8/11/2019 From the House of the Peregrine
1/36
rom the House of The Peregrine
Chapter 1
Avina looked around the room. She could not have wished for a better or a
happier life .On the occasion of her 44th b'day , friends and family around her......her two children Aruna , all of of 20 and Isadora all of 19,named after
their maternal and paternal grand mothers respectively ..both at college on the
West Coast ...come home for her b'day....an occasion that come what may they
had always celebrated as a family....their choice from the beginning ..Shelooked across the room at Dr Nikolas Alexios ,the sixth generation American ,of
Greek origin she had married ,what seemed a lifetime ago now ,21 years back.
Greeks who had immersed themselves in American culture ,except when it
came to their names ,which they would never shift away from......Hellenic ,theywould stay .....a family of boat builders by ancestry who had found a home in
the new world near the town of Bath ,in Maine .....Nick,now 46,was the first in
the family who had taken anything outside of it as a career......and in fact he had
made a brilliant job of it ....an outstanding geneticist ,an acknowledged name inthe field ,all round the world
Avina thought to herself, Nick,quite the charmer still.....he still is a huge draw
with the girls....she smiled....catching her eye ,he smiled back.....then winked
...looking into her eyes...he had always loved them......and yes,he had an eye for
beauty and she let him have it...she knew he was very devoted to her and a very
loving father...would never do anything that would hurt her....and she thought to
herself---also depended on what one allowed self to be hurt by ...
8/11/2019 From the House of the Peregrine
2/36
Been a pillar too .Helped ,understood as had the children, the demands of herwork...the sudden travel...the periods of absence ......all that went with it
She thought of her parents suddenly, both Doctors, dad at 71 and mom at 69 but
looking at them nobody would ever say they were a day more than their midforties at most....same energy, same youthfulness.......still ran their
hospital....still worked hard at providing great Medicare support and also its
commercial viability...not to mention the flourish Medicare equipment company
and the sports goods company they owned too...with products being marketed
around the globe.....
Parents who were easy and comfy to be with. .....Who even know, though only
child did not try to get into her space ...wanting her to keep in touch just about
every day.......a call or two in a month ......a catch up ......an yearly visit or theycoming over here ......folks who knew either way they would be there for one
another ....folks who had a life of their own and understood that she had one of
her own too...
Dr Prakash Ravindran and Dr Aruna Ravindran............a couple who had fallenin love way back 50 odd years back, she in her first year of Med School and he
in his third ....married, raised their only child, become great doctors, built up a
flourishing business centered around Medicare without wealth compromising
service ......and in the process, that rare thing ---------accumulation of huge
wealth without letting societal ethics go down the tube
And brought up their only child, Avina, who after an education in India and
Europe was now settled down with her husband, A doctor again,in Maine....and
what a daughter ...a free lancing photographer and investigative journalist , awinner of many awards who had featured in almost all the major magazines
and newspapers in the English speaking world...plus had her photographs and
her columns translated in others .....And two delightful grand children.....not to
mention an absolutely warm and charming son in law.....
A daughter who precisely at that moment was playfully evading the hands of
Ralph , who was pretending to grab her derriere as they danced ......party in full
swing.....her best friend Ralph .....a bit of a rascal but a nice rascal she thought
.....someone who she knew behind his dare a minute ,kicking up havoc ,havingfun exterior was actually quite a deep ,introspective ,sensitive and kind
person.......been friends longer than the marriage...from her years at Columbia
when doing her Masters ......was in this part of the country ,just for a few days
on a brief break...coinciding with her holiday....... a pillar of strength over the
years ...the one she confided her deepest fears and darkest anxieties to...the onewho would listen...understand..never chide but tell her straight either way.....
8/11/2019 From the House of the Peregrine
3/36
Ralph Mc Cormack, famous travel and wild life photographer ...though the
fame was under the pseudonym of Mark Clouds .....one who lived life with a
joie de vivre......loads of panache...squeezing every ounce of joy from each
moment.....who when travelling through the Arabian sands got a beautiful escortfrom Dubai to be with him all of the three weeks, did the same when in the
Jungles of Bali -----Djakarta being the source ...and the same when wandering
around the Andes , with a girl from Caracas in Venezuela....
Well the party wound to a close a little after 12,the day after her birthday.....as is
always the case ,three or four very close friends staying behind...continuing the
banter.....albeit more softly...more privately...Ralph being one of them
.....cutting the breeze....telling stories ......
Ralph was on one of his travel tales ....and this time around it was about three
different girls who had met on three different continents,far from each other
.......him not mentioning one to the other for he had no reason too...discovering
that all the three had identical small tattoos in the same place ...curious he had
thought .........Ming, Kalinda, Nadine
A peregrine in green ink with two little red rings around each leg...tattoo just
below the hip and at the top right of the left cheek of the derriere......almost like
members of the same secret ....a lodge of some sort .Well, as a journalist his
mind had perked up...though he was a wildlife and travel one only but then havenot given it much thought, given that he had been racing against time to
complete some highly time bound and hugely remunerative assignments.....but
he had them filed in his anecdotal archive ...
Just one more thing that had struck him as curious......these were liaisons...not
relationships......and given the nature of both their professions not likely to be
hugely garrulous on a personal level......yet when they used to sit on the hotel
balconies, have a drink late at night, soft music playing in the rooms....while
they could and did talk about life today, all three in some fashion or the other,came across being very hazy about early days.....
.maybe it was just a natural reticence, with the need to maintain a distance and
reserve as their professions dictated ...his experience till then had that peoplewherever they came from, let slip something or the other about
childhood...growing up...especially if some time had been spent together
,whatever be the nature of their profession....did they genuinely not
recollect.....and 3 different people...with the same tattoo at that
8/11/2019 From the House of the Peregrine
4/36
Avina smiled ....Ralph's travel tales ...he had a way about him...his stories heldpeople spell bound...thus the night sped ....till it was time to leave or turn in,
depending on who was staying over in their sprawling home or who was leaving
for their respective hotels or homes .......
The next day she was finishing an assignment she was on...typing, editing, tying
the last knots together of something she was filing...finished...and day after she
was travelling to NY ......flying out with Ralph.....from where she would beheading out to a meeting with an editor while he travelled to his home in the
country..A sprawling farmhouse near Cooperstown...about 4 hours from NYC
by the NY State 28....a quaint, charming town.....a welcome month's
break..Fishing and camping and drinking bourbon on the rocks.......
On the flight, for some strange reason, Ralphs story kept coming back to her
mind...refused to let go...maybe it was because she was the mother of two
beautiful daughters...those girls would have been just a few years older than the
eldest one she thought ...she somehow felt sad......and her mind went back to herchildhood...in Madras, that brand old city that revelled in its simplicity
A family of 3...well knit....parents who were affluent....lovely people...who
never made her feel the want of anything...yet took care not to spoilher....vacations in countries around the world...business trips of theirs eitheraround country or abroad when they left her behind for a few days .....In Akhila
Aunty's home ......her mother's only sister...younger sister and two children,a
boy and a girl....both younger to her ...idyllic times .
By the end of the flight, she had made up her mind...she had a month on her that
she had planned to use to just unwind.....she had decided not to and as they
disembarked, she told Ralph, "hey Raf, will call you tomorrow ...have
something to talk to you
8/11/2019 From the House of the Peregrine
5/36
Chapter 2
So she did...her instincts told her there was a major story here ....yes, it could be
a wild goose chase ...a tale of chasing a peregrine on three tails...but so be
it...she had not mentioned anything to her family .......a rule she had made rightat the beginning of her career...she would not expose them to any danger cos of
her profession...the less they knew or anyone knew all the better...so only Ralph
was privy
As far as they knew, mama avi to the two of them and just avi as nick called her
was off chasing the truth somewhere on something...this time in Dubai......and
having convinced Ralph that she needed just one week of his time, they found
themselves in Dubai......after the week, he would head back while she would
carry on as long as it took., within reasonable time of course ...
