conference room, he looked back. ‘Kavya, come with me. And Hemant, Can you lend me your access card? Security will not stop me if I have the access card.’ He turned, looked at Jacqueline, ‘And Jacqueline, a small request. Can you please tell Tanuja that Kavya and I are coming down to see her?’

The second floor was relatively crowded—a floor that was occupied by the HR, Commercial Banking and the SME teams.

Tanuja was waiting for them. ‘Hi Karan. How have you been? How is the article on GB2 coming? Found some juice for your story? Meri bhi koi achchisi photo chaap dena yaar.’

‘Sure Tanuja.’ Karan had a wry smile on his face. ‘In fact, I came to talk to you about something important and sensitive.’

‘Jacqueline told me. Come, come,’ she said, leading them to a plush sofa in the corner of her room. ‘And Kavya, how come you are on this project?’ On seeing Kavya squirm, she added, ‘Well having a boyfriend in the media surely helps the organization,’ and she winked at Kavya who smiled in return.

Karan and Kavya made themselves comfortable. Kavya scanned the room out of curiosity. It was a large cabin. Tanuja’s desk was in a corner, which was away from the door. Next to the door, to the left of where they were sitting, was a display cabinet which proudly showed off all the awards that GB2 had won over the years. When Tanuja saw Karan staring at the trophies, she walked up to the cabinet and said, ‘This year we won the
Business Today
best employer award. We are a great organization to work for.’ She pulled out the
Business Today
trophy and proudly held it out for Karan to see. ‘Some day, you must come back, Karan. This organization can do wonders with a few good people like you.’

Karan managed a smile. Kavya looked at Karan from the side of her eyes. ‘She really thinks that you are here to do the article,’ she whispered as Tanuja turned to keep the trophy back on the top shelf of the glass cabinet.

On their right hung a bright red Persian rug. ‘Nice,’ said Karan, trying to indulge her with some small talk, while his mind weighed different ways in which he could talk to her about the core issue. ‘Thanks! Bought it in Hong Kong when I was there on a holiday.’

‘Looks quite exotic,’ commented Karan, eyebrows raised admiringly.

‘Chinese imitation. Cheap stuff. I bought it off the pavement.’

His eyes roamed the room from the door past the glass cabinet, skimming over her table, on to the rug. And stopped abruptly.

‘Tell me. How can I help you?’ Tanuja asked, settling into her chair.

Karan didn’t even hear what she said. Something in the room caught his attention and he was focused on that. As the realization hit him, he was stunned into silence, sweat breaking out on his forehead. Kavya didn’t notice what he was going through.

‘You know Tanuja. Over the last few days. . .’ the moment she began, she felt Karan’s cold and sweaty hand cover hers. The chillness surprised her. Karan’s hand pressed hers firmly, asking her to remain silent. Quickly, Karan stood up. ‘Kavya, can you please come with me? I think I’ve left the list of questions we were to ask Tanuja back in the boardroom. Let’s get it before we talk to Tanuja.’ He looked at Tanuja and added, ‘Sorry Tanuja, I will be back shortly.’

‘Is everything okay? Why are you sweating so much?’

‘I guess it’s just the exertion, Tanuja. I will be fine.’ And he stepped out.

‘Call me if you need any help,’ was the last thing Tanuja said before the two of them closed the door. If she followed it up with something else, which she probably did, neither of them heard it.

Kavya was wondering what went wrong. ‘What’s the problem Karan? Are you alright?’

‘Not here,’ and Karan walked briskly towards the door—as fast as he could walk without attracting any undue attention. Kavya had a tough time keeping pace with him. They reached the lift lobby but the lift was on the fifth floor. ‘Come let’s walk,’ said Karan moving towards the stairs.

‘Karan is everything okay? What the hell is the problem?’ Karan didn’t respond. On reaching the fifth floor, Karan made a dash for the boardroom. He pulled the door open and ran in. He sat down on the chair, elbows on the table and held his head in his hands as his fingers ruffled through his hair. ‘What the fuck? I just can’t believe this.’

‘What happened Karan? Will you please stop going around in circles and tell us now?’ Kavya was getting impatient.

‘I will. I will. But let me gather myself. This is very strange.’

He got up, walked to the door, and opened it just a bit to stick his head out, ‘Jacks!’

‘Yes sweetheart,’ Jacqueline promptly responded.

‘Is Francis Jobai here?’

‘Not yet. He will take about forty-five minutes to reach here. He’s somewhere in Powai. There was an issue in the branch and he had gone to meet the cops there. But he’s on his way back.’

‘Great. We will need to be with Indrani and Vikram only when he comes here. Right?’

‘Hmm. . .’ Jacqueline nodded. ‘In any case, she has told me to make sure you get access to her when you want to. So it’s not a problem. How was the meeting with Tanuja?’

‘Will let you know soon.’ And he went back into the conference room.

‘Kavya and Hemant, the next forty-five minutes are the most critical. We have time till Francis Jobai reaches here. Post that, we will be out of the investigation and they will take over. We need to focus and make sure we only look for what we are trying to find out. I want you to look for certain specific things.’ And he went on to outline everything that he wanted them to do. ‘And I want all of this to be closed out now. So guys better start moving.’

After giving them instructions, Karan walked to the corner of the room, where his mobile phone was lying. He picked it up and dialled a number. ‘Is this a recorded line?’

‘No asshole. You called my cell phone. Unless someone is tapping my phone,’ Karan started laughing. ‘I need some help.’ In fifteen minutes, Karan got off the call. He had got what he wanted.

