Chapter Five: The Abduction

The next day, Kevin was awakened by a call from Mr. Singh.

“Hello?”

“Hi Kevin,” Mr. Singh said with a weak voice. “Would you come over to my room right away? I’m a little under the weather today, and I need to turn over a few important matters for you to take care of. Please?”

“Sure, Mr. Singh, give me a few minutes. Are you okay? You sound not too good. Is there anything I can bring you?”

Mr. Singh replied with assurance, “Yes, I’m okay. Maybe it’s from something I ate yesterday for lunch. Please get over here right away, will you?”

“Yes Sir,” Kevin replied as they hung up the phone, “I’ll be right there.”

#

Fifteen minutes later, dressed in an all-navy suit, which was coupled by a bright gold tie, Kevin knocked on Mr. Singh’s suite and was ushered into the receiving area by an unfamiliar man in an all-black sweat shirt and slacks, who, pointing the way, said,

“Good morning Sir, Mr. Singh is waiting for you in his bedroom.”

Kevin, who was accustomed to the lifestyle of his boss for the past couple of years, was familiar with every quirk and habits of the man. Walking towards the bedroom, Kevin felt right away something was very wrong and does not add up. And the problem was that he couldn’t pinpoint precisely what it was! As soon as he approached the bedroom door, he noticed the door was ajar and several voices were speaking in low tones as if in a whisper. Inside, were a couple of doctors with stethoscopes around their necks, along with Mr. Fatou, the hotel manager, and the rescue team from the emergency unit of the ambulance. Mr. Singh, seeing Kevin, waved for him to approach the bed, then pointed to a stack of official UN manila envelopes.

“These are all the pending matters I need to finish and later present to the committee for evaluation.” Mr. Singh instructed Kevin, in his weak and hoarse voice. “Kevin, I want you to do this for me. I don’t know how long I’ll be at the hospital. The doctors would not give a definite timetable until they have made all the necessary medical exams on me. Now, will you do this for me? All you have to do is to make the presentation and answer all the questions as candid as you can. Now read all the files there and coordinate with Mr. Fatou and make sure to get all the facts right, in particular, when you are being questioned by the committee. Okay, Kevin?”

“Sir, please don’t worry. You’ll be back in no time.” Kevin hesitated as he was stunned at what he heard, especially the request being made to him by his sickly boss. “The committee hearing is still three days from now. I’m sure you’ll be back and in fighting mode again. Am I correct, sir?”

“No, Kevin, I want and need you to do this for me.” Mr. Singh said, sighing. “Do you understand? As my second-in-command and Executive Assistant, I require you to be ready at all times to take over the bureau’s mandate as I see fit. Is this clear enough for you?”

“Let’s take him to the hospital.” Mr. Fatou commanded before Kevin can reply, and looking at Kevin, he continued, “Go look at the files, everything is updated. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask me. Okay?”

All in a frenzy, the emergency team, along with the doctors, Mr. Fatou, and the unfamiliar man, took Mr. Singh to the ambulance via a mobile portable stretcher, and drove off to the hospital, leaving Kevin still astonished inside Mr. Singh’s bedroom.

Blankly staring at the files laying on the bedside table, Kevin slowly walked toward the bed stand, picked up the files, and browsed through them without comprehending anything. He got out of the room, and headed down to his limousine downstairs.

#

Later at the UN office, Kevin opened one folder, and shifted through the papers. He was shocked to view the same document Mr. Singh had when they met and had dinner a couple of nights ago. And quite vividly, Kevin recalled what transpired that evening, from their dinner at the hotel’s Japanese restaurant, to following and spying on Mr. Singh as he headed down at the Purple Tavern, where Singh met with Mike Long and Mr. Fatou, and the things Carolina had told him. And now, this!  All the exact details as Carolina had described, that Mr. Singh will be ill and will be hospitalized. How I will be forced to take his place at the Budget Committee Meeting. Why didn’t I sense this coming?  Now, fuming mad at being manipulated, he wanted to go down to the hospital and confront Mr. Singh. However, Mr. Singh had been his boss and mentor over the years, and he learned to love and respect the man.