" Paid for R & R ,What else do you need ,you bozo " as she told Ralph,
playfully punching his arm as they began their descent at Dubai airport...later as
planned ,they checked into separate hotels though within walking distance of
one another but keeping in touch only over the phone and the net ....
Same agency.......and Nadine...in the deserts... shooting desert wild
life...moonlight and the stillness of the desert nights ....rolling sand dunes and
silhouettes .......Arabic nights ......the tattoo and the tale ....this time ,no
assignment on hand but one that he had invented as cover, he found plenty oftime to talk .....gently listen...without her realizing get her to talk more......get an
idea of life and where she came from...deep inside he wondered whether he was
exploiting a trust he was cultivating...but waved it aside...nothing would hurt
her...and if there was something in it that helped Avina, whatever she came upwith would help her and maybe many others like her ......
Plenty Sambucah, Glemorangie and Captain Morgan's after ,a few nights later
,just two days before he was to leave ,he had kind of gotten one name to go by
......one which she in the aftermath or the morning after had no idea ofrecounting .......of a town called Benchalak in Thailand...nothing more, nothing
else.....and he got the strange feeling that even if he had pushed and she had
wanted to talk, she could not have told him anything more........she seemed to
repeat the name in a manner that bespoke a cloudy haze ...like some part ofmemory that was not meant to be there .....but somehow had stayed back
somehow...... .....even if some agency had used Scopalamine, the truth serum on
her...he would bet his bottom dollar that it was not in her...almost like a memory
swipe .....Scared him a bit
8/11/2019 From the House of the Peregrine
6/36
From the net he tracked the place .........maybe about four hundred and fiftymiles to the north east of Bangkok...more east than north, in the province of
Sisaket ...close to the borders with Cambodia
By now,this had Raf hooked too......investigative journalist or not, hisjournalistic nose twitched.......and now one could not have pushed him out by a
juggernaut ...he was in it.......Avi welcomed it .......Next step
Bangkok........seemed the logical one .......by now both of them were aware that
this could be a dangerous path they were on....murky waters ......And for Avi
,the presence of Raf suddenly made her more assured...feel safer .
Chapter 3
They were met at the Suvarnabhumi Airport by Somsri Willapana .....nee Somto his good friends ,which they were ...going back in time ...a fellow
journalist.....and a very good one at that ........a war correspondent......used to
danger...shrapnel, gunfire, snipers, claymore mines and more ........
Close to seventeen years, Som had been a part of their world and over time avery good friend.....someone whose integrity was beyond doubt...someone they
could trust hugely....Moreover he was someone who could get things done in
most parts of the world...more so in his home stretch ....
He came from a family that was part of the royal family......educated atYale.......and then the rebel in him had taken over....while he was still closely
connected, he chose to lead his own life .....quite often with the wind under his
wings ......married to a French chef Jeanne , a very petite woman.....and they had
two children......both studying in France staying with their maternal grandparents
Settled in at the hotel they were staying, the Banyan Tree and over a meal -Kai
Rom Khwan, Pla Sam Rot,Tom yum saep, Mu Manao Khao Soi and plain rice
.....Topped off with Khanom Khrok as dessert in one of its beautiful restaurants,they slowly brought him up to speed .......a story that could be a hell raiser
possibly hidden in the recesses of Thailand .......
He was in from the word go......and it was his fertile mind that came up with athought .........the courier traffic ........they had to start somewhere ......his elder
brother who he was very thick with was the Country manager of the leading
international courier brand in the country....records could reveal a lot.......and he
had access to traffic of various others...business espionage maybe...
8/11/2019 From the House of the Peregrine
7/36
The records revealed one place in Benchalak.......when they checked forschools,hospitals,societies ......it was to a place called Colors of the Earth
,registered as a residential community .....and on checking further ,they realised
most of its courier traffic was in bound.....and more than what would be
considered a normal pattern from one place called the Gentle BlossomsMedicorp located near Loei,the mountain city ,about 7 hours away from
Bangkok,sparsely populated province bordering Laos........a triangle ...from
there to Benchalak being just about the same distance...just a bit more ....
Maybe Gentle Blossoms would be a good enough place to start as any.....They
decided they would split up ......Som and Avina going in ahead ..........visiting
some of Som's family and friends in that part of the world....and Avi along as
friend ,using the opportunity to see that part of the world
Raf would follow a couple of days later ......checking in at another hotel
.......Phu Luang Wildlife sanctuary being his reason for being there .....but as a
wild life specialist with a serious interest in photography as a hobby
And after Loei they would take a break....about a month .....over the years Avihad learnt to do this......however discreet they had been,even if by chance
someone had woken up to their curiosity,allay it by breaking it up ....go
home...albeit separate ways ...resume after a month or so.Also would get them
time to step back and think.Put things in order...document whatever they had
got.....ensure they could reach proper sources if by chance they werecompromised...something did happen......eventualities their profession had
taught them .
In Loei ,they took residence in a lovely 2 bed room apartment ,with a cook andhandyman in place ,courtesy Som's connections.....Raf followed a couple of
days later checking into the Palace Hotel,about a mile and a half away....no
contact between them while here.....only through the net-Skype and otherwise
and phone ,sparingly used .....
8/11/2019 From the House of the Peregrine
8/36
Chapter 4
They had cased the town by the time Raf got in.....never going near Blossoms
except once, just in passing...more like folks travelling out of town, looking
around....essentially lazily enjoying the place kind of folks .....visiting somefamily.....some old friends...gathering information subtly ....funnily enough
there was not much known about SBM......Sacred Blossoms Medicorp.......a
close knit community......seemed a very high science environment.......lot of
very well dressed people ,from all over the world seemed to be visitors
......none staying outside ....always inside the facility ...but they did come out
......maybe to take in a bit of the local color......but always in groups......and
seemingly under escort.......minders ...
About 1500 acres was the estimation....very well patrolled if one were to go bythe very efficient security presence at the gates .......seemed very wooded
.......and yes no one working there from around Loei....even the cleaners seemed
to be from other distant parts of the country or from abroad....and they all kept
to themselves....seemed very well equipped to be a quiet ,self servingcommunity of its own.......since had been established 30 odd years back,
curiosity had slowly drained out......and now no one bothered ...in the early days
,the Military also seemed to have been fairly instrumental in ensuring curiosity
was quelled ...
So people assumed Government.....or a top classified facility of some sort.....and
no one really wanted to get into any kind of trouble anyway......the wrong side
of authority was not exactly the place most people wanted to be
8/11/2019 From the House of the Peregrine
9/36
The one thing that struck them ,was none of the visitors seemed older than midthirties......and all very attractive...be it man or woman......and a plethora of
colors and cultures .....very curious.....
But beyond this, over the course of more than a week nothing seemed to turnup...that was ok ...but what worried them was that their journalistic instincts told
them that this way nothing would......too closed...very fine knit operation
whatever it was .....and had become so well calibrated over years of
operation...nothing they could get further ....
Raf meanwhile was every inch the wild life photographer he was ......visits to
the reserves...the forests .....punctuated to the night time visits to the dives...that
was his role....coming in the other way.....find out whatever he could from the
seamier side of life....the underbelly of Loei......and from the looks of it,he didnot seem to be making much progress either ......
It was then they decided they would head back as planned...step
back,think....figure out a way....resume after a month....Raf meanwhile would
spend a few days more and then take a call......
Chapter 5
Back home, a month's R & R on the anvil,she started writing her own take on
things till now .....even as Som did......all three of them keeping in touch by thenet......Som and she keeping in touch every day on phone.....his day,her night
.......
