Chapter 14
By the time Mina set up her workstation in a conference room at Bharat, she was forced to swallow a couple Advil to stave off a headache. Between Raj, Virat, Hem, and her uncles, she had more personal issues than she cared to think about and it was affecting her health in the worst way.
She had started her computer and logged into Bharat’s network when she was interrupted by a young woman in head-to-toe tweed holding an extra-large cup. “Ms. Kohli?”
“Yes?”
“I’m Tiffany, Mr. Hemdeep’s personal assistant. He requested that you receive this today,” she said. Tiffany placed the cup in front of Mina and the fragrant smell of vanilla wafted around her. She nearly groaned with pleasure.
“Thanks, Tiffany. I really appreciate it.”
Tiffany smiled. “You’re welcome. I live for this stuff. Secret office romantic gestures? Sign me up.”
“Oh, it’s not?—”
“Right,” she said eyes wide. She gave me an exaggerated wink and held an index finger against her lips.
Jesus, hopefully her relationship with Hem wasn’t transparent to the board, even if lower-level staff was beginning to catch on.
Mina sniffed the latte and took a sip. It was always hard to stay irritated at how careless Hem could be with their privacy when he was so thoughtful.
After the hit of caffeine, Tiffany’s words registered. Thankfully, the woman was still hovering in the doorway. “Tiffany, did you say you’re Hem’s personal assistant?”
“Yup I just started,” Tiffany replied. She straightened in her tweed skirt. “I’m stationed at his law firm across town, but he wanted to make sure you were comfortable today.”
She looked over one shoulder then the other before she whispered, “I’m supposed to wait until after work to ask, but for the sake of efficiency, Mr. Singh is hoping to add some things to his penthouse for your convenience since you often get ready together for dinner.
I’m to compile your list of preferred beauty products and clothing brands for his personal shopper. ”
Mina almost choked on her latte. “What?”
Tiffany pulled out her phone, still whispering. “Would you like to speak with Mr. Singh? He said you wouldn’t approve and may need to talk to him.”
Wouldn’t approve was putting it mildly. “Can you tell him that he can shove?— ”
“Tiffany, I think Rafael is looking for you,” a voice said from the doorway.
Mina looked up to see a beautiful pale face with large dark eyes framed in tortoiseshell glasses.
“Hey!” Tiffany’s voice returned to its normal volume. “Sahar. It’s nice running into you again! Thanks for helping me out with the printer yesterday.”
“No problem girl, but you know how Rafael is. You should hustle.”
“Absolutely.” Tiffany turned back to Mina. “I’ll get that information from you at a more convenient time, Ms. Kohli. Have a great day. Let me know if you need anything else.”
Tiffany slipped out of the room as quickly as she’d entered, leaving Mina with Sahar Ali Khan, Technical Director of Research and Development at Bharat, Inc.
“Tiffany has been buzzing in and out of the office for the last two days,” Sahar said. “Rafael is supposed to teach her the ropes. She’s eager to learn and she’s smart, but sometimes she lacks subtlety.”
“I can see that,” Mina replied. She put her latte down and offered a hand. “It’s nice to finally meet you, Sahar. I’ve heard nothing but praise from the Singhs.”
“It’s nice to meet you, too,” Sahar said as she took the hand. “And the Singh’s are biased. Zail and I are best friends from college, so they have a very twisted perception of who I am as a person.”
At first contact, Mina noted that Sahar’s bones were slender and delicate. Her grip, however, was just as strong.
“Ah Sahar, if you heard a word of what Tiffany was suggesting . . .”
Sahar shrugged and closed the door behind her. “I don’t tell secrets,” she said. “My lips are sealed.”
“Thanks.” Mina motioned to the chair next to her and waited until Sahar sat in it and folded her legs so that her white Converse were tucked under her knees. “You’re normally in the California office, right?”
Sahar’s ponytail bounced when she nodded.
“Yup. Me and my team are there. I don’t make it out to New York much because management usually comes to me.
Zail is in Cali and we’re blessed with Deepak Uncle’s presence every once in a while, when he likes to tinker in the lab.
He’s still as sharp as a tack so we welcome his intrusion. ”
“Well, I appreciate you coming here for a debriefing. I know we were trying to get something set up for the first week I started on Bharat’s due diligence report.”
“Yes, sorry about that. There are a ton of clearances I had to go through before I could talk to you about our research. Since we finally filed our application, it’s a little easier for me to get you up to speed.
