He woke up – only one thought in his mind – who in Amsterdam could he trust without blowing his cover away? He wanted the background of the people who had died mysteriously – the way Aneka mentioned.
He entered the main restaurant and stuffed himself with the continental breakfast – still trying to remember one such name he could trust – he returned to his room without an answer.
He had taken utmost care to erase his past and create his new ID and support this new ID with proper documents. As of now, nobody of his past alliances knew his whereabouts – what he did or where he lived – else, definitely someone would have tried seeking him out – either to convince him to join back or to eliminate him.
He soon realized that if he tried contacting someone here in Amsterdam would not only blow his cover but also put Aneka’s life in danger.
‘I got to go back to India – as a person they know me. That’s the only way to ensure that everything’s alright and stays that way.’ He thought thus and looked at his watch. It wasn’t even 11am. He had few hours to kill before he could meet Aneka at her travel agency. He picked up his DSLR and walked casually into the bar as if he was a normal tourist. He found a vacant seat near the window overlooking the river bank and eased into it. He looked at the bartender who was busy serving drinks to a couple on the other side.
“Good morning Mr. Arav” the bartender greeted him, “Moscow Mule?”
“Morning Jack – Yes – has to be perfectly chilled.”
Jack prepared the drink and served it to him with a smile, “Check the preparation – you won’t get it better than here.”
“That looks like a fabulous drink – Hey! Can you get me one too?”
A man took the seat beside him as Jack bowed and started to prepare the drink.
“I would have missed you. Moscow Mule led me to you – Lion.” The guy now faced him and he looked at the person occupying the seat beside him. He knew he couldn’t dodge him now or feign any ignorance – that would lead every agency in the world to launch a manhunt to find him.
He smiled at the man, “Hey – Victor – Nice to see you after long buddy.”
“Cut out this bullshit formality & listen to me carefully – in about an hour – meet me on the topmost deck of New Canal Cruise – be discreet – I don’t recognize a general tourist drinking in a bar.” He looked impatiently at Jack who brought him the drink. He gulped it in one go and made his way to the exit.
“The guy doesn’t seem to savour niceties of life.” Lion remarked bringing Jack’s attention back to him and carried on with small talk asking him new developments in Amsterdam and the New Cruise that had been launched.
“That’s a fabulous cruise they have started. It’s costly – people like me don’t afford it. Next ride leaves in 45 minutes – you should check it out – the front desk can help you with an E-Tkt.”
“Thanks Jack” he walked out of the bar toward the front desk, “Hi Lola, could you book me a ride on the new cruise? I heard it’s fabulous and I believe the next ferry is in about 45 minutes.”
“For how many?” she looked at him in expectation that he might ask her out on that cruise, “I’m done for the day – almost.”
“As of now only one – I’d like to check it out before I can take someone aboard.” he gave a boyish smile.
She worked on the system and printed out his E-Tkt., “Here’s your pass for the cruise. Even I have heard that it’s fabulous & it costs a bomb – I wish someone romantic could ask me for a date on that cruise.” she said dreamily.
“Maybe – I could do that on my next trip here.” he quickly moved away to the main exit before she could say anything else – leaving her to float around in her romantic dream.
He had not anticipated the cruise to be this huge. It was a triple deck where the top deck was left open to sky for the tourists to capture their photo memories. He reached the top of the deck which was almost empty – it was almost noon time and sun was shining bright and hot … He saw few tables toward the back of the open space with sun-umbrella shades for tourists who would occupy them. The deck on the first floor looked like a busy restaurant with a centre stage for live performance by artists. He had made his way to the top even as the cruise guide explained the cruise layout to the lingering tourists.
He occupied the table at the far back close to the railing toward the river side. No other table was near to the one he occupied & this gave him a fair chance to observe everyone as well have a discreet chat with Victor.
Like any other tourist – he started clicking the photos of the cruise and the view from the cruise. One of the cruise members approached him with a wide smile, “I’m sure you will enjoy the cruise, Sir. The doughnuts and the meal are complementary on the ride – you need to pay for your drinks. Would you want me to serve any?” he pushed a menu card toward him.
“Do you serve Moscow Mule?” he asked, not looking at the card.
“Yes Sir … we do.”
“Get me one – perfectly chilled. What is the duration of this ride?”
“It’s about 150 minutes. The cruise guide will keep announcing the information about the grand structures that loom up on either side. About 90 minutes down, we ask our patrons to gather on the first floor deck for the complementary meal accompanied by a local live band. You go ahead and enjoy the grandeur of Amsterdam while I serve your drink in about 10 minutes.”
Putting an excited look of a lone tourist, he resumed clicking the photos of the views around. His mind though was alert for anything that didn’t match the tone of this cruise.
About 10 minutes into the sail, Victor casually approached his table, “Hey! You alone? Can I occupy the vacant seat on this table? I promise – I won’t be a bother to you or restrict the views you want to click.”
With a look of irritation toward the casual stranger he shrugged his shoulders and nodded his head to signal him an okay.
“What do you want from me now? I quit the agency about 3years ago.” he snapped at Victor.
“The agency wants you back.”
“I told the Chief in as many words as I could, my reason to quit the agency. He only had words of condolence – no action – I refused those and quit … been almost 3 years – why now? Nobody bothered to find out if I was alive or if someone had got me.”
“Please don’t misunderstand. Knowing your skills, we knew we will find you one day – only by accidental coincidence. You are too skilled to leave any trace behind. Since 2 years, we alerted every friendly agency around the globe to try and find you and they have failed… You do know that our agency does care about inactive agents.”
“Bullshit! The agency only is interested in knowing that I haven’t turned rouge.”
“Lion – if it was any other agent – what you say could be true – with you, it’s different – every agency in the world knows you would rather die than turn rouge… We blindly trust you. Believe me – more than the agency – it’s we your friends and your ex-colleagues – we need you the most.”
“After 3 years? Why?”