And then about ten days later ,just a quick cryptic message from Raf.....'have hitthe jackpot '.....and that brought elation and hope.....without knowing know his
message said it all...he had definitely found a way in to part the veil of
secrecy....the thick curtains that hung over the windows to the
organization.....and his tone was definitive....and he was too seasoned a
professional to do so unless very sure
A fortnight later ,he was home and dry......and they met at Raf's home.....With
Som also by previous arrangement flown in......and they couldn't wait to hear
from Raf.....
A very ,very lucky break ,they realised when he started talking.......it was just a
matter of various elements coming together for precisely a few minutes....pure
luck...maybe destiny .....a little after they had left, Raf with his both his
photographic and camping gear for the outdoors slung into the Jeep Wrangler hehad hired for the duration of his stay ,was up at the crack of dawn headed
8/11/2019 From the House of the Peregrine
10/36
out...to the reserve....even as it was cover, he also took the photographyseriously....might as well combine both when he could ...
About 5 miles out of town ,on a stretch very heavily wooded both sides of the
road and no in habitation , both ways for quite a long distance ...low on phoneconnectivity ...he came upon a Land Rover......holiday luggage ......and a very
attractive ,very efficient looking lady.....trying to figure out what was wrong
with her car.....and not being able to really find out what it was ....and had been
at it for quite sometime, given the puzzlement, the sweat and look of frustration
on her face .....
A snug pair of jeans encasing a rather tall frame, lovely checked shirt, a soft
jacket draped casually and trekkers on her feet...very pretty and Eurasian by the
look of it ....mid thirties ...and thus it was that Dr Mai Barbeau, walked in or
rather dropped into his life...a stroke born of luck, desperation and a very
truculent automobile ....and not something he immediately knew......just another
person on the road ---a fellow traveller needing help
He stopped.....there was initial hesitation on her part......but guess the position
she was in forced her to throw the caution away.....or maybe she was on the
verge of being tired of being guarded all the while.....he tried his luck with the
car too...no way........he couldn't figure it out either.....as he said finally to atrained mechanic may turn out to be something very small.....or maybe
something that required serious attention..
Whatever it was, she was stuck.....she was headed for a break..around ten days
...in the mountains around the reserve ......a lodge ......another 30 miles away
but given the road ,driving conditions took close to 2 hours -----with wild life
crossings etc .....
Seeing that he was headed that way, he offered her a lift.....she locked the car
securely and guess with its SBM license plates which he had noticed after a
while,no one would dare anything . Mutual introductions happened.....she was
so and so.....worked in the SBM.......from Lyons in France---mixed french-
Vietnamese ancestry ,he guessed .....he introduced himself too and casually
gave his cover story on why he was there .....quietly ,thinking fast on his feet he
also said that he was travelling to the mountains too......he was going to the
mountains too...camping ....and later the reserve ........
8/11/2019 From the House of the Peregrine
11/36
Quiet enough drive...but slowly he drew her out...maybe his natural easy to be
with attitude.....the nature of what he was doing ---or just that she wanted to
talk...speak.....let down her hair......maybe it was a feeling of wanting to let
go...conscience ....wanting to make a choice ......but not a word about what shedid...a bit of growing up......education in France , Sweden and finally at
Stanford.......21 years of working at SBM......very senior...that explained the un
escorted break....
Yes a French passport holder ,with a French dad and Vietnamese mother
.....one hugely disastrous short lived marriage in between Sweden and Stanford
. Had lost her mother when she was 13, father had remarried when she was
16.....her education funded by a trust fund set up by her mother who had been of
very wealthy lineage.......dad dropping out of sight and out of her life with his
Brazilian wife when she was 20...probably was settled in some beach house in
some place like Sao Paulo for all she knew or now cared .
One of the two Resident Directors at the facility...he quickly revised his age
estimate...though she looked her early mid thirties must be in her early forties to
early mid forties he thought....unmarried ......divorced after a marriage for two
years at the early age of 21....went downhill....and ever since had dedicated
herself to a life of science ....She was curious about him in her ownway...subtle,nothing to suggest forwardness .......and he gave her a brief idea
about himself..well,two could play the game ,he thought
Turning a curve ,he happened to glance at her.....and that look of hers at that
moment...completely defenses down....he suddenly realised was like that of lost
child...intuitively,he felt that she was at some kind of emotional fork in her
mind...a cross roads ....owards mid morn , they arrived close to her lodge .......a
beautiful,quaint little villa of bamboo and wood ----stood discreetly under asmall grove of lush trees on a hill side.....not too far up
They parked the vehicle ...and he helped her unload her gear ......later he would
drive a little away and park.....set up camp not too far from the lodge
....someplace that offered him a clear view from a hidden angle ........looked like
she was staying alone......must be equipped with cooking facilities...the
villa....and she must have gotten essential supplies along ...At the door they
shook hands, parted ,smiles exchanged...not strangers anymore but not friends
8/11/2019 From the House of the Peregrine
12/36
8/11/2019 From the House of the Peregrine
13/36
further up...if you are around would you like to have lunch together at the lodge
......will slap up something .....also have some wine in the chiller .....say around
2 .30 if that is not too late for you
Sounds like an idea he said...maybe he could get some freshly caught fish ,
grilled and get along some cheese and stuff.....and thus it was .....lunch was very
pleasant....nice conversation...a little music .......and it went on .......it was
almost dusk when he left .....fireflies and cicadas making their presence felt.
That night as he sat by the fire he had made,looking out into the night , listening
to its sounds,camera in his hands just in case ,night light set,she dropped
by....wearing a simple cotton skirt....floral in white and gentle blue......a light
bare sleeved maroon top....fetching picture...hair down...burnished gold....as
she sat silhouetted against the fire.....
She was the enemy,as far as Raf was concerned,until proved otherwise...not let
down his guard ....but for some strange reason he felt a little sad......something
in her face.....a child like innocence ....a vulnerability. The thought of exploiting
that made him feel a bit underhand.....but he quelled such thoughts
.....consenting adults if it happened ......and yes,in the process if it provided him
the means to be part of exposing something that was possibly harmful tohumanity,it more than made up for it...self justification maybe .....
Half a bottle of Riesling that had lain cooling in the creek,grilled catfish
marinated with herbs,chunky bread and butter to go with it.....and some strong
black coffee he made over the fire...conversation.....and him strumming and
singing classic James Taylor...Neil Young......magical time...drawing to a close
around midnight .....as he walked her back to the lodge...pecking him on the
cheek to say goodnight .......
A soft smile played over his face as he thought about her......before turning over
to go to sleep....a revolver by
his bed side.....land of the wild...it paid to have a glowing fore outside and a
firearm by the side lest some large cat decided to wander in and nestle up
close...warm bedding on offer ...
At this point of the recount ,for he was a real photo journalist Som grinnedsuddenly and said in a very imitation plum in the mouth upper crust British
8/11/2019 From the House of the Peregrine
14/36
accent ,with a chuckle ' Regular Toff Our Ralph is becoming isn't he , Avi ?Blooming Casanova Orf the Orient
Avi chuckled,punched her pal for years ,on the arm and playfully said "
yeah,regular Honey trap he is becoming......Honey Raf...." and they would notknow it then,but from on ,and as time passed by ,they would be calling him that
for a long time.....like a private joke between the three of them.....sometimes a
nickname in jest ,has a habit of taking a life of its own...
And they took a little break......while they were eager to know more...now that
they had gotten onto something they were also seasoned enough to know that
now an hour or two or even a day or more would not make a big difference
......And by now they had sensed that the final point or the one that needed
taking apart was the Gentle arm of the Blossoms.....Benchalak
Som made a few calls back home ...via conduits.....cut outs who could ensure
that nothing was traceable back to him ----getting a fair sized network
going.....starting an information gathering onslaught ....around Benchalak
area....and everything discreetly........subtly.....and only through highly trustedsources .....yes, something could turn up......
