The Other Side

by Shreya Faria

  ‘Hey, we cannot do this anymore, we need to stop everything,’ said Rachel to someone over the phone.

  ‘Hey, all okay? You are sounding worried,’ asked the person from the other side. Rachel briefed the other person about Sam’s confession. She sounded worried and was getting into a panic about something over the phone.

  ‘Chill Rachel, don’t think too much. I will look at what you said and you, please delete my number and call detail, please. And now chill, I will try to get in touch in some other way,’ said the person.

  Throughout the day she tried not to overthink and tried relaxing her state of mind. But things were not working much in her favour. Sam’s confession was making her feel bad. Why? She tried indulging in work and not to give a thought about it for some time.

  On the other end, Sam was worried as Rachel didn’t react as he had expected. Now he knew, their relationship was going to be affected with something nastier than Ashton Martinson. Was there some person in her life? He kept thinking. He was desperate. He wanted to know everything. He just didn’t know how. After a while and after several thoughts, he called Rachel.

  ‘Hey sweetheart, I know you might be busy or may come home late. I will wait for you at home for dinner. Let’s have a dinner date at home tonight at whatever time you reach. Please don’t say no,’ said Sam and hung up the call before Rachel could say something. As it is, Sam had not given her many options to avoid this situation.

  Rachel was disturbed by the way things are going. She always wanted a husband like this, and now when he was being like one, she was not happy. Maybe, it was too late for such gestures from him? Rachel went home at her usual time to see that her house was all in the dark and only the fairy lights on at certain places. As she opened the door, the lighted aroma candles caught her attention, along with her favourite flowers everywhere in vases. Her heart was overwhelmed by the beautiful setting inside the house. Sam had never taken such an initiative to please her this way. As Sam saw her coming, he went to greet her and told her to change clothes and wear a dress which he had kept on the bed for her. Rachel didn’t know how to react. She didn’t want to spoil Sam’s mood for the efforts he had taken. She quickly changed her clothes and went to meet Sam. She thought of talking to Sam about certain things, but before she could do anything, she saw Sam on his knees, holding a solitaire ring in his hand and with a lot of excitement in his eyes, as if it was his first time. For Sam, if Rachel accepted the ring it would mean that there was no one else in her life and her weird behaviour had other reasons; but if she did not take the ring, then there were many things that would come up and open up. Rachel had dreamt of such moments many times, and today she was just not prepared to accept. She didn’t want to keep Sam in the dark or tell him lies or to manipulate after accepting the ring. Sam wanted a fresh start, and Rachel wanted to do that with an honest heart without any guilt or conspiracies.

  ‘I have also removed our very old Remy Martin which we had saved for some special occasion. I think we should open it today,’ said Sam, still kneeling and waiting for Rachel to take the ring or give some reaction. Rachel took all her time. She kept staring at Sam, then the ring then the bottle of Remy Martin on the table before reacting.

  ‘Sam. I am so sorry. I cannot do this, please get up. I am not in the right frame of mind. I need some time. Please, can you take the ring and the bottle back? Can we just have dinner?’ asked Rachel in a very disappointed tone. She knew it would hurt Sam.

  ‘Rach. I need to know why. What is it? Are you hiding something? Or is there something troubling you? Is this relationship over for you ...?’ asked Sam hesitantly.

  ‘Sam, time will tell you. Just not today please ... can we please have dinner? I am sorry for all this. I really appreciate your surprise and the decoration, by the way,’ said Rachel. They had their dinner and Sam was very quiet as still, he had no idea what was going on with Rachel. Was she going to leave him or was it just a rough phase? These thoughts occupied Sam’s mind and heart.

  Chapter 49

  With all the circumstances so conspired, Sam could not chill out easily. These scenarios had perturbed Sam. He started reminiscing about the good moments they had shared and also about times when he hurt Rachel and about the Ashton Martinson confession. He wondered if he had given her enough time to cope with such things. Can one ever recover instantly from such a mistake? He decided to give her the time she wanted and hoped for the best. Just while he was sitting idle with his thoughts, he got a call from Harvey.

