by Aman Gupta
CHASING A FAMILIAR SHADOW
Eleven Graves Series Book Two
AMAN GUPTA
Chasing A Familiar Shadow
Copyright ©2020 Aman Gupta
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned or transmitted in any forms, digital, audio or printed without the expressed written consent of the author.
Dedicated to everyone.
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Chapter 1: Variation
Chapter 2: Intelligence
Chapter 3: Knowledge
Chapter 4: Inclusion
Chapter 5: Serendipity
Chapter 6: Glowering
Chapter 7: Obstruction
Chapter 8: Interval
Chapter 9: Nascent
Chapter 10: Grief
Chapter 11: Trespassing
Chapter 12: Oppression
Chapter 13: Deliverance
Chapter 14: Intent
Chapter 15: Execution
Chapter 16: Trust
Chapter 17: Hostility
Chapter 18: Endurance
Chapter 19: Second Chance
Chapter 20: Hydra
Chapter 21: Extraction
Chapter 22: Remnant
Chapter 23: Intuition
Chapter 24: Freedom
Chapter 25: Falsehood
Chapter 26: Insincerity
Chapter 27: Shock
Chapter 28: Nefarious
Chapter 29: Trick
Chapter 30: Decoy
Chapter 31: Egregious
Chapter 32: Attack
Chapter 33: Defense
Chapter 34: Jaunt
Chapter 35: Advantage
Chapter 36: Yin
Chapter 37: Loss
Chapter 38: Impetus
Chapter 39: Vanquish
Chapter 40: Envy
Chapter 41: Salvation
WORD FROM THE AUTHOR
Chapter 1: Variation
The clouds in the sky, the sound of thunder and the ship blasting their horns nearby were creating a perfect harmony with the hails shattering windows, composing terrifying music that disturbed the morning commuters. It was almost 9 in the morning, yet it felt like it was 2. The torrential rain had not hampered Jay’s spirits, who was driving to Verati for an early meeting called by his newly appointed supervisor. Not even a week had passed since the death of Dr. Gary Odine, but it was business as usual at Verati. If anything, Jay felt that Verati had been released from its shackles and was now sprinting away to fulfil its destiny and the vision of its founder, Victor Daulton.
Jay applied the emergency brakes when the car in front of him suddenly stopped due to a minor fender bender ahead. Within a minute, a huge jam engulfed the cross-section. Jay could see Verati’s headquarters from his car, only a couple of blocks away. The lightning stopped for a few seconds allowing the angry commuters to vent out their frustration by incessantly honking away their problems. Jay, too, couldn’t resist.
After ten minutes, the traffic cleared with the intervention of traffic cops who were forced to abandon their umbrellas. The cross-section on Harbor Street was one of the few that had cops physically present due to Verati’s headquarters nearby. Verati often faced issues with protestors since it often played fast and loose with business ethics.
It took Jay another five minutes to get from that spot to the conference room after catching a lucky break with the elevator and a parking spot close to it.
Running in the slippery corridor, he knocked on the conference room door on the 49th floor and opened it slightly to ask for permission to be let in. He hoped a tragedy had fallen on his new boss, while he was opening the door. But his luck had run out.
“Hi, I’m sorry I’m late,” said Jay, apologetic.
Nick Preston was considered to be the coolest person to have as your supervisor. However, Jay learnt that it was just a rumor.
“Who are you again?” asked Nick, while twenty other computer experts looked at Jay. Some were even smiling behind their laptops, as Jay wasn’t exactly popular among his peers, though he never knew why.
“My name is Jay Miller. I’m a Senior Team Leader in the Tech department,” said Jay.
“I hate people who are bad role models. Get out!” said Nick, looking away as if Jay wasn’t worth his time anymore.
Jay thought of saying something else but realized it wouldn’t make a difference to Nick’s reaction.
He apologized and left, giving a minuscule pull to the door, which closed as gently as possible, after nearly thirty seconds. A few seconds later, he felt bad for doing that as it was kind of a mocking exit that was part of the culture at Verati. The horrible sound that the glass door made while closing, was rubbing salt on the wound.
He went back to his cubicle on the 26th floor and logged into his computer. The entire floor was empty. He thought of going to the lower floors where his team worked, but he didn’t want to be seen as a micro-manager.
He looked at the surveillance camera on the top right corner of the room, close to his desk.
“Come on, we haven’t talked in a while,” said Jay. “I’m dying for some electric shocks.”
He closed his eyes while looking at the monitor. He waited for a few seconds and opened them, hoping for a miracle.
But the program didn’t respond.
Jay got up and went to the elevator, hoping to talk to Olivia.
As he got to the elevator, the entire floor lost its lights. The dark weather outside the window didn’t help either. Jay couldn’t see anything beyond a few inches ahead of him. All the computers were turned off as well.
He grabbed chairs, tables, and anything he would run into, hoping to go back to his desk where he had left his phone.
When he got to his desk, the lights came back.
“All of that effort for nothing,” sighed Jay.
