Saboteur

by RV Raman

Genres: Crime Fiction

Synopsis

An E-commerce firm finds itself targeted by corporate espionage.




A prospective investor vanishes without a trace.




A key employee is murdered in cold blood.




MyMagicHat, a high-value, supercharged Bengaluru–based e-retailer is about to take an unprecedented gamble that will change the ecommerce market in the country forever. But, suddenly, things start to go awry just as the company unexpectedly runs out of cash. To make matters worse, a massive data theft follows, causing panic among investors.




Is someone trying to kill the company?




When Inspector Dhruvi Kishore is brought in to investigate the incidents, she finds that in the dog-eat-dog world of e-retailing, crime, too, is driven by technology. Hidden in mountains of data and unverified claims lie clues that lead her to unearth a massive fraud – one that justifies anything. Even murder.

Release date: May 4, 2017

Publisher: Hachette India

Print pages: 336

Sample

Chapter 1

BENGALURU, OCTOBER 2016

Nilay glanced impatiently at the young man in the glass-walled discussion room. At last! The furious, often frantic, rummaging through files for the past hour had finally given way to quiet contemplation. Puneet was now leaning back in his chair, thoughtfully chewing his pencil and considering whatever he had scribbled on his writing pad.

The glass enclosure that served as the ‘data room’ contained all the information Puneet’s team needed for the due-diligence exercise it was performing. In this secure room were all the financial and operational details of MyMagicHat, the sixth largest online retailer in India and one of the early unicorns after Flipkart and Snapdeal. Nilay was the Senior Vice President and the virtual Number Two of this three-billion-dollar e-tailer.

MyMagicHat was on the verge of embarking on something large and unprecedented: an audacious project code-named ‘Project Iskan’ that was shrouded in secrecy – to the extent that only a handful of men knew it in its entirety. What the people at MyMagicHat saw was only a part of it; they knew that their company was raising fresh funds. Series H – the eighth round of funding – was in its final stages. Kantoff Capital, a Singapore-based private equity firm, was about to invest $250 million in MyMagicHat. The valuation had been agreed on and the deal was only awaiting the completion of the due-diligence exercise – DD for short – that Puneet was in the process of wrapping up.

The past year had been a dizzying journey for the e-tailer. Riding on deep discounts and hard-to-resist offers, it had drawn customers like a magnet and doubled sales volume every few months. It was burning cash so rapidly that it required frequent cash infusions to stay in the race. Each infusion was preceded by a DD.

The French private equity fund that had invested $250 million in April had completed its DD within a day. Their team had been as interested in exploring Bengaluru’s pubs as in examining MyMagicHat’s books.

But this round was turning out differently. Puneet – Kantoff’s retail industry specialist and a senior manager – seemed bent on going through every tiny detail. So much so that the expected two-day formality had stretched into four long days. Nilay had taken a liking to this diligent young man who had not stinted on the hours of work – twelve to fourteen – he had put in on each of those four days despite his team leaving early.

It had emerged on the second evening that Puneet was cynical of e-tailer valuations. The current valuation of three billion dollars, he had candidly stated over beer, was absurd. A company that spent two and a half rupees to earn one rupee was not one to be invested in, whatever be its future potential.

Nilay had offered no comment. If investors were willing to pay big money for a slice of his company, why should he argue over it? He owed his career growth to venture capitalists who had pumped in inordinate amounts of money into the sector. In any case, Puneet was not the decision maker at Kantoff; the call would be taken by the partners of Kantoff Capital. However, as the retail industry specialist, he could raise awkward questions, which had to be answered to his satisfaction for him to sign off on the DD report. Unless he did, the DD could not be completed.

As Nilay watched through his rectangular rimless glasses, Puneet rose from his chair and began speaking animatedly into his mobile, gesturing with his free arm and pacing the data room. Though Nilay couldn’t hear what was being said he could tell that Puneet was in the midst of a heated argument with somebody. Nilay sighed and decided to give him some more time before prodding him to wrap up for the day.

