He thought he heard a knock on the glass door. Raul looked up from the computer, to see whose knocking on his cabin door. It was Diana Kobka with a cup in her hand. He removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes. Immersed in his work, he has forgotten everything happening around him. He looked at the large clock kept on the wall, it was quarter past 5 in the evening. Diana knocked again. "Oh..sorry!", saying that Raul pressed the button on the wall near him to unlock the glass door, letting her in. "Sir, tea", she kept the tea on the table. "Oh!! Thank you" Raul responded leaning back on the chair. "So, you done for today?" asked Raul "Yes Sir, Sonya is waiting outside for me and I am waiting for the server backup process to conclude" said Diana."Sir you look tired.!" Raul gave a wry smile "Haven't we all! A major release is coming this fall and everyone is running like a race horse against the clock." ...

Raul, never had many friends. He kept only a very few, a handful literally. The colleagues at his work place, mostly never made it into his friends list. In the world of information technology, it is not a joke when some one says, they barely know the person sitting next to them in a cubicle. It is a hard reality, an occupational hazard. Everyone are tasked to squeeze the double into every passing second. It is not just a race against time what a professional does inside the maze of cubicles, but spinning faster in their spots, than the planet earth itself. For Raul, who was heading two departments, he was on warp speed trying to stick with his schedules. When he goes home after work, he lie down on a comfortable couch reading books With news on TV in the background, no communication with friends or others. Loneliness brings life into another realm. In the  quietness, there is a new beginning for humankind, to think more and think from themselves. For Raul, loneliness and solitude...

Raul felt much better after a shower. Going back into the cabin, he changed into  white t-shirt, with a  peach colored shirt over it  and pulled up a blue jeans.  He more or less live in denim 24/7. The air inside the cabin was perfumed, by the scent of the lemon grass and musk from his clothes.There is something unsettling about the smell. It has a familiarity, that took him way, back in his life. The smell engulfed him and he smiled. She had me surrounded - he thought as he adjusted his hair looking at a small mirror on the cabin wall. The train has ample storage space, under the bed. He lifted the  bed to place his backpack inside and closed it, tugged on the lock of the backpack to see if it fastened well. He drew the window curtains back, kept the pillows properly and placed the folded blanket and bed-sheet on top of it. The phone charger was kept near the mineral water bottle on the coffee table. He took a good look inside the cabin and taking a mental ph...

Raul scrolled through the pages of Московские новости ( Moskovskiye Novosti ),reading about the news and happenings in Moscow. It is only very recently he started using smart phones. He kept himself disconnected from the networked world as much as possible. He preferred old bulletin boards and online forums than using social media. He found these online forums more informative and rational than the rabid Social media. The bulletin boards these days are like an old lost forgotten civilization,  only a handful kept alive by the old timers with their personal servers at home. He visited these bulletin boards because, he could learn reliable information from them. With his alter ego, he is sensibly active on these forums. Even though he is a hard core Information Technology professional, it is an irony that his personal life adapted very late to these technologies and was rustic. He bought his first iPhone only a couple of months back. Till then he used the basic mobile phone for e...

Raul got inside the farmhouse with Sunil behind him. On the wooden rocking chair, closer to the far wall sat Mr.Wilson looking straight at him. His mind was a surging perplexity. Just when we think we are the master of our thoughts fate takes a new turn. Emotions come like hands on the wheel of a "car," taking us somewhere different to the place we had expected. The destination may be beautiful or insufferable; yet feeling afraid for it is all new and the heart beating all the harder. "Raul...take a chair", he felt the hands of Sunil on his shoulder, nudging him gently to the wooden chair next to him. Raul sunk in the wooden chair. He felt the chill of the cold wood through the denim blue jeans he wore. His eyes was still adjusting to the  luminous of the solar lanterns that almost faded into the darkness few feet away from the lantern itself. Sunil, left them at the hall and went into the kitchen. Raul felt that the anticipation was a nervous kind of energy....

Back at Atlanta Inc. Raul maintained his cover, as an operative for Mr.Wilson. His constant engagements with the CEO went unnoticed by others, as he also headed the R&D ( Research and Development ) division, directly under the purview of the higher offices. The tasks assigned to him by Mr.Wilson were becoming more complex and time consuming. Raul had been an operative for so long now that he no longer remembered what it was like to be himself. He was either the person undercover, roles he adapted to so well and it was like an alternative life. When he immersed into his assignments, he was the professional, executing orders, giving reports and being debriefed. The man he had been, the one who skipped stones into the winter ocean , who painted oil paintings and pencil sketches, was all gone. Mr.Wilson really knew how to feed the lone wolf inside Raul. Wilson have found a way to do his job nice, neat and clean. It was a Sunday late afternoon in June . Mr. Sunil Joseph, his former...

Raul studied each photos which was sent to him, zooming on them. He wanted those photos to talk to him. He seem to recognize the gray building in the picture. "Was it the 'ONE TEASPOON CAFE?'"- He asked to himself. The brick walls, the green thicket on the right, the steel gray painted lower wall, everything looked very familiar to him. He zoomed in on the yellow number plate, of a car in the picture. The code 777 on  the right hand corner of the number plate confirmed that these photos were indeed taken in Moscow. The picture sent to him seemed very recent. Raul smiled at the thought that, Mr. Wilson already has spotters at Moscow keeping an eye on the clients. Raul decided to do some Digital Recon on these six individuals he was about to meet in another days time. Digital Reconnaissance and Surveillance was something that Raul mastered over the years, it was one of his other skill that made him valuable. Today, the world operates on a digital landscape. Wearable te...