He grabbed his phone without looking at the monitor and headed back to the elevator. He didn’t notice that a strange message that had popped up on his screen, like one of those picture puzzles that he loved, as per his personnel file.
After a few seconds, the message deleted itself, as the screen flickered.
He thought of grabbing a coffee and went to the company’s cafeteria on the 8th floor.
When he got out of the elevator, he saw Victor Daulton standing in front of him, though he was on his phone. Jay didn’t want to make any eye contact with him, so he walked past him as fast as he could.
“Jay, right?” said Victor as he disconnected the call.
Jay stopped nervously. He put a fake smile on his face and turned around to face Victor.
“Yes,” said Jay.
“Nice tie. Little early for lunch, don’t you think?” asked Victor looking around in the empty hall.
“I’m not sure I should be the one to judge you,” said Jay. He couldn’t believe he didn’t took the bait.
Victor smiled, which prompted Jay to take his next breath.
“I see you’ve lost some weight,” said Victor. “Found a girl, maybe?”
Only Victor could make a compliment sound like a threat, Jay thought. Victor’s deep, penetrating voice probably cost him more friends than foes.
“Yeah, no, nothing like that,” said Jay.
“You’ve been doing quite well for yourself. I saw your file the other day. Almost as if your talents are wasted at your current job responsibilities,” said Victor.
“Thank you. For the record, I just got thrown out of a meeting for being late. So much for punctuality,” said Jay.
“Who?” asked Victor.
“My boss, Nick. But I’m sure he just wanted to set a good exa
mple for the rest of us,” said Jay.
“Want me to do something about it?” asked Victor, fishing around for expressions on Jay’s face.
“No, no, of course not. I can handle him,” said Jay.
“Good. We need someone like him to step into the shoes of Gary Odine,” said Victor.
“Of course. He was great at what he did,” said Jay.
“Are you familiar with some of his work?” asked Victor.
The way Victor said it, made Jay guarded. As if that’s what Victor wanted to ask all along. But Jay decided to play along.
“In AI, yes,” said Jay as his eyes hovered around, looking for a way out.
“Speaking of AI, I read the paper you published a couple of years ago while at Daulton University. Emotions in AI. Interesting topic,” said Victor.
“Yes, researchers, right? Just dreaming out of their...you know,” said Jay.
Victor smiled again. Jay felt weird whenever Victor smiled. It was an unusual sight.
“I noticed something, though. It looked like you were leading to a viable solution in the middle of your research, but you deviated from it, almost as if you didn’t want the solution to be out there,” said Victor.
Jay didn’t utter a word. Victor kept looking at Jay, who started to feel a little cornered.
Another elevator stopped on the 8th floor a few seconds later.
Olivia stepped out of it and saw Jay standing alone next to a pillar. She couldn’t see Victor as the pillar was blocking the view. She crept forward and hugged Jay from the left, startling him.
Jay pushed her away a little, prompting her to look around. She saw Victor.
She immediately stopped hugging him and stepped away. Her scared expressions made Jay smile a little.
Victor looked at her from head to toe. Olivia was nearly five and a half feet in her wedges, yet looked tiny in front of Victor who stood tall at six feet and few more inches. It wasn’t as much as physique, but the aura associated with him that made Victor look gigantic.
“Your girlfriend, Jay?” asked Victor after he was done probing.
“No, just a friend,” said Jay.
“Hello, sir. My name’s Olivia Anderson,” said Olivia, smiling a little.
“I don’t remember asking,” said Victor, with a straight face.
The smile vanished from Olivia’s face. She looked at Jay, her eyes almost begging him to get her out of there unscathed emotionally.
Jay looked at Victor to get a read and started laughing.
Victor chuckled too. But Olivia didn’t.
She looked at both of them and couldn’t believe what was happening.
“Sorry, I shouldn’t have laughed,” said Jay.
“So, why did you?” asked Victor.
“I noticed you were just messing with her,” said Jay.
“Do you do that often? Try to read people around you?” asked Victor.
“Only when they’re important,” said Jay, stroking Victor’s ego.
“Well, you two do make a cute couple,” said Victor as he stepped into the elevator. “Reminds me of my younger days.”
“Thank you, sir,” said Olivia as the elevator door closed.
“He’s gone,” said Jay, walking away. “Stop adulating.”
Olivia followed him as he sat at a table in the empty cafeteria.
“What just happened?” asked Olivia, pulling out a chair. Her heart was still beating fast.
“Nothing. You got Victored,” said Jay.
“Is that a thing?” asked Olivia.
“Sarah thinks so,” said Jay.
“Oh, right. Sarah. Who’s her father again?” reminded Olivia, smiling a little.
“The one who scared the hell out of you a minute ago,” said Jay.
“Oh, excuse me for interrupting the bonding time between two dysfunctional family members,” said Olivia. “Stupid Daultons.”
“She didn’t mean that,” said Jay, looking behind Olivia with an apologetic face. “Sorry, sir.”
Olivia’s face turned pale.
She turned her head a millimeter every second, almost as if Death itself was standing behind her. As she turned around, she didn’t see anyone.
Seething furiously, she turned around to punch Jay in the face. But he had already stepped away, giggling.