His thoughts were interrupted by the appearance of a small-built figure at his open cabin door. Sundar, MyMagicHat’s CFO, entered and quietly closed the glass door behind him. In an office culture where doors were seldom shut, this act was as suggestive of trouble brewing as the worry lines on Sundar’s face.

‘Problem, Sundar?’ Nilay asked.

The CFO nodded. He dropped into a chair across the desk and took a deep breath. ‘We’re running out of cash.’

Nilay’s eyes narrowed. ‘Already? I thought we were good till February.’

‘We were, but no longer. What with our September sales coming in 20 per cent to 30 per cent above projections, the losses have climbed far more steeply than anticipated.’

‘Still, I thought we had space in the budget for that.’

Sundar shook his head. ‘Only at the budgeted burn rate, Nilay. Average discounts have been higher and our new policy of price matching has driven net realizations down by 10–15 per cent.’

‘That much?’ Nilay’s eyebrows shot up.

Sundar nodded glumly. ‘The higher losses have burnt through our cash 50 per cent faster than projected. Not only have they depleted our war chest more rapidly, but the higher burn rate means that whatever is left will last for a fewer number of weeks.’

Nilay felt light-headed. This was not the first time they were facing a cash crunch. The unbridled growth of the past two years had brought the company perilously close to a shutdown at least twice before – a familiar nightmare for any start-up.

But that was no excuse to be caught unawares. The prick of annoyance Nilay felt within was growing. Sundar should have seen this coming. Nilay’s mandate was to grow sales as rapidly as he could. Faster, if possible. He had done his job; others had to do theirs too. It was the CFO’s as well as the promoters’ responsibility to ensure that cash continued to flow in.

‘How did this happen so suddenly?’ he demanded querulously.

Sundar squirmed in his seat, looking miserable. ‘Honestly, it’s taken me by surprise too. But the September sales have punched a massive hole in our finances.’

Nilay stroked his clean-shaven upper lip for a moment and decided not to vent his ire on his colleague.

‘Have you drilled down into the losses to find where we are bleeding?’ he asked.

‘As much as our finance system will allow. But that doesn’t show much.’

‘How long will our cash last?’

‘Probably till mid or end December,’ Sundar said. ‘Unless we raise more funds, 2017 won’t be a happy new year for us.’

‘December!’ Frustration rose in Nilay like bile. ‘After we’ve worked so hard to win market share? Holy shit, man! We’ve fought tooth and nail! When we finally get traction in the market, we run out of money! You must find money from somewhere. A bridge loan or something.’

‘Me? Better speak to Gautam. But I’m not sure whether the group will bail us out again.’

MyMagicHat was a part of the huge Puraria Group, which had interests in several industries, including retail. It was the newest member of the group’s retail strategic business unit – SBU – the mainstay of which comprised a chain of 176 stores across the country and a centralized procurement and sourcing function. MyMagicHat had been set up by the youngest Puraria scion – Gautam – to take advantage of the e-commerce boom.

‘This is a terrible time for a cash crunch, Sundar,’ Nilay grumbled. ‘Absolutely terrible. We need cash desperately.’

‘Let’s pray that the Kantoff deal comes through by the month end,’ Sundar responded dourly. ‘What I came in to tell you was that Gautam wants to meet us at 9 a.m. tomorrow to discuss the cash crunch. He has cancelled all his morning meetings.’

Nilay nodded irritably.

‘A funny business we’re in,’ Sundar quipped, standing up. ‘The better we do, the more we bleed and the higher are our chances of a sudden death.’

‘Nature of the e-commerce beast, my friend. We’ll survive this trial by fire to rake in the moolah.’ Nilay flashed his skeptical colleague a reassuring smile. ‘We’ll see it to the finish line. Just wait and watch.’

‘You know something, Nilay? The Purarias have never lost money. Never ever. My father worked for old man Puraria all his life. He says that the man is far too smart to lose money. The family prides itself on this ability; it is their hallmark that they always find a way to recover their money – by hook or by crook. But I fear they may have bitten off more than they can chew this time. Their investment in MyMagicHat is already gone, burnt. We’re surviving on the money invested by others. If this venture fails, it will be a first for the proud Purarias…and a slap in the old man’s face. Gautam’s name will be uttered with shame by the family.’

