Chapter 15- Jane

The warm bronze sunlight was swallowed by the horizon. The bright sunny day engulfed in darkness. In the far distance, the silhouette of the skyline pierced through the warm glow like a jagged mountain ridge. Millions of lights caused the dense mass of skyscrapers glitter. By nightfall the familiar trees and rocks of the daytime took on new and ominous forms. It was as if by stealing their colors, the night also stole their friendly spirits and replaced them with malicious demons.
Looking out from the top floor of his building, Raul was looking out of the window of his office, waiting for the computer to churn out the results. The search query on the computer was taking too much time.

Back from inside his office, he heard a chime. It was his cell phone announcing a call. He walked back into the office to answer the call
"Hello" said Raul.
"You talk to everyone else..but not me" She said sobbing and disconnected the call. It was jane.
Raul was stunned, "What the hell was that!" he thought.

He looked at his computer. It was still busy fetching the information he wanted from the thousands of records from a central data base. The bottom panel on the screen showed the already fetched records, listed in alphabetical order. Using the keypad, he highlighted each record, reading a summary of information which popped up as he clicked on it. 
'Ethen Adwell'- 'Lawyer' , said one listing."That look promising" said Raul to himself. He copied the complete profile information of Ethen into a notepad.

Mr.Wilson, asks Raul to target certain people, specifically lawyers and accountants for information from the camps of his adversaries. Lawyers and accountants are the few, who lay the foundation work for most deals. Knowing about them and the files they are working, provided Mr.Wilson with enough insight into what his adversaries are planning on the deal with Atlanta Inc. It was elementary; like in war as described by Sun Tzu :“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
Mr. Wilson was the General who ran the business like waging a battle.

Couple of minutes later his computer displayed a message, giving the summary of the search, complete with records fetched and the time it took to complete it.
After few scrolls through the record, Raul found the other name he was looking for. 'James Adams- Retired Judge'.
James Adams, a retired judge was the legal consultant employed by the UK firm to look after the legal aspects of the project. They have appointed a law firm in Kazan, not far from Moscow as point of contact (POC) for Atlanta Inc.
The list given by Mr.Wilson contained two dozen names and Raul was preparing his battle plan of reconnaissance according to the priority for everyone on the list.

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Night had fallen fast upon the land. No more than an hour ago the sky was painted with hues of red, orange and pink, but all color had faded leaving only a matt black canvas with no stars to be looked upon.
Raul was driving in his car back home. His mind occupied with the thoughts of the recon mission ahead. That's the only thing that occupies his mind most of the time, with him and his conscience debating over his recon plans.
The phone started ringing. He slowed down the car to look at his phone.
It's Fabrice.

"Hello!"
"Yeah Fabrice, tell me"
"Are you free to talk, Raul?"
"I am driving home, you can talk. I am in no hurry." he parked the car to the side of the road and killed the engine.
"I received a couple of text messages on my phone from Jane. Don't be so tough on Jane" said Fabrice.
"Aah..See, I don't play such games. You know me. It's just that, I helped her family and I became some sort of hero for her. It's  a short phase of some emotional high. It is understandable. Everything stops there. " replied Raul.
"Raul,She is a nice, innocent woman. She is happy that you helped her get a job, sorted out the financial mess of the family and helped them with the court case."
"Exactly and I am not going to change the status quo. It's just a help and nothing personal. We don't get personal, with these sort of things" replied Raul, expressing his exasperation on the matter.
"Raul, I am your good friend and I wont mean any harm to you. I know this family for some time."
"I understand you! Fabrice."
They talked for some more time on the phone.

The blackness engulfed his thoughts. It stretched out in front of him like a map, deep inside, an unknown was studying his fears, his courage and his knowledge of emotions.
That night, he got home really tired!
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Fate was the puppeteer, Raul knew first hand. It was the demon in his life, the one that held onto his neck so tight they squeezed the air out of him. Yet he figured that at least fate would get tired of suffocating, that its clutches would numb. The next few months in his life  was like that; when it got in its strongest, it weakened and eventually let him go; the fate was unstoppable.