THE STERADIAN TRAIL: BOOK #0 OF THE INFINITY CYCLE

by M. N. KRISH

  ‘What did you do with the algorithm?’

  ‘I wasn’t sure what to do with it. I decided to sit on it for a bit, wait and watch.’

  ‘And?’

  ‘And what? I’m still sitting on it, waiting and watching.’

  Lakshman laughed. ‘You didn’t publish it?’

  ‘No. I wrote the paper but never sent it out to anybody. It’s still sitting in my computer.’

  ‘Do you mind giving me a copy?’

  ‘Not at all. But don’t come back saying you’ve found a loophole or you’ve come up with something even better.’

  ‘I don’t think so,’ Lakshman said, laughing. ‘From what I’ve heard, it seems like I’ll need to sit with a big pitcher of coffee to even make sense of your paper. . . . What did you do with that fellow Edwin Miller then?’

  ‘Never bothered calling him back. I looked up the profile of his company and spoke to a few people as well. It turns out they’re a body-shopping firm essentially, supplying Indian programmers to banks and finance companies in the US and UK.’

  ‘In other words, in the best position to fudge interest calculations all over the place?’

  ‘Exactly. His upside potential was huge, with easy access to hundreds of millions of accounts at all the major banks; he would’ve cleaned up big time in a few years. That’s why he was willing to pay so much for the algorithm. He tried calling me a few times saying he was willing to up the ante. I dodged him for a bit and finally told him I couldn’t go ahead because of certain terms and conditions in my research funding and some other IP issues at MIT. He didn’t trouble me after that.’

  Lakshman tucked a pakoda in and asked, ‘What happened to Jeffrey?’

  ‘Good question,’ Joshua said. ‘He’s dead.’

  He had been looking for the right moment to spring the news on Lakshman and he did so now with dramatic effect.

  ‘What!’ Lakshman gasped, almost choking on the pakoda.

  ‘Yup, he was murdered two days ago,’ Joshua said.

  Lakshman coughed and took a sip of beer to wash down the pakoda stuck in his throat. Joshua had him exactly the way he wanted: Dumbstruck.

  ‘What’s more,’ Joshua added merrily, ‘he died with my name on his lips.’

  ‘Your name?’ Lakshman asked when he managed to find words.

  ‘Yeah, my name.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘That’s what I’m trying to find out,’ Joshua said. ‘Why do you think I cancelled my ticket and checked back into the hotel? The cops on the case tracked me down all the way here. They suspect if I go back home now I might get into trouble; they asked me to camp out here for a few days till things cleared up a bit. Even Becky and Katie are sitting tight in Jerusalem for now.’

  ‘My God!’ said Lakshman. ‘You mean to say you might be at risk in the US?’

  ‘Yup,’ Joshua nodded.

  ‘But why?’

  ‘That’s what I don’t know. I haven’t even spoken to Jeffrey in years. After I fired him, he packed his bags and pushed off to TDU as he was planning. That’s the last I saw or heard of him – till now,’ Joshua said.

  ‘Are you sure he didn’t try anything funny with that Edwin guy?’

  ‘That’s what I’m trying to find out,’ Joshua said. ‘So do you want to go with me to Kanchipuram tomorrow?’

  ‘I sure do,’ said Lakshman.

  ‘So when do we leave?’

  ‘First thing tomorrow morning,’ Lakshman said.

  22

  Joshua was fast asleep when the phone rang. He had stayed up for a while combing through the Sulba Sutra paper on his laptop: Was he missing out something just like how he’d overlooked the non-Robinsonian push-pop thing? Was there some lead buried in there somewhere that Jeffrey would have picked up on? He had sat scratching his head for a long time and turned in rather late and fallen asleep with much difficulty. The ringing of the phone irritated him and he sat up groggy and grumpy, wondering who was calling at such an obscene hour. It surely couldn’t be Becky as he’d spoken to her as soon as he returned to the suite after seeing Lakshman off. It couldn’t be Lakshman either; there was very little chance that he would be up after all that beer. Guessing it was someone from another time zone, he helloed into the receiver and switched on the bed-lamp.