  ‘Hey, what’s up? I called you so many times earlier, why didn’t you answer?’ asked Harvey.

  ‘Hey, I was having dinner, I didn’t see your calls or would have answered,’ said Sam in a very low voice.

  ‘Why are you sounding so low? Is all okay with you?’ asked Harvey, to which Sam briefed him, from the confession till offering the ring and then getting rejected.

  ‘What are you saying? You did all this? And I don’t believe she reacted this way. That means definitely something is fishy, because otherwise, she is so soft-hearted that she would not hurt you even when she is mad at you. That’s the reason she came back to you after that mess-up you did,’ said Harvey.

  ‘Yes, I know. Maybe she is done with me, and she has someone in her life now. Maybe I have done things beyond the forgiven,’ said Sam. Harvey was hearing him very intensely. He understood that Sam was in a dire situation and so it was better not to disturb him more emotionally with his suspicions.

  ‘Okay, don’t think much Sam. You need to relax. Things will turn out good. Give some time ... I will call you later,’ said Harvey and hung up. Harvey found Rachel’s reaction really weird. Something was definitely wrong somewhere and to worry about. He didn’t say it to Sam as he would get more tense, but he decided to look into the matter himself.

  Harvey left for the cybercrime department. Since Rachel had started deleting her call logs and messages, the only way out to find the number she frequently spoke with, was by taking help from the department.

  ‘You know this is not allowed right, I cannot give you anyone’s call records without any special permission ... Since you are convincing me that it is related to Sam’s case, I will give you the details,’ said the officer in a serious tone.

  ‘Thank you so much Sir, you have no idea what that means to me,’ said Harvey and waited there in the office to get the call log of Rachel.

  ‘It may take time Harvey, I will mail it to you as soon as I get it, you can carry on with your other work,’ said the officer. Harvey thanked him again and left from there. Harvey thought of tracking Rachel’s activity by following her, but he dropped the idea as it was still afternoon and it was too early to follow her.

  As he was driving towards his office, he got a call from Sahil. He parked his car near a café to answer his call.

  ‘Hey brother, how are you? Long-time dude.’ Said Harvey.

  ‘Hey, I am all good. You tell me how are things with you? Did you get your friend’s blackmailer?’ asked Sahil.

  ‘Oh no, still working on it. Though we have found out that it’s someone from his circle who is blackmailing him for some personal motto. There’s no blackmailer from the hackers of Ashton Martinson who is blackmailing him ... so what made you call after so many days?’ asked Harvey.

  ‘Harvey, actually I have found out something about Kabir and Kavya. The bank in Ankleshwar, of which an account number was given to Sam to transfer money ... so ... in that same bank even Kabir and Kavya have an account. Kabir has his factory in Ankleshwar and Kavya has an account under the name of some NGO,’ said Sahil.

  ‘Oh ... so you think they might be holding that same account. You mean they are Sam’s blackmailers? I don’t believe this. Shit there cannot be so many co-incidences every time,’ said Harvey.

  ‘Yeah, I know. I don’t understand what is happening. Looking at them you don’t feel they can do such things and so we still need to verify if they have the same bank account in which Sam had to transfer the money
,’ said Sahil.

  ‘Yes, I know. I too hope it’s still a co-incidence. I cannot imagine Kavya into all this. You think we need to talk to her directly about it?’ asked Harvey.

  ‘I don’t know man, so I called you to ask what to do about it,’ said Sahil.

  ‘Hmm, okay. How about calling her and asking her to meet and you just tell her you need help. For finding the detail about a bank account in her bank. Just don’t blame her directly and see how she reacts. Her body language and all,’ said Harvey.

  ‘Okay. I will call her and ask her to meet and then call you back,’ said Sahil.