Having delivered his pronouncement, Sundar glided out soundlessly, leaving Nilay frustrated and frowning. How fragile this business was! He had taken delight in the success of his marketing and brand-building efforts of the past few months. Though he hadn’t acknowledged it to anyone but his wife, the sales had been markedly higher than his own expectations. He had hidden his surprise and basked in the glow of success during the management meetings.

This year promised to be a stellar one for him, exactly the kind he needed for his next move – that of becoming the CEO of a big-league e-tailer. He was not going to let the cash crunch spoil it. If he delivered industry-leading growth for the third consecutive year, the right offers would come. Competitors and investors were watching the unicorn. And him.

He glanced at his watch and rose resolutely from his desk. It was well past 10 p.m. – high time that Puneet wound up his precious DD. They had to move forward and close the deal in the next few days.

But had Puneet finished his work? Nilay couldn’t leave the office until he had locked the data room.

As the five-foot-ten, elegantly dressed Nilay strode towards the glass-enclosed data room and glanced in, a frown puckered his brow. Was Puneet suddenly looking tense? He had finished his call and returned to his chair. But there was something rigid about his bearing now and he was staring fixedly at his laptop screen, his mouth partially open, as if he had noticed something completely unexpected.

Abruptly, Puneet rose again, snatched up his mobile phone and began dialling. As he finished dialling, he turned at the sound of Nilay opening the door and held up two fingers, with an apologetic nod at the other man. Two minutes.

Leaving the door open as a reminder that it was time to go, Nilay went back to his desk to pack up.

Puneet’s voice came through the open door. ‘Hi, Vikram. Will you be up for some more time? I wanted to discuss something important with you… Yes, I’m at the office… Nilay is here too… No, no! We’re about to pack up… Yes, Vikram, it’s very important… I need to discuss it tonight so that you can –’

The conversation seemed to have broken off mid-sentence. Nilay cast a backward glance at the room. Puneet had shut the door. As Nilay slid his laptop into his bag, his thoughts went to the man at the other end of the phone line.

Vikram Deswani, Kantoff Capital’s sole partner in India, would not be amused. He had come down from Mumbai for a final meeting with MyMagicHat that should have lasted no longer than a couple of hours. Instead, he had found himself staying on for two full days and cancelling all his Mumbai meetings. All thanks to Puneet’s doggedness. Piqued, Vikram had given the young man an ultimatum that morning: he was to complete the DD by that very night.

Nilay and Puneet went down together and parted ways as the former headed for the basement parking lot, while the other man walked out into the wet October night. When Nilay drove out of the basement a minute later, Puneet was standing at the kerb, peering at his mobile phone.

‘Can I give you a ride?’ Nilay asked, pulling up at the kerb and rolling down a window.

‘Thanks, but don’t bother.’ Puneet gave him a distracted smile and shook his head. ‘A car is on its way.’

‘Why wait on the street alone at this time of the night, Puneet? It’s no problem for me to drop you off, really. It’s not much of a detour for me.’

‘Don’t worry. The car is just a few minutes away. Goodnight, Nilay.’

He stepped back and looked away. The message was clear.

‘Goodnight, Puneet. See you tomorrow.’

As Nilay drove away, wondering why the man was so reluctant to ride with him, he swept the deserted street with a glance. Puneet had stopped fiddling with his mobile phone and was looking at Nilay’s car as it receded into the distance. There was a van and an SUV parked about fifty yards away. No one else was in sight.

Chapter 2

Nilay hurried into the office early next morning, intending to review his budget before the meeting with Gautam and the rest of the management team. The cash crunch couldn’t have come at a worse time for him; a mega-sale weekend was scheduled for early next month.

That sale was one of the three major events of the year; a high-budget event for which planning and mobilization had been under way for weeks. Print-media space and TV slots had been booked, advertisements were almost ready and a digital blitzkrieg was in the stage of finalization. Product sellers and logistics operators were on board, and data centres were augmenting servers and bandwidth.

