Insider Sample
Insider Sample
Insider Sample
RV RAMAN
First published in 2016 by Hachette India
(Registered name: Hachette Book Publishing India Pvt. Ltd)
An Hachette UK company
www.hachetteindia.com
ISBN 978-93-5195-031-8
The Indian watched the German from the corner of his eye. He
would soon step out of the server room for a smoke break, time
enough for the Indian to patch in the last block of code he had
surreptitiously been inserting into his client’s high-security
system.
Indranil, a freelance computer programmer from Kolkata, had
concluded on his second day in Germany that the brawny German
was a guard masquerading as a programmer. The desks had been
so arranged that he could see Indranil’s screen at all times, but
Indranil couldn’t see his. By the second day, the conspicuous
absence of keyboard sounds from the German’s desk had spoken
loudly. Indranil was being watched.
His suspicions had been aroused as soon as his jet lag wore
off. Why had he been called to a data centre deep in the German
hinterland? Even Einbeck, the closest town, was a quiet little
place, miles from anywhere. Given the data centre’s high-
capacity linkages to the internet, Indranil could have worked on
the project from India itself. Why haul him all the way to Europe?
He had no answer.
None of the people at the data centre spoke English, but his
host had not skimped on hospitality. Everything Indranil needed
had been provided. As an added incentive, a two-day yacht trip
off the Baltic coast was on offer if he completed his work ahead
of schedule.
Spurred on by the thought and with no other way to spend his
time here in the German wilderness, he had worked through most
of his waking hours. On the side, however, he had begun
unravelling the mystery of the remote data centre. He had learnt
that it hosted applications for several companies, including a
Swiss bank, a British retailer and an MMORPG game.
After a week, he had discovered enough to realize that his
client was involved in something suspicious. His hacking skills
had led him to three other Indians logged into the server, who
were working on different parts of the software. The client had
broken up their project into parts and got freelancers to work on
each piece in isolation, presumably so that no single person knew
what the entire software actually did. Sheer chance, aided by his
hacking skills, had allowed Indranil to see more than he ought to
have.
Another week later, he had figured it out and had decided to
covertly embed software that he could later exploit. There was
enough redundant code in the system in which to hide his own
cryptic and recursive code. It would be very difficult for someone
else to find and remove it.
He had paced it perfectly too. His project was almost done and
he had just one more day to go. The last blocks of his illicit code
would be in place once the German stepped out for his cigarette.
Indranil would be on his yacht trip by the next evening and his
client would be none the wiser. By next week, he would be back
in India.
As soon as the German picked up his cigarette packet and left
the room, Indranil’s fingers flew over the keyboard. Two
windows popped up on his screen and his right hand gripped the
mouse. The first window opened the file he had copied earlier
from his pen drive to the computer. He transferred a block of code
from it to the second window. Even as he saved the modified file,
he opened another window and copied another block of code into
it from the first window. Then again, as the last block went into a
third file, he finally closed the windows and executed a command
to compile the three modified files.
Three minutes later, he was finished. He sat back in relief as
his pounding heart gradually calmed down.
It was done!
The German’s smoke break lasted much longer than usual and
there was a new tension in his bearing when he returned. He spoke
little over dinner that night and his expression was pensive as he
sat beside Indranil on the four-hour drive to Lübeck and the
coastal town of Travemünde the next morning. Something had
evidently happened during the smoke break, but Indranil couldn’t
gauge what it was.
The forty-foot yacht turned out to be smaller than the one he
had fantasized about. The two cramped cabins and the saloon
could just about accommodate five men. Indranil was to share a
cabin with his German friend of four weeks, while two other
Indians shared the second cabin. The fifth, the pilot of the hired
yacht, would use the saloon.
One of his fellow Indians – a representative of the client – was
Pramod, a swarthy middle-aged man with an enured face. The
other was a diminutive young man named Anil. Jovial, gay and
appropriately loud for a stag party, Pramod was clad in Bermuda
shorts and a floral open-necked shirt. He soon proved to be the
live wire of the evening, cracking jokes, both lewd and subtle,
belting out popular Bollywood numbers and generally putting the
others on the yacht at ease.