As they pottered around the large farmhouse kitchen,with the easy familiarity
and comfort of long time friends slapping up dinner ,Avi caught Raf looking
out of the window,lost in thought...a softness playing over his face.....and withinfinite tenderness it suddenly struck her that there were really soft emotions at
play within him...hit her like a thunderbolt......in the excitement of the chase
both Som and she had forgotten the human in Raf....he must have been under
terrific stress......and she sensed that it had less of seduction and more ofromance.....and romance that had the heart in it.
She also knew that the professional he was, Raf would button it down and do
whatever he had to...what he felt was right for the world at large...her heart went
out to him.....she turned away...not wanting him to know that sheknew,instinctively felt it.......
It had been as though Mai had been waiting to open out...talk ....maybe was
catharsis......or just wanting to get it off her chest......maybe subconsciously
wanted exposure ...Anyway it all poured out ----not at one go though .....in
installments.....kind of like wanting to go far but not no further....yet not being
able to stop once she started......almost like she was confessing ...the Catholic
she was .....and he was the Priest listening to her confession
8/11/2019 From the House of the Peregrine
15/36
And he realized, how much of a break it was...pure luck.....how else could he
explain , such a meeting as had happened between them .......pure
providence......just fate ---Yes,a girl woman still,brilliant,pretty,yet emotionally
lost and to a large extent someone who had been let down by one too many
people
When she had so eagerly joined up all those years back., it was all the
excitement of cutting edge genetic research that was happening......what the
organization had been doing for more than 3 decades ...though none of it
figured anywhere in the public domain......told to her by her recruiters from
SBM in her final year in Stanford.,.....a discreet meeting they had set up ,as
though by accident,,,,without her knowing...discreetly done ....with sufficient
and in depth NDC's also in place to ensure it was kept completely
confidential.....a very generous paycheck on offer.....and it had seemed like a
dream come true .....
And she had been caught up in the excitement of it all......about a year from
when she had joined...they had started an initiative called Gift of a Child ......a
division that got abbreviated to GOAC........in the years that followed ,men and
women from all over the world,handpicked after intensive work and based on
rigorous parameters .....slowly started travelling in .....very well
remunerated...very well looked after ...their only purpose......to be donors
......fresh.......
And then hired out wombs......women again carefully chosen from the rural
backdrops of Laos ,Vietnam, Cambodia brought in through a mountain path in
covered heavy duty vehicles...through a secret entrance at the back.....that no
one else was aware of ...but only SBM ......and each woman who came in was
very well looked after...handsomely paid.....carry the child in the womb
...deliver.....and look after the child till the age of 3.....and then they were sent
back.......
8/11/2019 From the House of the Peregrine
16/36
Designer babies......and people from all over the world...childless couples
....who could decide the kind of child they wanted...the racial mix.....At that time
it had not disturbed her...yes,while the social ethics of such activities were beingquestioned by some all over the globe,to an young researcher like her , it had
seemed like resistance born out of ignorance towards the advancement of
science ......she had believed in all sincerity ...And it was about helping people
have children
A year later , when the babies started getting segregated by gender ,she gave it
no further thought....only the male babies being adopted here......while all the
girl babies were to be handled by a client organization----and they were to
handle the adoption .......located out of a city to the South....
She gave it no further thought ....the management's official line carried no
sinister tones in her mind ....and thus had begun the segregation.....and thrice in
a year, very polite, well mannered professionals arrived in well equipped,
highly sophisticated transport to take charge of the handover...polite but
discreet...kept to themselves in a very harmless way.......and never stayed for
more than a few hours....
And the security ......its norms of privacy....etc had not bothered her .......her
world had become this.....she in fact had welcomed the privacy.....no prying
eyes, no local curiosity...no incidents...peace and serenity...helped in her
work....
He could understand where she was coming from, in a different way. Many a
time he had seen the big felines...wolves...lions hunt down their prey.......lookingat them through his lenses.....as they sprinted.....closing down the distance, the
angles......he had many a time admired the litheness, the grace...marvelled at
the precision of the final leap.....as far as he was concerned ,he was
creating...capturing the beauty of those moments on film....his craft.......and only
if he sat back ,thought later would he have felt the desperation, the agony of the
deer..The zebra............ And if anyone had told him he was cruel...he would have
snapped back--FO, Am not making it happen.....am capturing it for posterity....
8/11/2019 From the House of the Peregrine
17/36
And this had gone on for years...she had become a very trusted member of the
organization...grown to become a resident director......reporting straight to the
top most hierarchy....and it would have continued that way......if not for a verychance incident that happened about 6 months back....
An occasion of a visit by the Client team.....They had come in late eve.....staying
over ...scheduled to drive back at the crack of dawn.....staying in the guest
bungalow which bordered the main lab in the large building about a mile from
the gate ....it was about 9 pm.....she had finished her dinner.....wanting to put do
some work from home .....an analytic note ....when she realised that that she
had left her little journal note pad on which she scrawled .rough thoughts back
in the office
A walk would do her good she decided....half a mile either way......A Saturday
night........everything was dark and silent.....deserted main building as she could
see from about 200 yards away.....the approach path skirted the guest
house...almost touching it......as she quietly passed by, she noticed the windows
were a little open...letting the night breeze in...tow of them with their backs to
the window were sitting watching a large screen television mounted on the
wall....hooked o to a laptop.....a child was on the screen.......3 year oldMirabelle----part Turkish-Part Spanish she quickly saw......a beautiful child
.....must be going over the children being shifted out tomorrow she thought
Just as she was clear of the window ,maybe an arm's length.....she heard one of
them saying...clear in the silence of a balmy night....and they would not have
thought anyone was around " She is gorgeous......let her turn 18.....and by
today's dollar,fetch at least 3 million from some private collector in Dubai or
Tangiers......"
She almost paused...went back and asked " what do you mean ?".........like a
cold fist in her stomach.......a little distance more...and she realised she
suddenly did not feel like going to the lab anymore...headed back but by a
slightly different path ....
8/11/2019 From the House of the Peregrine
18/36
That night she did not sleep till the wee hours of the morning...mind in a state of
confusion...heart in a state of sorrow......sudden realisation that something was
very amiss... maybe it had been part of her subconscious for quite a while....suppressed triggers....refusing acknowledgement.......feelings of disloyalty
........suddenly coming to life......
With stunning clarity she realised that the baby girls were being created with
just one purpose in mind......And all of them were going to some kind of
grooming school for the flesh trade .....When they were in the teens......possibly
schooled in all the graces of it........predestined escorts, call girls.......and who
knew whether it was a client or SBM itself.....another GOAC initiative but of a
different genre..sadness, self loathing.......filling her heart .....But instinctively
she knew she had to be cautious....any awareness shown could be dangerous.....