All these arrangements had been arrived at after intense negotiations in which he had thrown in his share of threats and promises. Now if he found himself unable to pay the bills… He shuddered at the prospect. It would be a disaster of a scale he preferred not to contemplate. A disaster not only for MyMagicHat, but for his career too. And if word leaked out that they were cash-strapped, the media would go to town with the news and all the meticulous brand-building would come to naught. Coming on top of the bad press about e-tailers shutting shop due to lack of funds, it might well be a knockout punch for the unicorn. They would end up ceding market share to the competition on a platter.

Worst of all, it could sabotage Project Iskan. It could kill it.

After tossing in bed for a couple of hours, wondering how they had been caught unawares, Nilay had drifted into fitful sleep. One thing was clear – word of the cash crunch must not leak out.

Now, as he pushed open the door and entered the office, he paused in surprise. People were in so early? He cast a quick glance at the clock. Seldom did the head-office staff report for work at 8 a.m. The Whitefield operations centre was different, as it had teams working round the clock. But the head-office folks preferred to stay late rather than come in early.

The large conference room – glass-walled like the other rooms – was open, and Nilay could see three men walking around in it purposefully. With the blinds partially drawn over the glass walls, Nilay couldn’t make out who they were. His curiosity piqued, he dropped off his laptop bag in his cabin and made his way to the conference room. As he approached it, he recognized one of the men inside from his tall, striking physique: Gautam Puraria.

‘What –’ he began as he reached the door, but fell silent when Gautam motioned for him to be quiet.

One man was bending over the large central table, holding out a black, box-shaped device with two thick antennae, a couple of LEDs and a small dial. The other man probed the far wall with a long rod which had a small disk at its tip. Attached to a box at the other end was a pair of headphones which the man was wearing. The contraption looked like a metal detector, the kind Nilay had seen in movies.

His chiselled features set in grim lines, Gautam stepped out of the conference room, took Nilay silently by the elbow and led him to his own cabin. He closed the door and gestured to a small tray on his desk. On the soft black cloth lining of the tray were four thin, cylindrical objects made of metal and plastic, less than an inch long and no thicker than a ballpoint pen refill.

‘What are they?’ Nilay asked, after staring at them for a few moments.

‘Guess.’

Nilay picked one up and rolled it between his thumb and index finger. It was light, far too light to be made of solid metal. From one end sprouted a pair of very thin wires a few millimetres long. It resembled an electronic component from an old radio; except that it was far smaller, sleeker and more polished. Nilay shook his head.

‘No idea,’ he said. ‘What is it?

‘An electronic bug.’ Gautam’s usually even, cultured voice was low and fierce.

‘Bug?’

‘A listening device. The filthy bastards have been spying on us.’

‘Who?’

‘Who else?’

For a moment, Nilay didn’t understand. But when he did, his eyes widened in surprise. Gautam reserved that derisive tone for only one breed of people – competitors.

Nilay stared at his boss, speechless, as the rest of the puzzle fell into place. So that was what the other two men were doing in the conference room – sweeping it for bugs! An instant later, he felt his blood run cold as the implications flooded his mind.

The snoopers would have heard everything, including the discussions about the cash crunch! Shit, the word was already out! All it needed now was for someone to leak it to the press. Bloody hell!

‘Where –’ he croaked through a suddenly constricted throat, ‘where did you find these? In the conference room?’

‘These are from my cabin and the three meeting rooms. The ones we found in the conference room are still on the table there. We also found an automatic room freshener that housed a camera.’

‘We must sweep the entire office!’ Nilay exclaimed. ‘There may be more.’

‘We have.’ Gautam was barely managing to control his anger. ‘All that remains is your cabin and the data room.’

‘Data room!’ Nilay’s eyes widened with horror. ‘God in heaven!’

Over the past four days, Puneet had asked questions about every aspect of the business – revenue streams, business plan, marketing campaigns, customer acquisition, investments, seller strategies and a whole host of details that competitors would give an arm and a leg to discover. Had the eavesdroppers…?