  ‘Dr Joshua Ezekiel?’

  It was a female voice with a distinctly American accent. Texan perhaps, Joshua thought. But certainly from somewhere down south if the drawl was anything to go by.

  ‘This is he,’ he said.

  ‘Hello Doc, this is Carla Silver. I’m the sergeant investigating Mr Jeffrey Williams’s homicide.’

  ‘Oh, hi,’ said Joshua. He reached for his glasses on the bedside table and put them on – he somehow felt handicapped without them. ‘So you’re the one who’s got me holed up here?’ He switched on the bed-lamp.

  ‘I suppose you could say I’m partly responsible,’ said Carla. ‘I hope you’re holding out okay there, Doc.’

  Joshua had chosen to ignore it the first time, but her encore performance really stung him. ‘I’m doing all right,’ he said. ‘But just call me Josh if you don’t mind.’

  ‘If it’s all the same to you, out of respect, I’d prefer to call you Doc, Doc,’ Carla said.

  Her tone sounded so authoritarian Joshua lost whatever courage and energy he had left for bandying words with her. He could see her in his mind’s eye, a sturdy-willed lady from down south, scouring a crime scene for clues in size twelve boots. He decided to back off for now.

  ‘Is this a good time to talk, Doc?’ Carla said. ‘I’d like to ask you some questions about Mr Williams. I tried calling you earlier but you weren’t in.’

  Joshua gritted his teeth and said, ‘Keeping in view the fact that we’re placed half way across the world in the spatial sense and half a day apart in the temporal sense, I highly doubt we’re going to be able to find a more propitious juncture.’

  ‘I’ll take that as a yes,’ Carla said, without missing a beat.

  Joshua said nothing. He swung his legs off the bed, pushed aside the pillows and sat up properly.

  ‘As you may know,’ Carla said, ‘Mr Williams’ dying words were about you . . .’

  ‘Yeah, so I heard,’ Joshua said. ‘But what exactly did he say about me if you don’t mind me asking?’

  ‘Not very much. He called 911 from a callbox after getting shot. He was already in trauma so he could barely talk; he spoke only in syllables and even that was garbled and not all that coherent, so we had to run it all through our voice software. Said something like he’s been shot and asked us to get you.’

  ‘That’s it?’ Joshua said. ‘Was that all he said?’

  ‘About you, yes. That’s all he said.’

  A brief pause.

  ‘Get me? What is that supposed to mean?’ Joshua asked.

  ‘That’s what I’m hoping you’ll tell us,’ said Carla.

  Pause.

  ‘Okay, let me ask you this,’ Carla said. ‘Do the numbers seventy, twenty and nine mean anything to you?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Numbers seventy, twenty and nine,’ Carla repeated. ‘Do they ring a bell? Anything special about them? . . . He mentioned them on the call. In fact, those were his last words. He trailed off after that.’

  Joshua thought for a moment. ‘Sounds like some zip code, doesn’t it? Seven o’ two o’ nine?’

  ‘We thought as much and checked it out. But there is no city or town with that zip code in the US.’

  ‘Oh,’ Joshua said, a bit disappointed, not expecting Carla to shoot it down just like that.

  ‘You haven’t come across that number before?’

  ‘No.’

  Pause.

  ‘It started out like an open and shut mugging my twelve-year-old boy could handle, but not quit
e,’ Carla said. ‘Anything you could tell us is gonna help, Doc.’

  ‘I’ll tell you what I know,’ said Joshua.

  ‘Great,’ said Carla. ‘Just so you know, I’ll be recording this conversation in case I need to revisit some of the things you say.’

  He repeated the story he’d just narrated to Lakshman. However, unlike Lakshman, Carla was not quite at ease with numbers and he had to water down the technicalities to make them palatable to her. He took deliberate care to maintain the focus on the past and did not let her in on his own little investigation here. For two reasons. One, he had no concrete finding to share as yet. Two, he would need some leverage to pry out information from her. He wrapped up saying, ‘I don’t want to be preaching to the choir here, but, if I were you, the first place I would go to is his computer. Try 70209 there. It could be a password or something.’