She realised how lucky she had been.....with its intricate network of cameras,
ostensibly for security purposes or she had believed till then, her expression as
soon as she heard would have been caught on camera from the tree cams.....but
that was one of the blind spots.....there was a stretch of darkness on the path
there .....And she would not have been seen till she re emerged
And suddenly she realised one thing...something she had never given thought to
before......just about everyone at the facility was single...be it woman or
man.....broken marriages......dysfunctional families...no families...nobody with
any attachment outside.....immersing themselves in work......and it had always
been so...pieces started falling in place rapidly...once her mind opened
out....veils got lifted by her own self.....a very well orchestrated, well
planned endeavour on the whole.....And she realized that the security was as
much to keep the people in and in line as much as it was something thatdiscouraged prying eyes
This was where the steel in her had risen to the fore.....she had gone dead
pan...gave herself an outer limit of a year to get out....she knew by now that if
an operation of this magnitude was happening , with no disturbance ....very
discreetly ,there were very powerful forces at play here ....possibly
globally......she wondered whether there were any others who felt the way she
was feeling now...had anyone tried in the past...as far as she could recall notsince she had come here...how about before...and if they had what had
8/11/2019 From the House of the Peregrine
19/36
happened to them.....thoughts and queries that had never cropped up in her
before...she shuddered thinking of possible consequences ---and very discreetly
she started carrying her French passport and a few other papers with
her.....never knew when opportunity could present itself
This trip of hers was in fact part of the planning....a recce....casing........she had
another six months from now...maybe couple more trips......and then finally try
to head out....and if she got caught...she got caught .....And though she said it
with a very sweet smile,there was an air of finality in her voice when she said "
one way or the other,am getting out "...their eyes caught and held ......he felt
awfully sad suddenly.....and at that moment ,he realized that life could be very
strange....an avowed bachelor for life,he suddenly realized that she had come to
mean quite a bit to him....maybe it was the surreal atmosphere...whatever...but
as of now,right there and then,he felt it
She had talked long and hard two days before he was to leave...baring all...but
then after those two days,she just refused to go there..as though shy,feeling bad
about possibly dragging him into danger...or maybe a sense of impending
loss....he was due to travel back and head out the same day.....and she was
driving back straight...could not be seen together .....in fact most of their trysts
had been in the cover of darkness after that first day...during the day she was
out trekking while he wandered around ,took photographs......with the oddrunning into each other on the trail ....after 9 pm at night , she would walk down
through the trees ,following a path away from the back of the
lodge...approaching his tent from the other side ......lifting up the flap....and
same away back at about 4 am...
Precautionary...maybe not necessary..but lest there was observation...picking
up a stranded fellow traveler...a first day hospitable catch up over a meal or
two etc was ok but not an everyday thing...the first could be written as wanting
not to arouse any kind of suspicion or talk ....well,anyway,did not look likeobservation was in any way happening...she was far too
senior..committed..trusted...and maybe by now taken very much for granted
The night before they parted ,there was a bitter sweet poignancy...both of them
did not talk future...just before she left as usual way before dawn,she hugged
him close, while he kissed her and she said ' Meet you ,when we meet .If you are
anywhere here in the mext few months ,please ring me...will somehow manage
to slip out for a day or two'. He said " promise me you will not do anything in
haste......promise you ,will figure out a way to get you out ".
8/11/2019 From the House of the Peregrine
20/36
She looked up...nodding softly in affirmation.....and with a soft smile ,took out
something from her pocket ,went over to his shirt that hung on a peg ,put it into
its pocket....and with a gentle hand squeeze, a look from the opening of the flap,
she left...vanishing like a forest spirit into the dark.....he stood inside....lookingafter her for a while ...and then went over to look into his pocket...a phone
number and a mail id on a small indistinct piece of paper ...typed out...not
handwritten ....as simple as that
Chapter 7
So he was ,recounting ...at the end of his narrative deep into the night ,he took
out a pen drive and placed it in front of them.....and said " I managed to record
our conversations ...all of them without knowing.....and yes, for us to use .....not
at all feeling bad about having done it....it was essential...yes, I know it willharm her but the expose comes first in my book ...have titled them by date...all
the files in a single folder "
Avi knew her friend well enough to know that for him the exposure came first
but she was not as sure about his -I don't feel bad at all --- She knew he was sadand hurting inside...She just simply walked up to him and said " Raf, don't
worry....we will get her out...come what may "..
He nodded, then said albeit a little sadly 'whether we manage to do that or
not...or whether she gets out... could sense this strongly, she would want to bepunished for her role in the whole thing...a sense of loyalty in her.....her intent ,i
could feel is to expose .....And doubt she will be convinced into accepting
amnesty...that is how she is built
A bridge to be crossed when one came to it .....,. Just as Mai's mind had
leaped.....broken through, theirs did too, But on a much larger, surer scale. The
journalistic instinct. And they knew they had stumbled on to something truly
big. Probably global in its proportions.....
They were sure it was a place where children after creation were being trained
only for one purpose.....Like calves being fattened for the kill, Preposterous,
grotesque. If it was happening here, how many other places was it happening
too around the globe....The moneys involved would be huge. A global networkof creators, groomers, auctioneers and buyers ........And they were sure both
SBM and Gentle Blossoms in Benchalak were not different organisations...just
different heads of the same hydra......another division...
8/11/2019 From the House of the Peregrine
21/36
But how to prove all this......no international media house of repute would be
willing to touch it without hard facts......Meanwhile Avi and Som in an informal
tete a tete independent of Raf had very conclusively agreed that come what may
Mai would be kept out...they would not use the conversations secretly recordedby Raf.....
By now they had realised what she meant to Raf and knew that while he would
never have it otherwise as a fellow professional ,it would emotionally destroy
him...that was out...and anyway it was only conjecture on her part and at SBM
whatever they were doing ,wasn't exactly legally wrong...ethically yes......and if
they broke it with that,the news would not be damaging enough to bring to light
the true dirt.....and enough time then to cover tracks.....create false trails .....
They decided to take a break...a week.Disperse and meet again in about 8 days
in the farmhouse ....Avi had thought of speaking to Nick , see if he had by
chance heard of SBM etc given the field but she had held back...her self
imposed rule from early days itself, of not involving or talking about any
ongoing investigation to him or any family member,thus dragging them into anydanger was too deep set in her mind....she balked...and then let go of the thought
completely
She would spend the week at home and from there pursue setting up a media
house connect...someone she could trust implicitly..backed her up in thepast...would maintain absolute confidentiality.....and meanwhile also think of
how to move in further...Anyway Som's network was on the job,they would
have to wait and see ....Raf was to stay put...just unwind and relax...he deserved
it.....take his mind off
Back home, she took her mind off for a day or two before resuming again......on
the morning of the third day,while having a cup of coffee on the veranda-Nick
being away for the day,attending a convention ...back tomorrow- what a trail of
coincidences it had been but of such coincidences sometimes was born startlingnews that uncovered things that needed to be put an end...for the sake of
humanity
A very dear ole friend...a wild life photojournalist with an occasional penchantfor beautiful escorts on tough assignments.......a little tattoo............3 of them
......becoming a tale to be told at a gathering...a spirit of revelry over a few more
pegs.......an investigative journalistic nose twitch......an Land Rover breaking
down.......Mai......
8/11/2019 From the House of the Peregrine
22/36
Moment she thought of Mai.....coincidences, together ...something hit her like aflash. Excitement took over....something that was right under their noses
......Her mail id.....her number.......and in today's world of technology, maybe
when the real brick and mortar world was unyielding, impregnable maybe there
was a way in through the ether ........
Her next thought was of Alan Deng ---Dr Alan Deng......another long time
friend like Raf from student days ......her answer lay probably just under a
hour's drive away to the west from home...in the suburbs of Lewiston......where
after years of being an academic in the Lewiston campus of the University of
Southern Maine, Alan ,an umpteenth generation American of Chinese origin,
now ran a flourishing restaurant and the rest of the time, spent on the
computer......food and computers...two of his passions in life ........a hacker of no
mean ability...but only in fun...and one who had so very much helped her in oneor two financial and land deal exposes in the past.......
