‘And how would that be?’
‘I’d start from the beginning. I’d go back to where it all began. Cotton Trail started a year ago. Or, at least, that’s when it started getting noticed, if my memory serves me right. Even assuming it was word of mouth and not advertising that fanned its popularity, someone would have had to market Cotton Trail. That should be your starting point.’
Adrian was confused. ‘Where does one even begin to look?’
‘Look, Adrian, the guy who founded Cotton Trail would have looked for customers from the real world, people like you and me, who would not visit the anonymous TOR web in the normal course. The founders would want us to know about Cotton Trail so that we could start buying off it. The first thing we need to know is how the founders promoted Cotton Trail to the public at large.’
‘Yes!’ Adrian exclaimed. ‘And that information will lead us to the founders!’
‘If not the founders, the interested parties for sure. That will be something to work on. It’s not going to be easy. You will have to go through loads of data, information on blogs, online forums, problem-solving websites, video forums, and so on.’
‘How long would you take for this, Dan?’
‘Me?’ He smiled.
‘Yes, Dan. I don’t think I can do this without you.’
Dan chuckled. ‘I can’t say. It could take a few hours, a day, a week, or even a year. Perhaps never, if I don’t get lucky, or if the founders have hidden their trail well enough. Let me begin by trying for a week. If I make some progress, I’ll let you know.’
Adrian knew there was no point in arguing with Dan. He never kept buffers for negotiation. And, in any case, he was doing Adrian a favour.
As he left, Dan looked at him and said, ‘Adrian, it shouldn’t be that tough. We just have to go far back enough in time—to the point when no criminal thinks that far ahead. That’s where you will catch him with his guard down.’
57
Mumbai
‘Tanya! We broke into the top ten!’ Varun blurted out in excitement when Tanya came on the line.
‘Top ten?’
‘Yes, top ten! Within a week of its launch, the Townsville mobile app is now number nine on the Android store. Our free download offer ends tomorrow.’
‘How did you pull this off, Varun?’
‘I’d like to believe it’s a good game!’
‘Yeah, yeah! As if there are no other good games doing the rounds and people downloaded only yours. You are a smart cookie. The Android store hasn’t figured you out yet.’ Tanya sounded sceptical. ‘I know you, Varun. You want to succeed at any cost. So I’m sure you fixed this.’
Varun laughed. ‘I really wanted this to break into the top ten before the free offer ended. As a result, from tomorrow, when we price our app at 1.99 dollars, there will be enough visibility and word of mouth for people to buy it on impulse.’ He chuckled and added, ‘The Apple and Android stores are smart but our download bots are so well designed that no one has figured out that they are not real customers but computer codes programmed to download the app from the store. So, 40,000 downloads a day gets me a spot in the top three free apps. The bots we designed download roughly 25,000 times a day, and we get about 10,000 downloads a day from genuine customers. That makes it 35,000 downloads a day. And this explains my No.9 position on the “most downloaded” list, sweetheart.’ He laughed. ‘Now we will get greater publicity and figure on all the “most downloaded” lists. That gives us a better chance at revenue generation once we turn into a paid app.’
‘Do you think this is ethical, Varun?’
Varun whirled around. Sundeep was standing behind him. ‘Not only are you cheating the buyers, you are cheating yourself too. Aren’t you?’
Varun hung up on Tanya promising to call back. He turned towards Sundeep and, with an irritated look on his face, said, ‘Listening into someone else’s conversation is not good manners at all, sir.’
‘Varun, we have always run this business in a strictly above-the-board manner, without resorting to means of suspect integrity. Your dad always says that reputation has no insurance.’
‘I am with you, sir, but this is the first time we have built an app of this magnitude. If we are not able to push it up the rating scale, how will people see it? Imagine the word of mouth it will get by breaking into the top ten in the first week! The app store will promote it on its home page. More people will see it, so more people will buy it.’
‘But buying your own apps?’ Sundeep rolled his eyes. ‘Isn’t that stupid?’ Though he was angry he kept his cool because he was talking to Aditya’s son.
‘Yes. But since we are keeping this mobile app ad-free, the only way to generate revenues is to get people to buy it.’
‘This amounts to . . . ’
Before Sundeep could finish, Varun cut in, ‘If I were to promote the app through ads, I would need a 100,000-dollar marketing budget. Instead, I will spend 75,000 dollars on building bots to buy the app. It’s nothing but a different form of marketing spend.’
‘I need to tell Aditya. He may not subscribe to this.’
Sundeep turned and walked away.
‘Asshole!’ muttered Varun the moment Sundeep was out of earshot. ‘Wonder how dad puts up with him!’ He grumbled, as he called Tanya again. She had moved on to a completely different topic and sounded quite excited.
‘Varun!’ she exclaimed. ‘Did you watch the TV?’
‘No, sweetheart, I didn’t. I’m in office, remember?’
‘The finance minister has resigned.’
58
Mumbai
A furious Aditya barged into the conference room while Varun was in a meeting with the game development team. On seeing a team of fifteen in the room, he sobered down. He looked at Varun and said, ‘Can you see me once you are through?’
