Lost in Business

We went to a coffee shop to have some coffee. The TV at the coffee shop grabbed our attention. We noticed that the headlines were flashing the news that stock markets across the globe had stumbled. The top companies had showed a sudden dip in profits and quoted poor performances. It appeared like a financial crisis to me.

I got a call from Smith, "Jai, hope you got the news by now, stock markets crashed and there is chaos everywhere."

"Right, Smith. I saw it on TV, but is there anything specific for which you called me? You should have been sleeping by now" I questioned Smith.

"Yes. Of course, but the financial crisis is going to hit the nations across globe. Here at Sydney, some businessmen went missing and few attempted suicides. I wanted to find out what is the situation in India."

I was dazed to hear that from Smith. "I haven't heard any such thing here, Smith. But is it

something that happened all of a sudden?" I asked Smith.

"No clue, the analysts have started looking into trends and reports from last fifteen days. Yet to hear from them on what went wrong and what led to this crisis. Anyway, I will call back tomorrow to talk about this. Good day, Jai."

"Good night and have a sound sleep, Smith." But before I could put the mobile phone away, I received another call from the headquarters stating that few big business men had gone missing and I needed to take up the investigation.

I asked Sekhar and Cathie to continue working on the cases, telling them that I would come back and meet them. Then I started for the headquarters.

The CBI director, Mr. Kali called for a meeting to discuss about the disappearance of top businesspersons in India.

"Dear all, there is a financial crisis across the world, stock markets have collapsed and the top millionaires have begun to lose their position in the market, and are bankrupt. Two top businessmen went missing last night, this happened before there was news that stock market had collapsed. It became known later that both the businessmen stood to lose three- fourth of their wealth due to this crisis."

"Jai, take up this case and find out the whereabouts of the missing businessmen. The United States' ministry of financial affairs is planning to call for a meeting with all the nations and address the crisis at the earliest." The director finished his brief and handed over to me a sealed envelope with details of the case.

"I got an update from FBI agent Smith. Some top businessmen went missing in United States while some attempted suicides. Will work closely with Smith and figure out if there is any group behind the crisis." I finished my discussion and stepped out from there, heading towards my apartment.

After my dinner, I opened the sealed envelope and started looking into the details of the case. Both businessmen started their business from the utmost bottom and with a very minimum investment. They rose to the top over a period of twenty years. Their growth took place along similar lines. Though there was no similarity between the nature of their businesses, they had similar success rate and failure rate. They had similar stake and contribution towards Indian economy.

The next day, I went to see the families of these businessmen and found something interesting. The businessmen had travelled to Goa for a meeting and had gone missing from there.

They both had private jets, but went to Goa on a commercial flight. It appeared to me that they did this willingly and it must have required a lot of preparation. So, I took the next flight to Goa and headed to the hotel from where these businessmen went missing.

Mission:AI

"Can you please tell me at what time those businessmen left the hotel and the time they returned?" I asked the receptionist.

She replied promptly, "Sir, they left the hotel at 8:30AM in the morning, but they didn't comeback."

"Did they take a cab or went in your hotel cab?" I asked her.

"They booked separate private cabs and left from the hotel, sir." She replied.

I left the hotel and went to Goa traffic control center, where I asked the superintendent to show the CCTV footage around the hotel to trace the route both the businessmen took.

After spending a good amount of time, I found them heading towards Colva beach but then lost their track.

I went to Colva beach. It is one of the most beautiful beaches in Goa. The smell of white sand and salt water refreshed my mood. I looked around, another distinguishing factor of Colva beach is the sunset. I had heard that many tourists came there to experience the sunset.

A warm breeze touched my face, the sun was slowly going down. I walked to a bamboo hut

that was nearby. It was a small restaurant. The bearer was serving a famous sweet dish called bebinca to a family in the corner.

I ordered some light snacks for myself, ate and moved on from there.

Next, I went to the place where boats and small ships are anchored. I questioned a few people there about the missing businessmen. I could not find any clue from anyone so I returned to the same hotel where the businessmen stayed, took a room and stayed for that night.

There were two possibilities. Either the businessmen might have committed suicide at the beach, or they could have taken a private yacht and gone to some island. It did not look like a kidnapping case.

I called Smith to find out what was happening. "Hi Smith! I am working on a mission, to find out the whereabouts of the missing businessmen in India. How are things at your end?"

Smith replied, "Jai, I am also handling a similar assignment. We found that these businessmen went missing after attending some private meeting and they all had taken private vehicles."

"I see a pattern here – the same thing happened in India as well. Both missing businessmen went in private vehicles." I told him.

"Our coast guard informed that the missing businessmen hired private yacht and went into the sea. They have been untraceable from thereon," mentioned Smith.

"Interesting, so the missing people may be at a common place, or someone might have kidnapped them," I said to myself.

"The coast guard of United States called for a search operation and they have started searching for the missing businessmen. We may hear some news by tomorrow. Let's catch up again tomorrow Jai, bye for now." I disconnected the call and went to sleep.

The next day I woke up at 7 AM. I called Sekhar to find the progress they had made with respect to other cases.

"Sekhar, where are we with respect to the other two cases, one and three, the software engineer and the wife of a businessman?"

"Software engineer, Mr.Vicky. He underwent a lot of pressure at work, and had differences with friends and family. He spent 14 hours a day in office and caught very few hours of sleep. However, he kept in constant touch with everyone over chat – either one on one, or in group. We learnt a few things from his wife. The last time he spoke with his wife face to face

was three months before he died. Both of them worked in shifts and barely got a chance to see each other, even though they lived together. It was like sharing the accommodation, not living together. They kept in touch with each other over chat and saw each other once in a while on video calls. She told us that Vicky suffered from anxiety disorder and underwent stress therapy. Later, it led to NEAR syndrome. The chat transcript and history show a trend – his anxiety had gone up and he spent most of his time on drugs during the last two months before his demise. Vicky's wife spoke about their relation and bonding but it did not sound convincing. I think we need to get into the details of their chat history and find out what caused his death apart from medication."