The Clout of Gen

by Ahmad Ardalan

  Yaturo laughed again and said, “My friend, I am a bit ahead of you till now in this game. I did mention his eyes because I noticed them right away. I had to make sure they were real, as they seemed to be a feature that would differentiate him from others, so I used one of my tricks. He rubbed his eyes several times. If they were contact lenses, they would have been irritating him from the rubbing. His blue eyes were very real, I assure you.”

  “Oh,” John said with a sigh, sounding somewhat defeated.

  “Look, John, we must work on what we have. As you suggested, let’s stick with the third scenario. We will use the information I passed on. I believe with both of us working on an extensive search, we will link this all together. We have to!”

  “Well, you mentioned some progress earlier,” John said to Yaturo. “What was that all about?” he asked, searching for some ray of hope but feeling lost.

  “We started several new mega-projects over the last two years in that suspected part of the world,” Yaturo said. “We have more influence there now and are coming up with some inside information. I have been introduced to many company heads and individuals who are not really on the map at all. They might be of help. We just need an opening, and I am sure we will find something,” concluded Yaturo.

  They decided that John would be introduced to the company later that afternoon. He would work closely with the people there and meet with Yaturo from time to time, especially if either one came up with something important.

  “If you feel a trip to Kazakhstan or the Ukraine is necessary or warranted,” Yaturo said, “you should do so. You can visit my companies there with no problem.”

  “Okay,” John said, writing it down.

  “But, John, there is something.”

  “What is it, Yaturo?”

  “You must look the part. To help you with that, here is a watch. Its wealth speaks for itself. Consider it a thank you gift from me. Also, try the spa here. It is amazing and…well, I am sure you will find it different,” Yaturo said before closing the door.

  -

  John was sure a visit to the spa was in order because he wanted to appear relaxed and comfortable on his first day of work. He was going to be formally introduced to the company, and he had to make a good first impression. He dialed the spa and told them that he would be there in an hour.

  An hour later, John found himself in the spa talking to a very kind woman. It seemed more like a medical checkup, as she asked him all types of questions about his health. She examined his whole body, and after a fifteen-minute dialogue, she advised John that he should go for a shiatsu, a Japanese massage involving finger pressure, mainly from the thumbs and palms, to various points of the body. She explained that it was excellent for easing stress and providing relaxation.

  John happily accepted but was told he should first take a three-minute “global shower experience,” something he’d never heard of before. The three-meter rectangular glass room was separated equally into three compartments. He was informed by the lady that a minute would be spent in each chamber, starting with the one on the far left. She instructed him to press the start button when he was ready, and as soon as that finished, he would move to the next.

  John did as he was told and first entered the “sea wind” chamber. He pressed the start button, and instantly, salty water was blown all over his face and body from all directions, as if he was caught in a storm at sea. The water wasn’t cold, but it was blowing so hard against his skin that he felt like he was in the eye of a hurricane. After a minute, everything grew quiet, and the door to the second compartment—the “North Pole”—slid open.

  As soon as John read the sign, he knew it was going to be cold. He reluctantly pressed the button and experienced the chilliest wind he’d ever felt. Along with it came freezing water particles pouring all over his body. He was shivering and jumping up and down to try and keep warm, but there was no escaping the arctic blast. He thought it was perhaps the longest sixty seconds of his life, but when it finally ended, he was relieved to see “tropical pleasure” written on the sign to the last chamber.

  Inside the third and final stall, still shivering from head to toe, John pressed the button quickly. This time, the water was warm, and hot wind blew around him. The aroma wafting about was soothing and refreshing, as if exotic fruits were flying about on the wind. His body temperature returned normal, and John felt great.

  As soon as he got out, the lady gave him a towel and said, “Now all of your body senses are working well. Your nerve cells are active, so this is the best time to work on them.”

  The shiatsu lasted for forty-five minutes; the room was perfectly lit with candles. At times, John’s pain was very intense from the pressure, but at other times, he was felt more relaxed with every touch of her fingers.

  When all was said and done, John left the spa with a huge, satisfied smile on his face. He felt ten years younger. He took the spa lady’s advice and had a short sleep and a quick, cold shower before going out.

  -

  Two hours later, John headed to Eye of Analysis. It was housed in a five-story building in Kyoto’s business district, and it occupied the entire fifth floor.

  John was greeted by the office manager, a young man in his later thirties by the name of Tao. Tao had been informed that Ed (John’s new name) had been sent from Zurich by the owners for a temporary period of three months. Ed’s job would be to observe their daily work and provide new guidelines in order to improve their business. Tao gave John a tour of the company and explained their procedures and processes.

  The company was laid out very well. It was divided into four color-coded sections. The place had been designed by one of the best Japanese designers. The offices were enclosed in transparent glass.