‘Yes, dad. Anything urgent? We can stop this meeting. We were just discussing some service issues.’
‘Service?’
‘Yes. We received feedback that the Townsville mobile app is processing-intensive and is slowing down other aspects of phones.’
‘How many such complaints have we got?’
‘Three. Not many, but we thought it better to address it before it goes out of hand. It’s a Grade 3 complaint. Low impact. We are refunding the amount paid by these customers and asking them to delete the app. Once we release a fix for the bug, we will let them download it free of cost.’
‘Sounds good to me.’
Aditya left. Within fifteen minutes, Varun knocked on Aditya’s door.
‘Varun, Sundeep spoke to me this morning. How could you even think of manipulating the “most downloaded” list?’
‘Dad, it’s just a marketing gimmick. We are using bots to download a few copies of our program so that the sales figures appear high. Once Townsville stays in the “most downloaded” list for some days, we will remove the bots. It helps because . . .’
‘I know how it helps, Varun!’ Aditya was furious. ‘You need to realize that I have run this business with some rules and values. I have been happy with the limited success I have had. The only solace is that no one can dare to point a finger at me and say that I use inappropriate means to grow my business. But now, it will all come to naught if my son does not follow the same rules. Do you get that?’
Varun didn’t know what hit him. For the first time, Aditya was ripping him apart. He looked out of the room. Sundeep was pacing up and down the corridor.
‘I let you handle this business because I felt that you would run it with dignity and integrity. I will have none of this bot business to prop up my app sales. I have asked Sundeep to oversee the entire compliance for all our businesses. I will ask him to focus more on gaming now.’
‘I don’t have any problems with Sundeep uncle looking into it.’
‘And son,’ said Aditya, having cooled down somewhat, ‘success is not always measured in terms of dollars earned or turnover. It is measured in terms of the difference you h
ave made to the people around you.’
‘Yes, dad’.
Varun turned to walk out of the room.
‘Get the bots deactivated now,’ Aditya reiterated.
Sundeep was still outside. Varun glared at him but didn’t say anything as he walked back to his office.
59
Washington DC
At 6 p.m., Adrian parked his car on the road outside Dan’s house and walked in.
‘Heard of magic mushrooms?’ Dan asked, the moment he saw Adrian.
‘Yes, but that’s one thing I’ve never had.’
‘Adrian, you must. If you are in this trade, there must not be a single drug you don’t know about. Magic mushrooms or psychedelic mushrooms, also called shrooms, cause serious differences in mood perceptions and behaviour.’
‘Tripping. Yes, I know about it. When one is in a state of disarray under the influence of drugs.’
‘Then you must have heard of Shroomery?’
‘Yes. What about it?’
Shroomery was a site dedicated to illegal mushrooms and visited largely by people interested in the recreational psychotropic drug. Given that magic mushrooms could easily be foraged or grown, several people visited Shroomery for advice on how to cultivate it.
‘Eight months ago, a user who goes by the name “Altoids” posted on Shroomery.org to promote Cotton Trail.’
Adrian showed no emotion. He had no idea what was coming his way.
Dan rummaged through the pile of papers on his table and pulled out one. He took out his reading glasses, wore them way down his nose, and started to read.
‘I came across this website called Cotton Trail. It’s a TOR hidden service that claims to allow you to buy and sell anything online anonymously. I’m thinking of buying off it but wanted to see if anyone here had heard of it and could recommend it. I found it through Cottontrail420.wordpress.com, which, if you have a tor browser, directs you to the real site at http://tydgccykixpbu6uz.onion. Let me know what you think . . .’
Dan handed over the paper to Adrian. While Adrian was reading the comment, he logged on to Shroomery on his computer. ‘There you go,’ he said, as he turned the computer screen towards Adrian. ‘We think this Altoids fellow is your guy.’
‘What makes you suspect him?’ Although he sounded sceptical, there was a glimmer of hope in Adrian’s eyes.
‘A few reasons. Most important, Altoids is a recently created ID, roughly a year old. Since then, in the entire year, it has made only one post on Shroomery. That could mean that the ID was created with the sole intent of promoting Cotton Trail. This post is from around the time Cotton Trail came into the public domain. So Altoids is probably closely linked to Cotton Trail, if not the promoter himself.’
‘Do we have any traces on the ID? Where did he log in from?’ Adrian asked.
Dan shook his head. ‘Altoids used TOR to make the post, rendering it untraceable.’
‘Damn!’
‘The question, Adrian, is why a regular guy would use TOR to make an innocuous comment?’
‘Not exactly. He could be a Libertarian, someone who fiercely protects his identity online. There are people like that, Dan,’ Adrian played devil’s advocate.
‘True, there are but how will you explain a similar post appearing on bitcointalk.org just two days later? Again by Altoids.’
‘He did that?’
‘Yes. Bitcointalk.org hosts every detail of all developments in the bitcoin world. Why would he post on bitcointalk.org about Cotton Trail if he weren’t promoting it? He ended both the posts with “let me know what you think…” Too much of a coincidence. Similar post, similar request. I don’t know if you can see it but this Altoids was on a mission to generate interest in Cotton Trail.’
