When Veeru and the other assistant came in, Geetha asked them to sit. Veeru sat down but the other one did not. He was a little younger than the remaining three. Geetha sighed. When she first met Veeru, she thought he had a competitive spirit. If only she knew he competed with such an inexperienced fellow.

"I'll be distracted if you keep shifting your posture after a while. This meeting will be long, so sit down."

"Sit down," Ramit also nagged the guy.

Soon the meeting started. She had a list of things she wanted to ask on a paper.

"How is the progress with journalists?"

"We are speaking with some young journalists. Some agreed to provide us articles, but.. only if no big company took them," Veeru said.

"Of course. Only investigators would want to stay anonymous. Continue what you are doing, but also try to pull those who gave the last leak in. They will also have news they want to report to the public," she said and turned to Ramit, "That's fine, right?"

"Yeah," he said. He did not think about the journalists wanting credit until that point. "Then, we'll also have to develop the system to let them claim their articles if they want to. Just paying them won't be enough..."

"Yeah. But for those who stay anonymous, you'll have to pay a little more. Or else, they have no incentive in your 'many true narratives derive the whole truth' policy."

Ramit paused. Why did it become his policy? "You don't like the vision of this company?"

"No, wait, that's not the point. Let's first complete this discussion, okay?" she whispered to him. Although it was too idealistic, the concept was fascinating. So they had to try.

Ramit pouted and turned his head away. Here he was trying to make the world a better and more truthful place and she was looking down on it!

"Next, the funds. We know what happened in yesterday's meeting. Why did the Association not show interest?" They fell silent and she further asked, "What did you say our company was about?"

"We said we had a high security platform to share the news and get paid anonymously. Then our team looks into every report of an issue and makes a comprehensive and objective article. These articles and the original ones will be put up on the website for the public," Ramit answered.

"You really said that?" she said to Ramit and turned to Veeru. "Then what were you doing?" She had seen his profile. He should have helped Ramit or better yet, taken over the negotiation. It was like Ramit was showing his highschool project to his teacher. So plain, so truthful, and not a single brag.

"More or less... He said that in a more professional and polished way."

She turned to Ramit and gave him a smile. "Let me say something. Think about it. Yours is the final decision.

"What you said sounds like you're promoting the software. We should promote the brand instead. This is a first of its kind, isn't it? So we have to leverage the first mover advantage. Market it as a new age media network or come up with something new.

"Also, don't tell how the company works, even to someone you are seeking funding from. This is a trade secret!" Geetha really did not understand Ramit. If he was anyway going to start a business, why didn't he listen to his parents and go for an MBA? Here he was with no clue of the plus points of Hidden.

The younger assistant then said, "They also asked if we were going to ensure the authenticity of the news if journalists are given so much power. The power of being hidden." Geetha also remembered reading something like that in the email Ramit sent across the leadership.

She looked at Ramit. He must have an answer to this critical question. But his face was still sullen. She was not sure if he heard them. "Authenticity, what about it," she asked him again.

"Those are two things that can't exist together. We can only have either. The whole idea of going anonymous is for authenticity, Because if you are anonymous, you can write your truth and nobody can influence your opinion." he said, still turned away from her.

"Journalists are also people. Would they have no agenda? They can very well write out their lies too."

He turned to her and said adamantly. "That's what! Those two can't coexist! If you want anonymity, you forgo authenticity. But if you want authenticity, and forgo anonymity, the system will be authentic. Not the news!"

After a few minutes of silence, she said to the assistants, "You two can go out."

"Are you upset?" Geetha slowly asked him. She was supposed to take care that he did not become mad at her or she had to bear him acting mute for 2 full days.

He gave a small smile for her concern and shook his head.

She could see where he was coming from, but decided not to continue the discussion. They can do it after a while. He was already starting to stop talking. She picked up a magazine from his desk while he sat thinking.

Ramit knew what he was doing. He had known it all along. Ensuring authenticity really seemed to be a deadlock, but that didn't mean the whole idea was problematic, he thought. In his belief, forgoing authenticity would immensely reduce fake news, if not completely.

But, the problem of being unable to trace an article back to the original journalist did leave a lot of room for fake news. That was what the Association said too yesterday.

It was all silent until the lunch hour.

Then, Geetha asked if he could eat at a restaurant with her.

"Okay," he said.

When he spoke, she felt her heart ease.

∼•∽

Lunch hour was over, but they were still not in the office. Immediately after lunch, they decided to walk in the shades of trees in a nearby park. The winter afternoon was soothing as the couple walked side by side enjoying the breeze. There were a lot of things they did not seem to understand about each other. Yet, the calmness they were surrounded with was comfortable.

Geetha was now in her fifth month of pregnancy and her stomach made it evident. When Ramit saw some kids running around, he held her hand, just in case.

"Didn't you say we were going to be friends? What is this now?" Her tone was aggrieved as she held up their connected hands in his face, the clinking of her bangles a pleasant sound.

"Why are you always so vengeful?" She was actually much better now. He was glad he remained in her good books all through highschool.

She put their hands down and their walk continued. "I am pregnant and my lover became my friend. How tragic!" Her voice was low, but it still made Ramit turn and check that no one heard her, as he chuckled. "I'm your husband!"

