CHAPTER 3

I’m back in the office ready for the job interview.

But Samy isn’t here yet. What’s the hell is he doing? I’m a bit worried.

I call him on his cells and it takes 10 signals before he answers:

‘Did I wake you up?’ I ask immediately relieved. ’What are you doing? What happens?’

‘Nothing Mark.’ he says in a voice that sounds like he just woke up.

‘I’m coming. I’ll explain.’

He adds clearing his throat: ’Order a large coffee and some warm croissants. Let’s meet at the coffee shop nearby’.

‘No I’ve got an appointment first. Sleep a bit more. I’ll see you at lunch time around 1 o’clock then at the Thai restaurant.’ And I hang up.

His voice sounds like someone who spet all night up. First time he didn’t show up at work. I feel something is going on. I’m all excited.

I’ve got a hard time staying concentrated during the interview.

Sitting behind my desk, I’m listening with half an ear to Benjiro Marakami who is talking about his professional experience. His Curriculum was already impressive so I force myself to listen to him carefully, but a fine observer would notice that my mind is wandering elsewhere in the way I’m playing with my pen between my fingers.

My thoughts are bringing me back to Emma, of course. The buried images of our common childhood are drawing me back into the past, preventing me from concentrating on Benjiro’s speech.

I’m feeling locked up in a certain nostalgic sweetness, dreaming of our teenage years. It was a happy and frustrating time when everything was possible, when the future looked sweet, promising and hopeful.

At the same time school was locking you between four walls and asking you to wait for some time before taking off.

A sentence from Benjiro brings me back to reality.

‘I especially have a lot of experience in the field of software and video games because I must admit: I’ve been a little hooked myself to those games since childhood, since my first NES*in fact.’

I appreciate him being honest. Finally someone who doesn’t try to sell the image of the perfect dynamic young executive.

We continue the conversation for another hour. We discuss salary and incentive bonuses.

‘I'll call you back soon. Last thing though. You don’t intend to go on vacation before a while I hope. Because we want to get on the Asian market fast I need you to start as soon as possible.’

‘No worry with that. I can’t wait to get started and I’m totally available.’

When the conversation is over, we share a warm handshake. Yes, we’re getting on very well and I usually rely on my first instinct. I liked this little guy straight away.

Young, energetic, enthusiastic, speaking Japanese and Chinese, in addition to French and English, it would be perfect to take on the Japanese and Chinese market. It could be a real problem to make business in a new country without knowing its customs or habits nor its language. I don’t want to be totally dependant on a translator. If he is a bad one, then inevitably it will lead to false or even shabby deals.

I’ll call him back tomorrow. I'd rather sleep on it and I don’t want to seem to be desperate.

I go and get Marjorie’s opinion of Benjiro.

‘Yeh. He arrived on time, punctual and very kind. He waited without showing any sign of impatience. You do what you want of course, but if I were you I’d hire him, no doubt about it.’ She sounds very positive.

'Besides, it's quite amazing that he knows both Japanese and Chinese. It will be a great asset to enter this Asian market.’ she adds enthusiastic.

'By the way, I’ve tested him a little about video games: he’s not an updated geek: he’s remained with basic old timers. He’ll need to be educated on the latest ones. He’ll be the oldest guy in the group you know.’ she frowns ans continues: 'He said his favorite pastime recently was going to the independent movie theatres, a bit underground style. Well, he could educate us on the subject.’

‘Thanks. Your opinion is precious for me, you know. Yes. I liked him too.’ I reply with a large smile.

‘ I’ll call him tomorrow morning to come and sign his contract. Please prepare it for today so I’ll have time to look at it tonight. And leave the starting date blank. If he's ready to start tomorrow, why not? Here is everything you need.'

I hand her a sheet of paper on which I had written some figures.

‘What about the other candidates?’ she asks. ’What shall I do with them?’

‘Let’s cancel everyone for the moment. I think we have the good one. It’s useless to continue. It gets complicated when you have too many choices...on the other hand...create a file with all the information on the others you liked. You never know... in case we were wrong about Benjiro. Then we’ll contact them again.’

1 o’clock. Time to meet Samy and have some lunch.

One of the reasons I’ve chosen to set up my business in this popular neighborhood in Paris is for the food.

For the morning breakfast and afternoon break there are traditional bakeries that offer original and wonderful breads and the pastry chefs who turn their shop windows into real works of art.