Adrian was simmering with excitement. Even though he had thrown the libertarian concept at Dan to derail his logic, he knew, that such people were very rare. If Altoids had posted on Shroomery and bitcointalk.org using TOR, he had to have something sinister in mind. It was definitely not normal. Now they had something to work on.
‘We need to get this guy,’ was all he could say.
60
Mumbai
Things started to move when the Central Bureau of Investigation took over the Malvika suicide case. The CBI called many possible witnesses to depose and sought extensive data from NYIB and other sources. From NYIB, in particular, they sought information on Malvika’s email trails, her telephone records, and so on. The meeting with Tanya was also a part of this inquest.
Kabir Khan, the deputy director of the CBI and officer in charge of the case, arrived with people from the Crime Branch of the Mumbai Police and a sub-divisional magistrate.
‘We are sorry to have asked for this meeting at such short notice, Ms Tanya.’ Kabir was apologetic. ‘As you can imagine, the pressure on the CBI has been intense.’
Tanya nodded silently.
‘Have you read the post-mortem report? It does not indicate any possibility of a murder.’
‘It doesn’t but I don’t believe it.’
‘So you suspect that she could have been killed?’
‘Mom was very strong-willed. There is no way she could have committed suicide. She fought her whole life, so committing suicide would have been cowardly.’
‘It could have been an accident.’
‘It was not an accident!’ She screamed. Tanya was beginning to get upset. ‘You are only interested in giving the minister a clean chit. You don’t care two hoots about the truth.’
‘That’s an unfair accusation.’
‘How else can you explain the fact no one asked me about my mother’s relationship with the minister? Neither the CBI nor the Mumbai Crime Branch is interested in treading down that path. They know there is a landmine there.’
‘Though there has been intense media speculation, our investigations haven’t revealed a shred of evidence linking them,’ said the bureaucrat. ‘Can you provide us any evidence in support of your mother’s alleged relationship with the finance minister?’
‘That’s for you to investigate and establish. The problem is that you’ve made up your mind and just want to check the “have investigated” box.’
The three men looked at each other. Kabir was beginning to get annoyed by her impudence. ‘How was your relationship with your mother?’
‘Like any other normal mom and daughter we had our ups and downs.’
‘There were signs of a rift between the two of you. Was there a problem that we should be aware of?’
‘Which mom–daughter pair does not have problems? There are fights but always in mutual interest.’
‘Was your mother comfortable with your relationships?’
‘I’m not in a relationship right now.’
‘What about Mr Varun Rao?’
‘He is a very good friend. Is this inquest about me or my mom?’
‘About your mother, Ms Sehgal, but we need to be sure about what we are doing.’
‘Wonderful, but let me tell you that mom liked Varun. So even if we had something going, it would have been fine with her. Will that be all? Or do you gentlemen have any further questions?’ Tanya asked curtly.
None of them responded.
‘Thank you.’ She got up.
Kabir got up too. Now, he was fuming. ‘Do you want us to do our job or do you want us to be your puppets, young lady? Just watch out. While I have a huge amount of patience, I do not tolerate crap,’ he barked as he opened the door and stormed out.
61
Washington DC
Dan found one more mention of Altoids and called Adrian.
‘A few months after Altoids’s first appearance in October, he posted a wanted ad on bitcointalk.org for “an IT professional in the bitcoin community”. He asked interested parties to email [email protected].’
‘Frosty?’ Adrian asked.
‘Yes, Frosty. I checked it. It’s a valid email ID,’ Dan confirmed.
‘Why would you . . . ’ Adrian was ab
out to say something when he was interrupted by his assistant and Tony who barged into his room.
‘Hold on for a sec,’ he said and looked up. ‘Can’t you guys see that I am on a call?’
‘I’m sorry, sir, but there is an urgent call on line two!’
‘Who is it?’
‘The White House.’
‘What?’
‘Sir, Mike Hendricks, the President’s chief of staff is on the line.’
‘Put me on right away! Dan, I will call you back. The White House is on the other line.’
*
‘Evening, Adrian. Is this a secure line?’
‘Yes, sir, it is.’
‘Good. I’m calling on behalf of the President.’
‘Sir?’
‘The day Gillian Tan was killed, he had sought a meeting with the President who had agreed, given their close association. The meeting was scheduled for right after the meeting of the Committee on South Asian Policy, which Gillian was to chair.’
‘Thanks for telling me, sir.’
‘That’s not why I’ve called, Adrian. Gillian wanted to meet the President because he wanted to share with him something that had come up in his personal life, something he felt that the President must know.’
‘Do we know what it was, sir?’
‘No, we don’t. The President and the Senator went back a long way. The President knows the family very well and is a bit anxious to find out what it could be.’
Adrian thought for a minute. ‘We haven’t come across anything out of the ordinary yet, sir.’
Hendricks responded softly, ‘The President is keen that, during the course of your investigation, should you do come across any information that might put the Tan family reputation at risk, you should get it cleared by the President himself. He trusts your discretion, Agent Scott.’
‘I won’t let the President down.’
‘Thank you, Agent Scott.’
‘Mr Hendricks, I have a request.’
‘Go on.’
God is a Gamer Page 15