Nilay felt a shiver go down his spine. ‘Who –’ he began and faltered. He found himself unable to complete the question as unpleasant memories stirred; memories that left him dry in the mouth and short of breath. Oh God! Not again. Not here!

‘That is the big question, isn’t it?’ Gautam rasped. ‘Who?’ He turned and walked to the door. ‘We’ll talk about those bastards later. Right now, I want to have your room and the data room swept before people start coming in.’

Half an hour later, they were back in Gautam’s cabin. With them was one of the two men who had swept the office. They had found bugs in Nilay’s cabin and in the data room.

‘This is Nilay Adiga, our Senior VP,’ Gautam said to the man.

As the two nodded at each other, he went on, ‘What do you make of it? Who could be behind this?’

‘It could be anyone, Mr Puraria,’ the man said with slow deliberation, taking the time to pick his words carefully. ‘Let’s start with what we know. The bugs used here are professional, mid-range devices, not easily available unless you know where to get them. It means that we are not dealing with amateurs. Whoever put them in knew what they were doing. The locations of the bugs and the way they were installed suggest that professionals were involved.’

‘They could have been hired by anyone?’

‘That’s right.’

‘Competitors too?’ Nilay blurted out.

‘Uh-huh. There’s a lot more espionage in the corporate world than people realize, Mr Adiga.’

‘How long ago were the bugs put in? Do you know?’

‘Not very, I think. A few months.’

‘How can you tell?’ Gautam demanded.

‘By the amount of dust and grime accumulated around the bugs. In this case, there isn’t much. Bugs installed for more than a year usually have a small ring of grime encrusted around at least one place. And they also leave a darker mark on the spot where they were inserted.’

‘I wonder…’ Gautam frowned. ‘Tell me, how long does it take to instal such a device?’

‘A few seconds to a few minutes, depending on who is doing the job and where the bug is being installed. In places that have a false ceiling, it can be done in seconds, as these are wireless bugs – no wires to mess with. All you need to do is punch a small hole and insert the device. It will be virtually invisible against the already pitted surface of the false ceiling. Similarly, a hole in the wall where a nail had once been driven in is a readymade spot. All one has to do is insert the bug into it.’

As Gautam sat back, deep in thought, Nilay continued, ‘Now that the office has been swept, are we free of bugs?’

‘Unfortunately, we can’t say for sure.’

‘Why not?’

‘You see, Mr Adiga, the devices we found today are known as “active bugs”. They continuously emit a small signal that detectors can pick up. “Passive bugs”, however, emit signals only when they are activated by a radio beam or cell phone. At other times, they emit nothing. If there is a passive bug in this room that is not currently activated, we can’t trace it.’

‘But I thought that’s what your metal detector was for!’ Gautam cut in.

‘It is, Mr Puraria, but it isn’t foolproof. A simple carpenter’s nail has more iron in it than all these bugs combined. And office walls and ceilings contain a lot more metal than just nails. It’s very difficult to detect a passive bug in such situations.’

‘Shit!’ Gautam swore, his face grim.

‘Here is my guess, but I can’t be absolutely certain: I am reasonably sure that this cabin and the conference room are clean. We checked every piece of metal we found. But we can’t really do that for the entire office. I suggest that you use this device.’

The man opened his briefcase and took out something that looked like a compact walkie-talkie with two stub antennae and a small glass dial that covered a compass-like needle painted red at one end.

‘Keep this on the table during your discussions and make sure that your mobiles and Bluetooth devices are switched off,’ he advised. ‘If a passive bug is activated during a discussion, this will beep. The red tip of the spinning needle will lead you to the bug’s location. Mark the spot and call me.’

By the time the man left ten minutes later and they were alone once more, the anger on Gautam’s youthful face had given way to anxiety.

‘There are two questions on my mind,’ he said. ‘Who is behind this and how much have they heard? Honestly, I’m just too scared to contemplate the second question now. Let’s talk about the first. What do you think?’