  The department in the middle (the blue one) was the largest. It had four working desks, and the workers came in on two separate shifts; one worked in the daylight hours, while the other came in at night to cover the time differences in the global markets. The blue section boasted several big digital screens showing various stock markets from around the globe. Their main responsibilities were to observe the market, analyze the daily results, and provide reports.

  On the right side was the green department. They also worked in two separate shifts, three people at a time. The green section was equipped with three fifty-inch plasma screens, and they were mainly tasked with following world political and business news and preparing reports at the end of the day based on their expectations of the impact of such developments.

  Next to the green department was the one with red décor. It was slightly smaller and was furnished with five desks situated close together. The staff in this section all worked on the same shift. Their main duty involved utilizing the Internet to follow emerging companies and individual businesses. They studied new market trends and provided full reports on the companies and the people who ran them. To John, this was the heart of the company, and it was where he needed to work.

  The last department, the white one, was where all the reports were sent and finalized.

  Yaturo had registered the company as a financial consultancy firm, an overseas company that belonged to some bankers in Zurich. Only Mitsua Oel and a “sleeping partner” in Zurich knew who truly owned it; they selected the most professional people they could find and offered them generous salaries. Only Yaturo and John were aware what the company was really set up for in the first place. Yaturo really played it safe and left no room for error.

  Most of the reports were sent daily by e-mail, except for the reports made by the red department, which was sent to Zurich twice weekly. The reports would then be sent back to an anonymous address in Kyoto, where Yaturo would arrange for pickup.

  John quickly began to understand why Yaturo had been out of the picture for so long. He was busy running the whole company. Unfortunately, all his efforts had failed to get him too far in his quest.

  After finishing the introduction tour, John had a brief meeting with Tao.
John’s main intention was to befriend the man and put him at ease. John didn’t want Tao to feel that his presence was in any way a threat to him or his job, Tao had a very outgoing personality. He was smart, very talkative, and seemed to enjoy being in the limelight, the center of attention. He was popular within the office and very respected, and John wanted it to stay that way.

  After the two were properly introduced, John discussed with Tao the new approach and strategy the company should undertake. At the end of his meeting with Tao, John requested a meeting with the red department later that day.

  John wanted to make a strong impact right from his very first day, and he did. His meeting with the red department lasted for two hours. During that time, he informed them that they were in the midst of a very important and critical period. He told them there were clients interested in investing billions and that they should focus their work that quarter on Eastern Europe, CIS countries, China, and Brazil; he threw in the latter two just to throw them off. He made it clear that it was very important that they find every detail about those markets. They needed to know where the markets were heading, who was in control, and exactly what were they controlling. He told the red department to focus mainly on those areas, but at the same time, not to neglect what was going on elsewhere in the world. Nevertheless, those specific areas would be their main task. He requested that thorough and accurate reports be given to him by hand twice weekly, every Tuesday and Friday.

  After work, Tao invited John for dinner. They dined at a well-known restaurant that served fugu, a fish John had heard of but had never tried. As with most of the Japanese cuisine he was experiencing, he was excited to finally eat some. It was an interesting meal because John knew the fish carried a high concentration of tetrodotoxin; unless it was properly prepared by a skilled fugu chef, it could be lethal. The fish was served in a delicate way, and its taste was on par with its unique and wonderful reputation.

  During dinner, they talked about work and life in general. Marriage, of course, was part of the conversation. John discovered that Tao was married and had two kids. He seemed very interested in John’s divorce story. John didn’t tell him the real story, of course; he only said certain differences had led him to separate from his wife. Based on Tao’s questions, John sensed that something was amiss in the man’s own marriage, but he didn’t want to give Tao any indication that he knew. He was confident that Tao would open up in time.

  -

  After working at the company for two weeks, John felt there was some good progress being made. They had begun to find information about companies and individuals they had never heard of before.

  Yaturo was happy with the developments. He had met with John a few days prior at the hotel, and John had given him a number of names that Yaturo’s contacts could check on. Unfortunately, none of that data produced anything of value, but Yaturo and John felt they were on the right track and were making moves in the right direction at a decent pace.

  John’s relationship with Tao became stronger. He really liked the guy, and they met either for a drink or dinner during the weekdays and played tennis on the weekends. Although they mostly talked about Tao’s marriage, John found the conversations to be a welcome relief from the stress of work.

  As it turned out, Tao was having an affair; he had been seeing a university professor for three months, and he had fallen for her. As such, he felt trapped. He had to make a decision to leave his family or give up his lover. John tried to give some advice, but he himself wasn’t any better in that department.

  Besides going out with Tao and working at the office, John’s life in Kyoto consisted of him spending endless hours at his suite, combing through every detail of the reports, trying to find anything that might be of help.

