The Mallorcan Bookseller (The 3R International Series Book 1)

by PETE DAVIES

  “Welcome back to Mumbai Terri,” said Eshaan and shook her hand. “It is so good to see you again and you have brought your father with you too. Mr Chambers, a pleasure sir, as always.”

  “Good to see you again too Eshaan and I’m fine with Greg honestly.”

  “Okay Eshaan, where are we staying? It’s been a long day and I think we all want to get our heads down, although I’ve got one quick job for me and Simon before you disappear if that’s okay?” said Terri.

  “Yes of course and I have you all booked in at the JW Marriott at Juhu, so we’re only about fifteen minutes away, probably less at this time of night,” said Eshaan.

  “That’s great and thanks for getting things all set so quickly, as I know you’ve been busy with that Trent MacDonald stuff,” said Terri.

  “It’s my pleasure Terri and things are going well with the job and we’ve had a good result today with five men being dismissed, so I think we have blocked that particular problem.”

  3R maintained a presence in India and Eshaan headed up the business for Greg and Terri with full time offices in Mumbai and Bangalore. They were primarily engaged with providing support for Trent MacDonald, but the Bangalore office also worked with clients specialising in software development, where security and confidentiality was vital for client relationships. Terri had asked him to look into some losses that were going on at one of the new Trent MacDonald sites that had recently opened up. He had reviewed the site with one of his team and they had installed some covert cameras in the areas they thought most vulnerable and within a week they had identified the five people responsible, the times and the method of how items were being stolen, as well as where the items were then being taken.

  “Sounds like some great work Eshaan,” said Greg. “Well done and Terri and I will make sure we make time in the near future to drop by the office and thank the guys in person too.”

  “Thanks Greg and I know they’d really appreciate that too. Okay everyone, let’s get you all loaded up and we’ll be on our way.”

  It was less than fifteen minutes before they were being checked in by the Reception team and shown to their rooms. They agreed a breakfast time of 08.15 the following morning. Two minutes later, Simon and Terri were back out of their respective rooms and headed down in the lift and met up with Eshaan who was waiting outside in the SUV.

  “Okay my friend, let’s go and have a quick look at this call centre,” said Terri. “What can you tell us about it?”

  She had sent him through the details of the call centres and asked him to plot them all up. He was ex-Indian Special Forces and she had met him in Afghan a few years back. As the work in India was expanding she had told Greg they needed someone to run things for them out here and she had identified Eshaan and he hadn’t let her down, in fact he was excellent.

  Eshaan produced a paper file of maps and photos of the four sites, with particular focus on the one they were now heading for. They moved off from the hotel heading north and then turning right at the top of Juhu Lake. Eshaan stayed on this road for just over half a kilometre before turning left onto the Swami Vivekanand Road. Known locally as S.V. Road, it was the major arterial road in the western suburbs of the city.

  “There are many, many call centres in this surrounding area,” said Eshaan. “The one we want is another kilometre or so from here.”

  A minute or so later, he turned left off the S.V. Road just before the Barfiwala Flyover and into a small industrial area. He pulled over after seventy five metres and pointed at a building across the other side of the road. A two storey building with a glass frontage and other than the company name, Intertech above the main entrance, it looked like many of the other offices situated along the road. Terri could see lights were on in the offices on the second floor.

  “Is that where we think the call takers operate from?”

  “Yes, I’m pretty sure,” said Eshaan. “There’s a lot of people traffic around this area 24/7 and I’ve seen them going up the stairs that you can see over there.” He pointed to a staircase on the left hand side of the building that could be seen through the full length windows. “I’m sorry Terri, but I haven’t been able to sit up on the building because there’s not a lot of cover and you said to make sure I wasn’t seen.”

  “That’s no problem at all. You’ve done a great job setting this up in double quick time. Simon, what do you think?”

  “Yes the cover is difficult. I can’t see them being overly surveillance conscious, but I agree, let’s keep things safe and focus on getting eyes on the road coming into the estate. Can you get one of your guys to park up so they’ve got a view of the road coming in off the S.V. Road?” said Simon. “You got details of the Kaur woman too? Maybe get a watch on her place as well.”

  “Yes, we’ve got those. I’ll get both watches on from 05.00, is that okay?” said Eshaan.

  “Perfect mate,” said Terri. “Right, back to the hotel, I need my bed.”

  Eshaan set off back to the hotel and dropped them off outside the main entrance and then picked two names from his contacts list and rang them with the details of the early start they would be on in just a few hours’ time before he headed back towards his apartment.

  *****

  Jaz woke up with her phone ringing. It was Aditya Biri, her call centre manager at the Andheri West site. Just as she picked up the call she heard knocking on her bedroom door. She was about to say, ‘Come in,’ when Ekam burst in, something he would never do unless it was urgent.