A call.....yes, he was in town....no, he had no other engagement that evening
......his daughters away at college on the West Coast as they were and wifey
gone for a fortnight to visit her mum in the San Gabriel valley area nearLA.....that evening around 4, she was headed over to Lewiston...hands on the
wheels of her Subaru Outback .....and Dan Fogelberg playing on the
stereo.....west to Brunswick and then north west to Lewiston....he had booked
her into a quaint little hotel in town for the night, walking distance from the
restaurant
As soon as she drove in, she headed for his restaurant....closed ---set to open at7 pm again for the day......cosy little office at the back...coffee and red bean
cake .....strange yet quite nice east meets west mode....after settling down, she
told him the whole story in a gist, leaving no major detail out.....she trusted him
as much as she did Raf and Som
He sat thoughtfully for a while...she did not want to push him...With Alan it hadalways been that way...very balanced...made up his own mind....weighed the
8/11/2019 From the House of the Peregrine
23/36
pros and cons quickly.....and it had to strike him as something important....andhe made up his own mind....After about ten minutes , he got up,offered more
coffee...took up his guitar that lay in the quiet zone as he called it...the farthest
corner from the door----and said " Hey ,Avi gal,how about singing some Simon
and Garfunkel together for old time's sake "
She smiled at that....they had done that a lot during younger days...both of them
having great voices ....and in his own subtle way,indicating 'Hey,Avi we are in
this together "........but she would wait for him to articulate it before she
assumed further......a man of few words ....except when he was teaching...when
he was like a dervish possessed
And thus they sang 'My little town ' followed by Bridge over Troubled waters
and then Homeward Bound......alternating between them on being Paul Simonor Art Garfunkel......female version though .....Avi. The only person who had
ever called her Avi gal...Alan. Finally he looked up slowly,put up his hand in a
quiet hi fi and said " Yo,Avi gal,lets do it "
She was elated...if it was there on the net,he would find it...such was hisskill.....a shot in the arm...a quartet now....that night over dinner , in the quietest
corner of his restaurant, they talked quietly....winter melon soup,rice with
steamed chicken,steamed scallops with ginger and garlic ,poached duck,plenty
of Chinese tea and shaved ice for dessert.....the food of Canton from where his
family had come from about a couple of centuries and a quarter before ---thelate 1800's......still preserving certain habits,customs...while yet having totally
become part of American mainstream.....
They both realised this was probably going to be the most dangerous of projectsthey had done together.....so no home base....untraceable.....needed a place in
another state....a little remote yet allowing great connectivity-access to the
world of the net ,telephony and satellites.....large.....wooded environments ,not
visible from the main road -----Pure precautions because the net was a double
edged sword....because if they set off any hidden alarm,they could just as easilybe tracked back,location pinpointed if there was a quality specialist at the other
end too...and then the possibility of a ground level team being sent in
And he needed a little time .....had to do it very carefully...step by step.....hastecould cause mistakes ...raise security alerts.....even if over the years they had
been present with no disclosure they might have gotten over confident and did
not closely monitor....
And he would get the equipment from home......also his little personalarmory.....incidentally he was crack shot....and close combat specialist too
8/11/2019 From the House of the Peregrine
24/36
having been a marine for 3 odd years in the services of thegovernment.....honourable discharge as he had taken a bullet through the
shoulder.......prior to joining college as a student...... Avi was a good shot
too....having taken to shooting---learning it as self protection once she set out on
her career...never knew when it would be needed
Needed to re plan she realised.....Next morning before driving back, having
breakfast with Alan at a little restaurant....she called up Raf and Som .....Raf
was a good friend of Alan's too while both Som & Alan had met a couple of
times earlier.....over a very casual call, simple phrases they rewrote the plan....
Avi would continue with work on the editorial contact, which she had already
done and along with Alan work out a place ....and get into the net mode. Raf
after a few days would leave for Bangkok and with Som would work out how toget Mai out......Som would in parallel continue to leverage his network for
information......4 weeks to the day she would land up in Bangkok if together
they had unearthed something.....no planning further as of the moment
Just before she left ,Alan with a whimsical smile said ' All because of a littleperegrine tattoo on the cheek isn't it...finally every little error even in the most
sound system boils down to a human error...here maybe one of ego...of wanting
to possess.....a perverse pleasure ...a perverse sense of possession
maybe.....bench marking quality ......From the House of the Peregrine- Sacred
Blossoms ....if not for it, probably there would not have been a tale for Raf torecount....what a funny world "
Chapter 8About four days later of intense networking and what seemed like a fewhundred calls, they managed to find just the kind of place they were looking
for....up for 6 months rental......owners having left the previous month, for a trip
around South America....having handed over the responsibility of renting it out
to their real estate agent.....Mt Vernon in Washington State, the other side of the
country...say ten miles away from Mt Vernon which was roughly equidistantbetween Seattle in the South and Vancouver in Canada to the north.....say about
60-70 miles either way .
Needed a fair degree of logistics management to get the equipment across butthey managed to.,....and thus the morning of the 9th day from when they had
last parted, Avi and Alan found themselves ensconced in the sprawling
house....a beautiful low slung building .....resting amidst woods but clear space
all around that ensured that there was no cover for any hidden approach....and to
top it all, looked like it had built in the sit of a much older one...had a hidden
8/11/2019 From the House of the Peregrine
25/36
tunnel .....concealed well......that residents of the house could use and come upabout 500 yards away ...a getaway
They had stocked up for a fortnight.....Avi called out of a new number she had
gotten here and so did Alan...new mobile phones...their current ones logged offand left at home .......Alan set to work...entering the world of
ewalls,encryption,pass words,one way encrypted passwords .
.....tough work.....took him a day before he could concretely establish they had
an online presence ....but hidden behind lots of firewalls......but he could sense
that it was all work done a few years back.....so much of on ground presence
with no breach......no net incursions....and a false sense of security and over
confidence .....it was just a matter of time ...
All their families knew were not to expect them back for a fortnight ......Nickwas used to this....a relationship built over so many years ,with mutual space
and understanding to pursue their careers,great love and trust.....and years of
experience based on previous assignments-the nature of her work . The children
were in college anyway and Nick easily played the role of mom and dad in one
when required to do so
As far as Alan went, Sue his wife was used to him...again a wonderful
relationship and in his case it was at most once a year or so......and Avi was her
friend too...trusted Avi no end.....and she knew that the last people who would
get up to anything together besides work was them.....if it anyone but Avi ,shewould have been queasy.......Alan was quite a charmer and he would not be too
much beyond a sparky romp if he met just that right kind of
person...intellectual and pretty.....
As she told him over the phone from her mother's place, with a raunchy sense of
humor she had " Al,my darling Chinaman, if you had been doing this trip with
anyone but Avi , would have served up a couple of meatballs with some spicy
red chilly sauce "
And yes he did it on the morning of the third day...hit the mother lode .....and
what is more tapped into their security camera system........an intricate network
all over the facility ......seemingly going into a central feed .....which was
supposed to be monitored ......yet over the years was not really 24/7.......theyalso had two years worth of archived film compressed and stored ...and Alan
had not set off any alarms
8/11/2019 From the House of the Peregrine
26/36
Though they had almost expected it...what they saw shocked them....made themwant to throw up in disgust......over the next two days...feeling like voyeurs...but
having to do it....storing on a back up drive as hard evidence stored in a soft
format they watched .....the gist of what they gleaned was this ....they haddumped the archives into a storage drive for later viewing after just a
perfunctory run through...preferring to observe the current
The children .....from three years upwards up till late teens.....growing up
together .......school in the community.......all teachers on campus......no
parents,no relatives ........just them .......on a large estate ......wooded .....and at
the foothills of the mountains as the perimeter cameras revealed ......and on one
side there was a River running ( checking out the area ,Avi discovered it was
probably the River Mun that fed into the Mekong ). A select band of about 20
teachers....all under 40......( maybe someday,they thought to themselves they
would discover how they got recruited,managed to stay put on
campus,retirement plans and confidentiality ......there would be truly well sewn
up systems in place,they were sure....)
