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IIC man came to my door, I thought perhaps Krishna had sent him.
 Why?
 Because he told me I could earn a hundred dollars a month doing next to nothing. If you ve been to India, you must know how much money that is there.
Suddenly I had enough money to take care of myself, although my father tried to claim it for himself.
 The bastard, Mr. Garuda muttered.
 Baba!
 He s a thieving bastard!
 I m afraid I must agree with your uncle on this point, I say to Shanti.  But you keep dancing around my question. What do you do for IIC?
 I close my eyes and answer questions.
 What kind of questions?
 I don t know. They don t really make sense. Usually the man on the phone will spell out a list of letters and then ask for a yes or no. But I don t answer by
speaking aloud. I just push one for yes and two for no.
 If you don t know what the question is about, how can you answer at all?
 I asked that when they hired me. They told me not to worry about what was being asked. They said I should just say what came to me in the moment.
 How often do you answer their questions?
 Once a week.
 Always on the phone?
 Yes. They gave me a special phone with headphones so I can listen to the questions without having to hold the phone to my ear. They said that way my
arm wouldn t get tired. She pauses.  It s real easy to do. Most of the time I feel like I m doing nothing. The only hard part is when it goes on for a long time.
Then I get restless. But that doesn t happen too often.
 Let me get this straight. Once a week they call and you put on your headphones and listen to a series of questions that make no sense. And you
answer yes or no by pushing either one or two on your phone?
 Yes.
 Could these strings of letters be stock symbols?
 I thought of that. I ve never recognized any of the groups of letters. But that doesn t mean anything. I don t know much about the stock market.
 Shanti, have you ever heard them talk about something called the Array?
 No. What s that?
 We re not sure yet, but it s somehow connected to IIC.
 They always send the check on time, Mr. Garuda says.  They re never late. To be frank, the money has been a blessing. Without it, I wouldn t be able to
take Shanti to physical therapy.
 Whoever comes on the phone is always friendly, Shanti says.  It s hard to believe they would want to hurt me. I mean, I could see why they might want
to fire me. I don t know if I get many of their questions right. But why would they want to kill me?
 I have no idea, I say honestly.
We have reached a standstill. I don t know what else to ask, because I have no idea what IIC s up to, other than accumulating tons of money and
targeting people for assassination. It appears unlikely Shanti has anything to do with their Array or their success in the market. Likewise, it seems
ridiculous to think Shanti poses a threat to them.
Yet they want her dead.
Plus they see me as a threat, or at least as a  person of interest. It s possible likely in fact they sent the superhuman assassin to take me out.
However, if they have access to killers like that, why do they hire men like Marko to do some of their dirty work? It s difficult to see a pattern in their
behavior. They re clearly rich, powerful, but they seem to be kind of crazy.
I stand and check my watch eight forty-five a.m. I have already made up my mind. I m going to California, to Malibu, to have a talk with the principals at
IIC face to face. It s a weakness of mine, this impatience, to suddenly barge in where angels fear to tread. But I can t help myself.
 I told you I m going to assign agents to guard this house, I say.  If you go out, Shanti, they ll follow you at a discreet distance. They ll work in shifts, and
I ll make sure they introduce themselves to you when they first arrive so you know who they are. But after that you re to ignore them. Don t feel you have to
feed them or to let them use your restroom. These people are professionals. It s their job to take care of you. They ll be armed, but don t let that intimidate
you. They re all highly trained. Like I said before, if a hit man checks out this block, he ll see how well guarded you are, and he won t be able to get out of
town fast enough. You will be in absolutely no danger.
Shanti also stands.  Will you find out why someone wants to hurt me?
An overwhelming need to protect her sweeps over me. I m not sure why. I squeeze her shoulder as I speak next.  I m going to do nothing else but work
on this case. I promise you, I won t rest until it s solved.
Shanti hugs me.  Thanks, Jessica, and go with Krishna s love. I feel he s the one who brought you into my life.
I remember how Krishna spared my life five thousand years ago.
 You might be right, I say.
EIGHT
It s noon before my flight lands at LAX. I rent a car a Mercedes SL and drive toward the Pacific Coast Highway and head north into Malibu. The day is
bright and warm. The sea breeze feels invigorating. Along the way, I dial Lisa Fetch, the woman who visited me at my house and first told me about IIC.
I actually called her a couple of days ago, just to make sure she was all right. We ended up talking for hours. She s a fascinating woman she might
even be classified as a genius. She s at her best talking about mathematics. Since the subject has never been one of my strong points, I m intrigued by
people who have an instinctive grasp of its subtleties.
For example, Einstein s theory of relativity cannot be understood without an insight into the mathematics behind it, and Lisa is the first person I ve ever
met who was able to explain the necessary math formulas to me in a few short minutes, and in such a way that I could understand them. Her vision of how
numbers and time and space all fit together opened a fresh door in my mind, and here I thought there was nothing else for me to learn. Lisa is as much an
artist with her equations as Matt is with his music.
Unfortunately, today, the instant she answers I know she s in trouble.
 Alisa, she says, sounding tense.  I was just going to call you.
 What s wrong?
 It could be nothing. I ve been unable to reach Jeff today. You remember him, he came to your house with me.
 Of course, the policeman. Do you two live together?
 We spend a lot of nights together, but he has his own place. Still, we talk every morning no matter where we sleep. We were supposed to have
breakfast together. He never showed up, and he s not answering his cell.
 Have you been in to work today?
 Yes. I felt too restless to stay. I m worried about him I don t know what to do. I feel like I should call the police.
 Don t call them yet. I just arrived in LA I might be able to help you. But it s important that you stay away from work the rest of the day.
 You re really here?
 Yes.
 What are you going to do?
 I want to talk to the person in charge of IIC. Who should I ask for?
 There are several principals. Tom Brutran is the president of the firm, but everyone knows his wife, Cynthia, is the real boss. I doubt either of them will
see you without an appointment, and they won t give you one on such short notice. They re busy people.
 I think they ll see me. Remember, I m listed as a  person of interest in their files.
 That s true. Should I go there and help introduce you? [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]