The Hindu Business Line : A tactical retreat to reload with the Matrix

STORY so far: More muck emerges as we discuss the dimensions of fraud that Gintee had been playing on the company. It was clear that he was not for small gains as the wily contractor had covered his tracks with proper records and, sadly, had got his financial statements attested by a notorious accountant who was already involved in many such rackets. And the structures that Gintee had built were shaking. But we had a rescue clause in the contracts. And in the hotel room, we were readying ourselves for a `big fight' the next day.

Episode 35

That night, though I had a big room all to myself, while the rest of the team shared another suite, I had but a disturbed sleep. There were all those attackers pursuing me and I was running across ditches, with container-lorries speeding by and missing me by bare inches.

They hurled stones, but you don't get hit in dreams, which I realised only later. It was with a dull headache, therefore, that I woke up pretty late, clutching my PDA, because it held all the `secrets' — which the pursuers had wanted from me. Within minutes, memories of the dream would vanish, I told myself, and so began getting ready for the trip to the site.

"Swati," called Gupta's voice at the door. "We're all set. What about you?"

"Five minutes, Guptaji," I yelled from the wardrobe, and I could hear the men sigh, for they knew that for women five minutes roll on a different timescale.

Yet, I was true to my estimate, but when I met them, what surprised me was that they seemed to be all casual, rather than raring to go and meet the challenge that Gintee was posing. And Vikky's kirpan was safely in its place, with no hurry to pop up. But I was armed with a chilli-powder dispenser and an aerosol of bug repellent plus a Swiss knife and a few safety-pins. If only somebody spared me a pistol, I was sure I would shoot it the right way, as they do in movies.

"Good morning, Swati," said Chandru. "Boss called up late night. And we didn't want to disturb you."

"They have arrested... " began Balu, and I interjected, "Who?"

"Gintee," said Gupta, calmly. "Not on our case, but on the tumbling-tower matter. So they called from Gintee's office to say the trip is off."

"Still, I think we should get to the bottom of the truth," I proclaimed with all zest.

"Boss knew we were all going to do that," said Gupta. "That's why he has asked us all to pull out of the probe."

"What a showdown!" I was crestfallen.

"No, Swati," said Chandru consolingly. "Boss says he is not paying us to get beaten by goons. He has alerted the Commissioner and the DG. He has spoken to the district collector too. Also, he has passed on the leads to Saambu, the investigative journalist, you remember, from Deep Down Daily."

"It sounds as if we are incapable of unearthing the crux of the problem," I said dejected.

"To get recharged," Gupta said, "Boss has suggested we move on to the close by resort and spend a day. There is an important assignment waiting for us once we touch base."

*********

Idyllic, tranquil, calm, peaceful, relaxing, soothing, ... I ran short of all those words to describe for myself the holiday resort we had moved in for a brief halt.

After a day filled with sight-seeing — to the local zoo, museum, palace, garden, tombs, and so on — we were lazing near the poolside where they were screening teasers for the forthcoming movie Matrix Reloaded.

I was sure that at the end of it all, each of the spectators would have his or her own version of the story, as happens with any English movie, and so hooked on my laptop to the nearest phone to connect to the Net and find out about the story.

I remembered how the Zion folk had survived the machine wars and lived deep in the ground. They are the primitive or tribal side, living in a lava cave, everyone is natural, and so the makeup man is giving a look of nice glistening sweat to everybody.

People are already researching into Matrix, I learn from far-off sites. "A post-modern work like The Matrix shows us how we can synthesise different stories of religion and philosophy and still make a faith choice," comments a professor and I don't make head or tail out of it. From what I see in the trailers, the movie would be one big bundle of `razzle-dazzle special effects, pulsating post-modern orchestral tunes, Kung-fu-like action scenes, and cool hip sunshades'.

There is a lurking danger though — that people may begin to think. Because there is a risk when you continue to reflect long after the action had faded from the mind, giving life to celluloid images. Would that be for good or bad is something only time will tell. "The elasticity of the environment — the fact that programs can mutate or replicate or fix themselves or write new code — makes for endless possibilities in the myths of the story," writes a critic. And that looks ominously true.

(To be continued)

Swati_CA@hotmail.com

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