#

The next day, feeling a lot better and fresh from a good night's sleep, Kevin got out of bed and stared up at the morning sky through the window, praying for a fine new day. After a long hot shower, he dressed up, took a long sweet look at Carolina, who was still asleep, gave her a kiss on the forehead, and left the room.

Down at the hotel lobby, Kevin was surprised to meet Mr. Fatou, who was already waiting for him.

“Mr. Fatou, good morning --” Kevin started to greet but was interrupted right away by Mr. Fatou.

“Kevin! Did you have a good night’s sleep?” Mr. Fatou asked as politely as he can, while he led Kevin towards the hotel exit.”

“I did alright...” Kevin replied, at a loss for words and continued on “But hey, what’s up and where are we going?”

“Mr. Singh is so much worried about you and thought it’s best for me to check how you are doing with regards to the budget committee hearing, so he requested me to come. So here I am...” Mr. Fatou said with a smile, as they stopped at the main entrance of the hotel. “I’d be happy to accompany you to the office, should there be anything you want to talk about?” Mr. Fatou offered as the UN limo pulled up in the hotel driveway. With hesitation,  Kevin went along with a little insistence from Mr. Fatou.

Inside the car, Mr. Fatou asked Kevin if he had by any chance gone over the documents, which Mr. Singh had assigned him. However due to this unusual courtesy, Kevin decided to keep quiet the whole time. So, Mr. Fatou diverted and just tried to entertain Kevin with his personal stories.

The limo arrived at the UN building and dropped them off at the driveway as Mr. Fatou continued on with his uninteresting stories.

Once inside the building, Kevin interrupted him as he asked. “How is Mr. Singh?”

Taken off guard, Mr. Fatou replied “We still don’t know for sure until all the tests return.”

“I’m sure he’ll be alright. He’ll be back in time for the committee hearing.” Kevin replied with optimism, as they reached the banks of elevators where he pressed the button. The elevator door closed and started to go up.

“Yes, we are all hoping. Right now, we can never be too sure of anything and that’s the reason why you’re here with us. You can cover for him. He trusts you.” Mr. Fatou said in a smooth, calm voice.

“Yeah, but listen, I’m not even sure what you guys want me to do. I’m only his assistant, nothing more --” Kevin replied but was cut off again.

“Hey, you’re the best assistant any boss can get.  Don’t be modest. Mr. Singh trusts you, and it’s that simple. You don’t really have to do anything. Just do the presentation for him and answer some of the usual stupid questions the committee always asks. C’mon, Kev, you know the routine.” Mr. Fatou insisted.

“Yeah, about the presentation, I think we’re way over the proposed budget that we actually need. And I would like to clear out some of the predicted figures, because they were quite out of the margin, the last time I checked --”. Kevin asked with deep concern, but was again interrupted by Mr. Fatou.

“Don’t worry, alright. All is accounted for and cross-referenced in those documents Mr. Singh entrusted to you. Go double-check the figures there.” Mr. Fatou said nodding and smiling as the elevator door opened.

“Oh, here’s your floor” Mr. Fatou said politely, clearing the way for Kevin.

“Yeah, but if you want me to present this thing, I want to make sure everything adds up.” Kevin replied as he walked out of the elevator.

“You won’t regret it, trust me. You’ll do fine.” Mr. Fatou replied, encouraging Kevin, and pointing at him as the elevator door closed.

Kevin felt frustrated as he headed to his office, settled himself at his table, and retrieved Mr. Singh’s mysterious documents, laying them in front of him. He opened his briefcase, and took out the original document he always kept with him - the faxed document he got from Ray.

