Chapter 3 - The Flash Back

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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 contemplating his next moves. The party he was scheduled to meet has arrived at Moscow already. He was told that he would get a clear 2 days in Moscow ahead of them.
Now, this situation gave him little or no chance for the reconnaissance among other things. He felt the rise of that old familiar feeling, he hated it. He welcomed it.
He always believed in his gut instinct, that very basic natural tendency. He listened to it attentively, each time and every time.

Raul pushed the pillows up and leaned back on it, sinking back into his berth He crossed his left arm over behind his head, caressing his hair and closed his eyes. He loved this rush. He actually lived for this and he worked extremely well under such immense pressure. This was his comfort zone.

Raul trusted Mr. Wilson. He groomed him. Mr. Wilson is the CEO of the business empire but he was more like a friend, a father figure for him. Not many in the corporate knew this deep friendship he shared with his CEO. The relationship was based on trust and silence.

..
..

A decade back, Raul had joined the corporate as a technology trainer. It was  heck of a job. Raul taught core technologies to the new recruits that joined his company. The place was always a conflict zone of ego, bias, jealousy, lies and bitching. The company had named this department - The Farm and farm it was. More than teaching technology Raul was learning people management- managing the raw unpolished character of people.

The head of the department was Mr.Sunil. A very seasoned  officer, a man who had great reputation having worked with some major corporates of his era. Raul mixed well with him.
When Mr. Sunil resigned from his department, he recommended Raul as his successor, to Mr.Wilson.

Somehow for Raul, his new avatar as the department head was not very demanding of him. He felt comfortable handling his division. During the many department briefings and on the sidelines of other corporate conferences he got acquainted with Mr. Wilson up-close.

Not many months after, Raul was given the extra charge of handling the Research and Development division, which came directly under the CEO. It was during this time, that the association between him and Mr. Wilson bolstered further.

A few days after the corporate annual day celebrations, Mr. Wilson summoned Raul into his office. The message Mr.Wilson left with Raul's secretary didn't explain the purpose of his meeting with the CEO.  He felt a little uneasy.

His unwonted style of management was always been a talk in many circles. Shuffles, inter department transfers were all quite common in his team. Raul didn't hesitate to disrupt to achieve the degree of efficiency he wanted from his team. His decisions at his work place was based on numbers and less on emotions. His mantra was simple " shape in or ship out "
Not many appreciated his style of running the office. He knew they had invented many names for him and he didn't care. He took them as their means of venting out the frustration, some kind of pressure release valve. Even that worked in his favor according to him.

He was very sure the news would have reached Mr.Wilson.
With no time to waste, He grabbed the Department Diary, a few files pertaining to finances, department reviews, logs, pushed it inside a document bag and hurried down the corridor.

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