......a place hidden in time....shrouded by mist and cloud ......sprawled under thecanopy of huge trees that dotted the landscape completely....about 2500 acres
by their estimation....a small town in itself .Home to an almost largely female
population inclusive of students,teachers and support personnel......in maybe 4 :
1 ratio.....and a plethora of cultures and races all over the world.....lot of inter
racial presence......and in two words ,one thing that tied them all together ....in
a physical sense stunningly beautiful or handsome ,depending on the gender
And the only parental or authority figures who were at the apex on site seemedto be Uncle Steve as he was called ,a kindly looking Caucasian man and his
8/11/2019 From the House of the Peregrine
27/36
wife , Huong ,a petite Vietnamese .who seemed to run the community ....the only
people in the whole community one could call elder......they had been here a
long time,Alan and Avi realised ....mid fifties----Uncle Steve and Huong Di nee
Aunt
. They realised that both of them were only employees ,though probably very
senior and hugely paid at that .The kingpins who owned it lived in the outside
world...probably anywhere in the globe .....probably driving in in hooded cars
....late evenings.....whisked away to inner sanctums...when the girls were not
allowed to be there .......only Steve ,Huong and maybe some very senior,trusted
staff .
Till the age of twelve ,it was the alphabet,interaction skills,dance
,music,culinary skills,art ,lands and cultures, history,books,yoga, aerobics
......everything pointing to social skills for tomorrow....At the age of about 13 till
the age of 18 , it was adult learning ........about pleasuring both women and
men..rituals and rites drawn from various cultures .............practical
demonstration and practice labs like one would find in any regular school on
regular school courses .......in addition to the teachers there was also about 10
support staff specifically for this.....
Avi and Alan,despite themselves , filled with loathing as they were ,could not
help but appreciate the thoroughness of the evil geniuses behind this place
.....and thankfully.,..one small thing....they did not seem to let the girls become
commercial playthings till they had reached the age of 18......
She burned the line -----Raf and Som......all she said was Bingo ! as had been
pre decided. One more day and they would be through here.....Raf and Som
were already together in Bangkok---another dozen odd days ,she would be there
.....with Alan if he wanted to travel....and then they could take it from there .....
Alan had enough of watching ....could not blame him......three days of intensive
work...and then two days and nights given very hugely variant time zones ,of
seeing things he did not want to...he wanted fresh air he said.....and afterbreakfast he said he would be in the outdoor but always within hearing
distance...just wrapped up a few sandwiches,a thermos full of coffee and he was
gone...
So she was left to her own devices for the day....they had booked themselves fortravel back to Maine from Seattle early morn on the coming day........gently she
8/11/2019 From the House of the Peregrine
28/36
eased into the tracking on the cams.....it was a little after ten a.m when she sawwhat she saw .....a little past midnight into the following day out there ......and it
froze her for a moment.......was like a blow to the solar plexus......
Her next thought was what will I tell my children ,when we break this ......howwill they take it.......now ,suddenly the full force of Mai's predicament hit
her....the moment of discovery...trust betrayed......she empathised huge....she
switched it off after a while...she needed to get away...she wanted to go home
....to the city of her birth....where she had always run to in periods of extreme
emotional turbulence...very rare but nevertheless been there.....and none more
so than now ...
She knew she had to keep a straight face,compose herself by the time Alan
came back...she was not ready to tell anyone yet......she had to decide whethershe wanted to in the first place.....all she wanted to do was a change in
plan...invent a plausible excuse......sudden call....someone close in family not
well at all...going home for a couple of days before getting back.....so that did
not want to disturb anything else
Alan bought it...he had no reason not to......as always she always had her travel
documents with her ,given the nature of her profession .....and she had a ten year
visa to India.....due to be renewed only after 5 years.....by now she was
composed....and the wan cast of her face could be put down to the harrowing
viewing over the past 3 days....and Alan was also the same...so Alan did notnotice anything...
Thus they flew,two different directions...both having a copy of all they had
stored from the net.....when she reached home from the airport...her folks
weren't there...travelling on work......and as always like in the past,she took her
key and went in......but unlike earlier times she had no time to waste...a timetable to keep...a drop in visit...so could not afford to wait for them.....and no
calling either.....why trouble them .....she walked straight into her own old
room...lay down on her bed...a good 3 hours....staring at the ceiling...lost in
thought...thought of calling Akhila aunty...but decided against it...let her visit beone of quietness and she was in no mood or frame of mind to cut the breeze...
8/11/2019 From the House of the Peregrine
29/36
Two days of stillness,quick hasty lunches and dinners if at all she felt like eating
..loads of filter coffee though,...she loved the coffee ...listening to her old
music...walking around home...taking in its old familiarity ......and then she wasout...airport...flying.....lot of serenity having come into her ....but no not going
back home yet...straight to Bangkok which was such a short distance
away.....and much to Raf & Som's surprise,she was there and ahead of schedule
by about 8-10 days
Chapter 9
She did not bother to explain anything...the trust between old friends.....no
questions asked...knew that some energy was diving her....she was coiledtaut....and she wanted to shift deadlines forward...Alan on the phone..he equally
surprised as they had been...and no hesitation, he wanted to be there...would be
there and by following evening he was ....
All of them staying at Som''s lovely home.....the small bungalow attached to hishouse...equipped to host stay in guests......Simple enough plan.......there had
been zilch the on ground network had been able to dig up..it was not necessary
anyway...and no surprise either....knowing how discreet and systematic the
organization was...and there must be huge pay offs...cover ups in place ....but
now where they could come to actual use was in escape route protection for Mai.
....
Raf and Som would start for Benchalak in 3 days time......Som had engineered a
completely new set of identity papers for Mai....absolutely masterpiece
class...tracks fully covered...she would become Genevieve Chan .......and they
would be carrying them when they traveled down to Benchalak
8/11/2019 From the House of the Peregrine
30/36
They would contact Mai on phone through a missed call on the 4th day....andthen wait up near the lodge as they had talked about before they last parted, Of
course she would not be aware of the portent of the visit....she would be
stepping out as a lover's rendezvous......maybe one more opportunity to case the
surrounding area before she made a run for it. Luckily,as had become her habitthough only a rendezvous,she would be carrying her papers ...that was enough
Yes ,there would be the emotional sensitivity and turbulence when she came to
know that Taf had cultivated her on a pretext...but that would be for another
day...way after she was whisked off to safety.....getting her away was more
important....As for the conflict in the heart ,it would have to be faced by Raf as
the pennies fell.
They would be camping a little away this time..in a different spot.....Avi hadwanted to go along...but the other three had persuaded her though with a lot of
resistance ,that the best way she could be help would be here.Regardless of
whatever happened out there,the team had to move on,break the
story...expose...more important than anything else...so she along with Alan to
stay back here .....
And the day they had got Mai out over the border to Cambodia ,by a small
hidden crossing over the mountain ranges that was not patrolled and one only
the locals knew. Her car would stay in front of the lodge and they would travel
by a Land Rover that would be kept hidden-undercover by Som and Raf
Mai who by now would be Genevieve would be carrying her papers which had
an authentic Cambodia entry visa stamp. So had Raf and Som .From the airport
at Pnom Penh before heading out to Munich on pre booked flights ,they wouldcall Avi and Alan ,just say Go.......the signal for the story in detail to be mailed
to the international news syndicate.....
When the story as pre arranged broke,they would be in the air and not
reachable.......and the organization would never catch on to Mai...they wouldassume whatever happened at the location , ( which was bound to happen if
everything went well ) had been observed by her and she had managed to
escape the net...flee...)
Both Raf and Gen would be holed up in Europe for a while ......near the Gallen
area in North Eastern Switzerland. After staying with them for about a
week,Som would head over to Bath to meet Avi and Alan ,before flying back to
Bangkok
8/11/2019 From the House of the Peregrine
31/36
Avi and Alan within two hours of filing the story by mail would be bound forSan Francisco..via a long route ........effectively ensuring that all of them were
not reachable.......as much of planning as they could...yes ,in any plan,there
were bound to be something that could not be factored in......an external
environment issue that put a spanner in the works...they had to just cross theirfingers and hope
The only thing that would make them hold up was if Mai failed to respond to
the missed call..did not venture out...in which case they would hold up carrying
out the rest immediately.....meet back in Bangkok,re assess ,take stock and then
decide what to do.....
