The Pawn - Part 1

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Click clack click clack… the sound of her heels on the stairs filled the empty corridor. The usual hullaballoo was missing from there today. The silence felt abnormal but then all that was happening since past few days was not normal either. Never had she left for home so early in last one and a half decades. This explained the questioning glances she was receiving from everyone around when all the heads turned towards her one by one and hushed whispers followed as she moved towards the exit quickly. For that matter a head turner was what she always had been! 

Aisha Shenoy - A height of 5’9” with a perfect peaches and milk complexion, silky long tresses, perfectly chiseled features with beautiful enchanting eyes, at 36 she was surely a sight to behold. Added to it she had the tag of being famous. A CEO cum executive director for an MNC bank at such a young age was no mean feat. Reaching the parking area she turned around. Zeus Bank – the board read at the gate from which she had just made an exit. Standing there staring at the board suddenly the happenings of the last few days began to replay in her mind. 

*-*-*-*-* 

28th Aug 2013 - An email from Global headquarters Zurich Compliance team hit her inbox. Fraud Investigation report- India, 2013. The mail outlined a list of suspicious transactions which seemed like an act of money laundering. Like every time she just had to reply saying it will be looked into and close it. She smiled at her ingenious mind and began typing the reply.

Within no time she had received a reply stating that an investigation team was being sent to India to look into this due to its recurrent nature. In a while she forgot about the whole thing tagging as a preventive action due the recent tightening of regulations. 31st Aug 2013 - The investigative team was waiting for her when she reached the office at 9 am. As the CEO she had to let them do their investigation and ask her team to co-operate. 

The week long investigations were carried out. Scans, files, MIS reports, transaction logs , telephone conversations on recorded lines everything was being scrutinized in detail to find out the who’s and the how’s of it all. This had become the topic of discussion in lunch rooms and cafeterias. Today morning when she had reached office her secretary Maria came with a message that the investigation team was done with their work and they wanted to meet her to discuss their report. She asked them to be sent to her chamber. What followed next was something that took her by surprise! 

The council told her that after thorough investigations, checks and double checks they had concluded that it was none other than her who was the root cause of all the frauds that had been happening. She was the one who had exposed the loopholes of the system to them and ensured they made the most out of it. They had also done some background checks and verifications to decipher that she had justified intentions in doing all this as she was being well paid for her services. All this while as they spoke, she stood there devoid of any expression or emotion with just the thumping of her heart filling her mind. 

After what seemed like eternity she stood up from the chair and began clapping much to the horror of the investigating team. They all looked at each other agape with wonder thinking what she was up to when she suddenly stopped in the centre and began addressing each one of them, “When I got an email about an investigation team being sent here to look into the fraudulent transactions that have happened in the past I thought they would be sending some sensible people. I fail to understand how a bunch of morons like you have landed up on in this team of Zeus Bank. “ 

Colour drained from their faces as they did not understand what she was saying. For a moment if we were to believe that she was the culprit yet she was the CEO & Executive Director of the firm, and this coming from her meant a lot. 

Aisha glanced across at all of them once more before continuing,” Ok, let me put it simply. Do you guys have any idea what you are talking about?” 

~To be continued in Part 2