In about an hour, Kavya and Hemant were nearly through with what they were doing. ‘Nearly done Karan,’ said Hemant.

‘Thanks Hemant. There are two things left to be done.’ The other two in the room looked at each other. ‘Jacks!’ he said, snapping his fingers. ‘Jacks can help us with that.’

He walked out of the room and he saw Vikram there. ‘Karan?’ Vikram was surprised to see him there. ‘Yes Vikram. How are you?’

‘I’m good. What brings you here? You’re still with the Times?’

‘Yes yes. Very much so. Enjoying my stint there. People there atleast have a spine.’ He took a dig at Vikram. They didn’t get along when Karan was in GB2, but he didn’t have much time to carry on the banter.

‘Jacqueline. Need your help. Can you please come into the conference room for a minute?’ She followed Karan, leaving Vikram alone at her workstation. Vikram, finding himself alone at Jacqueline’s table started taking mental notes about things lying there. He always did that when he was around Indrani’s room. When he saw an old mobile bill of his lying on Jacqueline’s table, he picked it up and started going through it. When Jacqueline came back, he asked her, ‘What’s going on Jacqueline?’

‘Nothing. And will you please stop going through my things? It’s rude to do so without my permission.’ She had never liked him. ‘Indrani is slightly tied up now. She will only see you in an hour. Please be around. I’ll call you.’

‘Sure. I will be in my cabin.’ Vikram turned away, a strange look on his face. Jacqueline had always been nice to him, mainly because he was seen as Indrani’s pet boy. What had changed all of a sudden?

Francis Jobai arrived a little over an hour and a half from the time Jacqueline had called him. The slow traffic on the Eastern Express highway, particularly on the Sion-Matunga belt, had delayed him. He was ushered into Indrani’s cabin where he was briefed. After giving him the background, Indrani asked Jacqueline to call Karan and his team.

As he strode into Indrani’s room, Karan had a smile on his lips, and deep concern in his mind. In the heart of hearts, he was worried—worried about the manner in which things had changed abruptly.

‘Come on in, guys,’ Indrani smiled. It was a smile that hid the pain and the sorrow that she was feeling. Three of her officers had been killed over the past few days. And there was a cloud over one of her favourite officers in the bank. Francis Jobai was standing to her left, talking to someone on the phone.

‘Hi Karan, good to see you again, though not in the best of circumstances, I must say. And Indrani, they will be here in twenty minutes,’ said Francis, as soon as he hung up.

Indrani looked at Karan and Kavya. ‘The cops,’ she explained, ‘I have requested Francis to make sure that we have adequate security before we talk to anyone. He has requested them to be around, just in case we need help. On an informal basis.’

‘Thanks Indrani. I think, by the time we finish, we will surely need the cops to come in.’

‘Where’s Hemant?’

‘He’s checking on one last detail. He’ll be here in ten minutes.’

‘Okay. Vikram had come. I asked Jacqueline to ask him to wait, so that we complete our discussion before I confront him.’

‘That will not be required until later, Indrani.’

‘What? And why do you say that, Karan?’ Indrani asked, confused.

‘Let me call the person we need to speak to first.’ He stepped out of the room, walked up to Jacqueline, said something to her and then he walked back into the room.

‘Two minutes Indrani.’ Indrani looked at Francis, trying to make sense of what Karan was doing. There was pin-drop silence in the room. No one spoke. Indrani wanted all this to get over quickly. It was turning out to be one long nightmare for her.

Finally the silence was broken by a knock on the door of Indrani’s cabin. ‘Come in,’ Indrani called out. The door opened and two people walked in. One of them was Jacqueline.

43

Devikulam

Morning, 1
^st
February 2012

After the Times Today debacle, Krishna Menon was a very distraught old man. All his efforts over the last ten years had come to naught. For someone who hadn’t ever taken a dishonest step in his life, this one wrong, albeit critical association with a powerful man had proved to be his undoing.

The call from Mumbai woke him up that morning. It was the third time in twelve hours that a telephone call had disturbed his fragile state of calm. The anger he felt from within had prevented him from sleeping peacefully. Jayakumar had turned out a miserable opportunist—a guy who rocked the boat and also gave out life jackets. Not only had Jayakumar taken him for a ride, he had compromised the position of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians residing in the vicinity of the TNPP. In a fit of anger, he had mentioned to the person calling from GB2 that he was withdrawing from the protest, but if someone had to go, it was Jayakumar. He was not going to compromise on that. If he did, it would be a disservice to the entire community of Devikulam. The community that had given him everything. His son, Arvind, who died a torturous death in the aftermath of Chernobyl, in Ukraine—hadn’t he promised him in his last days that he would dedicate his life to make sure that the people of Devikulam wouldn’t meet that fate? It was around the same time Devikulam was being considered as a possible site for an Indo-Russian collaboration for a nuclear plant. If he backed out now, what would happen to that promise made to his dying son?

He was tossing around in bed restlessly when the call had come. This time, unlike last night, the caller didn’t seem to be in a hurry.

Karan introduced himself and talked to him about not taking a decision in a hurry. Devikulam needed him. Karan also told him about the possible money-laundering angle. When he heard about the likelihood of CNRI being funded through an organization based in Vienna, which in all probability was a conduit for pumping in money by the American and German nuclear bodies, to stall the commissioning of TNPP, he was a bit surprised. Krishna Menon told Karan about the CBI interrogation in detail. When he told Karan about the discussion with the defence secretary about the arms deal with Israel, Karan was not shocked. Bhaskar had mentioned it to him the previous night. When Krishna Menon told him about the conversation with Dr Heldrich and the French nuclear scientist, matters became clear to him.