#

After working on Singh’s document for a few hours, he went for coffee, and noticed the empty office of Mr. Singh, as he passed by it on the way from the restroom. After scanning the area around to check if anyone is nearby, he entered the office of Mr. Singh in complete silence. He checked around the room and over the scattered papers on the office table. He picked up a picture frame, and on it was a picture of Mr. Singh with his family. After going over the papers lying around on the table, he turned his attention to the crumpled papers near the waste bin on the floor, crouching down to pick up the trash. He was shocked and alarmed at what he discovered as he eased out the creased pieces of papers. Excited, and at the same time, trying hard to be careful not to get caught, he tried not to make any noise as he unfolded each piece of paper. These are what he discovered: an itinerary of Michael Long and other three unfamiliar names, in a confirmed scheduled flight to Sound Beach, USA, which was dated yesterday, the day when Mr. Singh was admitted to the hospital; a memorandum and the agenda of the upcoming committee hearing scheduled in two days, at 8am; and an official EWB document signed by Mr. Singh with a heading titled “Red Giant” on a UN cover letter. Major inconsistencies in the documents showed a forty percent differential in the time frame from a prediction made early for the red giant theory, together with the proposed budget. And these discrepancies were fully supported by official details prepared by Mr. Fatou, all nicely typed on the UN letterhead.

Upon discovering all of these irregularities, Kevin decided to spend the night in his office to further  check and investigate all the evidences, and to reconsider his options on how to deal with all these suspicions of a conspiracy between his boss, Mr. Singh, Mr. Fatou, Mike Long,  and who else way up high in the UN. Determined to unfold the mystery and even save the UN in the process, Kevin, in the meantime, went back to his office. He tried calling Carolina at the hotel, her apartment, and at the Tavern, but to no avail, couldn’t reach her. In a panic and confused state, he tried to calm himself down as he needed to review and do some research with the documents Mr. Singh assigned to him, of which he still had not gone through all of them just yet.

After a couple of hours, still unable to reach Carolina, Kevin decided to go back to the hotel and find out what happened to her. He gathered up the files on his desk, packed them into his briefcase, and started out the door. Kevin was surprised to see Mr. Fatou waiting in the doorway.

“What the?” Kevin blurted.

Not moving to let Kevin pass, Mr. Fatou asked, “Why are you in such a hurry? Is everything alright? I just came by to tell you Mr. Singh had a mild stroke, and he needs much more time to recover in the hospital. I’m sorry, Kevin. This means that you need to take his place at the budget committee hearing. Also, as I was clearing out his office, I found this on his desk. I believe this pen belongs to you. Here, you must be looking all over the place for this.” His demeanor shows an expression of “what do you have to say to this?” and forcing Kevin to go on the defensive.

“Hey, thanks, have been looking for my favorite pen since the other day. I must’ve left it at Mr. Singh’s office when we had our meeting.  Anyway, glad you found my pen.” Kevin lied, taking the pen from Mr. Fatou.

“I need to go back to the hotel to pick something up and finish these over lunch.” Kevin said, showing off his bulging briefcase.

“I’ll be expecting you at the committee hearing.” Mr. Fatou replied, moving aside to let Kevin pass. “Make sure to review everything Mr. Singh prepared for the meeting. It’s important to him. After the meeting, we can go visit him at the hospital.”

“Sure.” Kevin whispered and nodded his head at Mr. Fatou, as he passed through him and walked out of the office door.

#

“Carolina, are you okay?” Kevin yelled in anxiety, as he opened the door of his hotel suite.

“Hey, where are you?” He shouted, sweeping his eyes across the receiving area. As he entered his suite and closed the door, he heard a crunch as he stepped on a piece of paper under his shoe. Kevin picked it up and was stunned at what was typed on it. Written in red bold letters were:

“We are having a party with the beautiful Carolina and your pretty sister, Claudine. We regret, however, you can’t join us. Rest assured we will continue to party until you are able to join us after the conclusion of your meeting.

                Your trusting Friend.”

Kevin crumpled the paper in his fist and threw it against the wall. Furious at what he had read, Kevin considered the situation and the problem. He realized this was way too much over his head.  He went to the wet bar and poured himself a shot of scotch. At this point, a ring came from the telephone, and he answered:

“Hello?”

“Hey, man! I think you need to know something’s going on over here...” a voice said, sounding familiar.

