Deepshika scrolled through the 40-odd pages of the patent agreement. In the adjacent window was the same document, a copy of it. One was part of the license agreement between Batra Pharmaceuticals and Agnihotri Manufacturing. The other was a photocopied version of the original patent registration jointly held by Batra Pharmaceuticals and a U.S. based company, Alpha. Alpha was suing AMC for not paying the patent licensing fee and manufacturing the drugs illegally. AMC was arguing that their agreement was with Batra Pharmaceuticals, not Alpha.

The other seven followed the same pattern with different names for the U.S. counterpart. Probably, the pattern made Aakriti give her all eight cases as a chunk. Finding the pattern was easy. Finding out why there was a pattern was difficult. Finding out how to solve them out of courts was a step further. That was exactly the reason she was hired. She specialised in not just patent infringement, but also in mediating out of court settlements.

Deepshika started her career as a trainee in the Patent Claims office at IP Australia, an agency of Department of Industry, Innovation and Science. After the 2-year short stint, she moved to a legal consultancy in Sydney where she was assigned full time on Intellectual Property cases in the software industry. Since the cases involved confidential information, mediation was the best way to settle the claims. It was often the case that both parties outsourced business processes to the same service provider leading to conflict of interest and patent infringement. She had to visit the service provider in India to review first hand for the possibility of patent infringement. With more than 3 years of handling experience, she had become well versed with the Indian patent laws which gave her the confidence to accept Aakriti's offer.

Deepshika pushed her chair back and moved to the whiteboard in the small meeting room which was her make-shift office. She wrote BatraP and AMC, and then she wrote Alpha below them. She connected BatraP and Alpha since there was an agreement. Similarly, she connected BatraP and AMC. For a jointly owned patent, one holder cannot license out the rights. BatraP did that. She checked the document once again for even a mention of Alpha in the licensing agreement. There was no match found, even in her manual scrolling.

Next step was the dates. The agreement was dated 08 July 1993. AMC was registered as a company only on 27 June 1993. Within 11 days, AMC managed to get the license to manufacture the patented drugs. Red herrings sounded for Deepshika. She kept the registration papers side by side with the agreement on the glass table, picked up the yellow highlighter and dragged them on the dates. She repeated her action once again, twice, thrice and a time more. How could a newly registered company receive the license in 11 days?

Deepshika went one more time on the dates, but this time, her eyes focused on the signatories. Mr. Ravinder Batra signed for BatraP while Mr. Ankush Agnihotri signed for AMC. In the patent ownership documents, the name was Ravinder Batra as well. There was no mention of Ravinder Batra and the current status of BatraP. She called Aakriti but was greeted with a switched off message.

The key party if the case, rather cases, was Batra Pharmaceuticals. She hit her fist against the white board. It should have been her starting point to ask for where this co-owner was in the current timeline. She asked for AMC and Alpha's company registration but forgot about BatraP. She had to wait for Aakriti to provide her the documents. Before that, she needed to calm down. She closed her eyes, leaned back in the chair and went to her thinking board where her plan was sketched. She could share this new information with Ayaan, Aakriti or her Mom. Who would be the best choice?

---

Ayaan paced in the lift lobby. His phone battery was dead so he left it at the office. He took a taxi instead of his car. All in the attempt to find out which of his belongings held the GPS tracker. Raghav was helping him by reporting whether his Mom knew where he had been.

Currently, Ayaan was outside Deepshika's serviced apartment. Since her assignment was three-month long, Aakriti moved her to the apartment. The shift was also in Ayaan's favor as it gave him a meeting place without being overheard apart from Aashayein. It was as comfortable as a house and was nearer to the office

Deepshika looked disturbed since afternoon. He couldn't meet her directly in the office without the BBC sounding out. He had called her and she invited him home. But she was not opening the door now. He sounded the bell once again, and like it had been for the past thirty minutes, there was no answer. He should have brought his phone! Almost giving up, he banged the door.

The door swung open after two minutes. "Who's that!"

Deepshika stood before him in a grey tank top, black running capris and her favorite black and pink laced Sketchers. Her hair would have been in a ponytail a while ago by the look of the locks framing her face. Sweat formed a layer on her sun-tanned face. She hung a blue towel around her neck, wiping her forehead with its ends.

"Hi." Ayaan waved. "I'm here on invite but the host didn't respond for past half an hour."

"Sorry..." She moved aside, letting him in. "Give me 10 minutes. I need to change." She turned to leave only to be stopped by him.

"It's okay. Come here. Sit with me. What happened today?" He had left his frustration at the door. He had very little time available with Deepshika and he didn't want to waste it on silly fights. There would be time for them, later.

She sat next to him, wiped her arm before encircling his neck followed by a kiss to the cheek. "I have been running on the treadmill since the time I came home. I am fine now. We need to discuss about something important. I would prefer to do it in a proper attire, not in this mess."

"I actually love this mess." Ayaan smiled, transferring the lightness to her own smirk. "Go and change. Meanwhile, I'll make something. Is the kitchen stocked?"

"Yes, ofcourse. That is a tempting offer. If I like what you make, I will give you a good news."

---

Since Ayaan shared with him about Aashayein, Dhruv was particularly attentive to his surroundings. He kept a close watch on Raghav, trying to figure out his original identity. At the same time, he continued his trials to break into the company archives. If the files are being sold, they would need money. The paperwork for monetary transactions must be clear to ensure no red flags raising at the yearly audits. He guessed that paperwork to be stashed in the archive.

Dhruv asked Aakriti multiple times for her login credentials only to be refused with the same answer, "Ankush will get to know and both of us will be in trouble." He enquired with the IT team on the kind of access given to Deepshika and headed into a deadend even there. Deepshika was not given any access to the AMC servers. All the relevant documents were sent to her office email and she was also required to use her consultancy provided laptop with a prepaid mobile broadband.

Thinking of Deepshika, Dhruv wondered what she would have done to warrant Ayaan's trust. Could she have a personal motive in this mission? They did not know the family of the orphanage director. Neither did Ayaan mention family of Vipul Gupta. Could Deepshika be related to either of them? If not, why would she support Ayaan to bid for Aashayein. If Aashayein has an apparently dark history as Ayaan doubted, does Deepshika also want access to Aashayein? Dhruv knew his brother well enough to trust his choices. However, a lot of Ayaan's planning was riding on Deepshika who is for now a stranger to the puzzle.

The doorbell rang. As usual, Raghav answered. The visitor gave a piece of paper. Raghav asked the visitor to wait. He returned shortly with a wad of cash, paid the guy and closed the door. He took the paper to Aakriti's room and slid it between the door gap on the floor. Ensuring that the coast was clear, Dhruv tried the knob to find the door open. He picked up the slip and pocketed it.

###

Who will Deepshika share her findings with?

What is the good news she is talking about?

What's up with Raghav and Dhruv?

Share your guesses in the comments.