THE CHICKEN AND THE QUAIL
NISSAR AHMED A. NAIK
© Nissar Ahmed A. Naik 2012
All rights reserved.
The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.
- Isaac Asimov
CHAPTER 1
"They prey on their own with extortion and protection rackets, in a culture where people don't go to the police and where most police don't speak the language."
- Ronald Goldstock
"Kem Chho ManekBhai?"
Maneklal Gohilot was sitting in front of his PC in his office. He raised his head to see where the question was coming from. It was Carlos Garcia. The words were Gujarati equivalent of 'How are you, Manek?' Any Gujarati would have got baffled to find they were uttered by a man with very pale yellowish blond hair, a very fair complexion and blue eyes. Carlos's ethnicity was so complex that Gohilot was always confused about it.
Carlos was one fourth Argentinean, One fourth Polish and one fourth English; finally what remained of him was Indian. It was the first one fourth that accounted for his name and it was the last one fourth that accounted for his fluency in Gujarati. It was the Gujarati language that brought the two men together.
'Sarun chhun. Carlos, I have found something new about your Uncle Adolfo."
"What new can you tell me about him, Manek? I know him from top to bottom. It was he who taught me the art of shoplifting when I was a young boy. It is a complex art; you can't succeed unless you know how to have an innocent, almost stupid expression on your face. One has to be a great actor, you know what I mean? Believe me Manek, thanks to his training, even now I save a lot on my household expenditure."
"Carlos, enough of your silly jokes. The matter is serious. Your Uncle Adolfo has done much more than shoplifting,"
"You mean you found some fraud in his company account books?"
"Fraud? It is the mother of all frauds. He has stolen more than two million pounds from his partners."
"That's great! I always knew Uncle Adolfo was extraordinary."
"Oh yah, he is very talented. I couldn't have caught him at all, but he made a small mistake. Give me a small opening, Carlos, and I can break any scam wide open."
"What use is all that talent Manek? You live in the worst pigeonhole in London. Your family has to make do with a middle class life style. Manek, you don't know how to grab a chance that comes your way."
"Carlos, I am an honest man, and it pains me to tell you that Uncle Adolfo will have to cool his heels behind the bars for a long time."
"Manek, don't you ever use your brain? What are you going to get by sending him to jail? Just think what we both can get by squeezing him a little, now that you have caught him. You will be able to move out of that pigeonhole of yours into a luxurious flat. Think, man, think!"
Maneklal Gohilot was an accountant running a small auditing firm in London, when he came in contact with Carlos Garcia. The company connected with this fraud was introduced to him by Carlos and it partly belonged to a relative of his, Adolfo Fernandez. Fernandez had ingeniously manipulated the company accounts with the help of the accountant and siphoned off a huge amount of company funds to his personal account.
Gohilot expected some pressure from Carlos to cover up for his uncle, but he was shocked to see Carlos did not give a damn about his uncle, and even wanted to blackmail him.