By the time the leisurely autumn sun finally went down five
hours from the coast, the second bottle of scotch was half-empty
and Anil was quite drunk. Indranil made a startling discovery
before the other man’s words began slurring and his speech
became incoherent: Anil was one of the other three freelancers
who had worked on the software.
Even as Pramod liberally poured the scotch into Indranil’s and
Anil’s glasses, he was filling his own and the German’s with ice.
The German had grown very quiet, throwing occasional glances
at Indranil. Twice, when he had caught those glances, Indranil
was unable to fathom the man’s expression. And that bothered
him.
Suddenly, the penny dropped: Pramod was planning
something treacherous in the Baltic waters!
Either he had discovered Indranil’s deceit or had decided to
dispose of the programmers who had built his software. Another
flash of insight seared Indranil’s mind: Pramod had deliberately
used freelancers, because they were easier to get rid of than full
fledged employees of software companies.
Oh God! What had he gotten himself into?
Indranil’s inebriation receded in an instant. He excused
himself and went below deck as Anil began to sing drunkenly. In
the toilet, Indranil switched on his mobile phone and waited.
Damn! There was no signal!
He had no specific plan in mind, but if he could catch a signal,
he might be able to call someone or send a text message. He
cursed the endless expanse of water around them.
Meanwhile, Anil had suddenly stopped singing.
As Indranil pocketed his phone, wondering what he should do,
he heard a strangled cry, followed by a thud. His blood ran cold.
He waited, not daring to move.
There was nowhere to hide on the yacht!
A couple of minutes passed in silence. Then he heard a splash
and the yacht rocked gently. Fear gripped his heart and he began
to sweat. Footsteps came down the stairs…and passed the toilet
door. He opened the door just enough to catch a glimpse of his
German friend entering his cabin.
Realizing that he couldn’t stay in the toilet any longer without
arousing suspicion, he trudged up to the deck. Should he grab a
couple of life jackets and jump into the sea? How cold was the
water? Would he freeze to death? He rejected the idea. In any
case, he stood a better chance in a one-on-one with Pramod before
the German returned.
When he reached the deck, Pramod was waiting for him with
a gun held casually in his hand. They stared at each other. No
words were necessary, but Indranil asked the question, anyway.
‘Where is Anil?’
‘Sleeping it off in his cabin. He passed out.’
A lie. Only the German had gone down the stairs.
‘What now?’ Indranil asked, backing away behind the
deckchairs.
‘We part company.’ Pramod’s smile was mirthless. ‘Those
deckchairs won’t stop bullets, you know. And the water is pretty
cold.’
‘Why are you doing this?’ Facing death, Indranil’s fear had
evaporated and the beginnings of a plan started taking shape.
‘Just playing safe.’
‘Safe?’ Indranil shook his head slowly, his gaze fixed on the
other man. ‘Killing me would be the most unsafe thing you could
do right now.’
‘Really? Let’s see.’ The hand holding the gun rose, pointing
the weapon at Indranil’s chest.
‘And hasty too.’ Unlikely courage came to his aid. He gazed
steadily into the gunman’s eyes. ‘Hear me out. What can possibly
thwart you in the middle of the sea?’
The gun wavered for a moment and paused, its muzzle still
pointing at Indranil’s heart.
‘Your software will do unexpected things unless I log in
periodically and reset it,’ Indranil continued before Pramod could
decide. ‘Things you wouldn’t like.’
‘Such as?’ Pramod’s eyes had become alert; his interest was
aroused.
Indranil told him and watched the smile vanish from the other
man’s face. His expression had hardened.
‘You’re bluffing!’ he hissed. His flinty eyes had narrowed to
slits.
‘Am I?’
It was all or nothing now. The time for Indranil’s final gambit
had arrived. He had to appear confident. He had to be bold. He
summoned up the courage to step out from behind the deckchairs
and sit down on one. He switched to Hindi and spoke
uninterrupted for the next five minutes. Neither the German nor
the pilot came up to the deck. Indranil’s heart was thudding when
he finished, but he tried to keep a poker face.
This was the crux. Had Pramod bought his story?
Without taking his eyes off Indranil, Pramod reached behind
and unclipped a satellite phone from his belt. The gun continued
to point at him…
■
Four days later, a short report appeared in the Times of India:
FRAUDSTER