  He called Mitsua Oel, as he needed some information about Yaturo’s new business within the CIS region. Mitsua met him more than once and suggested that John visit their factories there in order to get a real feel for the situation. On another matter, Mitsua was very worried about Yaturo’s health and felt that Hitari’s end was near. He also told John that Yaturo had been asking many questions about all his businesses, as if he was getting ready to pass on his responsibilities, as if he was reaching his end. That news saddened John and made him even more determined to work harder and faster.

  -

  John spent three days in Kazakhstan and two in the Ukraine; Hitari had invested in the oil and gas, transportation, and chemical sectors there with some local partners. John was introduced to the people in charge of Hitari’s business, and the feedback he gained from those meetings indicated that they were doing well and that their economy was booming. Factories were being set up, backed by powerful millionaires. What interested John was that many people had recently been asking to purchase Hitari’s businesses. John was very satisfied with his visit, and he had a plan in his head. It’s time to fish them out, to let them make contact, John thought.

  John called Tao as soon as he returned to Kyoto. They had a long chat, and John updated him on work, while Tao updated him on the sad state of his crumbling marriage. It was quite evident that Tao was having some serious personal problems, as his mood around the office was nothing like it had been when John had first met him. He’d become far less social and interactive, and there were times when John felt Tao’s body was in the room but his soul was somewhere else. From their latest conversation, John had a feeling Tao was going to leave his wife. Two days earlier, his wife had been cleaning out his coat and discovered a woman’s hair—hair that wasn’t hers. She’d confronted Tao again and again, and he finally confessed the whole story. Tao felt miserable, because he didn’t want her to find out that way.

  “Why didn’t you deny it and wait for a better time, a better way to break the news to tell her?” John asked.

  “If it wasn’t for that damn hair, there wouldn’t be a trace on me. Ed, you don’t know my wife. If I had denied it, she would have taken the hair in for a DNA test,” Tao replied.

  DNA? Wait a minute! It finally hit John. As soon as he left, he began to think of something, and he only hoped and prayed he was right. Maybe there is a trace of Alexi left somewhere! After lunch, John called Yaturo and reported that he needed to see him as soon as possible; they decided to meet at eight p.m. that very evening.

  Yaturo arrived early, as usual, and John immediately realized Mitsua was right: Yaturo wasn’t doing well. Every time John saw him, it seemed the man had aged a whole year.

  Yaturo told John that he had been very busy the past several days because he wanted to restructure all his businesses. “I will be liquidating some of my assets and companies,” he said. Without going into details, he said he wanted to focus on the health sector only. “My daughter will handle everything, John, with the help of Mitsua and his team. All I want to do now is what’s good for the people,” Hitari spoke in a low voice.

  With a smile on his face John replied, “You know, Yaturo, my recent visit to Kazakhstan and the Ukraine proved to me that we should change our strategy to find Alexi. If you sell your factories there, it might be more beneficial to our cause than you might think.” John went on, “It’s as if they have a whole world operating in the dark, a complete underworld network. What you see on the outside is the tip, but the main players are those under the sea. They have power and money and are very greedy. Your factories there are in high demand, and as soon as we spread the word that you want to sell, those creatures in hiding will come knocking on our door. I believe there is a strong chance that someone connected to Alexi might have an interest. I know it’s a long shot, but we have to give them the bait. You’ve been looking for them all these years, Yaturo, but now it’s time for them to find you. If I had to meet half the world to find your Alexi I would, and if what I am about to ask you proves helpful, it will be easier than we thought.”

  “What do you want, John?” asked Yaturo.

  “The files given to you by Alexi, your files…have you touched them much?” inquired John.
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  “Yes of course—a million times maybe,” Yaturo responded with a confused smile.

  “What about the blue file cover that contained them? I remember you told me that Alexi presented a blue file cover that contained all the papers when you two met.”

  “Yes. What about it?” Yaturo curiously answered.

  “The folder cover…where is it?” John asked again.

  “In the room back home. I haven’t seen it in ages. Why are you asking?” Yaturo was getting a bit agitated.

  “How many people have touched it since it was handed to you?” John asked.

  “Only me, maybe once or twice. Who else would? It’s not important, John. There’s nothing left in it. It’s just a cover folder,” Yaturo replied.

  “On the contrary, Yaturo, it might be very important. I think we should test it for DNA. There are advanced tests available now that weren’t available before. We might find something, some evidence of who Alexi is or was or will be. If any specimen remains in favorable condition, it might still be intact. The room is dry and cold, so we might have a chance. Get it tomorrow. Carefully put it in a plastic bag and give it to me. I will send it to the States, to a testing center I know. I worked on a rape story before, and they helped resolve the case. They can work wonders, Yaturo! Don’t forget wear gloves this time, as we don’t want any more of your DNA on the file,” John concluded with a laugh.