“Ray? Are you okay, man?” Kevin asked worriedly. “What’s going on? How’s my sister, Claudine. Is she with you?”

“I just came from the grocery store. As I passed by on the way home, I noticed the door of your house was opened, and so I parked about half a block away and decided to investigate. So I went in, to check. Before entering your house, I caught the shadows of some men moving about in your house, maybe searching for something. Anyway, I went in and was able to subdue the two men inside your house. I forced them for information, and was able to get it out from them. Hey, Kevin, they trash your house and broke your computer, but I’m sure they weren’t able to find anything useful for them. After getting the info, I called the cops, and they’re now at the police station. Now I know where Claudine is, though I still need to search for a Mike Long. Are you familiar with him? They said he works for the UN too.” Ray reported, as a matter of fact.

“Long! That animal!” Kevin now murmured, who was tired and confused, “I already sensed from the first time I met him that he is a big trouble maker, with a capital T! Listen, Ray, all my life, I never asked you for anything big. But now, I really need your help. I think they got them.”

“What? Them? Who’s them, Kevin?”

“I mean Claudine and a certain girl I met here. Her name is Carolina. We’ve been going out these past few days, and we’re supposed to meet each other again tonight. I am sure these people with Long got them for assurance, so I will do their bidding on Friday at our department’s budget committee hearing here. Ray, I’m in a deep s**t right now. I need your help in finding my sister and Carolina. A conspiracy is going on between my boss, Mr. Singh, and the Science Bureau, where Mike Long works for. They had manipulated and set me up to sit in for my boss on Friday’s meeting. Mr. Singh’s in the hospital right now with a slight stroke, which I now doubt is all a rouse to get me to cooperate. And as the assistant bureau chief, this leaves me with no choice but to comply. What am I going to do? I will be implicated for all the schemes they had intended to deceive the DEWA budget committee, and they want me to take the fall. Ray, I need to do something to avoid and thwart their ploy. I possess the evidence of all these frauds against them, but my hands are tied now with the two girls in their custody.”

“They are going to be fine, Kevin.” Ray assured calmly, “I will find Long, and I will get back Claudine. And when I finally find out how these people operate, I am sure to find Carolina as well. What time is your meeting on Friday?”

“At 8am, Kenya time.”

“Listen carefully, Kevin. This is what I want you to do. You will sit in and attend the budget committee hearing this coming Friday. You will act out everything they have scripted out for you to do. Stall the committee as much as you can but still within the proper protocol. Wait for my call as I will call you at the UN office in Kenya. I will leave a message with your secretary to inform you of a call from a Mr. Bobby Roberts. This is my code for you that everything went well, that Claudine and Carolina are safe and sound with me. Now if the caller’s name is Mr. Will Nolan, the code means it’s a no go, the mission failed, and that I am not able to retrieve them. Can you remember the names and their codes?”

 All of a sudden, Kevin pulled the crumpled paper from his pocket and recalled Mr. Long’s flight itinerary to Sound Beach.

“Singh!!” Kevin thought out loud.

“Hello? Man, are you listening? What did you say? Kevin, you need to focus on what you need to do. Save yourself, be well, and stay safe.” Ray got back Kevin’s attention.

“Ohh, sorry man, I hear you.” Kevin replied, finally getting back his focus. “Thanks man, but I got to go, okay? Make sure to get back Claudine and Carolina. Take care. And listen, I trust you, man. Give my love to the girls when you see them, alright? I got to take care of something right now. I got to go. I remembered something important. Get back to me soon, will you? By the way, what kind of info did you get out from those two guys?” Kevin inquired.

“Let’s say I need to travel half around the world to find Mike Long.”

#

Kevin grabbed his suit jacket, headed out of the hotel suite, got into a taxi, and soon was back at the UNEP headquarters building.