At lunchtime there’s a large selection of cuisine from all countries. Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Greek, Lebanese and Indian. And recently vegetarians, juice bars and organic restaurants.

The second reason is because my best friend Samy and I live close to Abbesses at the bottom of Montmartre so it takes 5 minutes to get to our office. But don’t get me wrong. We’re not living together. We’re best friends but not that way. We’ve know each other since school and just live in the same area that’s all. 2 minutes from each other.

I go and sit down at the terrace of the restaurant to be sure Samy will see me when he goes by.

Here he comes on his rollerblades in a yellow T-shirt and his usual black jeans,

with his training shoes around his neck. His hair is still wet so I guess he just came out of the shower.

‘Wow. You were fast! I wasn’t expecting you before 10 more minutes at least.’

Samy looks very excited.

‘Damned. I could have slept until the evening today. I was up all night. And guess what!’

He’s leaning forwards and whispers to me: ‘I finally managed to crack the Swiss code.’ With a big smile he adds: ‘Celebrations buddy!’

And Samy makes his favorite sign when he’s winning. I don’t know how he manages this. Somehow he’s making a funny sound with a small snap with the corner of his mouth and winks at the same time. It never fails to make me laugh. Samy, aware of it, knows very well the power of his wink on people and knows how to use it wisely. So we laugh together.

‘So. Sorry for being late boss but I hope I’m all excused. I was done by 4 or so in the morning but even if I was exhausted I was too excited to sleep. So I took a walk along the Seine, you know me.Then…’.

‘Stop. Remember our rule,’ I interrupt him.

Samy and I have chosen a simple rule when it comes to our secret work. Never discuss our "underground"project between four walls. Even if we’re outside somehow, the others customers are too close to us.

‘You’re right. Sorry. So let’s eat first. ’

When we’re done, Samy takes the time to change his rollers in order to put his sneakers on. Finally we come out. I’m dying of curiosity.

We first go and sit in a small square nearby where some blond and chubby toddlers are watched by moms or nannies worried for every move. The noise of their laughter and shouting in the background is perfect to discuss our concern.

'Well! So. What’s up?’ I begin devoured with curiosity.

Crossing his finger over his lips, Samy takes out the precious notebook he’s keeping with him in the back pocket of his worn-out jeans.

‘Last night I finally cracked the fucking access code. You see all the names. Interesting isn’t it?'. Samy goes on explaining what he found out and who seems to be behind each account. Together we put up a plan for our future actions.

Samy continues talking about last night.

‘Guess what happened to me. I was too excited to sleep so I went for a walk in Paris. Man.’ he starts laughing, looking suddenly like a teenage boy.

‘You know this city is really magical at night. And you meet real strange people.’ he adds wiht a large smile.

‘You could have come to wake me up,’ I interrupt him.

‘Let me remind you we’ve always said to do nothing to attract attention.

It could have seemed weird that I turn up at four o'clock in the morning, right?.’

‘Yeah, you're probably right,’ I admit. ‘You haven’t been drinking at least? This is not the moment to pour out your heart to strangers. You seem a bit strange I must say, this morning.’

‘No, I just held a whore in my arms for a big hug. But in her arms I cried like a baby. Don’t make fun of me’, he asks, a little embarrassed in front of my bewildered look.

‘She was so cute’, he continues.

‘But I wasn’t going to demean myself by paying her for sex. Human trafficking is against my principles, you know that. I just wanted to share my victory with someone else. And I gave her a 100 bucks for that.’ he laughs.

'Her name is Laura and mine Laurent, just in case we’ll meet another time. Who knows? But yesterday was so special. I was so thrilled. You have no idea how hard I’ve been working on this bloody case.’ he yawns, leaning back in his seat, strechting his arms with a large smile.

'Then Paris in the early morning is so amazing, it's huge, impressive but I felt more lonely than usual. I could feel that everyone was asleep and all these empty buildings, these wide and deserted streets, all this grandeur for nothing and no one, as abandoned, it’s quite surrealistic you know. Like after a human catastrophe, when everybody’s dead and you’re the only survivor.’

‘Yeah, I see what you mean,’ I nod, still surprised to hear my friend usually using words sparingly, suddenly raving about a subject like Paris and the atmosphere in its streets.