I’d like to go over our most recent project— I think it’ll triple our revenue and hopefully make your life easier. ”
Mina raised an eyebrow and took another sip of her latte. It was obvious that Sahar was on Team Turn- down- the- offer.
“I’m always up for making life easier, but I have to admit, you’re the first employee who has even hinted at your feelings regarding WTA.”
“I’m a Pakistani- American woman in the tech industry. Not many people respect and appreciate my skills. Deepak Uncle offered to mentor me and treats me like a professional. I work side by side with my best friend, too. I know for a fact I’m not going to get that at WTA.”
“Fair point,” Mina said.
“May I?” Sahar said, motioning to the laptop.
“Sure.”
She pulled it onto her lap and began typing.
“The information I’m about to show you was only available to me and a team of six people until last week.
I can’t give you hardcopies of anything for confidentiality purposes, I’m going to lock you out your computer temporarily so I can give you a visual. ”
Mina nodded and watched as Sahar pulled a storage device from her pocket and plugged it in the USB port. She then folded the laptop back into a tablet and held it out for Mina to see.
“This is it,” Sahar said with pride in her voice. On the left side of the screen was a navigation bar, on the bottom was a compile box, and the top half of the pane was crammed with lines of Python code, some highlighted in neon colors, vividly displayed against a black screen.
“Uh, Sahar? I have some technical knowledge but you’re going to have to actually explain to me what this software does.”
“Oh,” Sahar said, taking the tablet back.
“Sorry. I guess I missed a few steps.” She tapped the screen and started scrolling through the code, her eyes bright behind her glasses.
“It’s deep learning technology. A type of intelligence that Bharat has created to help locate difficult to find objects.
It can save lives, corporate and national revenue.
To be more specific, this software can locate moving targets traveling at over two hundred miles an hour. The accuracy rate is over ninety?— ”
“Ninety- eight point eight seven percent,” Mina finished. Her stomach knotted painfully, her throat drying at the realization of what Sahar was telling her.
“Y- yes,” Sahar said. Her eyes went wide with shock. “How did you know that? No one outside my team knows that.”
Silence stretched between them and Mina looked into the other woman’s face, horror growing in her gut. She recalled Sanjeev’s words when he first spoke to her about Bharat, Inc. He’d told her about the software with almost the exact same description.
“Ah, I think it’s something that Zail said to me when we first met. I’ve signed some nondisclosures, too. Is it— is it used to find missing persons?”
Sahar nodded slowly. “We’ve already received some inquiries from the military after we filed our application. We think that the government wants to use the technology for missile location. That’s not why we created it, and?— ”
“I totally understand,” Mina said. She leaned forward, her elbows on her knees, and her sweating palms clasped together. “Did you share any of this with the board of directors?”
Sahar shook her head so hard that her ponytail whipped her in the face. “No. Like I said, my team of six knows about this. Oh, and of course Deepak Uncle, Zail, and Ajay. I don’t even think Hem has an idea of what we’re trying to accomplish. Mina, how much did Zail tell you?”
Son of a fucking bitch, Mina thought. She may not have found the source of her uncle’s information, but she’d sure as hell found the right team and where it was coming from.
Usually, it was Finance that leaked information, but she should’ve guessed R&D as the second choice.
If she hadn’t been so distracted, she would’ve made the connection.
It didn’t help that it had taken so long for Sahar to come out and meet with her.
What was done was done. The only problem Mina had now was that the information leak was so much bigger than she expected. Like national- security big.
She bolted to her feet, grabbed her phone and her tote. “Can you do me a favor? Keep this conversation to yourself until I finish my report and share it with the Singhs.”
Sahar’s eyes had gone wide. She quickly disconnected her drive from Mina’s computer and handed the device over. “I mean, sure, but I don’t know why it matters?—”
“I just figured something out with the comp committee, and I don’t want the Singhs to jump to conclusions.”
Sahar shrugged. “Okay. I mean, I’m not going to see any of them soon anyway. I’m flying back to Cali tonight.”
“I really appreciate it,” Mina said. Her intuition about people was usually on the money, but for some reason, she misread Sahar. There was a chance this woman was part of the leak.
Oblivious to Mina’s thoughts, Sahar pocketed the dongle that had brought up the software on Mina’s laptop. “I’m sorry our meeting got cut short.”
“Me, too. Good luck.” Mina bolted through the office.