Chapter 7

Shreya was having a meeting at her office. The whole of her core team was present. The room was spacious and brightly lit. There was a rectangular table in the centre and Shreya sat on the head of the table while the others sat on either sides of her.

Anand Uncle, Akash, John, Zack, Adam, Pritham, Harshad and Zeenath- these 8 people are her backbone. They are her friends and family all in one. Only people missing were her Aunt Anand Uncle's Bhagya and her other cousin, Akash's baby sister Bhavna. Shreya strived with all her might to protect these people and their families at all cost.

John had been in the family even before she was born. He had been her dad Mr. Adithya Srivastav's personal secretary. And Adam was John's son. Adam and Shreya practically grew up together along with Akash and Bhavna. They were all thick as thieves.

Zack, Pritham, Harshad and Zeenath were handpicked by Shreya for their respective talents. Zack is ex-military, top of his class. He recruited and trained all of her private army. Pritham is the computer genius. You want anything on the internet, he gets it for you. Harshad is her legal advisor. And Zeenath is jack of all trades. She knew a bit of everything. But her specialty was collecting information. She was like a rat. She would easily slip into any place without anybody noticing and gets you anything and everything you ever need- photos, documents, locker passwords, keys- you name it. She has her own team of people she had trained to be like her.

With time Shreya came to trust them and rely on them. She looks after them and their family like her own which earned her their absolute loyalty and integrity.

There were three names on the board in front of the table. 1. Mr. Abimanyu Bharathwaj. 2. Mr. Abishek Mehta. 3. Naren Guptha.

"They all saw what happened with Rakesh. They will be on their guards. We lost the element of surprise. So it won't be as easy. Only advantage we have is the fact that they do not know the extent of our underground networks. And thankfully Rakesh underestimated us and did not contact anyone above him for help. So they don't know who attacked him. It will take time for them to find out." Anand said analyzing the situation. Everyone was looking at Shreya for instruction.

Shreya kept tapping her fingers against the table. She contemplated for a while and then asked, "Can we infiltrate their syndicate??"

"We can but it won't be of much use. They have a clever system. It is not an open bounty. Each person is given as specific assignments. They have people to do every dirty deed for a price but everything is anonymous. The ground people never really know who their client is. They don't even know who else are there in the syndicate working with them. It is almost always assigned to one person with the freedom to recruit temporary workers." Zeenath said.

"And it will take time for the syndicate to recover. Rakesh was a perfect middle man. His position was perfect to recruit army trained personals into the group. On the other side his business connections gave him the perfect opportunity to promote the business of the group. We stumped both the sides by taking him down but it won't be long before someone else pitches in on his place." Zack said pitching in.

"I want to take down the syndicate. Give me one way to do that??" Shreya asked.

"Most straightforward way is to take down all the ground workers. But it is not easy to get our hands on the list of workers. Even though Rakesh recruited them, all he gives is a recommendation. Final selection process is done by those three. And even if we obtain the list, taking them all out won't fair since not everyone in there is doing this out of their own will. They are blackmailing some of them. It is almost like a parallel military underground. Even client list is not known outside. Rakesh just makes the meet, whether to accept a job or not is again done by those three." Zeenath said.

The room stayed quiet after that. Everyone was waiting for Shreya to make a decision. There was no other sound except for Shreya tapping her hands on the table. She contemplated for a long time before getting up from her chair.

"Okay for now forget about taking down the syndicate and the list of recruits. Since they are on high alert, we will lay low for now. But I want people inside the syndicate on both sides. I want people to approach them as clients and then some as recruits. And I also want people on all their companies and families. I want eyes and ears on each and every member of their families and I want regular reports on each and every deal their companies make. I want evidence that those three are running the syndicate." Shreya instructed walking in circles around the table.

"But Shreya we won't be able to do anything with the evidence. It was Rakesh stupidity he did not ask anyone's help. But if it were these three, they have clients all over. Even the media would not report on them and the police are utterly useless. Even if we could somehow make the evidence public and take these three down, someone else will simply replace them. The syndicate won't die. The only way to put a dent on them is to weed out every last recruit." Harshad said interrupting her.

"I know. I am not going to go public with it. But it might just help me get the list from inside." Shreya said.

"How??" Akash asked frowning.

"I have my ways. Let's see if it works when the time comes." Shreya said with a mysterious smile.

"I can move my people to infiltrate the companies and I think Zack still has some connections in the army. He can deal with infiltrating the syndicate. The client side obviously will be done by Akash." Zeenath said after giving it some though.

"Choose your people wisely. I do not want things slipping through the cracks. Make everything anonymous so that even if they are caught they won't know anything. And watch you own backs. If we can infiltrate, then they can do the same." Shreya said.

Then she came and sat on her chair once again with her hands joint in front of her resting over the table and said sternly looking at each of them personally, "But more than anything I want to tighten to security on everyone especially Bhavna and each of your families. The operation can go down, I don't care. But I don't want any mishaps like that of Akira happening again. So watch each other's backs and move with caution. And also continue the detail on Charan and Akira. I don't want them getting caught up in this all over again."

"What about you??" Zack asked when she stopped talking.

"What about me??" Shreya asked back in confusion looking at him.

"You need a security detail too Shreya." Zack said exasperated.

"I can manage. You did not train me for nothing you know. Anyways people have practically forgotten my face and nobody knows what I am doing anymore so no need to fuss." Shreya said shrugging her shoulders nonchalantly.

"If something happens to you, I am going to recue you and then beat you to pulp" Akash said gritting his teeth in an extremely annoyance.

Right then Shreya's phone blared. She reached out for her phone while saying, "Well good luck with that" to Akash. She looked down on her phone and her eyes suddenly brightened when she saw Charan calling.

"Anyways, that is all for today. I am going to go. Have fun." She said waving at everyone and walked out of the room picking up the call.