But I understand perfectly how he was feeling. I myself often roam the streets of Paris in the middle of the night when insomnia pushes me outside, in search of the physical tiredness that will ward off my torments.

‘Not a bad idea this cuddling ,’ I say to avoid talking about loneliness. ‘It's not degrading and a little tenderness can’t hurt in this rotten society’, I add and sigh at the same time.

'Oh, wait a minute! It’s not like you to "pessimize" like that. Something’s wrong?’ Samy asks.

‘No. I’m super happy. You’ve been working on this for such a long time. You deserve your victory.’

But my friend knows me too well.

‘And what’s bothering you?’ he asks with half closed eyes, a bit suspicious.

‘Nothing, why are you asking ?’ I try to look calm.

He keeps staring at me, waiting for another answer.

‘Alright in fact yes. Emma is in Paris, she met my mother and wanted to see me.’

Samy remains silent. The only thing he doesn’t dare to discuss with me is Emma. I guess he feels powerless to help me on this particular matter in my life.Plus he’s not successful with girls either.

When it comes to sentimental life he probably thinks the best is not to suggest anything. Which in a way is correct.

But this time Samy can’t help but talk.

‘You know, even if Emma was or is a nice girl, she’s pathetic. I really don’t get what is so exceptional with her to make you crazy about her. You’re so mature and thoughtful. Is it the opposites attracting each other? Or repelling one another rather, since she never showed the slightest interest in return, right?’

Wow. That hurt.

Still I know he’s right. But I never told him the whole story. I need to change the subject.

‘By the way, did you hear the news? Of course not, you were sleeping, but there was a huge seizure on the Spanish border, the timing is perfect.’ My wide smile contagious.

‘Wow, tell me. I'm all ears!'

'Thanks to a dog and a customs officer more awake or lucky than the others, they seized more than seventeen million euros worth of cannabis in a refrigerated truck. Can you imagine the quantity? At least two tons at current market price. That has to be some daring plan that didn’t work. Or a bribery that didn’t protect them anymore for some reason. Who knows. In any case, we could use this to start with. Don’t you think? It would be perfect timing...but you have to get the name of the dealer and his bank account,’ I say.

Samy answers: ‘Shouldn’t be too hard to find. I'll take care of that. Give me five’, he says.

And we agree with a high five.

The two years of hard work would finally bear fruit. Thinking of what we’re about to do put a smile on our faces. We’ve been working so hard, night after night to break the codes of the largest Swiss bank that housed the big bank accounts of European mafiosos. Careful and systematic investigation, intelligent cross-checks, all with a minimum of written notes to avoid any risk of leakage has led us to have a detailed map of the biggest European traffickers. Suddenly the tiredness is gone.

We have the names of the producers, the middlemen and the resellers in the consuming countries.

We have identified the most important ones and, thanks to the decryption of the banking codes, we can put our great plan into execution without leaving any trace. We’ve been running a parallel program for a year now, and tried to penetrate our system. We hacked it looking for flaws, which allowed us to find some and fix them before we can use it for real.

We’re fully ready now. We just need to get the name of the owner of the truck and to find out who is hiding behind.

At this level we know as much if not more than the police forces stuck in their deontology and their bureaucracy that prevent them from penetrating files protected and locked. When a five-page report is needed to justify a future action, frankly, I can understand that the police gives up. Especially when a simple and unfortunate legal irregularity can be enough to cancel the charges against the criminals. And their lawyers are very good at this game. Understandable, considering how much they get paid for it.

In the end ‘justice’, in my eyes, is just an empty word today. Everyone is ready to sell his soul to the devil for money. On the other hand it’s rather reassuring to know that we can still have a secret garden for a state.

I still have in mind the futuristic projections of Orson Wells in 1984: an all-powerful state, with citizens constantly watched without their knowledge. Nothing really exciting. Rather frightening for our freedom. And our all-connected society can at any time become this totalitarian state by pretending to preserve our security.

But for now, the all-connected is interesting indeed. It allows my ingenious friend Samy to discover the source of the illegal goods, and to go back to the name of the fooled guy probably damn angry at the time.

All our efforts are finally rewarded and make us right to have persisted in our mission. Traffickers should be aware. New righters of wrongs are coming and their empire is soon to collapse.

Well, that's what we have in mind at least. But things got more complicated than expected.