Nilay sat back and tried to sort out his thoughts. They were coming in a muddled torrent as his mind flitted from one implication to another. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and finally said, ‘We know that competition is insane in online retailing and we also know that the stakes are very high,’ he began. ‘But spying? It’s downright…criminal!’

‘This is a new low. I wonder which one of them is behind this?’

‘Well, whoever it is, he seems to have had access to our office,’ Nilay said slowly. ‘At least three of the bugs were inserted into the false ceiling. No casual visitor could have climbed on to a table or up a ladder and inserted them.’

‘Some kind of a service provider, then?’ Gautam growled. ‘A maintenance guy – like an electrician?’

‘Quite possible.’

‘But who is behind him?’

Nilay’s mind went back to a time he would rather forget. Not very far back in the past, but it had been an intensely harrowing time.

‘Someone retained by competition,’ he whispered uncertainly. ‘One hears of firms that specialize in such things. It isn’t difficult to find them if you know where to look or whom to ask.’

Gautam’s eyes narrowed. ‘You know something about such matters, Nilay?’ he asked.

Nilay supressed the panic that rose in him. Troubling memories that he had buried deep down were crowding back into his mind, but he dared not speak of them.

‘Rumours, whispers,’ he said in a low voice. ‘Nothing definite. The line separating market intelligence and corporate espionage is a thin one, Gautam. I won’t be surprised if this has happened before. Rivalry and high stakes may just have spawned unscrupulous middlemen.’

‘Hmm…’ Gautam’s eyes took on a contemplative look. ‘It occurs to me that if someone is bold enough – or desperate enough – to bug our office, they would try other things too.’

‘Such as?’

‘Such as recruiting our employees into the scheme. That should be far easier, shouldn’t it? Paying an office boy to steal papers or make copies of documents shouldn’t be difficult, especially if you’re operating through a middleman. Or you could hire a secretary or an IT guy.’

‘Why limit yourself to low-level staff?’ Nilay asked. ‘Why not co-opt people who are more in the thick of things? Heaven knows there’s enough greed in the system, what with money pouring into the industry.’

‘Indeed. Senior people have access to better information.’

‘What now, Gautam?’

Nilay felt weak and unsteady. He clasped his hands together to prevent them from trembling.

‘Whom do we tell? Whom do we keep in the dark? We need time to locate any passive devices that could have been installed, but the greater the number of people taken into confidence, the higher the chances of tipping off the men behind the bugging.’

‘Any suggestions?’ Gautam asked.

‘We could limit it to the management team. We have to tell them anyway, as we need to assess the potential damage the bugs may have caused.’

‘What if one of them is a mole?’

Nilay stared at Gautam for a long moment. ‘Then…’ he swallowed hard. ‘…then we have a big problem. I would be shocked if that is the case. Mervyn, Sundar, Moin – each of them is as passionate about the company as we are. I can’t imagine any one of them being the mole.’

Gautam nodded. ‘You’re probably right. We’ll keep it confined to the five of us. No secretaries or anyone else. Not even the closest of associates.’ He stood up. ‘I have some stuff to do before our 9 a.m. meeting. Let’s take stock then.’

As he walked past his colleague, Gautam leaned in and whispered, ‘From now on, don’t speak of Project Iskan in the office.’

Chapter 3

Gautam was already there when Nilay entered the conference room twenty minutes later. Chatting with Mervyn James, the head of seller management, he seemed relaxed and betrayed no signs of the shock he had received just a while ago. Nilay marvelled at his poise; he himself was still wobbly at the knees, even if he wasn’t as distressed as he had been half an hour ago. He cast a nervous glance at the walkie-talkie-like device on the table, the gadget the man had given them for locating passive bugs.

Mervyn was eyeing it curiously. He glanced up as Nilay entered, but offered no greeting. Mervyn never greeted him and when he did speak to him, it was in an impersonal, matter-of-fact tone.

‘Morning, Nilay!’ a cheerful voice called out behind him.

Nilay turned and smiled affectionately, his worry lines softening. ‘Morning, Moin.’

Moin Aziz was one of those sunny souls who was impossible to dislike – an endearing nerd. Blessed with a lively combination of curiosity, creat. . .