CHECKMATE

Chapter 32

"Then tell the PR team to handle it for God's sake!" Shouted Shivendra over the phone.

Shutting his phone off he glanced at his wife who asked, "Well...how exactly did this happen?"

"I have no idea," replied Shivendra wondering what to do.

Just then he heard a knock on his door and Shivendra got up from the couch and opened it. Immediately Siddharth barged in and said, "The directors have called for a board meeting."

"WHAT!" He exclaimed in horror and Siddharth immediately connected him via Skype to the board meeting.

"What is this I hear?" Began one of the stakeholders of the company. "You sell rats!"

"Mr. Rathore I hope you know that the health inspectors have found dozens of frozen rats among the food." Said another share holder of the company.

"Yes...I understand what is going on," began Shivendra trying to be as confident as possible. "And I will investigate this matter myself."

"Mr. Rathore," chuckled a foreign stakeholder, "I hope you realize the soup you've fallen into. It can be possible that one of your staff members in the frozen foods department did this!"

"Gentlemen as I said, I will look into it. Now please excuse me." Said Shivendra and ended the Skype call.

He sat with his head held in his hands and the looked at Siddharth saying, "Call the manager of the frozen foods section I'll fire him."

"Shiv," came Pratap's voice from the threshold of the suite, "you can't just fire anybody without knowing the entire truth."

"Then what am I supposed to do?" Asked Shivendra in agitation.

"Have you spoken to your PR team?" Asked Pratap.

"Yes I told them not to pick up any calls from the journalists." Replied Shivendra.

"Ring them up and tell them to answer every call." Insisted Pratap. "Running away from the problem isn't the solution, facing it is a solution. Might as well give the journalists a genuine answer that you had no idea about this."

Siddharth nodded saying, "Pratap has a point. Here," he said handing the phone to Shivendra, "the managers on the line."

Shivendra took the phone and barked, "WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED? HOW DID ALL THIS HAPPEN?"

"S...sir...I...I..."

"SHUT UP." Roared a frustrated Shivendra.

"Give it here." Insisted Siddharth and Shivendra handed back the phone to his friend. "Listen," began Siddharth, "I want you to question all your staff members. Because this doesn't look like an outsider's doing."

"Ye...yes sir I will and let you know soon." Mumbled the frightened manager.

Pratap suddenly exclaimed, "Shiv! The frozen foods section was under Vinayak right!"

"Was. Now it's under me only."

"Yes... exactly..." Insisted Pratap making Shivendra look up at him in confusion asking, "What are you implying?"

"Look Vinayak wants the company, whether or not he's competent to handle the company is secondary. Now there's a possibility...that to bring you down, they might have planned this." Shrugged Pratap.

"Then definitely there's an insider who helped them with this." Said Siddharth snapping his fingers.

"Pratap...don't you interrogate the staff." Suggested Shivendra and Pratap nodded in agreement.

Thanks to the crises, they were compelled to cut short the trip and travel back home. All of them were sulking at the sudden disaster that took place,none of them wanted to go back to their daily routine, but had no choice either.

~

"Will this really work Ranveer?" Asked Vinayak biting his finger nails.

"This is just the tip of the iceberg," smiled Ranveer, "when the employees loose trust in their CEO and when the board members feel disheartened investing in the company that's when you take your chance and begin supporting Shivendra."

"But why will Vinayak support him?" Asked Urmika with a frown on her face.

"Because...it's always the good who win and the evil who perish." He smiled. "And I am here with you. One need not fear when I'm near."

Vinayak nodded in utter devotion to the scoundrel and then asked, "So did you really bribe an employee and get this done?"

Ranveer smiled saying, "I had my man do it and he'll do it tonight as well. I want Shivendra to blame his own employees for negligence and fire them. When the employees have no faith in their boss...it becomes easier to bring them to your side."

"Yes...and once you've done that, the company is yours." Shrugged Urmika with a grin.

Vinayak nodded like a dead doll once more. It was like, he was a puppet and the strings were in the hands of Ranveer and Urmika.

~

Pratap took a look at each employee keenly and then said, "Well...just do your best! Mr. Rathore sent me here to cheer you'll up and encourage you'll to work well."

Siddharth frowned and leaned towards Pratap whispering, "Weren't you supposed to interrogate them?"

"Tell the manager also not to ask anything." Said Pratap making Siddharth exclaim, "What are you planning!"

"Look," began Pratap, "the employees of Rathore Enterprises are actually honest. I'll tell you why? Because the higher ups always make sure that their employees get the best, are payed well, looked after and also have a lot of insurance and stuff now tell me after getting all these incentives which idiot would try to cheat!"

Siddharth nodded thoughtfully and then asked, "But how can such a thing take place without any inside help?"

"I don't know," replied Pratap thoughtfully, "I seriously have no idea whom I'm up against this time."

"Vinayak is a fool. He can't think like this. I mean he's too dumb to do this." Mumbled Siddharth as they walked around the looking at the frozen foods. "It looks like... Vinayak is just the face but there's someone who is pulling the strings from behind."

"Is it Indrajeet?" Wondered Pratap aloud but Siddharth simply shook his head saying, "Doesn't feel like it."

"The new chap is quite smart." Muttered Pratap shaking his head. "He wants us to target the employees so that we lose favour. Once the CEO gas lost favour then it just takes few votes to kick him off and replace him...."

"No, no...wait." Said Siddharth. "If Vinayak wants to be CEO just doing all this bullshit won't help. He needs a major chunk of shares to proclaim himself CEO."

"Do you think he might be...buying shares right now?" Asked Pratap in confusion.

"It's not that easy...he needs to win trust. When that's done...it's easier to buy shares from the stakeholders and then become CEO." Replied Siddharth. "The one with majority shares becomes the CEO of the company."

"How exactly does he plan to go about doing it?" Wondered Pratap as they left the frozen foods department.