One Monsoon in Mumbai by Anitha Perinchery

Author:Anitha Perinchery
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romantic comedy, romantic suspense, romance, contemporary romance, contemporary fiction, spy fiction, multicultural, indian, asian, asian-american, female spy, interracial, bollywood, mumbai, india, international, new adult, humor, women's fiction
Publisher: Anitha Perinchery
Published: 2019-06-18T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

STUPID, STUPID, STUPID. Seema Rawat was criminally stupid. She stumbled into a seat in the moving bus and wondered despairingly if she could mess up her life any worse.

As soon as she’d seen her computer still powered down and Vikram working late, she remembered the retina scan and had known it was he who tripped the alarm. Seema’s mouth went dry. For the first time since signing up for the investigation, she fully comprehended the danger. Vikram was Adhith Verma’s best friend. They might be innocent, but Minister Verma was not. Once the minister learned of the digital break-in, he’d figure out what Seema was up to, and it wouldn’t be long before he sent his thugs after her and Madhu. When she blabbered, Vikram stared, mild confusion in his eyes.

Seema’s thoughts came into sharper focus. Vikram’s face held no trace of awareness of her perfidy. Either he accidentally set off the alarm, or he knew about the hacking but hadn’t managed to ID the hacker. Given the retina scan policy, the latter was most likely. She was safe for now. Seema was almost back to breathing normally when he asked her to wait so he could ride with her to the lobby.

When he returned to his room to pick up his laptop bag, she cursed herself. She might be safe, but her career was disintegrating before her eyes. She knew—she knew—how skilled he was. The Indian government couldn’t penetrate the defences he built, for God’s sake. Vikram Joshi wasn’t counted among the all-time greats of the game for nothing. He might eventually ID her as the culprit. Before that happened—before the minister heard about her—she needed to disappear. She also had to let the bureau know she’d botched the investigation. Both the Intelligence Bureau and the income tax department would deny any connection with Seema.

Her future as a cryptanalyst would vanish into thin air. She’d never be able to find another job. Not with the income tax department refusing to acknowledge she was ever employed by them. Or worse, if they informed other employers what a miserable failure she’d been.

Madhu. Oh, God. Madhu would have to be fired, too, to prevent the minister from tracking Seema through her family. Until someone else proved Minister Verma’s corruption, the Rawat women would have to spend their lives on the run, hiding from him. Seema had set out to prove her worth as an independent adult, and she’d destroyed Madhu’s life along with hers.

Stop, you damned fool. Think. If Seema could clean up any tracks she might have left, she could stop Vikram from ever IDing her. Then, she could quit her job at Imperium. Without completing her investigation, her career wouldn’t be taking off as she imagined, but both she and Madhu would be safe. Their jobs would be safe. If she miraculously managed to extract data from Adhith’s computer before erasing her tracks, she could even claim success.

“Let’s go,” said Vikram, back from the manager’s room with the laptop bag on his right shoulder.

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