Answering Mother Nature’s Call
Chapter 8
The call came to Amar’s cell phone while he was unceremoniously sitting on the throne in the bathroom of his small apartment. He didn’t mind the interruption in the slightest and immediately answered it, already knowing the identity of the caller. It wasn’t his mother who was old, senile and living in Banaras, India. She couldn’t even recognize Kris during his infrequent visits before he fled the country. No, it was someone much more important who was to be a key player in his plans to expand and control the distribution of opium for even greater profits for his Mujahedeen brethren.
Thug cultist, Thugee, or noose operator, they were all one and the same. The names didn’t matter to Kris. It also didn’t matter to him what others may call his group of kidnappers and assassins. The British believed they had rooted them out and exterminated them in India in the 1800’s, but that wasn’t quite true. They had survived to this day to carry out their nefarious, violent trade, but without as much religiosity as before. Now, it was all about money, although they still deluded themselves by couching the trade as a sacred ritual that would forestall the return of Kali, the Hindu Goddess of death and destruction, for another millennium.
Puneet Chopra was the de facto head of the cultists in India and commanded great respect and obedience from his Thug followers. Amar had been one of his top lieutenants for many years and a trusted advisor. The two had discussed the idea of the cult moving into the drug trade many times, but nothing had come of the talks, until now. Puneet was now ready to use his network of Thugs to distribute heroin throughout the subcontinent. Money was on the table and Puneet wanted his share.
With Kris Amar in the Golden Triangle and supplying the raw material, the business plan made sense. Once shipments reached the shore in India, Puneet’s organization would handle the rest of the distribution. There was no need to set up processing labs since they already existed. It would be like taking wheat to a miller and getting back flour. Of course, they would step on the pure heroin a couple of times before being sold to the street dealers. The plan would neatly cut out the middlemen in the chain in order to keep the profits for themselves. It was a sweet deal for everyone involved in the enterprise.
Kris had been awaiting Puneet’s call, anxious to hear his decision. That’s what the call was all about, whether the plan would go forward or not. It needed Puneet’s buy-in and blessing. There was also the matter of the missing link in the distribution chain that would be Kris’s responsibility to forge; if, and only if, Puneet gave his okay to proceed. Kris was savvy enough to realize he couldn’t go it alone and needed a partner in India to make things work.
The necessary link was establishing a means of reliably and safely transporting the opium from Southeast Asia to India without getting caught. Kris had some ideas on how to do it that and had shared them with Puneet during his short visit to Vientiane the previous month.
“Hello, my friend,” Kris spoke first in Hindi.
Both understood that no names or sensitive information was to be mentioned during the call for obvious security reasons. Both of them used burner phones, but still were extremely cautious. It would be a short conversation spoken in the clear to simply find out whether to go ahead or not. Kris fervently hoped it would be a go.
“And to you, how’s the weather there?” Puneet replied.
“It’s clear, fine weather, not a cloud in the sky,” was doubletalk to indicate that everything was good on his end.
“Same here and all the forecasts call for more sunny days ahead.” That was the coded phrase giving the green light to proceed with the operation, just as Kris wanted.
A few more minutes of idle chitchat for the benefit of any unwanted, third-party listeners and the call ended.
Kris now had his instructions and knew what had to be done. He’d be going full steam ahead, shopping for a ship and crew in Myanmar. And he looked forward to fair weather and smooth sailing from now on.