She smiled at him as sweetly as she would smile at his mother. "Then what am I to you?" she said as she leaned in.

He was a little more clever this time. He stayed silent. She nudged him. "Say it. I'm your wife, not your friend."

"Has anyone ever told you that you are very domineering?" They spoke with their eyes on the path ahead.

"Yes. Some subordinates at work. Why? You think I'm domineering?"

"Maybe..." His head was down. "Leave that. About Hidden," he said, "It won't last long, will it?"

"Why?" The sudden shift in mood did not sit well with her.

"That question came up a lot of times between us. We just pushed through."

"It would have worked if it was meant for investigation and leaks. But we are looking to change what we do," she said. Their initial setup was to be very secretive about their investigations and leaks. That took care of the journalists' fears and the journalists themselves, but he had to face a near death situation. That fear was not exclusive to him. Every shareholder's identity could be found out with some work. So they decided that they'd stop the investigations and focus on ground reports. Ramit felt it was overstepping their initial idea completely.

"Maybe we should just stick to investigations."

"Why? You want to get into trouble again?" They were already attacked once. If they were to be attacked another time, then they'd also be attacked one more time. Her parents firmly believed in dwitiya vighna and she believed it too. As she grew up, there was no way she'd miss a second time of anything that was good or that she wanted. Because if she missed, it was not going to be successful. Conversely, if it was something bad, they had to break it the second time. The book she read a few years ago, The Alchemist, also had the same pattern. Over time, being the introspective person she was, she could see things really happen to her just the way she would expect, both in the case of good and bad. "You are definitely not doing that again."

Ramit stayed silent. He had no clue what he was really going to do but he had some fantastic ideas that were too huge for him to shoulder.

Ramit was not ready to give up the purpose with which he had set up Hidden. "But if we ask for the journalist' identity, they would know they are not anonymous anymore. They'd fear writing truthful information or they could get paid for putting out some false story if they start claiming their articles."

Geetha nodded.

"Maybe we should collect all their identities but not let them claim a story as theirs," he said.

"What about their anonymity then?" Wasn't that the fundamental principle of Hidden that he cared about so much?

"I don't know. I'll just pray they are not in fear and are working with a clear conscience."

She pursed her lips and shook her head. "Empty prayers don't manifest."

He scoffed. As if he didn't know that! He said, "There's another idea. Open the platform to everyone."

"And play a numbers game?" she countered.

He looked like an idiot to her for a moment. Any hope was wiped off of his face. He looked sad.

"Fine! Say it." She was scared he would be upset. She had one fear and that was his cold shoulder.

He shook his head. "That's what it'll come down to."

She nodded.

"We can actually employ our own journalists, but Hidden is relatively a small company," he said.

She nodded and said, "I think the numbers game will actually work. It can be an open platform but only to licensed journalists. The more the better. If there are many, most perspectives will be covered, right? But they should be given the fee like it's done now and they should not be allowed to claim their articles." She looked at him. "Your software should not allow that."

"But will they even join? What if they only cover what they want the people to know."

That was the point she raised in the office before. "That should be a question you should have asked when you thought of making this a media company. Of course they will write what they want. You are no longer dictating to them what you want them to investigate."

He became sulky again. "It's all very hard."

She stopped walking and tugged his hand. When he looked at her, she said, "Of course it's not easy. But the anonymity that's standing in the way has to become our USP. Only then can we have some market. Every article must be from Hidden. That's it. No individual claims. Everyone involved with us must work under this collective identity.

"It takes time. We should come up with a way to weed out false news. There should be more truthful reports than propaganda. How much more is something we should figure out. Then you guys do something with the software. As for accountability, we have the identity of the journalists. But we will take primary responsibility, you know, for the journalists to not be afraid of writing out what's real. This time we should fight our court case ourselves.

"And what those people are doing at the office, curating all the articles we get, should be transparent to the journalists. Then there's no question of us being selective." With the way she said 'those people,' Ramit knew she was yet to forget that they had stared at her in the morning.

He gave her a smile and nodded. It sounded very doable. She knew a lot of things. It was one of the reasons he liked her so much and looked for her in every break during highschool.

He remembered one time when Abhay lost his appetite for 2 days when she said how common same sex mating is in male octopuses. They were on the topic of sexuality and she asked him why octopuses did that when there is no actual result out of the coupling. She held that for anything to happen, there must be a reason or a result. Abhay was not willing to give up on his argument that it was all in our brain and that humans, having evolved so much, had just developed weird ideas. He went on to prove her wrong about the octopuses and searched the facts up. What he saw on his phone was a mystery. He simply packed his lunch away and bent over the trash can anticipating a vomit for the rest of the break as the rest laughed at him. He chuckled at the memory.

"What's there to laugh about?" Where did his mind wander off to, she thought. Did he only know how to stay focused when he was in a conference?

He shook his head. "Let's see what happens." He gave her a little smile.

"It'll work out. Once Hidden gains traction, it will become the go to for many threatened journalists. Once that happens, it will take off."

He nodded. Who would have thought, she'd be the most passionate person about Hidden. None of his college mates were this interested. Perhaps she had more will than him, she dug out a way in a day.

∼•∽