Raul finished his breakfast, drank from the bottle of mineral water and wiped his mouth with the tissue paper. He felt full.  That will hold him for another few hours, he thought. He went out of the cabin to put the dispensable box in the garbage box. On his way back he bought tea bag from the conductor's cabin and made himself a hot tea from the samovar. By character, Raul could disconnect himself from the world around him and still keep his pace. He is a silent soul always keeping everything to himself. He didn't make much friends at work place, it was all business for him. His social circle is very limited to a few, that lived Kilometers away from his home. Raul was the lone wolf, that he made himself to be. Irony is that an actual "wolf" has far less chance of survival on its own. Whereas a "lone wolf" human has a much better chance of survival based on their level of ruggedness and intelligence. Many of the beaver trappers and mountain men of wester...

"Good Morning....sir", Raul greeted Mr. Wilson, eager to break the silence and enter into a conversation to figure out the purpose of him being summoned by the high office. Raul understood life in a peculiar way. For him, life is a linear sequence of scares like that of a fun-house; an illusion that get amplified in the fog of thoughts. Take it or leave it is the only choice given. Makes you think about free will: His maxim was always been "you don't choose life, life chooses you". This made him well grounded, even when facing the toughest of situations. "Mr.Sunil Joseph spoke very high of you when he recommended you to the department head of Training and Development Division" said Mr.Wilson. Raul, sat forward on the edge of his chair, leaning forward. "Yes, he has been a very good manager for me, sir" "I have been looking at some data. You are doing an impressive job, considering the level of efficiency you have achieved in a ...

Stepping into the large air conditioned Front office of his Corporate HQ was like walking out of the August heat and into an April afternoon. Even the air was perfumed like spring flowers. The visitors area was almost deserted. Elegant and classy assorted chairs some upright with padded seats and carved backs, prints of country landscapes, a few wooden tables with magazines neatly arranged on them. Walls were all the same black stone with embossed carvings and patterns. It was a luxurious fort in itself. Two men in business suit, sat hunched on either side of one large cherry table. As Raul walked in, they  broke off their hushed conversation and turned to look at him. He gave a slight nod acknowledging their presence and quickened his steps towards the front desk, on the far right corner of the room. Shanti was efficient from her shiny shoes to her pearl necklace. Her suit was crisp and her shirt ironed to perfection. She coiffured her hair and spoke with an aristocratic a...

Raul got out the department building complex numbered 4A. It is one of the  cluster of 8 high tech buildings, large with smoked glass and steel. The architecture reminded him of tetris colored deep slate-blue under the albino skies. He stepped out into the walkway leading to the Building Block-1. The day was gorgeously perfect. At a short distance he saw the skyscrapers shining silver, in the late morning sun against the unbroken backdrop of blue skies. Outside had the sweet fragrance of freshly cut grass and the birds chirped in the trees. He crossed a small park near the canteen, the leaves in the park have their first autumnal blush. The tarmac path is wet from the night's rain. Raul felt elated breathing in the fresh cold air and feeling it on his face. He passed the small sign arrows pointing towards the designated building. Right in front of the Global Head Quarters front stood two neatly trimmed Hawthorn trees. From the main gate, a gravel path wind past well manicure...

The classic ringtone of his iPhone filled the cabin. Jolted awake hearing the rickety tone, he grabbed the phone with a quick swipe of  his hand. It was Mr. Wilson. Raul answered the phone. "Dobroye utro Raul-(Good Morning, Raul) " said Mr.Wilson in a very heavy  accent. "Da Utro -(Yes, Morning)" Raul responded, clearing his throat.  "Lyudi, s kotorymi vy dolzhny vstretit'sya, uzhe pribyli.- "The people you have to meet have already arrived" - The voice of the old man was firm with a tinge of impatience. "But" - Raul protested and as usual he was cut short by the old man. "Oni znayut vashe raspisaniye- (They know your schedule)"."Udachi i beregi sebya (Good luck and take care)", saying that the old man disconnected the call. He kept the phone back over the folded map. Feeling thirsty, he took the bottle of mineral water kept on the coffee table and drank from it. Raul closed his eyes and sat contemplat...

The damp soft squeal of the train machinery filled the cabin. It gently rocked him as he laid back, half asleep in his thoughts. The orange and apple red morning light scattered through the snowy morning and poured into the cabin. Everything in his life had started out black and white. Somewhere down the paths of life, it went blurry, colors fading, getting smudged and gray. Life as the wise ones say comes with two miseries - getting what you don't want and not getting what you really want. A decade back, while he started his career in the industry, he was the best and celebrated much for his knowledge on the subject and his foresight. Well! not everyone subscribed to his "work culture" of "getting it done"; they thought he was too much of a risk. He was young and wild but he took the responsibility up front, one of the reason why the old man, Mr.Karl Wilson supported him, in fact it was him that saw the spark in Raul Zaitsev, when he first joined his b...

The Moscow bound train ploughed down the tracks at a steady pace, humming along, never getting any louder or softer. Same with the engines, its monotonous sound like a mortar smoothly grinding down time. It's nearly dawn when he woke up. He draw the curtain back and took a look. Snow fell outside like ashes.All he could see was the vast fields covered with white snow in the fading light of the day. Clouds, sharply etched against the western skies framed by light and ominous. He pressed his face against the window drinking in the unfamiliar sights. He looked at his watch. Its 7:32. Thirteen hours since he left home. He has another days journey ahead of him. He took out the map from his back pack and spread it neatly over the snack table. Took out his pencil, started marking routes, places and making a mental map. He jotted down some bearing on his small pocket notebook. He is very well aware of all the technology available at his finger tips these days but its always his old school...