  Harvey was perturbed with the way things were going with Sam and Rachel. Things were getting complicated with each passing day. Moreover, he liked Kavya as a person. His heart still wanted to believe it to be a coincidence, but his pragmatic mind did not accept the fact.

  He kept checking the updates and information about other clients and kept roaming here and there in the office to concentrate and understand things better, but it was in vain. His mind was stuck with the thoughts of Sam, Rachel and Kavya. Just as he was trying to concentrate on other work and clients, his phone rang. It was Sahil.

  ‘Hey, so did you find out anything? Had a word with Kavya?’ asked Harvey.

  ‘Well, I called on her cell, but it was unavailable. I tried calling Kabir, and he too was not available. So, I went to her place to check personally, and the security guard of that building said that they had gone on a holiday and would be back only after fifteen days,’ said Sahil.

  ‘Oh, in that case, I don’t know what to do next. We don’t have any alternate way to contact her, what do you think? Where did she go, any idea?’ asked Harvey.

  ‘The guard didn’t have details about where they had gone. I can e-mail her or try to check on Facebook if she has posted anything. And if that fails then we will have to wait for fifteen days,’ said Sahil.

  ‘Hmm, okay. Let me know if you get any answers. I too will try to contact her via Sam if it’s feasible,’ said Harvey.

  Harvey was still thinking on the holiday part, when his boss opened his cabin door.

  ‘Harvey, I am really disappointed with you this time. The threats of the blackmailers are increasing. Clients are calling in the office every day, but it seems you only care about Sam’s case. Earlier you said it was all linked and now you know it’s someone from his own league who is doing all this. In that case, tell me how are you solving the other cases?’ said Harvey’s boss.

  ‘I am sorry Sir; I know I have been busy with Sam’s case, but trust me there’s nothing much we can do about the blackmailer’s of Ashton Martinson. They are so smart that they have left no hint. Their agenda is not just the money, and I am already taking help of the LAPD cybercrime department. Any progress in this case and I will report to you forthwith,’ Harvey tried to convince his boss.

  ‘Hmm, okay. These blackmailers have threatened to leak all the data online within this week, so please look into it and report back,’ said the boss and left from Harvey’s cabin.

  As he left office for the day, his mind occupied with the threat of the blackmailer, Harvey got a mail from the cybercrime officer. He checked the subject line and postponed opening the mail till after he had reached home.

  Chapter 50

  Harvey had his favourite pasta and some wine for dinner and opened his laptop to read his email. As he opened the email, he got a call from his boss.

  ‘Stop all your work and listen to me carefully. Check the internet, the blackmailers have leaked certain files consisting of names and other details. People are panicking and opening these files, and the sites where they are posted are a new trap for people who are checking it. Please check the internet and look into this. Call all our clients and make them understand what to do,’ said his boss.

  ‘Oh, okay Sir. I will do that right away,’ said Harvey and hung up the call. He closed his email without reading and went on to a browser and those websites to know what exactly was happening. He had already started getting calls from clients who were panicking over the data leak. With time at a premium, Harvey didn’t know what to do.

  The blackmailers had leaked certain files which consisted of the names of CEOs of some well-known companies. There were certain websites that promised to provide access to the leaked client names but instead delivered malware; such cases had also popped up. In such cases of the data leak, it was important to keep in mind that criminals would be hungry to use the opportunity to target those who were affected or were afraid of being targeted and in this way people could be targeted even if they never opened an account on Ashton Martinson.

  Harvey immediately created a WhatsApp group named ‘Victims of Ashton Martinson’, and added all his clients who were affected. Within half a minute, he got a call from one of the members who had exited the group.

  ‘What the heck, Harvey? We are paying you and your agency so that our names should not be leaked and it should be private. Then why the hell did you create this group? So that others should also come to know about it?’ asked one of the clients.