Kevin paid the taxi driver. Not even waiting for the change, he rushed out of the cab and got into the building, passing through the security guard with a wave of his official UN ID card, then went straight towards the elevator. He pushed the button for the eighteenth floor instead of the twenty-fourth floor where Mr. Fatou’s office was located. As he got off on the eighteenth floor, Kevin went straight to the fire exit stairwells, hopped two or three steps at a time, and arrived at the twenty-fourth floor in no time, as he went through the fire exit door into the corridor. He straightened out his suit, fixed his hair, and walked towards the direction of Mr. Fatou’s office. As expected, he found no one at the reception area where Susan, the secretary, often greets the guests coming into their office.

“I wonder where she is. Out for coffee?”  Kevin, passing by her table, thought to himself.

He knocked on Mr. Fatou’s door, again and again for three times. Without any answer, he tried turning the doorknob, and to his surprise, the door to the office was unlocked. He entered and peered inside the office, checking if everything was clear, and with the utmost silence, Kevin went inside Mr. Fatou’s office.  Once inside, he scanned the whole area - from the table, to the couch, the wet bar, a door behind the desk, which must be the bathroom, and beside the Louvre door, which must be the closet. Satisfied all was okay, Kevin approached the desk of Mr. Fatou. Scattered on the table were some documents and the agenda to be discussed at the committee meeting. He went through each drawer, but got disappointed to realize they were all locked. This meant Mr. Fatou must have gone out for the day or even out of the country. Unsure of what to do, he searched his pockets for anything sharp and flat-edged, to pick the lock. Except for some keys, he tried what he found one by one in exasperation. Kevin got down on his knees as he first tried the main center drawer. On the fifth try, he was able to jerk and open the drawer. All of a sudden, realizing he had committed a forced entry and a robbery, Kevin pulled out the main drawer and scanned his fingers on the items inside. Unable to find anything useful and informative, he returned the desk to its proper and original position. Worried at what he did, Kevin thought about the security finding out about his wrongdoing. Kevin remembered what Ray taught him about lock picking and was able to pick all the locks of Mr. Fatou’s drawers in no time at all. With the urgency and the efficiency Ray had taught him, he skimmed through each drawer and scrutinized the contents within, when something familiar caught his attention. Written on a document is the word - RED GIANT. He examined and realized this was what he was looking for all along. He examined the documents with scrutiny. He glanced over them and began to analyze his discovery and what they meant to him.

“Now, got to get out of here.” He mumbled to himself.                  

Kevin, clutching at the new-found evidence, hid it inside the front of his shirt. After checking that everything was back into its proper place, Kevin closed and returned the drawers in their original state. He pulled out his handkerchief, and wiped all the surfaces off of his fingerprints. Done with putting everything back in order, Kevin stood up and walked to the door, where Susan, Mr. Fatou’s secretary, looked up, and was surprised to see Kevin coming out from the office of her boss.

“Kevin, I didn’t see you come in, and what were you doing in Mr. Fatou’s office? Are you not aware about how he didn’t like people going into his office without his permission or authorization.” She said with authority.

“My Dear Susan, go check with him. He gave me his full authorization and permission this morning when we came to the office together. With Mike Long gone to take care of other matters, he instructed me to pitch in for Mr. Long. Go call him.” Kevin, with his cute smile, said with full confidence.

Pleased with his response and the cute smile, Susan waved him off.

“Well, did you find what you came for?” She asked him.

“Yes, I did. Thank you, Susan!” Kevin answered, and turned away heading towards the elevator.

Back at his office, Kevin gathered and stuffed all his belongings inside his briefcase. He pulled out the documents found in Mr. Fatou’s drawer out of his shirt. Then he hid them in one of the books on the bookshelves lining the wall of his office. After picking one of the books that seemed like it hasn’t been read for over several years, he blew off some dust and brushed away some cobwebs, and placed one document per page inside the book, to avoid any detection from outside onlookers. Afterwards, he returned the book on the shelf. Secured and at ease with his handy work, he finished packing all of his belongings into his briefcase. As calm as he could manage, he stepped out of his office, and headed towards the elevator and down to the main lobby.