  “Miss Kaur, Miss Kaur, we have a problem, the police. They’ve raided four of your call centres,” said Ekam.

  “What!” said Kaur. “Wait a minute. Aditya, what’s going on?” But the phone had cut off.

  Aditya had been getting a coffee at the machine on the first floor. It was his usual seven o’clock start to his day in the office when he had heard shouting and noise from the main entrance. He hadn’t clearly heard the first shouts, but the second came through loud and clear. ‘Police, Police.’ He ran down the stairs and saw them coming in through the doors. He turned around and ran back up as fast as he could to his office trying to ring his boss. He opened up his desk top and started the procedure he had been entrusted with when he was given the role of manager. He calmly went into the files and even as the police officer came through his door and pointed a gun at him, he pushed ‘enter’ and the program started.

  “Step away, step away and drop the phone,” the police officer shouted.

  Aditya immediately pushed cancel on the phone and then held his hands in the air and started protesting his innocence and asking what was going on. The officer was distracted for long enough in dealing with Aditya to not notice the line on the screen building towards 100% when the program would be complete. It was only then that the officers in the main call centre started shouting as first one and then more of the desk top screens started to go blank. Aditya heard the commotion and smiled. The program was working and not just here, but across all of the other sites. He glanced back at his screen. 92%. One more minute and it would be complete.

  A woman entered the room. She had a look of authority. She saw him looking at the screen and she went to his desk top and saw the number was now 97%. She cursed and started to push buttons trying in vain to stop the program. He thought she might say something or threaten him, but he realised it was too late. 99% and then 100%. It was done. He knew what would come next. He’d be arrested, but then she would get her lawyers to come and help him, at least that was what she had said. He hoped he could trust her. The worst Miss Kaur had said would happen would be a charge of obstruction and if he was unlucky a period of imprisonment. Something he wasn’t looking forward to, but she had said she would give his family £200 for every day he had to spend in jail. The female police officer couldn’t understand why the man in front of her was smiling. It had to mean that whatever he had managed to do had destroyed the evidence they were looking for. ‘Shit,’ she thought. That means a lot of explaining to her boss w
ho had said this was a job that had been authorised at ministerial level and had international relevance.

  “Shit,” she said, but out aloud this time. “Cuff him and get him away from me.”

  *****

  “Miss Kaur, we need to go and go now,” said Ekam.

  “I hope to God that Aditya activated the abort program Ekam. They’ve got nothing on us if he did, but if he didn’t…..” said Kaur, as she slipped out of her flimsy night dress and found some underwear, a pair of jeans and a top.

  Ekam looked away immediately, more out of shyness than anything. She often changed in front of him, showing no signs of inhibition because she had been doing this since she was a child and thought nothing of it. But he had grown more and more embarrassed, as the years had gone by, of his reaction every time he saw her naked and he had to look away to hide the feelings he had for her. He pulled himself together and re-focused on the job of protecting her.

  “He’s a good man, so I’m sure he did what he needed to do Miss. I will ring the lawyers and get them in to see him and we’ll know very quickly. We always knew this day might come Miss and if it has worked, then all will be well and you can quickly rebuild the business again.”

  “Yes, I know, you’re right, but I don’t like things going wrong. It was bad enough with what seems to be happening to Sonny without now getting this,” said Kaur.

  She paused for a moment and whilst she never sought his advice, she spoke her thoughts out aloud.

  “You don’t think any of this is connected with Sonny do you Ekam?”

  He didn’t really know what she had been doing in Mallorca, but he couldn’t see how any connection could be made to her from anything to do with the Armenian thug.

  “I don’t see how that could happen Miss, but still, we won’t take any chances, so let’s head for Goa,” said Ekam. “I suggest we use a private charter company?”

  “Yes, you’re right and good idea, we’ll get there quickly and this can all die down whilst we’re away. Let’s go. I could do with a holiday. We can check in with the rest of the team from down there, to make sure they are okay. I’ve got the master files here,” she said, opening her personal safe and taking out a USB, “so come on, let’s go.”

  She followed him out of the villa and down to the Mercedes, but she still had a nagging feeling about a possible connection to Sonny.

  Ekam eased the car out on to the main road and headed towards the airport. The man in the parked Hyundai SUV let another car pass him, to provide some cover, before he turned and followed the Mercedes. Traffic was slow as the morning commuter traffic had started, so he had time to make a call on his mobile.

  Eshaan had taken two calls so far that morning. The first was from his man at the S.V. Road who had said he had seen five police vehicles enter the business estate. He had followed them in at a distance and seen them carry out a raid at the Intertech offices. Only one man had come out under arrest and he had pictures of him. The second call was from the man watching Kaur’s villa. He was now mobile and following Kaur and the bodyguard. It was too early to be sure, but his man thought they may be heading to the airport. Eshaan then rang Terri to update her.