Chapter 10
It did happen. She did respond. With a minor glitch or two,it went off as
planned . The story did break out ,and when it did in the Western World,
Thailand was asleep or getting ready to sleep being ahead in time...well almost
all of Thailand except for the night life in Bangkok and other places which do
not see time......Sensation immediately.....Picked up all over....rode the airwaves
and the printed words....
So much of international pressure within a matter of hours...furious
international scrutiny.....Governments on the act...hot lines burning......General
Chanarong Praphasirirat ,the most incorruptible ,powerhouse general of the
Thai army,under direct orders from the King himself was asked to hand over the
Western region to his successor and his powers were stepped up to take charge
of the Northern ,Eastern,Southern regions.....
8/11/2019 From the House of the Peregrine
32/36
Heavily armed troops under his command were swarming over both locations
and in the morning the inhabitants of both the communities found themselves
under Thai Army command...waking up to jackboots...rifles.....area cordoned
off....all escape attempts and routes blocked ...full and complete seizure .....andnow the law enforcement agencies across borders would take over...fig
back...uncover hidden trails.....as quickly as possible ,destry as much of the
tentacles .....
Chapter 11
Ten years from then, she stood looking out of the window.The first b'day of her
grand child ....Isadora's first child. She was married to a dentist ,who had comeover the old land for his education and now settled down and made a living here
.....Krishnan....Or Kris in the Americanized way. ....Bostonians now.
Aruna, her first born was not very hot on relationships,at least of a long standing
nature...she said they tied her down......she had taken after her father.......hadcontinued on from her under grad days .......study of genetic science ......was
well into her post doctorals......in Germany.......Avi smiled and thought to
herself ,with her sunny smile,nonchalant,drop dead good looks,she was sure
there were many European men wanting to take up genetic research on
campus...
Isadora was a doctor too.....not many people at the little gathering ...just a few
select friends and colleagues . Avi suddenly wished Nick had been
here.....together at their grand child's first b'day ...not to be....she had gottenused to it.....had become part and parcel of her life .....she could be dad and
mom rolled into one...life had taught her that
Beth, Isa's good friend and colleague, walked up to her and stood by the
window too.A very nice person.Genuine. She looked at Avi and said ' Lookingat you can see where lil Melba got her eyes from".....they stood talking for a few
minutes and then Avi excused herself,cos she needed to go up to her room
...wanted to get something from there
An excuse.....cos the mention of eyes had brought back memories...a sudden
sorrow she felt in her heart...not showing it.....she knew she ran the risk of
breaking down....she could feel tears welling up in the back of her eyes...she
needed to go away and compose herself...be by herself before coming back to
join the happy gathering
8/11/2019 From the House of the Peregrine
33/36
Once in her room,she softly locked the door and gently lay face down on herbed......he had called her "my sweet little irish eyes " .....the blue oin
them...which she always attributed to some recessive jean in her family.......and
then that day ,that terrible day in that house they had rented...watching the cams
by herself when Alan had stepped out...
That moment,frozen in time now ,when she had seen the two people who she
had loved all her life....the Doctors Ravindran......in one of the conference
rooms...and no,they were not guests or clients....very much part of the
ownership structure...part of a cabal.......going by the conversation,the contents
of it...and the deference shown
Her world had come down around her shoulders......the least expected thing in
the world had happened....how could it be...but it was...maybe they had gotteninvolved without knowing...but later got drawn into it..her heart was suggesting
escape roots but her mind said 'baby,accept reality'......and then she had known
where all that wealth came from.....this was also one of their business
interests...medicare related services ,weren't they ? And probably most of it
came from here....their highly ethical and social correctness demeanour backhome in their business interests was a pure eye wash...
She loathed herself....she wanted to scrub herself down with the harshest of
acids to feel clean...probably her education and many things else in life had
beenm funded from money garnered by running human farms......she hadcringed...
Irish eyes....indeed..she had never been their natural born child....yes when she
was born science had not advanced enough to have such advanced fertilisationand pregnancy methods happening..but she had been sourced she was
sure...probably an Irish man and an Indian woman...adopted maybe or maybe
paid to conceive and deliver.....and they had known.....where were her bioligical
parents she wondered
Her trip home right then was very well knowing they would not be there..sort of
a catharsis...wanting to see and feel and smell the old familiar...the home she
had grown up in...before she walked away for good.....putting them back in a
storage bin she would never visit again
She empthasised with Mai....she came from a dysfunctional family too....much
more...just that unlike Mai now Gen she had never known.....she wondered
where her erstwhile parents were....they had vanished completely out of sight
,the same eve as the story broke...probably always prepared for the eventualityof an expose by someone.....and the last thing they would have expected was
8/11/2019 From the House of the Peregrine
34/36
where it came from...such an amazing set of coincidences...fate at play perhaps??
Probably living it up in some remote island somewhere.....they would have had
huge money stashed away all over..false identities...whatever it took...numberedaccounts...the works...she was not sure what she felt more......the anger or
loathing she felt towards them or the sorrow of losing the only parents she had
known...part of her self identity...with a sigh,she decided it was the former
Getting up ,she slowly shut the lid on her own personal Pandora'a box of
bitterness......time to keep it shut as long as possible till one day it vanished
from her mind..thankfully the memories were receding ....she was letting go..it
would take awhile but she would ...she was sure of that.....She opened the foor
and went back to the gathering...
Alan at that moment was immersed over a map of the Hunan province...a few
years back he had given up hacking.,.,...another passion had come to
life....Chinese history,art,culture......he wanted to travel alongside the great
wall......invited over by a friend he had made after this passion had
grown.....sharing the same interest .....Ms Jingfei of Beijing.......an archiect by
profession...very pretty indeed
Sue would not have it...she stuck to her guns....her policy of " No Avi,Alan No
Go " still held.......as she told him ' Al,you are too much of a trusting fox for meto trust you with the Jills or the Jings of the world.....study the great wall all you
want from here ,the good old US of A.....that will do." The Great Wall of
Sue.....Al could find no chinks in the wall
8/11/2019 From the House of the Peregrine
35/36
Som and his wife Narissa ,at that moment were waking up to a lovely morn in
the Royal Summer palace...guests of the King for the weekend......both children
studying abroad
Nick was sitting with a beer on the veranda with Raf and Mai nee Gen at their
sprawling ,large home on a real big estate in Fraser valley ,British Columbia
......having driven from Vancouver which he was visiting for a convention
commencing tomorrow morn...he had called up and invited himself over ......he
wished he had been at his grandchild's b'day gathering along with Avi,Isa and
Kris...but this was life..he was one of the key note speakers......Avi and they
would understand...he sighed...choices we have to make in life sometimes,he
thought to himself
Chapter 12
Aruna hugged the pillow closer in her sleep....dreaming ......at her apartment in
Munich.....close to Midnight ......her grandparents .....her grandmom Aruna and
grand dad Prakz.....she had loved them....once in a while she thought of
them...sometimes missed them...how sad they had to die in that accident just
when Papa and Mama had been there.....lucky papa and mama had not
travelled in same car....both she and Isa had wanted to make to the
funeral.....all flights full...moreover important examinations on at study......
Avi had managed her explanation to her children...of course ,Nick had been a
rock...classic Simon and Garfunkel as Alan would say
Not very far from where Aruna slept in her apartment,a huge billboardglowed...neon lit...a very damous international skin care brand.....And there
Nadine was ,endorsing it...spectacular beauty....turned heads like crazy
The erstwhile girl from the House of the Peregrine,flying free,flying high
- Venu Menen
8/11/2019 From the House of the Peregrine
36/36