  ‘Right, Doc,’ Carla said.

  ‘In case you see weird stuff that doesn’t make sense, I’d be more than willing to take a shot.’

  ‘That’d be great,’ Carla said. ‘Thanks. Really appreciate it. I’m sure we’re going to be picking your brain again.’

  ‘You’re welcome,’ Joshua said. ‘I have my own selfish motive here. I get an earful from my wife and daughter each time I talk to them. This is really unsettling for all of us. We can’t wait for it all to be sorted out so we can get back home.’

  ‘I understand,’ Carla said. ‘But we had no choice. We couldn’t let you Ezekiels be easy kills, if you don’t mind me saying.’

  Joshua clenched his teeth in impotent rage.

  ‘Why don’t I leave my number with you?’ Carla said. ‘You can call me in case you remember something you forgot to tell me about.’

  ‘Sure,’ Joshua said and grabbed a pen.

  Carla thanked Joshua and hung up after passing her contact information. Joshua removed his glasses, switched off the bed-lamp and slid back in bed, unable to get rid of his vivid vision of her trampling about a crime scene cordoned off with yellow tapes and carroty cones in size twelve boots.

  23

  Lakshman joined Joshua in his Kanchipuram expedition with a new sense of willingness and involvement. Joshua had no way of knowing this, but Lakshman was motivated by something more than a genuine desire to lend a helping hand to an old friend; he had an enlightened self-interest in the matter as well. Jeffrey had not been killed at a randomly chosen moment in time, but weeks after attending a conference in India, a conference Lakshman had spearheaded from start to finish. If the police investigation spilled out of American shores, the first place that would feel the heat was the Institute, and the first place they would look for clues was the conference. It was barely two days since the director had patted Lakshman’s back for organizing the conference successfully. All that would come to naught if the cops came calling on his office. Lakshman wanted to stay one up and pre-empt any such contingency by joining Joshua and getting a sense of where it was all coming from.

  Joshua decided not to take Durai Raj on this trip to Kanchipuram. He booked him for the day but left him behind at the hotel to dig up some more clues about Jeffrey. Also, he didn’t want Durai to be too much in the know about his activities and movements. He had Lakshman hire another car near his house and pick him up at the hotel. Fortunately, this driver didn’t understand English all that well – certainly not the kind Joshua spoke – so Joshua could carry on his conversation with Lakshman freely without worrying about him listening in and turning it into cash one day.

  ‘There’s something I didn’t quite get last night,’ Lakshman said.

  ‘What?’ Joshua asked.

  ‘Why did these guys try to buy you out? They could have done whatever they wanted with the algorithm behind your back; no one was going to stop them.’

  ‘That’s right, they could’ve done that and no one would’ve stopped them. But there’s a catch. If they didn’t secure exclusive rights and keep the algorithm under wraps, I could publish it and make it available to everybody. What’s going to stop others from using it?’

  ‘Others, meaning who? Their competitors?’

  ‘No, other hacks like them,’ Joshua said. ‘Say three or four other guys attempt a similar operation and one of them gets caught with his pants down, the word will spread and all the banks would become alert instantly. It would put these guys at a huge risk. They can’t afford that. That’s why they wanted to buy me out and stop the paper from getting out into the open. As the old saying goes, too many cooks spoil the broth. But there’s a little twist here. It’s not just cooks; too many crooks spoil the broth as well.’

  ‘Got it,’ said Lakshman. ‘But are you sure Jeffrey or the other guy didn’t go ahead with the salami operation anyway after you turned them down?’

  ‘I never said that. I was only guessing they didn’t. I don’t think they were foolish enough to jump into something like this with a sword hanging over their heads. I mean, try any stunts when there was the risk of me publishing the paper anytime and unleashing others like them. That’s partly why I was in no hurry to get the paper out. Wanted to keep these guys guessing for a while. But with Jeffrey gone, who can tell for sure what happened? Kanchipuram could open up a whole new can of worms for all you know. He could have run into something else there that has no such risk.’