“Oh, I’m gonna get you,” said Olivia. “You just wait, Miller.”
Jay laughed. Olivia laughed too, a few seconds later.
They got their coffee and sandwich from the Instant Food counter operated by the company’s robots.
“Didn’t you have a meeting?” asked Olivia.
Jay pointed to the glass windows.
“What, you lost your umbrella?” joked Olivia.
“Something like that,” said Jay. “Nick wasn’t too happy.”
“A meeting with Nick? Looks like you dodged a bullet,” said Olivia.
Jay smiled.
“Sitting here, I don’t think I even wanted to attend the meeting,” said Jay.
“You sound like you’re bored of Verati already,” said Olivia.
“That obvious, huh?” said Jay.
“Are you bored of me?” asked Olivia.
“To be honest, you’re the only reason I come here anymore. Every other minute feels like time wasted doing things that I wasn’t meant to do,” said Jay.
“What do you want to do?” asked Olivia.
“I want to create not monitor,” said Jay. “Currently, my life here at Verati’s a farrago of stupid deeds and meaningless tasks.”
Olivia had never seen Jay so weak. He looked lost. She knew she had to say something to make him feel loved but she was chained by the ring on his finger. She did the only thing she knew best, and why their relationship worked.
“I get you. I’m the same way,” empathized Olivia.
“I know,” said Jay, sipping his coffee.
“Are you planning to do something about it?” asked Olivia.
“I was. I wrote a whole email addressed to Gary Odine, but just didn’t press the send button. The next day, he died,” said Jay.
“That’s a bummer,” said Olivia.
“I mean, I’m not saying that the guy’s death was inconvenient,” said Jay.
“Not out loud, anyway,” laughed Olivia.
Jay chuckled too.
“Why don’t you talk to Nick about it?” asked Olivia, wiping the sauce she spilled on her white lab coat.
“After today, I might as well start packing up stuff. As long as he’s around, I’m not going anywhere forward,” said Jay.
“Don’t worry. Things will work out soon. But don’t talk about leaving. I’d be bored without you here,” said Olivia. “You’re a friend worthy of the name.”
Jay smiled.
“I haven’t talked to Sarah about this. But I’m thinking of leaving this place and starting my firm,” said Jay. “I didn’t come to Verati for this.”
“Why did you come here?” asked Olivia.
Jay didn’t say anything.
Olivia reached out and grabbed his left hand with her right. She looked concerned. She feared Jay had entered the first stage of depression.
“This is going to sound stupid, but I came here to find a guy that worked for your boss and mine. He wronged a friend of mine,” said Jay.
“Did you find him?” asked Olivia.
“No,” said Jay.
“Well then from where I’m sitting, you still haven’t done your part at Verati. Find him. You have access to unlimited resources. Make it count,” said Olivia.
“I guess so,” said Jay.
They got up and started walking towards the elevator.
Olivia stopped Jay near a corner and hugged him.
“We’re on camera,” whispered Jay.
“Not for another 10 seconds,” said Olivia.
“Thank you,” whispered Jay. “I needed that.”
After eight seconds, they stopped hugging and stepped forward to the elevator.
�
�What’re you going to do now?” asked Olivia.
“Find that beast,” said Jay as he smiled.
Olivia smiled back. “See you later.”
They took separate elevators to go to their floors, entering the elevators simultaneously.
Jay spent the entire day running facial recognition software on every person inside Verati, going back two months. He had access to the surveillance footage of all public areas inside the building. However, that didn’t account for much, as the skyscraper was as restricted as one could imagine. He accessed surveillance footage of Verati’s other offices in the country due to his higher clearance, and fed it to the facial recognition software. The software showed it would take nearly four weeks to swift through the entire record. Jay sighed.
During lunch, Jay and Olivia waved to each other from afar but stayed away from each other. They mutually decided to keep their friendship a secret from everyone, though over time, few of Olivia’s colleagues had learnt about it by sheer luck.
Around 4 PM, Jay received a message from Nick, asking him to meet him in Gary’s office urgently. Jay was surprised and nervous at the same time. He didn’t want to leave Verati yet. He also learnt, in that moment, that Nick was working out of Gary’s office.
He took the elevator to the 80th floor to go to Gary’s office. 80th floor was also the last floor that Jay could access using his keycard, though he also had no access to Anthony Arnold’s office on the 77th floor.
Walking down the empty curved corridor, Jay knocked on the door as he didn’t see any security guard stationed outside the office. On a normal day, the floor had around eight armed guards. Gary Odine’s office only occupied roughly 5% of the floor area available. Jay had no idea how to access the other 90% as they were only one big room and a single corridor on the entire floor.
His knocks were unanswered, but he saw the door wasn’t locked when he pushed it a little.
He went inside and stood next to the couch when he couldn’t see Nick.
After waiting for a couple of minutes, Jay turned around to leave, when he heard loud beeps coming from the far end of the office, around fifty feet away.
Jay was curious to figure out where the noise was coming from. As he approached the desk, the room went silent. Jay stopped moving.