Translucence - Finished. - Page 86

Disclaimer: Chapter is unedited. Apologies for the errors.

Chapter 23:

"You've got to be kidding me," said Maan looking at the sheet handed to him by Satya. "Is this for real?" he asked surprise obvious in his voice.

"Yes sir," Satya answered.

"This is the amount that Khurana Capital owes us?" Maan asked again. Satya controlled an eye-roll.

"We are not going to get it sir," Satya said before Maan came up with any new ideas.

"Why can't we? Routing of funds can be tracked easily especially if we go via our customers," replied Maan.

"I am with Maan on this one Satya," said Emily coming in. "We request for a copy of our invoices and their approval receipt. There is no reason for them to avoid it," she said.

"But once the transaction is closed and if Khurana Heavy Transport has accepted the receipt, they have every right to reject," said Satya.

"It's a possibility. Unless we ask via our legal department and make the entire investigation public," Emily said.

"And we would do that because…" Satya trailed.

"We are poor people." Emily said.

"We are desperate for money." Maan said.

"The company will vanish if we don't get money," Emily said.

"I don't want to be called as a sissy COO," Maan said.

Satya rolled his eyes. Had it only been Maan, he could have handled it but Emily was in the mix too. He might as well join now.

"Fine," Satya said sighing. "I'll talk to the legal department and ask them to work with our finance analysts," he said and walked out of the cabin.

"Take a look at this," said Emily and handed him a USB.

"What am I looking at?" Maan asked navigating through the file system.

"Check the folder in your name," said Emily. She waited till Maan went through the contents of the folder.

"Seventeen paper companies?" He asked surprised.

"There are at least seventeen companies set up by Pratap Handa in seven month span. They are spread all over the world, mostly third world countries were corruption is prevalent."

"Escaping local taxes?"

"Most probably. However all of them were transferred to Khurana Group within weeks of their establishment. Just like the company from which your father transferred funds for you. As such, Pratap Handa doesn't own any assets in his name. Everything he had, he transferred it to Geet, Nayantara and Maya aunty before his death. There was not a single penny on his name when he died."

"Even the immovable properties?"

"Every item that he thought was worth putting in a will. He purchased the house they lived under Maya Handa's name more than seventy percent of his shares were transferred to Geet and the rest to Nayantara six months after he left Khurana Group and soon after he married Maya aunty."

Maan was quiet for moments absorbing everything Emily had just said. Satya came back at that moment.

"We made it to top three bidders for Deshmukh's RFP (Request for proposal)," said Satya.

"You still think Deshmukh is playing with us?" Maan asked Emily who hinted at the possibility before.

"If he is, it doesn't matter anymore because we are already there. The word is out there that we are in business so we shouldn't be worrying too much about Deshmukh." She said.

"What are the final criteria for vendor selection?" Maan asked.

"I think it would a corporate presentation and draft MSA," Satya said slowly.

"MSA as in Master services agreement?" Maan asked. Satya nodded. "And the presenter would be…" Maan trailed. Satya smiled sheepishly.

"Please tell me it's not going to be Varun," Maan pleaded.

"Sir, he may not be as aggressive as Mitalee or Vikram, he knows how to give a corporate presentation. I have seen him before," Satya replied. Maan frowned.

"He is good to win over a new deal?" Emily asked skeptical. She shared Maan's fears on this one.

"I would say he is much better than you sir," Satya said without blinking. Maan nodded. He knew that Satya wouldn't make unfair statements to support or to bring someone down. If he believed that Varun was good, then he would be really good.

"I'll talk to him," Maan replied finally. Emily sat quietly looking at the sheet that contained the list companies while Maan handed Satya reviewed vendor-client contracts to look over.

"I don't get this Emily. If Pratap uncle transferred all the rights to father, then what evidence did Maya aunty gave my father? It doesn't make sense," Maan asked after a long pause.

"I have no idea Maan." Emily replied helplessly. "Delving any further into this would require authorization from Khurana Capital. We will not be able to find anything by ourselves. We need someone on the inside to give us old records," said Emily.

"We can't trust anyone from there Emily. Vikram plays it close to his chest and I think chairman would have gotten a wind of what we are doing. It's going to be hard to get info from the outside," Satya shared the exact thought Maan was currently having.

"Then why not get inside Khurana Capital?" Maan blurted. Emily and Satya looked at each other.

"Emily, why don't you work at Khurana Capital?" Maan asked.

"Over my dead body," she said without sparing him a glance or missing a beat.

"Oh come on. Satya?" Maan asked knowing he couldn't change Emily's mind.

"Corporate espionage isn't a healthy business model sir," Satya said sagely. Maan rolled his eyes.

"Am I the only person who does all the work around here?" Maan exclaimed, dramatically. Satya maintained a straight face while Emily burst into girlish giggles. "Since the task has befallen me, I will do the only thing that is left to do – become COO of Khurana Capital too. That's the only way we can get information that we want and the capital that is rightfully ours."

