V3 Chapter 18 - Finally home

We hailed a cab in the town that drove us to Pokhara city, where we had lunch and hired a driver to Siddharthanagar, after making a call to Grandpa before departure we went on our way.

It was a seven-hour drive to reach Siddhathanagar with a few breaks along the way.

Reaching Siddharthanagr I found a public booth and called Grandpa, he asked me to do a video call to him.

After finding a local cyber cafe I called him on Skype and introduced Aunt Heather to him.

"Hi, Grandpa! Can you hear me?" (Ryan)

"Yes, now tell me about the companion you have with you?" he asked

"Yes."(Ryan)

I said as I motioned Aunt Heather to come in front of the camera, after seeing her appear Grandpa asked

"So, who is she?"

"She is the mother of a friend of mine and I had to come here to save her." (Ryan)

"If that is so, why didn't you ask for help?" (David Angelo)

"It's a long story with the conclusion that I had no time." (Ryan)

"Fine, so what do you want to do?" said Grandpa with some resignation in his voice.

"I want to get her a new identity to travel." (Ryan)

"Fine, what's her name?"(David Angelo)

"Heather Rand." (Ryan)

"Rand? Where have I heard that surname?" (David Angelo)

"My father is Thomas Duncan and my husband is Wendell Rand." Aunt Heather spoke giving him a reference.

"Ah! I remember now, Chet, the shipping company!" he said with slight ire.

"Do you have a problem with Rand Industries?" (Ryan)

"Nothing you should concern yourselves with." He said with slight annoyance in his voice.

"Okay(?)." (Ryan)

"So what troubles you is her identity?"(David Angelo)

"Yeah, she has slight trouble with her previous identity and needs a new one." (Ryan)

"I get it, I will have a friend issue you provisional documents for crossing the border using your passport and then when you get to the country we will have a proper set of documents made for her." (David Angelo)

"Yes, how will I contact you?" (Ryan)

"You don't have your mobile phone with you?" he asked as if I was stupid.

"Yes, but it checked it before it didn't have any service." (Ryan)

"Use your Indian sim card it will work in Siddhathanagar as it is close to the border and has some service." (David Angelo)

"Yes, I will do that."(Ryan)

The next day noon after we had breakfast Grandpa called me and asked me to visit the Bhairahawa customs office with my documents to collect the documents for Aunt Rand and our bus tickets to Gorakhpur.

During the journey, I learned that Aunt Heather was a multilinguist she was well-versed in English, French, Spanish, Japanese and Old Greek.

After hearing her I asked

"Why Old Greek? I mean from what I know that language isn't even used anymore."

"I just wanted to learn it and didn't think much, and since it wasn't really that hard I just did it." replied Aunt Heather turning to look away from me

"You wanted to learn old Greek?" I asked emphasizing Old Greek.

"Ugh.....don't mention it." She said.

"Why?" (Ryan)

"There was a book I wanted to read and it was in Old Greek." spoke Aunt Heather telling me her actual motivations.

"Couldn't you just have it translated?" (Ryan)

"Where's the fun in that!?" She spoke loudly.

"Yeah, whatever suits your plate." (Ryan)

"So you can fight, know multiple languages, and are well-versed in business, politics and finance?"(Ryan)

"Yeah." (Heather Rand)

"Aren't you pretty much omnipotent?"(Ryan)

"I can't cook?" (Heather Rand)

"Have you ever learned?"(Ryan)

"No."(Heather Rand)

"Great let's do that as well."(Ryan)

"Sure." (Heather Rand)

Reaching Gorakhpur we were greeted by a man waiting for us at the bus stop, who handed over flight tickets to Madurai airport.

"But if you are that capable, how in the bloody hell did the Danny of my future turn out so dumb?"(Ryan)

"Ugh...that's mean." she said but I could see she was suppressing her smile.

"No, I think that's either a genetic defect or someone in Kunlun hit him too hard on his head."(Ryan)

"Please, let's just leave this topic alone." she insisted.

"Fine, so what do you plan to do now?"(Ryan)

"I don't know I haven't made any plans yet, I am still not over what happened in the last few days." she said with a wistful look.

"Well we have time right now, so instead of moping around, let's plan!" I said trying to get her something to do.

"What kind of plan?" she asked as she looked back at me.

"You know the kind that is against Harold Meachum and his accomplices."(Ryan)

"You are already scheming something aren't you?" she said as she squinted her eyes.

"Well, I wouldn't call it a scheme, I mean."(Ryan)

"Tell me." (Heather Rand)

"Let me ask you first, do you have knowledge of the internal workings of the company?"(Ryan)

"Yes, I am in charge of most of the internal management and Wendell deals with all the rest and all the outside stuff."

"Great, do you guys have a will?"(Ryan)

"Yes?"

"Do you have the authority to modify it?"(Ryan)

"Yes."

"How much modification is allowed to you?"(Ryan)

"Everything." she said with a firm voice and it looked like she was starting to get interested in my plans.

"Everything?"(Ryan)

"Yes."

"Do you mean, you can even - sell all the shares you both own collectively and claim all the money for it as your own - type of everything?"(Ryan)

"Yes." she said showing a victor's smile.

"Damn! Wendell Rand was a henpecked man."(Ryan)

"You!! What nonsense are you spouting."

she said as she knuckle-punched me on the head.

"I mean you are awesome, but how?" (Ryan)

"Rand Industries was made when Rand Shipping and Duncan Corp merged since Duncan Corporation was much bigger and the inheritance of my father already made me the largest shareholder and Wendell's share in his absence came under my custody, followed by Danny."(Heather Rand)

"So since I can claim their custody I can do as I wish."(Heather Rand)

"How much share do you own right now?" (Ryan)

"43%."

"How much does Harold Have?" (Ryan)

"22%."

"How much is the total for all shareholders?"(Ryan)

"88.5%"(Heather Rand)

"Damn, it means as long as not all of them are against you you hee free reigns." (Ryan)

"Yeah, what do you plan to do?"(Heather Rand)

"Quit." (Ryan)

"What do you mean?"(Heather Rand)

"I mean we slowly sell the shares bit by bit and quit, we will create a new company as we buy the stuff from Rand industries that they neglect from the money earned from selling the shares and we slowly eat away at their market and wealth." (Ryan)

"And since you already know all the internal information there will surely be loopholes you could exploit." I said explaining my plan.

"Your plan is good on paper but it won't work, if I turn up to make any deals with them they will surely hunt me down instead of letting me profit."(Heather Rand)

"You are right, that is why using your capacity to modify the will, create a new phantom shareholder and use your new Identity to conduct business, as long as you involve a representative and maintain a certain amount of disguise, they won't even know who they are dealing with." 

"That's possible."(Heather Rand)

"Yeah, and with that you not only get your money and weaken your enemies you can even get away from all the mess they will make in the future because of illegal and dishonest dealings." I explained my methods to deal with the problem.

"You can even leave Wendell's part of the share untouched for now with another phantom shareholder so that you can have access to the company's internal affairs at any time." (Ryan)

"That's a wicked idea, but also quite ingenious." (Heather Rand)

'Heh, welcome to the dark side.'

(AN - In volume 6)

After a long flight and about three hours journey in the car, a whole 23 hours after departing from Siddharthanagar I reached my home in Rameshwaram.