The Honeybee Conspiracy

Part 47

Chapter 45

In the meanwhile, based on certain inputs received from JK's sources in Europe, he had advised the Director of RAW to depute Rajiv Shukla to investigate the circumstances that led to the downing of SQ 5319 and the death of Roger Brendt. It is not a coincidence when a senior CIA operative incharge of Southeast Asian operations and an Iranian Scientist die in the same plane crash.

Inspite of a series of meetings with CIA and Pentagon officials, he was not able to get any solid tangible leads. The explanation given was that Roger, of late, seemed to be going off-limits and had been warned of being fired for improper conduct and acting against national security.

As a last resort, he decided to pay Roger's wife, Ruth a visit. The years of living a life of a spy had taken a toll on Roger's married life culminating in their divorce four years back. Their only son was now managing a real estate firm in South Africa. Ruth was now running a farm for abanded animals on the outskirts of Milwaukee. He spent two hours trying to locate the farm which was ninety miles southeast from the city. The driveway was just a small dirt track enough for a car to pass throughwhich winded down a short distance.There were many trees amidst the lawns on both sides where some attendants were taking care of horses, cows, and dogs. The main house was tucked away to the left of the property. He parked to the right and rang the bell. A few minutes later, she opened the door.

"Hi,Ruth. My name is Rajeev Shukla and I work for the Indian Government. I would like to talk to you about your husband?" said Shukla.

"Not interested," she said and slammed the door.

Again he rang the bell.

She opened the door and was fuming, "Look, I told you, I'm not interested. So leave before I call the police". Her face was going red. She was kind of fat, around fifty years with hazel eyes. He decided to push a bit more.

"Ruth, please, Roger and I were good friends. We believe he was murdered. I tried talking to the CIA and Pentagon but their lips are sealed. That plane crash was not an accident. "said Shukla.

She hesitated for a few minutes and Shukla knew she would eventually open the door.

"Come in and have a seat." She finally said.

"You have a wonderful farm and a lovely house," he said attempting to warm up to her.

She stared at him and nodded. This was Roger's idea. He loved animals and would spend hours just taking care and spending time with them. She excused herself and came back a few minutes later with a pot of coffee. The living room was well furnished with photos of Roger receiving awards from President Obama. The library was stocked with books ranging from philosophy,history, politics, and different religions.

Shukla gave her his card. "I work for the Indian Intelligence agency in New Delhi. Robert was our CIA contact man. He was incharge of the South East Asian desk. We go back a long time. Did he talk to you about his work? Is there anything you can tell me?" said Shukla.

"Roger was very silent when it came to his work. He seldom talked about it with me. I guess he was hardly at home in thirty-three years of our marriage. He used to say that he would like to settle down one day in India. He seemed to love your country, its people and the deep sense of spirituality that is so inherent in India." she said.

"Ruth, can you remember anything in the last 4 months anything which was unusual of Roger?" quizzed Shukla.

"Well he was mmmm, well, I mean he didn't seem to be very happy with himself. I mean,whenever he used to call and speak to Micheal before he went to South Africa, he used to talk to me for sometime. I guess after we split, we became closer, I mean like best friends, you know what I mean. He used to say that the World is not what it seems to be from the outside, its worse. He was sick of this rotten life and he wanted to change it. Now you tell me,why did you say that he was murdered." asked Ruth.

Shukla looked at Ruth and decided to stick to the official script without revealing too many details.

"Well Ruth, a few months before Roger was killed, some of our very highly classified files in our mainframe computers were hacked and overnight all those files were deleted. The only person who had a copy was Roger. It was a backup strategy which we felt was needed to incase our systems ever crashed or were compromised. I spoke to Roger and they traced the hacking to Yugoslavia but went dead from there. Since we needed a copy, he said he would bring it with him personally. That was when his flight went down along with an Iranian scientist. "Shukla stopped there.

Ruth sat with rapt attention. Her fingers were massaging her temples on her forehead.

"Oh my god, and what was on those blasted files" she demanded.

Shukla looked her in the eye. "I'm afraid I can't tell you that. But it contained some very vital information otherwise the killers would not have killed 315 passengers."

Tears were rolling down her face. Shukla stood up and placed his hand on her shoulder. "Ruth, Roger was a good man with good intentions. If there is anything you remember that would help us, please do contact me. Thank you, Ruth." Said Shukla as he walked slowly and closed the door behind him. As he walked up to the car, he looked around and saw some horses and dogs sitting under the trees and staring at the narrow road earnestly waiting for their owner to come. Little did they know that their owner would never come back. Shukla knew that one day his wife would also grieve like Ruth, death is a finality which one has to face. He reached his hotel and packed his bags. He made a call to Misra and informed him that he was coming back. While he was on his way to the airport his phone rang. He didn't know the number and so decided to answer it.

"Hello," he said.

"Shukla is that you," said Ruth.

"Yes Ruth" replied Shukla

'Well, there is something which just came to my mind. Roger had avery close friend who was of Indian origin, J.R Patel. They were very close.Towards the last two months, Roger used to travel frequently to meet him.

Well, I don't know if this would be helpful, but thought I would just share it with you." said Ruth.

"And where does J.R Patel live?" asked Shukla.

"Oh, he runs a farm and a lovely Safari Lodge close to the Zambezi river, near Livingstone."replied Ruth.

"Well thank you, Ruth. I really appreciate this" said Shukla.

Shukla took a deep breath. He called Misra who picked up on the second ring. "Something has come up and I'm going to Zimbabwe," he said.

"Good. Your travel papers will be ready at the embassy," said Misra.