In usual cases, due to the standard operating procedure of the UN Security on employees, with the exception to the bureaus’ executive directors and their executive assistants, all UN employees exiting the building must be subjected to the hand carry check, along with the x-ray machine inspection. This is to regulate and avoid the outgoing of any important and sensitive documents out of the building. In this quite unusual case, the security officer requested Kevin to open his briefcase, and to go through the x-ray machine. Kevin became angry and adamantly tried to argue with the security inspector.

“I am the assistant bureau chief of EWB under DEWA,” Kevin said, “And I am here for the conference. You can check with my secretary, Karen, and she can confirm this. My immediate superior is Mr. Singh, who is the EWB’s bureau chief. We are both headquartered in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. We are here as your guest!”

“I’m sorry, sir. But I have to do this.” The security officer insisted, “This is upon the instruction of your boss, Mr. Singh. He had mandated the security team to subject you to the routine inspection every time you will exit the building. Will you now cooperate and comply, sir? Or should I call Director Mcvet to settle the matter?”

Embarrassed, and in an awkward predicament, Kevin surrendered his briefcase to the security officer, and passed through the x-ray machine. Shocked and dejected, Kevin couldn’t believe what the security officer had told him.

“My boss, Mr. Singh? Whom I look up to as a father and a mentor? Now, what is going on here? I can’t believe that Mr. Singh is involved in all of these.” Kevin thought in disbelief as he went through the x-ray machine, and now was able to confirm his suspicion.

Without any further discussion with the security, Kevin pushed through the revolving doors instead of using the automated ones. Once outside, Kevin realized that the decision he had made to leave the evidence in one of the books in his office was a stroke of genius. This had changed his mood to a lighter one, now becoming less affected by the episode inside the UN building. He now had to devise a plan on how to get the evidence out, once it was time to employ and bring this into play. He sensed it smarter to take a cab instead of availing the limo service. He hailed one and then told the driver his hotel address.

Kevin rested his head on the back seat of the cab, as the taxi drove him back to the hotel, when out of the blues, he began to miss Carolina -- not sure if he felt sorry for her or for himself.

                                                    #                                                      Sound Beach, USA

After he had placed the phone back , Ray went to his study, and opened the secret closet resembling a book shelf. He brought out his duffel bag, a briefcase, and an aluminum suitcase. After opening the bag, he checked the contents inside. Satisfied that everything was still in order, he placed the bag on the carpeted floor. Then he got ahold of the briefcase, which he unlocked and settled on his study desk, then he picked up the aluminum case and arranged them  side by side on his desk. He turned the four wheels on the lock pad and disengaged the latches, and opened the aluminum case. He then inspected the items hidden inside the case. On top, visible within sight were tightly wrapped bundles of several foreign currencies. Equally secured in bundles were Sterling Pounds, French Francs, Swiss Francs, Canadian and U.S. Dollars. Also inside the case were multiple diverse passports with different names. Various untraceable credit cards were also among the items concealed inside the case. But Ray’s hand moved to one of the secret pockets of the case and searched for his ever most trusted choice of weapon -- his special forces multi-purpose knife -- tugging it out of the secret pocket. He yanked the sheath off the blade, staring at the deadly, shiny, silver piece of metal. He remembered all the top-secret missions he went through and survived. Something he referred to as just in the “nick of time” or “saved by the bell”. Shuddering at the thought, he recalled the eight vastly trained killing machines he commanded. In extremely dangerous missions all eight of them, “The Classified” as they were known for performing covert assignments for The US President, the CIA, and the NSA. Ray’s team became one if not the best in covert missions. All the other times, they worked in three’s or two’s, but in special situations, only one of them would be deployed to perform the task. As he forced himself back into the reality of the present crisis, Ray, android-like, gathered all the important effects and gears which were required to assure the success of the endeavor he needed to undertake. After packing everything into the duffel bag, he showered, and dressed in nerdy tourist clothes. Finally, he picked up his duffel bag, set the house-security alarm, and locked the door as he got out of the house, turning left, he proceeded with his mission to the point of no return.