Chapter 1

6 months earlier…
Zurich, Switzerland
“So, where is it going to be this weekend?”, an angelic Amie said from behind the kitchen counter.

It was an early Thursday morning in November. The sun was shining lazily through the thick clouds that were spread around. It had snowed heavily the night before. Snowplows were removing the heavy mass of white flakes that had deposited on the roads.

“I was thinking about the lake. You think you’ll like that?”, Ben replied. He knew she’ll love it. She had been asking him to take her there ever since they moved into Zurich, 2 years back.

He had decided to settle down here to take up the position of a Risk Analyst at UBS which had its headquarters there.

Life had never been so peaceful.

He had met Amie three years back when he had been on one of his routine business trips to the US. She was a student then. And he was a part of the delegation that was assigned to analyse the lending patterns prevailing among students. She was part of the survey. And the rest just fell in place. The tranquility that he felt in her presence made him find peace within himself, a life that he had always wanted. And when he mustered all his courage to ask her hand for marriage, she only nodded. Her eyes spoke the rest.

“You bet”, Amie was all smiles. She had the least idea that he will be taking her there. Much like the least idea she had about him.

“Anyways, you better plan for what you want to bring along there. There will be no commercial places nearby and I don’t want to drive 15 miles to get a case of Evian”.

“Alright,alright. It was the only time that happened”, she scowled.

He laughed. He knew her fake anger will fade out in a couple of minutes.

“Anyways, I’ll better start now. Have a customer demonstration today with the Agnelles”.

“I will take the Lexus”.

“And I will take the Aston”.

Ben rose from the table. He made sure he had everything necessary for the presentation. He needed to impress his customer and so decided to drive his Aston Martin DB9 to the place. It was one of his prized possessions and he had made some alterations to suit his professional needs, including the custom made leather upholstery, the advanced Sat-Nav systems on his dash, and a state-of-the-art computer guided engine management system to deliver the right mix of performance when he needed. Even Amie couldn’t understand why he spent so much on refurbishing an already astounding machine, and brushed it aside as one of his boyish fantasies.

This was another side of his story that she had no idea about.

“Have a great day sweetheart”, Amie shouted from the doorstep.

“You too honey”, Ben replied and shot off one of his winning smiles.

He got into his car, and thumbed the ignition. The engine roared to life. The on-board computer was working beautifully. He pulled out of his driveway and gently nudged the car onto the street.

“Subject has started.Repeat, subject has started. Vehicle is a black Aston Martin DB9. Number ZH 243981.Subject is east bound moving towards Fraumunster. Repeat Fraumunster.”

The Aston rolled along the snowline roads.Inside his car, Ben was going through,in his mind, the presentation he was going to make to the Agnelles. This was a major business deal for his bank and his competitors were hell bent on ruining his chances for closing that deal, with their own consultants making impressive presentations to the Agnelles. It had long since become an issue of prestige and power between the banks.

It had been half an hour since he had started and traffic was heavy. But Ben had enough time to reach the place. He reached to switch on his Blaupunkt music player. It was then he noticed his Sat Nav display.

He had ordered that display from an electronics major that specialized in making reconnaissance systems for the army. It was programmed in such a way that a warning will be displayed if it was found that any vehicle has been following the same route that he had taken for a considerable amount of time. The machine had not served this purpose since the day he had installed it, except for finding out the shortest routes to reach a particular place.

Today it had.

The Sat Nav displayed a map with 2 pin points, one highlighting his own car and one pointing to the other car that had raised the warning.

The display indicated that the particular vehicle had been following him for the past half an hour. Ben was quick to realize that the car had been tailing him right from the moment he left his house. He knew they were not any competitor trying to track down his movements and identify his customers, which in Switzerland are closely guarded secrets.

He punched in his passcode to log on to one of the dozen Satellites that provided real time data on any location anywhere in the world. One of his customers whom he had taken into confidence provided him this information.

He quickly keyed in his coordinates and commanded the Sat Nav to zoom in on the location. An image immediately appeared on the screen. It was the junction in which he was now. Another button and now the image was overlaid on the information that was provided in the map.

His location was pointed onto his Aston Martin while the other pointer was put up on another Exotic, a BMW E65.

This will be no ordinary chase, Ben decided. He reasoned that his nemesis should have the same technology that he has, judging from the car he was driving. He also found that there were a good number of vehicles separating them.

“The man with the quickest draw wins”, he muttered to himself.

The signal turned green, and all of Ben’s driving instincts flooded into him. He floored the accelarator and shot out of the pack of cars in the junction. His first aim was to find out a location that gave him enough leeway, either to hide his car or to race away from his chasers.

He reminded himself that they had the same guidance systems. Or even better. The only way to lose them would be to go into any place that would make him lose his visual presence.

He immediately gunned down the empty road. The Aston Martin’s 12 cylinder engine roared to life. He raced away at a speed that would have put an F1 car to shame.

“Subject has cognizance of our presence. Repeat, subject has found us out. He’s trying to drop us off his tail. Request multiple units.”

Ben’s mind raced. He had to find a location that provided him enough cover. There did not seem to be any, unless he moved out of the city. Given the traffic, it was impossible to do that, atleast before they catch up with him.

“Subject heading downtown. Engage him.”

From nowhere in particular, two Audi’s zoomed in next to him. Ben knew that this will be no ordinary chase and could make a difference between life and death.

The road was empty. And he had to make sure he put noone in jeopardy. He flicked open a contraption on his wheel and pressed a red button. This immediately fed Nitromethane into the combustion chamber. The car burst forward with a mind numbing velocity.

He had grossly underestimated his chasers. They matched his velocity and even seemed to be gaining on him.

A third car now overtook him and drove in front. It was another BMW that seemed to be custom built to give such a performance.

Suddenly the two Audis on his sides pulled away and before Ben could fathom their movement, the BMW driving in came to a halt without warning.

Ben slammed on his brakes. But it was not enough to stop his momentum. He swerved the wheel to the left to prevent hitting the Bimmer. The car skidded and did multipe 360 degree spins before coming to halt just behind the BMW, standing perpendicular to its rear. The airbags deployed without hesitation.

The next moment the Audi’s were standing on the other sides, effectively cutting off any possile way that Ben could have wriggled through.

All cars were unmarked.

Men in black suits immediately surrounded the car. They did not have weapons in their hands, but Ben knew they will appear when they should.

A fourth car, a Mercedes SLR now drove into the scene. The entire place had no human movement in site, except for him and the men in suits. Ben had a feeling that it was all anticipated and planned accordingly.

A man in a light blue shirt and dark trousers got out from the Merc and began walking towards his car. His sleeves were folded up to his elbows. His hairline was streaked grey here and there and he had a little scar running along his left cheek.

The man had come near his car. Ben got out. His hands immediately reached for the Walther inside his blazer.

“Ben you know better than that”, the man ordered. The men in suits still had not drawn their weapons.

“Who are you ? What do you want ? “

“ Who are we ?” , and the man let out a loud laugh. “ History has this strange habit of repeating itself. And yours is going to do that now.”

“How do you know me ?”

“I know everything about you.Right from your birth upto this moment, I know everything. Everything, Mr. Ben, everything on what you did before you went to the US, what you did before you settled down in Zurich, what you were when you started out in life”

The man raised his voice.“I also know who you are Mr. Ben aka BV aka Raptor.”

BV felt his heart stop for a minute. He knew the man meant business.