Emily's laughter died and calmness on Satya's face shattered. The two were looking at Maan in surprise, their jaws hung open.

-- o00o --

"How many time should I intervene in your business Vikram? Haven't I done enough?" Dileep Khurana asked Vikram who was seated in front of him.

"You know how the market is father. And Maan played us and made us lose a sizable amount early this year and the fluctuating market isn't helping the cause either." Vikram replied calmly.

"Market always fluctuates, are you an idiot to believe it otherwise? Every year I save your ass by injecting capital regularly."

"That is because you didn't allocate enough capital reserves in the first place," Vikram replied harshly.

"And what? Lose even the backup capital we have now? I am glad that I didn't do something like that. Trust you to gamble your own company on Dalal and expect it to always work in your favor," Dileep Khurana said in anger.

"I had to operate in that way because you never trusted us with enough capital. Do you know the things we had to do so that we scrounge up enough to breakeven every year? It's hilarious that country's prime investment house runs on such a tight leash," Vikram said.

"What would you have done if I had allocated more funds? Use up all of that too?" Dileep asked. He sighed when he saw how angry his son was slowly getting.

"Look Vikram, you cannot always keep blaming market or other people for your failures," said Dileep when there was no response from Vikram.

"You are right father. I must not be blaming market all the time and in this case I won't blame it either given how it is behaving almost similar to the way we have anticipated by dropping seven hundred f**king points in a matter for four hours. But I am most certainly going to blame you for making Mitalee and I always run around for funds." Vikram snarled.

"I did it so that you both could learn to build contacts, talk through people and get them to invest. If I handed over everything to you, how will you ever manage the group? How will you deal with crisis situations which may arise in future?" Dileep bargained. In his mind it was the most ideal thing to do.

Vikram started pacing in front of the table his calmness long gone.

"You think we are kids just out of college father? Do you take me for some immature little runt with a master degree and no experience?" Vikram's voice had an icy edge to it. "You have no f**king clue how things have changed in the past decade father. The advancement of technology has made all our lives a living hell, unfortunately; information leaking, insider trading, scams, frauds, digital information security concerns et al has made us more weary than before. It takes considerable amount of capital to maintain a basic business." Vikram's voice had raised an octave by the end.

"What you do in business never changes Vikram," Dileep Khurana countered.

"Yes. But the way we do business has changed," Vikram's voice was laced with anger and he exhaled loudly.

"You wanted Mitalee and I to learn even after two decades I am still learning. But Maan is appointed as COO as a starting job and within one year he receives last minute investment from you just to stay afloat." Vikram spat.

"I did it because I know what you and Mitalee did. You did everything in your power to stop him from making an alliance deal," Dileep shouted.

"And did you not see the way he brought down the share price of Khurana Capital which stopped a bank investment? Hypocrisy doesn't become you father," Vikram replied sarcastically. "Had it been someone else, Maan would have been in much worse shape than he is now," Vikram replied.

"He doesn't have anyone to guide him Vikram. Would you have guided him?" Dileep asked, broken.

"No one asked him to f**k around for eight years and blow away his life. Did he say that he wanted to join the group father?" Vikram asked. Dileep swallowed.

"No. I offered him the job."

"Did you offer me a job?" Vikram didn't know when his emotions overtook his anger.

"Vikram…"

"Answer me," yelled Vikram.

"No." Dileep Khurana was suddenly very tired.

"No, you did not. Once I finished my post-graduation, I came to you in search of a job. You said you were busy and directed me towards Pratap uncle. Mitalee learned from my experience and didn't even bother asking you." Vikram's voice held betrayal and hurt.

"I am sorry." Dileep said after handful of moments.

"I am sorry too father. But thanks to your methods of teaching, I picked up a thing or two which I probably shouldn't have. I have come so far after making shady deals and questionable actions that the guilt factor has become non-existent in my life, again, all thanks to you father. I made those choices because I had no other alternate than to declare bankruptcy or invite investment that may have led to a partner deal. And most of all I didn't want you to rescue the company as a martyr by plucking out a section of your personal capital and make a big deal every time we were in trouble," Vikram replied and turned to leave.

"I will arrange for the capital." Dileep said helplessly. Vikram didn't respond immediately. When he did, his voice was barely above whisper.

"I hate the man I have become father. And I hate you for making me turn this way."

Vikram walked out without turning to see his father. Had he turned, he would have seen the guilt on his father's face closely followed by helplessness.

"I am sorry Vikram," Dileep whispered to an empty room.

To be continued.

Music companion for the day: Come pick me up by Ryan Adams (Elizabethtown Soundtrack)

And: The times are changing by Bob Dylan (Watchmen intro sequence)