  *****

  Martin Carruthers put the phone down on the call he had just taken from his contact at the Indian Central Intelligence Bureau. Perhaps they had underestimated this Kaur woman. The police had apparently undertaken an effective raid of the four premises, but one of the call centre people, believed to be the manager at the Andheri West site, had been smart enough to start some sort of program that seemed to have completely disabled, if not destroyed the entire Intertech IT system. Kaur hadn’t been at any of the four sites and a follow up visit to her house had been equally unsuccessful and it now looked like she had left the city. As things stood at the moment, there was no evidence to suggest any criminal wrong doing by her or her company, simply because the evidence had been erased or destroyed in some hi-tech abort program.

  “Anna, I hope you’re well? Presumably this is breakfast time for you and you may have heard that the police have raided Kaur’s four sites?”

  “Yes, Martin, we’ve all just come down for breakfast and Terri has taken a couple of calls already. Did the police find anything?” said Anna.

  “Unfortunately not. Any evidence that was there is believed to have been destroyed by some sort of hi-tech program that wiped all the files across all four sites,” said Martin.

  “And presumably all the data Rob obtained would be inadmissible in a court of law?” said Anna.

  “Unfortunately so.” He paused and waited for her as he heard her tell the others what had happened. “Do you have any immediate plans Anna? Just wondering if you want those packages dropped off for you?”

  Again a pause.

  “Yes please to the packages Martin. If she is on the way to the airport we may be able to find out where she has gone. Wherever she goes, we will try to follow,” said Anna.

  “Okay, Laura will be with you shortly. She’s bringing some fishing gear, but she will ring you first. Good luck and keep me posted if you get a chance,” said Martin.

  *****

  “Disappointing about the IT system being sabotaged,” said Greg, “but she must have a back-up and be looking to start up again once things quieten down. So where are we betting that she might go?”

  “Well she’s got lover boy back in Mallorca?” said Terri.

  “Well she may be outside of India, but I just get the feeling that she’s going to want to stay somewhere she feels safe, so I reckon she’ll go to her place in Goa,” said Sam.

  “Okay,” said Greg, “the bets are on Goa. Terri, let’s see if Eshaan’s man can get close enough to see where she goes in the airport.”

  “I’m on it and I’ve just phoned Daniel to get himself and Frances back to the airport in case we need to shift out in double quick time.”

  THIRTY TWO

  It was only an hour down to Goa by plane, however, Jaz really didn’t fancy flying with a plane load of tourists, so she dialled one of the local private jet companies she often used when she wanted to get away quickly.

  The second one she rang could get her airborne in less than an hour, so they headed for the corporate terminal and within twenty minutes she was sitting on board sipping a glass of champagne. Ekam parked the car in a limited waiting area and rang one of his men to come and collect the car before he joined her on board. He could tell she was anxious, which was really unlike her because she was usually really strong when faced with any challenge.

  “How long will you be?” she called out to any of the crew who might be listening.

  “We are just finalising our flight plan with the control tower and we should be good to go in about five minutes Miss Kaur,” said a voice from the cockpit.

  “Have you got a car ready to meet us when we arrive Ekam?”

  “Yes Miss, it’s all arranged. One of the drivers will meet us as usual.”

  Jaz knew she was always collected at the airport and taken to the villa, so she couldn’t understand why she was asking such irrelevant questions.

  “Miss, is something worrying you that I don’t know about? I don’t mean to pry but is there anything I need to know to ensure I can keep you safe?”

  “I’m not worried, so don’t ask such stupid questions,” she snapped, before turning to look at him. “I’m so sorry Ekam. I didn’t mean to snap at you. I know you’re just trying to help.”

  “There’s no need to apologise Miss, I am just here to serve and to keep you safe,” said Ekam.

  She thought for a moment. She knew that Ekam knew about the call centre operations and the software scam, but she hadn’t told him about the side line with Sonny in Mallorca. She wasn’t hiding it, but equally she had never shared everything about the business with Ekam either. But he was right, if he was to be able to protect her then he needed to know where any possible threat could come from.

  “Look Ekam, I have been doing a little side line with
Sonny, you know the guy I met in Mallorca?”

  Ekam nodded.

  “Well it seems that he is having some difficulties with the police over there and some sort of private security company, who are acting for the family of a woman who was somehow killed in a burglary by Sonny’s team.”

  “Do you think it is the Spanish police who are now looking at you?” said Ekam.

  “I don’t know. But they worry me less than this private outfit because Sonny doesn’t know what they are capable of.”

  “This woman, how did she die if it was just a straight forward burglary?” said Ekam.

  Jaz went quiet.

  “I don’t know. Sonny is so gentle with me, but I get the feeling he could be, well you know…” she tailed off and looked down. “I really like him Ekam, but I think he may have brought trouble on himself and now he’s brought trouble on me.”