  ‘Oops am so sorry. Actually, I was in a hurry and needed you guys to stop making some mistakes in general. Don’t have much time so I thought this would be fast ... I am so sorry ... I will change the name of the group, rest, please co-operate, all are sailing in the same boat,’ said Harvey and tried to convince the clients. Harvey immediately changed the group’s name to ‘General Precautions’ and added those who had left the group the first time. The first message he sent in the group was, ‘I have created this group to save time. This is for the precautions one needs to take before feeding the curiosity of opening certain websites or links which claims to give the details of the leaked names and other details of the Ashton Martinson sites.’

  It was followed with other messages like, ‘Check links before you click on them. The hackers who want to use such opportunities will use a legitimate web address in the hyperlinked text of the email, but as soon as you click on them, they take you to a malicious website. To check, hover your mouse over the link, but do not click that link. A small yellow box will appear which shows the actual website the link will take you to and if it doesn’t match the hyperlinked text, then it’s a fake link and mostly malicious. And in browsers like Google Chrome and Safari the yellow box will appear in the bottom left side of the window instead of below the link.’ Harvey also sent certain images to make them understand about the yellow box properly. Within seconds he had checked that all the group members had read the messages, and none reacted. Neither did they exit the group. His objective was accomplished, and he went to bed.

  The next day, the blackmailers had leaked 13GB of the file containing the list of various names and emails received by the CEO of Ashton Martinson. The air was tense for everyone who was involved with the website. Harvey’s precautions through WhatsApp were just a list of to-do’s to stay save from malicious websites. He didn’t know what to do if the names of his clients were leaked by the blackmailers. His phone and that of his boss were constantly buzzing. The number of cases of suicides was increasing in the United States and Canada.

  Harvey tried to check how legit was this list and to his surprise, all were legit. He checked certain websites via the Tor browser and the list opened up easily. He checked for the names of his clients, but luckily there were none. He also checked for Sam or Rachel’s name, but there were none.

  Harvey had to keep an eye on Rachel, but he was not able to do so. He also forgot to check the unread mail of the previous evening. It was from the cybercrime officer. The pressure on him to help his other clients had increased. On reaching office, Harvey had to call all his clients to calm all his clients who were going crazy after the leak. The blackmailer deliberately was leaking data every day. The real philanderers were afraid of getting exposed. After all, they knew about Karma. Harvey kept a track of the troublesome websites for his clients, and he also took help from the cybercrime officer.

  As he left office, as he d
rove, the unread email kept nagging him. The email which the officer had sent, which consisted of Rachel’s call log. Just then he saw Rachel’s car outside a café, and he stopped his car and parked nearby. He tried to check who she was with but decided to wait as he was unsuccessful and was unsure if he should call. Rachel looked tense as she spoke, and this amused Harvey more. He finally decided to call.

  ‘Hey Rachel, wassup?’ asked Harvey as soon as Rachel answered the call.

  ‘Hey, Harvey. I am busy with some work right now. I will give you a call in some time,’ said Rachel and disconnected the phone, leaving Harvey disappointed with the opportunity missed. He just realized how dumb he was. He could have simply walked into the café, on the pretence of ordering coffee and could have bumped into Rachel and check out who she was with. After this call that was not possible. He had missed the goal, and he felt stupid about it. He would now have to wait till she and her companion left to see who she was with. His eyes were glued to the exit gate and there was not much to do in the car apart from hearing some music. After a certain amount of time, he saw Rachel getting up from her chair. She took a parcel with her as she stood and had a broad smile on her face, and she moved forward to hug that person.

  ‘What the heck is that pillar doing there,’ Harvey said to himself as he tried to get a proper make out the movement outside the café. To make it worse, it had started raining. The café’s security guard first escorted the person who was with Rachel with an umbrella till the car which was waiting in front of the exit and the guard and the umbrella covered the person completely. And as he was trying to figure out, Rachel disappeared from his sight, and he wondered where she had gone. Just then he heard a knock on the passenger side of car.

  ‘Hey, so what are you doing here? You called me and didn’t mention that you were here?’ asked Rachel.