  ‘Maybe,’ said Lakshman. ‘But I can’t also help thinking that he may have just used the conference to go on a trip down south. A lot of the international participants were like that, combining business with pleasure; there were hardly any foreigners around for the last plenary. He could’ve been like the others – your information clearly says he made a trip to the Delta area.’

  ‘True, that’s what my brain says. But my gut says he wasn’t here just to go rubbernecking. Let’s go to the monastery and check.’

  ‘Right,’ Lakshman said. ‘Nothing quite like a visit to a monastery the morning after a binge.’

  ~

  Joshua led Lakshman inside the Sankara mutt. This was Lakshman’s first visit to a mutt and his eyes kept darting all over the place. The main entrance was modelled after a temple though on a smaller scale, with a green-tinged archway mounted with a smallish tower. They took off their shoes and made their way into the main hall.

  Joshua took up a strategic position under a fan and tried to recall which way to go while Lakshman’s roving eyes took stock of the place. It didn’t look too different from a community hall in a temple: pictures of gods and gurus hanging on the walls, cubbyhole shrines and offices dotting the perimeter, the aroma of camphor and incense wafting in the air, people milling about in small clusters, immersed in their own little affairs.

  Soon a booming voice with a distinct metallic ring – no doubt acquired from decades of chanting mantras – called out from behind.

  ‘Professor Joshua!’

  Joshua was startled for a moment, then spun around.

  It was Ramanathan, one of the resident pandits who’d helped Joshua during his previous visit. Joshua recognized him instantly, pleasantly surprised that the good old pandit not only remembered him after so long but also recognized him from so far.

  Half walking, half sprinting, his ochre shawl fluttering like a flag, he made his way towards Joshua and Lakshman.

  ‘Hi Rama, how are you?’ Joshua said and shook hands warmly. ‘I’m surprised you remember me.’

  ‘How can we forget you, Professor?’ Ramanathan said with a big smile on his face.

  Joshua then introduced Lakshman and said, ‘Rama was of immense help to me last time.’

  One glance at Ramanathan was enough for Lakshman to tell that the man was a pandit from the old school. He was a skinny looking man in his late fifties; he wore a pancha kacham veshti at the waist and an ochre shawl printed with Sri Ramajayams in lieu of a shirt. His mouth glowing red from betel like a traffic light, he spoke with a certain energy and intensity. Lakshman
could hardly believe that such a puny frame could generate so much tenor in his voice. Unlike his modern counterparts Lakshman was used to seeing in Madras, Ramanathan did not have his hair cropped. He had his head shaved in front and sported a topknot. He also wore diamond ear-studs and a heavy gold bracelet on his right hand – an award for winning a dialectic championship on mimamsa philosophy at Sringeri, though Lakshman would never know or be able to appreciate the achievement.

  Lakshman was still trying to decide whether he should fold his hands and say vanakkam or namaste, or go in for handshake. But Ramanathan took Lakshman’s hand into his and squeezed it. ‘We must be long lost brothers, Professor.’

  It was lost on Lakshman and it told on his face.

  ‘Ramayana, Lax,’ Joshua said with a smile. ‘He is Rama and you are Lakshman.’

  ‘Oh,’ Lakshman said and laughed.

  Joshua spent a little time chatting with Ramanathan, then began asking about his old acquaintances.

  ‘How’s Kumar?’ asked Joshua. ‘Is he around?’

  ‘He is fine, but he is not here now. He is in London.’

  ‘London? Really?’

  ‘Yes, Professor. He has gone for the consecration of a new Shiva temple there; he is conducting all the ceremonies.’

  The old-fashioned pandit stressed his words as if he were chanting Sanskrit mantras but he spoke English with complete ease. Lakshman found himself both amused and amazed and couldn’t help breaking into a smile. These brahmins!

  ‘What about Thyagu?’ Joshua asked.

  ‘He is in Maryland now. In a Lord Muruga temple there. Sent me email only last week. Says he is very busy conducting housewarming ceremonies for all our people there.’

  ‘I didn’t know all of you were on email,’ said Joshua. ‘We could all easily be in touch then. Why don’t you drop me a line?’ Joshua pulled out his card and handed it over to the pandit.